Dylan Emerson

Dr. Hirschfeld
MGMT3900 Sec. 003
18 October 2020
Principles for Chapter 6, Chapter 7, and Chapter 8
Chapter 6
● A person can never really know their true path in life at a young age.
○ Essentially, if someone were to find a career at a very young age, they can’t predict
they’ll maintain that career throughout their lives even with confidence in their job
security. I derived this principle from the beginning of the chapter with the anecdote
about the boy who found a career in sales at an art dealership and told his parents he’d
never have to look for a job again, yet he was dismissed from the dealership after he
realized how much he didn’t like it. Elon Musk is a good example of this principle
because throughout his youth, he attended three different colleges and even dropped out
of Stanford after two days to create an internet startup company. Musk has owned several
businesses over the years that may not be around today had he stuck with Stanford to
learn energy physics.
● Failure breaks restrictions.
○ I derived this principle from page 117 and 118 where the book discusses the early failures
of Van Gogh and J. K. Rowling, who suffered immense failure in their early lives, used
that failure as an avenue to explore their interests, and became highly successful
individuals because of their initial failure.
● One’s interests are unrelated to their grit.
○ I derived this principle from page 129 where Epstein discusses his experiences running
track in college. He went from being the worst individual on his team to breaking school
records. Clearly, he put in a lot of work and determination, and displayed immense
resolve for this sport to become successful. But, he scored in the 50th percentile on the
Grit Scale simply because his interests are constantly changing. To me, grit is a
demonstration of perseverance and the ability to overcome failure - which Epstein clearly
displayed - and not a reflection of how much effort one puts into a single interest.
Chapter 7
● The best opportunities aren’t often expected.
○ I derived this principle from the beginning of the chapter discussing Hesselbein and all of
the odd jobs and volunteer leadership positions she took up before becoming the CEO of
a Girl Scouts council. Every role that she took over for the Girl Scouts was a volunteer
role that she was always hesitant to take, and eventually she accidentally worked her way
up the corporate ladder to become a remarkable CEO. If we as a people take
opportunities that presumably won’t benefit us, we may take away new experiences that
will greatly benefit us in the future.

● Life experience is the best teacher.

 ○ I derived this principle from the end of Hesselbein’s story and how she never received
any formal training, yet was capable of reforming and modernizing the Girl Scouts to
become a multi-million dollar organization, receiving many awards in the process. She
attributes this success to the experiences she had as she got older. It’s true that life
experience is the best teacher because oftentimes, as a people, we learn things best after
we encounter educational situations. For example, a new mechanic may be attempting
their first oil-change and forget to put a part back in the correct spot, resulting in oil
leaking and a lesson learned.
● Short-term planning leads to fulfillment.
○ I derived this principle from pages 140 and 141 with the anecdotes of Charles Darwin,
Phil Knight, and the Dark Horse Project.
Chapter 8
● Outside knowledge is a key resource in problem-solving.
○ I derived this principle from the beginning of Chapter 8 with the highly specialized
chemists that posted problems they struggled with online to derive a solution. As a team,
they were stumped, but with the problems posted online, they began receiving many
solutions. This principle holds true in other fields as well and is a common occurrence in
business practice. Oftentimes, it’s best to network outside of your field to get
perspectives from many different kinds of people, because different people think in
unique ways that allow for creative solutions to appear.
● Domain expertise can distract one from a solution.
○ I derived this principle from pages 160 and 161 with the discussion of Shubin Dai and his
success in Kaggle competitions. It would seem that the best Kaggle solvers often have
little experience in the field they are solving, while experts in the field often fail to create
a viable solution. This is primarily because experts in the field use proven methods that
have solved several problems in the past, thus can’t see past their expert knowledge to
create new solutions. Another real-life example of this is the oil spill scenario from
earlier in the chapter that experts struggled with for over twenty years before John Davis
came up with a solution that baffled experts with its simplicity, which was to use a
concrete vibrator to break up the oil and allow it to be collected easier.