Two Great Quotes

My husband Yoav has come up with some amazingly insightful quotes lately. Here are two of them.

1) Last week, I had the chance to meet a very influential person whom I work for. After the first day of this encounter, I told Yoav that I regretted not going to up to this person and saying something memorable. I feared that he wouldn't even remember me the next time we met.

Yoav responded by saying "Hard work and time. That's how you get noticed." In other words, replace a snappy soundbyte with an impressive work ethic.

Sure enough, the next day this person asked me to do something - by chance, I was standing next to him. I performed the task to the best of my ability, and he both noticed and appreciated it. On his way out of the building, at the end of the second day, he looked at me, smiled, and said thank you.

2) A few days ago, I was walking along the street with Yoav, talking about graduate school. I was considering different options out loud. I noted that many of the powerful men and women mentioned in The Economist usually went to Harvard Law School or Harvard Business School. Doesn't that mean that, in order to become a powerful person, that's where I have to go?

Yoav responded by saying "You become powerful by doing what you love, not by pursuing power for its own sake."

The more I thought about it, the more I agreed. When we do something that we love, we are naturally better at it and naturally excel, which makes us more powerful. The ones who go after power for power's sake do not have the same long-term success.