Summaries Events

¶ … speech by Jim Cramer, who is a media personality in the investments business. He touched on a few different subjects in his speech. One moment was when he related a story about ethics. It was basically about this time he had an opportunity to steal, but did not. There are consequences to making poor choices in life, and we always have to think about the long-term, not just short-term.

A key takeaway is that having a standard of ethical behavior is important, because that standard is what will keep you from making the sort of mistakes that you regret. Something else that he touched on was on making sure that you are surrounded by positive people, that they will support you and this will give you the strength that you need to succeed. He points out that a lot of the things he's succeeded in, like investments, it is not easy to succeed in those things.

However, with the right people surrounding you, people who are positive influences, and who will not tell you that you can't do it is important. A final part of this speech is about the stock market, and how difficult it can be to invest successfully. To do so requires a lot of work, and Cramer has a company that undertakes this work. There is a lot to learn from listening to the advice of successful people.

The message here is a combination of hard work, surrounding yourself with the right people and finally to remember to always have a code of ethics. When you look at companies that fail, often there are shortcomings that they have with ethics, hard work or just having the right corporate culture. So when you realize that these are things in common with all successful people and successful businesses, you realize that this is what you need to do in order to achieve success.

The second event relates in part to the idea of what success you want to be. Blake Mycoskie is the founder of TOMS shoes. I was very impressed with him, in particular for his charitable work, where he gives shoes away to underprivileged children, something he started once on a trip to Argentina. One of the main things that he said was again to surround yourself with positive people. They have the energy and creativity that will drive you to succeed, and that is something that can be very powerful.

So again, he asks you to look at your life and who is in it, and whether they are a positive influence or not. But Mycoskie's story about the shoes and charity really pinpointed how important it has to have a sense of ethics, not just in how you conduct your business, but for your own personal self as well. Have a philosophy, or some way that you can help the world.

This actually serves as a motivator, because you can become more motivated to help others than to simply help yourself. It is important if you are driven to succeed, of course, but you have to have a reason to succeed, because that is.