Extending yourself through time
I’ve changed my mind about what a successful person looks like. My v1 framework for a successful person focused on external achievements. Is this person leading a company? Are they operating at the top of their field? Are they leading movements and creating change? Those were the questions that decided whether someone was a success or not. It created a picture of someone well-educated, well-read, and well-traveled, with an aspirational lifestyle.
Though this is a common view of success, I’ve come to appreciate how myopic it is. Today, success looks very different to me. For my v2 definition of success, I think about things like: Do you have a genuine sense of self and purpose? Do you have an openness to evolve? Can you be at peace alone in a quiet room? It’s a broader definition but also a higher bar. I don’t want to judge, but I think it can be tougher to be at peace with yourself than to be hard-charging and get a promotion.
phoebe and added
He urges individuals—and parents especially—to abandon the desire for instant gratification and easy answers as early performance on tests isn’t an indicator of professional success. He emphasizes traits over particular skills—be curious, flexible, open-minded, adventurous, experimental, and playful. Try and fail and try again. Explore. Read outsid... See more
Quartz • To thrive in a "wicked" world, you need range
Keely Adler added
Personally, I'm often looking for people who are quite pointy in one way or another, who are really unusual at one item here or there, and are cognizant of their weaknesses. And then the ones I really like are often open about their weaknesses and are keeping them their weaknesses, because they think it's an infinite game that you don't quite under... See more
Sam Hinkie • Find Your People
sari added
That's another thing too, where I'm only interested in people that do things for a long period of time. There is a subset of people that can start a great business or be a great investor for two years, five years, 10 years. I'm interested in people that, you started the conversation saying about Edwin Land and Estee Lauder. Okay. Two obsessives. Th... See more
Patrick O'Shaughnessy • Passion & Pain
sari and added
One thing I'm always on the lookout for with people. Are they moving quickly? Are they evolving quickly? In my view, at the end of the day, when you're betting on a founder, especially if the market's not super clear, what you're trying to do is, you're trying to predict that, that particular person will have as many shots on goal as possible
... See moreDaniel Gross • Finding Undiscovered Talent
Jay Matthews added
This is why I say it takes decades—I’m not saying it takes decades to execute, but the better part of a decade may be figuring out what you can uniquely provide. [10]