It’s popular to read advice from highly successful people.

Their advice may be good for THEIR situation, but does it generalize to other circumstances?

Here’s my attempt to distill repeated advice from MANY highly successful people across many distinct circumstances:

[thread]

1. You won’t automatically be happy when you hit your goals.

Achieving goals breeds new ones.

A terrible situation creates misery, but a good situation doesn’t imply happiness.

Happiness takes inner work, gratitude for what’s had.

The good life’s a journey, not a destination.

2. High levels of accomplishment almost always require hard work over a long period.

“Overnight successes” are rare, and are often misidentified. If you look closely, usually the person was practicing for 5-20 years before they were an “overnight success.”

Always be improving.

3. Life is unpredictable.

When young, people usually don’t know what they’re going to “do with their life.” That’s fine!

Life takes crazy, unexpected twists & turns.

Plans are great but expect to modify them.

Be adaptable and on the lookout for great, unexpected opportunities

4. Don’t let fear stop you.

Attempting hard things will bring stress, fear, and anxiety. If you avoid what you fear (more than is warranted by the level of danger) your potential will be curtailed.

Learn to push through your fears to do stressful things that are valuable.

🚨New year, new working paper🚨

If you've followed this account for long you know that in laboratory studies repetition increases belief.

When you hear something twice you're more likely to think that it's true. But it that true outside the lab? 1/

Being away from family can be tough during the best of times but this pandemic has truly tested and damn near broken me.
It was only a matter of time that someone closer to you gets infected and that happened 3 weeks ago when my brother fell ill (he's recovered now).

The initial bout of panic and scrambling for travel arrangements (it was looking pretty bad for a while) as his condition started to deteriorate was thankfully short as we needed cool heads more than rash decisions (taking 2 flights and passing through 3 big airports).

My other brother and my sister had to physically stop my parents from being in the same room as him. Shouting was involved. All that was quite difficult to manage from a distance but we have learnt of thousands of families around the world go through much tougher situations.

The medics, I can't even imagine how they are managing. The governments and the people are both siding with the virus in this long war.
Its all just so baffling to me, and even more absurd with every passing day that we have imposed it upon ourselves. On the most vulnerable.

Anyway, my brother is an otherwise fit 34 years old cyclist and he loves to go hiking every chance he gets so he probably had the best chance out of whole family to recover from the pneumonia in both lungs and dropping oxygen levels...
I don't think either of my parents will.

THREAD: meet my brother

Unsurprisingly, being locked down over Xmas and New Year turns thoughts to family – and to my brother who died almost 14 years ago in a motorbike accident when he was 39.

First some context: Andreas was 8 years older than me – big difference when we were kids, but we were close as adults and instant messaged every day (yahoo messenger! remember that?!).

Last week I found some of the message chats we used to have that I collated for his funeral & they made me laugh out loud and miss him all over again. So I wanted to share some of my funny, quirky brother with the world – here goes…

He worked at Yahoo doing difficult coding. He loved coffee (with milk). He was also very funny.

He was a computer wizard – there was nothing he couldn’t code. I was and remain a rank amateur compared to him.

Somebody needs to tell a few people that, a general “policy” argument, telling a court that it has no right to decide an issue when the matter falls squarely within the case and controversy requirements of Art 3, and the Constitution specifically provides for jurisdiction of the=

parties; additionally, the court has federal question jurisdiction, is not a good take, and is not persuasive. Next, an argument of disenfranchisement of voters (a) is weak in countering the Bush v Gore equal protection opinion; (b) is beside the point, when the issues is the=

issue is not issues is

constitutional validity of votes cast by state appointed electors, especially in context of serious allegations that State officials unconstitutionally nullified provisions of statutes passed pursuant to the plenary power of the legislatures and thereby threw into chaos by=

dilution or nullification of their own citizens votes. More on this later-I am studying briefs because someone said “their brief is weak.” The person could not have referred to the TX brief. IMO, Tx did a fine, outstanding job in a case of first=

