Inspired by Kevin Kelly's 103 bits of advice I wish I had known, I compiled my own list. Mostly from my list of quotes and book summaries. Things I strongly believe in and (try to) apply to my life.
It's a living list I started on May 31st 2022, my 47th anniversary. Last update: November 2023. Will keep adding things.
In no particular order:
Avoid debt even if having some debt seems financially advantageous.
Financial independence always requires you to stop moving the goalpost. Otherwise you’ll always need more. Learn to have enough.
Spend less than you make, invest the rest. You’re set for life. In fact if you are living in less than your means, you're already rich.
Investing in the stock market is an advantageous asymmetric bet. Losses are limited to 100%. Earnings are unlimited.
The number one skill in investing is patience. Extreme patience.
Compounding is like magic. To enjoy it you should have patience and never stopping it unnecessarily. Stay invested for the long term.
In your twenties try everything. In your thirties figure what do you best. In your forties make money for you doing what you do best. In your fifties try not to do much. I wish I did more in my twenties, I only figured what I do best late in my thirties, and quite happy of my forties. Let's see if I can take my own advice in my fifties.
The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company.
The best job security is your own competence. Be great and never worry about financial security.
Working hard is always better than working smart. Smart is cool, but the only guarantee of winning is working harder not smarter. You need to put in the time. Stay late. Come in early. Work over the weekend and holidays sometimes. Don’t expect a vacation every couple of months. Let the scales tip a little on your work/life balance—let your passion for what you’re building drive you.
Yes you have to follow up. Yes, it seems frustrating people need to be followed up but we’re distracted animals. Busy animals. Tired animals. Follow up
Give without expecting anything in return. Most probably, you’ll get it back in the future. But even if not, do it anyway. Don’t give expecting anything back.
Be kind. Always say thank you. A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men
Criticise in private. Praise in public. Criticise generally. Praise specifically.
Do not use one-way communication method (email, text or voicemail) to give feedback unless it is 100% positive. If it's negative or can be perceived as negative, the receiver can get anxious or angry without you noticing it and will transform into resentment towards you.
The best time was yesterday. Failing that, the best day is today.
In a negotiation, the party that does not mind losing always wins.
Always keep in mind why are you doing anything. The final objective. e.g. Why are you working hard? to have more free time in the future? do you know how to enjoy free time now?. Will you in the future?. Rick Rubin once echoed: "It’s hard to get really depressed until your dreams come true. Once your dreams come true and you realize you feel the same way you did before then you get a feeling of hopelessness"
Learn how to live. We have two lives, and the second begins when we realise we only have one.
Always listen to interesting people even if the subject seems not interesting. You’ll be surprised. It’s the people, not the subject.
Embrace change. Even on what you think about things.
Practice delayed intuition. To make better decisions you have to slow down.
Marketers end up ruing everything. We ruined FB, we're ruining IG. We'll ruin the next one.
Be the fastest to pay what you owe.
Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you've got to do it now. Or at least document it as fast as you can so you can come back to it.
Always err on the side of too much, especially when you’re young. Du stuff, make mistakes, break things: The only failure in your twenties is inaction. The rest is trial and error. I personally failed on that I started with this philosophy well into my 30’s.
If you're not ashamed of the first version you released, you released it late. Ship.
Make it easy. If you want to drink more water, keep water bottles everywhere. If you want to read more, keep books everywhere. Reduce the friction.
If you can't explain it simply, with simple words, without using very technical words, you don't understand it well enough.
We know more than we are able to explain. Call it gut feeling or unarticulated knowledge but we know many things impossible to articulate.
Avoid speaking when you're angry. You’ll probably make the best speech you will ever regret.
Work Backward to Solve Hard Problems. Tackle difficult problems by starting at the end and working your way back. For example, when developing a product, write the press release first to clarify its benefits. This reverse approach helps maintain focus and identifies challenges early on.
Let problems breathe; they often solve themselves. In the face of a crisis, instead of reacting immediately, wait. Often, the person who highlights the problem finds a solution on their own.
