📝 Kobe Bryant on Failing, Mark Manson's Life Lessons & Executing Well

Sup friends 👋🏼,

Found some gold this week - i’ve been reading a great book on how we can improve our execution velocity and get more done, by turning each quarter into a year - thus making, the “12 Week Year”.

Some good learnings which I’ll share in a future newsletter.

Till then, let’s get to it 🙂 

#1: Clarity & Execution

In light of reading The 12 Week Year, I was instantly drawn to this post.

The most effective thing we can do is to focus on what matters.

In this case, it boils down to two things:

• Be clear on your vision

• Execute relentlessly towards making your vision a reality

#2: Be Consistent

Following on from #1, we need to execute not just relentlessly, but consistently.

We need to have a bias to action, consistently.

#3: Kobe Bryant on Failing

I came across this video of an interview by Kobe Bryant, and his perspective on ‘not winning’ isn’t failure, but a learning opportunity.

His point is to be in love with the process, the journey, the game. Don’t fall in love with outcomes that can be defined as failure or success. To be in constant and consistent pursuit of growth and learning.

You just focus on getting better each time. It’s only a failure if you decide to stop trying because you’re scared about ‘failing’.

#4: 40 life lessons at 40

Won’t be a weekly newsletter without a life lessons thread.

This is from none other than Mark Manson, the guy who wrote The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

Here are a few of my favourites:

• No one is coming to save you. No single thing will solve all of your problems. No goal, no achievement, no relationship will ever fix you.

• If you aren’t turning down things that excite you, then you’re not focused enough on something that matters.

• Passion is not the cause of good work, but the effect. You don’t wait until you find something you love doing—you learn to do something well, and the process of developing competence and agency will cause you to become passionate about it.

• If you can’t say no, then your yes’s mean nothing. We are defined by what we give up, what we sacrifice, and what we reject.

• Nothing meaningful in life is easy. Nothing easy in life is meaningful. We think we’d like to have everything handed to us, but the truth is that we don’t appreciate or enjoy things we don’t struggle for.

• You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, including yourself. The only way to win status games in the long run is to simply stop playing them.

• Floss. And wear sunscreen. Every day. I know, I know, it sounds stupid, but trust me on this one. You’ll thank me in 20 years.

#5: How to Build an Amazing Future

Chris Anderson is the curator of TED. He led the transformation of the once-modest conference into an intellectual beacon for tens of millions of people worldwide.

This was a great interview that touched on a ton of topics like:

• The inside story of TED’s rise

• Using optimism to solve the big issues of our time

• The AI revolution

• Collective intelligence to address global issues

Bonus: a great message I came across about thinking a good life into existence.

That’s a wrap - let me know your favourite link 🙂 

Till next week,

Fahim ✌️