10 fascinating traits of highly-successful people:

1) Enjoy Being Wrong: The most successful people legitimately enjoy being wrong. They’ve learned to embrace new information that forces you to change your viewpoint—these "software updates" improve upon the old.

(read on)

1/ An Allegory of Finance

I have been posting a lot of educational (and humorous!) threads on finance, money, and economics.

My mission is simple: to demystify these concepts and make them accessible to everyone.

All of the threads can be found below. Enjoy and please share!

In 1983, a 52-year-old senior executive at Texas Instruments was passed over for the company's top job.

He would go on to found and build the most strategically important company in the world.

Who's up for a story?

👇👇👇

1/ Morris Chang was born into a middle-class family on July 10, 1931 in Ningbo, Chekiang, China.

The early years of his life were set against a backdrop of hardship.

Wars and widespread poverty had overwhelmed the country, exposing him to this suffering at a young age.

2/ His father - an official in the local government - encouraged Morris to focus on school.

Fleeing the violence of the ongoing wars, Morris and his mother moved frequently.

His studies became his respite.

In 1948, at the height of the Civil War, they moved to Hong Kong.

3/ In 1949, Morris Chang was accepted to Harvard University.

He moved to America.

After just one year at Harvard, he transferred to The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study engineering.

He graduated in 1953 with a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

4/ While he had originally intended to continue his studies and get a PhD, he failed his qualifying exam, so was forced to enter the job market.

He took an entry-level job with Sylvania Semiconductor, but quickly realized the company wasn't forward-thinking enough for his style.

I recently asked my audience: What is the most genius marketing campaign of all time?

I got 2,000+ responses.

THREAD: 20 of the most iconic marketing and advertising campaigns in history:

De Beers “Diamonds are Forever”

Arguably the most iconic, controversial, and impactful marketing campaign in history.

Created the massive, global diamond industry.

(Note: This will be the subject of a future thread…)

Coke vs. Pepsi Superman Battle

Pepsi ran the Halloween ad on the left. Coke responded with the ad on the right.

Game, set, match.

h/t @perfexcellent

The Original Apple iPod Campaign

“1,000 songs in your pocket”

Simple, intuitive, genius.

Starbucks Wrong Names on Cups

Starbucks employees writing the names of millions of customers in hilariously wrong ways to get them to post the images across social media with Starbucks branding.

For free.

h/t @SleepwellCap

“Razors” are rules of thumb that simplify decisions.

The most valuable razors I’ve discovered:

The Smart Friends Razor

If your smartest friends are all interested in something, it’s worth paying attention to.

If that something seems crazy, it's worth paying a lot of attention to.

The passions of the smartest people in your circles are a looking glass into the future.

The Rooms Razor

If you have a choice between entering two rooms, choose the room where you are more likely to be the dumbest one in the room.

Once you are in the room, talk less and listen more.

Bad for your ego, great for your growth.

The Man in the Arena Razor

It's easy to throw rocks the sidelines—it's hard to step into the arena.

It's lonely and vulnerable, but it's where growth happens.

When faced with two paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena—choose the path with real skin in the game.

The Feynman Razor

Complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.

If you can’t explain it to a 5-year-old, you don’t really understand it.

If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something to you, they probably don’t understand it.

These paradoxes will change your life:

The Brakes Paradox

What allows a Formula 1 driver to fly around the track?

It's not the engine, the tires, or the suspension.

It's the brakes.

Strong, reliable brakes unlock the driver.

Build brakes into your life that allow you to accelerate and hit turns without fear.

The Advice Paradox

Taking more advice leaves you less well-equipped.

Most advice sucks.

It's well-intentioned, but it's dangerous to use someone else's map of reality to navigate yours.

Winners learn to filter and selectively implement advice—take the signal, skip the noise.

The Opportunity Paradox

Take on less, accomplish more.

Success doesn’t come from taking on every opportunity.

It comes from deploying energy on the opportunities that matter—the 10x opportunities.

Time and energy are finite.

Say yes to what matters & no to everything else.

The Persuasion Paradox

Have you noticed that argumentative people rarely persuade anyone of anything?

Persuasive people don’t argue—they observe, listen, and ask questions.

Argue less, persuade more.

Persuasion is an art that requires a paintbrush, not a sledgehammer.

20 THINGS PEOPLE LEARN TOO LATE:

1. Don’t tell people more than they need to know, respect your privacy.

2. Every challenge, Hard time, and pain you endure will turn into Strength, resilience and Blessings.

3. Don't argue with people who want to misunderstand you - Starve them with silence.

4. Life is short, don’t forget to make a life and not just a living.

15 Philosophy Quotes From "Cicero"

| Thread

1. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

2. "Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors, and thieves."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

3. "More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.

Indecision is the thief of opportunity.

It will steal you blind."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

4. "The wise are instructed by reason,
average minds by experience,
the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

15 Deep Philosophy Quotes of "Arthur Schopenhauer"

| Thread

1. "The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

2. “A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom.

for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer

3. "With health, everything is a source of pleasure;

without it, nothing else, whatever it may be, is enjoyable...

Health is by far the most important element in human happiness."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

4. "All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed.

Second, it is violently opposed.

Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

15 uncomfortable truths about life people learn to late:

1. Don't overshare. Privacy is peaceful and powerful.

2. Even when you trust your close friends and family, don't tell them everything.

3. The best revenge is no revenge. Move on. Be happy. Find inner peace. Flourish.

4. When you‘re right, no one remembers. When you‘re wrong, no one forgets.