5 IMPORTANT LIFE LESSONS FROM PLATO:

1 - Create your own happiness

You are responsible for your thoughts, feelings & actions

By outsourcing this power, you allow external factors (people or situations) to dictate your inner wellbeing.
Plato said;

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has developed the best plan for living happily.
2 - Choose your company wisely

Whether you realize it or not, energy is highly communicable.

You will subconsciously pick up the mentality, moral standards & ambition of the people you spend the most time with.
Plato warned;

People are like soil - they can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wither...
3 - Master yourself

The beginning of wisdom is self-knowledge.

When you are no longer a slave to your vices, societal standards or other people’s judgement - you have mastered yourself.
Your mind is a good servant but a terrible master.

If you don’t rule your mind, it will rule you.

Self-governance is the ultimate virtue.
To quote Plato:

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.
4 - Be content with little

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire”
5 - Be Silent

Plato said;

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
A sound mind grows in the soil of silence.

When you speak less, you refine your thoughts and increase the value of your words.
Thread summary;

1) Choose your company wisely
2) Master yourself
3) Create your happiness
4) Be content with little
5) Be silent

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1/ Here’s a list of conversational frameworks I’ve picked up that have been helpful.

Please add your own.

2/ The Magic Question: "What would need to be true for you


3/ On evaluating where someone’s head is at regarding a topic they are being wishy-washy about or delaying.

“Gun to the head—what would you decide now?”

“Fast forward 6 months after your sabbatical--how would you decide: what criteria is most important to you?”

4/ Other Q’s re: decisions:

“Putting aside a list of pros/cons, what’s the *one* reason you’re doing this?” “Why is that the most important reason?”

“What’s end-game here?”

“What does success look like in a world where you pick that path?”

5/ When listening, after empathizing, and wanting to help them make their own decisions without imposing your world view:

“What would the best version of yourself do”?
I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.