Getting the right people in the right roles in support of your goal is the key to succeeding at whatever you choose to accomplish.
It’s tough to be tough on people.
Over the course of our lives, we make millions and millions of decisions that are essentially bets, some large and some small. It pays to think about how we make them because they are what ultimately determine the quality of our lives.
What was most important wasn’t knowing the future – it was knowing how to react appropriately to the information available at each point in time.
Remember not to be overconfident in your assessments, as it’s possible you are wrong.
Reflect and remind yourself that an accurate criticism is the most valuable feedback you can receive.
Remember that people are built very differently and that different ways of seeing and thinking make people suitable for different jobs.
As Carl Jung put it, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” It’s even more important that decision making be evidence-based and logical when groups of people are working together.
Being radically truthful and transparent with your colleagues and expecting your colleagues to be the same with you ensures that important issues are apparent instead of hidden. It also enforces good behavior and good thinking, because when you have to explain yourself, everyone can openly assess the merits of your logic.
Don’t mistake possibilities for probabilities. Anything is possible. It’s the probabilities that matter. Everything must be weighed in terms of its likelihood and prioritized.
I should add, though, that putting responsibility in the hands of inexperienced people doesn’t always work out so well. Some painful lessons that you’ll read about later taught me that it can be a mistake to undervalue experience.
Our brains work like computers: They input data and process it in accordance with their wiring and programming. Any opinion you have is made up of these two things: the data and your processing or reasoning.
You don’t want the people you work with to merely pay lip service.
This way of thinking about risk caused many investors to increase their exposures beyond what would normally be seen as prudent. They looked at the recent volatility in their VAR calculations, and by and large expected it to continue moving forward. This is human nature and it was dumb because past volatility and past correlations aren’t reliable forecasts of future risks.
The most meaningful relationships are achieved when you and others can speak openly to each other about everything that’s important, learn together, and understand the need to hold each other accountable to be as excellent as you can be.
Evaluate accurately, not kindly.
One thing that leaders should not do, in my opinion, is be manipulative.
The pursuit of dreams is what gives life its flavor.
There were only two big forces to worry about: growth and inflation.
Weigh second- and third-order consequences.