The path to success isn’t always straight. There are often bumps and turns and forks in the road. But a little bit of guidance can help you find your way. In fact, many of the most successful leaders are where they are today because they took advice from people they trusted! Here are a few tips that executives have shared. |
| Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway board of directors member Thomas Murphy told him: “Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow – you don’t give up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way tomorrow.” From a 2010 interview with Yahoo! Marissa Mayer, president and CEO, Yahoo! “My friend Andre said to me, ‘You know, Marissa, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I’ve gotta be honest: That’s not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there’s the one that you pick and make great.’ I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten.” From a 2011 interview with the Social Times Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, Macy’s Gene Ross, the man who recruited Lundgren at Bullock, told him: “You’re not going to do this forever. There’s a finite amount of time you’re going to be doing this. Do this really, really well. And if you do this really, really well, everybody will see that, and they’ll move you onto the next thing. And you do that well, and then you’ll move.” From a 2009 interview with The New York Times Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs His boss at Goldman during the 1980s told him: “First, it’s good to solicit your people’s opinions before you give them yours. And second, your people will be very influenced by how you carry yourself under stress.” From a 2009 interview with CNNMoney Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google “Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids.” From Katie Couric’s book “The Best Advice I Ever Got,” excerpted by The Daily Beast Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO, Likeable Local Several weeks into his first job as a salesperson for Radio Disney – where he was “failing miserably,” Kerpen’s mentor Peggy Iafrate said: “How well are you listening to what your prospects have to say? How many questions are you asking them to better understand them? How are you showing them that you care about them more than you care about selling them? “Remember this one thing: Shut up and listen.” From a 2014 LinkedIn post Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post “Whenever I’d complain or was upset about something in my own life, my mother had the same advice: ‘Darling, just change the channel. You are in control of the clicker. Don’t replay the bad, scary movie.’ “We don’t have to wait until we move or change jobs to change our lives. Nor do we have to wait for large-scale, upstream change. We can initiate change right now. There are endless starting points.” From a 2014 LinkedIn post When Airbnb was going through Paul Graham’s Y Combinator program, the legendary programmer and startup mentor told Chesky: “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.” From a 2013 interview with Pando Daily Richard Parsons, former chairman, Citigroup APSteve Ross, the former CEO of Time Warner, told him: “Just remember, it’s a small business and a long life. You’re going to see all these people again.” From the 2008 HACR Roundtable Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO, PIMCO “I remember asking my father, ‘Why do we need four newspapers?’ He said to me, ‘Unless you read different points of view, your mind will eventually close, and you’ll become a prisoner to a certain point of view that you’ll never question.'” From a 2009 interview with CNN Money |
