Page 17 - How To Get Rich

as a leader should be used in the most positive way, which sometimes calls
for a great deal of restraint as well as patience. I have to laugh when I hear
people say, I can’t wait until I’m the big shot so I can order everyone
around. It doesn’t quite work that way.

Abraham Lincoln made an appropriate remark that is pertinent to
management: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a
man’s character, give him power.

Keep Your Door Open
I’m always taken aback when people say, Oh, he’s got it made, as if
that’s the end of the conversation about a person. They seem to be saying

that the person can just check out and coast because he’s already arrived.
To me, arriving means something is about to begin. Graduation from
college is a beginning, not an ending. Each success is the beginning of the
next one.
Learning is a new beginning we can give ourselves every day.
A know-it-all is like a closed door. Everyone who knows me knows I

keep the door to my office open. It’s symbolic of the way I choose to
think, and it’s the way I operate. My father was much the same. He once
said to me, You know, the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. I
think that has kept me young at heart more than anything else. It was an
offhand comment, a quiet realization he mentioned to me one day while he
was reading, but it has stuck with me for decades.
Every day is a reminder to me of how much I don’t know. Everything I

learn leads me to something else I didn’t know. Fortunately, I don’t pride
myself on being a know-it-all, so every day becomes a new challenge.
People ask me what keeps me going, and this is probably the closest
answer to the truth. If I end the day without knowing more than I did when
I woke up, it makes me wonder: What did I miss out on today? Am I

getting lazy? I am a disciplined person, and this thought alone can get me
going.
Looking for a raise? Come on in.
We’ve all heard the phrasecreature of habit. That can be good or bad,
depending on your habits. I’ve cultivated the learning habit over the years,
and it’s one of the most pleasurable aspects of my life. Everyone in my
family knows I’m big on education—not just Ivy League education, but all
education, and for people of all ages. That also applies to me, and while I