Catalina On Shark Tank

She's selling lingerie.

What do I know about lingerie...NOTHING!

But I do know something about people. And I know that smart is not everything. Nor is CV. The fact that you went to a good school and can crunch the numbers is worth something, but not everything.

Stunningly, the sharks know all this.

They're just trying to get information. Catalina is arguing with the experts. Believing since she went to Stanford, got an MBA and a law degree, she knows what's going on.

But Catalina is clueless.

The world has changed. Smart means something. But not as much as personality. People want to work with those who are warm and understanding and realistic, and that's got nothing to do with what school you went to.

Now my point is not to denigrate education. Nor to say intelligence is irrelevant. But everything you need to know you cannot learn from books. And people can be really smart in some things, and totally ignorant in others.

Meanwhile, people are so busy trying to get rich that they've got no passion for the underlying product, they only care about money and success. The goal is to get VC cash more than to build a business. And I could say this is what's wrong with America, but my point is really that just because you did not go to the best school, just because you're not the smartest person on the block, that does not mean you can't be successful and rich.

And happy.

The story of the last two decades is the traditional path no longer works. "Professional" is not the highest rank in our society. That's right, you can work hard in high school, even grind your way through a good college to get into an even better graduate school, but that'll just give you a ticket to the middle. Which is fine if that's where you want to be. But if you want to win, if you want to dominate...

You have to learn so much that never is taught in schools.

Where do you learn it?

Primarily from your parents.

If you're lucky, a mentor. Unfortunately that term is bandied about by the same creeps who believe education entitles them to win. In reality a mentor is someone you bump into who helps you out out of the goodness of their heart, who you have a relationship with who you don't step on. How often do we see this? Very rarely. It's a dog eat dog world. Few are altruistic.

So the truth is you're on your own. And drive counts. But not as much as charisma, charm and the ability to get along.

I've got to give Mark Burnett credit. Just when I was about to give up on "Shark Tank," because of the endless formula, he switched it up.

Catalina did not come in an outfit. She was not out of "Let's Make A Deal." But she couldn't see the Sharks were not Monty Hall, that investors want to make money, they don't do it out of the goodness of their heart, you've got to appeal to them.

And Catalina did not. Her numbers were insane. She believed since one person invested in her business at an obscene valuation, everyone else would. She's been winning her whole life, she expected to win in the Tank, after all, she's a bigger shark than they are.

But what she found out was no one was interested.

That's what happens more often than not. You put your heart and soul into a product, a song, a business. You convince yourself you're a winner. And when you hear no, you get angry, you double down, you believe in yourself even more, you're gonna prove everybody wrong.

Good luck with that.

A true winner learns. Changes. Pivots. Realizes their mistakes.

It's never too late for you to change your personality, to learn how to play the game of life.

But that would require you to acknowledge you're wrong.

Are you up to it?

Probably not if you've won at the game of education.

But education is not the game of life.

Cable subscription verification required: http://abc.tv/18JZs9w


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