Nuggets of Advice from Business Tycoons

Clockwise from top left: PNB, Allied Bank & LT Group boss Lucio Tan, SM & BDO founder Henry Sy, Sr., JG Summit & Cebu Pacific Air founder John Gokongwei, Jr., Metrobank boss George S. K. Ty, Filinvest & East West Bank founders Andrew Gotianun and Mercedes Tan Gotianun      

In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend.  —Solon

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.—Cicero

What are the best pieces of advice from top businessmen for fellow entrepreneurs and professionals? Nuggets of wisdom not only about business strategies, but also on health, work ethics, people and life in general.

• Live a healthy lifestyle.  “Take a power nap of a half hour after lunch, exercise regularly, sleep seven to eight hours a day, eat healthy and simple foods, and do not earn too much money so that you will not have too many burdens (laughs).” - LUCIO TAN

* Don’t do things on impulse. “I am hands-on and personalized in my management style. I do not do things on impulse. I think long and hard about every project.”- HENRY SY

• Create brands.  “The important thing to know is that life will always deal us a few bad cards, but we have to play those cards the best we can,” “And we can play to win. This was one lesson I picked up when I was a teenager. It has been my guiding principle ever since. When I wanted something, the best person to depend on was myself.” - JOHN GOKONGWEI, JR.

• Aim high and do your best. Apart from hard work, self-discipline, having a grand vision and engaging in philanthropy, he said, “One positive trait I possess is I don’t give up. I always want to do the best at what I’m doing and to go to the highest level — that is what I aim for.” - GEORGE SK TY

• Treat everyone fairly. To be successful business ventures and deal-making: “Treat everyone fairly.” - ANDREW GOTIANUN AND MERCEDES TAN- GOTIANUN

Just before Christmas, Business Insider writers Max Nisen and Jenna Goudreau sought out 12 successful American entrepreneurs to share the best advice they ever got. Here they are:

• See every detail of your business. “Years ago when I was very young, a VP of Hyatt looked at me and said, ‘You look, but you don’t see. See every crack, every detail, I learned to really see and not just look at my business.” - JON TAFFER

• Don’t give up. “The best advice I got was before I was a syndicated cartoonist. I asked advice of a professional cartoonist, Jack Cassady, who had a TV show called Funny Business years ago on PBS. I wrote to him, and he gave me this advice: ‘It’s a competitive business, but don’t give up… I put some comics together and sent them to magazines — The New Yorker, Playboy — but they rejected them. So I said, ‘Oh well, I tried.’ A year later, I get a second letter from Cassady. He’d been cleaning his office and came across my original samples. He said he was just writing to me to make sure that I hadn’t given up. And I had. So I took out my art supplies, and I decided to raise my sights. I had to do one more thing for luck to find me.” - SCOTT ADAMS

• Being comfortable is the enemy. “The best advice I ever received was from my first accountant when I was discussing the launch of my company. We were speaking about my business plan and how much money to borrow to launch. She wisely said, ‘Only have enough cash on hand to barely survive; never so much that you are comfortable. It’s important to stay scared in the beginning.’ I have found this hunger to be an incredibly important motivator during my entire career. Being comfortable is the enemy. Staying hungry forces you to push yourself to continue to survive, grow, and evolve.” - SARA ROTMAN

• There are no shortcuts. “Do the work. Out-work. Out-think. Out-sell your expectations. There are no shortcuts. He was always very encouraging but also realistic.” - MARK CUBAN

• It’s okay to ask for help.  “It took me a long time to understand it, but (the advice was) to ask for help and that I don’t know it all. People love to help. I don’t have to be insecure and know it all.” He got this insight at the Landmark Forum, a weekend workshop he attended in 1991. - CHIP WILSON

• You are who you associate with.  “The best advice I ever got is: You’re the average of the five people you associate with the most.” Ferriss got this advice from a wrestling coach when he was in high school, and has never forgotten it. “I use it always, whether it’s choosing start-ups to invest in, choosing investors, sports teams to join, or people to have dinner with. Constantly, I think about this.” - TIM FERRISS

• Get into a business where you can be a big fish. “The best advice I ever got was from Lee Iaccoca, who was very influential in my career. It was very simple. It was get into a business where you can be a big fish, not the little fish. Get into a business where you can be a change agent, where you can make a difference. - MARCUS LEMONIS”

• Simplicity is everything.  “Simplicity is really important. It’s got to be simple, and sometimes to make something simple you have to really, really study everything about it. It might turn out to be complex, but you have to present it simply, particularly when it comes to people: when people buy something, they don’t want a lecture.” - DAN HORAN

• Your time is a precious commodity. “When I was growing up my father would always tell me, ‘We all only have 24 hours a day. ’It’s what we choose to do with that time that defines us. It’s the one thing you can never get back.” - DAVID LAI

• Insults can be the best advice. “My best advice was an insult. It’s kind of weird. The best advice was the worst advice. It was from my boyfriend and partner in my first business when he told me I would never succeed without him. I was injured, no doubt. But thank God he insulted me because I would not have built a big business without that. It kept me trying everything because I couldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me fail. So the best advice was an insult.” - BARBARA CORCORAN

• If you’re not being told ‘no’ constantly, you’re not pushing hard enough. “Multiple people have told me this, and I don’t know if I can credit it to a single person, but one thing that I think about is if you’re not getting told ‘no’ enough times a day, you’re probably not doing it right or you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough.” - SHAFQAT ISLAM

• Learn to say ‘no’ and focus on what you do best.  “One thing that I’ve slowly come to realize is that focus is so critically important. Saying to great ideas is necessary to get to the brilliant ones. At every step of the way you have to cut towards one path. It’s such a hard thing to do as an entrepreneur because you don’t really have the confidence in where you’re going yourself.” -DANE ATKINSON