Knowing Then What You Know Now

Today on Michael Hyatt's blog was a guest post by Adam Donyes in which he asked several senior leaders "What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were thirty?" His list...

1. The most important person you can lead is yourself.

2. Nothing is more valuable than relationships.

3. Maximize the moments with your children.

4. Listen—you will never find the pulse of your family or organization if you don’t learn to listen.

5. Worrying is temporary atheism. Rid yourself of worry.

6. Become a better steward of your financial resources through investments and wise decision-making. The older you get the more you’ll want to give away, being able to do so begins with the financial decisions you make today.

7. Balance—the words “No” and “Not now” are empowering when accompanied with wisdom.

8. Spend time reading and receiving the Truth every morning, because the world will only lie to you the rest of the day.

9. Saying “I’m sorry,” when spoken from a genuine heart, has great healing power.

10. Character should always trump talent.

11. Retreat and Rest—if ships don’t come back to the harbor, they’ll eventually sink.

12. Don’t stop learning—you’re not as smart as you think.

13. Learn to value patience. You’re likely to learn more while you wait.

14. Time management—without it time will control you.

15. Develop authentic and deep relationships with men who will sharpen you and see through you.

Some really great pieces of wisdom in this list! Several things that came to mind immediately for me were on this list, including the first four. That fifth one, ouch - that's a hard one. A few items on the list I've seen people nod their heads "Yes, that's true" and proceed to do the opposite - ignoring rest, not taking care of yourself, hiring talent over character.

The other things I would have told a 30 y/o version of myself: You know far less than you think you do. Head smarts is only one kind of smarts, value people with different kinds of smarts. Relationships take time to develop; they may not seem like it always, but there's no investment with a higher long-term dividend. In the corporate world you never 'arrive' - life is always as stressful as you allow it to be, and will get worse if you don't take steps now to change that.

What would you say to a younger version of yourself?