20 Best Pieces of Advice from 20 Top Executives

Who doesn’t want to climb the ladder of success to that private high-rise corner office in the sky? You’ve taken everyone’s advice on success from your Uncle Herb to the barista from that Starbucks down the block, but if you’re going to take anyone’s advice, why not take it from the big shots? The wisdom offered from businessmen (and women) from past and present might just be the key to landing your next dream job!

1. “It’s been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”
-Henry Ford founder of Ford Motor Company

Make sure you stay on the ball. If you haven’t found that ideal job you’ve been hunting for don’t give up, keep looking. The more time you spend dillydallying the more time you waste and in that time you’ve wasted some body else may come and scoop up all your once in a lifetime job opportunities.

2. “You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.”
-Andrew Carnegie Steel magnate

If you ever want to achieve success one of the most important key factors you need to remember is that you have to be willing to work for it. You can’t expect your success to unfold within the course of one day; in order to reach the levels of success you dream of it takes time, effort, and perseverance. You’re the only one in control of your future; you steer the way on the road to your success. The assistance of others will be of no service if you are unwilling to help yourself; you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

3. “It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.”
-John D. Rockefeller founder and Chairman of Standard Oil

Success is not always necessarily measured monetarily. Success can simply be found by unveiling your passions and dedicating your life’s work to them be it dog grooming or hedge funds. Evaluate what success means to you and then begin to create your goals around your resolutions. It’s key to remember that a high paying salary and happiness do not always coalesce.

4. “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”
-Bill Gates Chairman of Microsoft

Though this may not be as big an issue in today’s world as it would have 15, 20 years ago, plenty of people are still lost when it comes to the Internet and/or computers. If you happen to be one of those individuals it cannot be stressed enough how important it is to familiarize yourself with computers. The computer industry is seeping its way into almost every field out there, it cannot be escaped. Therefore, you need to equip yourself with the right precautionary measures necessary for when you come face to face with your new and most likely computer oriented career. Even if your career happens to dodge the expansion of the computer into new fields it is still a great skill to possess and can help lead to new opportunities down the line.

5. “The first rule is not to lose. The second is not to forget the first rule.”
-Warren Buffet Chairman & CEO of Birkshire Hathaway

Always make the attempt to put your best foot forward and take the time to make the right decisions. Don’t set yourself up for failure due to a careless lack of caution.

warren-buffet

6. “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.”
-Sumner Redstone Chairman of National Amusements

If you do find yourself staring failure in the face, relax. Failure isn’t always a bad thing. Failures can open the door for growth, knowledge, and experience. Although it may be a difficult task, try to embrace failure when it rears it’s ugly head, learn from it, it may make you more appreciative or at least aid you in changing your bad habits.

7. “For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.”
-Mary Kay Ash founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

When you encounter a problem, solve it. Don’t give up; find a solution to the problem and work your way around it, there are always solutions. If today’s interview didn’t go well, don’t interpret it as an all-encompassing sign that no one will hire you. You need to be prepared to take the initiative to dig up inventive solutions when issues arise. Inventiveness in times of crisis is a trait that will set you apart from the rest of the herd (and make you shine in the eyes of employers.)

8. “A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.”
-Charles Schwab founder & CEO of Charles Schwab Corporation

If your goal is to achieve success it is of grave importance to be in the field you love. If you hate your line of work you can kiss the very thought of success goodbye. You’ll never succeed if you do not hold a boundless passion for your career. It’s crucial to find a career you are enthusiastic about; you cannot expect to find success in a career you dread waking up to morning after morning. Sit down and ruminate about your life’s passions and what to you is worth working towards. What is worth devoting your life’s work to?

9. “I’ve never run into a guy who could win at the top level in anything today and didn’t have the right attitude, didn’t give it everything he has, at least while he was doing it; wasn’t prepared and didn’t have the whole program worked out.
-Ted Turner founder of CNN

Have the right outlook in life, the right attitude: a positive attitude. You won’t get very far with a chip on your shoulder. Negativity and bitterness is never the answer, it will only hold you back and repel employers and coworkers. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. You can only harm yourself with negativity; the wrong attitude is detrimental to success. The best employers can detect your attitude during the job interview, and if they sense your attitude is negative, your chances of getting the job are slim.

