Do Over (Make Today the First Day of Your New Career) by Jon Acuff (Part 2)

Win the Way You Won Before. We have definitely picked up skills in the past. Ask yourself what skills did you learn in the past? It need not be work skills only. What were the circumstances that conspired in your favour? You might have an audience to drive your development of the skill. Sometimes, you could have been pressured by a tight deadline. Find a new crowd you share your skill with. You could devise a reward system once you have attained a particular skill. Set a countdown on your phone to motivate yourself to do something, it could be 60 minutes or something. Don’t be afraid to devise new methods in your pursuit of new skills. Learn the strategies employed in the past to help you improve and give yourself a better chance at success. Never reinvent the wheel and always learn from your past.

Kick-Start Your New Skills with Something Fun. You can learn by necessity or curiosity. Necessity are related to work skills. Curiosity is more borne out of desire. Both types of skills are important for us. A smarter approach is to start with something fun. Developing a curiosity skill is more fun and easier than a necessity skill. Keep it simple. You only need time and knowledge at the start. Time and knowledge are more accessible than money, time, gear. You can research about it for free on the Internet. You need to make time for learning your skill too. You must decide exactly when do you want to learn it. Macro means printing out next month’s calendar. You will realize that you have more time than you think. Fear likes to tell you that you don’t have enough time. Learn to utilize your time well and in a fruitful manner. The micro is exactly which days and how many hours you will use to hone your skill. What’s consuming your calendar daily? Start your day with what matters most and that will help you the most. Work on your skill before other things get in the way. Who will help you learn this new skill? Skills are no exception. It is more fun to learn with a friend. Someone should track your progress. This person should ask you for updates on a regular basis. Check in twice a week.

If you really want to learn something, you have to decide when you are going to do it. Otherwise, you dramatically reduce your odds of actually doing it. – Jon Acuff

Days are like snowballs rolling down a hill. I don’t care how perfectly you’ve planned it, something unexpected is going to get picked up as your day rolls down the slope. – Jon Acuff

An accountability partner you only contract when you are winning isn’t an accountability partner, it’s a cheerleader. – Jon Acuff

Learning a new skill doesn’t have to be miserable, especially if you start with something fun and easy. – Jon Acuff

Skills Get Sharp Slowly and Dull Quickly. Skills will go dull if not used frequently. If you are writer, you should write daily. Once you get lazy, it will be hard to kick-start the habit again. At that time, you need motivation from friends to kick you to start again. The hardest competition you’ll ever face. The key for sportsmen is to be disciplined and do the same time every day of the week, even during off season. Learn to outsmart yourself. There is a problem with first times. First times should be the worst experience. Every time you start a new job, the skills you learn in your previous job are not useless. For every repetition you make, you should lay another brick in your foundation. You work best when skills become second nature to you. This will free up brain space for other things. If you discipline your life, it creates freedom in another. For instance, you could buy many sets of the same clothing. This will help you pare down your decision making. Your career is not shampoo. Nowadays, videos are big part of blogging. You must step into the tension of skills. Some skills cannot be simply put on autopilot, but should be on fighter pilot.

The more you can turn an important skill into a repeatable habit, the more you can trust the power of autopilot. – Jon Acuff

When you refuse to practice a skill today, it makes it harder to practice it tomorrow. Weeds of fear grow stronger the longer we wait to hustle. Get in the garden today. – Jon Acuff

Grab the Right Kind of Hammer for Your Career Ceiling. Do not build your cage. When you are stuck, you can choose to accept it or change it. Your skills will help you break ceilings. The ceiling is challenging you to break through it.

The father of every good work is discontent, and its mother is diligence. – Lajos Kassak

Should you ever stay at a bad job just because other people in your field don’t have a job? What are you really saying? That until everyone in your field is employed you can’t apply somewhere else? You can’t have another job until everyone else does? That doesn’t make any sense. – Jon Acuff

We build elaborate internal campaigns justifying where we are. We trick ourselves into thinking it’s someone else’s fault or that maybe it’s not so bad. It’s not a horrible job, it’s a good-enough job. If we stay there long enough, we eventually forget that we are even allowed to change. – Jon Acuff

I can’t tell you if in ten years I will have written five more books. But I can tell you that this year I will write one. I can’t tell you if in 10 years my blog will have 5 million readers, but I can write a new post today. – Jon Acuff

Investment 3: Character. Character is who you are. Character is the reason why people will give you another opportunity if you fail the first one. It is a pre-requisite for many things to come. Everything is personal in work. Character is impossible to ignore. Character will also determine your resilience to move things forward. Start planting your orchard and be generous and empathetic. People with bad character might win, but they may not last.

A talent is formed in stillness, a character in the world’s torrent. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Plant an Orchard. Character is a slow process and takes time to build. Character is like an orchard. The trees are the character traits and the weeds threaten to destroy your orchard. Which is one character trait that you want to develop? Ask a friend if you are clueless. Trust could be something you want to work on. Take a look at your whole orchard. I was addicted to chaos and busyness. However, if you like chaos, your character falls on the wayside. Write down the jobs you’ve had. Give a brief description of your job performance. List the way you left each job. Describe the strength of the relationships you left behind. Pull the weeds as fast as you can. Narcissism is a problem. Dishonesty is a horrible weed too. Pessimism is an issue too. Pessimism can grow and it can become a problem. Apathy is a big issue as well. Apathy cripples your ability to launch a career jump.

The future is purchased by the present. – Dr. Samuel Johnson

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. – Old Saying

Most destructive of all is that apathy cripples your ability to launch a career jump. No one who is apathetic has the energy or heart to try a positive, voluntary career transition. That entire quadrant is off the table when weeds like this have grown in your orchard. – Jon Acuff

Generosity is a Game Changer. We need to be generous as it can help us greatly in our careers. It helps to breed loyalty. People will support you if you have helped them before. Do not hesitate or hold back. Greed will cost you more than you think. Generosity is always cheaper than greed. Your generosity will pay dividends. It is for long term benefits. If you find that people are exploiting you, make sure you don’t have an itchy trigger finger. Learn to draw some boundaries. You can let the person learn from a painful experience. The worst case is to avoid them. Make your definition of generosity bigger. You can be generous with your time and skills. Ideally, you should be able to do something you are good at.

Service is renewing. When we serve, our work itself will sustain us. – Rachel Naomi Remen

Before you make a Career Jump give generously of your time, talent and resources without keeping score. If you keep a record of who you’ve been generous to with the expectation that they’ll return the favor, you’ll build transactions not relationships. – Jon Acuff

Empathy, No Longer Just for People Who Like to Cry with Friends. You need to navigate with empathy. It means understanding someone else’s needs and acting on them. Most people are the same and they all have hopes, fears, dreams, frustrations. Having empathy allows to work with just about anyone. If you have empathy, you can do sales and sell stuff. Take time to know someone’s real story. You will understand that they might have undergone to get to where they are. Compassion is important. Fear is an amazing storyteller. Care about what the people you care about care about. Character is an orchard, it changes over time. You don’t have to quit your job to engage in a career jump, but you can do something positive and voluntary. Read less minds, ask more questions. Instead of guessing, learn to ask them directly. Simply showing up shows empathy. It doesn’t have to be big actions. Make people bigger. Ask questions to your colleagues like ‘What can I do to make you look like a rock star to your manager?’ Put someone’s needs ahead of your own. What to do when empathy is broken. Be honest and admit you were wrong sometimes.

