How can I be as great as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson?
I am in my final semester doing Computer Engineering. I want to be like them. What are the next steps?
This probably never happened, but it is a saying story nonetheless...
Young Composer: "Herr Mozart, I am thinking of writing a symphony. How should I get started?"
Mozart: "A symphony is a very complex musical form and you are still young. Perhaps you should start with something simpler, like a concerto."
Young Composer: "But Herr Mozart, you were writing symphonies when you were 8 years old."
Mozart: "Yes, but I never asked anyone how."
Young Composer: "Herr Mozart, I am thinking of writing a symphony. How should I get started?"
Mozart: "A symphony is a very complex musical form and you are still young. Perhaps you should start with something simpler, like a concerto."
Young Composer: "But Herr Mozart, you were writing symphonies when you were 8 years old."
Mozart: "Yes, but I never asked anyone how."
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10 THINGS I LEARN FROM RICHARD BRANSON
The other day I went out at night and fell asleep on a park bench near the beach in Miami.
When I opened my eyes I pretended I had just landed on the world. I knew nothing. Now I had to learn everything.
That's the way I should've been when I was younger. Maybe I would've avoided many problems if I just realized I knew nothing.
ALL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE started off knowing nothing.
They studied the people who came before them. Who studied the people who came before them. And so on.
I really admire Richard Branson. He's one to study.
Richard Branson is the perfect example of "Ready. Fire. Aim." He starts something. He does it. Then he looks to see if he hit the target. If not, he starts something new.
I love the story of how he started Virgin Airlines. He was already successful from Virgin Music. Note that now he has nothing to do with Virgin Music.
I don't even know if Virgin Music still exists. All that is left is Virgin Air.
A plane had gotten cancelled. Everyone was upset.
But Branson wasn't upset. He found a plane that would take him. But he didn't have the money.
One good thing to start with always is to imagine the obstacles gone. Imagine, "if I wasn't worried about money, would I still make this trip."
I call this IDEA SUBTRACTION. Subtract the perceived obstacles to an idea and (BAM!) you find that many more ideas are born from that.
First, he arranged to rent the private plane, even though he still had the obstacle ("no money").
Then he put up a sign: "$29 for a plane to Puerto Rico." And everyone signed up. Suddenly he had the money for the plane.
That was his proof-of-concept for an airline. Now that is his main business and it's worth billions.
Here's ten quotes from him that I think are valuable.
A) Richard Branson: "Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak."
B) Richard Branson: "Start making suggestions for how to improve your workplace. Don’t be a shrinking violet, quietly getting your job done adequately. Be bold, and the sky is the limit."
Note he's not suggesting start a company. You can always create inside ANY surrounding and you will be infinitely rewarded for that.
The first employee at Google is now a multi-billionaire even though nobody knows his name (Craig Silverstein). He was an employee and he created and blossomed.
C) Richard Branson: "Age isn't as important so long as you are surrounded by people you love, doing things you passionately believe in."
I truly believe this. We all have things we love to do. And it's the people around us who love us that help us unlock these dreams.
It's ONLY when you find the people you love, you can create and flourish. Henry Ford was 45 when he started his third car company and created the assembly line. He did this once he eliminated all the people who tried to control him at prior companies.
Colonel Sanders was 65 when he started "Kentucky Fried Chicken".
Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she wrote her first book. The book that would turn into the series, "Little House on the Prairie".
This was after she had been totally wiped out in the Great Depression and left with nothing but she started to surround herself with people who encouraged her and pushed her to pursue writing to make ends meet.
D) Richard Branson: "What I personally know would make up a dot so minuscule it couldn’t be seen. What humanity has collectively learned so far would make up a tiny mark within the circle. Everything we all have to learn in the future would take up the rest of the space. It is a big universe, and we are all learning more about it every day. If you aren’t listening, you are missing out."
The other day someone asked me if I believed in "God". There's no answer. Always have reverence for the infinite things we will never know. Our brains are too small.
This next quote I slightly ... (more)
The other day I went out at night and fell asleep on a park bench near the beach in Miami.
When I opened my eyes I pretended I had just landed on the world. I knew nothing. Now I had to learn everything.
That's the way I should've been when I was younger. Maybe I would've avoided many problems if I just realized I knew nothing.
ALL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE started off knowing nothing.
They studied the people who came before them. Who studied the people who came before them. And so on.
I really admire Richard Branson. He's one to study.
Richard Branson is the perfect example of "Ready. Fire. Aim." He starts something. He does it. Then he looks to see if he hit the target. If not, he starts something new.
I love the story of how he started Virgin Airlines. He was already successful from Virgin Music. Note that now he has nothing to do with Virgin Music.
I don't even know if Virgin Music still exists. All that is left is Virgin Air.
A plane had gotten cancelled. Everyone was upset.
But Branson wasn't upset. He found a plane that would take him. But he didn't have the money.
One good thing to start with always is to imagine the obstacles gone. Imagine, "if I wasn't worried about money, would I still make this trip."
I call this IDEA SUBTRACTION. Subtract the perceived obstacles to an idea and (BAM!) you find that many more ideas are born from that.
First, he arranged to rent the private plane, even though he still had the obstacle ("no money").
Then he put up a sign: "$29 for a plane to Puerto Rico." And everyone signed up. Suddenly he had the money for the plane.
That was his proof-of-concept for an airline. Now that is his main business and it's worth billions.
Here's ten quotes from him that I think are valuable.
A) Richard Branson: "Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak."
