This rule has paralyzed would-be action-takers for generations.
The reality: there is no such thing as the perfect moment.
Sometimes you just have to open the door, jump out of the plane, and hope you packed the parachute tight.
Life rules worth breaking:
This rule has paralyzed would-be action-takers for generations.
The reality: there is no such thing as the perfect moment.
Sometimes you just have to open the door, jump out of the plane, and hope you packed the parachute tight.
Hard work is important—but it's relative, not absolute.
In the Digital Age—when creative and inspired work stands out and is rewarded—what you work on is more important than how hard you work.
Play your game, not theirs.
You’ll play it better.
This isn't a movie that you're watching on your TV. You are not a passive observer of your own life.
There are times to sit back, and there are times to push.
Learn to identify the difference and never be afraid to provide a little push.
Children are born with an insatiable curiosity, but somewhere along the line, we are told to stop asking questions.
The most successful people in the world never listened—they broke this rule.
Ask questions. Be curious. Be interested.
Complacency will always lead you down a bad path.
Just because something isn't broken, doesn't mean it can't be improved.
Continuous improvement is the way.
Focus on small, incremental improvements—day in, day out.
This might have been a good rule in the Industrial Age, but its foundation is crumbling in the Digital Age.
The way we work is fundamentally changing—opportunities for creative, unstructured career paths are endless.
Find your Zone of Genius and operate in it.
A rule of the fixed, stagnant, and hierarchical—often used to keep employees in line.
It's great to double down on your strengths, but never let external pressures prevent you from expanding your domains.
Growth mindsets rule the world.
We are told to methodically consider the pros and cons of every big decision in our lives.
As a result, many of us have decision paralysis.
With big decisions, you're actually better off making them fast—let your gut and instincts guide you.
A classic we are told as children—the residue of which carries into adulthood for far too many.
"There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met." - William Butler Yeats
When we open up to those around us, we stimulate, learn, and grow.
For decades we told children they had to attend a traditional 4-year college, or else they were a failure.
That is a lie—and we loaded a generation with student debt because of it.
4-year degrees make sense for many, but not for all.
Follow YOUR path.
All mainstream financial advice tells you one thing: save now to enjoy later.
I agree, with a caveat...
You have to enjoy the prime of your life!
Now and then, it's ok to save a bit less to go to that concert with your friends.
Find your balance.
It's important to have a plan.
But as Mike Tyson famously said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
Plans have to be dynamic—and punch-proof!
You'll only go as far as your ability to absorb and pivot on the fly.
It's easy to condone self-promotion when you're at the top.
But when you're first starting out, you may be the only one in a position to promote.
When you put in the work, energy and love, share it with the world!
Genuine pride is infectious.
Society celebrates experts in any given field.
But as @DavidEpstein finds in Range, many experts succeed because of the range of pursuits that preceded their main endeavor.
Become a polymath.
Generalize first, specialize later.
It's not up to anyone else to decide what is possible for you or your life.
Are there constraints outside of your control? Sure.
Is that a reason to settle? Hell no.
As Will Smith says in Pursuit of Happyness: "If you want something, go get it. Period."
Follow me @SahilBloom for more threads on growth, business, and investing.
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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
Ironies of Luck https://t.co/5BPWGbAxFi
— Morgan Housel (@morganhousel) March 14, 2018
"Luck is the flip side of risk. They are mirrored cousins, driven by the same thing: You are one person in a 7 billion player game, and the accidental impact of other people\u2019s actions can be more consequential than your own."
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.
In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.
In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.
This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.
In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.
The story doesn\u2019t say you were told not to... it says you did so without approval and they tried to obfuscate what you found. Is that true?
— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) November 15, 2018
In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.
In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.
This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.
In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.