Everybody has a story. When we don’t take the time to know someone’s story or worse, create our own version of it, we lose the chance to understand what they need, which is the first step to empathy. – Jon Acuff

Be Present. Showing up at your job is important. You have to deal with your phone, your computer, and your meetings. We use our phones way too often. If you are not present, your relationships might be threatened. When you use your phone, you are putting other people on pause. Be present with your computer. People might surf the Internet at work in their free time. We are all guilty of it. Do work while you’re at work. Be present in meetings. Learn to take notes. It is easier to hide behind a laptop by being old fashioned and taking down notes is easier. Ask at least one question during the meeting will help you to stay engaged. Turn your phone upside down. You could just not bring your phone to the meeting or something.

Never Jump without Character. You need character when you decide to chase a dream. Character helps you navigate through chaos of change. You can always rely on your character. You can’t completely eliminate chaos from your life. Over time, you get used to living with chaos. It’s time to hustle.

Investment: Hustle. We are more capable than we think. Hustle means hard work. It helps you to build on relationships, skills and your character. You don’t get anywhere without hard work. There is a thin line between hustle and hassle. Use grit, awareness and flexibility.

‘Music is in the piano only when it is played.’ Jack Gilbert

Grit is a Choice, Not a Feeling. You will feel a sense of apathy if you have given up on your dream. Grit is not fun or easy. You might have to stay up late to work hard etc. It can be ugly and messy. However, grit is a choice. You might ask, what if I don’t have what it takes? You don’t need some ultimate goal to work on Do Over. Fear will always discourage you from working hard and acting on your goal. Tell yourself that you have what it takes to try. We all get to try. What if I pick the wrong thing to hustle on and miss my opportunity? The thing about life is that you will have many opportunities that will come your way. Therefore, do not apply the once-in-a-lifetime label to things you face. Regret is much worse than fear. Which would you rather choose, fear or regret? Make grit decisions. Give your hustle some time to succeed. Counsel and lean on your relationships. Ask for awesome opportunities. Give yourself permission to be kind. Be honest to yourself. Build a grit list. It’s like running, I don’t like it but I put in on my Grid List due to the benefits I derive from it. Go with grit, don’t be most people. Don’t wait until you feel brave to hustle, choose to hustle until you feel brave.

I didn’t want to be selling insurance at 40, wondering what it would have been like to do stand-up. – Steven Wright, Comedian

If you’re going to make new relationships, you need to have grit. If you’re going to learn new skills, you need to have grit. If you’re going to have strong character, you need to have grit. If you’re going to hustle, you need to have grit. – Jon Acuff

There’s no such thing as a perfect job. There’s no job where you get to do only the things you love doing. Those don’t exist. – Jon Acuff

There will be tasks, projects and activities you have to do in your career that you hate. No matter which stage you’re in, you’ll have to do some things you don’t love. That’s why we all need a Grid List, a short list of the skills we grit our teeth and do regardless of how we feel. – Jon Acuff

Hustle Has Seasons: Use Awareness to Recognize Them. Do not try to hustle at wrong points of your life. For instance, do not hustle on a holiday as you will not feel rested or recharged. You need to ask ‘what season am I in?’ Learn to focus. Hustle is a scalpel. Doing more action might not be the solution all the time. Do not hustle too much that you neglect your family etc. Instead of blaming your boss or colleagues, ask yourself ‘Did I expect this job to be something it never would be?’ It does not mean you are a failure. It just meets that you just took a wrong path and need to find a new one. Keep your head down and hustle on your work.

Be proactive about doing that in your own life. Work on your sense of awareness. Don’t wait for someone you love to call you out. – Jon Acuff

You don’t have to know the exact path, because nobody does, but are you roughly headed in the right direction? If you want to be a musician and you’re a pharmaceutical rep working 70 hours a week, not playing any music, stop kidding yourself. That path doesn’t lead to music. – Jon Acuff

Career Yoga. You need to spend time planning your day. Things rarely go according to plan. Hustling with flexibility is the best, as it leads to less disappointment. Be flexible with your dream. The work you end up loving might not even exist yet. You have to flexible about what you study as well. Your dream will change over your lifetime. Be flexible with your definition of success. Let new be different, not old. Humans love to idealize your past when our present doesn’t meet our expectations. Have fun storming the castle. Having fun is important as it helps you to get going and to push on. Having fun helps you to prevent burnout.

Always Use This to Multiply the Moment. Hustle offers you unexpected opportunities. Overcome your fear and learn to speak to a crowd. Say yes to small opportunities and learn to build from there.

Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the path can substitute for putting one foot in front of the other. – Mary Caroline Richards

Hustle works those two ways. You hustle hard to stir up more opportunities. And then when you have one, you hustle hard to blow it up as large as it can possibly be. – Jon Acuff

Three Final Words You’ll Tell Me Someday Soon. Work can be more meaningful than we think. We have to change ourselves. We don’t get to pick a transition permanently. Your work is a lifestyle. Anyone can have a Career Do Over.

O you who sit over your full cup and do not drink, tell me, for whom are you still waiting? – Hermann Hesse

Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give in by Louis Zamperini & David Rensin

Lessons from an Extraordinary Life. Louis Zamperini died on July 2, 2014. He had an indomitable courage and fighting spirit for life. He always kept himself occupied by talking and traveling. His biography, Devil at the Heels, was published in 2003. Unbroken was also a film by Angelina Jolie about him. Louis had an exemplary character.

Introduction. I felt sharp even at 97. I was a runner for my high school. I used to run the mile. In the 1936 Olympics, I ran a 56 second final lap and got praised by Hilter. Eventually, I became a bombardier during the WWII. When my plane crashed in the Pacific, I miraculously survived. We grabbed rafts and we ate chocolates and ate fish and sharks that came by. I had a sharp mind and that kept me going. After 33 days, Mac died. Phil and I were left. By day 46, we found Marshall Islands and landed there. However, the Japanese had established a presence there. We were tortured by the Japanese. When I returned home after the war, I received a hero’s reception. However, I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Later, I devoted my life to God. Enduring challenges have gave me many rewards and I do not regret anything I have done. I started an outreach camp program after the War. Reporters were interested to cover my story after the war. Unbroken was one of the NYT bestsellers. I am just an ordinary man who resolved never to give up even in the face of trying circumstances. If you give life a try, you never know that might take you.

Run for Your Life

The Family Rules. We all need a code of ethics to guide us in life. Everyone pitched in to help when we were tight on cash. I worked odd jobs when young. My mum was strict but taught us well. My parents also knew how to play instruments.

Anyone Can Turn Their Life Around. I was often in trouble when young. I also had a self-esteem problem as I couldn’t speak English when young. Also, I hated the way I looked. School fights were common. One day, my dad gave me a punching bag and I trained. I was caught for smoking when I was 9. When I was older, I also like drinking and stole booze whenever I could. We robbed shops of pies and booze. Once in a while, I went to church. Once I beat up a driver because he reported me to the police after I stole his pies. Could I turn my life around? My parent were sick of me getting into trouble time after time. My brother was a better influence than me and wasn’t mischievous. My parents gave me a chance to shine through school sports. The principal encouraged me to sign up. I visited the steel mill and knew that I didn’t want to work there and suffer. I trained hard and sports changed my life and finally I started winning. Pete had much to do with my turn-around. I simply just kept running and never missed a training session.

