3 IDEAS FROM ME
“It is better to start as a fool and learn from your mistakes than to fake being a genius and ignore your errors.”
II.
“Be forgiving with your past self.
Be strict with your present self.
Be flexible with your future self.”
III.
“Action forces prioritization.
If you’re stuck deciding between options, force yourself to act. You can only act on one thing at a time, which means you will have to make something the top priority.
Even if you pick wrong, you’ll learn something.”
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I.
Writer Maya Angelou on complaining:
“Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards, and their blankets became their winding sheets. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this… So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”
Source: Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
II.
Entrepreneur Colin Dowling on how to get better at sales:
“1. Sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated as to be impossible or you can simply walk up and hit the ball. I’ve been leading and building sales orgs for almost 20 years and my advice is to walk up and hit the ball.
2. Sales is about people and it’s about problem solving. It is not about solutions or technology or chemicals or lines of code or artichokes. It’s about people and it’s about solving problems.
3. People buy 4 things and 4 things only. Ever. Those 4 things are time, money, sex, and approval/peace of mind. If you try selling something other than those 4 things you will fail.
4. People buy aspirin always. They buy vitamins only occasionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin.
5. I say in every talk I give: “All things being equal, people buy from their friends. So make everything else equal, then go make a lot of friends.”
6. Being valuable and useful is all you ever need to do to sell things. Help people out. Send interesting posts. Write birthday cards. Record videos sharing your ideas for growing their business. Introduce people who would benefit from knowing each other, then get out of the way, expecting nothing in return. Do this consistently and authentically and people will find ways to give you money. I promise.
7. No one cares about your quota, your payroll, your opex, your burn rate, etc. No one. They care about the problem you are solving for them.”
There is more than 100 trillion dollars in the global economy just waiting for you to breathe it in. Good luck.”
Source: Hacker News (Hat tip to Brent Beshore.)
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
Assume that more than one path exists to achieve your ideal life.
What would some of the alternative routes look like?
Until next week,
James Clear
Author of the million-copy bestseller, Atomic Habits
Creator of the Habit Journal
