Top 10 Practical Ideas from Magic Words by Jonah Berger
Here’s a concise summary of the most powerful and practical language techniques from Jonah Berger’s Magic Words.
1. Turn Actions into Identities
Use nouns instead of verbs to activate identity and encourage action. ✅ Example: Say “Be a voter” instead of “Please vote.”
2. Change “Can’t” to “Don’t”
Saying “I don’t eat sweets” is more empowering than “I can’t eat sweets.” ✅ It frames behavior as a choice, not a restriction.
3. Use Present Tense to Show Confidence
Using the present tense makes statements feel more certain and ongoing. ✅ “This book is amazing” sounds more persuasive than “was amazing.”
4. Ditch Hedges and Hesitations
Avoid phrases like “I think” or filler words like “um” and “uh.” ✅ Use confident language like “definitely,” “clearly,” or “absolutely.”
5. Ask More and Better Questions
Questions build rapport and credibility—especially follow-ups and advice-seeking questions. ✅ “What could I do?” sparks more creativity than “What should I do?”
6. Be Concrete When It Counts
Concrete language makes you more relatable and persuasive. ✅ Say “refund your $25 today” instead of “we’ll take care of it.” Use how to be concrete. Use why to stay abstract and visionary.
7. Match or Break the Norms Strategically
Fit in when you want to build trust (job interviews, teamwork). Stand out when innovation or creativity is valued (marketing, art). ✅ Adapt your style to the goal.
A brilliant book reminding people that we are all free to express ourselves creatively no matter what our place in society. The book is a reminder of the true definition of art and a great lens into what it really means to be an artist. It is also a “call to action” and leaves a good outline on how to harness our own unique creative processes.
“Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.”
Just being alive means taking in all the inputs of life and expressing what we perceive. Paying attention to the world around us and being willing to express is the process of being creative.
In discussing how to harness the process he shares that the imagination has no limits. The physical world does. The work exists in both.
Look for clues…Look for what you notice but no one else sees.
Being an artist takes practice.
“We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world”
Lower the stakes, start small…
“We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play. And ultimately, playing is fun.”
“The purpose of the work is to awaken something in you first, and then allow something to be awakened in others.”
“Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is not to fit in. If anything, it’s to amplify the differences…”
The importance of patience….
“When it comes to the creative process, patience is accepting that the majority of the work we do is out of our control. We can’t force greatness to happen. All we can do is invite it in and await it actively. Not anxiously, as this might scare it off. Simply in a state of continual welcoming.”
Setting the tone for inspiration…
“Beginner’s mind is starting from a pure childlike place of not knowing. Living in the moment with as few fixed beliefs as possible.”
“For the mind to draw inspiration, it wants space to welcome the new. The universe seeks balance. Through this absence, you are inviting energy in.”
“Taken more spiritually, inspiration means to breathe life into.”
Importance of habits…
“Good habits create good art. The way we do anything is the way we do everything.
Discipline is not a lack of freedom, it is a harmonious relationship with time.”
Experimentation…
“If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of the artist.”
“Failure is the information you need to get where you’re going.”
The Goal of Art…
“The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world.”
“Artists allow us to see what we are unable to see, but somehow already know.”
“When making art, we create a mirror in which someone may see their own hidden reflection.”
“The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough.”
“In the end, you are the only one who has to love it. This work is for you.”
The Abundance Mindset…
“Each mindset evokes a universal rule: whatever we concentrate on, we get. If the mind creates a world that is limited, where we think we don’t have enough worthwhile ideas or material, we will not see the inspiration the universe is providing.”
Success…
“Most variables are completely out of our control. The only ones we can control are doing our best work, sharing it, starting the next, and not looking back.
If we can tune in to the idea of making things and sharing them without being attached to the outcome, the work is more likely to arrive in its truest form.”
“And remember that commercial success is completely out of your control. All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”
Curiosity…
“The heart of open-mindedness is curiosity. Curiosity doesn’t take sides or insist on a single way of doing things. It explores all perspectives. Always open to new ways, always seeking to arrive at original insights. Craving constant expansion, it looks upon the outer limits of the mind with wonder. It pushes to expose falsely set boundaries and break through to new frontiers.”
Purpose…
“When we’re making things we love, our mission is accomplished. There’s nothing at all to figure out.
Think to yourself: I’m just here to create.”
