The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed

by Ash Ali

The Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Expertise is simple. It is a self-taught process where, for the most part, you learn by doing. Begin by learning enough theory to get you started, but know that ultimately most of the real learning comes when you apply that theory and get feedback from the real world as to how it’s working. That is how you truly become an expert in something.

Success for the approval of others is inevitably hollow.

Make your criteria for success process-based rather than outcome-based. You can’t control the outcome, because luck always plays a role, but you can control your own actions and processes to do the right thing in alignment with your values and goals.

As Amory Lovins, physicist, scientist and writer, puts it: ‘The pioneers take the arrows, the settlers take the land.’

Please work on making your initial messages, emails and pitch ultra-concise and to the point. Avoid jargon. Speak in simple language. Don’t use marketing speak, as you would with advertising to consumers – that doesn’t work on investors and just irritates them. Brevity is key.