Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2013. The job titles are as of that date. T. Boone Pickens died in 2019, Jim Yong Kim left the World Bank presidency in 2019, Beth Comstock left GE in 2017, and Spencer Rascoff stepped down as Zillow CEO in 2019.
Some advice changes your life, or the way you think. Some advice arrives one day and feels like a recharge of energy that makes everything look much clearer.
That advice might come from your mother, your father, a friend, a boss or a mentor, or you might find it in a book or a blog. In its latest series on influential people (“The Influencers”), LinkedIn Today asked more than 70 of today’s successful people to share the advice that changed their lives and made them who they are. With LinkedIn’s permission, here is our pick of the 9 best pieces of advice.
1. T. Boone Pickens, chairman of BP Capital Management
If I had to single out one piece of advice that has guided me through life and business, it would come from my late grandmother, who was very wise and made sure I understood the path to success.
One day she sat me down and told me that there’s no point in blaming others when we fail. It was simple advice, but over the course of my life I’ve had failures that I managed to come back from because I recognized that the failure was mine, and so the responsibility for fixing it was mine too. That way, the success has been mine as well.
2. Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
The best advice came from my father when I was 12. He told me that, with my character and abilities, I could do whatever I wanted: Martha, if you set your mind to it, you can achieve anything you set out to do in life.
Sometimes our parents, for our own good, give us a kind of list of the things we wouldn’t be good at or have no aptitude for, when in reality we can all do whatever we set our minds to. Being aware of that builds a confidence that makes you even more capable.
3. Jim Kim, president of the World Bank
The best advice I ever received came from Marshall Goldsmith, one of the most prominent authorities in the field of leadership. He told me that if you want to be an effective leader, you have to listen to the feedback that comes from your team and accept it with humility. It’s simple advice, but learning from others and staying open to learning is the only way to get better at our work.
4. Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Entertainment
When I was starting out in business, an entrepreneur told me that I was going to lose a lot, many, many times, because losing is a crucial part of the process, but that I should never come across as a loser or let my family, friends or team see me down about it, because that does no good to me or to the people around me. In short, thanks to that humble piece of advice, I’ve faced the problems life has thrown at me with a positive attitude and a big smile.
5. Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer of GE
I was an efficient woman at work. Speed and organization were my trademark as a good professional. I was also reserved by nature. One day Jack Welch, my boss, called me up to his office and “reprimanded” me for being too efficient.
He told me to take the time to get to know the people I worked with: relax, listen to them, understand where they come from and what matters to them, and make sure they trust me and are on my side.
That made me think, and once I put it into practice I realized how capable the people working with me were. Today, part of my professional success is down to the people I work with, because now we move in unison on projects. I know them, they know me, and we all know what we want. That’s leadership.
See also: 4 mistakes standing between you and your first million in business
6. Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow
The best advice I received was to always hire people who are better than you, people more extraordinary than you are. Many people are afraid to hire someone better than themselves, because the comparison might not flatter them, and sometimes there’s a fear of feeling inferior or of being pushed aside by one of your own people. The truth, though, is that you’ll only be the best if you work with the best.
7. Jim Clifton, chairman of Gallup
The best advice came from my father. It was a short message, but full of deep wisdom, and it has shaped my life: your weaknesses will never develop, but your strengths can be developed without limit.
Many people focus on their weaknesses, flaws and limitations. If instead we focus on our strengths and build on them, we can be unstoppable.
8. Anand Chandrasekaran, product business leader at Yahoo
The best advice I received was to always cultivate a beginner’s mind. In the beginner’s mind the possibilities are endless; in the expert’s mind they are already very few.
9. Jeff Selingo, columnist and author
The best advice I received was about happiness, because if you aren’t happy, it doesn’t matter what you do. Clint Williams told me to ask myself three questions, because we should have at least two-thirds happiness in our lives:
- Are you happy with your job?
- Are you happy where you live right now (your home, your city…)?
- Are you happy with the people you’re with (partner, friends, coworkers…)?
If the answer to at least two of these three questions is “yes”, you may be on the right track for now. If not, you urgently need to make changes in your life to give it some meaning.
Further reading
Featured image: Hudson Institute, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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