-How did I get here?
Keyword success -How did I get here? I had incredible teachers. My parents taught me the value of honesty, common decency, and the achievement and the importance of generosity towards others. My high school track coach help me develop a high tolerance for pain and to understand the power of preparation, essential lessons for any entrepreneur. In college, I studied hard, pursued adventure and initiated projects to improve our community. I learned to listen to people pay attention to what they want and need him even when they don't see it and be fearless when it comes to tackling difficult problems. Would I lacked in some areas I made up for with my ability to see patterns and develop new solutions and paradigms and with the sheer will to turn my ideas into reality.
— from Friends, Community & Society (Relationships/Community/Society) · What it Takes, Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence
In the book
I learned the value of connection, I think, partly from its absence — I spent my early years rather lonely, in a nursing home with few friends nearby, and I have spent the decades since deliberately building and guarding the bonds I once lacked. And I learned how to be with people from my parents, who taught me honesty, common decency, and generosity toward others above almost everything else. The most useful skill I ever carried into a room full of people was empathy — listening for what the other person actually wanted, and finding a way to give it to them while still getting what I needed. — Friends, Community & Society (Relationships/Community/Society)