The Last Waltz:
Some hard-learned pieces of life-long wisdom in an age of nonsense.
1. We don’t quit jobs. We quit bosses.
2. If you’re going to gamble, know that you’re gambling.
3. Your teachers don’t even need to be alive.
4. Bartenders know that everyone has a story, and everybody wants to tell it.
5. All flakey people think they’re reliable.
6. Most poor salesmen are bad listeners.
7. Perfectionism is often more than disguised fear.
8. Occasionally there is a difference in winning and succeeding.
9. Dress for the job you want. Not the one you have.
10. Time kills all deals.
11. Don’t store hemorrhoid cream in the toothpaste drawer.
12. Losers are constantly cursing their bad luck.
13. In a world deluged by nonsense, clarity is power.
14. Have a margin of safety.
15. No one takes a rental car to a car wash before returning it.
16. Emotion has no IQ.
17. Don’t fatigue strong arms with frivolous dumbbells.
18. Inch by inch, it’s a cinch.
19. What gets measured, gets done.
20. Lazy marketers have skinny kids.
21. Always do more than what you get paid for.
22. Life responds to deserve not to need.
23. The older you get the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.
24. Beware of realtors with commission breath.
25. We get paid for bringing value to a marketplace.
26. You can’t change the winds but you can change the set of the sail.
27. You got to get good at one of two things. Planning in the spring or begging in the fall.
28. Discipline weighs ounces, regret weighs tons.
29. You can do the difficult or endure the difficult.
30. Life is brief at its longest.
31. Unless you hate weeds you won’t have much of a garden.
32. Leaders are bold.
33. You can’t think summer all summer.
34. We all grab facts to bolster our prior convictions.
35. The essence of life is growth.
36. Treat your body like a temple, not a wood shed.
37. To learn from the past, we all need a sense of history.
38. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.
39. The rearview mirror is often clearer than the windshield.
40. Consult your resentments.
41. Failure is the price we pay for standards.
42. Garbage men get used to the smell of bad garbage.
43. Most people would rather be happy than dignified.
44. A snake does not have to be taught how to strike.
45. People are blinded by their desires.
46. It’s worth inquiring. How has your suffering helped you?
47. We are never above a fall.
48. Alcoholics can’t hold beer and a job at the same time.
49. Borrow money from pessimists. They don’t expect it back.
50. A leader who doesn’t have anyone following him is just a guy taking a walk.
51. Greatness, like happiness, lies less in the achievement than in the striving.
52. Friendly old dogs can still bite.
53. Life is short. That’s the point.
54. Every country needs its constructive critics. The medicine they dispense is distasteful to most leaders but often makes them healthier in the end.
55. A major part of the fabric of a nation is its culture.
56. Every gardener understands that the forces of nature are trying to overturn it with vines and weeds.
57. Success leaves clues, and so does failure.
58. We must all be students of consequences.
59. Pain gets our attention.
60. Winning without risk is triumph without glory.
61. Most stories have a moral, if you can find it.
62. The brain tends to make nonconscious predictions based on earlier life experiences.
63. Know your audience.
64. We must all be students of consequences.
65. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
66. When you see through love’s illusion, there lies the danger.
67. Don’t forget that some people have moral laryngitis.
68. You run the day or it runs you.
69. Don’t major in minor things.
70. Don’t mistake movement for achievement.