People teach what they want to learn. I started reading this book because I am in search for mentors. To learn from the lives of successful people.
Warren Buffet
He highlights the importance of public speaking workshop he took. He used to be very afraid of speaking in public. Good communication skill is extremely important and something anyone can improve, both in writing and speaking.
One of the best things in life you can do is surround yourself with people better than you. He talks about the role others have played in his life -- starting from his dad and then his wife Susie. You have lives a successful life if, as you grow older, the people who you hope love you actually do.
Benjamin Graham was the first boss of Warren Buffet. Try to work for whomever you admire the most. You don’t want to take a job just for the money, and you should never work for people who make your stomach churn or who keep you up at night.
You want to be excited when you get out of the bed in the morning.
It’s best to go through life with people liking and admiring you. It would be easier to make people accept your ideas. For this you can sit down and list the positive qualities in the people you look upto and the negative qualities in people who turned you off. None of these positive qualities are impossible to acquire and none of these negative qualities are impossible to reject.
I believe very strongly in operating within what I call my “circle of competence”. The most important things in terms of your circle of competence is not how large it is but how well you define the perimeter.
You have to put your mistakes behind you and not look back. Tomorrow is another day. Just go on to the next thing and strive to do your best.
Taking care of your body and mind because it’s the only one you are going to have for the rest of your life.
Matthew Weiner
Artists frequently hide the steps that lead to their masterpieces. They want their career and work to be shrouded in a mystery that it all came out at once. It’s called hiding the brushstrokes. It’s a disservice to people who admire their work and want to emulate them. It’s easy for someone to get discouraged if they don’t get to see the notes, the rewrites and the steps.
The greatest regret I have is that early in my career I showed myself such cruelty for not having accomplished anything significant. I spent a lot of time trying to write but was paralysed by how behind I felt. Many years later I realised that if I had written only a couple of pages a day, I would’ve written five hundred pages at the end of the year. Any contribution you make on a daily basis is fantastic.
Not setting a timeline for yourself, especially if you are in the creative industry. “I’ll give it a couple of years, and see where it goes”. You must be in it for the long haul.
Michael Bloomberg
Be the first one in and the last one out. If you are there early and stay late, you get a chance to talk to people who would not otherwise take your call. I built many relationships by being early.
The people who do some things can do more. If you need to get something tough done, give it to the most overworked person in your organisation.
Anderson Cooper
I wanted to live an interesting life, I wanted to do something that had a purpose. I wanted to learn new things every day. I wanted to travel. Even though I was in touch with what I wanted, I had trouble taking a first step. I felt that any move I made would close off other opportunities, and I became obsessed with the notion of keeping my options open. This turned into a kind of paralysis that took me almost a year to get over.
I’m a big believer in creating your own opportunity if no one gives you one. When you work at a company, people tend to see you as a fact-checker -- so the notion that I asked could be a reporter didn’t occur to anybody. Had I asked, they would have probably said no because I was not on the right career path. Sometimes you have to do something drastic to change people’s perception of you. For me, that was hatching a plan to quit my job as a fact-checker and go overseas to shoot stories by myself.
It seems like a lot of people, especially young ones, are imbued with the sense that they can become successful in some sudden, magical way. Some people do. They make a reality show or sex tape and become rich overnight. But that doesn’t happen to that vast majority of people, nor it it ultimately the way you want to become successful. Most people sweat it out for years and encounter some degree of humiliation and failure along the way.
Three steps
Figure out what gets your adrenaline going
Figure out a way to make a career out of it
Outwork everyone (come in earlier, leave later, and volunteer for everything that others don’t want to do, don’t wait to be asked to do something, take it upon yourself and do it) But you are only going to outwork others if you are genuinely passionate about what you are doing. Otherwise it’s going to feel like “Why do I want to stay late when I could go out with my friends?” When you are much more interested in what you are doing that going out for a drink with friends, you’ve found your bliss.