#Illuminare - ON FAITH PART 9: HOW FAITH WORKS

Begins now 👇

1. So, here’s how the faith thing works. It’s like a machine. Think of a car engine with three gears or cogs that are all held together by a fan belt. That’s what the machinery looks like. #Illuminare

2. The first gear is the provisions made by God. The Bible says God has blessed us with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:3 KJV. #Illuminare

3. Everything you’ll ever need in life - every joy, every piece of peace, every deliverance from evil, every healing, every forgiveness of sin, every promotion, every success, every item of prosperity - #Illuminare

4. – your car, your house, your kids, everything has been provided through the sacrifice of Jesus. No blessing is left out. But here’s the challenge: the blessings are located in heavenly vaults, not on earth, and for good reason. #Illuminare

My son died fourteen years ago today. If you’re struggling with the loss of a loved one, I have some promises for you.

I promise this will not always be the first thing you think about in the morning.

I promise you won’t always lie awake at night, sobbing until you can’t breathe.

I promise you will not always feel that hard lump in your throat, like grief is a rock that cannot be moved. It can.

I promise those waves of grief that knock you off your feet will become smaller, less violent. You will be able to stand and let them wash around you, not over you.

certain industries, you should genuinely ask yourself if you are a salaried employee whether it is a workplace you should be organizing or if it's a workplace you should quit and stop being complicit in, to be honest.

I don't think you can organize a defense contractor for fair labor rights, I don't think you can organize a monolithic tech surveillance/ad sales behemoth for labor Rights if you're building that union first and foremost for the employees building that very architecture.

This doesn't apply to warehouse workers & production workers & people making low wages doing the most important stuff- you don't have to feel bad for that, everyone is exploiting you & you should organize.

But if youre programming their tools, writing their copy, making slick videos for them, project managing, making good money doing it- youre complicit. I dont say that lightly, Ive done that, I have that blood on my hands. You should quit if that's you, you can't reform this.

This is not anti-organizing, it is asking workers who are organizing to honestly assess the role they play in their company's function which is critical to power. if they follow up these demands re: surveillance in their organizing with a full work stoppage, then we're talking--

Another day, limped through. What I’m noticing recently is that I’m getting so frustrated w/ myself. My brain works properly for a v small window of time & then I just can’t seem to think. I forget my kids names (although honestly, that’s nothing new). By afternoon I’m useless!

I’m beating myself up for not doing my job properly, for not homeschooling properly (*laughs hysterically*). I am SO clumsy! Okay fine, I’m always clumsy. But this is worse. I’m so damn distractable. And let’s be honest, there are so many distractions around.

I want to be myself. I want to focus and feel like I can recite the alphabet without wandering off halfway through because I’ve spotted something shiny.

HOWEVER (you knew this was coming, didn’t you?), psychological science, as it so often does, has something to offer. We have been living under conditions of extreme stress for a long, LONG time. We are officially chronically stressed.

And chronic stress is not overly kind to our brains. It uses an awful lot if our resources, to begin with. We are currently more focused on basic survival than on writing the great British novel (sorry, @fpathak!). Creativity relies on our prefrontal cortex. Our prefrontal cortex

Marie reached out to me today after 2 years, to give me the closure I never got. We talked for a while about our lost baby - lost love. There comes a time in a man's life when you have to look at yourself in the mirror & say, "I need help". I'll get help. I will be a better man.

This is no way for a man to live. You don't go wrecking people who care for you. She was a good woman, who tried her best to help me. I told her I never want her to feel like she was inadequate. I was the problem - still are. I will correct that. I will get help.

As for our little cozy love, I have not known better, and doubt I will. If soulmates ever lived, Marie & I were at the appex. I enjoyed the experience. I never had to work hard at the connection. Should I die today, I am honestly glad I have known a woman's love so soft.

You don't get over it. I have since stopped trying. You learn to live with it, as one of those little secrets that make you smile when life has you by the chokehold: The little pocket in your memory that'll never soil - enduring through seasons. I'll cherish those little moments.

