“我得到过的最好建议”精选集

科罗拉多州州长

    我的母亲两次丧偶，靠自己养大了四个孩子。她非常节约，什么针线活都自己做。她把用过的锡纸和保鲜膜洗干净了放在冰箱门上，反复使用。她非常好胜，经常告诉我们：“你不能控制游戏或人生中发生什么，但你可以控制自己的反应——永远不要放弃。”

    1986年我作为一名地质学家下岗了，这是上一次真正的大衰退，我失业了整整30个月。凭着一股不放弃的精神和节俭意识，我重新打起精神，准备开一家啤酒馆。有好几次，我们差一点就要放弃了，因为筹不到钱。而且非常讽刺的是，就连我自己的母亲也不愿投资。她说：“谁愿意在一家啤酒馆里吃饭？”我感觉我已经和每个可能的投资者谈过话，我们已经被32家银行拒绝，但她的回答使得我不得继续去找银行，不得不继续去找朋友，下一个可能的投资者。最后我们的啤酒馆开张了，1987年签下了一份租约。当时的租金是每年每平方英尺1美元。除了水、电工程，装修什么我们都自己来，1988年底开业了。为了降低成本，我们都是买的二手的饭店设备和桌椅，我们创造了自己的文化。首获成功后，我们又在其他约15个地方开了啤酒馆，在全美多个老城区。这样的不放弃和节俭文化确实帮助建立了一个小小的王国。

John Hickenlooper

Governor of Colorado

    My mom was twice widowed and raised four kids by herself. She was relentlessly frugal and sewed everything herself. She would wash tinfoil and Saran Wrap and tape it to the refrigerator door so she could reuse it. She was very competitive, and frequently told us, "You can't always control what happens to you in a game or in life, but you can control how you respond -- you should never quit."

    After I got laid off as a geologist in 1986 -- the last really big recession -- I was out of work for almost 30 months. That combination of persistence and frugality really had a lot to do with picking myself back up and trying to start a brewpub. There were a couple of times when we just about quit because we couldn't raise the money, and, ironically, my own mother wouldn't invest. She'd say, "Who wants to have dinner in a brewpub?" I felt like I'd talked to every potential investor, and we'd been turned down by 32 banks, but her advice forced me to go to that one more bank. It forced me to go to that one friend of a friend, that next potential investor. We finally got open, signed a lease in 1987. Back then the rent was $1 per square foot per year. We did everything but the plumbing and electricity ourselves and got open in the end of 1988. By keeping our costs down -- we bought all used restaurant equipment and furniture -- we created a culture within our business. And that restaurant really took off, and we opened brewpubs in about 15 other places, in historic downtowns all over the country. That kind of combined culture of persistence and frugality really helped create a miniature empire.