Today, I will present you a small part of the inspirational and extremely valuable advice of Nassim Taleb , a philosopher most familiar with his ideas of the Black Swan and Anti-Crush, which he gives to students at the American University in Beirut.
I will not hide that I am a great fan of Taleb and his unique and uncompromising mind, especially after reading his book, "To Outshine the Coincidence."
He does not suffer from the habitual prejudices for most of us, and over the years he has not sacrificed his principles of glory and money, although he has accumulated a lot from the latter.
The purpose of his speech to these young people is more than clear:
A well-known and successful man like him surrenders wisdom and valuable life advice to the younger generation, guidelines that only Taleb can offer them.
But in its inherent style this time Nassim deviates in a different direction:
Instead of giving them the usual and clichéful adventures, relying solely on their auto-counsel, he advises them to watch with the usual advice about the life they receive because if he himself would follow, he would never become the unique and interesting person, who stands before them:
Wise Advice on Life by Nassim Taleb:
Watch out for life's advice!
I hesitate to give advice because the many tips they gave me were wrong and I'm glad I did not follow them. They told me to focus on one thing, but I never did. They told me never to postpone, and I waited 20 years to create the Black Swan and sell 3 million copies. They told me to avoid putting up fictional characters in my books, and I did, "I added Nero Tullip and the thick Tony, for the other bored me. They told me not to nause myself and offend the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and the more I offended them, the more they were with me. They told me to avoid lifting weights because of the back pain, and I became a power lift - I never had any more problems with my back.
If I could live my life again, I would be even more stubborn and uncompromising to life's advice than I have ever been ...
The truth is that most tips you get when you are young are good.
Save money, work. Marry / marry the right person. Avoid drugs and workaholism . Luck comes after hard work, and so on.
Obvious things are worth studying. You do not have to walk on your hands just because everyone else is walking on their feet!
Resisting popular life advice - clichés, just to be different is not particularly sensible. But do not forget that:
Much of the universal wisdom will take you where other people are (some would call it "the flock"). The "common wisdom", inasmuch as it is truly common, has as its main purpose the maintenance of cultural values and norms. And if you want to lead a comfortable existence, it may work well for you.
But if you want something more, it is not enough ...
She will not create the next Nassim Taleb, Warren Buffett , Richard Fayman, Tesla , etc. They, like many others, embraced their diversity to stay in history. But this is not a recipe for success!
Far less successful people embraced their strangeness, and the cemeteries were filled up with such as they. It's more complicated than just being different.
It's very easy to be different, but it's very hard to be good! - Jonathan Eve