Leadership

There are 11 posts filed in Leadership (this is page 2 of 3).

College is an investment

Peter Thiel the “legendary” investor who brought us companies like PayPal has an interesting “thesis” on higher education; it’s in a bubble.

It’s true that college is losing relevancy in many fields and market sectors. And yes it is becoming more and more expensive to attend. Heck as someone who went to school to be a teacher (and never became one because of what I saw “in” the system), the whole education system in this country needs an overhaul. Fast.

However, education, college or otherwise, should always be thought of as an investment. An investment that includes time plus money (and interest in some cases), which needs ultimately to provide a return over time (an increased wage over what would be earned without the education). In the past college was a great investment because it gave a great return (like Microsoft when it was a growth stock).

Having a college degree all but ensured you would make X% more per year (and thus you could afford the loan repayment while still having more cash in your pocket (your return)).
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Every Day is a Contract Year

Much of what I’ve learned about the world of business has its roots in my amateur athletics career. Whether you realize it or not sports and business have many parellels (probably because sports are business), especially when it comes to the areas of talent and performance.

Take the “contract year” phenomenon for example.

Every year a handful of veteran players emerge to dominate professional sports leagues; seemingly from nowhere. It’s the forward who scores 10 goals a year his first three years in the league, then all of sudden nets 40 in his fourth year.

Usually their herculean efforts are spurned by the almighty “contract year.” The year that proceeds becoming a free agent, infamous for inflated performances, because the player knows that the better they perform the more they will make the next year.
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Sometimes You Really Fuck Up

Sometimes you really fuck up.

Unless you’ve lived a very cautious and measured life you’ve likely made dozens of mistakes. It’s also very likely that you’ve really fucked something up.

You’re only human. You’re not perfect.

And unfortunately it’s likely you’ll really fuck up again before life’s all said and done.

The thing with making a mistake or really fucking up is that 99% of the time you can recover. You can deal with the carnage you’ve created; you can correct your actions, fix the mistake and or reconcile with those who you’ve hurt.

It’s not easy and since this world is more often about what you do after you really fuck up that matters, you’ve really got to do things right in order to chart a course towards improving whatever situation you’ve put yourself in.
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