Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life (10 page)

In short, there are no guarantees. That means being alert to national and world markets. Do your homework daily. I shouldn’t need to emphasize this if you’ve paid attention to what’s transpired in the United States from 2006 until now, which is late 2008.There was an implosion in the financial sector that was unprecedented in our history. I see it as a wake-up call.

Robert and I tried to warn people back in 2006. Now I’m back to tell you loud and clear that this area of your life is of great importance. Yes, study your specific area of interest diligently, but realize that if there is no money for scholarships, whether you are studying anthropology or literature or law, you might be out of luck. Everyone will be affected. Whatever your emphasis of study is, be aware of what is going on financially around the world.

We are all businessmen and women, whether you see it that way yet or not. If you like art and can’t make money at it, you eventually realize that everything is business, even your art. That’s why I like Warhol’s statement about good business being the best art. It’s a fact. That’s also another reason I see my business as an art and so I work at it passionately.

We all have opinions. Due diligence means finding out the difference between opinions and facts. I was astounded to find out how many people don’t know how the financial world is set up. Equities, emerging markets, asset management, commodities, mutual funds, hedge funds, annuities, stocks, bonds, and mortgages should be common knowledge by the time you are in high school. That’s a big oversight in our educational system. Every student should know how they all work and never expect a financial “expert” to give them the whole story. You have to know it yourself.
This is a capitalistic society, which is good, but it also means watching out for yourself.

My advice to you is to take as many finance classes as you can, no matter what your line of work is and/or your focus of study might be. If you’re not good at economics or statistics, all the more reason to take those classes and pay attention. Having a financial blind spot is setting yourself up for some unpleasant surprises in the future. Know how the financial sector works. It affects you in every way.

I heard someone say during the amazing collapse of some financial giants in the United States, that, “I’m not really interested in the market.” Oh really?! I was stunned. As if it doesn’t affect them! When they don’t have a job to go to next week, maybe they’ll realize they should be interested. The ripple effect is felt everywhere, nationally and internationally, when the markets and banks falter. It shows we are all connected, whether we want to believe that or not.

My emphasis here is to advise you to be financially literate. It’s in your best interest in the biggest sense you can imagine. Please heed my advice and pay attention. You can start by clicking onto the Finance page on Yahoo! when you go onto your computer every day. Check out the markets a few times a day and see how the dollar is doing against the Euro and Yen. Learn to read the charts and the trends. Read the pertinent articles. That’s a baby step, but it will get you thinking on the right wavelength—which could make a significant difference in your quality of life.

A hungry man will realize something immediately. If he had money, he wouldn’t be hungry. That’s a very basic visual, but it applies. In other words, pay attention to your financial literacy.

—NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

W
hen I was going through my mail one day, I came across a stack of letters from students in middle school about
The Apprentice
and the business lessons they’ve learned from watching it. There must have been forty letters, so I skimmed through them, and a couple questions stood out because they were asked repeatedly. One was about how to achieve success, and the other one was how to deal with obstacles on the way to success.

My first thought was how important planning ahead is to success, and how equally important it is to remain flexible with those plans. How do you tell students about the importance of plans and sticking to them while still emphasizing the necessity for flexibility? It would seem to be a contradiction.

There’s a quote I like by an anonymous thinker: “The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you refuse to take the turn.” That’s a valuable thought for business skills as well as life skills. Very rarely does everything work out the way we hope or think it will. In fact, sometimes it works out better when you’ve
had to take a few detours along the way, but what will help you the most is to be prepared for them. Interesting things have happened to people when they’ve taken side trips, planned or otherwise.

I was scheduled to make a short appearance on a boat in New York City and then to get off before it took an evening long cruise around Manhattan. The boat was full of happy and excited people, and the festivities were just starting to begin, but I had other plans in midtown, and I was getting ready to leave when I noticed that the boat had already left the dock and was in the middle of the river. I wasn’t too happy about this turn of events, but there wasn’t much I could do about it except to adjust my mood and accept a cruise around my favorite city as an unexpected adventure. What happened is that I had the opportunity to talk with a variety of people while having some great ideas at the same time. New York City is beautiful when it’s lit up at night and it turned out to be a very pleasant evening for everyone. If I had perceived the situation as a misadventure, I don’t think I would have had some of the creative ideas that came to me, or as much fun.

