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I still feel there are much smarter self-promoters out there than me. I am very methodical about my messaging, and I know how to gain attention very quickly.
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Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.
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Having a size 9 foot is fantastic because almost all of the shoe companies do their prototyping in size 9, so if you visit a place like Nike headquarters, you can try every sort of wacky, out-there model.
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Language learning deserves special mention. It is, bar none, the best thing you can do to hone clear thinking.
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There are certain things I will automate, but when it comes to quality control, I want to keep a very close eye.
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To have an uncommon lifestyle, you need to develop the uncommon habit of making decisions, both for yourself and for others.
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Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time.
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Learn the art of the pitch and of messaging.
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Compile your to-do list for tomorrow no later than this evening.
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Happiness has a very short half-life.
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Doing less is not being lazy. Don't give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.
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I'm often asked how I define "success." It's an overused term, but I fundamentally view this elusive beast as a combination of two things - achievement and appreciation. One isn't enough: Achievement without appreciation makes you ambitious but miserable. Appreciation without achievement makes you unambitious but happy.
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The goal is not to simply eliminate the bad, which does nothing more than leave you with a vacuum, but to pursue and experience the best in the world.
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It's very easy to confuse confident motion with being productive - and they're not the same thing. Productive to me means measurable outcomes that apply to my most important to-dos that positively affect my life. That's it.
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There is an infinite selection of things that I could test in life, so I generally will look for a critical mass of word that comes back to me. At this point I have hundreds of friends who are the best at what they do, arguably number one in the country or in the world. I will oftentimes just kind of throw a volley out to people, ask them what they're obsessing on or what they find interesting that's on the fringe. If the same answer comes back a few times, I'm like, "Okay."
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I will take as a given that, for most people, somewhere between six and seven billion of them, the perfect job is the one that takes the least time.
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I'll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.
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Everyone is going to binge on a diet, for instance, so plan for it, schedule it, and contain the damage.
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The best way to counter-attack a hater is to make it blatantly obvious that their attack has had no impact on you.
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The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.
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The key to having more time is doing less, and there are two paths to get there, both of which should be used together: Define a short to-do list and define a not-to-do list.
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If you spend your time, worth $20-25 per hour, doing something that someone else will do for $10 per hour, it's simply a poor use of resources.
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There are two components that are fundamental to enjoy life and feel good about yourself: continual learning and service.
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People are fond of using the its not what you know, its who you know adage as an excuse for inaction, as if all successful people are born with powerful friends. Nonsense.