From Chapter 2 "Fail Fast: The Gift of Failure" in Ingredients of Outliers A Boy Called Ted The son of German immigrants, Ted was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He had a comfortable childhood. He attended Dartmouth College and was editor-in-chief of its humor magazine, until a drinking party cost him that position. After college he traveled to Europe and briefly attended Oxford University before dropping out and continuing his European wanderings. After returning to the U.S., Ted worked successfully for many years in the advertising business and as an editorial … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2015
Learning from Failure
From Chapter 2 "Fail Fast: The Gift of Failure" in Ingredients of Outliers Going into Business[es] With my newly discovered burst of self-confidence, I decided to launch my business career. But where to start? I’d once entertained thoughts of owning a restaurant. I knew nothing about restaurant operations, so I thought it would be less risky to start out with hot dog stands. I bought five of them, and in the winter in Phoenix, Arizona, they did really well—in the summer, however, not so much. The hot dog stands were a huge failure—but that didn’t stop me. Since then I’ve started, or … [Read more...]
The Gift of Failure
From Chapter 2 "Fail Fast: The Gift of Failure" in Ingredients of Outliers An Early Start My gift of failure started early. As noted previously, despite being tall and coming from a family that encouraged sports, I never really excelled at anything where coordination, speed, or strength mattered, thus relegating me to events like curling and badminton. My sister, however, was a very competitive swimmer, as well as a straight “A” student. Fortunately I was adopted, so I could genuinely claim some form of genetic malady (I still do). In fact, genetics haunt me to this day. A few years … [Read more...]
Advice from An Old Farmer
Sent to me by a life-long friend: Advice from An Old Farmer Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. Keep skunks and bankers at a distance. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled. Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight. Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads. Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you. It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge. You cannot unsay a cruel word. Every path has a few … [Read more...]
Thoughts on Humility
From Chapter 1 "Humility: The Root of Success" in Ingredients of Outliers FOOD FOR THOUGHT Reading and learning about others reveals the degree and the scope of their accomplishments and how they've handled both success and failure. Count the number of times in a day you find yourself telling others about your accomplishments and then work on decreasing that number. Remind yourself that having a fragile ego ultimately prevents you from taking risks and that failing to take calculated risks leads to stagnation. IN OTHER WORDS Egotism is the source and … [Read more...]