LUCK: People who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate have the greatest responsibility to work hard, to contribute to the betterment of the world, and to share their luck with others. Believe me, this Endowment is not our to keep forever. Eat the Ice Cream gracefully before it melts. REGRETS: What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…Sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly. SELFISHNESS: As we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish – how illogical, really. We come to love other people and are thereby counter-instructed in our own centrality. We get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that we’re not separate, and don’t want to be. ENTERPRISING: Change in every society, in every age, in every sphere of human endeavor has come about because some people, a minority, decided to put their entrepreneurial mindsets to work. And they were able to put their entrepreneurial mindsets to work because they were incredibly passionate about what they believed in. This minority is the entrepreneurial community. PERSISTENCE: What we see in successful people is this sort of generous persistence, when we are faced with the initial no, or the third no, or the fifth thing that doesn’t work, people with grit figure out a different way to move forward—not an obnoxious way to move forward but a way to move forward that demonstrates commitment and tenacity. MOTIVATION: Powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. ASPIRATION: Aspirations include your deepest wishes, ideas, goals, and vision of the future, regardless of the state of the external world or your existing asset mix. This piece of the puzzle includes your core values, or what’s important to you in life, be it knowledge, autonomy, money, integrity, power, and so on. You may not be able to achieve all your aspirations or build a life that incorporates all your values. And they will certainly change over time. But you should at least orient yourself in the direction of a pole star, even if it changes.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 23:32:36 +0000
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