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Sup friends šš¼,
Appreciate all the kind birthday messages from the previous week - and the encouragement with the three areas of focus!
Iām pretty bad at moving my āsecondaryā goals to āprimaryā - the primary goals typically involve work goals or other big life milestones.
So this will act as a good force function to move these goals into āprimaryā areas, and document my progress along the way.
In the interest of being proactive about these - if anyone wants to jam around newsletter growth, hit me up!
One thing Iām excited about in this weekās edition - my first newsletter partnership (š) with Fastmind, an AI productivity coach, founded by a good friend of mine who recently told me about his fitness journey.
Letās get to it šĀ
Came across this feedback from Jason Fried (Founder & CEO at 37signals).
You donāt need advice - you need to go and get experiences. Go, explore, build, fail and just keep learning.
Occasionally a 17 year old will write, asking for entrepreneurial or business advice.
Oftentimes theyāre early bloomers and already have something going on. Others are chomping at the bit once they get out of high school. Itās great to hear from them.
But my advice is generally that they donāt need advice. You donāt need advice at 17. You need experiences. You donāt need to be told what to do, you need to be told to do.
Now, that in itself could be construed as advice, but itās really not meant as that. Itās anti-advice, if anything. Donāt listen. Youāll learn out there, not in this email.
At 17 you have more time than youāll ever have to just fuck around and find out. Anything else is just getting in the way.
Thereās no unlock, no sage advice from some oldster thatās going to make a lick of difference at 17. The doing, and the self-discovery, will give you all the advice you need until you really hit a point where the stakes matter and the right suggestion could mean everything.
Until then, wander. Be 17.
/2 Advice from Warren Buffett
Apple are buying back $110bn of their own stock - the most ever on record.
It makes a ton of sense - if you believe in your company, youād rather own more of it yourself.
Surrounding yourself with the smartest people is more than half battle won.
This quote is also apt:
āWhen I don't have experience with something, I make a list of the people that I think that are the smartest people that I can contact to get advice.ā
/2.5 - How to Upgrade Your Health
After a health scare, a friend of mine recently embarked on a journey to becoming healthier.
In a few short months heās lost 10kg in weight, improved his sleep, energy levels, and overall mood by incorporating a few key techniques in his daily life.
Heās codifying his learnings into āThe FAST Methodā and is selecting 20 people to help go through their own transformation.
If youāre interested in improving your own health and would like to take part, email him at: [email protected]
Itās free for the first five people - even if itās not your thing, tell him I sent you and heāll send you a summary of what worked for him !
"When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all."
/3 12 thoughts on incentives
Some of my favourites:
"I can fix the $32 trillion US debt problem in 5 minutes. You pass a law that when thereās a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members congress are ineligible for re-electionā - Warren Buffett
33% of British criminals were dying en route to Australia in the 1700s. Britain switched from paying sea captains for every passenger who walked on the ship to paying them for every passenger who walked off. Immediately, the survival rate shot up to 99%.
In Hungary, every woman who gives birth to 4 children or more never has to pay income tax.
During the 1980's, the government of Athens came up with an idea to limit pollution: Odd-numbered and even-numbered license plates. On dates with an odd number, the odd plates could drive. And vice versa. The rich people just bought another car -- with even worse emissions. The streets got more jammed and the pollution got worse.
12 thoughts on incentives:
1. Don't ask your barber if you need a haircut.
2. "I can fix the $32 trillion US debt problem in 5 minutes. You pass a law that when thereās a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members congress are ineligible for re-electionā - Warrenā¦ twitter.com/i/web/status/1ā¦
— George Mack (@george__mack)
May 5, 2024
/4 Asking Powerful Questions
Asking good questions is a superpower. They expand minds, generate insights, and make you look smart. 5 of the best questions to do just that:
How can you achieve your 10-year plan in the next 6 months?
How would you teach it to a child?
Why? (Repeat 3-5 times - The āFive Whyāsā Method)
What would a press release for this product say?
What would you do right now if a documentary crew were following you around?
Jerry is a prime example of someone who loves his craft and building mastery in comedy.
From this great interview with him, the quote below stood out:
"Every artist is only showing you his best. When you watch a movie, every sceneāthey only show you the one take that worked. Seventeen times, they missed it. Youāre only seeing the peak of it. But in standup you gotta make it happen every night. Thatās the difference. Thatās why actors, I think, like to do the theatre. They want to be honest. They want to be held to account. And only a live audience holds you to account.ā
/6 (Bonus) You Are The Technical Cofounder You Need
I came across this post by Nir Zicherman (co-founder of Anchor, sold to Shopify) which I will send to people who tell me they have an amazing idea, but just need a technical cofounder to make it happen.
Itās never too late to learn, and you can always say āIām too busyā, or āIām the non-technical lead, so I should focus on my strengthsā, but if you have a dream and something you want to achieve, you should make time to do what it takes.
Thatās a wrap - let me know your favourite link šĀ
Till next week,
Fahim āļø