Ultimately, what you need in the people you work with are excellent character and excellent capabilities, which is why it’s so hard to find great people.
We are all born with different thinking abilities but we aren’t born with decision-making skills.
You don’t achieve happiness by getting rid of your problems – you achieve it by learning from them.
Chances are you won’t have time to deal with the unimportant things, which is better than not having time to deal with the impor-tant things. I often hear people say, “Wouldn’t it be good to do this or that?” It’s likely they are being distracted from far more important things that need to be done well.
Don’t get hung up on your views of how things “should” be because you will miss out on learning how they really are.
Most people call something bad if it is bad for them or bad for those they empathize with, ignoring the greater good.
Your part in an employee’s personal evolution begins with a frank assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, followed by a plan for how their weaknesses can be mitigated either through training or by switching to a different job that taps into their strengths and preferences.
Daily Observations.
Closed-minded people lack a deep sense of humility.
People who can accurately sort probabilities from possibilities are generally strong at “practical thinking”;.
Acknowledging your weaknesses is not the same as surrendering to them. It’s the first step toward overcoming them. The pains you are feeling are “growing pains” that will test your character and reward you as you push through them.
Understand That People Are Wired Very Differently.
Am I seeing this just through my own eyes? If so, then you should know that you’re terribly handicapped.
Recognize that experience creates internalized learning that book learning can’t replace.
Watching the same things happen again and again, I began to see reality as a gorgeous perpetual motion machine, in which causes become effects that become causes of new effects, and so on.
When countries negotiate with one another, they typically operate as if they are opponents in a chess match or merchants in a bazaar in which maximizing one’s own benefit is the sole objective. Smart leaders know their own countries’ vulnerabilities, take advantage of others’ vulnerabilities, and expect the other countries’ leaders to do the same.
So I learned to be radically open-minded to allow others to point out what I might be missing.
Be clear on whether you are arguing or seeking to understand, and think about which is most appropriate based on your and others’ believability.
Get rid of irrelevant details so that the essential things and the relationships between them stand out.
Seek out the smartest people who disagreed with me so I could try to understand their reasoning.