John Paul Dejoria
You don’t always know what you want to do in life, but you sure know when something isn’t right. My advice is once you realise you don’t want to pursue something get out. The sooner you exit a situation that’s not meant to be, the sooner you can move towards your ultimate destiny.
The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do. Most people don’t want to work more than they have to. They do the minimum they are paid to. That’s not the way to get ahead. Always do the best you can, not the least you can get away with. When you do your job, even if its cleaning an office, do it as if somebody you want to impress is watching your every step
Craig Venter (PhD Scientist)
“Ideally, I wish I had started my formal education earlier—it would have given me more time to accomplish the things I want to in life. However, my real-world education was necessary to shape me into the person I am. I hope that others won’t need to experience anything close to the intensity of war to find themselves, but I see more and more kids taking off for a year or so after they finish college and doing something different. I think that’s smart if you don’t know what you want to do and can afford the time. So many people get pushed along in the “system,” and because they don’t really know what they want to do, they practically let their careers be chosen for them. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it’s hard to be successful at it. You can show up and do what’s required, and you can even do your job well, but that’s not where real success is going to come from. Success comes from doing something extraordinary with passion and intensity.
“A key element to my success has been my ability to attract the best people in the world to work with me—and then keep them motivated. A lot of scientists isolate themselves in their laboratories. To me, science is about team building. I work with large multidisciplinary teams composed of physicists, mathematicians, biochemists, biologists, and computer scientists. We all intermingle in a shared workspace and contribute our own personal expertise to solve a problem. I’ve found that most people like being part of something larger than themselves and accomplishing an ambitious goal.”
Leslie Moonves (CBS President and CEO)
“It’s difficult to specifically map out your career. Things sometimes come at you and hit you in the face. If your path is rigid, you’ll likely miss out on opportunities. You have to be fluid and open to change. I shifted from acting to producing theater and realized it felt great. Before long, I shifted again and got my first job in TV as a development executive at Columbia Pictures Television. That felt great too.
In contrast to my disinterest in school, I was a passionate student of the television industry. My goal was to figure out the game and how to win. I was like a sponge. I asked questions, talked to everybody I could, and spent a lot of time trying to figure out which executives were smart and which ones weren’t.”
“The lesson is: don’t automatically be intimidated by people who have achieved more professional success than you, and don’t let your own insecurity bog you down. Move upward if you have the opportunity. Once you have the chance to survey the lay of the land, things are often not as hard to tackle as you might have imagined, and the people you assumed were so smart might not be.”
“How you handle those around you is key to how you get ahead. If I find someone good, I try to hang on to him or her. It’s essential to let employees feel secure about their jobs. Some companies don’t, and the employees work out of fear and are constantly watching their backs. When my employees drive to work in the morning, I want them thinking 100 percent about their jobs and not about whether the guy in the next office is going to screw them or whether they are going to be fired. That leads to nonproductivity. If people feel secure where they work, their performance is so much better.”
“I hate self-inflicted wounds. They bother me a lot.”
“Those are the kind of people who get ahead, the kind who don’t necessarily ask questions but instead find solutions.”
Jillian Michaels
“No one likes to feel vulnerable, and I’m no exception, but the reality is that you can only know as much depth, happiness, and success in your life as you can know vulnerability. If you don’t ask out a girl or a guy on a date, you won’t get rejected, but you won’t fall in love either. If you don’t apply for the job, then you won’t get the position you want. If you don’t try to start your own business, then you’ll never be the entrepreneur you always dreamed of being.”
Jim Koch
“Jim, I would sooner hire you for a senior position at General Electric with two years of failed entrepreneurship on your résumé than with two more years at BCG.” He didn’t think that trying something entrepreneurial was an objective risk because I’d always be able to rejoin the work force if it didn’t work out. It seemed like a risky thing to do because it looked very likely to fail, but the real risk was not doing it. The objective risk was wasting years of my life stuck in something that appeared attractive but that I really didn’t enjoy. A lot of entrepreneurship and innovation seems perilous, but it’s not. And a lot of things that seem safe and comfortable are, in fact, profoundly risky. That’s subjective versus objective risk.”
