THE ENTERPRISE
I promised a few weeks ago to provide the "best of" from FORTUNE's March 21, 2005 article "The Best Advice I Ever Got". I tried to shrink this good advice down to manageable size for quick reading. It's still a bit long, but it is loaded with good advice.
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Excerpts from “The Best Advice I Ever Got ©FORTUNE, March 21, 2005
--Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
“You're neither right nor wrong because others agree with you, but because your facts and reasoning are right.”
--Richard Branson, Virgin Group
“You are going to have to get out there and use yourself. [Even if you] Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise you won't survive.”
--Howard Schultz, Starbucks
“…the art of becoming a great leader is to leave your own ego at the door and to recognize the skills and traits you don't possess and that you need to [hire] to build a world-class organization….[and] attract and retain people with like minded values.”
--A. G. Lafley, P. & G.
“My mom…told me to have the courage of my convictions. She encouraged me to be independent and to be myself…. I realized that you can make a difference if you speak up and set your mind to changing things.”
--Sumner Redstone, Viacom
“…you must follow your own instincts, rather than the views of naysayers or others who see the world in a different way.”
--Vivek Paul, Wipro
“…we have to go for what we think we're fully capable of, not limit ourselves by what we've been in the past.”
--Hector Ruiz, AMD
“A good leader knows he is doing a good job when he knows with certainty that he can say yes to anything his staff asks and feel totally confident that they will do the right thing [via Bob Galvin]. “If you surround yourself with the right people who have integrity, and they all understand well the goals and objectives of the organization, then the best thing to do as a leader is to get out of the way.”
--Sallie Krawcheck, Citigroup
“..my mom….told me to stop paying attention… [to]… naysayers who would sit on the sidelines and criticize those who were out there trying.”
--Andy Grove, Intel
“When everybody knows that something is so, it means that nobody knows nothin'.”
--Donny Deutsch, Deutsch, Inc. (via his Dad)
“Look, whatever you do in life, find something you love-I don't care if you're a garbage man-and everything else will fall into place. If you love something, you'll be great at it, and the money will come and everything else will fall into place.”
--Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life (and via a Peter F. Drucker quote)
“…there's a difference between effectiveness and efficiency. Efficiency is doing things right, and effectiveness is doing the right thing.”
--Meg Whitman, E-bay
“Be nice to people. …. There is no point in being mean to anyone at any time. You never know who you're going to meet later in life. And by the way, you don't change anything by being mean. Usually you don't get anywhere… . Always do the best job you can do at whatever you're assigned, even if you think it is boring. … Don't be a credit hog. If you're constantly in the neighborhood of good things, good things will happen to you.”
--Anne Mulcahy, Xerox
“First, get the cow out of the ditch. Second, find out how the cow got into the ditch. Third, make sure you do whatever it takes, so the cow doesn't go into the ditch again.”
--Jim Collins, author, Good To Great (via Peter F. Drucker quotes)
“The real discipline comes in saying no to the wrong opportunities.” Growth is easy. Saying no is hard. … Go out and make yourself useful.”
--Peter F. Drucker
“In those days [before WW-II] you were hired to do your job, and if you didn't do it, you were out. It was very simple.”
--David Neelman, Jet Blue (via Gordon B. Hinkley, head of the Mormon Church)
“It's all about your family, your relationships. You've got to balance that with your work.”
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I'm sure you get the drift of this advice. Be true to yourself--which is what Ralph Waldo Emerson hammered home in his legendary essay "Self Reliance". The second message, equally important is to focus on the important things...or as Stephen Covey said "Put first things first." Good advice.
Finally, I'll add my own few words to this topics. Success in business, and in life can be summed up in a few (10)words, coincidentally, most of them start with P, and the list begins and ends with I!
INSPIRATION
PERSPIRATION
PREPARATION
PASSION
PURPOSE
PRINCIPLES
PRIORITIES
PERSISTENCE
PEOPLE
INTEGRITY
I'm sure everyone could add their own words to this list...and feel free to do so...but please pass this advice on to anyone you think would benefit from it. Life is simple...until people get involved and make it complicated. Then, more than ever, is when you must return to the basics, the fundamentals. And that is my "best advice" for this week.
Best, John
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