10. “Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.”
-Jack Welch former Chairman & CEO of General Electric

Although it is okay to fantasize from time to time it’s important to not lose your head in the clouds. Stay grounded and be realistic, you’ll set yourself up for failure if you are too idealistic. While idealism is a great characteristic to possess too much can leave you living in a dream world, it’s a smart idea to have a balance between the two.

11. “You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.”
-Steve Jobs co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Apple Inc.

Be prepared for anything an interviewer can throw your way. Practice interviews beforehand; run through possible questions you may be asked and rehearse. Make sure you’re sending out the right impressions; know what is to be expected of you, arm yourself with the knowledge of the right body language as well as the right communication and social skills. Be sure there’s nothing masking the true hardworking, loyal future employee you will be.

12. “There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.”
-Michael Dell founder & CEO of Dell, Inc.

A little bit of sacrifice is needed in order to become successful, sometimes more than little. You must be willing to give up a bit of free time to lay the foundation of your future success. Nothing ever got done without a little sacrifice, whether it’s putting in a few extra hours of overtime, missing out on a night out at your local bar, or taking a rain check on that golf game; a little sacrifice in the name of success never hurt anyone.

13. “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
-Richard Branson Chairman of Virgin Group

Don’t get down in the dumps if a business opportunity turns out to be a bust. If you always keep the door open and a positive attitude a new and perhaps better opportunity is bound to walk in sooner or later.

14. “No one’s going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude.”
Rupert Murdoch Chairman & CEO of News Corporation

Knowledge is of importance if your plans are to make it big. The ability to speak a foreign language if not multiple languages is always a good quality to possess and offer to employers. Although there are some who managed to weasel their way around the schooling process and still landed in the graces of success, it never hurt to receive an extensive education. If you really want to go places it’s best to start with schooling, education plays a huge role in your career’s advancement.

15. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
-Donald Trump Chairman & CEO of Trump Organization

Try to reach for the seemingly impossible (within reason, we’re not talking chocolate paved roads and gumdrop evergreens here), to have a goal to strive for at all times keeps you on your toes and ignites the diligence to keep working in the direction of success.

16. “We aren’t here to hope and hang on. We wanted to win.”
-Eric Schmidt Chairman & CEO of Google Inc.

Don’t settle for that mediocre job that pays the bills. It’s okay to do what you need to in order to survive; if surviving means working that nightshift over at the drive-thru of McDonalds it’s okay but don’t get too comfortable, do what you can to land that career you love that does more than just pay the bills. Don’t settle for scraping by, be determined and stay on the path to success.

17. “You don’t have to be the biggest to beat the biggest”
-Ross Perot founder of Electronic Data Systems & Perot Systems

If you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth you can still make it to the top. You don’t have to start out as the best to one day surpass the best. It may take blood, toil, tears and sweat to pull yourself up the climb to success but you can do it.

18. “There’s no good idea that can’t be improved on”
-Michael Eisner former Chief executive of The Walt Disney Company

Be a team player and be open to change. Show willingness to compromise and learn to accept constructive feedback positively. Even though it may be challenging at times try not to be too hardheaded and acknowledge the input and improvements of others on your ideas. A little maturity and grace go a long way toward landing your dream job!
19. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
-Conrad Hilton founder of the Hilton Hotel chain

Successful people take action; it’s as simple as that. A successful person will take the required steps of action to take them where they want to go. They do not sit and watch their mistakes pile up nor do they quit. If you desire to be a success you have to keep pushing forward in spite of all your mistakes and shortcomings. For job-seekers, this means getting out there for as many interviews as it takes to land your desired position.

20. “It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.”
-BC Forbes founder of Forbes Magazine

Don’t forget to have faith in yourself, with a lack of faith you can sure count on your aspirations never taking off. It’s all good and well to have goals and dreams but what use are they without faith and trust in those ambitions? Ignore unbelievers who tell you what can and cannot be done, again you need to clasp onto that positive mindset. Be an optimist!

Assume anything is possible – because it is!

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Source:  http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html