Runnin’


Down a

Dream
“I spent nearly two
years doing the best
work ever as a
student.”
1 . F I N D Y O U R PA S S I O N

• Pick a profession/craft about which you have deep personal interest

• The single-most important factor in a career choice is your passion for

the profession
• This should be YOUR personal passion

• It is mistake to choose a career path because of your parent’s desires,

your friend’s desires, your partner’s desires, or solely because of status
of compensation
• You can’t fake it — someone else, that really loves the job, will out run you
“The key is not the will
to win...everybody has
that. It is the will to
prepare to win that is
important.”

Bob Knight
2. HONE YOUR CRAFT

• Be obsessively curious about your field. Consider it your obligation to

learn everything you can about it.

• Study the history of the field as well as the field’s pioneers.

• Strive to know more than anyone else in the field, potentially measured
within your sub-group.

• It isn’t always easy to be the smartest or the brightest, but it’s very
doable to be the most knowledgeable.

• *You might need to “go” to the place where the craft is most practiced
“So in the spring of 1972, I
went to Pete Newell’s house
and I sat down in the middle
of the floor, with a stack of
three-by-five cards that I
used to diagram each
separate option…I filled out
seventy-four cards with what
could be done…”
In the film ("No Direction
Home”), he rightly calls himself
"a musical expeditionary." Tony
Glover, who recorded a young
Mr. Dylan in Minnesota, is also
right when he calls him "a
sponge." There's ruthlessness in
the way Mr. Dylan finds sources,
uses them and moves on: the
ruthlessness of an artist's best
instincts.
 Greatness
isn’t random,
it is earned.
3. DEVELOP MENTORS IN YOUR FIELD

• Take every chance you can to meet people that are known for success
in the field you have chosen.

• Ask them all the questions you can.

• Document what you hear, contrast it with what you learn from others.

• Try to have these mentors interested in your development and success.

• This is not just at the beginning of your career, but all the way through
the end of your career.
4 . E M B R A C E P E E R R E L AT I O N S H I P S I N Y O U R F I E L D

• Develop deep relationships with peers that are on the same journey.

• Have discussions and debates about what defines greatness in the field.
Don’t be afraid to argue passionately.

• Always share best practices, don’t worry about proprietary advantage. It’s
not a zero-sum game.

• Celebrate their advancements/accomplishments as if they were your own.

• Peers don’t have to be in the exact same field.

5 . A L W AY S B E G R A C I O U S A N D H U M B L E

• ALWAYS give the majority of the credit to the mentors

and peers that helped you along the way.

• Send letters, send gifts, send tweets; show appreciation.

• Eventually BECOME the mentor for others that are

coming up the ladder.
“What he (Pete Newell) represented to
me in this case was the responsibility a
teacher has to share with others 

… I never held anything back at clinics
or in conversations with fellow coaches,
especially young ones. ”

Bob Knight
 “I am convinced that you get
what you give, and you get more
by giving more. Generosity of
spirit and a gracious approach to
problem solving are, with few
exceptions, the most effective
way to earn lasting goodwill for
your business.”

Danny Meyer
 “They are going to be a load coming in here, next year,
year after that, they are going to be pretty good. You are
seeing now the team that you should start following now,
start paying attention to.”

“If Embid can stay healthy, and Ben Simmons stay healthy,
they are going to be terrific for the next 10 years.”
#TrustTheProcess
5 KEYS TO A REWARDING CAREER

1. Pick a career about which you have immense passion

2. Be obsessive about learning in your field

3. Develop mentors in your field

4. Embrace peer relationships in your field

5. Always be gracious and pay it forward

 “Do something you
really like and hopefully
it pays the rent. As far as
I am concerned that is
success.”

Tom Petty
Runnin’

Down a

Dream