6 Quotes
“Remember that whenever you are complaining, this is a signal that you are managing your life badly.” — Neil Strauss
“When you blame others for your lack of results, you give your power away. When you take extreme ownership over your results, you gain power.” — Anonymous
“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.” — Oliver Goldsmith
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” - Greek philosopher, Heraclitus
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." —Robert Louis Stevenson
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique” - Teronie J. Donaldson (yep, that’s me, cool right?)
Notes/Observations
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” — Steve Jobs
Value accrues to storytellers. Stories imbue commodities with emotion and boost perceived value.
I am learning how the value of story is so beneficial to business. I notes this when I came across a stat that said 95% of the reason we buy is because of emotion and a big factor to sway our emotions is the stories we like or are influenced by.
I started noticing the story in every pitch while watching an episode of Shark Tank and also realize that stories are an instrumental part of our lives.
Articles
Watched
This was a fascinating interview of Kanye West on The Drink Champs Podcast/Show. I have seen a few other interviews of Kanye but never watched to the end but this one was one of the best.
I love hip hop so to see Kanye getting interviewed by another artist N.O.R.E on the format style for this interview was hilarious. Kanye is an interesting fellow. You many not agreed with all he has to say but he does make some valid points.
Strategies
You don’t have to hold onto who you were or what you’ve built. It’s tempting to. It might be a good idea too, but you don’t have to. And sometimes you have to let go of it for something better.
First-principles — Instead of knowing a bunch of facts, it’s better to learn a set of first principles or useful rules of thumb you more or less know to be true that you can apply to real-world scenarios.
Questions
Jeff Bezos came up with something called the regret minimization framework that he uses when deciding to take risks.
Ask yourself this question when thinking about something you want to do:
In X years, will I regret not doing this?
I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. - Jeff Bezos
Book of the week
Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson
This was a great book. I listened to the audio version and quickly bought the physical copy which I will read soon.
Will Smith’s transformation from a West Philadelphia kid to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, is an epic tale. I was a Will Smith fan since the Fresh Prince so I pretty much grew up with him, so to speak. Witnessing his journey and growth is incredible.
Here is a great interview with Will Smith and Jay Shetty