“People tend to think way too linearly about career paths, but career wanderings often have great outcomes too. There’s a whole lot less urgency than you think. It’s okay to drop out, breathe, and try other stuff.”
Ian Schrager
“I realize now that it’s practically impossible to know what you want to do when you start out. For most people, it’s usually a process of experimentation and elimination.”
Graydon Carter
“I was interested in becoming a playwright or an editor, but I had no role models. Ottawa was a government town and most of the adults I came into contact with were either diplomats or civil servants. My parents were warm and loving, but they provided little in the way of career guidance. Their complete inattention to me and my brother and sister might have proved a blessing.”
Nitin Nohria
“Understanding your strengths and weaknesses can take a long time and can even be a painful process, but it’s one of the most important things to do in life. I feel fortunate to have found a career that I am passionate about and am thankful that I allowed myself to switch course and dedicate myself to this new path. But the lesson to take away from my story is not to change paths the moment you discover something’s difficult for you. If you give up at first blush, you’ll never succeed at anything because nothing worth doing is easy. Give whatever you do your full effort, but at the same time keep your eyes open. If you discover, even by accident, what you’re truly spectacular at and can pursue it, I recommend doing so.”
Wendy Kopp
“Why would I ever support your organization when there are so many more pressing needs?”
“Throughout my years at school, I was a very driven, involved, and overachieving student—the kind of person who always thought things through and had a plan. But when my senior year rolled around, I realized that, aside from my desire to make a difference in the world, I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. Lost and frustrated, I descended into a major funk and was unable to move ahead with anything—for months. The issue of my future weighed on me all my waking hours.”
Mohammad Yonus (Nobel Prize Winner)
He did PhD in economics but did not enjoy teaching concepts in the class. Wanted to go out and use his knowledge. Ended up creating banking system on microfinance.
“If you observe something that bothers you, make your own action plan to fix it. There are many things that have been designed in the wrong way. Don’t take existing theories for granted. Don’t think that other people know more than you or that everything has been done. Your theory may be right and you can become the new expert. I made up my own rules of banking and they worked.”
Rachel Zoe
If you don’t take chances, then what’s the fun in playing the game?
Jeff Kinney (Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
He did multiple other jobs - graphics and headline writing for a newspaper, medical software company, game designer. All the while, he continued to pursue his newspaper-cartooning career. For years he would submit his cartoons but they would be rejected. He accepted that his illustration skills were that of a middle school kid. And then the epiphany that instead of focusing on newspapers which would not accept his illustrations, he should focus on another medium. It took 8 years from the ideation of diary of wimpy kid till its first draft.
Jeff Koons (Artist)
“Ed was very ambitious and taught me about the politics of art. He continually positioned himself to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible. For example, he surrounded himself with people who shared an interest in his type of art and attended parties and events in the hopes of making connections that could be of assistance to his career.”
“I was always an artist and really only wanted to be a member of the art world, but this job allowed me to be independent and produce the artwork I wanted (expensive, large-scale pieces) without being reliant on the mercy of art dealers.”
Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist)
“I was the cliché of a nerd. I was into computer technology, wore thick black glasses that were taped together, used plastic pocket protectors, and had the social skills that go with the stereotype. I didn’t listen or articulate my ideas very well. I missed what other people found obvious. I just didn’t get it—whatever it was.”
"After graduation, I had no real ambitions other than getting a job that was fun. Programming was fun, so I went with that. I worked at IBM for seventeen years. After IBM, I became an independent contractor, moved to California, and began developing web-oriented software for other companies. I worked for GM, Bank of America, and Charles Schwab. Unfortunately, most of the projects I worked on didn’t pan out.”
“But one of the big advantages of Silicon Valley is that failure isn’t stigmatized. It’s assumed that most ventures will fail, so actually doing so is not that discouraging.”
