duality

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, recently gave a talk here at Cornell. in summary, "nintendo is awesome and the wii prints money" - fair enough. but at the end, he was asked what's the most important thing for achieving success? he said there was no single thing, no silver bullet, no secret to success. but he did offer a piece of advice i found pretty solid...

appreciate the duality of values. that is, be able to hold values that are strictly opposed to each other yet exercise them all when appropriate. for example, passion and dedication are important values. but equally important is to know when to quit and not let your passions blind you - that is, to be pragmatic. teamwork and tolerance are also important values. but equally important is to know when to go against the flow and stand-out against the majority. so as with most things in life, it is important to have the right balance of values.

not quite as simple or catchy as one-liner advice that most ppl give, like "follow your dreams and everything will turn out alright!" or "you can only rely on yourself!" but a lot more realistic, i think.