joshuago’s reminders Bookmarks

Most entrepreneurs pursue the question, "How can I succeed?" From day one, Packard and Hewlett pursued a different question: "What can we contribute?"

Of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important — by far — is simply making progress in meaningful work.

If you screw up at your job you can always get another one, but if you screw up your family, especially your relationship with your children, it will stay with you and stay screwed up forever.

Practice deliberately. Get back to basics. Put down your ego and specifically concentrate on the areas where you make the most mistakes.

Being bored is awesome. Savor it. "My creativity flourished because of the soul-crushing boredom of my childhood."

When might it be your time to "quit"? You can quit things like businesses or projects if you know they are merely one means to your passion. You know if you've done your very best to make it work. But what you can't quit is fighting for your purpose, and living, and finding new, more effective ways to bring forth your passions in the world.

If you want to create change, at least some of your time is going to have to be spent off the grid.  Don't delude yourself into thinking that tweeting and facebooking are revolutionary acts.

This kind of love -- of life, of wonder -- cannot be taught in business school. It has to be felt. It has to be given sanctuary away from the noise and relentless assault of information. And then it has to be nurtured. The misfit has a higher calling: to bring the unmanifest into being, no matter who is saying what.

Start saving early, because compound interest does wonders. And do whatever it takes to create or maintain fire in your belly.

We should go pro and abandon anti. Because believing in something? Going after it by running as hard as you can? That is not cool—it is ugly and it is awesome. Why be reductive? Why undercut a true and honest attempt?