“While I was writing software for companies, luck came along, and I stumbled on a new business while just trying to give people a hand. I noticed a lot of people using the Internet to help one another out. Growing up as a nerd, I knew what it felt like to be left out. But rather than being bitter about that, I figured I should do something inclusive. So in early 1995 I started e-mailing all my friends about cool events going on in the Bay Area that usually involved arts and technology. The news of my e-mails spread and friends of friends wanted to be added to my list.
It wasn’t long before people started suggesting that I branch out from just events. They asked me to post about jobs, stuff they had to sell, and apartment rentals. I listened to people’s ideas and implemented the ones that made sense.
By the middle of 1995, my list had hit 240 addresses, too many to be sent by one e-mail. As a result, I decided to post it on a list server, which required a name. I wanted to call my list S-F Events, but friends suggested naming it Craig’s List. They explained that this is what they all called it and that I should hold on to my brand. I didn’t know what a brand was, but I adopted the name anyway. But with a lowercase c: craigslist.”
“Brevity is the soul of wit. If you’ve got something to say, say it and stop talking. If you don’t have anything to say, you’re doing yourself and others a favor by keeping quiet. If you can’t make a contribution, don’t slow down the people who can. Most of my life I’ve probably been unaware of when to stop talking. I try to adhere to these rules, but not with complete success.”
Stacey Snider (Co-chairman, 20th Century Fox)
“I enjoyed law school, but the actual practice of law turned out to be a completely different story. I have always been happy to work and feel most connected to who I am when I’m busy and productive. I waitressed throughout college, and while in law school, I wrote coverage (synopses of screenplays for film production companies) for fifty dollars a shot. During summers between law school, I went for the stereotypical jobs: I clerked for a federal district court judge and interned for both a big Manhattan litigation firm and a boutique firm in LA. It was at these summer jobs that I felt something completely new—a kind of malaise, ennui, and impatience with my workday. The emotions were so uncharacteristic that they scared me into serious self-exploration.”
“I went to one of my former college professors for advice. He instructed me to write down what I love and said we would figure out a way to make a career out of that. Growing up, I always had my nose in a book, to the point of compulsion (even now, if I have five or ten minutes and I’m not reading something, I feel anxious), so I wrote down “reading.” I said to him, “How am I going to make a living doing that? My professor explained that I was already doing just that by evaluating screenplays and that I should think about what the next step along that path might be. I realized that if I became an agent I could work with writers. I figured that my legal background would not only help me protect and make great deals for my future clients, but it would also help me to get my foot in the door at an agency.”
“I reasoned that if there was ever a time for me to be bold and try something exciting it was right then. Having never made real money, I was still used to being at the bottom of the ladder financially. First-year salaries at law firms were higher than anything I could have imagined. I knew that if I went that route I would get used to the money, adjust my lifestyle accordingly, and perhaps get trapped.”
“Working in an entry-level agency position definitely separates the wheat from the chaff. Those with a positive attitude gulped and thought, I have no idea how I am going to do this, but I will. Others either felt indignant that the things we were asked to do were ridiculous or they panicked at the challenges and quit. Now and then I’d feel sorry for myself and think, How can I have all this education yet be spending my days doing this? But the next day I would realize what an idiotic attitude that was, and I would resolve to take advantage of the situation and learn as much as I could.”
“Only years later did I realize how much I got out of that period of my life. An entry-level job at an agency is almost like taking an extra year of graduate school. It’s like a survey course of the entertainment business. You get an overview of all the different areas and players: film, television, digital, actors, writers, producers, agents, and executives. The variety of assignments thrown at you forces you to be resilient, to think on your feet, to fine-tune your powers of persuasion, and to manage different personalities. One of the biggest lessons I learned during that time was that when you deal with someone it’s advantageous to know as much as you can about them. We all had to memorize the client list and know exactly what everyone did. I still research new people I am going to meet. I also made some great long-standing friendships. There was a certain gallows humor among those of us who stuck it out. We would lean on one another and lend a helping hand whenever we could. Without a doubt, all these things aided me in my career down the road. An entry-level position at an agency is now the job that I recommend to people who are interested in the entertainment industry.”
