Jun the Groomer

I recently finished reading an amazing book called The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives by Katie Couric. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page of this book! She shares gems of wisdom extracted from the lives and experiences of exceptional people like celebrities, entrepreneurs, politicians and world leaders.

Although everyone’s unique contribution to the book is incredibly valuable, I wanted to share a few that really resonated with me… and maybe some of these will resonate with you as well. 🙂

• Mario Batali: Celebrity Chef & Restauranteur ~ “Life is Not a Recipe”
  • “Recipes are just descriptions of one person’s take on one moment in time. They’re not rules. People think they are.”
  • “As you cook up your own life, never let anyone else’s recipe for success intimidate you or get in your way. Know your own truth, and live by it.”
• George Lopez: Comedian and Host of Lopez Tonight ~ “Fortune Favors the Bold”
  • “Be bold. Don’t be afraid. Trust your instincts. If you quit, you’ll never know what could have happened. So be yourself, and remember: Fortune favors the bold!”
• Maria Shriver: Award-Winning Journalist, Bestselling Author, and Former First Lady of California ~ “Don’t Be Afraid of Being Afraid”
  • “Someone once told me not to be afraid of being afraid, because, as she said, ‘Anxiety is a glimpse of your own daring.’ Isn’t that great? It means that part of your agitation is just excitement about what you’re getting ready to accomplish.”
• Apolo Ohno: Speed Skater & Eight Time Medalist in the Winter Olympics ~ “It’s Not About the Forty Seconds”
  • “It’s not about the forty seconds; it’s about the four year, the time it took to get there. So that destination point no longer becomes the true focal point. It becomes a goal, it gives me a point to focus on, but in terms of overall importance it’s not very significant. The things that I learned about myself and what I endured throughout those four years are really what mattered most.”
  • “It was more about the training and the discipline that led up to the race rather than about the race itself.”
• Biz Stone: Co-Founder of Twitter ~ “Think About What is Valuable”
  • “Think about what is valuable before thinking about what is profitable and know that there’s compound interest in helping others – start early!”
• John Wood: Founder and Board Chairman of Room to Read, Author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World ~ “Not Every Path Should Be Linear”
  • “I don’t believe that people should always follow nonlinear paths. If you constantly go nonlinear, you might end up running around in a random pattern and failing to accomplish anything of significance. But if you go only linear in life, you might suffer the worst of all fates: being boring, and never knowing what might have been possible if you’d taken a risk. And, believe me, the world has enough boring adults.”
  • “So that is the challenge. It’s knowing when to go linear. And when to go nonlinear. There is a time for each in life.”

 The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives by Katie Couric is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2D0nMrP