We all know that education can contribute to success. However, successful people learn that it often takes more.
Success is propelled by an array of intangibles, like how we interact with people, how we make decisions, and how we assess and approach risk.
These intangibles are often characterized as “street smarts.” You probably know people who are very street smart, and others maybe not so much.
I was fortunate that my dad (Chubby) understood the importance of street smarts, teaching me “thinking guides,” daily decision making guideposts I lovingly call “Chubby Rules.”
I’ve written about Chubby Rules in the past, and from the comments I receive (thank you), they are among my most popular articles.
Today I am sharing a few Chubby Rules that have been hugely beneficial to how I live and make decisions. They have been particularly helpful to me because they are easy to remember and apply.
- Happiness is the deep sense of satisfaction that comes from the enthusiastic pursuit of a worthwhile goal of your own choosing.
- The more time you make to stay healthy the less time you’ll need to be sick.
- The lure of the distant and difficult is often deceptive. Sometimes the best opportunities are right before our eyes.
- When you think something nice about someone let them know right away, before you forget.
- Don’t trade time for money if you aspire to be wealthy.
- People have a tendency to criticize what they are not part of.
- Because you can doesn’t mean you should.
- Take a chance on being better than you.
- Care more about others than you care about you.
- Worry about what’s right, not what’s popular. Politicians take polls, leaders make polls.
- It’s really dumb to think you’re smart.
- Free is not better if better is not better.
- Brief and brilliant beats big and bloated.
- Learn something about everything and everything about something
- What you lack in smarts make up for in effort.
- When you look forward to lunch, you need a new job.
- You win some. You lose some. What matters are the relationships you establish along the way.
- Deals don’t make you money, people do.
- Know when time is on your side and when it’s not because with every decision, time is either working for you or against you.
- Rush with good news and drag your feet with bad, giving the bad news time to turn good.
- A problem is a set of facts compounded by emotion. There are no problems, only facts.
- When the call didn’t come I knew it was you. (Do what you say and be on time so people don’t think this about you.)
- Don’t worry about what people say to your face, do worry about what they say when you’ve left the room.
- The only real risk in life is you won’t get it all done before you are.
- When you realize your future is to get old and die, you understand there are few risks in everyday life.
- The worst decisions are the ones you don’t make.
- It’s time for a new chapter when you’re no longer inspired by the upside of the one you’re in.
- Success unshared is failure.
- It only takes one hit record to be a rock star. (focus on quality, not quantity)
- You don’t grow when you don’t listen.
- It’s important to be educated, it’s essential to be smart.
- A class act person can say a lot without uttering a word.
- You can accomplish anything if you don’t care who gets the credit.
- Home is the place you spend time between the events that define your life.
- Adventure is often discomfort remembered.
- Don’t be influenced by the uninformed, interviewed by the unqualified, to appeal to the uneducated.
- The worst settlement is better than the best lawsuit.
- Consider the end before you begin.
- Regret is the past crippling the future.
- Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.
Those are among my most cherished Chubby Rules, ones that I apply consistently. Many are originals from Chubby, some are from other smart people, and a few I wrote myself.
I hope they help you (or someone you love) as much as they’ve helped me.
