Monday Motivation: Value Difference & Expand Horizons
STOUT Inspiration + Action To Accelerate Your Week
Find inspiration in Malcolm Forbes adventurous career and use our Stout Action Plan to challenge yourself to expand your horizons.
INSPIRATION
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was an American entrepreneur most known as the publisher of Forbes magazine. Forbes acknowledged his family’s fortune had much to do with his access to opportunities (he was fond of saying, he was loaded with “sheer ability, spelled i-n-h-e-r-i-t-a-n-c-e”) but his life shows a man who valued difference and challenging the status quo.
Forbes diverse career began with writing a household newspaper when he was eight and publishing one for his school & scouts by fifteen. After college, he worked at local newspapers, then enlisted and served as a machine gun sergeant until an injury sent him home with a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
He worked through the ranks at Forbes Magazine from associate publisher to president while also trying ranching, making unsuccessful bid for governor and becoming a celebrated yachtsman, hot-air balloon flyer and motorcyclist. But despite his multimillionaire status, he always promoted the idea of valuing character, worth and work over social standing or wealth.
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
– Malcolm Forbes
ACTION
❶ Expand Your Horizons
The pursuit of interests, personal or professional, brings new people to you. Through engaging with others like-minded on a topic or interest, new opportunities can come to light.
❷ Leverage Differences
Different strengths round out a team and such diversity can be the key to bringing together different perspectives and avoiding group think.
❷ Lean Into Learning
Forbes believed that “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” Challenge yourself to learn– watch that video or better yet ask a colleague with a strength you lack to give you a crash course in one they do- it may open your eyes to more than just a new skill.
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