The Difference Between Attention and Recognition is Self-Esteem. I was mischievous because I wanted recognition. I wanted to be accepted by others. I was also voted into the student-body as president. I had high self-esteem when it came to stealing from shops. However, in school, I suffered from low self-esteem. I was constantly anxious over how I was perceived by others. Self-respect can only be earned by doing something great. My fans and family were a tremendous part for my success. You don’t have to fight this journey alone.

It’s Not How You Win, It’s How You Lose. I raced the 5,000 metres in 1936. However, the officials made a mistake and I collided into another runner, causing me to lose. I was upset as I was winning continuously for 3.5 years. I congratulated Bright, the winner. Back in the day, we competed for the love of the sport. I represented the US at the 5,000m race at the Olympics, but I didn’t win.

That’s the way it should be. If you give everything and you lose, so what? It’s not going to put you in your grave. I walked away knowing I could handle defeat gracefully, and I had more self-esteem from that than from winning the race. – Louis Zamperini

I didn’t win the 5000m race at the Olympics, but making the team and not winning is like going to the moon and stumbling over a rock and falling. So what? You’re still on the moon. – Louis Zamperini

A Race Isn’t Over Until It’s Over. Glenn Cunningham was my hero. He was badly burnt but refused to give up on life. He epitomized resilience and resolve. The runners were not friendly towards me after I bragged that I would do a 4 minute mile. However, I still won in a time of 4:08.03. I won for myself and also for Glenn Cunningham. I didn’t know to accept defeat and kept pushing myself to greater heights. Thankfully, the persistence and perseverance would come in handy during WWII.

Be Prepared

Preparation Determines Your Survival. You should be prepared for anything. Every circumstance can be broken down into manageable challenges. When I was stranded at sea, I did not panic and used my first aid skills and learned how to catch fish. Everyone should learn some survival skills. Schools should teach survival skills to kids. I was a Scout and got inspired by Robinsoe Crusoe. As a rock climber, I knew that the ability to tie knots could determine my fate. Survival depends on education, preparation and anticipation.

Anything can happen to anyone, but there are simple rules designed to keep you out of trouble. When you’re hiking off-trail through the wilderness and you make a turn, break a tree branch so you know that’s where you were. – Louis Zamperini

My Survival Kit. You should keep your survival gear near to you. Even a water cape and shower cap can save you from the blistering cold. Use whatever that can help you survive. You always have to be one step ahead in your thinking.

Trust What You Know. The sharks often ate the bait that I laid while trying to catch first. Once, two sharks tried to jump on our raft. Then, we devised a plan to kill it and clutched the tail, however, I couldn’t hold on to it because of its strength. Later, we managed to kill one and we cut its belly. Raw shark meat would make us sick. The shark liver was delicious as it contained a lot of vitamins and protein. Without it, we might have died.

Keep Your Mind Sharp. Do not allow your body and head to rot. The brain must be exercised. Even on the raft, I tried to imagine mental sums and trying to solve them. We described the meals we cooked while on the raft. Phil and I also talked about our futures and that seemed to work. The Japanese interviewers were astounded by our sharpness on Kwajalein – Execution Island. It is imperative to use your brain well. I stayed sharp throughout the interrogation process. Other than Phil and I, no other prisoners made it off Kwajalein alive. I knew there were fake airfields in Hawaii and told the Japanese to bomb them. It was probably because the Jap thought that we would be better used for propaganda purposes.

Don’t Forget to Laugh. Remember to laugh. We had jokes even in Hawaii. We even laughed in POW camp. I felt rats running over my body in the bunk. If you pushed them away, they would bite you. I once made a paddle and smacked it. The rat squeaked in pain, and that got the rest laughing.

You are the Content of Your Character. I spent a year at Ofuna, a secret interrogation facility. Later, I was sent to Omori prison camp and I was also punished. Once, Mutsuhiro Watanabe ‘The Bird’ punished me. He knocked me down after I didn’t want to look at him. He offered me a tissue to wipe away the blood. After, he hit me again. He was a psychopath. The Bird couldn’t handle power as there were many higher ranked officers in the camp. I was extremely pissed and wanted my revenge. Once, I was brought to Radio Tokyo as they wanted me to send a message. In fact, the Japanese were using me to show the Americans that the POWs were being well taken off. They wanted me to claim that I was one of the lucky guys. However, I refused to read it and I’d rather be punished. Even though I transferred a camp, I still realized that ‘Bird’ was in charge again.

Never Let Anyone Destroy Your Dignity. Those soldiers who couldn’t accept their situation suffered the most. I got beaten up by ‘Bird’ but I kept going on and preserving. Bird punched in the stomach, causing me to drop the plank I was holding above my head for 37 minutes. Don’t let anyone destroy your dignity.

The great lesson of my life is perseverance. Never give up. – Louis Zamperini

Hate is a Personal Decision. Hate is just a cover-up and it will destroy you. Hate is a personal decision. Some of the prisoners hated the Japanese so much that they refused to eat. If you hate someone, it destroys your spirit.

The True Definition of a Hero. Being a hero is over-rated and over-used. I have deep respect for public servants like lawyers, doctors, teachers, firefighters etc.Whatever I did in the war, I did it for myself and fellow soldiers. It is important to work for the betterment of everyone.

Let others boast of you, but no with thine own mouth – Louis Zamperini

Attitude is Everything

You Must have Hope. If you tell yourself the war is going to end soon, you have a chance to stay mentally intact.

You must have hope. It rejuvenates your whole being. You can’t allow negative thinking – even if you know your chances are slim. I’m not saying that it’s easy to do, but the ability to envision the road to successful completion is what keeps you alive. – Louis Zamperini

Don’t Ask Why, Ask What’s Next? When you are old, the best form of exercise is walking. Walking keeps my legs strong. Old people shouldn’t give up walking. My attitude towards life remains upbeat even though I am old. The nurses also support me all the way. Having a positive attitude pays off in tremendous ways that you cannot imagine.

If you can’t control your attitude, forget it. You’re going to heal slowly or die young. – Louis Zamperini

You Choose How to View Your Fate. I rather be marooned alone on an island as compared to being caged up in prison. Even if you are stranded on an island, you should view your fate in a more positive fashion.

The Secret of Contentment. I have learnt to be content and react positively to life. I have learnt to accept everything that happens in life. Learn to work with what you have. Acceptance creates cheerfulness, which in turn creates contentment. Attitude is everything.

After the War: Still Lost

You Can’t Run (Or Sail) Away from Yourself. I felt like a celebrity after the war. My wife and I were invited to many functions. I wanted to run for the California state legislature. Your reputation and character are all you have. I wanted to get rich fast and I started trying to sell construction equipment. Sometimes, I still kept thinking about my time in POW. My running was too slow and I knew I couldn’t compete again. I wanted to party and have fun. I decided to take a trip on a boat on an expedition. It was an adventurous trip. It was definitely a joyous trip which I enjoyed thoroughly. The moral of the story is that you can’t run away from your problems and responsibilities.

