10 Lessons from my life
It is hard to remember lessons that life teaches us. One needs a constant reminder on them. Having them written down helps. Here are a few life lessons that I have learnt and would like to be reminded of:
1. Focus on execution, doing is more important than thinking, start now
Recently I stumbled upon this quote:
“You don’t learn cooking by reading cooking books”
It made me chuckle. In the past, I spent far too much time thinking about ideas (cooking books) than on executing them (actually cooking). It would be untrue for me to say that I am completely over that phase now. I still spend too much time brainstorming. I am working to change that. Albeit it is hard and slow. I need to constantly remind myself that ideas + execution >> ideas with no execution. Execution is where the actual magic happens.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that there never is and there never will be a perfect time to start. The best time to start was yesterday and the 2nd best time is now. You can’t win the race by just thinking about the finish line. You can only win the race by actually taking part in it. Start now!
2. Politics is here to stay, accept it and move on
I used to get overly worried about politics. It made me super anxious. I didn’t really get why people engaged in politics? Why couldn’t we just focus on getting things done? Why do we waste so much time on petty political issues? Then I stumbled upon this podcast from Charlie Songhurst. He said:
“Because the world is not composed of saints, as an organization scales the level of politics increases exponentially… the difference between a great company and a bad company is that in a great company execs spend only 25% of the time playing politics while in a bad one they spend 50% of the time playing politics. That delta is the entire gaussian bell-curve from the best Fortune 500 company to the worst.”
What Charlie said struck a chord with me. Finally, reality dawned. I realized that no matter what, politics is here to stay. It is one of those evils that cannot be eliminated but only be minimized. The sooner you accept this, the better it would be for you. Instead, you should channelize your energy into your work. Focus on your karma.
3. Be internally driven, stop focusing on external factors
One of my all-time favourite speeches is Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address. The part I like the most goes like this:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
For far too long I gave away my happiness switch to someone else. I had let myself be driven by external factors. Not any longer. I took back control. You need to have an internal compass guiding you. No matter what, people are still going to find a way to hate or criticize you. Learn to deal with it. Stop focusing on external factors. Instead, focus on things that you control. Reflect. Meditate. Even better, write.
4. Develop a habit of healthy skepticism
William Shakespeare said:
“All that glitters is not gold”
Similarly, all that people say is not necessarily true. Sometimes people have wrong intentions. They might try to sell you the moon (or Eiffel tower). Don’t fall for it. Sometimes people have the right intentions but might still be wrong. For example, take how the world’s most widely recognized map is so misleading. Canada and Russia which appear to take approximately 25% of Earth’s surface, in reality occupy a mere 5%. Don’t take everything at its face value. Question it. Challenge it. Separate the facts from fiction.
5. Understand the power of incentives
Warren Buffett’s partner, Charlie Munger once said:
“Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome”.
He continued:
“Well I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes, but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther.”
I was naive to not understand the power of incentives earlier in my life. Surely, it is among one of the strongest forces governing human nature. Although people are inherently good, it is incentives that drive them to what they do. My father recently shared a story with me. It goes something like this:
Back in colonial India the administration in charge decided there were too many cobras around Delhi. To reduce the population, they put in place a cash reward, or bounty, for anyone who brought in a dead cobra. The intention was clear. Legend has it that people did bring in the cobras reliably because some enterprising souls had started breeding cobras for the very purpose of getting the bounty. When the authorities realised this, they scrapped the scheme, the cobra farms closed and the bred cobras were released into the wild significantly increasing the cobra population by a few orders of magnitude.
Never underestimate the power of incentives.
6. Be enthusiastic
Kevin Kelly in his blog post mentions that enthusiasm is worth 25 IQ points. I couldn’t agree more. I have seen this work first hand. My ex-boss was one of the most enthusiastic person I have ever met. His enthusiasm was contagious. His energy and his mood had the ability to lift the spirits of the entire floor. Working with him was so much more fun because of his enthusiastic nature. Be like him.
7. You are better off betting on things that are already good
In life, you can either play it to your strengths or you can work on your weaknesses (in hopes that they become your strengths one day). I recommend you play it to your strengths! Similarly, you can either care about your best relationships or wait for people to realize their mistakes. I recommend caring about your best relationships! You can either bet on strong companies or you can bet on companies that could turn around. Bet on strong companies! In general, it pays off to bet on things that are good today vs those that might get better in future. Weaknesses do become strengths, people do change, companies do turn around but far too late and far too infrequently.
8. Measure what matters
You don’t know something that you don’t know. And you don’t know something that you don’t measure. If you have no clue about where you were, where you are, or where you are headed, you know nothing about your progress. The only way to know is to measure. A super simple strategy to measure is to use the Seinfeld Strategy:
“Once Seinfeld told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big tick over that day. After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”
9. It is ok to change your mind
Times change. Circumstances change. Facts change. Shouldn’t your mind too? The ability to change your mind is a superpower. Exercise it. Don’t live a life burdened by the weight of your past choices. Give yourself the liberty to change your mind. It is ok to do that.
10. Focus on your health
There is nothing in the world, seriously nothing, more important than your health. Every dream, every opportunity, every dollar in your bank account becomes immaterial if you are unwell. Current coronavirus crisis only reinforces this belief. I regret neglecting my health in my younger years. The good thing is that with help from my family, I am back on track and getting healthier each passing day. You need to be absolutely selfish about your health. It should be a top priority. Everything else is secondary. In the end the choice is yours — the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
