Life Lessons

I subscribe to Businessweek, a weekly magazine business magazine published by Bloomberg.  At the end of each magazine there is a section called “How Did I Get Here?” which profiles famous people (CEOs, entrepreneurs, celebrities etc.) with a timeline of their accomplishments.  It also features a section at the bottom of the page called “Life Lessons” that features three quotes from the person summing up their advice for “Life”.  I thought that might be kind of fun to see what I could come up with (and if it changes in the future).  Here are my top three life lessons as of today:

  1. Understand how the world actually works and not how you wish it to be.1
  2. The best way to get what you want is to deserve what you want.2
  3. Figure out what’s most important and make sure it gets the attention it deserves. 3
  1. Maybe this is a bit too pragmatic but that’s kind of my personality.  Upon reflection, the ones who make big waves are usually the dreamers but it’s important to note that most dreamers, by definition, don’t make big waves (because big waves are so infrequent).  I remember reading that there are two ways to go about being successful: learning to play extremely well within the existing rules, or by not following the rules.  Both are paths to success but with very different challenges. []
  2. Shamelessly paraphrased from Charlie Munger. []
  3. Hint: It’s rarely money or your career. []