đźź Insightful personal story from Steve Jobs (from the book - Make Something Wonderful):
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life.
I am invited to speak at Stanford’s business school once or twice a year, and I always try to do it. I had accepted an invitation to speak one Thursday late in the afternoon, and I wasn’t feeling very well and I had a dinner later that evening with some important customers up at a winery on Page Mill Road.
The room for my talk wasn’t large enough, and all the seats were full so some of the students were sitting in the aisles. One of the professors asked them to clear the aisles in case a fire marshal should appear, and one girl who was being evicted quickly sat down in one of the four seats they had left vacant in the front row for me and whatever entourage I might be bringing.
When I arrived alone and sat down in the front row, it didn’t take me long to notice this really cute girl sitting next to me. I think she was stunned when it was me that got up to speak. And I knew something was up when I was staring at her, forgetting what I was talking about mid-sentence.
After my talk, I stayed around to speak with some students, and she stayed too.
But then she left.
I didn’t know who she was, and thought I might never see her again.
So I wound things up and left too, and I caught up with her in the parking lot.
I asked her if she would have dinner with me on Saturday.
She said yes and gave me her phone number.
As I was walking to my car, I asked myself: “If this was the last day of my life, would I rather have dinner with the important customers or her?”
I raced back to her car, just as she was about to drive off, and asked her “How about dinner tonight?”
She said: “Sure,” and we were married 18 months later.
Yea, it might have worked out if I had waited until Saturday night, and those customers might have given us a few more orders if I had shown up.
But who knows, maybe she had a hot date Friday night and things would have turned out much differently…
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life. It just happens. Maybe its random, maybe its fate. Either way, you can’t plan for it. But you want to recognize it when it happens, and have the courage and clarity of mind to grab onto it.
----------------------------
🧠Personal reflection:
This idea deeply resonated with me, because it’s something I learned this year… from experience! And it proved even more true whenever I:
1. Followed my genuine interests “Go do something great and your network will instantly emerge.” - Naval Ravikant
2. Lived a more adventurous life “You have calibrated life when most of what you fear has the titillating prospect of adventure.” - Nassim Taleb
And as Steve Jobs said, courage is a very important ingredient...
Some of my other favorite quotes (on courage):
"Courage is the only virtue you cannot fake." - Nassim Taleb
"Courage is grace under pressure." - Ernest Hemingway
"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius." - Peter Thiel
"If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid." - Robert Greene
----------------------------
If you enjoyed this nugget, you can find many more on my weekly newsletter The Little Almanack - www.littlealmanack.com/
Picking Nuggets
đźź Insightful personal story from Steve Jobs (from the book - Make Something Wonderful):
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life.
I am invited to speak at Stanford’s business school once or twice a year, and I always try to do it. I had accepted an invitation to speak one Thursday late in the afternoon, and I wasn’t feeling very well and I had a dinner later that evening with some important customers up at a winery on Page Mill Road.
The room for my talk wasn’t large enough, and all the seats were full so some of the students were sitting in the aisles. One of the professors asked them to clear the aisles in case a fire marshal should appear, and one girl who was being evicted quickly sat down in one of the four seats they had left vacant in the front row for me and whatever entourage I might be bringing.
When I arrived alone and sat down in the front row, it didn’t take me long to notice this really cute girl sitting next to me. I think she was stunned when it was me that got up to speak. And I knew something was up when I was staring at her, forgetting what I was talking about mid-sentence.
After my talk, I stayed around to speak with some students, and she stayed too.
But then she left.
I didn’t know who she was, and thought I might never see her again.
So I wound things up and left too, and I caught up with her in the parking lot.
I asked her if she would have dinner with me on Saturday.
She said yes and gave me her phone number.
As I was walking to my car, I asked myself: “If this was the last day of my life, would I rather have dinner with the important customers or her?”
I raced back to her car, just as she was about to drive off, and asked her “How about dinner tonight?”
She said: “Sure,” and we were married 18 months later.
Yea, it might have worked out if I had waited until Saturday night, and those customers might have given us a few more orders if I had shown up.
But who knows, maybe she had a hot date Friday night and things would have turned out much differently…
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life. It just happens. Maybe its random, maybe its fate. Either way, you can’t plan for it. But you want to recognize it when it happens, and have the courage and clarity of mind to grab onto it.
----------------------------
🧠Personal reflection:
This idea deeply resonated with me, because it’s something I learned this year… from experience! And it proved even more true whenever I:
1. Followed my genuine interests
“Go do something great and your network will instantly emerge.”
- Naval Ravikant
2. Lived a more adventurous life
“You have calibrated life when most of what you fear has the titillating prospect of adventure.”
- Nassim Taleb
And as Steve Jobs said, courage is a very important ingredient...
Some of my other favorite quotes (on courage):
"Courage is the only virtue you cannot fake."
- Nassim Taleb
"Courage is grace under pressure."
- Ernest Hemingway
"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius."
- Peter Thiel
"If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid."
- Robert Greene
----------------------------
If you enjoyed this nugget, you can find many more on my weekly newsletter The Little Almanack - www.littlealmanack.com/
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 675