Welcome to part two of this book summary.
If you have not already, be sure to first watch part 1.
Money is not the answer, Guy Kawasaki said it best, it's better to make meaning than
to make money.
If your goal is to make meaning by trying to solve a big problem in innovative ways,
you are more likely to make money than if you start with the goal of making money, in
which case you will probably not make money or meaning, plain and simple.
Grant yourself permission.
Tina explained that over time I've become increasingly aware that the world is divided
into people who wait for others to give them permission to do the things they want to do
and people who grant themselves permission.
Nobody needs to tell you that you can do or should do something, just do it.
Tina explains that, she told a friend she planned to write a book, the friend responded
"what makes you think you can write a book?" she couldn't imagine taking on such a project
without the blessing of someone in a position of greater authority.
Some look inside themselves for motivation and others wait to be pushed forward by outside
forces.
There's a lot to be said for seizing opportunities instead of waiting for someone to hand them
to you.
So, I started a biomedical incubator at my school, meaning, an organization that helps
students create startups in health care.
I didn't ask anyone for permission.
In fact, two separate faculty who I approached for guidance told me that it was a nice idea
but impossible.
They had tried the same thing in the past and failed.
They were also much more experienced in this sort of thing than I was, so what made me
think that it would work out this time.
But I gave myself permission.
Although a couple months behind schedule, my team and I did not just successfully launch
the incubator, but it is now thriving, growing and a source of pride for the university.
Those who are successful find ways to make themselves successful, there is no recipe,
no secret handshake and no magic potion.
Know when to quit.
Tina emphasizes that most of us need to know when to quit.
We give in to sunken costs the "too-much-invested-to-quit-syndrome" which is a powerful driver of human behavior.
We justified the time, effort, suffering and years we devote to something by telling ourselves
and others that there must be something worthwhile and important about it or we never would have
sunk so much of our lives into it.
Tina goes on to explain that quitting is incredibly empowering.
It's a reminder that you control the situation and can leave whenever you like.
You don't have to be your own prison guard, keeping yourself locked up in a place that
is not working.
But we are taught that quitting is a sign of weakness.
She argues that in many circumstances, it is actually the opposite; quitting is often
brave because it requires you to face your failures and announce them publicly.
Persistence is to be admired but when does it become foolish to continue working on something
that's never going to fly?
We often stay in dead-end situations way too long.
We often do this when we stay in jobs or relationships that make us miserable, hoping the situation
will improve.
Tina suggests to do the following; listen to your gut and look at your alternatives.
I personally think this is great advice but, listen to this advice carefully.
I believe most people give up on pursuits too easily.
Tina is not advising you to give up whenever the going gets tough.
Have the grit to make it through the challenging times, however, don't be your own prison guard
when things are not working out.
Choose the right career for you.
We often hear that we should follow our passions and use that as a guide to our career choices.
This is misleading and simplistic; passions are just starting points.
You also need to know your talents and how the world values them.
If you're passionate about something but not particularly good at it, then it's gonna be
pretty frustrating to try to craft a career in that area.
Say you love basketball but you aren't tall enough to compete or you're enthralled by
jazz but you can't carry a tune.
In both cases, you can be a terrific fan, going to games or concerts without being a
professional.
The sweet spot is where your passions overlap with your skills and the market.
If you can find the spot, then your job enriches your life instead of just providing the financial
resources that allow you to enjoy your life after the workday is over.
The goal should be a career in which you can't believe people actually pay you to do your
job.
Tallis philosopher Lao Tzu sums this us up brilliantly; "the master of art of living
makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his
mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide
whether he is working or playing.
To him, he is always doing both."
don't be afraid to change trajectories.
People who are close to you often expect you to make a decision about your career and stick
with it.
They want you to be a fire-and-forget missile that zeroes in on a target and pursues it
relentlessly.
But that's not how life works, it's okay to change course many times before finding the
best match for you.
I love how Tina compares career trajectories to traveling; "planning a career should be
like traveling in a foreign country.
Even if you prepare carefully, have an itinerary and a place to stay at night, the most interesting
experiences usually aren't planned.
