There is Only One Way to Learn Some Things
October 18, 2021 ~ Written by: W.B. “Bud” Kirchner
“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns a lesson he can learn in no other way.” – Mark Twain
This quote has me thinking about cat carrying sessions over the past 60+ years and what I have learned:
- Nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems.
- Build a culture not a company.
- Worthy ideas become worthless without effort.
- The words “venture capital” are bittersweet.
- When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
- Measure success by the sacrifices you make.
- Spend less time trying to predict where things will go and more time trying to shape where things will go.
- Failure is simply finding one way it will not work.
- No business goes according to the original business plan.
- If you appreciate that even if you are the only shareholder, there are many stakeholders.
- Never corner anything meaner than you.
- Start your planning with a postmortem.
About the Author: W.B. “Bud” Kirchner is a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist with more than 50 years of business success. He is not a scientist or an academic but he does have a diversified exposure to neuroscience, psychology and related cognitive sciences. Generally speaking, the ideas he expresses here are business-angled expansions of other people’s ideas, so when possible, he will link to the original reference.