“Sharing art is the price of making it. Exposing your vulnerability is the fee.
A work of art is not an end point in itself. It’s a station on a journey. A chapter in our lives. We acknowledge these transitions by documenting each of them.”
Why Make Art?
“As human beings, we come and go quickly, and we get to make works that stand as monuments to our time here.”
“I was here.”
“The reason we’re alive is to express ourselves in the world. And creating art may be the most effective and beautiful method of doing so. Art goes beyond language, beyond lives.”
“It’s a universal way to send messages between each other and through time.”
One of my favorite books, “Influence” by Robert Cialdini. This was a great interview on how the principles he wrote about so long ago are still as effective as ever.
Some great examples throughout the discussion.
Warren Buffett starts his annual letters highlighting an investment mistake they made. This is called a “credibility enhancer”. Demonstrated honesty, his investors will believe what he says next.
Say, “Of course, I was glad to help. It’s what long-term partners do for one another. If the situation was reversed, you’d do the same.”
“Ramon Van Meer (@RamonVanMeer) joins Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) to discuss why he prefers to buy businesses rather than build them, his best tools for new business research, how to make sure you’re not buying a lemon, learning to code in a week, and much more.”
I am continually fascinated by buying internet businesses. This was a great discussion on how to start, different resources and specific companies like Centurica that can be helpful in the due diligence.
Podcast – Tim Ferris: #541: Eric Schmidt – The Promises and Perils of AI, the Future of Warfare, Profound Revolutions on the Horizon, and Exploring the Meaning of Life: #541: Eric Schmidt
I am going to listen to this one again. It is a great overview of the different phases AI has gone through and what we may expect. I particularly appreciated the part on how AI can be used to benefit society. A lot to digest and think about.
A deep dive into the Metaverse economy. This is a great listen for those trying to understand the developing world that pays users to play. Helping me understand what are truly digital assets and how to value/think about going forward.
“The Practice: Shipping Creative Work”
(Seth Godin)
Review and highlights
Seth Godin’s
most recent book, “The Practice: Shipping Creative Work” captures a
central theme in all his writings, podcasts, presentations, and blogs. The
professional becomes a professional only when consistently putting themselves
on the line by creating consistent content and sharing it regularly with ship
dates.
This is a
helpful guide, reminder, and motivator to anyone looking to start a practice in
creating their own art. When re-reading my highlighted sections I was quite
inspired to do “something”. It is a call to action like many of his works.
Seth breaks his
work into 219 specific thoughts, each its own point but all supporting
the overall credo.
Some of my
highlights and thoughts:
Shipping, because it doesn’t count if you don’t
share it.
Creative, because you’re not a cog in the system.
You’re a creator, a problem solver, a generous leader who is making things better by producing a new
way forward.
Seth is clearly
calling EVERYONE to action and making us accountable to the lives we have been
gifted and the responsibility we have to make our work matter.
I think the
following is the most crucial reminder for anyone embarking on creative work:
The
practice is not the means to the output, the practice is the
output, because the practice is all we can control.
The
practice demands that we approach our process with commitment. It acknowledges
that creativity is not an event, it’s simply what we do, whether or not
we’re in the mood.
We are all conditioned to only focus on
the outcome. That defines our success and the drives us to hide and supports
our fear. This way of thinking is very freeing. Seth is reminding us of the
freedom we have to not worry about the outcome. Our commitment, consistency,
and sharing are all drivers of our true impact.
For
the work we’d like to do, the reward comes from the fact that there is no
guarantee, that the path isn’t well lit, that we cannot possibly be sure it’s
going to work.
This is Art
Not
painting, but art: the act of doing something that might not work, simply
because it’s a generous thing to do.
Artists
make change happen. You’re an artist as soon as you announce you are.
Art
is what we call it whenwe’re able to create something new that changes
someone.
If
you want to change your story, change your actions first.
Another key to understanding Seth’s
work is to understand that we are all “artists”. He refines the definition by
explaining that art is about creating anything that can change someone. If we
think of our work, our passion, our voice as “art” we can be free to be more
generous in being our natural selves. It is not something forced, it not
something of perfection. It is something we create because our voice needs to
create and share ourselves in some small way.
Finding Your Passion
Our
passion is simply the work we’ve trusted ourselves to do.
The
strategy of “seeking your calling” gives you a marvelous place to hide.