Don’t Leave the Crucial Details to Others. We went to the Earl Carroll Theatre mostly. Once, we were stranded out at sea because our crew member forgot to top up fuel. We sent out an SOS signal and the plane dropped food to us. I used the mirror to send a morse code. The girls on my boat kept waving at the pilot and the pilot seemed interested in rescuing them. Finally, the Coast Guard saw us and pulled us aboard. The moral of the story: don’t leave the crucial details to someone you don’t know.

motivational phrase, don’t give up, handwritten with white chalk on a blackboard

 

Quitter by Jon Acuff (Part 2)

Falling in Like With a Job You Don’t Love. In the past, I was obsessed over quitting my job. Later on, people encouraged me to quit because of my dreams. Quitting your day job is not fulfilling the American dream. People assume your dream is more lucrative. However, writing doesn’t pay well. Dreams rarely pay well at the start. Your dream needs time to incubate. It takes very long indeed. Without incubation time, it will die. Keeping at a day job allowed my dream to have incubation time. What you do in one area of your life will affect the other areas too. Your work attitude tends to follow you home too. Remember why you work. I work to support my family. When you chase your dreams, sometimes you become selfish in your ways. Look for parallels. Starbucks is going to teach you accounting, marketing etc. You can learn from any job you have. Learn to start small and work from there. Look for purpose. Ask how can your day job benefit your dream job and vice versa. How can your chase for your dream job positively affect your day job? People was my purpose. Every dream involves people. You can definitely find purpose in your day job. Do not ever steal from work. This means working on your personal goals while at work. You are supposed to do work in your job description. One way to overcome this is to work very hard in your weekday evenings on your dream so you won’t feel pressed for time. Another way is to take on more assignments at work. Your employers didn’t pay you to work on your dream during working hours. Be honest and diligent with your day job hours. Think of your job as your adversary, not your advocate is a screwed up way of thinking. Protect the way you look at your boss and your company. The next wrong way is to demand that your job meet the needs of your dream. You are not entitled to anything.

The truth is, we need to learn to fall in like with a job we don’t live because it’s actually the best way to set up your dream for success. – Jon Acuff

Bad employees make horrible dreamers. You can’t loaf on your day job all week and then expect to magically throw the switch on the weekend and hustle on your dream. The things you do on your day job tend to follow you home. – Jon Acuff

We get really focused on our own stuff and our own dreams and we lose sight of the many, many reasons it is critical that you do great work at your day job. – Jon Acuff

The romantic way too look at it is that my dream job bled over into my day job. The candid way to look at it is that I was stealing from work. When you do your dream on work time, that’s stealing from your employer. – Jon Acuff

Wait on the Main Stage. We have to get on the main stage. It can be very nervous to speak on the main stage. To many, speaking at a lab is a failure. However, we all need to speak on the side before moving to the main stage. Plans are important, however, do not plan too much. Plans always change and they are fluid. The problem are that plans are too vague and no detailed steps are necessary. It’s like soccer, you can’t plan for everything as every moment is different. There are too many variables in life. You will not be able to script every detail. You do not need a plan. You need passion to drive you forward. The second thing you need is practice. You must show up every day and make it a habit. Just keep practising and practising. The conditions of your dream will change all the time. We like to see the underdog defeat the best. It is like David and Goliath. When you are small, nobody likes and respects you. Developing our dream job is more about hard work rather than grand moments in life. Start small and go along the way. We all need the gift of invisibility at the start. It’s harder to take risks when many people are watching you. Anonymity is the best because you have nothing to lose. You are a free man. Cherish it while it is still around.

Focus on your passion first. Your passion will always fuel your plan. Rarely will a plan fuel a passion. It will contribute. It will shape it. It will most certainly help it. – Jon Acuff

There Will Be Hustle. I have never taken blogging seriously. Things worked out because I hustled. Our desire to complicate matters is because we are lazy and fearful. Hustle is not hard. Sometimes, you will have to do the things you don’t enjoy. Dreams start in the morning. When you wake up, this is the best time to hustle. You don’t have excuses in the morning. One tends to have less excuses in the morning. When you start on your dreams in the morning, it will leave you happier throughout the day. As you grow older, you waste less time. It will force you to prioritize. The clue is to do more of the things you love and less of the things you like. Chasing your dreams isn’t all rosy and shit. The more you practice, the better you become. There is a lot of practice involved. Put quantity before quality. You have to learn 3 things about people. They won’t pay for what they can get for free. You will have to differentiate the product before they will pay. You have to weigh the long-term benefits of doing something for free. If there is a bigger gain from you not charging at speaking events, then don’t charge. Free pays dividends towards expertise. Doing stuff for free improves your exposure. Competition can be a big motivator but it is not a good measurement tool. If you feel you are better than your competitor, then you will get complacent. If you realize how much your opponent is better than you, you will get discouraged. Try not to measure your dream against someone else’s dream. Blog stats could be one potential measure. Your message must stay true to yourself. The best measure is the amount of work you have put in. This is the factor which you can control. Measure the number of days which you woke up early.

I love the title Quitter but still think that a core element holding this entire book together is a need to hustle. To push harder than the other person. To dream further. To work longer and faster. – Jon Acuff

Hustle is not hard. If you write your blog every day, at the end of the year you will have more readers than when you started. If you get up early and work on your dream two hours more than somebody else, your dream will progress faster. – Jon Acuff

The reality is that when you get busy doing the things that matter to you, you actually have more time to do the things you love and less time to do the things you like. – Jon Acuff

Learn to Be Successful at Success. You do not become an overnight celebrity. Do not misinterpret what success looked like for a dream. Success is the Bermuda Triangle of dreams. There are challenges associated with success too. Another problem is that we get arrogant. Overconfidence is scary. Do not let success kill your dream. Learn to define what is ‘enough’. You can send future emails to yourself. Write yourself a letter in the future. Success will often tell you that it is never enough and that you should strive even more. Define your enough. It is important not to burn out. You must always invest in relationships or they will die. Burn your dream bright but do not burnout. Please understand that the land of later is a myth. Kids do not believe in later. There will always be trade-offs. It is important to spend time with your family and kids too. Don’t turn your platform into a prison. Learn to have multi-generation dreams. Build a legacy that is bigger than individuals’ lives and actions. If you have a dream, share it with others. Do not take on opportunities which are not linked to your dream. Avoid saying yes to the wrong things.

Quit Your Day Job. I left my day job. My boss expected it. How do you know you’re really ready to leave? Learn to fill up this scorecard. 1) You have worked hard on your dream for more than a month/ a few months. Please understand that not everyone needs to quit their day job. The author had 6 reasons for quitting his day job. They are 1) He had somewhere to land. Next, the opportunity fit our opportunity filter. The author tested the dream before he quit. It is important to practice what you want to do with your life. I had a support network. We could afford to move. God seemed cool with our dream. It is important to establish some important ground rules. Share the rules and others hold you accountable. Make a list of risks that might appear after you leave your day job. Friendships might take long to form. In addition, you might be required to travel more. Money could be an issue too. You might need to pay rent for a home. We really can’t have two different versions of ourselves ‘work me’ and ‘life me’. To some extent, your work defines you. You think your job just funds the rest of your life. This cheapens the value of work. Some people think work is never meant to be fulfilling. There will always be hard and difficult moments at work. However, you have to do things you don’t necessarily enjoy at times. However, work can be fun sometimes. A menial task has meaning too.

You can’t spend 40 hours a week doing something and think it won’t impact you. You can’t spend half of your waking hours somewhere and think it doesn’t affect you. You can’t make a perfectly clean break between your life inside and outside work. – Jon Acuff

You can fake that you love your job for months, maybe even years, convincing everyone you work with that you care about the company, the business or the job. But your apathy for a job always comes out eventually. – Jon Acuff

If you quit your job without understanding why you’re quitting, you’ll just jump from job to job to job. You’ll become a serial quitter like I was. The things you didn’t like at the job before will show up in your next job. And the next. The common denominator in every bad job you’ve quit is you. – Jon Acuff

Just Ask the Universe by Michael Samuels

A No-Nonsense Guide to Manifesting Your Dreams

Intro. This is a guide to personal development. It is a blue-print for self-growth and self-improvement. You can have anything, all you need is to ask. I have read many books in my life. You can achieve your dreams. All you have to do is to ask the Universe.

