Player: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

In almost everyone's life there is one event that changes the whole course of his existence.

How does anyone know from moment to moment what to say or do next until he senses the reaction to what he just did? He doesn't know. Life is always action/reaction. No monologues. No prepared speeches. An improvisation no matter how we mentally rehearse our big moment.

Whether driven by ambition or circumstance, every career gets disrupted.

Everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

If I want a better-than-average career, I can’t simply ‘go with the flow’ and get it. Most people do just that: they wish for an outcome but make no intention-driven actions toward that outcome. If they would just do something most people would find that they get some version of the outcome they’re looking for. That’s been my secret. Stop wishing and start doing.

Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values.

The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large. They find themselves born into a certain place in society, and they accept what each day brings forth, without any effort of thought beyond what the immediate present requires. Almost as instinctively as the beasts of the field, they seek the satisfaction of the needs of the moment, without much forethought, and without considering that by sufficient effort the whole conditions of their lives could be changed.

Some people seem to operate on an auto-pilot and when they become emotional they immediately react. What triggers you to react in a potentially negative way at work?

The vast majority of people conform to whatever is normal for the time.

The way you react has been repeated thousands of times, and it has become a routine for you. You are conditioned to be a certain way. And that is the challenge: to change your normal reactions, to change your routine, to take a risk and make different choices.

"It was just one of those things," I said, "You know, that just happen. You don't think or plan. You just do it."