“Do
what you love” is for amateurs. “Love what you do” is the mantra for
professionals.
Passion is an excuse, something we do
to delay doing the work or “practice”. This is revealing of human nature. It is
so easy to wait for your passion to find you. We are obligated to start the
work and passion will follow. This can be really counterintuitive and not
something we were naturally made to practice in formal education settings.
The
practice has nothing at all to do with being sure the work is going to be
successful. That’s a trap.
Start Where You Are
The
only choice we have is to begin. And the only place to begin is where we are.
Simply begin. But begin.
Effective
goals aren’t based on the end result: they are commitments to the process.
Instead
of planning, simply become.
Trust
earns you patience, because once you trust yourself, you can stick with a
practice that most people can’t handle.
The
world conspires to hold us back, but it can’t do that without our permission.
The first take-away from this book is
“just start”. It reminds me of a book I read of the same title. Many
“overnight” successes are people who started small with experiments. They got
feedback from these small starts and adjusted their journey. Too much planning,
trying to minimize risk holds us back from doing anything. Seth suggests that
by just committing to one small practice will ensure we eventually hit a
consistent stride.
Hoarding Is Toxic
Abundance
multiplies. Scarcity subtracts.
The Best Reason to Say “No”
It
might be that the most generous thing to do is to disappoint someone in the short
run.
Generous
doesn’t always mean saying yes to the urgent or failing to prioritize.
Practical Empathy
It’s
impossible to be appropriately generous to everyone. Change someone. And, as
Hugh MacLeod said, “Ignore everyone.”
Shun the Nonbelievers
Choose
to make work that matters a great deal to someone.
Selling Is Difficult
But
what if you recast your profession as a chance to actually solve someone’s
problem?
Where Is Your Hour?
The
difficult part is becoming the kind of person who goes to the gym every day.
You
manage to find an hour every day to bathe, to eat, to commute, to watch
Netflix, to check your email, to hang out, to swipe at your phone, to read the
news, to clean the kitchen.
At
least once you’ve said or done something insightful, generous, and original.
At
least once you’ve solved a problem or given someone a hand by shining a light.
The
practice simply asks you to do it more than once, to do it often enough that it
becomes your practice.
Setting a time is the key to starting a
practice. Put it on your calendar and keep it sacred. If you miss once, don’t
miss twice.
Generous Doesn’t Mean Free
Too
often, we come to believe that giving it away, removing money from the
interaction, is the most generous thing we can do. But that’s not the case.
Money
supports our commitment to the practice.
Money
is how our society signifies enrollment.
The
person who has paid for your scarce time and scarce output is more likely to
value it, to share it, and to take it seriously.
Choose Your Clients, Choose Your Future
To
please the masses, you must pander to average.
Better
clients demand better work.
Better
clients want you to push the envelope, win awards, and challenge their
expectations.
Better
clients pay on time.
Better
clients talk about you and your work.
I could not agree
with this more. No matter who your clients are, what your product is, or what
your market is, people are people. Choosing who you want to serve will help
drive your art. Great clients give you more than stable cash flow. They can
challenge you, teach you, and help make your work even more powerful.
Who Can You Reach?
First,
find ten. Ten people who care enough about your work to enroll in the journey
and then to bring others along.
You Can’t Reach Everyone
More and More Specific, Please
What’s It for?
Consistency Is the Way Forward
Not
sameness. Not repetition. Simply work that rhymes.
That
sounds like you.
We
make a promise and we keep it.
Where Do We Put the Tired?
The
only difference between the tens of thousands of people who finish the marathon
and those that don’t is that the finishers figured out where to put their
tired. And the same goes for our art.
Forward
motion is the only sort of motion that we’re interested in.
When
we stop worrying about whether we’ve done it perfectly, we can focus on the
process instead.
We
don’t write because we feel like it. We feel like it because we write.
Write until You’re No Longer Afraid to
Write
Write
about your audience, your craft, your challenges.
Write
about the trade-offs, the industry, and your genre.
Write
about your dreams and your fears.
Write
about what’s funny and what’s not.
Write
to clarify.
Write
to challenge yourself.
Write
on a regular schedule.
Writing
isn’t the same as talking, because writing is organized and permanent.
Writing
puts you on the hook. Don’t you want to be on the hook?
