Get Smarter - Life and Business Lessons by Seymour Schulich

Notes by Jason Shen (jason@jasonshen.com)

The Big Idea:

Billionare oil tycoon Seymour Schulich gives advice to entrepreneurial 20-40 year olds: success comes by working diligently, being patient and capitalizing on the right opportunity.  He lists 60 lessons that he's learned - here is a sampling of the best.

1. The Decision-Maker: A Tool for a Lifetime
2. Know Your Edge
3. Career Lines - Jobs to Seek and Those to Avoid
4. Money's Value Falls 90% every Thirty years
5. There's No Such thing as an Overnight Success
6. Rules for Aging (or Living)
7. Patience: A Key to Success in Business and Life
8. Sex and Love
   • Four career-killers - ego, greed, drugs/alcohol, assistants with big breasts
   • "Women nuture the next generation in a dedicated manner superior to the male warriors wo are out hunting"
   • "Love is a hormonal imbalance that usually occurs in our twenties. If we are lucky, we outgrow it. It should evolve into respect and loyalty, which are the real foundations for a long-term relationship"
   • 2 rules for happy marriages - live and let live (don't try to change people) and don't argue in front of the kids or other people
9. Never Envy the Rich Man or Any Person
10. Track the Cash
    • track CASH LEVELS - which means you are getting recievables, not overspending on inventory, and have good cash-flow
11. Why Financial History is So Important to Study
12. China
13. Speeches
14. What is a Leader?
    • Persistence, Discipline, Conviction, Judgment, Sharing Rewards
15. Partners
16. Dealing with Bosses or Successful People
17. Investing in Foreign Countries
18. The Oil Industry
19. Business Axioms
    • Never quit a job unless you have another job (appear more valuable when employed)
    • Ask - if wrong, is this decision going to be painful or fatal?
    • Keep away from consultants and advisers
    • Ask partners, employees, family "would you put your own money in this deal?"
    • Always have at least 2 people on your side when negotiating/deal making
    • Never confront/threaten people or institutions with more power than you
    • Never forget to qualify statements with "off the record" when dealing with media
    • In negotiating, try to get other party to name asking price (might be lower than your maximum)
    • Almost everything in life is easier to get into than out of
20. Deals and Investments
    •      Five questions to ask about any deal
    • UPSIDE - How much can I make?
    • DOWNSIDE - How much can I lose?
    • LIQUIDITY - How do I get my money back?
    • MANAGEMENT RECORD - Who says this deal is any good?
    • ENDORSEMENT - Who else is in the deal?
    • Make sure you can really assese the odds and only invest when the odds are in your favor
    • Go against the grain in terms of popular opinion
    • Negotiating - Often, walking away can give you the best possible price
21. Setting Incentives - the key to building a company
    • Deferred compensation - you get THIS years bonus in one-year (helps with turnover)
    • 10 year option vesting plan to encourage owner-like activity (anyone over 5% should be acting this way already!0
    • Profit sharing -
    • Communal compensation - 4 person senior staff where everyone draws equal salaries (including bonuses)
22. Seven Closing Thoughts (direct quotes)
    •  Those who live in fear often don't live at all
    • Motherhood is a wonderful thing to behold. A self-absorbed being suddenly cares a lot more abou t another small human being than she does about herself.
    • Business is a means to an end, namely freedom to pursue the ultimate goal of trying to make the world a better place for your having been here for a very short while.
    • People only die when they are forgotten.
    • Luck favors the brave.
    • Don't complain, don't explain.
    • The greatest thing you'll ever learn is how to love and be loved in return.