If your thoughts are clear and in harmony with your mind and the truth of your surroundings, your life can be filled with all the richness the Universe has to offer. – Michael Samuels

Getting Here. Most people feel the Universe isn’t helping them. It is at your beck and call. The Universe can give you anything you want. However, you must follow certain rules. At first, I believed people relied on luck to be successful. What made successful people different from me? It turns out that rich people have control over their minds. I bought the Anthony Robbin’s Personal Power program. It was revolutionary and awoke me. I penned down all my goals. I learnt about the value of life and adopted a positive mental attitude. After receiving 1 million dollars won’t make you happy. The key is that it’s who you become as a person that matters. Rich people need not necessarily be happy people. Many years later, I realized that I achieved most of my goals. My wife and I were the perfect match. I was a big fan of self-improvement and kept reading more of it. Positive thoughts will attract other positive thoughts. In conclusion, the Universe is at your command every single second of the day. Life is about realizing your dreams.

Action is the real measure of intelligence. – Napoleon Hill

Meet the Universe. The Universe is omnipresent and is everywhere. It flows through you and you are a part of it. It is perpetual in nature and it knows everything. You shouldn’t over analyze and just have faith that it will help you. Hence, it is not worth your time trying to analyze how the Universe works.

The Connection. There is both the conscious and unconscious mind. Your conscious mind is the one you use for thinking. Your unconscious mind takes orders from your conscious one. It is your unconscious mind that works with the Universe. It is impartial and will not question your thoughts. You must ask for things in the correct order. You cannot think convoluted thoughts and you must think clear thoughts. You must want a specific and clear-cut goal. You must set a timeline for your goal. Your thought is the seed and the foundation. Nourish your seed so that it can grow. Learn to clean up your garden. Do not let pessimism destroy you. Do not let depressing thoughts hold you back. It takes time to see results.

You can build radiant health, success and happiness by the thoughts you think in the hidden studio of your mind. – Joseph Murphy

Two Big No-No’s. You can’t use this book to feed your dirty deeds. The first no-no is when you want something bad to happen to someone else. You must only ask for great and positive things. Do not be mean or derogatory. The Universe stores everything you say. Things will hit you back with boomerang precision. Let to forgive others. The second no-no is to never wish to take something away from someone else. Moral of the story is to avoid using the Universe to do your dirty work.

Your Subconscious Wish List. Write down your thoughts. Write down an ‘I want’ list. Write down everything. Be ambitious. However, do not daydream. Write down the details of the new car you want. Please include more details. It is all in the details. List out your travel destinations etc. Do not complain to the Universe about your troubles. Be gracious in your current job even if you currently hate it. Next, write your ‘gratefully received it’ list. These are your current accomplishments in life. Write down only the positive things that have happened to you. The Universe has already been working for you when you were young.

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire. – Napoleon Hill

Conversations with Your Best Friend. Learn to release the powers of your subconscious mind. You can move things with your mind. Relax with a big smile just before you are about to go to sleep. Think about your ‘I want’ list. Tell your subconscious mind to carry them out for you. Remember that your subconscious is your best friend. Your subconscious will always work for you no matter what, even when you are asleep.

Believing is Seeing. Learn to understand the importance of affirmations. Your dream takes time and remember that the Universe hates whiners. Be thankful at what you have. Live with purpose and be confident that you will be able to achieve your ‘I want’ list. You have to believe in order to see. It is like building a house, where you lay one brick every day. Believing is sowing your seeds. Everything takes time. The Universe will not hurry itself to give you the things you want. Keep pressing on even if you miss your timeline. Never become disheartened in life. Add more wants to your list whenever you feel like it. Constantly re-visit your list once in a while.

Think and Thank. Adapt the mental attitude of gratitude as it will serve you well indeed. The more you adapt this attitude, the more good things will happen to you. Be kind to everyone around you. Even if you fail, thank others for the opportunity. Never become bitter after failing. Be grateful for everything. Please continue to be persistent in whatever you do.

You must maintain, through thick and thin, the right attitude of gratitude, even if you do not get what you want. – Michael Samuels

The Land of Enhancement. The Universe does not show favoritism and favours hard work. In return for any business transaction or as a gift, make sure you give something which is useful for the other person. People need to feel the idea of enhancement from you. Give people more of what they want. Be helpful towards others. In life, you can get anything you want if you offer value towards others. Keep your ego in check and do not brag about your achievements.

Give every person more in worth than you take from them. – Michael Samuels

Setback, Schmetback. Naysayers will criticize your dreams. Help others achieve their dreams too. It takes the same effort to continue moving forward as it does to simply give up. Those who lack determination will quit instantly. These are the unmotivated people. Successful people do not make excuses and the Universe will still want to help you succeed. Always do it now. All you have to do is just ask.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieveances which we endure help us in our marching onward. – Henry Ford

Do not waste any energy thinking that the obstacle will defeat you. You will absolutely find a way over, under, around or through the problem when it arises. – Michael Samuels

 

The Rich Employee by James Altucher (Part 2)

How a Poor Employee Thinks. Jobs can be either outsourced to other countries or be replaced. Education might not protect you from it. Do not look for employers who will outsource people at the first opportunity. Use time to learn to be innovative. Learning from online courses is a great idea. Avoid the poor employee mindset. A poor employee gossips, under promises, doesn’t understand company vision. He never invests in himself. He spends on showing off instead of learning new things. He never comes up with great ideas. Does only what is required to get a salary. He surfs the net a lot for personal interests. He hates the job.

How to Become a Rich Employee. This is a practice.

The Rich Employee Miracle Morning. You are the alchemist of your life. A near death experience can change you. Do not fight with any bad things that might have befallen you. Adopt the daily practice of choosing yourself: striving to improve every day 1% for both your physical and mental health. Some of the miracle morning strategies you can adapt are ‘Meditation’; ‘Prayer’; and ‘Breathing’. Use affirmations to help you every morning. For instance ‘Today, I am open to learn new things’. ‘V’ is for visualization. Learn to visualize your goal. ‘E’ is for exercise. ‘R’ is for reading. Read books that contain positive ideas. ‘S’ is for scribing. It is very important to have a healthy routine. Start to take action and develop positive habits.

How a Rich Employee Creates His or Her Side Hustle. What worked in the past might not work well today. Hence, it is better to cultivate the rich employee mindset. Being an entrepreneur is about mitigating and not creating risk. Find a system for developing a side job. Pay attention to your emotions. How do you make a blog more successful? You love more. Learn to spread the love and share others’ posts. Link others to your page. Have guest bloggers. Learn to make more love. Buy low, sell high. Use drop shipping tactics, like buy from AliExpress and then sell on Ebay for instance. Adopt the QVC-A method for success. Q is for Quality, V is for value, C is for consistency, A is for authenticity. Learning to find happiness with less is true wealth. We are the sum of our experiences and not the sum of our belongings. It is okay to do nothing at all on some days.

