The morning I finished watching it, I received an email from a friend from afar, Dr. Mark Goulston, who occasionally sprinkles some of his accumulated wisdom on me. Mark looks for nothing in return. Like Dr. Stutz (they’re the same age, 75), he’s just interested in helping people with new ways of thinking that will improve their lives. Here’s a guest post from Mark from a couple of years ago.
Here are three pieces of wisdom he offered me in our recent email.
1. Life in Three Acts.
Our adult lives can be segmented into three discrete eras.
Act 1: Success – Piece of the Action
Act 2: Balance – Peace of Mind
Act 3: Legacy – Peace on Earth
2. Return on Wisdom (ROW).
Wisdom management (and cultivation) needs to become a practice in companies and could be acronymed into ROW as in ROW, ROW, ROW Your Boat. This is how organizations can tap into wisdom to determine what’s truly important (ROW = Return on Wisdom). Ironically, I wrote about rowing in my book PEAK when I suggested that a great team is like a crew that is so in unison that their rowing boat lifts slightly out of the water so there’s less friction and they move more swiftly (this is called “swing”). Spoiler alert: I think a future MEA cohort should be called the Wise Swingers.
3. Bright, Smart, and Wise
- Brightness turns nothing into something (and invents it)
- Smartness turns something into everything (and sells it)
- Wisdom knows what’s important (and lives it)
Mark also shared this insight about himself, “I’m bright and wise, but not smart, and since smartness is what makes all the money, that explains why I haven’t, and I’m fine with it as what matters to me is being wise as that has the longest lasting benefit to the most people.”
Thank you, Mark, for sharing your wisdom. And teaching us how to live it.