8 things I've learned that bring me joy.

1. Be willing to believe. Life is Good CEO Bert Jacobs spoke to us recently about seeking out optimists. Optimists believe in the possible. Optimists invented ice cream.

2. Do nice things. Ayn Rand famously claimed that altruism doesn’t exist. This is the kind of dumb thing that only a super-smart person would believe. The most effective leaders in history are servants to those whom they lead.
3. Be surprised by order, not chaos. Life is chaos. I am chaos. Work is chaos. My family and friends and the lady at the store are chaos. Small changes today lead to large changes over time. A small dose of goodwill goes a long, long way.
4. There is nothing so risky as the riskless. Famed investor Joel Greenblatt cheerfully says that his investing strategy works because it fails from time to time. @DavidGFool basic investing philosophy could probably be boiled down to the words “surprise me.”
5. You may be painfully smart. But every person you meet knows more about at least one thing (and probably lots of things) than you. People who disagree with you are neither dumb nor evil, nor, necessarily wrong.
6. Do worthwhile things. If something isn’t worth doing, it’s not worth mastering. Keep in mind that many worthwhile things are very difficult to master. The journey matters, and may be more important than the end goal.
7. Invert. Always Invert. A classic from the world’s most curmudgeonly optimist, Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger. With every consequential decision you should have in mind what the worst outcome would be.
8. Forget what people think about you. 80 years from now no one on the planet will know your name. Make your choices accordingly.
Please choose grace today. It will help.

More from Life

1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.

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