Kindle Notes & Highlights
“When in doubt, always err on the side of generosity.” It is a value that I have held dear to my heart ever since.
“There are three friends of winter: the pine tree, the plum blossom, and bamboo,”
“The ability to bloom in the midst of misfortune suggests dignity and forbearance under harsh circumstances.”
“This is the third friend of winter. Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back from even the most difficult times.”
“The Taoists understand that there can be no summer without winter, no ups without downs, no growth without decay. Your ability to thrive depends, in the end, on your attitude to your life circumstances. When you are like the three friends of winter, you take everything in stride with grace, putting forth energy when it is needed, yet always staying calm inwardly.”
“This is what courage looks like: to blossom when none others dare because they could easily die from the cold. Courage is the heart refusing to fear.” I
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage,” he
As if by reconnecting with the China of my childhood, I might be better able to connect with myself.
I have heard some people say that they want to start a company because they don’t want to work for anyone else. This is one of the myths of entrepreneurship. The truth is, an entrepreneur works for everyone but himself or herself.
“Think about moving forward to make personal or social progress, rather than moving higher to gain a superior position,”
But how much room do we allow for our own limitations, blind spots, and human selfishness? It was Jon’s first run at being a start-up CEO, and he might have acted in his self-interest when he left Geomagic. Who said when we were born that being good and selfless was the only way we were supposed to behave? Haven’t we all made choices in life that we wished we hadn’t, especially during times of extreme danger and scarcity, when faced with the tension of self-preservation versus promoting the well-being of others?
Our choice is how to interpret what happens to us on our journeys and how to treat the people we meet along the way. Our choice, always, is to love and to understand.
We underestimate the value of stepping back because we are trained to perceive a willingness to make concessions as a weakness, or looking for alternatives as being inconsistent.
Negotiating is not about winning a battle, or even positioning yourself to win. It is about not getting into a fight in the first place. By resolving conflicts before they escalate, respecting mutual interests, and engaging others with compassion, you can achieve something far greater than victory: peace.
Life has been messy for me, as it has for most everyone. I have come to the realization that challenging experiences break us all at some point—our bodies and minds, our hearts and egos. When we put ourselves back together, we find that we are no longer perfectly straight, but rather bent and cracked. Yet it is through these cracks that our authenticity shines. It is by revealing these cracks that we can learn to see and be seen deeply.
Even in the void, I made a womb where I nurtured my creativity and incubated ideas. Eventually, I gave birth to both a company and a child. It is in tunnels that we start our journey; in pockets that our imagination blossoms toward the opening; and in voids that we must face our naked, agonizing vulnerability.
This quote becams one of my all time favourites!
