This may be the most important part of the book. A young 14 year old Jimmy worked at a gardening store in Massachusetts and when the owners asked him what he wanted to do with his life he said: “I want to study mathematics at MIT”
They burst out laughing, saying that the young lad who couldnt even keep track of gardening supplies would even have a chance to be a math major none the less be lucky enough to attend MIT.
The big lesson here is at a young age you should NEVER EVER let anybody discourage you from your goals or tell you that you can’t do something. People are cruel and will laugh at you and attack you but as Jim Simons proved it’s okay let that fuel you to succeed even further. Do not let any naysayers stand in the way of your goals.
Today he and his fund are as secretive as ever when it comes to publicity.
He has a great quote to boot:
“God gave me a tail to keep off the flies, but I’d rather have had no tail and no flies.”
Hire people for their brainpower, creativity, and ambition rather than a specific expertise or background. Researchers will find problems to work on and solve. As I said at SXSW Bad ideas is good, good ideas is terrific, no ideas is terrible.
While trying to keep the respect of Simons privacy the last note to share from the book are some pieces of advice he gave recently to a school audience in New York:
“Work with the smartest people you can, hopefully smarter than you…be persistent, and don’t give up easily.” Had Simons given up early on he woudl’ve went back to academia and not amassed the great wealth that he has today that will be plowed back into Math and Science grants that will further improve the world.
“Be guided by beauty..there’s a sense of beauty when something is working well, almost an aesthetic to it.”
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