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3 IDEAS FROM ME

I.

“Gut reactions are usually very wrong or very right.

They tend to be wrong when they are based purely on emotion and in domains where you lack experience. They tend to be right when they are rooted in deep understanding and well-developed taste.

Trust your gut when you have the experience to back it up.”


II.

“Negotiation Tips

-You want leverage.
-The person who creates more value has leverage.
-The person who can walk away has leverage.
-The person who is irreplaceable has leverage.
-The person who has a second option has leverage.
-The person who knows the numbers has leverage.
-The person who everyone likes and wants to work with has leverage.
-The person who asks for more, gets more.

And finally, most negotiations are not one-time affairs. The person people continue to like at the end of this negotiation is in a better position for the next one.”


III.

“The fact that you go to the gym even though you don’t “need” to… is why you don’t need to.

The fact that you save when you could spend… is why you have money to spend.

Your habits create your strength.”

2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS

I.

Maya Angelou on perseverance and defeat:

“There is, I hope, a thesis in my work: we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody-two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less than that it’s just plain dirt. In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats—maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats—but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be.”

Source: Maya Angelou, The Art of Fiction No. 119


II.

Peter L. Bernstein, the famous investor, on how to make better decisions when investing and in life:

“You have to keep reminding yourself: We don’t know what’s going to happen with anything, ever, over any period. And so it’s inevitable that a certain percentage of our decisions will be wrong. There’s just no way we can always make the right decision.

“That doesn’t mean you’re an idiot. But it does mean you must focus on how serious the consequences could be if you turn out to be wrong: Suppose this doesn’t do what I expected it to do—not just because it goes bad, but even if it just doesn’t go up enough. What’s gonna be the impact on me? If it goes wrong, how wrong could it go and how much will it matter?

“[This] doesn’t mean that you have to be convinced beyond doubt that you are right. But you have to think about the consequences of what you’re doing and establish that you can survive them if you’re wrong. Consequences are more important than probabilities. This isn’t just a paradigm for always coming out with conservative decisions. It’s really how you should make decisions, period.”

Source: A (Long) Chat with Peter L. Bernstein

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

What can you remove from your life that would improve it?

Until next week,

James Clear
Author of the New York Times bestselling book, Atomic Habits
Creator of The Habits Academy and the Habit Journal

P.S. No thanks, I’m not a smoker.”

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