Brian Tam

🔥 Thinking partner for thoughtful founders
More active on IG

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

E M P T I N E S S & F U L L N E S S

With our very limited time,

we are tasked with the terrifying challenge of living authentically,

the complexity of feeling fully,

the ambiguity of expressing our deepest sense of selves…

whilst aiming to be i… https://t.co/RDUQrN1Ogt

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

logged into to twitter just to wish @AdamArchetype a happy birthday 🍻

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

I’ve worn glasses since the 3rd grade, but it wasn’t until I learned to accept ambiguity that I saw the world truly clearly.

I realized there was so much more to see, so many more dimensions, so much more to understand, to feel… than the myopic, foc… https://t.co/chCGZROcta

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

It’s an imperfect diagram (as they all are)… but as I shared yesterday, this is an impossible yet mandatory task: to reflect on one’s identity, without being trapped by it.

Over the years, I’ve compared myself to a verb… the action of “Brian-ing”… w… https://t.co/LpmVHiuFxX

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Doubt is a poison… that slowly grows in toxicity the more that we feed it attention.

Try as you might… but for every answer that you try to fight it with, doubt has 10 more questions. Nothing is enough.

It slowly wraps around you, tangling and str… https://t.co/kAM3iRMAPs

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Review your creations every day… not (only) out of egoistic pride, but also to see/understand what you really were trying to express.

Despite our best efforts… with literary logic and force… So much still remains under the surface, hidden, trapped… … https://t.co/vqjfoT9oLc

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Think in terms of growth. Most things do not kill you. But we fear it might. We feel it might.

And yet, we carry on. We’ve already started and finished countless projects in our lifetime. So we should know it is possible.

If… when… we think in… https://t.co/GYEhpFIWJk

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

There are limits to self-help.

Especially for those of us in love with self… help… our capability and creativity astounds us (and others).

But there is still only so much one can do. Eventually, we run out of skill…

and if not skill, then eventua… https://t.co/SWz4V244IC

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Multiculturalism isn’t an option for me. I was born into it… like fish into water.

I only see the world thru a kaleidoscopic lens… colorful, nuanced, and dynamic. Growing up this way undoubtedly contributed to my creativity, but also to my confuse… https://t.co/ZJYMY0wMgi

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Return to the moment… over and over again, I remind myself… to return to the moment.

Pulled at from all sides, all timelines, all emotions… I try to sit in the stillness…

To find the stillness

To create the stillness

To be the stillness

And ther… https://t.co/LznEVFdAtE

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Some are silent because they have nothing to say… others are because they have too many thoughts to choose from.

Today is another one of those times where my head feels scattered… disconnected, across many possibilities, questions and answers, desir… https://t.co/Ni5q5CfpC6

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

This is 39. Quietly celebrated my birthday last week…

It was quiet mainly because I don’t celebrate my birthday other than to reflect (big surprise?)…

But also because it’s near thanksgiving, which I enjoy even more (appreciating life, loved ones … https://t.co/6i8ir75X9Z

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

There’s a qualitative element to creative consistency… that I’ve yet to achieve.

Every day, I mine my mind for ideas, insights… interesting juxtapositions… heartfelt encouragements. And I can assure you, some days I have to dig harder, deeper, furt… https://t.co/bIwAMOjyeB

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Thankful for all the thoughtful friends around me. Thank you for sharing your positivity; it gives me perspective when I’ve lost it. Thank you for sharing your progress; it inspires me to push further. Thank you for sharing your struggles; it humbles … https://t.co/r1OlNGlP98

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Build a system around your creativity. We all have tons of ideas inside aching to come out, but few of us have the energy to work on even one of them fully.

The problem is that our energy is diffuse, lost, taken by all the irrelevant “opportunities” an… https://t.co/DGp8Slsgtm

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

I don’t think that I don’t have problems… but I really don’t think of problems as problematic.

Because:
1. Most situations aren’t bad,
they’re good or at least neutral.

2. Most things aren’t going to hurt you,
and if they do, you can recover, learn… https://t.co/5mADKNgD02

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

The intensity of our purpose is palpable. However intent by itself is not enough. It must be coupled with action to be expressed, to be realized, to be brought into life.

I am surprised whenever others remark on the consideration in my work. They tel… https://t.co/VarUUrYjjz

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

Give yourself every reason to win… as if it were all massive conspiracy: supporters moving in the shadows, whispering great things about you, secretly plotting unbelievable success for you.

It’s probably not true… but isn’t that what “they” want you… https://t.co/2SZRBtSeVR

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

There are times of inspiration, unstoppable tidal waves of ideas flooding into the mind. It is energizing, hopeful and thankfully, temporary.

And there are also times of emptiness, wandering thru a vast dark, dusty desert and wondering when we will enc… https://t.co/d4n3CmvcFL

[Brian Tam @letsmakegreat]

None of us are immune to defects, mistakes and failures… yet, most of us hide this basic aspect.

So I am fascinated by flaws… their stories, their truths, the ability to bring us closer together.

Even the way we all obfuscate or compensate for our … https://t.co/G2a2TSfU0S