When we are young is it crucial to receive wisdom from wise counsel. Having a mentor around helps a lot too, someone in real life that can provide definitive examples of how to behave and how not to. Many of us though, may not have that luxury. Finding those that are wise and are already possessing the traits, values and life that you would like to have been hard to find. Often times I find at least one of those qualities missing, thus making it harder to listen to those ahead of us, given the immense foolishness on display. Having age alone is no guarantee of wisdom, and avoiding the advice or criticism of old fools will go a long way. Having to filter through what someone says constantly in determining if it is good advice, helpful advice, supportive advice, or just plain BS, while being influenced by them, eventually leads to everything wrong, realizing it a little too late. That’s why I have written out the snippets of wisdom from a multitude of different people from the book Getting There. You get a sampling of advice from each person, and you can decide if you want to go into depth about learning wisdom from said people or not.

General Observations

A common link between them all is they all had the chip in their shoulder when they were young, that propelled rejection or resistance from others is what led them to success, regardless of what other backgrounds they came from

Constant refrain from those succeeding: you must do something you are passionate about (something that you put your time and effort in where time seems to fly), and within your circle of competence. Overcoming failure and rejections and keep going is crucial

You must believe you can connect the dots in the future

Warren Buffett

Be with those better than you, as you become those you associate with. Choose your heroes wisely. Communicate well. Your inner scorecard matters more than other people’s scorecard. If no one loves you, you have failed life. Be lovable. Communicate well. Don’t work or be with those that keep you up at night or make your stomach churn. Develop good habits and behavior, as people don’t quit habits or behaviours easily. Qualities of strong character and unwavering integrity play a pivotal role in attaining success. Emotional stability, independent thinking. Follow your effort in life, as that is your body telling you what you like to do, what comes naturally to you. Opportunities in life must be seized in life, so do them big and well. Reputation is important. Use your motor efficiently, and take care of your mind and body for you only have one in life. Deep failures tend to lead to the best successes. Our greatest regrets are acts of omission, not of commission.

Matthew Wiener

Creator of mad men. You can’t set a clock for yourself. You have to want something badly that you don’t have a choice. Remember people’s names and background like Napoleon. When you start out, enter contests and do things out of the blue. Treat everyone importantly, develop skills to network. Don’t pay attention to rejection. Execution of ideas is important, not the idea itself.

Michael Bloomberg

Walked around and tried different things constantly. Respected others and was curious to get to know people, randomly if they are on their own especially. Was fired in his 30s and later ended up firing the person that fired him. Gets things done attitude, doesn’t look or live in the past, intellectually honest with oneself. You create your own life, so make it happen.

Sara Blakely

Creator of Spanx lingerie; if you tell your ideas right away to others and take no action, often nothing happens. The satisfaction is derived from social validation, and thus no further ation is taken. So, keep it secret. Randomly poked around in fax machine selling and other jobs for 7 years before inventing Spanx. Failure should be encouraged. “How to be a no limit person”

Anderson Cooper

CNN host: early life trauma. Would force his way in with creative tactics by taking risks and film himself before selling at a low cost to broadcasters. Also did random things in jobs and such. Figure out what gets your adrenaline going. If you are passionate about something, you will want to do it more and outwork others. If you’re interested in what you’re doing more than “hanging out”, that is a real passion.

David Boies

Lawyer; married at 18, kids helped motivate him to work harder. A lot of these guys marry a woman when they are young, and they all seem supportive, compassionate. Patience is key in life, conserves time and energy. Listening is better than talking. Planning, reading, playing cards taught him about risk, patience.

John Paul Dejoria

Was fired three times early on, started first business with partner after that with $700, donated even when he was poor. Unshared success is failure. Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don’t want to do. You don’t always know what you want to do in life, but you sure know when something isn’t right. Once you realize something isn’t right, get out. The quicker you exit from a situation that isn’t meant for you, the faster you can progress toward your ultimate destiny.

J. Craig Ventor

A major scientist in genomics. Also got fired when young. Persistence is underrated. The worst experience of wanting to commit suicide and seeing a shark scared him to live a meaningful life from the Vietnam war. Success is largely about taking risks. Death makes all risk trivial. Static resistance to new ideas, first it’s attacked, then accepted, then denial that it was an issue, then it wasn’t that big of a breakthrough anyway. Change directions once you are on a dead-end path. Take time to figure out what you want, between high school and university. Attract the best team.

