Author: Dad

  • Creating Adversity

    Creating Adversity

    We live in a comfortable world. To get stronger, to build character, you must challenge yourself. Challenges are few and far between in this comfortable world. So you need to create this adversity yourself. Push beyond your comfort zone, at play or at work.

    You only find your inner strength when you are sufficiently challenged.

    Challenge yourself and with each small victory you will discover deeper and deeper strength within.

    You only get stronger at the gym by lifting more and more, always challenging yourself.

    Santa Monica Stairs X 100

    3 degrees

    Entrepreneurship, etc.

  • Change is the Only Constant

    Change is the Only Constant

    As far as your work life goes, the most important thing to learn in life is how to change and adapt. Yes, the skills you have in an industry are important. But the most important skill is the ability to level up and adapt. So if your job gets eliminated or your industry gets decimated, it’s not a big deal for you to start again in a new industry.

    What’s interesting is, when you are young, you can learn these skills by doing just about anything. My sister was talking about how she wants Eli to become a pilot. My initial reaction to this was maybe it’s not a good idea because I don’t think there will be pilots in 20 years. When I asked a friend’s opinion, he immediately said, “the most important thing is to learn how to change.” I thought this was very wise. That being the case, chase your passions to your hearts content. If you really dig in and commit, you will learn the skills you need to do anything in life.

  • Don’t wait to lose something to appreciate it

    Don’t wait to lose something to appreciate it

    Don’t wait to lose something to appreciate it

  • Fight For It

    Fight For It

    “If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won.” -Mumford & Sons

    Do you really want it? If so, you should fight for it. Sometimes in my life there have been things that I really wanted but didn’t fight for at the time. Invariably, looking back, I always regret not fighting for what I really wanted. The perspective I was missing at the time is that putting up a good fight for days or weeks or even months is a flash in a pan over the course of your life. You’ll always look back wondering “what if I had fought for it?”

    Mom has a wonderful story of how she got into business school by fighting for it.

    On a related but different note, you also need to fight for what you believe. If you know something isn’t right, don’t let it go unnoticed. Bring it to light, make everyone aware, and fight for it if it’s that important. With that said, you could also be wrong so you should be firm but always open to changing your mind. History is filled with stories of could-have-been would-have-been great people who mostly got it right but also got it wrong on a few really important points. Instead of adapting and listening, they ignored the reality coming at them and paid the price. The best place to be is to have, as the expression goes, “strong opinions, weakly held.”

  • It’s Never Black or White

    It’s Never Black or White

    One quirk of human nature is when we something happens to us or in the world we are so fast to come up with a explanation. This explanation is usually black or white, and usually dramatically oversimplifies the situation. Why did that ship sink? The captain crashed the boat. A more current example: Why did chaos erupt when we left Afghanistan? Because the President abruptly pulled our military presence out.

    One interesting thing here is, when something goes wrong, the simplified solution we usually come up with is to blame the person rather than the situation (i.e., fundamental attribution error).

    I’ve noticed this to be a universal quirk of human nature. Everyone does it, no matter the background.

    But complicated situations or events almost NEVER have simple explanations. The reality is usually incredibly messy and convoluted, with a tremendous number of confounding factors. It’s a mistake to demonize a person or one factor without fully understanding a situation. Defer judgement and keep an open mind. You might be surprised with the reality of the situation, and if you jump to conclusions it will be impossible to understand the root cause.

  • Estehkhareh

    Estehkhareh

    Mom’s post about pointing to the Quran when you are unsure what path to take. Let God help you.

  • What Kind of Person Are You?

    What Kind of Person Are You?

    When times get tough, you should ask yourself, “What kind of person am I?” Am I the kind of person who gives up? Who backs down? Or am I the kind of person who will step up to the challenge? Am I the kind of person who will persevere? I find that the simple act of asking myself that question is often enough to propel me forward and get me to “Walk through the fire.”

    Will you be a finisher and be proud of what you’ve accomplished? Or will you quit and regret it the rest of your life?

  • Time

    Time

    There’s a funny phenomenon in life. When you’re young, you have no money but a lot of time. As you get older, you have a lot of money but no time. There’s a crossover from broke to no time at some point, and this starts to influence the tradeoffs you make in your life.

  • What if you die young?

    What if you die young?

    Everything we do comes with some kind of risk attached to it. There is a 17% chance you will die playing Russian Roulette. Most other odds are hard to calculate but you get the idea.

    You have to weigh the odds of dying with the value you ascribe to that activity. A good way to figure out if you should actually engage in a risky activity is to ask how you would feel if you were to die doing it.

    I used to ride motorcycles. When I was young, it meant enough to me that I realized I could die and I was okay with it. As I got older, got married, and had kids, I wasn’t okay dying riding motorcycles. So I stopped. Same with skydiving.

    If you would feel like an idiot dying doing what you’re about to do then you probably shouldn’t do it. It’s okay to say no.

  • Ask Your Future Self

    Ask Your Future Self

    What will you regret not doing (skydiving)? What will you regret doing (hard drugs)? Ask your future self what you should or shouldn’t have done to help guide your day-to-day decision making.