WSJ: In this Economy, Quitters are Winning

[LinkedIn Post]

Commentary on this article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-this-economy-quitters-are-winning-1530702001

Don’t read this if you’re happy in you’re current role! The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Be thankful you’re happy. BUT…

If you aren’t happy, do something about it! Life is short; don’t waste time that you can’t get back. This is as good an economy as it gets. I love working, but I know I’m not normal.

If working is miserable to you, in general, at least be miserable with 30% more dollars in your pocket! 🙂

I know loads of folks hiring in digital analytics and data science. Demand is larger than Supply.

I also know individuals that are looking (secretly) and I’m happy to match where I can. I’m here to help. Society is better when ppl are happy.

 

Wim Hof Method – I’m a Believer!!

#WimHof … MIND BLOWN … I’m a believer!

I just did 30 chin-ups almost effortlessly (I usually struggle to 20).

Almost every day, I try to do 20 chin-ups. I usually struggle to get to that 20. But today, I tried Wim Hof’s breathing method first, then went to do my chin-ups while holding my breathe. 30 … easily!!!

I only stopped because I ran out of breathe. HOLY COW!

(Wim usually has people do pushups, but I had no recent personal benchmark)

Over the break, I heard about Wim Hof. I was fascinated. I’m really interested in anything that uses the human mind to accomplish great feats.

I’m always weary of these method’s pushed by “gurus”. Then I heard about Scott Carney’s book about Wim Hof. Scott is an investigative journalist and he was a skeptic turned believer. That convinced me that I had to look into this myself.

Between Wim Hof and Scott Carney, there is a lot of videos and podcasts with them and I consumed many. Fascinating stuff!

So this morning’s experience was amazing! I was so excited, I then went to take a cold shower. 2 minutes. It was easy as well. In fact, towards the end and getting out — usually when the cold winter air hits your skin — my body actually felt WARM!

The mind is a beautiful thing. YouTube it. Try it!!!

Parable of The Mexican Fisherman and the Investment Banker

By Unknown Author

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed. “I have an MBA from Harvard, and can help you,” he said. “You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middle-man, you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening up your own cannery. You could control the product, processing, and distribution,” he said. “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, and eventually to New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “Oh, 15 to 20 years or so.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time was right, you would announce an IPO, and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”

[Quora] What are some signs that a person will be successful?

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-signs-that-a-person-will-be-successful/answer/Kerry-Hew

Success is totally subjective.

I think that the vast majority would classify Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffet as “successful”.

Is Bernie Madoff, who lived the vast majority of his life as a 0.1%-er until he got caught, successful?

Is the single mother, who works two jobs and raises her kids to learn respect and hard-work, leading them towards productive middle-class lives, successful?

Is the rich and famous person that commits suicide (take your pick) successful?

I would define success as someone who is generally happy and leading a fulfilling lifestyle for them. And my formula for happiness is the difference between one’s Reality and their Expectations (E.g., low reality Vs. high expectations = negative happiness; high reality Vs. low expectation = very happy).

You can accumulate all the financial wealth in the world, but if you are not happy at the end of the day, you are NOT successful.

All that said, here are the 3 personality attributes common to these “successful” people:

Gratefulness

I think it takes gratitude to best appreciate what you have. Happy people are thankful for all the people/things that helped them achieve what they’ve achieved.

Curious

Successful people are consistently asking: “How can <this> be better?”; “How can I make <x> better?”; “How can I be better?”. They ask. They tinker. They explore. They embrace a growth mentality. They embrace change (but not just for the sake of change).

Dedication

I believe persistence and follow-through, sub-attributes of dedication, are a critical towards the predictor of success. They show a sense of mission and show a passion to complete it.

 

It is absolutely possible to only have 2 of the 3 and find success, as long as the two are intense so that they make up for the lack of the third.

Parents Should Look at KidPass

As a parent, I’m always looking for new things to do with my kids.

Sure, they’d be perfectly content with going to Chuck’E’Cheese (or equiv) every time, but I need the variety and they need exposure to different activities so they learn to love exploring and trying new things and eventually find their passion.

 

Kidpass is only in New York right now, but they just raised $5.1 million to help expand their business and replicate the model in other major cities, starting with Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

Here in Orange County, I’m always searching for activities for us to do. But I feel that I’ve exhausted searches on my usual sources. I’m sure there are a lot that I don’t know about. In fact, just this week, we found one called SenderCity. It’s a rock climbing facility. This place was GREAT and it was located almost right next to Rock’n’Jump (trampoline park) that we have been to quite a number of times.

I like how Kidpass has layed out the UI so that I can browse the activities by different criteria. I especially like the ability to browse by day.

The only deterrent could be the cost, but take that with a grain of salt because I really haven’t looked at it in-depth at all. I simply make that comment upon glancing at the plans and seeing the credits needed to do a couple of the activities. That said, if it exposes to new things for 1-time (where you’d normally pay more or have to do a longer commitment), then that could be worth the premium.

Understand Your Edge

I’ve been reading a lot about copywriting, persuasion, and sales strategies recently (I need to be writing about that more). It is a fascinating topic. And when I say copy, this incorporates (verbal) sales messaging. It makes me wish I had taken more philosophy and psychology classes in school.

In business and in any realm where there is competition you need to beat, it’s crucial to understand your edge. Why should the buyer select your product or your service? We live in the information age and it is almost certain that the buyer can/will research the competition (although, in simplistic transactional sales, this can be countered by techniques like limited time offers).

