Good Works Start Somewhere

Be Who You Are - Flaws and All I love how dynamic we all are. Our depth, our idiosyncrasies. At the end of the day, we are all just walking contradictions. But that’s a feature, and not a flaw. The numbers guy who loves to paint. The sweetheart who’s perfected her roundhouse kick in karate. Our opposites don’t merely round us out, but they often reveal the hidden source of our strength. These blended curiosities may not make sense to most—they may barely make sense to you—but they were never...

Be Who You Are - Flaws and All I love how dynamic we all are. Our depth, our idiosyncrasies. At the end of the day, we are all just walking contradictions. But that’s a feature, and not a flaw. The numbers guy who loves to paint. The sweetheart who’s perfected her roundhouse kick in karate. Our opposites don’t merely round us out, but they often reveal the hidden source of our strength. These blended curiosities may not make sense to most—they may barely make sense to you—but they were never...

The Hidden Distraction That Derails Dreams (It's Not What You Think) One sure way to fail on your path to achieving your dreams is prioritizing your distractions. For some of us, it’s social media. For others of us, it’s TV. But the scariest distraction—the one that can destroy your confidence or send you in the wrong direction for decades—is often wrapped in a box with a bow on top. Because feedback is a gift until it becomes a distraction. Take Walt Disney, for example: he was dubbed the...

Good Works Start Now When do you know it’s the right time to take a leap of faith? Maybe you’re supposed to jump when you catch the right break. “Life can be understood as a series of opportunities that are put before you, and they’re time-limited.” This is the fundamental principle Eric Schmidt would share with anyone in the early stages of their career. As Larry Page and Sergey Brin were interviewing candidates to become Google's new CEO, Schmidt wasn’t the first recruit. Plenty of others...

Does Your Team Tip The Scales? Dreams rarely come true because of the sheer willpower of one individual. Often, it’s the collective genius of the team that bends reality towards the dreamer’s whim. So, in a world where the odds are stacked against us and most ventures fail, the choice of who joins our team is one of the few places where we can tip the scales in our favor. David M. Rubenstein is a co-founder of The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest and most successful private equity...

Billionaires Don't Drive Hoopties It’s probably time for me to get a new car. Baby’s not undrivable, but I have developed a reflex of praying every time I turn the ignition. From overheating on the way to the beach a few years ago to parts coming undone on the highway, I can admit that Baby has seen better days. I’ll get a new car eventually. Probably when the wheels fall off or the mechanic tells me it’s time to give it a rest. I’m not a billionaire though. A new car isn't something I want...

You're Worth Betting On Dreams aren’t made on a chess board but at a poker table. As Annie Duke explains in Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, understanding the difference between the two games is critical to knowing what strategies to pursue. “Chess contains no hidden information and very little luck. The pieces are all there for both players to see.” On the other hand, poker “is a game of incomplete information. It is a game of decision-making...

30 Lessons From 30 Years You don’t necessarily get wiser with age, but in honor of my 30th birthday, here are 30 lessons I’ve learned along the way. On God 1. When you’re struggling to hear God, focus on trying to see Him. 2. God is more like a VC than a bank, both in the relationship and in His return expectation. 3. You can do anything in this world, as you’re only bound by the laws of physics. And even when you reach that point, you’re only bound by the will of God. 4. All saints won’t be...

When They Call You a Cheater Isn’t it funny how we only call people “cheaters” after they win? We started hearing cries of banning the “tush push” after the Eagles had a 93% success rate in 2022. The NFL abolished the “tuck rule” after Tom Brady led the Patriots to a Super Bowl in the 2001-2002 season, following the infamous call in the Divisional Round against the Raiders. Drake only sued Kendrick Lamar after “Not Like Us” became the song of the summer. Everything is fair until the wrong...

Why So Serious? What is everything you would need to do, if your goal was to have as successful of a career as possible (however you define success)? Here's what my list initially looked like: Work really hard Find mentors and the right tribe Take a courageous step or two Manage my time efficiently Seek the right opportunities Always be learning Early mornings (cold plunge? TBD) It's not too far off from the list that I've used throughout my life. And I suspect yours is similar. But I was...