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1. Be Practical: If there’s any commonly given piece of advice that completely SUCKS it is the notion that you should be practical. Highly successful people are very rarely practical. They realize early on in life the lesson of passion vs. practicality. Many of the most successful people in the world will tell you that if you do what you love the money will follow. Even if them money doesn’t follow, you will much likely be a thousand times happier doing what you love. I’ve known many people who have chosen careers for money, and I don’t know most of them very well anymore.
2. Be Realistic: Given our limitless power of imagination, be realistic is another piece of advice that SUCKS. Let’s look at being realistic in a bit more detail. When you are following this advice, you are essentially embracing the idea of a limiting belief and the limitations of your current reality. If 10 years ago, somebody had told many professional bloggers they would be making their living writing online, and even have book deals, that would have not been realistic. If somebody had told the guys a Google, be realistic, there lives would have turned out very differently. Most of the world you see today was at some point in time not realistic. If people had followed that advice, then our progress as a society would have slowed dramatically. However, somewhere in the transition from childhood to adulthood we stop using our imagination so vividly. Yet, that is the very purpose of having an imagination.
3. Try to fit in: It’s amazing how much time we give to gaining the approval of others: parents, society, peers,etc. But the thing that makes you interesting is that you don’t fit in. When you start to embrace your imperfections, something almost magical happens. People start to see who you really are and are drawn to you. Why is that? Because you are finally real. I may have said this before, but most people are so scared about what others think about them. that you never find out who they really are.
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Comments
08.13.09
Great post! I recently gave a speech to some graduating business students and said some of the same things - much to the displeasure of some professors present. It's not about the money right out of the gate, dreaming then doing is ok, and being the best you is the only way to be. Thanks for sharing!
08.13.09
Oh, I really like this post! I've heard all three before and I've always felt the advice was counter intuitive.
08.13.09
I totally agree with these three things, especially the last one. Of course, whether I follow these tips is another matter entirely...
08.13.09
Thanks for all the comments. I definitely feel strongly about all of the things. I can't say I'm the master at following them all either. I think I've started to definitely embrace the third more than the other two. I have definitely abandoned the idea of practicality.
08.13.09
I disagree. While you need to be the visionary in what you want to do, or where you want to go, you've got to be practical and realistic on how you implement the steps on getting there.
Let's face it, the guys at Google wouldn't have amounted to more than a couple of Stanford grads with pie-in-the-sky ideas if they weren't practical and realistic in getting funding and running their business. No one would have given them a thing, if they didn't have solid, practical, realistic business plans on implementing and managing their visionary business.
Again, to quote an old director I knew:
"If you're not making money with your business, all you've got is an expensive hobby."
08.13.09
Oh I hate that last piece of advice! Being different is so taboo in our society and anyone who acts out against it is repressed. I also hate that old proverb "Make hay while the sun shines".
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