How Does a Rich Employee Handle When Others Get Jealous and Trash Her or Him? You gain success and others will start hating you. People will be jealous of your success. It is not possible to be loved all the time. I have learnt to deal with death threats and hate mails. Learn to live life like it’s your last day. It might be the last moment you see your loved ones. Hate will eventually pass after a while too. Those haters are just junk status binging. Just say ‘thank you’ and let go. Learn to have a vision. Write and work from the heart. Laughter cures all and makes people relax. Laughter is indeed the best medicine. Do not waste time living other people’s fears.

Habits of the Mentally Strong Rich Employee. Anyone can learn to mentally strong. Mentally strong people have very strong relationships. ‘You are the average of the 5 people you spend your time with’. Honesty is important. Understand it’s not about me, it’s about you. Focus on solving the problems of other people. Don’t keep thinking about making money. Smart people keep reading and become stronger. Some of the good books to read are ‘As a Man Thinketh’. Every mentally strong person was a voracious reader. Health is wealth and you can’t achieve big things in life when you are sick. Sleep 8 hours a day and walk a lot. Be curious and try to learn more things in life. Ask questions and learn and do not be shy. Learn, say, repeat. Exercise your idea muscles and come up with ideas. Learn to exercise the idea muscle and keep learning. Mentally strong people give themselves permission. Give yourself permission to fail and to try again. Ask ‘what can you do to help others?’ Understand that life changes fast. There is no grand purpose for you out there. Also understand that experiences are more valuable than goods. Learn to listen more. Pretend everything is going to die tomorrow and treat others well and with compassion. News is completely unimportant. Art and innovation are main stayers. Always take the job that gives you as much freedom as possible.

When you buy something nice, the neurochemicals spike, and then go away. When you have an experience, you have days of anticipation for the experience. Then you have the experience. Then you have the memories that can last forever. – James Altucher

Habits of the Poor Employee. The poor employee has an opinion. The poor employee thinks they are special. We do not have a special purpose in life. The poor employee talks a lot. Try to talk less when you know nothing much. The poor employee has no career. The poor employee thinks it needs X to get Y. There are many other paths to get Y. Some people think that ‘If I don’t do this then bad things will happen’. The poor employee thinks that he can’t leave. There will always be haters. You can’t change them, so you can just delete them. You are the coach of your future self. Take a walk when you feel like shit. Spend time with those who are good around you.

Get good at three, four, or five things. Then find the intersection. Then become the best in the world at the intersection. That’s how you can pretend to do your special purpose. – James Altucher

How the Rich Employee Learns

A Rich Employee is Always Learning. How do you know what you are talented at? Everyone is talented in many things. There are 10 step technique for learning. The first is to love it. Write every day. Study every chess game and work hard. Quantity of ideas is more important than quality at the start. Get a teacher. That will make you learn 10 times faster. Study the history and study the present. Do not read so many self-help business books. Write down the things you learn from each book. Do easy projects first. This will be the small wins which you give you enough confidence to continue. Study what you did. Analyze and do a post-mortem for any failures you might have suffered in the past. No man is an island and we work better in teams. Find your evil plan. Change the world.

Don’t forget the important rule: the secret of happiness is not “being great” – the secret of “growth”. If you only “try”, you’ll get to a level that is natural for you. – James Altucher

Frequently and Important Questions Rich Employees Have

How Does a Rich Employee Deal with a Crappy Boss While In Transition. When a boss yelled at me once, I quit. However, that is not the best way to deal with things. One should learn to deal with them and train them. The first tip is never kiss ass. Engage as little as possible with him, only talk about work. Never talk badly behind his back. Always give him/her credit for everything as Dogs like to be loved. Write a cover-your-ass memo every day describing what you are up to and who you are dealing with. Keep track of every detail. Build relationships with his network of colleagues and contacts. Help other employees of your boss with their jobs. Learn to over deliver. Understand what’s your market value and apply for jobs.

If your boss is a crappy person then you want to engage as little as possible. Only work stuff. Never joking around. Never anything that builds a meaningful dialogue that he will twist later. Don’t make friends with an animal. – James Altucher

On anything he asks you to do provide an extra touch. That is how he gets promoted. When you are more creative than him, over deliver for him, and he gets full credit. – James Altucher

Why is it especially important for women rich employees to become idea machines? Women need to bring things to the table too. This is because women still get paid less than men. As women, you should ask more questions. Men tend to ask the questions during talks. Men do things even if they are not 100% prepared. The transformation might be slow but slow and steady wins the race. Get out of depression. Remember to give to ourselves. Remember that ideas help to save lives and relationships etc. Learn to debunk stereotypes of women. Come up with 10 ideas a day. Ask yourself what is your passion for today? Learn to cut ourselves some slack. Understand that there is no beauty in playing small. The author recommends that ladies read ‘Lean in’.

Just One Thing to Do. Are women afraid that they will ask dumb questions? Do not be afraid anymore.

How Does a Rich Employee Master New Skills? Most of us will not be masters at anything. Talent is indeed a factor. How do you find what you are talented at? The first method is to write down what you enjoyed doing as a kid. Another way is to go to a shop and see what books you pick up to read. We are after all a combination of all of our experiences and if it is garbage so be it. Work on it four hours a day. You will also need to study history rather deeply. Study those who had failed before you. Study your failures. Do not blame others if you fail. Always learn from your experiences. Be able to recognize patterns. To become a master, one has to endure much pain. With mastery, big failures will always come. Build your ego. Persistence creates luck.

There’s a myth that everyone is talented at least one thing and you just have to find it. This isn’t true. Most people are not talented at anything. Most people can be pretty good at something. – James Altucher

At some point you have to cook 10,000 meals. Or play a million hands of poker, or 1000s of games of chess. Or start 20 businesses. Very few are successful right away. That would require too much luck and luck favors the prepared and the persistent. – James Altucher

One reason most people in the world don’t get really good at anything is because they have no talent for anything that anyone cares about. Another reason is they don’t want to put in the work. – James Altucher

How Does a Rich Employee Transform Anger into ‘What Works’? When you experience paranoia, you start losing intelligence. It will destroy you. Resentment is very bad too. If you think of revenge, that is very bad too. So does feelings of regret. Perfectionism is bad too. You can’t control the fact that you are not perfect. There are always things outside your control and you simply care too much. Feelings of guilt are not desirable too. Thinking of worst case scenarios are not desirable too. Talking unnecessarily also removes confidence.

Is there a ‘right way’ to ask for things that the rich employee utilizes? Do not be ashamed when you have to ask for something. The passive aggressive ask. By keeping silent, it will ruin your life. By asking, sometimes it can hurt your chances in future. If you can handle a lot of Nos, then keep asking. This is known as the cold ask. It doesn’t hurt if you don’t really care about the person and also what they of you. You are asking for something very small. You can ask people out for coffee. I asked 100 people to give me $5 on the street, only 1 guy gave me $1. Begging might work. Learn the ‘no pressure’ ask. Asking is good if whether they say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ doesn’t affect the relationship. Later on, you can follow up with No Pressure Asks. One good way is to ask for advice. Ask for advice on how you can improve at work or in your personal life. Try the reciprocity ask. Therefore, the trick is to give something first. You don’t have to ask immediately, you can store up your asks. What to have to offer in return? Therefore, sometimes you need to do the background work first.

