1166. If You Want to Be the Smartest Person in the Room, Be the Most Prepared

"I went to law school at age 49 at Washington University School of Law, which is an Ivy League-level law school. I graduated with a 4.0, the highest GPA in my class. When people ask me how I did that while doing all this other stuff at the same time, I like to joke and say 'I cheated.' At Orientation they told us we should spend four hours per class per week preparing for lectures. I spent eight hours preparing. Most people say, that's not cheating. Yes, but nobody does it. If you want to be the smartest person in the room, you have to be the most prepared person in the room. See, there's nothing extra-ordinary about me. I was a below average student in high school. I just start with the conviction that failure is not an option and I cannot be outworked. Then I move on to: 'I'm going to out prepare everyone.' You see, the harder you work, the luckier you get." Stephen Nalley is the owner and Managing Partner of Black Briar Advisors, which is a Small Business Administration and Veteran's Affairs Certified-Disabled Service-Connected Veteran-Owned Company. He has owned and operated over 200 hotels across the United States and has managed over $2 billion in Hotel & Resort Assets. He is the author of "Relentless Pursuit," where he describes the secret to success as knowing what you want and having a compelling reason why and the discipline to sacrifice what we want right now for what we really want later.