“To be successful, you don't have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren't - consistent, determined and willing to work for it. No shortcuts."
~ Tom Brady
“There is no better teacher than history in determining the future—there are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.”
— Charlie Munger
Every book Charlie Munger has recommended since 1994:
Vinod Khosla on the right way to execute a business plan
Vinod Khosla, who founded Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, likes to say:
“Be obstinate about your vision, but be really flexible about your tactics.”
He explains what he means by this:
“It’s important to have a vision of where you’re trying to go, but how you get there is a series of experiments… What entrepreneurs do is effectual reasoning. They have a big vision, but they don’t try and get there in one leap… You take a step in the right direction so you can garner more resources and then try the next experiment… You try and garner resources for the next step, every step — not do the whole thing in one step.”
This, Vinod believes, is one of the reasons raising too much money can lead founders astray:
“People who raise too much money get too much confidence in their own plan, which is normally BS. The right way to do a business plan is flex-planning: have a vision, but plan the next 3-6 months to test every assumption you have. A business plan is about testing every assumption. Even if you’re sure it’s true, test it if you can in the marketplace by running an experiment.”
He gives another analogy for the point he’s trying to make:
“You want to shoot for Mount Everest, but nobody ever got to Mount Everest without getting to base camp first. You build a base camp of a stable place where you’ve learned a lot and where you can tread water for a while… Maybe you get to cash flow breakeven at base camp. But you want to set up base camp where it helps you scope out the path to Mount Everest.”
Video source: @StartupGrind (2015)
Steve Jobs on the most important job of a CEO
“The greatest people are self-managing. They don’t need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it… What they need is a common vision, and that’s what leadership is. Leadership is having a vision, being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it, and getting consensus on a common vision.”
Steve continues:
“We wanted people who were insanely great at what they did… and the neatest thing that happens when you get a core group ten great people is that it becomes self-policing as to who they let into that group. So I consider the most important job of someone like myself is recruiting.”
Today, I am grieving.
My wedding was to be at the end of October and was postponed. Today, my engagement was ended.
The Lord is sovereign, and, even better, he is Good.
I once chased a girl who treated me like a Roomba that kept bumping into her emotional furniture. I’d text something funny, she’d respond two days later with “lol.” Not even capitalized. Just a lowercase “lol”. And there I was, studying that tiny “l” like it was a clue to treasure.
At some point, a man needs to look in the mirror and realize he’s auditioning for a role the casting director already gave to someone else. Life gets better the moment you stop performing circus tricks for someone who can’t even clap.
Men think persistence is romantic, but it’s only romantic when she’s actually into you. Otherwise you’re a guy trying to sell solar panels to a house that runs on darkness.
Walk away. Don’t announce it. Don’t send a speech about your worth. Just disappear. The moment you stop chasing, she’ll suddenly remember you exist. And that’s when you use your newfound power to go buy yourself a sandwich instead. Maybe extra guac too.
Disney says rizz comes from effort. In reality, rizz comes from not embarrassing yourself.
I played 3.5 years for Liverpool. Times were different back then.
Don’t write anyone off. Support them especially when the media puts pressure on them. It will be worth it.
Wishing all the new signings the best of luck. #LFC#YNWA