You need quick, impactful tips to level up your Dad game over this holiday break…
Do not bookmark these 47 weapons grade insights- read them in 3 minutes and get them in your Paternal Arsenal now🧵
He single-handedly transformed my entire life with his sheer wisdom:
Naval Ravikant.
The early Investor in Uber, Notion & Twitter famously said: “EVERYBODY can be RICH.”
9 BOMBS of Wisdom (in under 4 minutes), which will save you 19 years of work: 🧵 👇
My father fled Iran during the revolution.
He landed as a young man in Paris and decided to become a doctor.
But…he failed his first year of medical school. Because he didn’t speak French.
Then, he retook the first year again…and failed for a second time (because he still barely spoke french and was taking organic chemistry in a language with a different alphabet).
He decided to move to Brussels to give it a third try and start over.
And on his third try, he’d learned enough French to pass. He went on and graduated top of his class.
Then, he met my mother and she convinced him to come to the U.S.
He came here with $1000, a suitcase, and, yet again, didn’t speak the native language (now English).
They wouldn’t recognize his foreign MD and no one would give him a residency because he was a foreigner.
So he spent 2 years as a technician working barely above minimum wage.
Then finally, he was finally given a
residency in the U.S.
After residency, he joined my grandfathers practice (moms dad).
Just as he began to develop a reputation, he found himself locked out of his own office. The locks changed on him overnight.
My mother decided to get a divorce.
He had to start over, again, this time on his own.
But he didn’t have the money.
And - to build a surgery center was $250,000 (in 1995 dollars).
He didn’t have that kind of money.
So looked up the legal requirements and he built his own. The entire thing. Himself. To code. Actually. Out of sheer will. And built it for under $30,000 (all the money he had at the time).
Finally, he was on his own.
This time, he kept growing and growing his practice until he became the top eyelid surgeon in Maryland. And eventually, in the U.S.
He’s done more than 16,000 cases meaning somewhere upwards of 50,000+ eyelids.
And every year he (on his own) does more eyelid cases than all of John’s Hopkins eye department combined.
My father taught me many lessons. Most of them through example, not preaching. He’s not a man of many words.
But the few things he did say, he’d say with his actions over and over again:
Failures are just detours.
Don’t let anyone tell you you aren’t good enough for what you want.
Whatever you do, be the best.
God gave you the power to ignore, use it.
It’s better to be envied than pitied.
You won’t even remember their name in 20 years.
You’re only stressed because you’re underprepared.
There’s nothing anyone can put you through that you haven’t already put yourself through that was worse.
And finally…
You only get one name, tell the world what you want it to mean by what you do with it.
****
Whenever I go through hard times I like to remember what he went through to make my life possible.
And somehow, everything always falls into focus.
PS - I get a lot credit for what I’ve done. But I often think what he accomplished was far harder than what I have. And - I don’t want his sacrifice to be in vain.
PPS - Whats the best piece of advice your father (or father figure) gave you?
“The day you give your kids a phone,
Is the day their childhood ends”
This is a powerful quote from Jon Haidt that every parent should think about
A phone can be very addictive for kids & teens
They will prefer screen time to play time
They will see stuff online that will cause them to lose their innocence
A phone will have a greater influence over their lives than their own family
Parents need to consider if their kids are ready for this
This neuroscientist worked until she was 103.
She also:
• Won a Nobel Prize at 77
• Became a senator at 92
• Stayed mentally sharp into her 100s
Her secret? 5 daily habits that prevented brain aging: 🧵
This is an email I received last week from a young reader.
I've been there, so to respond, here's an open letter to my lost younger self.
If you're feeling lost, this is for you.
5 things I wish I could tell my younger self:
First, reclaim your power.
Your power in life comes from the belief that you can take an action and create an outcome.
When you're feeling lost, you lack this belief. You've lost your power.
In those moments, the first and most important thing you can do is reclaim it.
Go create micro evidence that reaffirms your belief, that you can take one tiny action and create one tiny outcome.
That has ripple effects into every area of life.
Next, remember that the answer is found in the action.
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears” - Rumi
The answer you are looking for is found in the action you are avoiding.
You don't find yourself through planning, you find yourself through acting. The path is found in the action.
Act and adapt, don't think and plan.
Start trusting in the trend, not the position.
It's easy to sit in your current spot and compare yourself to everyone around you.
But comparing your position to anyone else is a complete waste of time and energy.
Much more important than your position is your trend.
The trend is built through the daily actions—habits, routines, mindsets—controllable factors which create the momentum that you can build upon.
Trust in your trend, not your position.
Create value for everyone you come across.
Stop focusing on your potential. Everyone cared about that when you were in college, but it no longer matters.
Get over it.
Execution, delivery, and value, not potential.
Build a reputation for figuring it out. Be reliable. You can get pretty damn far in life by just being someone that people can count on to show up and do the work.
Remember: Create value, receive value.
And finally, find your challenge-seekers.
Challenge-seekers are people on ambitious missions—people who take on big, scary things with enthusiasm.
Science shows challenge-seeking behavior is socially contagious, meaning it encourages those in close proximity to do the same.
Your life will change when you find your challenge-seekers—a few people who encourage you to push harder, to think bigger.
You don’t need hundreds of friends. Just find a few challenge-seekers.
You’re not lost.
The term itself assumes an end-state that simply does not exist.
Life is nothing more than a constant process of finding: Learning, uncovering, becoming, discovering.
Give yourself some grace. Remember that every moment contributes to your story.
And a story always reads better when the struggle is profound.
You're not lost, you're just finding.
My daughter is the only reader in her class and it looks like she’s a genius performing a magic trick to the other kids and parents. It was 100 20 minute lessons with her dad at the dinner table using a scripted Direct Instruction program and novel read alouds before bed.