The Best Advice I Ever Got

I read a very interesting article in the current issue of Fortune magazine, entitled The Best Advice I Ever Got. It was a series of interviews with business executives and most of it was pretty good. There was one in particular that stood out because it was the same way I would answer the question.

The Chairman and CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano, said that the best advice he ever got wasn't really advice at all. It was just observing how successful people acted and treated other people. He observed that the most successful businessmen he knew never made themselves the center of attention. They listened and learned. The lessons were unspoken; they led by example.

In my own life, everytime I have reached a point where things could have gone either way, in the Navy, in Vietnam, at work, or in my personal life, there has always been someone there to show me the way. And most of the directions were unspoken, it was done by someone simply leading by setting a good example; doing the right things, the right way. Most, if not all, didn't intentionally steer me in the right direction, they were just good people who led by example. They didn't know they were doing it, and I'll never see some of them again, and I'll never be able to thank them. But I wouldn't be the person I am today without them.