Harvard Business Review
A Dying Father's Lessons on Life for His Teenaged Daughter
I'd always admired John. He was a modern-day warrior: a driven multisport athlete as a young man, an innovative dealmaker at Chemical Bank (he led the bank's first leveraged buyout group), and a well-connected executive recruiter for DHR International.
But cancer is impressed by no one, and took John's life at the tender age of 67, just a few months after he learned that he was ill.
That didn't give John time to finish his most important project: a comprehensive guide to how to live a good life. It was something he spent years working on for an audience of one: his only child, a daughter, now 15. It comprised lessons drawn from his life, and from his mentors, and covered everything from friends and partying to finances and careers.
I found his lessons moving, and valuable. Some of his observations were the considered teaching of a protective father. Others struck me as broadly applicable, particularly now, during graduation season, as students prepare to strike out on their own. John's lessons remind one that having a few simple guidelines can help yield a life of worthwhile accomplishments.
With the blessing of John's wife, Anne Adler Tarbell, I'm sharing a few of his lessons, on business and careers.
THE 8 CAREER LESSONS FROM JOHN TARBELL
1. Seek out a mentor — possibly someone who was involved in your hiring process. Learn what to expect two or three years ahead and prepare for it.
2. Assume the behavior and habits of the people at the next level, and you will demonstrate that you can get there.
3. Whatever you do, be sure your involvement and actions' ethics and results will look honorable and wise if they appear in the right hand column of the Wall Street Journal's front page. They just might.
4. ''Try to find out what you're good at, and have a passion for, and get someone to pay you for doing it'' — advice I was given early on, and it has always proved to be the path for success and, just as importantly, happiness.
5. The first job is rarely anything but a start. Do the best you can, try to work with people you like and admire, and hope for the best. In your lifetime, you may change jobs, if not your career path, many times.
6. Avoid bosses who promise promotions and advancement but who take credit for your work. They won't fulfill their promises to you.
7. Save for a rainy day and always be able to support yourself. You can lose everything in a flash, and scenarios of financial adversity do present themselves in life, even to the best prepared.
8. Avoid speculative ventures. If making money were easy, everyone would be wealthy. If someone can't answer all your questions and ''what ifs,'' there's something wrong.
Adi Ignatius is the Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Business Review Group.
Access Source Content: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2010/05/a_dying_fathers_lessons_on_lif.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE
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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.
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