In life, the number 1 thing that
people screw up on.. is this..
They buy stuff they don't need.
It's that simple.
Go look at your closet sometime.
80 percent of the crap at the bottom of your
closet are clothes you don't wear anymore
And yet you paid for because you thought you needed them and you wanted them.
Imagine if you could turn
all that stuff back to cash?
Or if better still you never bought it?
That cash should be in the bank right now.
Making interest for you.
Or an investment that pays
interest or a dividend.
But no! It's sitting at the
bottom of the closet. Dead money.
Thats what that is.
That's a huge problem. So think about this.
Let's say you actually owe
200 bucks on your credit card.
And you are passing a hot little coffee spot.
And you are thinking about getting
a cappuchino for 2 dollars 30 cents.
Don't do it!
Pay off the 200 bucks first. Don't
spend money on stuff you can't afford.
It costs 15 cents to make coffee.
You're paying somebody
2 dollars and 30 cents.
The rest of that could have
been used to reduce your debt.
That's the whole deal.
Don't buy stuff you don't need. Make you
sure you go through every single month..
..in a way, that you respect money.
Which will somehow pay back.
You look at the world around you.
Where ideas were born,
where individuals started in garages.
Where did Microsoft, where did Apple
Where did Amazon, where did Google,
where did Facebook come from?
They came from ideas that people
felt something could be done.
And that they could make a difference.
So as you go out into this world
I would hope that you look at being ethical
And holding the value systems which
you want this country to have.
If you think you cannot make a difference
I'd say you very well can make
a difference if you so desire.
If you speak or sit next to a Nobel laureate
He never tells you that he won a Nobel prize,
other people tell you.
So, let humility be your best defence.
And I would say that
You'll always need to take a view there
And you shouldn’t merely
consider yourself successful
Based on the prosperity
your gain for yourself
But you should go home at night feeling
satisfied if you have made a difference.
That difference is something
each one of us can make.
We’ll have failures and
we’ll have frustrations
But it’s a continued commitment
that we have to the world around us
You know..
working the real world I would say
It is important to be well rounded
It is important to try different
things or take some risks.
And you want to aim high
enough that you fail
A few times, I think that is
the natural part of the process.
If you work on really difficult things,
you're better off because
You have no compettion. Others are not
working on that difficult a problem.
And even if you fail, you end up
doing something great in the process.
My advice to the young people
Any mistake is a wonderful revenue for you.
So I tell it myself and
tell to my young people.
Before you turn 20 years old,
be a good student.
Wait to entrepreneur,
just to learn some experience.
Before 30 years old, Follow somebody.
Go to a small company.
Normally, in a big company,
it is good to learn processing.
You are a part of a big machine.
But when you go to a small company,
you learn the passion, you learn the dreams.
You learn how to do a lot
of things at one time.
So before 30 years old, it’s not which
company you go, it’s which boss you follow.
That's very important.
A good boss teaches you differently."
From 30 to 40 years old,
You have to think very clearly
Would you work it for yourself,
if you really want to be an entrepreneur.
When you are 40 to 50 years old, You have
to do all the things that you are good at.
Don’t try to jump into the new area,
it’s too late.
You may be successful,
but the rate of dying is too big.
So 40 and 50, think about how you can
focus on things that you are good at.
But when you are 50 to 60 years old,
Work for the young people.
Because young people can do better than you.
So rely on them, invest on them,
and making sure they’re good.
I told a lot of people,
It doesn’t matter how many times you fail.
If you get it right,
you're an overnight success.
All you have to do is get right one time.
I mean the thing about
being an entrepreneur is
There's just all to you.
You know a lot of people like to make excuses "I don't
have connections, I don't have money, I don't have this but,
You know, if you find something
that you like to do or love to do,
Be great at it and see if you
can turn it into a business.
In the worst case, you're going to have
fun doing what it is you love to do and
Best case you can turn it into a business.
I'm just not big on excuses.
I just think if you really..
Everybody has that opportunity to go for
they just kind of do it.
You know I sold powdered
milk and that was a disaster.
I had my senior year project
in Indiana was opening up a bar
That got closed because of a wet tee
shirt contest with a 16 year old.
That was a disaster. That was good because
it kept me out of the bar business.
I got fired from my first job
in the software business because
I wanted to close the deal instead
of going out and closing the sale.
I mean instead of coming
in and sweeping the floor.
It didn’t matter how many times I failed
I just kept on going and going
and going and entrepreneurs
Need to realise that..
sometimes it’s not the idea
It's not who you know, it's not how
much money you have the access to
It's really finding something
that you really love to do
I had no idea I loved
computers and technology. None.
I mean I took one class in
Indiana in computers and I cheated.
To get through it.
That was Fortran back then.
Then I bought a little PC,
a 994A from Texas Instruments for $99.
Started teaching myself to program and found,
Four hours later five hours later, I would look
up and I'd been working this entire time.
And I loved it!
And so that was the difference
when I failed a lot of times
And I really didn’t know
where I would find my success.
And then, all of a sudden, I started playing
with PCs and technology and it just clicked
