“Dadnots” – Thoughts for the New Year

by Tom Stilp JD, MBA/MM, LLM, MSC, DBA, January 6th, 2026

After taking over 150 cases to trial, and handling hundreds of business matters, I have developed a short list of sayings.  I have liberally borrowed from others, but where I recollect, I’ve given credit or some attribution.

Experience is random and inconsistent, as are my 40 tips.  Yet, the following Dadnots, which I gave to my family, might be useful to you (and like life, the advice is in no particular order):

On Experience:

1. A wise man learns from experience, but the wisest learns from the experience of others.
2. Learn from the past, but don’t live there.
3. Experience teaches with the test first, then the lesson.
4. If you do what you’ve already done, you’ll always be where you’ve already been.
5. When your plans get ruined, plan again.
6. Professor Paynter said that we can’t let the difficulties of our situation determine the limits of our abilities.  (Northwestern Professor of Bands, John P. Paynter, wrote a letter of recommendation for me to get into Northwestern.)
7. Knowing what you know when you are 25 will look very different than what you know when you are 55.
8. To paraphrase Mark Twain, be careful to get out of experience only what you are told and stop there, lest you be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. The cat will never sit down on a hot lid again, but it will never sit down on a cold one either.
9. If an idiot would do that thing, do not do that thing – don’t be an idiot.  (Dwight Schrute a/k/a Rainn Wilson)

On Getting Things Done:

10. There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice unless you like having that thought.

11. Don’t procrastinate – the “you a year from now” will be the same you.
12. Every day, there are urgent but unimportant things, and important but not urgent things.  Find time for the important things.
13. Only a few people think strategically.  Everyone has “ideas” in the form of goals, mission statements and targets.  Ideas are easy; implementing them is not.  As corporate guru Michael Porter says, strategy is a race to “the ideal position.”  Everyone hopes to do well in the race, but hope is not an effective strategy.
14. The product of your success today is the result of your thinking in the past.  The product of your success in the future is the result of your thinking today.
15. Thinking vs. Doing.  The ultimate pleasure of procrastination.  The more you think, the better you believe you are doing, but the truth is that nothing has actually changed.

On Business:

16. Buy Land!  They ain’t making any more of it.  (Will Rogers)
17. No matter the business structure, always own at least 50%.
18. If you “sell” 1%, remember the person you trust can be the swing vote later leaving you with 49% against 51%, and you lose.
19. Don’t lose.  It will cost you more than money.
20. If you only follow Polonius’ advice in Hamlet about borrowing (“neither a borrower nor a lender be,” Act 1, Scene 3), you might have to wait a very long time to buy anything big, and then you might be too old to use it!
21. Don’t borrow at a high rate of interest – although sometimes it works, it usually doesn’t – see debt hell.
22. Avoid debt-hell.  Don’t pay too much.  Once you’re in debt hell, it is very difficult to get out.
23. Generally, be vigilant about lenders; the lender may be your friend, but that will change when the bank is acquired by a different bank which suddenly doesn’t like you as a borrower, your property as collateral, and then, you become just another liability.
24. We are operating at our best when we are all going in the same direction.  We might not be correct, but at least we are not confused.  (Jeff Miller, CEO Documentum).
25. On networking, it’s not only what you know, but who you know, and more importantly, it’s who you know that knows who.  (Based on aphorisms on networking, Prof. Noshir Contractor, Northwestern Univ.)
26. When you enter a conference room, sit at the head of the table – that way, you will look important.
27. First in a meeting, don’t say anything – just listen.  You’ll sound smart (as other people like to hear their own ideas).
28. Dad liked to say about tough business situations: “Better to remain quiet and let the world think you are fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
29. To avoid “us vs. them,” don’t have all your people sit on the same side of the table; instead, sit across from people on the other side and with people  – mix it up.

Generally:

30. Perception is reality.

31. It’s not what you know; it’s what others think you know.

32. When you start believing your own BS, you’re in trouble.  (Ed Chester’s Dad)

33. Do the things now that other people won’t and, later, you will be able to do the things that other people can’t.

34. Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of dying, sings.

35. Just because you believe in something doesn’t mean it’s true, but if you don’t believe in anything, nothing will ever happen.

36. Advice may not work at all, but as Justice Antonin Scalia said, take advice and use what  is “condign for the circumstances.”

37. Seek mentors; avoid miners of talent (Northwestern B-School Professor, Leon Kendall telling me 30+ years ago when I was doing a job search).

38. Seek the “average” – being average is not bad, but the most probable, likely thing to happen.

    Don’t look for grand-slam profits, but average profits.  Buy 10 companies with average profits, and you’ll be a millionaire.

39. Dad always said that titles and degrees confer neither intelligence nor understanding (yes, I recognize the irony that I have a bunch of degrees).

40. With formal education, you get a job.  With self-education, you’ll get a fortune.

If you found any of these tips helpful, please feel free to take and make them your own for 2026 – Happy New Year!