Many lovers will come. Some better than Marie. I have no doubt. They'll be just as genial; possibly, more loving. And I will love them. I will give them my best, and a warm home for our children. But Marie I will never exorcise. She is the abiding truth in my life.

It was a Wednesday. I don't go to salon on weekdays. I do that on weekends, but this day, a Wednesday, I had the strange urge to do so, against character. So I did, and it changed my life or should I say, it made me remain alive for the moment. Try to follow intuition.

A thread.

It was some time in February 2007. I had just returned to Lagos after being ill in my home town during the Xmas break. So I was still recuperating and hadn't resumed work. I saw a friend off and decided against character to have my hair cut in my favorite salon. They didn't know

me by name. Just a customer. As I sauntered into the salon, I heard voices screaming and threatening, "we'll kill him". "We must kill him" they screamed. I saw 6 men inside the salon, excluding the barber. I entered and looked at the men, while they now shouted less. I recognized

2 of the men. Have met them at the salon before. Didn't recognize the other 3, then I saw the last man. My former boss. WOW. A man I served for about 4 years after school, and he sent me away,without a dime.
I casually greeted him. He nodded slightly, stood up and left the salon.

Upon his departure, the other men started detailing how they'll catch "the useless boy". They have his address. They'll kill him for f#*king Chief's wife. I watched and listened how the supposed "useless boy" slept with Chief's wife and said nothing will happen. So they will show

As you go though life, you will meet two types of people:

1) Those who seek to exploit you in unsustainable relationships

2) Those who negotiate with you, seeking mutually beneficial, sustainable relationships

The first are abusers, and enemies.
The second are allies.

To know who your abusers/enemies are, and who your allies are; DO NOT avoid conflict, for it is in conflict where you see who is who.

Strong men always define, and always protect their boundaries, when others cross them.

Fail at this, and people WILL exploit you.

When in conflict, allies will hear reason & evidence, honor Truth, and negotiate for a relationship that benefits you both.

Abusers will obfuscate Truth, and will try to manipulate you into abandoning your boundaries by invoking in you, feelings of fear, obligation, or guilt.

Objective Truth, and it's mutual acceptance, is what holds together a negotiated, functional, mutually beneficial relationship.

Abusers are interested in exploitation, NOT functional, mutually beneficial relationships.

Thus, the abuser sees Truth as an obstacle -- an enemy.

Abusers are never interested in Truth when they are abusing/exploiting you.

They will ALWAYS obfuscate the Truth when you defend your boundaries, so as to take more from you than they give you.

Abusers treat the Truth as their enemy.

Watch for this, and note who they are.

Quick story of how I see things. It's going to be multiple tweets, so bear with me.

I have privilege. I'm white. I'm male. I was born in one of the richest countries in the world.

My parents had privilege. Its a dynastic thing. They are Tories. This has caused much 1/

conflict with them. Still does.

I went to boarding school at 9. Nothing says "I love you" less than kicking a kid out of their home at 9.

It affected me deeply. I didn't realise it till many years later and therapy.

However, I never felt I fitted in. Ever. To the system. 2/

I took psychedlics. Mushrooms. Heroic doses, as Terence McKenna would describe them. I don't condone this.

But, it showed me a path.

I took that path but my family hated me for it. I cared for them. They are family after all.

I changed direction. I took the blue pill. 3/

I was succesful in the capitalist machine. But I still rebelled. Or so I thought. But then, the rebellion and the machine merged.

I got lost. I started to see life and money as a way of measuring success, as so many do and I lost touch with that humanist used to be. I still 4/

yearned to be out of that system but I was part of that system as well. It was an existential crisis.

It killed my mental health. I lost touch with the beautiful people that really care about me and tread the right path and live their life that way.

I thought that I was 5/

'Mind your personal walk with God. God does not deal with people in groups, He deals with us as individuals.

Your personal walk with God is your greatest asset in the Kingdom'.- Bishop David Oyedepo

#LFCLiveService
#NewYearService
#TurnaroundEncounters

'You have entered God's care program from the beginning of this year to the end of it.

