Best Advice You Ever Got

The other day on Twitter, Gies College of Business Dean Jeff Brown asked “What is the best piece of advice you ever been given?” Here is his tweet.

I’m in the mood for some positivity on Twitter. So, what is the best advice you’ve ever been given?

Mine: “presume good intentions.”— Jeffrey Brown (@IlliniBizDean) August 12, 2018

I like that Dean Brown presumes good intentions.  I do that too when I first meet someone.  It makes life a lot nicer when you don’t walk around with a cynical or defeatist attitude all the time about other people.  That makes you surly. Presuming good intentions keeps you positive.

My best piece of advice came from my father and other coaches I interacted with throughout my life.   My father was a coach.  It’s three simple words.

“Never give up.”

It came at me in many many ways and it’s sometimes really hard to learn.  There are poems, The Man Who Thinks He Can, and other ways of saying it.  I can still hear the raspy voice of Coach Clint Evans echoing in the bowels of Willowbrook High School‘s weight room, “I Can, I Will, I Must”. 

Coach Evans must have done something right because he had a lot of great teams and a lot of great players.  

Some coaches said, “Don’t be a quitter.” Or, “Quitters never win.”  Coach Jim Valvano’s most famous speech was “Don’t give up“.  Too many good things happen in your life if you have that attitude.  Winning isn’t rocket science. It starts with having the will to win which starts with “never give up”.

Seems to be a theme in athletics.  

This year’s edition of the Chicago Cubs are a “never give up” team.  Amazing. Last night they are down 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth and Bote hits a walk off grand slam to win the game.  

We see it in real startup businesses too.  Slack was totally out of money, their business failing.  They pivoted to what became slack and created a lot of value for people, themselves and investors.

Hey, maybe this not quitting thing works in business too?

What’s interesting about good advice is it is succinct, and to the point.   It is not long winded and it doesn’t require a lot of proof of concept or long drawn out logic.  

Great advice also is principled.  Dean Brown isn’t telling someone exactly how to “presume good intentions”.  He interprets it in his own way but the premise behind the advice is the same for everyone.    

People often scoff at things that seem so simple.  If it’s good, there has to be more to it right?  Some will outright reject it.  Warren Buffett tells people exactly how he invests.  There is no magic to it.  Christ didn’t have some sort of labyrinth or checklist you had to follow he just said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  

But, the simple stuff is often very hard to execute and adhere to.  I guess that’s why they call it advice and the same topics keep coming up in different forms from generation to generation.

If you are on Twitter, tell Dean Brown what the best piece of advice you ever received was.  You can tell me in the comments below.