Leslie Moonves

CBS CEO; you have to be fluid and open to change. Observe great mentors and those who are doing things you think are doing wrong, as more mediocrity out there than success. Teamwork and assurance are key. Always plan for the future. Can-do gets it done attitude rather than asking or excuses. Say no in a nice manner.

Jillian Michaels

Fitness expert. Grew up divorced and overweight and moved around schools, which led her to fitness. Randomly tried working in a talent agency for four years, then got fired after finding out about unethical practises by her boss. Went back to sports medicine as she loved helping people who reminded her of what she once was. You become the company you keep. Every failure has a silver lining. Have faith in your intuition, particularly when it indicates something is wrong. Play the rules and get by the gatekeepers, or else find a non-traditional route to get by them. Whatever it is that you want to do, just do it. You can only find as much depth, happiness and success in your life as you are willing to know and be vulnerable

Jim Koch

Boston beer company. Meandering in Boston consulting group and activities before opening up beer company; all investors declined except those who knew him. Think about what you want to do in life and follow it. There is a difference between a subjective and an objective risk. A safe job may seem safe and comfortable when it may not be. Entrepreneurship may seem risky but in fact may be safer. Career wandering can often have great outcomes too. Once you have a family, time is gone, so try things when you are young.

Ian Schrager

entrepreneur of nightclubs, hotels. After working in law for three years, quit and with best friend started a nightclub. Tried shady things and not paying tax, and went to jail, crippling them for 10 years. Came out and succeeded again. You don’t begin until you begin. How one deals with obstacles separates the men from the boys. Keep going one at a time. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams, of trying something new; don’t be afraid of failure, embrace it as it is inevitable. Stick to your circle of competence.

Graydon Carter

Kids shouldn’t be overloaded; they should have time to think and wander and dream. Do random jobs. To succeed, your business has to have a point, a purpose, and not just to make money or exist. It is important for young people to have some sort of education. Nobody knows what they are doing at first. Find a path interesting and try things. You learn more from mistakes than success.

Kathy Ireland

Relentless and persistent as well. Chip in shoulder, tomboy yet got into modeling. Never get too comfortable, don’t put your eggs in one basket, conservative spending. Confront bad behavior. If you never fail, it means you aren’t trying hard enough It’s essential to surround yourself with the right people.

Nitin Nohria

dean of Harvard; overcome failures, realized when he wasn’t extraordinary at something, he switched as he realized he would be crushed (engineering, finance. Like myself and can get tunnel vision. Once he expanded horizon of things, this led him to try different things until he found teaching as at Harvard business school. Understand your own strengths and weaknesses, be open to things. Be generous and don’t keep score. This would allow you to feel good about yourself, and if life ends up being generous in return, then you will have greater joy. Fail and experiment, try different things. Insanity is doing same thing and expecting different things.

Marina Abramovic

it’s important to try new things and fail. Don’t live life dealing with nonsense. Per jobs, knowing you will die is the best thing I know to avoid passive inaction.

Tom Scott

Nantucket Nectars – very unconventional, with fruit juice, put away from corporate world despite graduating from Browns. We are all totally ordinary people with a chance to be extraordinary everyday. “Everyone’s on the road to success, it’s just that most people step off”. You can’t be rich without being passionate about what it is that you are doing.

Wendy Kopp

Founder of teach for America, non profit. Chose that instead of a high paying job, and found many, many rejections and criticisms. It’s essential to strike the right balance of confidence and humility. Be prepared for many naysayers at every turn, and learn to tune out the noise.

Laird Hamilton

Surfer; don’t have goals that are easy to achieve, leading to disappointment after. Childhood as an outsider makes you innovate and think differently. “There exist seasoned pilots and daring pilots, yet there are no seasoned daring pilots”. “Potato chips in, leads to potato chips out”. A marriage partner needs to support you on your path not prevent you from your path. The life of adversity and constantly growing are the ones who succeed, all outward focused.

Muhammad Yunus

Nobel peace prize recipients for creating Grameen Bank, microloans to the poor. Loaning to women resulted in purchases helping the children and family, while loaning to men mostly meant money spent on themselves. So, they loaned more to women (97%). Being poor many times is out of being born into those circumstances. If you observe something that bothers you, make your own action plan to fix it. Many things are wrong, don’t take existing things assumed right or that others know more. People often respond to new things or the unusual in a negative way.