This is a simple example of an unanticipated event that turned into a positive memory. I had plans that were business related that had to be changed, but it wasn’t the end of the world. It was a blip, not a catastrophe. When these things happen to you, whether they be big or small events, remember that your perception of their magnitude will play a big part in what you can reap from them. We’ve all heard the term “go with the flow,” and in my case, that’s what I had to do unless I wanted to jump overboard and attempt to swim the Hudson River at night. Sometimes common sense will intervene, too.

Carefully planning your way to success is a sure way to achieve your goals, and that approach should never be underestimated. Just remember that you need to be patient and persevering and to
know that there can be delays and detours along the way. I’ve waited twenty years to see some things happen, but it was worth the wait and I had to change course a few times until the pieces finally fell into place. Destiny has a part to play in your life and in your business—so give it a chance to work.

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

T
hat thought by Ralph Waldo Emerson has always been an inspiration to me. It gives me energy to keep going full force because I know I still have a lot to accomplish. No matter what I may have achieved—or plan to achieve—I know it’s “a tiny matter” compared to what I am capable of doing.Think about it: How can we be complacent with that kind of thought pattern going on? It would be impossible!

When I hear people say things like, “It’s impossible to do more!” I always smile to myself and think, “I’ve just started!”—and it’s just a great way to feel. I’d like you to have that feeling, too, because it’s like having stepping stones in all the right places just waiting for you to see them.

Sometimes it helps to minimize your achievements to yourself so that you will be eager to do more. It’s like saying, “Yeah, that
was good, but I’m just getting warmed up” as a way to keep yourself challenged. The best achievers are those who are self-motivated, who are naturally curious, and who don’t need to be told what to do next. Strive to be that kind of person. Entrepreneurs are driven by their own inner forces, and it’s a great way of life as well as a great approach to life.

What lies within us? Hopefully, a lot of great ideas and plans for the future as well as the innate sense of our ability to achieve them. I think Emerson was alluding to this idea of hope in his statement. It’s important for survival and it’s important for success. Sometimes it is what keeps us going when the odds may not be on our side. Don’t underestimate the power of some of the unseen or intangible forces in your life. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there. The first person to give you a chance should be yourself.

So give yourself a chance—every single day. Some people really are their own worst enemy. Don’t fall into that abyss—because that’s really what it is. Ever watched children when they are trying something new? They are excited, they are eager, and they welcome the challenge. That’s an attitude to recapture or to try to emulate. The enthusiasm that discovery provides is a sure way to make sure that everything you are doing is paving the way toward your current as well as future successes. I received a letter from my kindergarten teacher, and she mentioned that what she remembers most clearly about me is that I never stopped asking questions. I wrote back to her and informed her that some things never change—that I still ask a lot of questions. But I said that it had obviously served me well, and I thanked her, belatedly, for her patience many years ago. Every one of my questions was the beginning of the next one.

So here’s one for you: If you had nothing at all to do, what would you do? And after you did that, what would you do? And
after you did that, what would be next on your list? I call that multithinking versus multitasking. Most people have at least a few things they want to do. Sometimes one thing leads to another—that’s a form of discovery. Discovery breeds discovery, as in success breeds success. Quest-ions are thoughts with a quest.

Can you guess what the quest is? Knowledge. Knowledge is power. That’s one reason you’re reading this essay. No one is born a know-it-all. Wouldn’t that be a little boring? I think it might be. Fortunately, at this time in history, things are moving so quickly that no one has the right to boredom. Just keeping up is the challenge we all have today. I like that challenge, because a challenge equals a success just waiting to happen.

Let’s end this with a few good questions: What lies behind you? (What are your life experiences and education up to this point?) What lies before you? (What are your goals, your plans, your aspirations?) What lies within you? (Do you have what it takes to succeed? Do you know the full extent of your abilities yet? Do you know what the future holds for you? Do you know how your dreams will evolve?) Let’s admit it—life is full of mystery. That includes
your
life, which is no tiny matter. So don’t sell yourself short on something that important. Today is just the beginning.

—CONFUCIUS