7 Life Lessons From a "Wise Guy"

"Guy Kawasaki got his B.A. in psychology from Stanford in 1976, where he took his intro psych class from the legendary Phil Zimbardo. In his job as a Mac Evangelist, Kawasaki got to work with the legendary Steve Jobs. Kawasaki’s career-hopping trajectory didn’t end with MacIntosh, but he went on to become the author of 15 books, a public speaker, and a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, among numerous other roles.

1. Don’t be afraid to exploit your connections. Kawasaki lists the various jobs he has had in his life, along with the reason he got the job. He is unashamed to say “nepotism” is the reason he got most of his jobs.
2. Smile. Kawasaki notes that smiling and laughing are self-perpetuating. In an organizational context, it is hard to overestimate the importance of radiating positive energy.
3. Default to yes. Kawasaki argues that the upsides of helping people vastly outweigh the slight dangers of being exploited.
4. Acquire skills that are valuable to others. He points out that a rare skill is only valuable if is useful to other people. A big theme of Kawasaki’s story is this: Success in a career involves a lot of consideration of other people’s needs.
5. Adopt a growth mindset. Carol Dweck is another Stanford psychology professor who influenced Kawasaki—her findings, now classic, suggested that kids who viewed their test performances as measurements of their native intelligence would stop trying after a failure, but those who were taught to think of their performances as measurements of their effort worked harder after failure.
6. Embrace grit. Kawasaki notes that great ideas are easy to come by, but implementing those ideas is a whole other story—requiring hard work and persistence.
7. Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone."

Read the complete article available at Psychology Today!

Reflection:

What do you think about these 7 life lessons?

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