This is a great place to start! Take
one bullet above each day and start writing daily, at a given time, and share
everything. These are great prompts and will help keep you going.
Chop Wood and Carry Water
Merely
do the work without commentary. Chop wood, carry water. Anchor up. “Yes, and.”
Ignore
the parts you can’t control.
You Don’t Need More Good Ideas, You
Need More Bad Ideas
First,
focus on making something worth sharing. How small can you make it and still do
something you’re proud of?
People
who will draw up plans. People who will go first.
We
promise to ship, we don’t promise the result.
What
will I tell my friends? Begin with genre. Understand it. Master it. Then change
it.
A Roundup of Tips and Tricks for
Creators
Build
streaks.
Do
the work every single day.
Blog
daily. Write daily. Ship daily. Show up daily.
Find
your streak and maintain it.
Talk
about your streaks to keep honest.
Seek
the smallest viable audience. Make it for someone, not everyone.
Avoid
shortcuts. Seek the most direct path instead.
Find
and embrace genre.
Seek
out desirable difficulty.
Don’t
talk about your dreams with people who want to protect you from heartache.
Make
Assertions
Attitude.
The best swimmers bring a different attitude to their training. They choose to
find delight in the parts that other swimmers avoid. This is their practice.
In
the powerful, horizontal organization, each of us decides what to learn next,
who to talk with next, and what to move up on the agenda.
This
new freedom requires us to find a habit that will lead us to share our voices,
even when it’s inconvenient or frightening.
Overall, this book is a calling for
everyone and anyone. Setting the practice consistently without excuses and
providing a structure for success. Seth is an inspiration not because he writes
about his success or others. He is an inspiration because he looks at the world
in a unique way and reminds us that we are all humans who have a responsibility
to be generous with our true selves.
Psychology
of Money (Morgan Housel) – Brief Book Review (February 2020)
Morgan Housel’s “Psychology
of Money” is easy to read and typical to his style in sharing his point of
view through specific stories. This is a compact book on behavioral
finance; however, not relying on new ground. One of the main themes is that
financial success is not a hard science that relies on complex math-based
skills. It is a soft skill where success relies more on our behavior than what
we know. He explores behavioral biases humans have when it comes to money,
overreliance on studying extreme examples of success and failure, how humans
assess risk, and several others.
The stories are
meant to re-enforce the role our behavior plays in investment and life success
and outlines ways we can better frame decisions we make. Some of the more
useful discussions were discussions on compounding, “The first rule of
compounding is to never interrupt it unnecessarily.”; the role that “tails”
play in outcomes, “Tails drive everything.”; and timely, “Bubbles
form when the momentum of short-term returns attracts enough money that the
makeup of investors shifts from mostly long-term to mostly short-term.”
Also, what we learn when we are surprised by something, we want to make sure we
don’t repeat that “mistake”. However, “…the world is difficult to
anticipate. That’s the correct lesson to learn from surprises: that the world
is surprising. We should use past surprises as an admission that we have no
idea what might happen next.”
Overall, there
is no new material in this book. However, Morgan does a great job of breaking
down some of the key behavioral limitations all people face and how we can make
better decisions in regard to investing, saving, and succeeding. This is a
great book also for a teenager or those just learning about finance/investing.
Sharing a list of books I have read and recommend in several different areas. The beauty of this list is that is a reflection of all the generosity of others sharing their ideas and suggestions.
These books represent my ongoing education. I look forward to hearing some of your suggestions, please share!