“In Hollywood there are two kinds of executives: The flames that burn brightly and quickly go out and the executives who have long, interesting, and powerful careers. I aspired to be one of the latter. Being successful in one’s position is the only way to have a long and secure career. If you bite off more than you can chew, it feels great in the moment, but then what? I turned down the job as head of production at TriStar because I didn’t feel that I had the experience necessary to do it well.”
“I have always viewed my career as a rolling wave. While I do think that both men and women can “have it all,” I don’t think anyone can have it all at once.”
“People say that if you can do what you love you’re very lucky. My advice is to put yourself in a position to discover what you love. Many students are so focused on getting the right grades so they can get into the right school that it barely gives them the chance to try something zany. I wasn’t wired that much differently, but I always tried to zig a little bit when everyone else zagged so that I could have the possibility of surprise in my life. When most of my peers took the usual “check the box” classes at Penn, I took Russian history and discovered that I had a passion for history. It’s no coincidence that a lot of the movies I’ve worked on (Lincoln, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) have involved historical figures. If I hadn’t allowed myself to venture off the beaten track, I wouldn’t have discovered an enthusiasm for something unexpected.”
“It’s important to be able to present your ideas well, especially in writing. Unlike a face-to-face conversation, something in writing can be endlessly reviewed to make sure that your ideas are presented exactly the way you want them to be. I often rely on this skill when the subject matter I’m discussing is sensitive and I really need to modulate my tone.”
“While many people love the comfort of having familiar ground underfoot—“This is what I listen to.” “These are the five restaurants that I go to.”—businesses rarely evolve that way. In order to keep up in my field, for example, I need to be open to new experiences: new music, new television shows, new actors, and new trends. Luckily, I’ve always been pretty receptive to novelty, but reading Sapolsky’s article has made me be more purposeful about it.
Helena Gayle (Care USA President and CEO)
“I want to make as big a difference in the world as I possibly can. In order to achieve this goal, I continually expose myself to new arenas where I can potentially learn something useful. Doing this enables you to grow, but even as you push past your comfort zones, it is easy to be riddled with self-doubt. For instance, I recently had the honor of being asked to sit on the boards of both Colgate-Palmolive and Coca-Cola. At meetings I am predominantly surrounded by people who have decades of experience in business and are at ease with a world that is fairly unfamiliar to me. To live up to my responsibilities as a board member, I’ve had to learn about corporate finance and other core business issues. It’s been challenging but absolutely worth it. I’ve gained a better understanding of the corporate world, which is important for our work at CARE, where we are increasingly developing partnerships with businesses.”
“When people make career moves that don’t appear to take them on the most linear, expected path, there are often detractors out there saying it’s a bad idea. I am practical and certainly explore the positives and negatives of every situation, but in the end my decisions result from following my passion. You can’t map your life out with any precision and you have to get comfortable with that. You must also be willing to take risks and be deliberate about seizing opportunities that are off the beaten path. If you are curious about life and explore new things, you’ll continue to expand your options.
“Life is an obstacle course comprised of things that knock you down completely as well as the smaller day-to-day struggles. When I encounter tough times, personally or professionally, I get through them by remembering my core beliefs. I want to use my remaining time on this earth in ways that are meaningful to me.”
Daniel Boulud
“I think that up until the age of twenty-eight or thirty, people should try to learn and experience as much as they can. If you don’t really know what you want to do, work for high-quality successful people in different fields. If you know what you want to do, take a variety of jobs within that field.”
“It’s important to find good mentors. To get this opportunity, if you want to be a chef, try to get your foot in the door of the best restaurant you can—one that maintains a good reputation year in and year out. (This shows that the people there can not only cook, but that they can also manage a business well.) These jobs are competitive and you may have to start as an intern, but it is an opportunity to learn and network.”
Frank Gehry
“You will be judged on everything you do. It doesn’t matter what field you are in: If you are working on something large or something small, always make sure it adheres to your highest standards. Move away from people who dilute this mission and partner with those who support it.”