Systems engineer Orrett Morgan says reading widely helps you connect dots and make better decisions. He recommends The Lost Art of Thinking, which argues emotional intelligence matters more than IQ, and believes learning programming earlier in his career would have helped.
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Thank you for listening to the Business Blast podcast. So for all my listeners out there that have been wanting to do your own podcast, I'd like to introduce to you Anchor. Anchor is a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, distributing, and monetizing your podcast. So before I found Anchor, I had never actually done a podcast because all the research that I had gathered made it seem very complex. Then I found Anchor, and Anchor makes podcasting extremely simple. So if you want to do your own podcast, go to anchor.fm/start. I can't wait to hear your podcast. Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner and today I have Oret Morgan with us. He's a systems engineer and IT consultant. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, thank you very much.
Of course, man, we'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Based on my job description and what I've done, I would say it's probably the best one is self, or sorry, the ability to learn outside of school and the ability to basically learn on the job is probably one of the biggest things that I have learned. A lot of what you gain in a standard classroom is very valuable for you in the real world, But the biggest learning experience for me has been what I've picked up outside of a regular classroom, and that's what has helped me to really grow my career and advance to where I am today.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
In it, it's always changing. What you do today might be obsolete in 6 months, and the biggest and the best way to stay ahead is to just continually reading and continually adapting. If I were using the same techniques and the same processes that I was using maybe 3, 4 years ago, I definitely would not be at the point where I am today.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
I think the best business advice that I have personally been able to use, as well as from what I've seen with others, is to be an avid reader. And when I say read, I'm not just talking about like reading books or reading novels or whatever. I'm just talking about like getting information from multiple sources like articles, journals, stuff like that. The more you read is the you're able to put pieces together and connect the dots, as they would say. No one is really going to give you the, um, that magical pill that will make your business survive or that will make it be a success. But the more you read and the more you're able to pick up at different areas is the better you'll be able to understand, or a person will be able to understand, um, what they need for their business or how they need to grow their business or their career if they're working for someone.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
In terms of the business world, probably the biggest piece of advice I would give myself right now is I should have learned programming at a much earlier age. That's the biggest piece of advice I would give myself.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
I would say the key to happiness is a good balance between work and life. Personally, for me, I'm not a person who, even if I had a billion dollars in the bank, I could not— I would just stop working. I like what I do, and so I probably wouldn't work as hard as I do now. But I think finding that balance between being able to work and being able to do what you want to me is the biggest key of happiness. That and also helping others. A lot of times we hear about, oh, you should get rich and you should have a family and whatever else, but I have noticed that some of my biggest rewards has come from not only my business but also helping other people, whether it's humanitarian work or whether it's even just helping a person who might not be able to afford my services 100%. But that, um, I guess the feeling that you get or whatever else cannot— is not something that can be measured in money.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
That's a very good question. I have read so many different books. So far, the best book that I have read that I can remember is a book written by Neil Nedley, and it's on the— it's basically on the brain and how the brain works. The name of the book is The Lost Art of Thinking. And the biggest thing that he talks about is how some of the most successful people in the world, it's not the fact that they had high IQs, but they had high EQs. And a high EQ is a better determinant of success than a high IQ. But check out the book, it's really good. And I think he really spells out some of the keys to succeed in whether in the business world or even just in life in general.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote, that would probably be, life is, sorry, my favorite quote would be, don't take life too serious because you don't make it out alive. And the reason why I say that is because sometimes you see people where they're so uptight about things or whatever else. I understand that there's a time and place for everything, but I think a lot of the times we have this fake outrage or a lot of people that get angry, they get sad about things. I'm like, you can't really fix the situation or there's nothing that you can do. Don't take it to heart, move on, learn to, what you call there, adapt to your situation and move on.
Love it, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?
Sure, so they can find me online at my website, uh, that would be orrett, O-R-R-E-T-T, morgan, M-O-R-G-A-N,.com. And from there you can find my various social media profiles.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us, we appreciate it.