Book List (updated 11/10/2020)
General:
The Great Mental Models (Shane Parrish)
A Championship Season at Notre Dame – The
Fighting Spirit (Lou Holtz with John Heisler)
The Talent Code – Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s
Grown, Here’s How (Daniel Coy)
Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval
Noah Harari)
Our Boys – A Perfect Season on The Plains with the Smith Center Redmen (Joe
Drape)
Biographies:
Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
John Adams (David McCullough)
Chapters In My Life (Frederick Taylor Gates)
Titan – John Rockefeller (Ron Chernow)
Life Is So Good (LeVar Burton, George Dawson)
Jack Welch: Winning (Welch)
Sales/Marketing Skills:
This is Marketing (Seth Godin)
What to Do When It’s Your Turn (And it’s Always
Your Turn) (Seth Godin)
Little Red Book of Selling (Jeffrey Gitomer)
The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales
System Proven Successful by the World’s Best Companies (Robert Miller, Stephen
Heiman)
Self-Improvement:
How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale
Carnegie)
The Magic of Thinking Big (David Schwartz, PhD)
Influence (Robert Cialdini)
Stillness is The Key (Ryan Holiday)
Atomic Habits (James Clear)
Grit (Angela Duckworth)
Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty,
Create the Future (Leonard Schlesinger)
The War of Art (Steven Pressfield)
Tools of Titans (Tim Ferris)
Tribe of Mentors (Tim Ferris)
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen
Covey)
Business General:
Shoe Dog (Phil Knight)
Linchpin (Seth Godin)
The Icarus Deception (Seth Godin)
Good to Great (Jim Collins)
Built to Last (Jim Collins)
Halo Effect (Phil Rosenzweig)
The Monk and The Riddle: The Education of a
Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (Randy Komisar)
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized
World (David Epstein)
Red Notice (Bill Browder)
The Trusted Advisor (David Maister)
The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
Moneyball (Michael Lewis)
Barbarians at the Gate (Bryan Burrough and John
Heylar)
Investing:
The Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel)
More Money Than God (Sebastian Mallaby)
The Little Book That Beats the Market (Joel
Greenblatt)
The Big Short (Michael Lewis)
The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham)
Pioneering Portfolio Management (David Swensen)
What Works on Wall Street (James O’Shaughnessy)
Margin of Safety (Seth Klarman)
Devil Take the Hindmost (Edward Chancellor)
Liars Poker (Michael Lewis)
Economics:
The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
The World is Flat (Friedman)
Networking:
Never Eat Alone (Keith Ferrazzi)
The Little Black Book of Connections (Jeffrey
Gitomer)
Philosophy:
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (Eric Jorgenson)
Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl)
Chop Wood, Carry Water (Joshua Medcalf)
12 Rules For Life (Jordan Peterson)
Letters from a Stoic (Seneca)
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom,
Perseverance, and the Art of Living (Ryan Holiday)
Parenting:
Parent Effectiveness Training (Dr. Thomas Gordon)
The Nurture Assumption (Judith Rich Harris, Paula
Parker)
History:
Caste: The Origins of Our Disconnects (Isabel
Wilkerson)
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in
Northern Ireland (Patirck Radden Keefe)
The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at
Home and Abroad (Fareed Zakaria)
These are my favorite parts of this insightful look into how we think and make decisions:
In life and business, the person with the fewest blind spots wins.
This book is about avoiding problems.
Contrary to what we’re led to believe, thinking better isn’t about being a genius. It is about the processes we use to uncover reality and the choices we make once we do.
First, we’re so afraid about what others will say about us that we fail to put our ideas out there and subject them to criticism. This way we can always be right. Second, if we do put our ideas out there and they are criticized, our ego steps in to protect us. We become invested in defending instead of upgrading our ideas.
Most geniuses—especially those who lead others—prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities.
What you need is to understand the principles, so that when the details change you are still able to identify what is really going on. This is part of what makes the Great Mental Models so valuable—understanding the principles, you can easily change tactics to apply the ones you need.
The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect.
In order to use a map or model as accurately as possible, we should take three important considerations into account: Reality is the ultimate update. Consider the cartographer. Maps can influence territories.
A circle of competence cannot be built quickly.
Three key practices needed in order to build and maintain a circle of competence: curiosity and a desire to learn, monitoring, and feedback.
First principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated situations and unleash creative possibility.
Socratic questioning generally follows this process: Clarifying your thinking and explaining the origins of your ideas. (Why do I think this? What exactly do I think?)
Challenging assumptions. (How do I know this is true? What if I thought the opposite?)
Looking for evidence. (How can I back this up? What are the sources?)
Considering alternative perspectives. (What might others think? How do I know I am correct?)
Examining consequences and implications. (What if I am wrong? What are the consequences if I am?)
Questioning the original questions. (Why did I think that? Was I correct? What conclusions can I draw from the reasoning process?)
If they end up with a “because I said so” or “it just is”, you know you have landed on an assumption that may be based on popular opinion, cultural myth, or dogma. These are not first principles.
Second-order thinking is thinking farther ahead and thinking holistically. It requires us to not only consider our actions and their immediate consequences, but the subsequent effects of those actions as well.