As a Rich Employee, how do I know if I should take up a job in a start-up? If the CEO has built a business before, the odds of failure go down to 25%. The company must have enough funds to last 1 year at least. You must also believe in the company’s vision and the CEO must be good at communicating that vision. If you use the product and you like it, even better. Don’t work for a company that is easily replaceable at a lower valuation. Learning is the key. Look out for the subtleties of the company. If you hear about the company trashing their clients, you will probably not want to work for them. All gossiping is bad. You have to like your boss. Work for promising companies utilizing new technologies. Do not ask for when the company will IPO, because it can take up to 7 or 10 years. Make sure you see the path to profitability.

Resources for the Rich Employee

Create a Choose Yourself Meet-up in Your Town. Improving yourself is a practise and not a goal. Associate yourself with others who strive for self-improvement too. Associate yourself with people with similar goals. Share with others how to keep learning, network etc. How to Run a Choose Yourself Meet-up. Keep the meetup small. Gossip should be kept out of the way. This is like a self-help group.

Suggestion Websites where you can pick up new skills: Fedora; TedX; Coursera; Coursmos; Highbrow; Skillshare; Curious; Lynda.com; CreativeLive; Udemy; Codecademy; Stuk.io; Udacity; Platzi; Learnable; Code School; Thinkful; Code.org; BaseRails; Treehouse; One Month; Dash; DataCamp; DataQuest; DataMonkey; Duolingo; Lingvist; Busuu; Memrise; Chesscademy; Pianu; Yousician; ClaudiaYoga.

Recommended Books: ‘The End of Jobs: Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9 to 5’ by Taylor Pearson; ‘The Miracle Morning: The Not-so-obvious secret guaranteed to transform your life (before 8am)’ by Hal Elrod; ‘Become an Idea Machine. Because Ideas are the Currency of the 21^st Century’ by Claudia Azula Altucher; ‘Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success’ by Mathew Syed; ‘Seven Years to Seven Figures: The Fast-Track Plan to Becoming a Millionaire’ by Michael Masterson; ‘Quitter’ by Jon Acuff

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (Part 1)

A memoir by the Creator of Nike

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. – Shunryu Suzuki

Dawn. I was in Oregon and it was my birthplace. It was 1962. I was 24 and had a good degree and a masters from Stanford. However, oddly, I still felt like a kid. I wanted to be successful but didn’t know how. Life was there to be experienced. Time is finite and I wanted my life to meaningful and purposeful. I wanted my life to be about Play. Sadly, I was not a good athlete. I needed a great dream and direction in life. Life is a game. The world, to me, should be made up of crazy ideas. Running was one of my favorite activities. It gave me a lot of satisfaction. I told myself not to stop at all.

What if there were a way, without being an athlete, to feel what athletes feel? To play all the time, instead of working? Or else to enjoy work so much that it becomes essentially the same thing. – Phil Knight

Let everyone else call your idea crazy… just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where ‘there is’. Whatever comes, just don’t stop. – Phil Knight

Year 1962. I told my dad about my idea. I wrote a research paper on shoes. I spent a lot of time exploring this idea. Many didn’t believe in my idea. I was in Stanford then. The idea was to manufacture shoes in Japan. Travelling was always my goal and I wanted to see the world. As such, I sought my dad’s approval. Things were looking bleak as my dad didn’t have a lot of cash to spare. Starting a business was too risky as 26 of 27 new companies will fail. My dad was a down to earth guy who wouldn’t travel excessively. We often talked about sports. I was called Buck when I was young. My grandma was resentful of the Japanese and didn’t support my trip. My grandma was known as Mom Hatfield. The public hated Japan after the WWII. My twin sisters were Jeanne and Joanne. Both my parents gave me consent. I spent a lot of time researching. I wanted my friend, Carter, to join me on the trip. Thankfully he agreed to it too. Our first stop was Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. We decided to stay in Hawaii for longer than necessary and we sold encyclopedias to make some cash. However, I had trouble selling them. I realized that selling things wasn’t that easy after all. My mom encouraged me to run and I realized I was good at that. I met Bernard Cornfeld, who headed Investors Overseas Services. I sold Dreyfus Funds. I was doing rather well back then. Carter found a girl he liked and didn’t want to travel with me. I took a leap of faith and decided to travel alone. Travelling alone seemed very daunting. Many of the buildings in Japan were damaged from the war. Thankfully my dad knew people in Tokyo who could show me around. I wanted to discover the Zen style of life. I learnt to forget the Self. After my visit to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, I realized that I didn’t see money as being that important. I was getting in touch with my spiritual self. Climbing Mount Fuji was a mystical experience and I longed to climb it. My friends gave me advice on not to be pushy when dealing business with the Japanese. The Japanese don’t have a direct way of saying things. I agreed to meet the shoe makers, Onitsuka. Ken Miyazaki gave me a tour of the shoe factory. I was extremely nervous when talking to those executives. My plan was to bring Onitsuka shoes to America. They asked me many questions about US culture and the market for shoes etc. I was working for Blue Ribbon then. They agreed and struck a deal with me. Later on, I visited Hong Kong and toured the top of Victoria Peak. I also visited Manila and Philippines. Along the trip, I stopped by Bangkok and Vietnam. I even had time to visit the Himalayas. In addition, my trip covered Egypt and India. Some of the other places I covered were Istanbul and Jerusalem. After more than 6 months, I was finally home and couldn’t wait to share my travels with my family.

Year 1963. The shoes from Onitsuka hadn’t arrived. I saw the world and was enlightened by my experience. I needed a way to try and make more money. I knew Mr Don Frisbee, CEO of Pacific Power & Light. I needed a job badly. He advised me to get my CPA and then after that an MBA so as to secure a decent level of earnings. I worked in an accounting firm for a while. But the work was too hectic for me to enjoy it, even though I was learning. Work would have to take centre-stage in my life. This was how I spent 1963.

Year 1964. I received 12 pairs of beautiful shoes from Japan. Bill Bowerman was my old track coach at Oregon and thought shoes meant everything to an athlete. He was always finding ways to improve how a shoe wore. Running shoes had to be light and springy. He was willing to experiment with new materials. I knew the Japanese were willing to improve their shoes. I knew I needed to please Bowerman. I loved that the man was fearless. He didn’t care about whether others respected him. He exhibited a strong level of hard work and grit and was a war hero. Facilities at Oregon were Spartan, to say the least. He was a guy you didn’t want to mess with. He often pushed me to be my best on the track. Surprisingly, he wanted to get hold of the Japanese shoes as well. The plan was to enter the business 50-50. His lawyer arranged for the paperwork to be completed. Bowerman was a guy who always went against the grain. However, he was an excellent coach. We met Jacqua and his wife. In the end the deal was 51 to 49, in my favour. I wanted to be the exclusive distributor of Onitsuka shoes in the US. Both my parents grew up in poor conditions. To them, family was paramount. My mum was a very strong-willed woman. Nevertheless, I knew she loved me deeply. My father lent me $1,000 to buy the 300 pairs of shoes from Japan. Mr Miyazaki allowed me to be the distributor for Onitsuka. My sales strategy was to sell them at track meets. The sales were tremendous. I realized I could sell them because I believed deeply in the product too. Sports was the way to make the world a better place. Soon, I ventured into a mail order business. The demand was overwhelming. I sold at the shoes at more than twice the price I bought them. My dad gave me $3000 more to buy more shoes. I hired salesman to help me with selling. I met Jeff Johnson, a sprinter, one day. Life was good but he didn’t want to be my salesman. A coach claimed that I was poaching as he had the exclusive American distributorship rights. This was to be a legal battle. He was Mr Manhasset. I needed to talk to Onitsuka management about this. I flew down to Japan again to settle things once and for all. I knew that I needed to stay calm and not be emotional. Competition was about forgetting your limits. Mr Miyazaki no longer worked for Onitsuka. Instead, I got an appointment with Mr Morimoto, his replacement. After the meeting, he promised to get back to me. The next day, I met the founder of the company, Mr Onitsuka. The Marlboro Man would sell his wrestling shoes nationwide, but limit track shoes sales to the East Coast. This deal would last for a year, before being subjected to review. I finally climbed Mount Fuji after all the drama that happened. I met Sarah from my climb. Sarah was with her boyfriend. It was difficult getting to the summit. The Japanese often climbed the mountains. I had no plans to see Sarah again. Sarah called me a few weeks later and decided to take up my offer. For two weeks, she lived in my parents guestroom. Happiness is a how, not a what. Sarah loved me. Her parents somehow didn’t approve of me and I found that really disappointing. Later, Sarah mentioned that she didn’t find me to be sophisticated enough and was dumping me. I cried and was disappointed. I hired my sister Jeanne to work part time for Blue Ribbon.

