Page 72 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Know You Don’t Know Enough • 53

Pay attention to what’s going on around you, capture your observa-
tions and ideas in a journal, study your language, vocabulary, and
grammar. In other words, prepare yourself for opportunity.
Learn from every encounter, not just business, bosses, mentors, and
networking meetings, but also from the bus driver who passes out advice
to you on a down day: “It’s not the number of times you’re knocked down
but how many times you get up.” Be like the locally famous shoe-shine
man in Seattle who listened to customers talk regarding stock trades and
built a fortune of his own from what he overheard.

A recruiter of CEOs and boards of directors for technology companies
talked to me about developing an attitude of learning from an early
age. He reads résumés of potential CEOs every day and hears the “Yea”
or “Nay” as names are put on boardroom conference tables across
America. He understands what it takes to move up in a career and
therefore tries to teach his own 13-year-old son how early decisions in
life affect people forever.
He told me that he has been talking with his son about choosing a
private high school to attend. Since the son is more interested in
computer games than in life work at this point, his father has to
initiate thoughtful conversations about long-term career options in a
manner that will keep his son’s interest. He explained to me:
My son wanted a cell phone for his birthday, so I said I’d get it for
him with a few conditions. He’d get the phone that he wanted if
he’d agree to (1) read 250 pages a month from a book of my
choosing and (2) every day read one article from the Wall Street
Journal to discuss later.
Although I’ve personally had a great deal of career and
financial success, I know I haven’t done all that I could or maybe
should, and I see that pattern of unrealized potential in my son.
So I want him to grasp the importance of today’s decisions and
their impact down the road.
Since he likes video games, I have him look at who made the
hardware and software that he’s using. I ask him to tell me why
he likes it, why other kids do, and why he thinks it’s successful.
And I have him Google the company and read about its history.