Tyranny of Soft Expectations

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I have this tendency to assume that everyone has the same capabilities as me. I’ve been called out on it a few times. “If I can do it, why can’t you?” I tend to think… I got criticized for assuming that everyone can. I’ve recently heard this statement in a podcast: What if everybody tomorrow became a scientist or an … Read More

On Firing

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I’m writing this for the young managers that haven’t received an MBA in management, but need to manage a team regardless. I work with a lot of kind and agreeable people, that are also ambitious and want to get things done. The problem with being agreeable at times is that when someone gets in the way, the agreeable person would … Read More

Stay Hungry

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Figuratively, or literally? I’ve always thought that this statement is a figurative one: staying hungry means not getting satisfied and always aiming for more (ambition not greed). That is a recipe for continuous growth. However, I’ve recently stumbled upon a video for the one and only Andrew Tate saying how one should stay hungry as one’s body operates at its … Read More

Negotiating Power

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The best position you can be in in a negotiation is if you don’t mind if the deal doesn’t go through. This doesn’t mean that you don’t care. You do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be wasting your time negotiating. You want the deal to go through. But if it doesn’t, you’re not in a terrible position. Any time you care too … Read More

Torn

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Did you know that you have to tear a muscle in order to grow it? Yes, your muscles only become stronger and grow when you challenge them with weights or intensity that they previously have not experienced. Your muscle fibers literally get torn. If you keep tearing them without any time to heal, you injure them. But if you let … Read More

The Silent Giants

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I’m blessed to be surrounded by amazing people. I noticed a confusing trait of a group of people I work with: They work extremely well with me, but they seemingly severely underperform with others. That’s not to say that I’m a magician that brings out the best of them (the opposite is also true with other groups that I don’t … Read More

Binary vs. Spectrum

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Everything is a spectrum We’re biased to think in binary terms: – good or bad– fast or slow– kind or rude– tidy or messy– pretty or ugly reality is not binary reality is a spectrum I started thinking of good or bad as 0 to 100 instead of 0 to 1 that has helped me understand things better and explain … Read More

Balance is Bullshit

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Aggressive title, but hear me out. I’ve been told so many times to find ‘balance’. I think balance is bullshit. When people say ‘balance’, they somehow visualize the center point. The exact middle between two extremes. The 50 between 0 and 100. “That’s balance.” That’s bullshit. Balance is different for different people. Work life balance for me might be at … Read More

On Urgency

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Friday Reminder: What are your 10 year goals? How can you do them in 6 months? Why?Because you only live once, but if you live with urgency, then you can live multiple lives Why would you want that?Well, you don’t have to, but I for one think life is an amazing place, learning is a beautiful thing, and serving others … Read More

Too Busy to Think

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I aspire to never be too busy to think. I’ve fallen into this trap recently, multiple times unfortunately. What does it mean to be too busy to think, you wonder? It’s when you’re too ‘busy’ doing things and not sitting down in silence to reflect on them. It’s when you’re in the company of people so often that you forget … Read More