Lessons from a CEO

In my fifth year of college I joined a fraternity. I joined after we were given an exclusive opportunity to sit with a CEO of a successful company who was a Lambda Chi alumni, to ask for his advice, his thoughts on business and school. It was an opportunity to really learn from someone successful, an opportunity I did not have without the fraternity. Or at least I thought. It has been eight years since then, and yesterday I realized that I was already in a fraternity by birth that gave me the same opportunity. As I sat in a La Jolla home listening to the founder of G.S. Levine, Mr. Gary Levine, espouse his life lessons to the group of young Jewish professionals as part of Emerging Leaders program, I realized that this was no different from that time I sat in a circle with my fraternity brothers listening to Jeff Witous, and the advice was no less important.

Here are some key lessons I picked up  from Gary Levine founder of GS Levine and Sea Crest Village at the Emerging Leaders Event put on by JFS in San Diego:

No one is born an achiever: achievers are made and they can be made at any time.

Set a goal and do all you can to achieve it.

At the end of the day, nothing is more important than family.

Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business.

Never say no to a client.

Don’t choose salary, choose opportunity.

Entrepreneurship is like surfing or wrestling, you just have to keep getting up. You don’t have to be the best, just a little better than your opponent.

Learn from everyone, as actively as possible. Help people help you.

There are people who drive revenue and people who control expenses. Those who drive revenue have no ceiling.

Look for the good in everything and everyone.

Giving to your community comes back in dividends.