Two areas where second-order thinking can be used to great benefit: Prioritizing long-term interests over immediate gains. Constructing effective arguments.
Probabilistic thinking is essentially trying to estimate, using some tools of math and logic, the likelihood of any specific outcome coming to pass.
Think about not only what you could do to solve a problem, but what you could do to make it worse—and then avoid doing that or eliminate the conditions that perpetuate it.
Simply invert, always invert, when you are stuck.
“Anybody can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” Charles Mingus
Simpler explanations are more likely to be true than complicated ones. This is the essence of Occam’s Razor, a classic principle of logic and problem-solving.
With limited time and resources, focusing on simplicity when all others are focused on complexity is a hallmark of genius, and it’s easier said than done.
Hanlon’s Razor – We over-conclude based on the available information. We have no trouble packaging in unrelated factors if they happen to occur in proximity to what we already believe.
“To be steady while the world spins around you. To act
without frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude –
exterior and interior – on command.”
I finished this book in late February and the irony of its
timing was not lost on me. It provides a clear insight into the unharnessed
power of being still. Not something I am very good at, so caught
my interest from the beginning. How can being still enhance our individual
effort and help me get the most out of my life and work? In today’s confusing
time of semi-isolation from our routines and daily systems, the message was
well appreciated. I have already introduced several of these ideas into my new
quarantine routine and hope they will become permanent habits.
Below are a few of my favorite passages, highlights and
notes:
“All of humanity’s problems,” Blaise Pascal said in 1654,
“stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room lone.”
BECOME PRESENT
“People don’t understand that the hardest thing is
actually doing something that is close to nothing.”
“Remember, there’s no greatness in the future. Or
clarity. Or insight. Or happiness. Or peace. There is only this moment.”
“Make what you can of what you have been given. Live
what can be lived. That’s what excellence is.”
LIMIT YOUR INPUTS
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of
attention” – Herbert Simon
In his mediations, Marcus Aurelius says, “Ask yourself
at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
EMPTY THE MIND
Epictetus, Marcus’s
philosophical predecessor, was in fact speaking about sports when he said, “If
we’re anxious or nervous when we make the catch or throw, what will become of
the game, and how can one maintain one’s composure; how can one see what is
coming next?”
We’ve all experienced
that—Don’t mess up. Don’t mess up. Don’t forget, we say to ourselves—and what
happens? We do exactly what we were trying not to do!
SEEK WISDOM
Wisdom is a sense of
the big picture, the accumulation of experience and the ability to rise above
the biases, the traps that catch lazier thinkers.
Put yourself in tough
situations. Accept challenges. Familiarize yourself with the unfamiliar.
FIND CONFIDENCE,
AVOID EGO
Confident people know
what matters. They know when to ignore other people’s opinions. They don’t
boast or lie to get ahead (and then struggle to deliver).
Confidence is the
freedom to set your own standards and unshackle yourself from the need to prove
yourself.
Don’t feed
insecurity. Don’t feed delusions of grandeur. Both are obstacles to stillness.
Be confident. You’ve earned it.
LET GO
Set thy heart upon
thy work, but never on its reward. Work not for the reward; but never cease to
do thy work.
What we need in life,
in the arts, in sports, is to loosen up, to become flexible, to get to a place
where there is nothing in our way—including our own obsession with certain
outcomes.
We’ll get the
stillness we need if we focus on the individual steps, if we embrace the
process, and give up chasing.
We’ll think better if
we aren’t thinking so hard.
CHOOSE VIRTUE
The essence of
greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
Virtue, the Stoics
believed, was the highest good—the summum bonum—and should be the principle
behind all our actions.
Virtue is not
holiness, but rather moral and civic excellence in the course of daily life.
When we’re going into
a tough assignment, we can say to ourselves over and over again, “Strength and
courage.”
Virtue, on the other
hand, as crazy as it might seem, is a far more attainable and sustainable way
to succeed.
Give more. Give what you didn’t get. Love more. Drop the
old story. Try it, if you can.
ENOUGH
“When you realize
there is nothing lacking,” Lao Tzu says, “the whole world belongs to you.”
If you believe there
is ever some point where you will feel like you’ve “made it,” when you’ll finally
be good, you are in for an unpleasant surprise.
You will never feel
okay by way of external accomplishments. Enough comes from the inside.
