Everyone Needs a Reminder to Make the Most of Time. Here's Mine. One entrepreneur shares his advice for embracing every minute.

I started my career in 1987 as a new member of the New York City–based U.S. marketing and sales division of IBM. I was just a kid, so a team of senior reps took me under their wings and showed me the ropes.

The lead rep was a man named Frank. He kept a small hourglass on his desk, and the first time I asked him what it was for, he said it was "to time the five minutes of stupidity I can tolerate before telling someone to leave." I didn't know him well enough at the time to understand whether he was kidding or serious, but I'd been told to listen to whatever Frank said. So I did.

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