Someone asked about my business philosophies recently. In no particular order here are several original principles developed along my way and some paraphrased thoughts from many of those very bright trailblazers who molded my thinking:
- Bring joyful, imaginative and impassioned energy every day. You can’t fake it.
- You don’t need to be ‘big’ to be good, you need to be smart.
- When there is no market, create one.
- Engage someone as if your life depended on it.
- Nothing is more important than the wisdom to help transform someone.
- Make your vision grounded in your uniqueness.
- Focused on the unexamined dimensions of your efforts.
- The race goes to the curious and slightly mad.
- Dry obligation to anything in life will figuratively kill you.
- No one gives permission. Seize the mantle.
- If you can’t solve a problem, you are playing by the rules.
- Hard work, sustained concentration and drive are the so-called secrets.
- Telling the truth is the best defense for every situation.
- Winners understand sunk costs and opportunity costs.
- Plan to win, prepare to win and have every right to expect to win.
- It’s in your power to change your belief systems. No one is stuck.
And for those who complain that they were born without the silver spoon consider:
Money cannot completely compensate for a lack of talent, for sloth or a flawed vision, or for a pedestrian frame of mind. And the absence of cold hard cash can’t keep you from making movies (or whatever) if that’s what you want to do and you’re clever about it. To think otherwise suggests not just a lack of imagination but also a failure of the optimism necessary for attracting good things. If you’re paying close attention, there are buoyant, cheerful accidents in life and strange twists of plot to help you on your way. And when you think about it, it’s much nicer to have pleasant things happen to you than to work out every last bit of your life from a master plan, detail by detail.
True that.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Wow, Michael, fantastic list - really brilliant!
November 9th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Dwight Eisenhower has been quoted as saying,”If you can’t find some time, every day, to enjoy life, it’s a wasted day.