My Greatest Lesson

Work, more and more, is about the lessons we learn: where to find inspiration, how to make sense of ambiguity, how to take risks, what makes a career grow. But where do all of these lessons come from? To find out, we asked 12 accomplished businesspeople to share with us their greatest lesson: "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams recalls the phone call that changed his life; Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's chief technology officer, explains how the past teaches him about the future of technology; and Katherine Hudson, CEO of W.H. Brady Co., describes the lesson on risk-taking that she learned from her father. Read these contributions, take note of what these leaders have learned, and then prepare to add the most important lesson of all - your own.

Scott Adams
Cartoonist
United Feature Syndicate
New York, New York

You don't have to be a "person of influence" to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me.

When I was trying to become a syndicated cartoonist, I sent my portfolio to one cartoon editor after another - and received one rejection after another. One editor even called to suggest that I take art classes. Then Sarah Gillespie, an editor at United Media and one of the real experts in the field, called to offer me a contract. At first, I didn't believe her. I asked if I'd have to change my style, get a partner - or learn how to draw. But she believed that I was already good enough to be a nationally syndicated cartoonist.

Her confidence in me completely changed my frame of reference: It altered how I thought about my own abilities. This may sound bizarre, but from the minute I got off the phone with her, I could draw better. You can see a marked improvement in the quality of the cartoons I drew after that conversation.

And it doesn't take much to make that kind of difference in someone else's life. Once, at a tennis tournament, I was paired with a woman who had just learned how to play. Every time she missed a shot, she immediately turned to me, expecting that I would be disappointed or frustrated. Instead, I talked to her about our strategy for the next point. By doing so, I sent a very clear signal: The past doesn't matter. I didn't encourage her with empty praise - that approach rarely works. But I knew that if she dwelled on a mistake, she was more likely to repeat it, and that if she focused on how we were going to win the next point, she was more likely to help us do just that. Over several days, her abilities improved dramatically - and we ended up winning the tournament.

Realize that in some way you influence everyone you come in contact with. Then pay careful attention to what pushes people's mental buttons. If you can push those buttons for the better, do it.

Scott Adams has been a bank teller (he was twice robbed at gunpoint), a computer programmer, and a product manager. He is the creator of "Dilbert," a cartoon read by more than 150 million people every day. Adams is the author of The Dilbert Principle (HarperBusiness, 1996) and is now developing an animated Dilbert television series, which will air in 1999.

Nathan Myhrvold
Chief Technology Officer
Microsoft Corp.
Redmond, Washington

The most important lesson I've ever learned is to understand and to trust abstractions. If you can learn both to see and to believe in life's underlying patterns, you can make highly informed decisions every day.

For example, everyone in high tech is familiar with Moore's Law, which states that computer-processing power will double every 18 months. Now, Moore's Law isn't a law in any physical sense, but it has driven and will continue to drive our industry's development. Yet very few people and very few companies really take this law to heart - because really embracing it leads to seemingly nonsensical projections. Five years ago, when I told people that we'd have the processing power that we have today, lots of them - even those who said they believed in Moore's Law - thought I was being ridiculous.

I've learned the importance of trusting abstractions from physics, from experience, and from history. I began my career as a physicist - and physics is all about making sense of abstract physical laws. But it was in business that this lesson came to life for me. Every day, I have to make difficult decisions, and I base them primarily on what has happened in the past. History can lead you to see important abstractions, and it also offers great lessons in the need to avoid wild and tempting speculations about the future. I never make decisions in the thrill of the moment - and that seems to go against the grain in the world of technology.