ACCEPT A HIGHER POWER
Because Step 2 isn’t
really about God. It’s about surrender. It’s about faith.
You have to believe
in something. You just have to. Or else everything is empty and cold.
It’s not that we need
to believe that God is great, only that God is greater than us.
ENTER RELATIONSHIPS
Being close to and
connecting with other people challenges every facet of our soul.
We have to be active
for the stillness to have any meaning.
THE DOMAIN OF THE
BODY
Churchill’s best
biographers, would write, “The balance he maintained between flat-out work and
creative and restorative leisure is worth study by anyone holding a top
position.”
“Every night,” he
said, “I try myself by court martial to see if I have done anything effective
during the day. I don’t mean just pawing the ground—anyone can go through the
motions—but something really effective.”
Epicurus once said
that the wise will accomplish three things in their life: leave written works
behind them, be financially prudent and provide for the future, and cherish
country living.
SAY NO
“The advantages of
nonaction. Few in the world attain these.” —THE DAODEJING
“No, because if I
said yes to you, I’d have to say yes to everyone.”
When we know what to
say no to, we can say yes to the things that matter.
TAKE A WALK
Life is a path, he
liked to say, we have to walk it.
Get lost. Be
unreachable. Go slowly.
BUILD A ROUTINE
The greats know that
complete freedom is a nightmare. They know that order is a prerequisite of
excellence and that in an unpredictable world, good habits are a safe haven of
certainty.
Discipline, then, is
how we maintain that freedom.
GET RID OF YOUR STUFF
“For property is
poverty and fear; only to have possessed something and to have let go of it
means carefree ownership.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“If a man can reduce
his needs to zero,” he said, “he is truly free: there is nothing that can be
taken from him and nothing anyone can do to hurt him” (Seneca)
SEEK SOLITUDE
It’s difficult to
understand yourself if you are never by yourself.
BE A HUMAN BEING
Good decisions are
not made by those who are running on empty.
GO TO SLEEP
FIND A HOBBY
Leisure is not the
absence of activity, it is activity. What is absent is external justification –
you can’t do leisure for pay, you can’t do it to impress people. You have to do
it for you.
Leisure can be
anything.
When we take
something relaxing and turn it into a compulsion, it’s not leisure, because we’re
no longer choosing it. There is no stillness in that.
We must be
disciplined about our discipline and moderate in our moderation.
BEWARE ESCAPISM
ACT BRAVELY
“To see people who
will notice a need in the world and do something about it…Those are my heroes.”
– Fred Rogers
Action is what
matters.
ON TO THE FINAL ACT
The prognosis is
terminal for each and every person and has been from the moment we were born.
Our heart beats without fail for an uncertain amount of time, and then one day,
suddenly, it is still.
An
interesting book which explores how talent is developed. The author (Daniel
Coyle) illustrates using examples and studies done that suggest talent has less
to do with your genetic and that it’s actually born through the biological
process of building and strengthening the biological structure, Myelin.
Myelin
is a mixture of proteins and phospholipids that form a whitish insulating
sheath around many nerve fibers, increasing the speed at which impulses are
conducted. As described in the book, the more we fire a particular circuit, the
more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent
our movements and thoughts become. “Skill is myelin insulation that wraps
neural circuits and that grows according to certain signals.”
Coyle
studies “talent hotbeds” to find out what creates these specific areas of
greatness; whether soccer players in Brazil or women golfers in Korea. How they
seemingly come out of nowhere and produce amazing hotbeds of talent. He uses
specific examples of how greatness can be grown through “deep practice”.
Deep
Practice
In
order to get your skill circuit to fire optimally, you must by definition fire the
circuit suboptimally, this is the essence of “deep practice”. This is
how talent is grown; through specific highly targeted, error-focused process.
The
best example of deep practice is the game of “futsal”, popular among Brazilian soccer
players. Futsal is played with a ball half the size of a regulation soccer ball
and is twice as heavy; and played on a field that is much smaller. This allows
the players to experience deep practice in two important ways.
The
smaller field provides greater interaction; and requires greater precision of
movements. The heavier ball requires players to become more creative and
skilled with their ball skills. When the players play on a regulation filed,
their deep practice shows because they feel like they have much more room.
Deep
practice requires lots of energy. This leads us to the second element of the
talent code, “ignition”.