Rachel Zoe

Fashion designer; do whatever it is that you love and success will come. Fashion industry is like junior high; lots of catty, vindication and ruthless behavior. Meeting people randomly to get chance. The key is to find people that you can trust, rather than other characteristics. Also, not to become cynical. Didn’t believe in overly difficult goals or in rigid career goals; instead, being flexible and keeping an open mind. If you get too wrapped up in the competition, you’ll just trip yourself up. Honest, kind and loyal people. Do not get caught in negative vicious cycles.

Jeff Kinney

Author of diary of a wimpy kid. You don’t need a huge or new brilliant idea to be a success. Sometimes, the everyday things can work out. If you have an idea that is a winner, Nurture it and dedicate time to its development. Anything of value demands slow, diligent, prepared hard work. Become an expert in your chosen field to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. Constant rejection for his books, he constantly looked for new opportunities to improve or get his book published.

Jeff Koon

Artist; get used to immense rejection, especially as an artist. You have to be optimistic in the darkest of times especially. Decisions are like throwing a rock in the water. They will have compounding effects over time and will impact the future more than you think. If you are talented and work hard, those with intelligence will notice you.

Gary Hirshberg

Stonyfield farm chairman, maker of organic yogurt; saw something wrong with pollution of his hometown New Hampshire, environment, and bad food, and wanted to do something about it. Therefore, created yogurt as was into food with someone who recruited him for his help to run operations. 1 out of 16 investors accepted, clear devotion to investors and his goal of saving humanity through good food and good environment. Work to change behavior, not criticize existing behavior. Many shady investors trying to scam, very difficult to get shelf space. Question authority and the status quo. “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”

Don’t compromise on qualities that make your business unique. If you compete only on price, then you’ve lost control of your venture. Invest in people, not the venture. “It’s not about the money, it’s about the partnership”. Determination is the most important ingredient for success, to keep going.

Craig Newmark

Craigslist founder; having good communication skills is now crucial in this world. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing and are just doing it for the money, very quickly, you will not be happy. If you’ve got something to say, then actually say it, then stop talking. If you don’t have anything to say, do yourself and others a favour by keeping quiet.

Stacy Snider

Co-chair of 20th century fox. Parents got divorced young (late 20s) and she got two divorces in her own marriages. Very career-oriented can lead to looking and actually being very unhappy. Mom taught her early to attend feminist events, ultra-feminist. Being passive about your dreams and close minded will lead to regrets in your old years. Check your ego at the door and accept what you can get, even for jobs.

Helene Gayle

President of CARE USA; life is a obstacle course comprised of things that knock you down completely as well as smaller day to day struggles. When people make career moves that don’t appear linear, there are many negative detractors. You can’t map life out with precision and you have to be comfortable about that. You must 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. Social change is better achieved by being for something than against something

Hans Zimmer

Famous composer; rebellious in school as he didn’t care, cared about music. Time flew when he did music, that’s how he knew he was passionate. Poor broke artist, he called it. Would spend weeks on something only to scrap it. Good ideas can come at the last second. If you pick a safe career because you think you should, most likely it won’t end well. Your worst qualities can also be your best. It’s essential to be with people you can feel safe being completely candid with.

Daniel Boulud

French chef; up until 30, people should try to learn and experience as much as they can. If you don’t 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. You have to love the journey, as it will get long and gruesome. Remain focused on what you like and become knowledgeable about it. Find good mentors and heroes. Numerous enterprises are established through connections. Don’t underestimate the significance of any relationship. If you succeed, others will find you.

Frank Gehry

Architect; continued to chase architecture after discovering he liked it all this time. His anger was getting in the way professionally; it would make him walk away from good opportunities, pre-emptively judging and assuming he didn’t get an architect job. When he understood his weakness, it helped turn him around. The need for positive reinforcement turned him around. Don’t go forward when something doesn’t feel right. Trust your intuition and take risks, they allow for progress. Be the best you, not the 2nd best version of someone else. Question everything. Move away from people who are diluting you from your mission. Anger management is a serious and prevalent issue.

Disclaimer

This is not Financial Advice. This article is meant only for educational and perhaps entertainment purposes.