If I Could Tell You Just One Thing...: Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice

by Richard Reed

one of the most important things is to see people.

The person who opens the door for you, the person who pours your coffee. Acknowledge them.

her main piece of advice is a rallying cry to commit deeply to whatever it is you feel that you must do.

Give 100 per cent, and then go over this border into what is more than you can do.

You have to take the unknown journey to where nobody has ever been, because that is how civilisation moves forwards.

every disaster, or seeming disaster, in life can usually be turned around and something creative can emerge from it.

it doesn’t need be totally destructive. It’s the way you approach it, and the way you approach life after.’

What you have to do is live for the day, you have to say, now is life, this very moment.

love everyone you meet. From the moment you meet them. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Start from a position that they are lovely and that you will love them. Most people will respond to that and be lovely and love you back and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you can then achieve the most wonderful things.’

‘It is never right to look at someone successful and think “That person’s got money, that person’s got looks, that person’s good at cricket … so it’s easier for them.” Chances are, 90 per cent of the time you’re wrong. But even if it is somehow true, thinking that is a very self-destructive thing. It leads only to resentment, which is corrosive and destroys everything but itself.’

‘We have gone, at this point, into a digitalised way of life, a generation that has been clicking away forever, in environments that are sensorially deprived. And it creates a corrective need, for human contact, for face-to-face relationships, but after the digital world we can often struggle with the imperfect nature of real people.’

‘The quality of your life ultimately depends on the quality of your relationships. Not on your achievements,

‘QUESTION EVERYTHING … IF YOU DON’T QUESTION THINGS, THERE’S NO KNOWLEDGE, NO LEARNING, NO CREATIVITY, NO FREEDOM OF CHOICE, NO IMAGINATION.’

‘There will be “Ah ha!” moments in life when a light might go on, when you think to yourself, “I MUST do that” – whatever it is. It’s not because someone says you should do it, but it’s because you feel absolutely compelled to and there would be something wrong with the world if you didn’t. If you find that light – acknowledge it. Find other people who share that passion. Cultivate it. Find that deeper purpose in your life.’

he explains how he learnt to get the best from people. ‘Well, Richard, my dad told me there’s an invisible sign on everyone’s head which says make me feel important. Remember that and you’ll be fine.’

‘My best advice is listen, listen rather than talk.

‘The older I get and the more I see, I think gender injustice is the greatest human rights abuse on the planet. It’s literally like an apartheid, except this isn’t one country, this is global and millennial and it’s insane.’

solidarity, the basic human connection we can all have with one another, is stronger. It is the magic weapon to achieve change.