My Business and Life Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks
I am a proud, lifelong student of the School of Hard Knocks—a school I know I will never graduate from. However, in my opinion, it is the best school on the planet. By paying close attention to the world around you, the lessons you learn are invaluable. Most of the important things I’ve learned in my personal and professional life have come from this school and my life experiences.
Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned that I will share in depth either through my blog or my “Our Viewpoint” subscription newsletter at PrinciplesforBusinessandLife.com.
Life and Business Lessons
- When you think nothing can go wrong, IT will. You better be prepared.
- Invest in yourself.
- Open channels of communication.
- If you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.
- To quote Wayne Gretzky, “I missed every shot I didn’t take.”
- Sometimes you have to fire your boss.
- Failure is not an option – FINAO.
- Problems are simply opportunities in disguise.
- Mom was taking bets at my wedding on how long my marriage would last – Really?
- Don’t tell me what you can’t do, tell me what you can do.
- Find your “hot button.”
- Follow your passion, and you will never work a day in your life.
- Never forget the people who helped shape your life.
- Track it, train on it, incentivize it, and it will improve.
- You were not born with a “Fair Certificate.” Life isn’t fair.
- The most important decisions you will make in your life are:
- Who you work for and with.
- The friends you choose to hang out with.
- The person you marry or decide to spend your life with.
- They said I was going to end up being nothing more than a ditch-digger.
- Always “Family First.”
- The worst and the best days of my life.
- You can’t let your schooling get in the way of your education.
- Surround yourself with people driven to get better as both a person and a professional—you can’t help but be successful.
- Work for success, not money. Money is simply a result of success.
- If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. In non-professional sports, if you are the best player on the team, you are on the wrong team.
- If you observe something and don’t address it, then, in people’s minds, you are condoning it.
- Nothing in life will change until you change.
- Repetition is the key to retention.
- Productivity equals morale, and morale equals productivity.
- Knowledge isn’t power—it is the use of knowledge that will give you power.
- Have an impact on others. It is extremely rewarding.
- Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.
- You can’t coach a result. You can only coach the actions that create the result.
- Numbers don’t lie—people do.
- You are standing on the 50-yard line. Your family, friends, and associates are sitting in the stands, watching every move you make.
- If you say it, do it.
- I don’t know what I don’t know.
- The person you answer to is the person looking back at you in the mirror.
- Time is precious.
- The harder you work, the luckier you get.
- Spread a lot of good into the universe, and good things will come back to you.
And so many other life lessons. Subscribe to Our View newsletter and visit PrinciplesforBusinessandLife.com often.
Tips on Getting the Maximum Benefit
Share your biggest takeaway in the comments section. I would love to hear from you!
Reread this information and write down your top two takeaways.
Acknowledge how they relate to you and your situation.
When speaking with your audience, try to develop your own stories and analogies about how these lessons apply to them.