Dressing well earns you the respect of others. Being a bit overdressed everywhere, having etiquette, smelling good, and having good hygiene is a life hack. People will treat you well, they’ll form a higher opinion of you, and you’ll attract more opportunities in life because you’re showing the world that you respect yourself, and that is magnetic
I asked a wise man: "What is Discipline?"
He simply replied:
"Discipline is training your mind not to give a shit if it's hard, or it hurts, or it sucks. If it needs to get done, it gets done."
The gap between successful and unsuccessful people is smaller than you think.
It's not IQ. It's not connections. It's the willingness to be embarrassed more times.
My own definition of playing the game is
1. Be extremely good at what you do that you’re harder to replace.
2. Communicate exceptionally well, when in doubt, over-communicate.
3. Know how to express yourself in writing or during calls.
4. Be reliable under pressure, someone the team can count on even at the 11th hour.
5. Always spread love and good energy
6. Gift your team mates during holidays and special events and be genuine about it
7. Make managing you feel less of a burden; in essence, you make life and work easier for yourself and your manager.
8. Keep learning and take on new challenges at work.
Underrated life advice: Always take yourself seriously. The way the world treats you is a simple reflection of the way you treat yourself. Always carry yourself like your life matters. Because it does. If you do that, the world will start bending to your reality.
do not be humble. I repeat, do not be humble. people discount everyone's credentials by default unless they see true celebrity status. your humility is not a virtue, it will be seen as weakness and self-doubt and you'll walk away frustrated at being taken for granted and/or undermined repeatedly.
do not fear cringe. do not fear owning what you've earned. so long as you have a steady head on your shoulders, you have no reason to go into the world trying to play 'nice' by lessening yourself.
understand the nature of people, 99% humans think and operate in predictable ways. if you tell them you are a big deal they will be curious and check for the truth. if you tell them you're just an ordinary person with nothing special, they will believe it instantly.
and this is for both men and women. stop hiding behind your humility.
high IQ is a poverty trap. let me explain.
recently talked to a guy with 172 IQ. reads philosophy. understands complex systems better than most MBAs.
completely broke.
spends every day researching. perfecting ideas.
waiting for the "right moment" to execute.
scanning "best saas ideas" blogs.
been "building in stealth" for 3 years.
where it gets uncomfortable.
couple months ago i took one of his half-finished concepts he mentioned in passing.
packaged it with maximum conviction.
sold it as an info product to women wanting to build careers in real estate.
$12k/month in 90 days.
product was average.
idea wasn't revolutionary.
i moved fast and marketed ugly.
he's still perfecting version 1.0 while i'm cashing deposits from version 0.3 i built in a weekend.
the psychology is brutal:
intelligence creates options.
options create paralysis.
paralysis creates poverty.
smart people see 47 ways something could fail.
so they "research more." average people see one path forward and sprint.
a gorgeous idea in the hands of someone who overthinks becomes a mental prison.
a mid idea in the hands of someone who executes becomes a money printer.
ideas without execution are expensive hobbies for smart people scared to look stupid.
that's the trap. smart people protect their reputation for being smart.
shipping something imperfect threatens that identity.
so they delay forever.
operators ship garbage.
learn from the market.
iterate.
get paid while perfecting.
you need speed and conviction, not perfect.
confidence sells better than competence. always has.
my genius friend will stay broke theorizing about businesses he never starts.
operators with half his IQ are cashing out because they understood the assignment.
speed of execution is the entire game.
Ten bad years can disappear fast when you finally lock in. Six months of real discipline can crush a decade of drifting. That’s why momentum is magic, it makes the past irrelevant.
Pro tip: If you're afraid to take the risk, write down in excruciating detail what you're actually afraid of having happen. Step by step what happens next when you fail. You'll often find it's not so bad when you spell it out.
Fear exists in the vague, not the specific.