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Here’s how to live: Be independent.
The only way to be deeply happy is to break all dependencies.
Instead, do what you’d do if you were the only person on Earth.
Don’t align with any religion, philosophy, or political stance. Stay unlabeled and unbound.
Nothing is more lonely than being with the wrong person. It’s always better to be alone.
Change yourself and you change the world.
Be a nomadic minimalist to break dependencies on stuff. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrived by carrying nothing, then finding or making what they needed.
Own your own business with many small customers to avoid depending on any big client. Offer products, not a personal service, so your business can run without you. Create many sources of income like this.
If it’s not important, never do it. If it’s important, do it every day.
Same with your habits. Starting is hard. The rest is easy.
Fill your senses as if this was your last day on Earth. One day that will be true.
The smart choice is sales. It will always be valuable. Learn to sell, and you can go anywhere. You’ll be paid well at any age. Always in high demand.
The English word “noise” comes from “nausea”. Say nothing unless it must be said.
People will appreciate your silence, and know that when you speak, it must be important. Shallow rivers are noisy. Deep lakes are silent.
Dramatic people are fueled by reactions.
Your emotions insist they need you to respond. When you ignore the urges, they go away too.
Observe yourself. Your own mind is the best laboratory. It’s also the most private an...
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If you need money, be an investor. It’s the only career where you profit the most by doing the least.
The stock market takes money from the active traders and gives it to the patient.
Actions amplify through time to have a massive impact on the future. Let this fact guide your life.
When making a decision, ask yourself how you’ll feel about it when you’re old.
What would your future self and family thank you for? Simple actions now will compound to give them a better life.
We overestimate what we can do in one year. We underestimate what we can do in ten years.
When you choose a behavior, you choose its future consequences.
Building relationships worldwide brings more opportunity, more variety, and more chance for circumstance.
You can’t see your own culture while you’re inside of it. Once you get out and look back, you can see which parts of your personality actually come from your environment.
In all cultures, avoid the madness of the crowd.
When you get older, time flies by, forgotten, because you’re not having as many new experiences.
Monotony is the enemy. Novelty is the solution.
In a bad mood, you might see only the dark side of events that are actually neutral. In a good mood, you might see the bright side of trauma.
Keep the bad feelings vivid and visceral. Make the lesson memorable, so you won’t do it again.
Making memories is the most important thing you can do with your life. The more memories you create, the longer and richer your life feels. Making memories is how to live.
Pick one thing and spend the rest of your life getting deeper into it.
Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.
The most rewarding things in life take years. Only bad things happen quickly.
You need ritual, not inspiration. Every day, no matter what, you must practice. Your practice ritual is your highest priority — an unbreakable commitment. Stubbornly protect this time against the demands of the world.
When you’re not practicing, remember: someone somewhere is practicing. When you meet them, they will win.
Move to the most ambitious place in your field. (Actor? Hollywood. Tech? Silicon Valley. Etc.) Expectations there are so high that they’ll help push you to be the best.
Live among your fellow freaks, where obsession is normal and ambition is rewarded.
Mastery is not about doing many things. It’s doing one thing insanely well.
You do it for the journey, not the destination. Pursuing mastery is how to live.
Remember the classic story arc of the hero’s journey. The crisis — the most painful moment — defines the hero.
Comfort is quicksand. The softer the chair, the harder it is to get out of it.
The best way to learn a foreign language is to stop speaking your mother tongue.
Since you can’t avoid problems, just find good problems. Happiness isn’t everlasting tranquility. Happiness is solving good problems.
But don’t be a masochist. Be a scholar of pain. Every pain has a lesson inside, and a reason why it hurts. Analyze it. Understand it.
The easy road leads to a hard future. The hard road leads to an easy future. Steering towards the pain is how to live.
That’s it. That’s life. Do whatever you like. You don’t need explanations.
Live like a frog sitting on a lily-pad. When it feels like it, it jumps to a different one, and stays until it feels like jumping again.
A famous pioneer does more for human progress than a billion others who live a normal life.