The copy needs to reflect this edge. Does your edge solve a pain point and/or deliver a pleasure? Your copy needs to amplify the pain and pleasure points and it needs to specifically do so around your edge.

One edge that a small company can have over a big corporation is speed. I really like John Boyd’s OODA loop. John Boyd was a F-86 Pilot and Commander in the US Airforce.

Boyd believed that when at a disadvantage, a competent pilot could still overcome that disadvantage by “Attacking the Mind” of his opponent. The OODA loop is a process that defines how we react to stimulus.

“In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries—or, better yet, get inside [the] adversary’s Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop … Such activity will make us appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries—since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing, as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns, they are competing against.”

Colonel Boyd trained his pilots based upon his observations of Human reaction time and as a result his pilots had a 10 to 1 kill ratio over the superior Mig-15’s.

“The key is to obscure your intentions and make them unpredictable to your opponent while you simultaneously clarify his intentions. That is, operate at a faster tempo to generate rapidly changing conditions that inhibit your opponent from adapting or reacting to those changes and that suppress or destroy his awareness. Thus, a hodgepodge of confusion and disorder occur to cause him to over- or under-react to conditions or activities that appear to be uncertain, ambiguous, or incomprehensible.”

The OODA loop has become an important concept in many areas outside of air-to-air combat (dog fighting).

 

 

 

Found a Cool New Podcast About Brain Hacking

I am fascinated by the brain. I love genius movies like “Phenomenon”, “A Beautiful Mind”, “Limitless”, etc. They are very inspirational.

As a society, we’re still in the early stages of learning about the brain. I grew up with the belief that you’re born with a limited set of brain cells and you can’t grow new ones, so everyone you drink alcohol or get hit in the head, you’re using up your supply. Society taught me this.

Well we’ve come to learn that you can grow new brain cells. And studies are ongoing around how we can accelerate neuroplasticity (create a real life NZT-48 effect).

Or perhaps Elon Musk is able to “Trancend” first with his venture to link the brain to AI.

Until any of this things happen, we have to make do with what we’ve got. Jim Kwik of KwikBrain had started a podcast in bite-sized chunks. I really like the 10-20 mins episode format. Each episode focused on a single topic.

Jim explains things really, really well. For example, I don’t know that I’ll ever forget the first 10 elements of the chemistry periodic table again thanks to his clever strategy.

I’m looking forward to following Jim and maintaining/I my brain.

[Quora] I’m 25, bored at my job, and torn between starting a business or travelling. What should I do?

Originally seen at: https://www.quora.com/Im-25-bored-at-my-job-and-torn-between-starting-a-business-or-travelling-What-should-I-do

If your are confident in your abilities, in that you believe you can always get some job to survive, then I would recommend traveling.

You are only young once and those years are precious. I’m turning 40 myself, shortly. I have a wife and 3 kids. I’m not a mega-millionaire, but I’m doing well. I have everything I need and more. One can’t help but look back and think: “If I focused on my career more when I was younger, I’d be so much farther ahead than I am now” or “If I started a successful business earlier, then I’d be able to enjoy my money earlier in life”.

That said, on the whole, I have no regrets at all. I did an exchange program for a year in University. I met an incredible set of friends around the globe that I still keep in touch with. I learned to live on the cheap. I partied hard while my body had the ability to recover more quickly. All these experiences have shaped who I am. The younger you are with the experiences, the more profound they are in your life; think of it as the rooting system.

Having lived through those phases, I can appreciate the subsequent phases in life that much more. I have a wife and kids now; I’m settled and perfectly content. I don’t need to “party” anymore…been there, done that. I don’t need to chase tail anymore…been there, done that. I know what I like, what I want, what I need, and I can better appreciate what I get or have gotten.

I think getting out of your bubble teaches one empathy. Overall, this is better for humanity and society.

Last point, if you are really good, you’ll start to lay the groundwork for your business as you travel. Whether that means blogging you experiences and building a following and/or meeting future business associates/partners and/or generating ideas based on your experiences. There is no reason you couldn’t do both simultaneously.

[Quora] As a recent college grad interviewing at startups, how do I respond when I’m asked for my salary requirements?

[Image above is from https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/negotiating-salary-study/]

Originally seen at: https://www.quora.com/As-a-recent-college-grad-interviewing-at-startups-how-do-I-respond-when-Im-asked-for-my-salary-requirements

First question to ask yourself: do I have a salary requirement?

If not, do some homework. If so, do this homework anyway to see if your number is realistic. 😉

Look on Glassdoor or other. Research salaries of roles in like companies in the same geography. Compare those with a little research on LinkedIn to gauge experience of people in those roles at those companies.

As others have suggested, I would always try to get the company to state their number first. Ask: “What is the salary that you have budgeted for this role?”. If they balk, they’re lying (or not serious about the role or not well organized and that is a red flag altogether). You can get them to provide a number by saying something like: “While numbers matter, it’s more about the work, the culture fit, and the opportunity for me that matters. I’ll weigh all of these factors in my decision”

Also, remember salary isn’t everything. But don’t accept anything far below your number. It is okay to sacrifice a small percentage for other factors (benefits, culture, interesting work, stock, etc.). And if you do, always ask for a 6 month review to re-assess.

Good luck!