To have your rain in due season, you must love the Lord your God & serve Him with all your heart & soul'.- Bishop David Oyedepo

#LFCLiveService
#NewYearService
#TurnaroundEncounters

Cleave unto Him, that's all that is needed. Your Creator becomes your Husband. Deut 11:22

There is nothing called luck in the kingdom. It is walking in the light that differentiates one believer from another. Isa 60:1-3,8

#LFCLiveService
#NewYearService
#TurnaroundEncounters

Anyone that truly loves God and God dwells in him is feared by men.

As you walk in the light of prosperity, God will be unleashing stupendous wealth on you.

#LFCLiveService
#NewYearService
#TurnaroundEncounters

If you are too intelligent to give, you will never taste prosperity.

It is not enough to start doing it, you must keep growing in doing it. It's the way to get there.

#LFCLiveService
#NewYearService
#TurnaroundEncounters

Why talking to your people is the most important thing you can do!

For a new acquisition, there's a general template I follow for the 1st 100 days.

The Number One point on that list is PEOPLE

I have failed this once, and succeeded once, let me share why this is most important.

1. You are in spreadsheet mode

When working on a new acquisition you are in the numbers and in the models.

Net working capital true-up
First 6 mo cash flow
Valuation multiple
Realizable EBITDA
etc

Many new acquirers don't come out of this, and lose customers, employees, and $$

2. Verifying the Model

Post acquisition, you are verifying the model in realtime, adjusting, making sure you are good with the bank, investors, yourself.

You are checking actual expenses to see if they match.

Perhaps you are implementing a few easy cost cuts.

People!

3. Your people hold the answers.

Often the people that have been there, can will be happy to give you the scoop on

1. customers
2. service improvement ideas
3. Plant issues
4. under / over staffing
5. needs & investments

They have been there, and usually not been able to share

4. Small Window

There is a small window of time where they are:

1. looking to see if they will now have input
2. willing to speak up more boldly than normal
3. Evaluating how they feel about you
4. Earning (or losing) respect for you as an owner

You cannot miss this window!

THREAD: Of course right now I am totally questioning what my role in this world is. I don’t even know me. I have spent my young adulthood into my 40’s being a mom. Still a mom...but I literally have no identity.

Can’t relate to ppl my age with kids.

Can’t relate to ppl my age because they’re in chill mode, having sewn their wild oats while I am trying to figure out who the fuck I am.

In the middle of a pandemic where my social life was abruptly cut off and everything I was experiencing stopped and is now gone.

For example, having come out in late jan...meeting new people...learning about my sexuality. My sexuality was stifled due to being brought up with religion. Learning what my kinks were, without sex! Meeting like minded people...

In less than a month it was gone.

I feel like I’m not even me. I feel like I’m an outsider looking in.

Questioning what the hell I am doing with my life.

Frustrated. Lonely. Unsure of a lot.

And now I am wanting to completely gut GlitteryFab on every social media platform despite a fast growing base, why???? Because I’m tired of people just focusing on my aesthetics. My facial beauty. Or because I’m “thicc”. And also because it just seems rather shallow.

how do you know when politicians are GUILTY?
when they attempt to make disclaimers of shock when the People tell them through their acts of public challenge that they are full of sh-- for breaching their fiduciary responsibility.
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There has been documented PROOF of election tampering yet multiple Secretary's of State have signed off on FRAUDULENT ballots and voting, meaning their signed their own GUILTY and COLLUSION verdict...
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The electoral college and congress votes to accept the results after receiving NOTICE OF FRAUD - they are NOW ALL GUILTY OF SELF-CONFESSED MISPRISION OF FELONY, Sedition and TREASON against the United States

Any of have a clue what the penalty is for that?

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Do you also recognize that what was at one point plausible deniability and limited liability has now moved to UNLIMITED PERSONAL liability against each and everyone who voted and certified FRAUDULENT voting results?
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Do you realize that ANY public fiduciary pushing the acceptance of same is their self-confession of being an Accessory After the Fact...
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