Rob Lawrence retires at the end of this month and recently turned 70. Last week I interviewed him about his life journey and that will come out later this week, but in this short episode he offers 20 life lessons from his last 50 years working in business.
Rob's photography site: https://www.roblawrencephotographer.com/
Linked In profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-lawrence-a678375/
Email: birdman22@xtra.co.nz
1. The sooner you learn to let go of something the more opportunity is created for everyone.
2. Throwing rocks at Government is really a waste of time - and rocks. You always hit the wrong person and they bounce off anyway.
3. You can never please everybody all the time - but spend the time pleasing the most important, your family.
4. Use the Force whenever possible. It may not be anything that may be fantasy and not work, but it sure feels good saying it.
5. Turn the NOs into NOWs every chance you get.
6. There is never enough market validation on anything.
7. There is never enough money, but check your business plan first before you start complaining about availability of funding
8. Read children’s books. They explain everything more clearly than any consultant can.
9. Live to enjoy the people around you - your life is too short, and it is nice to leave a place better than you found it.
10. Look both ways when crossing the street - no matter which hemisphere you are in.
11. See value more than cost.
12. Collaboration is not as painful as you think and we need to do more of it. Both as business people and as a nation.
13. The more you have to hide your IP, the less you have to show.
14. Life is like a jigsaw, walking away is often the best way to see the solution more clearly.
15. Have fun, don’t be too serious. Life is just too short. A corollary to that: aways have interesting work. I’ve been lucky in my business to have interesting jobs.
16. Government needs to recognise more fully that there is value in digital development, not just R.
17. You can be productive anywhere.
18. Don’t be afraid you don’t know - it is better to have integrity and credibility than trying to appear to be smarter than you are.
19. Failure is always the best teacher, but don’t fear it. You learn more from what doesn’t work than what does, and you grow from it.
20. The world is bigger than you, having a faith helps - and it helps guide you through your journey.
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