You might end up meeting a fascinating person who shows you places that aren't in the guidebook
or you might miss your train and end up spending the day exploring a small town you hadn't
planned to visit.
I guarantee that the things you're likely to remember from this journey are those that
weren't on your original schedule.
Don't be in a rush to get to your final destination.
The side trips and unexpected detours quite often lead to the most interesting people,
places and opportunities.
Like Steve Jobs said, "you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect
them looking back".
The road ahead is always fuzzy and full of boundless uncertainty.
It's critical to surround yourself with incredible people.
By surrounding yourself with quality people, you increase the quality of the opportunities
that flow your way.
Great people support one another and build valuable networks and create a steady stream
of new opportunities.
It's also important to reassess your life and career relatively frequently.
This self-assessment process forces you to come to terms with the fact that sometimes
it's time to move on to a new environment in order to excel.
Most people don't assess their roles frequently enough and stay in positions for years longer
than they should settling for sub optimal situations.
Become lucky; what do you mean "become lucky", you can't change that.
Actually, lucky people share traits that tend to make them luckier than others.
First, lucky people take advantage of chance occurrences that come their way.
They don't go through life on cruise control, they pay attention to what is going on around
them and are able to extract greater value from each situation.
Lucky people are also open to novel opportunities and willing to try things outside of their
usual experiences.
They're more inclined to pick up a book on an unfamiliar subject, to travel to a less
familiar destination and to interact with people who are different than themselves.
Lucky people also tend to be optimistic and expect good things to happen to them, this
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Because even when things don't go as expected, lucky people find ways to extract positive
outcomes from the worst situations.
Their attitude affects those around them and helps them to turn negative situations into
positive experiences.
Tom Kelly, author of The Art of Innovation says that "every day, you should act like
a foreign traveler by being acutely aware of your environment".
In everyday life, we tend to put on blinders and cruise down well-worn paths rarely stopping
to look around.
But as a traveler in a foreign country, you see the world with fresh eyes and dramatically
increase the density of your experiences.
By tuning in, you find fascinating things around every turn.
Here are a few other brilliant points that I want to touch on briefly; one of my favorite
tips from the book that I use often in my daily life is the following: there will be
difficult situations where you are not sure how to behave.
One way to figure out how to handle these situations is to imagine how you will describe
what happened later.
Meaning, if you had to tell the story to someone later of what happened, which way would you
be proud to tell the story?
Behave in that manner.
Take responsibility for your mistakes.
Knowing how to apologize is important.
Simply acknowledging that you messed up goes a long way.
There's no need for long speeches and explanations, just say "I did not handle that very well,
I apologize".
Another skill rarely taught in school is negotiation.
A common mistake of negotiation is making inaccurate assumptions, such that the two
sides have opposing goals.
Parties often share interests even when they believe they're on opposite sides of an issue.
Learn the art of helping others.
As Guy Kawasaki says "you should always try to be a mensch".
He continues, "a mensch helps people who can't necessarily help them back".
Of course, it's easy to be generous to someone whom you think will be able to help you but
being a mensch means helping others even if you're pretty sure they cannot help you.
You can call it karma if you'd like, but people who are generous and helpful to others are
those that others want to help in return.
Never forget that the world is very small and you will likely bump into the same people
time and time again.
Protect and enhance your reputation, it's your most valuable asset and should be guarded
well.
Excuses are bullshit.
We use excuses to cover up the fact that we didn't put in the required effort to deliver.
There's a big difference between trying to do something and actually doing it.
We often say we're trying to do something; losing more weight, exercising more etc.
But the truth is, either we are doing it or we are not.
In summary, never miss an opportunity to be excellent.
Life is like investing.
Imagine starting with $100 with a 5% return versus investing the same $100 with a 105%
return.
The values compound over time, that's what happens in life, you get out of life for what
you put in and the results are compounded daily.
Give yourself permission to challenge assumptions, to experiment, to fail and to test the limits
of your abilities.
Don't take yourself too seriously nor judge others too harshly.
Have a healthy disregard for the impossible and seize every opportunity to be excellent.
That is it for this video, thank you all so much for watching.
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