I saw this on someone’s Facebook and it resonated with me.
The reason everyone tells you to go to a good school or a good company is that good places tend to attract good mentors. Quantum leaps are not just about physics, and they are not just about a company’s growth either. They are about people. To make a quantum leap, it’s important to keep working hard, but it’s also important to think a lot and meet a lot of people. I’ve spent time in places that drain me, but whenever I can, I try to meet someone I would call a guru. Even ten minutes with someone like that can feel like a year’s worth of living. You can meet gurus at conferences, and you can find them on YouTube, but I usually meet them in coffee shops. I often take away more from a light, casual conversation than from the formal setting of a conference.