Category: Be Your Best

  • Hard Work = Luck

    Hard Work = Luck

    You will only have a handful of mega opportunities in your life, and they won’t hang around for long. That million dollar idea you had yesterday may be gone tomorrow. That job offer that is the dream job but requires you to move across the country expires in a week. That real estate deal might be off the market in six hours. These opportunities will come your way maybe once a decade. Which means that the vast majority of your time will be spent preparing for opportunity. The more you work and the harder you prepare, the more equipped you will be to capitalize on these opportunities. Will you be ready? Will you be able to identify the opportunity let alone seize the day?  Will your preparation be enough?

    In the same vein, always have your sails up so you’re ready to run when the winds pick up.
    • Quote: The harder I work the luckier I get.
    • Make your own luck.
    • Wooden Quote: It’s too late for preparation when opportunity strikes.
  • Don’t take any bull…

    Don’t take any bull…

    You don’t have to put up with toxic, abusive, or negative people. If you have a boss that verbally abuses you or others, or a friend who drags you down, or a business partner who sabotages you… ditch them! It can be scary to break free and find a new path forward. But life is way too short to surround yourself with these kinds of people. At the end of the day it is your choice. Ultimately, you are choosing who you surround yourself with. Or who you don’t want to be around. You can surround yourself with people who lift you up and make you better, or people who drag you down.

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.