Ignition
The
only way to develop talent is to make tons of mistakes, and correct mistakes
throughout practice, mistakes need to be embraced. Without making mistakes, you
cannot build enough or strong enough myelin, and you cannot be truly skilled.
Ignition
supplies the energy, while deep practice translates that energy over time into
forward progress. Ignition is typically a response to a signal that arrived in
the form of an image.
The
book suggests that talent requires deep practice, deep practice requires vast amounts
of energy, and primal cues trigger huge outpourings of energy.
The
KIPP school is used as an example of how the ignition can be triggered. The
primal cues the school provides immediately to new students helps them fall
into three categories: You belong to a group, your group is together in a
strange and dangerous new world, that new world is shaped like a mountain, with
the paradise of college at the top. The only way to reach them is to change the
way they see themselves.
Coaching
The
book highlights some examples of “master coaches” that have mastered methods
for providing the ignition in their students. The examples don’t fit the
stereotypical behaviors of what one may think of when they think of effective
coaches. Coyle highlights, John Wooden (UCLA) who uses an “error-centered,
well-planned, information-rich” approach. Wooden would tailor his message in
short, pinpointed specific instructions, “crisp passes, really snap them.”
Importantly, he listened way more than he spoke and was not known for giving
loud impassioned speeches.
Another
“talent whisper” Coyle compared to Wooden was a piano teacher, Mary Epperson. She
was a good teacher because she could create and sustain motivation. She did
this by treating children as miniature adults and doesn’t shy away from pointed
truths. She praises just enough, provides specific instruction and keeps the
students engaged in doing it until it is perfect.
The
book provides good support for the author’s thesis that the development of
myelin through specific deep practice can lead to talent development. The
“ignition” needed for this type of deep practice is something I believe needs
further study; how it develops in some and how we can use it to develop talent
for specific people. It would also be interesting to study how much genetics
play a role if myelin development is truly the key to mastering talent.
Marketing has long been synonymous with “advertising”. This mispresents
the true responsibility of marketing. Real
marketing is genuine, generous and about true connections.
Seth’ book highlights the importance for everyone (and everyone is
truly a ‘marketer’) to make this shift in how they think about the responsibility
of marketing.
Here are some of the most impactful ideas from the book and what they
mean to me:
“People aren’t
going to spread the word because it’s important to you. They’ll only do it
because it’s important to them.”
I am not aware of a more important statement about the key to
successful marketing, networking, selling, influencing. This is a key reason
why people fail in marketing. It is against human nature to shift the focus
from “me” and focus on “someone else”. I believe that the closer you can get to
truly understanding the person you are trying to market to the more successful
you will be. It seems the most effective way is to market something worth
marketing.
“We sell
feelings, status, and connection, not tasks or stuff.”
This is the
essence of understanding who you are looking to serve. Understand how they want
to feel and what will make them feel that way. Give them that! Don’t market leveraging
lower prices, or products that are easy for you to leverage to the masses. Start
with how you want people to feel and work backwards on trying to find out how
you can make them feel good, give them a higher sense of status, and connect
them more genuinely.
“Show
up—regularly, consistently, and generously, for years and years—to organize and
lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make.”
Several times
in the book Seth connects marketing to making change. If you can make real
change, you can effectively market. Showing up consistently is key because it builds
trust. When people trust you, they want to be influenced by you and they want
to follow you.
“Perhaps it
makes more sense to begin with a hurdle you can leap.”
Like anything
else, marketing takes practice. Starting with a huge obstacle can be counterproductive.
Better to start with something you can build early success and confidence with
and build from there. The more important part is to start. Start when you are
not ready.
“Find a
position on the map where you, and you alone, are the perfect answer.”
This is key,
the combination of unique and something valued gives you the strongest marketing
starting point. This is the work, finding this position. Spend your time exploring
where you can find your unique position on the map.
“Your work is
not for everyone. It’s only for those who signed up for the journey.”
This is related to the last quote, find a unique spot where you can be
the perfect answer for the perfect few. Making something wonderful for just the
“few” is more rewarding, more generous, and definitely more genuine.
“Perhaps
instead of talking about prospects and customers, we could call them your
“students” instead.”
Teaching without expecting anything back can be a very effective marketing strategy. Teach what you want to learn, chances are these people you seek want to learn something similar. These small changes in our mindset, how we define our work (students vs. prospects) can create real changes in our success.
