Wise Words Indeed

Okay … now we all have a new year in front of us. What are we all going to do with our 365 days/8760 hours? I certainly do want to increase my earnings and net worth but not at the cost of family, friends, and joy! Let me share with you some mysterious but profound words that my good friend of more than 40 year, Dr. Craig Davis, found online and shared with me:

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of death. When a person goes into the operation room, he will realize that there is one book that he has yet to finish reading—the Book of Healthy Life. Treasure love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.”

These very wise words were first thought to be the last words from the billionaire Steve Jobs but later it was disputed, and we don’t really know who wrote them. Nevertheless, I must say that they are words of great wisdom and truth, regardless of their source. Of course, when people thought they came from a multi-billionaire, they probably paid more attention to them but not matter who they are from, they hold a great lesson for us all.

The profound words don’t end there though. Our mysterious author also said, “If you just want to walk fast, walk alone! But if you want to walk far, walk together.” Then finally this person lists the six best ‘doctors’ in the world:  Sunlight, Rest, Diet, Self-Confidence, Friends. and Exercise. I will talk more about this last doctor to start the new year in my next post.

The Powers of Two

So how do you make your world bigger and really live ‘large’? Probably the very biggest key to living large is through other people. Unfortunately there is a big misconception when it comes to seeing other people that seem to be living very large and have achieved super success. When we see someone who has come up with a great new invention, a super creative piece of artwork or, for that matter, a new and very successful business, most people think it came from a single person’s mind who has been working alone and has had a mental breakthrough. I certainly used to believe and think that, but if you and I take a closer look, we’ll see that it just ain’t so.

Recently I heard Joshua Shenk on NPR radio talking about some very famous people and world changing technological breakthroughs along with great works of art all of which came not from one brilliant person working alone but from 2 or more people joining their brains and forces to come up with heretofore unheard of successes. Shenk has written a book called Powers of Two and what a great book it is! He talks about great people like Paul McCartney, Steve Jobs, George Lucas and Vincent Van Gogh along with a number of others. It turns out that the key to their super success was hooking up with another person and the power of what those 2 brains could come up with equaled genius and huge breakthroughs.

Those breakthroughs Joshua talks about may never have happened if those people had not met the right person at the right time. For Paul McCartney the breakthrough came when he met and worked with John Lennon which later spawned the Beatles. For Steve Jobs it was hooking up with Steve Wozniak when one was a teenager and the other was only 20 years old. And for filmmaker George Lucas, it was his wife Marcia Lucas who was his secret weapon. Lastly, there’s a very good chance that you and I would probably never have known the name Vincent Van Gogh if it were not for a guy named Theo, Vincent’s brother.

The author goes on to make an undeniable case that most great and important breakthroughs that we think came from one genius working alone came from the ‘Powers of Two’. Later Joshua Shenk talks about how critical it is for you and I to go out and find our “tribe” and to hook up with others that we truly connect with. Sometimes it’s people like ourselves and sometimes people that are very different from us but they hit certain of our hot buttons that lift us to a much higher level and push us to fulfill our great potential. Next week I’ll talk about ways to find our “tribe”, those people that we really connect with and where to go to hook up with those than can help us create and benefit from the ‘Powers of Two’.