Successful business story.
Many people ask me:
“This business education stuff is great, but when will I be done?”
Wrong question. It is like I need to know everything before I start.
This is when you realize that you learn as you go and you can’t wait until you know everything, otherwise you will never take any action in life.
Starting a business is a great example of this.
Self-education, whether it’s about business or anything else, is a never-ending process. There’s never a point where you’ll say, “Okay, I’m done — no more learning for me.” Every new concept you come across is a gateway to thousands of other opportunities for review and exploring.
The great thing that will serve you in life is the pack of your skills. You create them and you keep them forever. High-income skills will take you far in life.
That’s what makes self-education so fun and rewarding: there’s always something new to learn. More books to read, yet you already will understand much more from your experience.
In Eastern philosophy, Tao means “way” or “path” — a journey you’re in the process of undertaking. Tao has no beginning and no end — it just is.
Warren Buffett has a great way of investing in himself. Investing in yourself by self-study is the best investment you can make. Nobody can take it away from you.
Educating yourself about anything is Tao. There’s no end to the process. The journey itself is the reward.
Even masters of the art of moneymaking like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are always looking for new things to learn. When asked in an interview with students from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln about what superpowers he’d like to have, Buffett answered: “I’d like to be able to read faster.”
Most of what Buffett does on a daily basis is read financial reports and learn new concepts, looking for new ways to increase the value of his company. However, he also reads newspapers and investing magazines and he is always on the watch for great opportunities to invest in.
Even the wealthiest person on earth has things to improve and more to explore. That ongoing curiosity is what made them successful in the first place.
Learning new skills will be beneficial at every age of your life.
There’s never a limit to how much you can grow.
A few words of wisdom from B. C. Forbes, the founder of Forbes magazine, who wrote an essay in 1917 called “Keys to Success.” Referred to the book Personal MBA by john Kaufman, I find that it’s a great reminder of what business and life are all about (for both, men and women):
Your success depends on you.
Your happiness depends on you.
You have to steer your own course.
You have to shape your own fortune. You have to educate yourself.
You have to do your own thinking.
You have to live with your own conscience.
Your mind is yours and can be used only by you. You come into this world alone.
You go to the grave alone.
You are alone with your inner thoughts during the journey between. You make your own decisions.
You must abide by the consequences of your acts . . .
You alone can regulate your habits and make or unmake your health. You alone can assimilate things mental and things material . . .
You have to do your own assimilation all through life.
You can be taught by a teacher, but you have to imbibe the knowledge. He cannot transfuse it into your brain.
You alone can control your mind cells and your brain cells.
You may have spread before you the wisdom of the ages, but unless you as similate it you derive no benefit from it; no one can force it into your cranium.
You alone can move your own legs. You alone can move your own arms. You alone can utilize your own hands.
You alone can control your own muscles.
You must stand on your feet, physically and metaphorically. You must take your own steps.
Your parents cannot enter into your skin, take control of your mental and physical machinery, and make something of you.
You cannot fight your son’s battles; that he must do for himself. You have to be captain of your own destiny.
You have to see through your own eyes. You have to use your own ears.
You have to master your own faculties. You have to solve your own problems. You have to form your own ideals.
You have to create your own ideas. You must choose your own speech. You must govern your own tongue. Your real life is your thoughts.
Your thoughts are your own making. Your character is your own handiwork.
You alone can select the materials that go into it. You alone can reject what is not fit to go into it. You are the creator of your own personality.
You can be disgraced by no man’s hand but your own.
You can be elevated and sustained by no man but yourself.
You have to write your own record.
You have to build your own monument — or dig your own pit.
Which are you doing?
Being successful and building a great life is a challenge. But is being poor with an unsuccessful life not a challenge too? Which way would you choose to go then?
Remember that everything is hard only at the beginning. Then it gets easier as you learn more and you will know what to avoid and where to grow.
This is motivation from Personal MBA from Josh Kaufman. For those who want to start a business but didn’t go to a business school.
Thank you Josh for this great book. It has been part of my journey of business since people around me never started any business and most families and friends will just tell you that it is crazy to even think about starting a business.
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