I think the best piece of advice I was ever given was from my mom. She told me to take typing in high-school. She said if you could type, you would always be able to get a job.
I think she’s right - if I ever decide to relocate somewhere, I don’t worry about finding work of some sort.
How 'bout you?
Very simple advice, from a professor, not even directed at me but at a third party who was about to apply for lots of jobs: “Noboby owes you a job.” Very simple, but as a mantra when walking into an interview, very useful.
My son’s babysitter when he was an infant (I had no extended family close by and she was wonderful with lots of sage advice):
Say yes (as a parent) whenever you can. A parent has to say no very often, so find the “yes” when you can.
Someone told me once that people like being asked for help. That if I needed help, in a new situation, I should just ask someone. I’ve really taken that to heart. I used to be very shy about going into new situations, but now I just go and if something confuses me, I just ask. People tend to be very kind under such circumstances, and I don’t mind at all if they roll their eyes at me behind my back!
Never force a fart.
Simple and to the point.
Two pieces of advice and a metaphysical musing I think about often.
The first is a classic: “The better part of valor is discretion.” Apologies if it is mis-quoted.
The second is from a former boss in regards work behavior in a large corporate bureaucracy: “If you must sin, sin against God. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy never will.”
And, from a story titled “The Lives of Strangers.” Unfortunately, I’ve lost the author’s name: “If you believe in destiny, no one can be a stranger, can they? There’s always a connection, a reason because of which people enter your orbit, bristling with dark energy like a meteor intent on collision.”
From one of my first bosses: “Don’t sweat the little things.”
When I moved out on my own, my dad gave me two pieces of advice.
“God gave men two heads but only enough blood to run one at a time.”
“Steal condiments.”
Both have come in very handy.
This book is full of excellent advice, but I will go with the title “Never Confuse a Memo with Reality.”
If the OP is interested in collecting words of wisdom, I suggest picking up a used copy of this book for like $2 on Amazon.
Something that has served me very well for some time now:
When it’s not important to make a decision, it’s important not to make a decision.
“Go home, you are sick. If we couldn’t run this place without you, we’d pay you a hell of a lot more money.”
“Don’t waste your time worrying about finding the right girl. Go out there, take risks, and live your life. If you do that, the right girl will find you.”
Told to me by a friend who was a real fuck-machine.
(Looks over at Mrs. Fresh) He was right.
A friend was a grass-roots sorta guy with a cut to the chase kinda thinking that often led to a real insight. One of his related to working somewhere you’re not happy.
I have found it to clear up many a seemingly complicated decision.
From my mother: “Don’t say it. Just think it, but don’t say it.”
The one that has gotten me both the greatest benefits and pain is some advice from a manager I worked for in college at a beautiful antique hotel mansion hotel in New Orleans. The hotel was owned by a fall-down drunk woman that could be an absolute beast and embarrassment to all around. My boss employee ran catering which was basically a self-run business inside her hotel to her benefit. He demonstrated the technique once when she stormed in drunk and said “You will not put replacement staff this Thanksgiving. You will work it.” He simply said “No” loudly and she asked for clarification and he repeated it in the same tone of voice with the offer of an extremely legitimate explanation. She backed down like a dog to a whistle because she knew she had no real recourse.
Now this advice might have gotten me into huge trouble 18 months later when my new ad isor at graduate school told me that she wanted me to cancel a Halloween party on 4 hours notice with family and friends driving hundreds of miles already on their way so that I could fill in for a notes taker on an inconsequential midnight experiments run. The series of fights that followed after that could be the worst of the best things that ever happened to me (I will never know) but it did cement into me how you must stand up to people and how to use your own power.
I am a very polite person but my most useful word is “No”. I live in this weird reality where I see people being roped into things by friends, family, and others and I cannot understand it. “No” is about the most useful word there is and a slightly kinder response is: “No, I can’t do that” or “No, I won’t don’t that”. It is weird how those words stop people dead on their tracks because they so infrequently here them. I love telling people no and I sometimes follow up with why later if I deem it necessary.
I default to saying no on everything until someone gives me a legitimate answer for saying yes because of my own cognitive instincts. It all flows from those sage words of advice from that hotel. I won’t say it is not without consequences but it does to the focus off of what others may want or desire to your own inner judgements and that seems more honest to me.
Count to ten. Then tell 'em to get fucked.
If you can help it, don’t carry a balance.
I just got this in an email a couple of days ago.
Supposed sage advice from a grandfather to his grandson.
“Don’t marry a woman with large hands, it makes your pecker look smaller.”
“Carry a few Band-Aids in your wallet.”
Experience has shown this to be excellent advice, even though it came from someone I don’t particularly admire.
My mother told me years ago:
“Never lie to your doctor or your lawyer. Neither one of them can help you if they don’t know the truth.”