There are 10 posts tagged life (this is page 1 of 1).
“Indeed, while experiences and information can be good teachers, there are many times in life where we simply cannot afford to learn on the job. You don’t want to have to go through multiple marriages to learn how to be a good spouse. Or wait until your last child has grown to master parenthood. This is why theory can be so valuable: it can explain what will happen, even before you experience it.”
Excerpt from How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen.
Aged 25. His Team Spent $500,000 on the Thriller Video.
This is an essay to myself as a reminder to make the most of the time I have.
You have a lot of energy now. Your body will begin to slow down when you are older, so work like crazy but always make time for play.
Build something. Write a book. Master a craft. Put in the hours in your career. Now is the time when you don’t have that many responsibilities and your body can take whatever you throw at it. Think of it as a period of acceleration because later, you will have to slow down.
Stevie Wonder produced four number one albums between the ages of 21 and 27 (he was lucky enough to repeat the feat in his 30s). Michelangelo completed one of his greatest works, the statue of David, aged 26. Albert Einstein, while working as a patent clerk six days a week, managed to raise a family in his twenties, and introduced the world to e=MC^2 at the age of 26. Michael Jackson produced his greatest albums between the ages of 20 and 29 (Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad).
Of course these people are freaks of nature. Not all of us have such talent. But who is to say we can’t have our own little victories in our twenties, before ambition dims and responsibility settles in? The twenties are the most vibrant period in which to pursue wild goals. And don’t give me your 9-to-5-too-busy-at-work, excuse. Didn’t I just mention that Einstein held down a full-time job as a patent clerk, raised a family, and in whatever time he had left over, worked on some of the greatest scientific theories ever, all in his twenties?
You are young. Use the energy you have in your twenties to do something you can look back on with pride.
Okay, maybe I am glorifying the twenties a bit. Much can be achieved at a more mature age. And there are many examples. For instance it is not unusual in the film industry for people to peak in their thirties and beyond. Quentin Tarantio’s career, for example, didn’t really take off until his 30s (although he wrote Resevoir Dogs in his late twenties). And in the business world, a good number of CEOs are in their late thirties/forties/fifties. With that being said, I bet you these people were “rising stars” in their twenties, working their butts off!
It’s not all about work though. You don’t want to look back and wish you socialised a bit more, attended a few more parties, or travelled more. I’d rather have my hangovers and jetlags before I’m a pensioner. And I’d most certainly rather have my junk food now before I need to worry about a diet. Your body will be more fragile in later years. So enjoy it now and make the most of your energy. It won’t last forever.
You’re more attractive if you’re already in a relationship. You’re more employable if you already got a job. In fact you’ll make a lot more money once you have lots of money. It seems to me that in life, all you have to do is make a name for yourself just a few times before you can take advantage of the snowball effect of success. You can then sit back and reel in opportunities that feed off of each other.
This prediction error works as follows. You are about to buy a new car. It is going to change your life, elevate your status, and make your commute a vacation. It is so quiet that you can hardly tell if the engine is on, so you can listen to Rachmaninoff’s nocturnes on the highway. This new car will bring you to a permanently elevated plateau of contentment. People will think, Hey, he has a great car, every time they see you. Yet you forget that the last time you bought a car, you also had the same expectations. You do not anticipate that the effect of the new car will eventually wane and that you will revert to the initial condition, as you did last time. A few weeks after you drive your new car out of the showroom, it will become dull. If you had expected this, you probably would not have bought it.
Excerpt from The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Life is sufficiently long, and has been granted with enough generosity for us to accomplish the greatest things, provided that in its entirety it is well invested; but when it is dissipated in extravagance and carelessness, when it is spent on no good purpose, then, compelled at last by the final necessity, we realize it has passed away without our noticing it passing. So it stands: we do not receive a life that is short, but rather we make it so; we are not beggars in it, but spendthrifts. Just as great and princely wealth, when it falls into the hands of a bad owner, is squandered in a moment, while wealth that is by no means great, if it becomes the property of a good guardian, grows by use, so our span of life has ample measure for one who manages it properly.
Excerpt from a letter to Paulinus titled: “On the Shortness of Life” as translated in Seneca: Dialogues and Essays by John Davie.
The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side effect of self-transcendence.
Excerpt from Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
Thanks to our capacity to adapt to ever greater fame and fortune, yesterday’s luxuries can soon become today’s necessities and tomorrow’s relics.
Excerpt from The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People by David G. Myers.
The quality of life does not depend on happiness alone, but also on what one does to be happy. If one fails to develop goals that give meaning to one’s existence, if one does not use the mind to its fullest, then good feelings fulfill just a fraction of the potential we possess….Without dreams, without risks, only a trivial semblance of living can be achieved.
Excerpt from Finding Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.
John Schnatter is the founder, and up until 2007, was the CEO of Papa John’s; a business that is currently worth about $750m and on it’s way to becoming a billion-dollar company.
Below is a short but inspiring excerpt from an article that was written about him in 1997 by Nation’s Restaurant News.
“I don’t deviate much from my schedule,” he says. On a typical day he gets up at 5.30a.m., lifts weights and runs three to six miles before arriving at his office between 7.45 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. He takes care of administrative matters and meetings in the mornings before either having lunch with one of the officers or swimming laps.
In the afternoons he returns phone calls and visits stores or attends more meetings. Some days he gets home between 7p.m. and 9 p.m., and on others he gets there around 5 p.m. to spend time with his wife and two daughters.
Later in the evenings he reads for 90 minutes. “I read books on psychology and why people think the way they do,” he says. “I also read the history of successful companies. I read about one book a week.”
On Saturdays he either works or spends time with his children. Sunday is church-and-family day.
“I keep things very basic and simple because building a business and raising a family are plenty if you want to do it right,” he says. “Occasionally, I do a few speeches but very little socializing or parties.”
His minister, the Rev. Robert Russell, pastor of Southeast Christian Church, who is also a golfing partner, describes Schnatter as “very thorough and intense in everything he does. He’s always trying to grow. He has a strong work ethic from youth and solid moral values.”
Russell also notes that Schnatter is a generous contributor to the church and the community. His largest donation to date was a $5 million pledge toward building a new, $56 million stadium at the University of Louisville, to be named Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
Focused as he is on work, family and church, Schnatter says he eeps his life as simple as his pizza concept. That enables him to never lose sight of one of his primary Papa John’s goals: “We want to be the biggest [pizza] delivery company in the world.”
If his performance so far is any indication, he just may make it.
The first time I heard ‘Bright Life‘ (a song by Rie Fu), the following line resonated with me so much, I had to blog it:
Try not to think about getting credit for doing what you were born to do.
Why? Because the need to bask in glory and praise can get in the way of doing authentic work.