B) Richard Branson: "Start making suggestions for how to improve your workplace. Don’t be a shrinking violet, quietly getting your job done adequately. Be bold, and the sky is the limit."
Note he's not suggesting start a company. You can always create inside ANY surrounding and you will be infinitely rewarded for that.
The first employee at Google is now a multi-billionaire even though nobody knows his name (Craig Silverstein). He was an employee and he created and blossomed.
C) Richard Branson: "Age isn't as important so long as you are surrounded by people you love, doing things you passionately believe in."
I truly believe this. We all have things we love to do. And it's the people around us who love us that help us unlock these dreams.
It's ONLY when you find the people you love, you can create and flourish. Henry Ford was 45 when he started his third car company and created the assembly line. He did this once he eliminated all the people who tried to control him at prior companies.
Colonel Sanders was 65 when he started "Kentucky Fried Chicken".
Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she wrote her first book. The book that would turn into the series, "Little House on the Prairie".
This was after she had been totally wiped out in the Great Depression and left with nothing but she started to surround herself with people who encouraged her and pushed her to pursue writing to make ends meet.
D) Richard Branson: "What I personally know would make up a dot so minuscule it couldn’t be seen. What humanity has collectively learned so far would make up a tiny mark within the circle. Everything we all have to learn in the future would take up the rest of the space. It is a big universe, and we are all learning more about it every day. If you aren’t listening, you are missing out."
The other day someone asked me if I believed in "God". There's no answer. Always have reverence for the infinite things we will never know. Our brains are too small.
This next quote I slightly ... (more)
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This Feynman quote is really inspiring....
“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.”
“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.”
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Successful people don't ask "How", they just do it.
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Stop asking questions like this online, and instead go and do something important. I cannot tell you what that something is. It has to come from you. But it's important to do rather than think about doing. Hours and hours of doing. That's what will get you places.
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Put your dream to work without thinking about failure.
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- Be smart (not necessarily exceptionally smart)
- Be persistent (but know when to give up)
- Have a lot of people hate you (but some like you too)
- Be at the right places at the right times (at least a few of this)
- Have a good amount of luck (especially when you don't know what you are doing)
- Have many difficult conversations (this require duels of opinion with people you like and people you don't)
- Have strong opinions (but listen to the counter opinions)
- Keep moving don't settle for secure and comfortable.
- Question your assumptions (do have them, but question them)
- Take some things personally (but only if it really matters, and disregard the petty little things)
- Value your time.
- Value people, those that you work for, that buy whatever you do. (anyone actually)
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Don't think of becoming like them,Think of becoming something so that in future somebody ask the same question of how to become like you.
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I made a choice to give up my first paid computer job so I could come back home and get married and feel like I was married. No job to go to.
I worked as a data entry clerk. My brain ran free - I developed my poetry style in that job, and learned a lot about office culture.
I had a job in a motor body shop checking in and out temporary replacement cars. I learned about a different kind of process, and taught people how to better use their computer systems, and got to speak to people face to face. I learned a lot.
Then I got a help desk job at a brewery. They employed me, and within 2 years went to application support, EPoS programmer, and then managing an integration project onto a new platform within another year.
You just need to take what you can from wherever you are - there's always something even in the seemingly dullest of jobs. Otherwise you miss the opportunities - and believe me you have to grab them when you find them.
The strange thing is, the more open you are to finding them, the more they seem to become available. It's a mindset thing.
I'm no saint, and I've made ridiculous numbers of mistakes or could have approached many things a little better.
But I'm always thirsty for the opportunity to learn and find the different perspective.
It's like air, and when you need it that bad, believe me, you find it.
I'm not as 'great' as any of these men, and I don't think it's all that important to be in the same league as these guys.
But if I have to pinpoint the worst times in my life, it's when I stood still and didn't make a leap when I could have done, out of fear of the unknown.
The madness is, if you make the leap, and it doesn't work out, you learn something that other people who were too scared to make that leap will never know.
So even if you go back to what you know, it won't be the same. You won't be the same.
When all is said and done, it's the learning and the leaping that count.
I worked as a data entry clerk. My brain ran free - I developed my poetry style in that job, and learned a lot about office culture.
I had a job in a motor body shop checking in and out temporary replacement cars. I learned about a different kind of process, and taught people how to better use their computer systems, and got to speak to people face to face. I learned a lot.
Then I got a help desk job at a brewery. They employed me, and within 2 years went to application support, EPoS programmer, and then managing an integration project onto a new platform within another year.
You just need to take what you can from wherever you are - there's always something even in the seemingly dullest of jobs. Otherwise you miss the opportunities - and believe me you have to grab them when you find them.
The strange thing is, the more open you are to finding them, the more they seem to become available. It's a mindset thing.
I'm no saint, and I've made ridiculous numbers of mistakes or could have approached many things a little better.
But I'm always thirsty for the opportunity to learn and find the different perspective.
It's like air, and when you need it that bad, believe me, you find it.
I'm not as 'great' as any of these men, and I don't think it's all that important to be in the same league as these guys.
But if I have to pinpoint the worst times in my life, it's when I stood still and didn't make a leap when I could have done, out of fear of the unknown.
The madness is, if you make the leap, and it doesn't work out, you learn something that other people who were too scared to make that leap will never know.
So even if you go back to what you know, it won't be the same. You won't be the same.
When all is said and done, it's the learning and the leaping that count.
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from : http://www.quora.com/
So how about you , What are you thinking right now ? just comment and sharing your opinion.
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