Month: March 2021

  • What is Success?

    What is Success?

    “I coined my own definition of success, which is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable… You never heard me mention winning… My idea is that you can lose when you outscore somebody in a game, and you can win when you’re outscored.” -John Wooden

    If you put in 110% and give it everything you have, you can’t lose.

    Another idea: Success=do what you can with what you have where you are

    Success is a combination of experience and when/how to make decisions. Your decisions, based on your experience, will determine your success.

    happiness often comes from shooting for high goals but detracting yourself from the outcome. Set goals, work hard, and be happy with giving it your best.

    Conflicted on this because also need to win. Sometimes giving it “your best” doesn’t cut it. If failure is not an option, you can’t take no for an answer.

    Recommended reading:

    • Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and Off the Court
  • Are you getting better or worse?

    Are you getting better or worse?

    You are never stagnant or the same. You are ALWAYS either getting better or worse. Your blade edge is either getting sharper or duller. Commit yourself to getting a little better every day. Even just 0.1% better. Over time, all those little improvements add up to a lot.

    Virtue: Continuous improvement, Kaizen

  • You Get Out What You Put In

    You Get Out What You Put In

    This is so cliché but SO true. Any time I’ve skated through something in life, it hasn’t been worth the time and I regret wasting my life. In fact, when I think about regrets from the past, the root cause is usually not putting in 100% effort. Conversely, anything I look back and I’m super proud of, I’m proud because I put in the effort and gave it my all. If you want to get the most you can out of life, put in the effort, dedication, and time.

    Some of the things I didn’t put 100% into and regret: High school academics – we covered so much material and had I made an effort I could know a lot more today, and yet I did only the minimum to get by and ended up regretting. Some of my startup projects didn’t get my full effort and struggled as a result.

    Leave it all on the field (or court).

    “Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable.” – John Wooden

  • Smart Enough

    Smart Enough

    Over the years, I have noticed a curious thing. The smartest people are rarely the most successful people. The most successful people I’ve encountered are generally smart and conversational, but not brilliant. You only have to be smart “enough.” Once you pass a certain threshold, success is no longer defined by intelligence. Instead, it’s a confluence of other skills and abilities, such as emotional intelligence, coachability, continuous improvement/learning, and luck among other things.

    Rest assured that you don’t have to be the most brilliant person in the room. And you are certainly smart enough to do anything you put your mind to. So don’t limit your ambition and build the future you want to see in the world.

  • Who do you think you’re talking to!?

    Who do you think you’re talking to!?

    Monitor your internal dialogue. Careful how you talk to yourself. It’s so easy to get negative and judgmental, and spiral downward. Stay positive, optimistic, and upbeat.

  • Never Stop Learning

    Never Stop Learning

    Keep learning, especially as you get older. I have noticed that a lot of people stop learning (new skills, general knowledge, etc.). Learning should not stop with school, it’s a lifelong endeavor.

    I’ve thought about why people stop learning. I believe people are afraid to fail, and learning and doing new things by definition are hard and will likely result in failure. As you get older you forget that even when you were little you struggled and failed A LOT. But the reason you ultimately succeeded is you didn’t give up. Learn to enjoy the failure as an opportunity to debug what went wrong and get better. Learn to look forward to the struggle. Once you master something, it’s a lot less fun. You’ll be dangerous if you can genuinely embrace this mindset.

  • We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

    We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

    “If I have seen further,” Isaac Newton wrote in a 1675 letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, “it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

    Look at society around you. Look at the technology, innovation, quality of life, fairness, etc. Yes, there’s more to do but we live in such an extraordinary time and place.

    As a society, we have gotten here thanks to people throughout history just like you. They have put in the hard work and endured the struggles to build what we have today. You can carry this forward in your own way and contribute to building society even further. You will undoubtedly have your own struggles and challenges. When you are pushing boundries and stretching it will usually be very difficult. But realize the exciting future you are building for yourself and future generations.

  • Entitlement

    Entitlement

    Life doesn’t give you what you need… it gives you what you deserve. You aren’t entitled to anything. You have to earn it.

    Ask someone if you can have $100 and you won’t get it. Ask someone how you can earn $100 and you’ll get it. In life, you get what you deserve and what you earned.

    If anything, the expectation for you is that much higher given the education, resources, and support you had growing up. Entitlement is one of the worst character traits, and do everything you can to rid yourself of this.

  • Heroes are Human, Too

    Heroes are Human, Too

    Anyone who has accomplished anything great is still human–just like you. If they can do it, you can do it. Anything is possible. Think about all of the adversity people have fought through over the years. The challenges, the triumphs, the setbacks, the failures, the victories, the high achievements. You are just like the people who overcame and accomplished those things. If they can do it, why not you?

  • Extreme Ownership

    Extreme Ownership

    Develop the mindset of extreme ownership, that you own everything in your world. You are ultimately responsible for what happens in your world. If your relationship isn’t working out, what did you or can you do to fix it? If you aren’t making progress towards your goals, how can you fix it? Have you done everything you can to improve it?

    When you have this mindset, you become unstoppable because you are constantly searching for how you can become better or improve your world. It also means you have to become ultimately accountable because there is no one else to blame.

    But perhaps more importantly, you also become happier. By taking extreme ownership, you preclude the possibility of becoming a victim of circumstance. Nothing escapes your control because one way or another you own it and therefore can work to improve it. As a result, extreme ownership can be a key to happiness and fulfillment.