I wasn’t naturally a good basketball player. I didn’t start playing the sport until 5th grade, and I made my 7th grade basketball team by a razor’s margin. Yet I was able to develop into one of the best players in my county by my senior year of high school. And by that time, a …
The word “or” is often used as a crutch. One of my favorite examples comes from Ramit Sethi. He talks about the college admission process, and an interesting answer on the FAQ page for one of the top schools in the country. The question that was posed was roughly, “Is it better to take an …
For the past few weeks, I’ve been carrying this coin in my pocket as a reminder. Not because I’m morbid, or because I like thinking about death. But rather because I want to make the most of the time I have while I’m alive. On the front of the coin there’s a skull, a tulip, and …
I grew up under the impression that life was a journey. That I was on my way to some finish line, with clear checkpoints along the way. But over the past couple of years, this mindset has come into question. Just a few months ago, I wrote an article that I called Embracing the Journey. …
I’ve written before about my past struggles with the interview process. When I went on the job hunt for the first time in college, I was terrible. I didn’t understand how the process worked, and I was incredibly ineffective at telling a compelling story during the interview. I used to think that job interviews were …
As a Michigan alum, I hate Michigan State football. I can’t stand their coach, and I root against their alumni in the NFL. I feel dirty just thinking about wearing green and white. But there’s one aspect of Michigan State football than I have to admire. More than any other team that I’ve ever seen, …
Last week, I touched on the idea of macro patience. In the big picture, patience is the only way to go. Success takes time. But in the short term, there’s more to the equation. As GaryVee puts it, you need micro speed. Looking back to Chance the Rapper, I highlighted the fact that he was patient …
Speed and patience. Somewhere at the intersection of these ideas lies the formula for sustained success. At first thought, speed and patience seem to be direct opposites. Being patient typically means that you aren’t moving very quickly. But the magic happens when you change your perspective, which is how Gary Veynerchuck looks at it. The …
There’s an interesting story in the book Art and Fear by David Bayles about an experiment that was conducted in a ceramics class. The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity …
Few things in life are permanent. You can’t get ripped by going to the gym once, or by eating clean for a week. Putting in one day of work won’t make you significantly better at anything. In some ways, that makes things challenging. Almost everything meaningful in life comes through consistent progress. Feeling inspired and …