How to enter a room

PLUS: Enough

June 03, 2025

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

  • Are you up to it?

  • How to enter a room

  • Enough

  • Feet on the ground

  • Li Ka-Sheng’s career wisdom

ON YOUR CAREER

Are you up to it?

Kevin Chandler is an organizational psychologist who has mentored me for many years. I asked him, “what is the one trait you value the most in the workplace?”

He said, “tenacity.”

Tenacity means that we keep going in tough times. It defines whether we are up to the job. We can be as tenacious as we choose.

When times are tough you need to ask yourself if you’re up to it. During tough times I’ve always thought I’m up to it.

— Li Ka-Sheng
COMMUNICATION

How to enter a room

Pause before entering a large room of people. Stand tall. Scan the room with a calm, sweeping gaze. Smile. Walk in with purpose.

This is what charismatic people do. It communicates we have arrived and want to connect. It’s persuasive.

My first impression of Jane Fonda was she is a queen. She is royalty. She walks into the room - any room - and has this presence about her that demands respect.

— Baron Vaughn
PRODUCTIVITY

Enough

Preparation helps us succeed. Over-preparation leads to diminishing returns. Extended over-preparation leads to negative returns because other valuable projects suffer.

We need to know when we’ve done enough. To ship the project and move on.

Do you have any projects or tasks where you prepare too much? Can you trial the goal of ‘good enough’?

All art is knowing when to stop.

— Toni Morrison
1 MINUTE TO LESS STRESS

Feet on the ground

It might be perceived as odd to perform deep breathing in a meeting if we’re feeling stressed. An alternative is to press our feet against the ground. Contract your muscles from your feet to your navel. Repeat twice. Nobody will notice your workout but you will feel less stressed.

Keep your eyes on the stars, but your feet on the ground.

— Theodore Roosevelt
CAREER WISDOM

Li Ka-Shing

Li Ka-shing (1928 to 2025) was born in Guangdong, China. His family fled to Hong Kong in 1940 to escape war. After his father’s death, Li left school at 15 to support his family by working in a plastics factory. Li had an entrepreneurial spirit. He built interests in real estate, ports, telecommunications, retail, and energy. As chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, Li became one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential business people. He has been called the “Warren Buffett of Hong Kong”. Li donated billions to education, healthcare, and disaster relief. He made a lasting impact on communities in Hong Kong, China, and worldwide. Some of Li’s career wisdom:

It doesn’t matter how strong or capable you are; if you don’t have a big heart, you will not succeed.

The more you know, the more prepared you will be when opportunity knocks. If you are lazy and while your time away, you would not know how to seize it.

Set your goals high; make friends with different kinds of people; enjoy simple pleasures. Stand on high ground; sit on level ground; walk on expansive ground.