How Come No One Told Me That?: Life Lessons, Practical Advice and Timeless Wisdom for Success

by Prakash Iyer

If you don’t know what makes you happy, and if you don’t know what you really, really want, happiness can become a tricky thing. You can end up wanting what everyone else wants.

Success may not guarantee happiness. But there’s a good chance happiness will feel like success.

Hanlon’s razor states, ‘Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by negligence.’

When you see a problem that you can fix, fix it. Get the job done. Don’t worry about whose job it is. Roll up your sleeves. Dirty your hands.

Telling people how to do their jobs is a double whammy. One, you don’t leverage their skills to the fullest. And two, they don’t take ownership for outcomes. If it turns out wrong, too bad. You asked for it.

‘It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.’

As a leader, even if you have made up your mind, and are convinced about what you need to do, hold the thought. Good leaders speak last. Don’t be in a hurry to put your view out there upfront. That puts pressure on your team. Pressure to fall in line, to agree with the boss. The easy thing for everyone to say then is that the boss is right. ‘Why waste time? Let’s move on. He won’t listen anyway.’

Remember that rule: U before C. Understand the other person’s point of view before trying to convince them. It is the secret to becoming a better leader,

‘The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.’

We all love a crisis. Because a crisis throws up a hero. No one really cares about that diligent colleague who prevented a crisis. Maybe we should, no?

Remember, if you ask, you may or may not get. But if you don’t ask—you don’t get.

We are comfortable taking action when we see other people doing the same thing. We like what other people like. We want what the other guy wants. If so many people are buying it, it must be good, we tell ourselves.

Remember Parkinson’s law? It says that ‘work expands to fill the time available for its completion’.

Build a star team. Not a team of stars.

Michael Jordan was right when he said, ‘Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.’

People won’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.

‘The culture of an organization is shaped by the worst behaviour a leader is willing to tolerate,’

‘It is easier to hold your principles 100 per cent of the time than it is to hold them 95 per cent of the time.’

‘What got you here, won’t get you there.’

The motto was ‘think small’, not ‘think big’. Think improvement, not perfection.

‘When you walk with your customer, you should make sure you stay only one step ahead. Lead the way. But be available to hold his hand, and make sure he is comfortable. Never go so far ahead that you have no idea where your customer is, what problems he is experiencing and he doesn’t feel he can reach out to you for help.’

At the end of the game, both the king and the pawn end up in the same box. No one cares which was the bigger piece or the more powerful one. But people will remember what the king and the pawn did while the game was on.

Think of the spouse as your customer. Never take her for granted. Do the small things that delight her. Go the extra mile. In short, make your life your business. It is nobody else’s business anyway.