Plan taking into account you know shit about the future. The best plan is the one that lets you change your plans.
Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable
More often that not, less is more. Example: Good design is as little design as possible.
Never stop playing. Never stop stop having fun. We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
If you are on the side of the majority, maybe you’re on the wrong side. The returns in life are being out of the herd. Be an optimist contrarian.
Always look for asymmetric opportunities. Avoid anything where to win you risk a big loss. Look for big winning opportunities with limited loses.
Never try to please everybody. It’s impossible. Be happy upsetting someone. Embrace strong reactions.
Embrace pain and struggle. It’s inevitable. Enjoy it. Either pain from discipline or pain from failure. One who sweats more in training bleeds less in war.
Conviction beats consensus. Escape from design by committee.
Don’t take yourself (or anything) too seriously. We’re just a tiny dot in the universe.
Likes don’t pay the bills. Sales do.
Everyone knows how to sell in good times. Few know how to do it when times get complicated.
If it’s difficult, maybe there's something behind. The less you want to do it, the more likely no one is doing it. The easy path will only take you to a crowded place.
There are a million reasons why something can fail, but usually very few reasons why something can work.
Price tells a story. So be mindful on how you define prices.
Economically, life is a delicate balance between striving for financial independence and aiming to die with zero. Ideally, reach both.
The essence of good marketing through advertising is to transport the reader into the scene, to make him or her want to belong in the picture (or video). This is why usually featuring persons, faces or hands perform better.
Keep insisting. The more nos I get, the closer I am to that yes. I've come to actually appreciate the nos.
When in doubt: NO. Or as Derek Sivers says: Hell Yes, or Not.
Learn to enjoy on the way to reach your targets, because when you reach them either they won’t bring you the joy you thought or you’ll be moving the goalpost.
Write. Write things down. Write about ideas because you’ll forget about them. Write about what worries you. Write lessons learned. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Learning to write requires writing and writing is a very important ability to master.
Take notes while reading. Highlight, annotate and make (searchable) book summaries.
Search accountability. Be public so the public keeps you accountable.
Consistency and doing small things every day is unbeatable over the long term. Consistency trumps quantity. Consistently doing the boring things you know you should do exactly when you feel like doing them the least.
Don’t be late. When someone makes you wait, all their flaws come to mind.
Ignore the news. They are designed around angst and negativity.
Exercise daily. Daily exercise is as helpful as eating or sleeping, so why don’t exercise daily?. A little bit on days without time is enough. Pushups and squats are simple and effective exercise that require less than 5-10 minutes.
Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. Always under-promise and over-deliver.
Be impatient with actions, but patient with the results. Everything meaningful takes time. You have to be patient because you play the long game and think long term. And you have to be impatient because you don't let a day pass without doing something that brings you closer to your long-term vision.
Lead by serving others. Always look for ways to give value to others without asking or expecting anything in return.
History doesn't repeat but it rhymes. We must learn from history to better understand the future, but history can't predict the future as we're constantly creating it.
Don't hoard things. Things weigh. Things need space. Things suck oxygen. And not just physically but mentally. If you have enough with one bicycle, why having two? You have to store them, take care of them, transport them, etc... The same with non-tangible things like stocks. The more you have, the more you have to worry, to read about the companies, to know in depth ... better to own little but good. Only things that deliver joy.
Be as clear and simple as possible when you communicate. Reduce and make it easy. What we think we are saying and what others actually hear are two different things . And people make decisions not based on what we say but on what they hear.
Traveling is always net positive. Do it. For me I prefer to go on holidays while others are working and spend August at home, working less, avoiding the crowds and dedicating a week for small home improvement projects or purchases. Also a great time to increase the exercise output and to read something inspirational and/or educative.
You are not as good as you believed when things went well. You're not as bad as you believe when things are going south. And viceversa.
Enjoy today. Enjoy now. It won’t come back.
You’re gonna die.