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.
- The Decision-Maker: A Tool for a Lifetime
- Know Your Edge
- Career Lines - Jobs to Seek and Those to Avoid
- Money's Value Falls 90% every Thirty years
- There's No Such thing as an Overnight Success
- Rules for Aging (or Living)
- Patience: A Key to Success in Business and Life
- 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
- Never Envy the Rich Man or Any Person
- Track the Cash
- track CASH LEVELS - which means you are getting recievables, not overspending on inventory, and have good cash-flow
- Why Financial History is So Important to Study
- China
- Speeches
- What is a Leader?
- Persistence, Discipline, Conviction, Judgment, Sharing Rewards
- Partners
- Dealing with Bosses or Successful People
- Investing in Foreign Countries
- The Oil Industry
- 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
- 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
- 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)
- 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.
Nightmare on Elm Street
Check Out Another Wiki! I figured that since I help keep this wiki "safe" it'd be okay to link to mine.
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