Year 1965. Jeff Johnson liked the shoes I gave him. He wanted to be a sales rep. He was very energetic. However, he kept writing to me and I found it to be irritating. He seemed incredibly needy. Later on, he wanted to quit his day job. Back in the day, running was not popular. Johnson wanted to do it full time, although I discouraged him from doing so. However, later, I hired him as the first full time employee of the company. The banks thought my sales rate was growing too fast and it was questionable. However, my cash balances were not growing as fast. The banker wanted me to re-invest profits into the company. My banker was Harry White and his boss was Bob Wallace. Wallace was a difficult man to deal with. Back then, venture capital didn’t exist. By then, I passed my CPA exams. The money I earned in my day job would be reinvested in the business. I learnt that a lack of equity would cause companies to fail. To me, numbers were beautiful. I was also involved in the military and enjoyed my days then. Hayes was a crazy colleague who loved to drink and make others drink with him. Bowerman visited Japan too and saw Mr Onitsuka. Although Bowerman tried to suggest ideas for Onitsuka to implement, they fell on deaf ears. However, after much persistence, Onitsuka made prototypes for the American market. Bowerman also tried to invent Gatorade for athletes and always occupied himself with the latest products. He was also writing a book about jogging.

Running for pleasure, running for exercise, running for endorphins, running to live better and longer – these things were unheard of. – Phil Knight

Running track gives you a fierce respect for numbers, because you are what your numbers say you are, nothing more, nothing less. – Phil Knight

Year 1966. Bowerman didn’t seem to need any sleep. Johnson continued writing to me. However, I continued to ignore his letters. Johnson was extremely hardworking and treated customers well. He was putting in so much effort. He even sought customer feedback on the Tiger shoes. I rented a space to store shoes and to work from. One day, Johnson was involved in a tragic accident and his skull was shattered. I contemplated starting my next business. If there is something I learnt from life, it would be to fail fast. Thankfully, Johnson recovered. After he hit his sales target, we opened our first retail store. One day, I received news that a coach was trying to buy Tigers from another source. It was the Marlboro man. He was trying to poach business. How should we deal with the Marlboro man? I knew I needed to go to Japan. Thankfully, my boss agreed. There was a new manager in Japan, he was Kitami. I told him about Blue Ribbon’s sales figures and our new store and emphasized that we wanted to be the exclusive US distributor for Tiger shoes. Later, he said he wanted a bigger distributor. He mentioned that he would consider my proposal.

Year 1967. I hired someone else. I wanted to replace Johnson. I asked John Bork, a high school track coach. I didn’t break the news well to Johnson. He was freaked out and pissed. We wanted to expand to Boston and New York. Johnson was not willing to travel outside of California. I regretted the way I ignored Johnson in the past. He gave me an ultimatum and wanted a pay rise. Bowerman wasn’t keen to keep him as he wanted a stake in our company. I met up with Johnson and his dad. Finally, Johnson agreed to stay with a $50 raise but with no equity. Johnson would be on the East Coast . Geoff Hollister wanted to join too. He would be number 3. Bob Woodell would be number 4. The issue with him was that he couldn’t walk and was on a wheelchair. He looked sad and ill. He would work in our second retail store. Aztec, the new shoes, would be born. Adidas tried to sue us for copying their name. They were unchallenged for a long time. I despised them and felt that I could beat them. Bowerman was great at inspiring people. His book made running seem very cool indeed. Woodell was managing his stall well and with good energy. I wanted to live in my office and give up my apartment since I was spending so much time there anyway.

Year 1968. I was working 6 day weeks and I had no social life. I wanted to leave audit, but Blue Ribbon was not sustainable. I applied for a teaching job at a university, where the hours were more humane and better. My exit was sad and difficult. Teaching was tough as some students were not receptive. I tried the Socratic method of teaching, which was to ask a lot of questions. Miss Penelope Parks was a quiet student in class, who didn’t participate. However, she achieved excellent grades during the exam. I tried to offer her a job at my company. She agreed to work for me part time and did the work well. She did everything we told her to. Woodell thoroughly enjoyed having her around and she made him happy. She didn’t cash in her paychecks. I wanted to go out with her. She agreed to it. We visited the Oregon zoo and my trip to Calcutta. At that time, I was still uncertain about Blue Ribbon. She seemed to be impressed by me so far. We had our second date soon. Her family was poor and there were 5 siblings in total. I knew she preferred security over insecurity. She was a shy girl. Later, I met her parents at her home. Our relationship deepened over time. Her house was very messy and chaotic. Finally, I got her parents’ consent for me to take her to Sacramento for the weekend. I introduced her to Bowerman and the other runners. We were planning to get married. She was now my partner. I flew to Japan to talk business again. He liked my designs once again. I was now part of a team in Japan and it felt good. Penny and I got married in September 1968. It was only been a year once I first knew her.

I wanted to build something that was my own, something I could point to and say: I made that. It was the only way I saw to make life meaningful. – Phil Knight

Year 1969. Sales was continuously improving. Our sales force was increasing. I was now justified a salary. I was 31 already. Now, I was working full time at the company. Now, I needed some advertising. I needed advertising to promote my company. In general, I was more a pessimist than optimist. Puma and Adidas were not at their best behaviour. I was beginning to have doubts about Kitami. I tried to buy someone at Onitsuka. He would be a spy to Kitami. It was normal in their culture to hire a spy. Later, Kitami came to visit my office in the US. Penny learnt that I was forgetful and misplaced things. Penny was an excellent cook and spent the money I gave her wisely indeed. My father started believing in my business now. Penny discovered that she was pregnant and we were overjoyed. We planned to get a new house which was bigger. She continued to work for Blue Ribbon. Woodell never lost his composure. We really managed to get along well. We needed a bigger office. Penny treated him very well too. She was about to conceive soon. She gave birth to a cute boy. We made the baby. My new son was named Matthew. An employee tried to do mutiny. However, this time I reminded him that I was the boss. Bork reminded me that the back room, our warehouse, was in shambles.

Year 1970. I flew to Japan again. I needed to sign a new deal. He wanted to renew us for 3 more years. Sales were up to $22 million. Kitami would be promoted to company’s operations manager. I signed the agreement. Onitsuka was always late in shipping products. However, there was nothing I could do. Bowerman’s Cortez was becoming too popular and we couldn’t meet their demand. The bankers also didn’t treat me with much respect. My banker wanted to see larger cash balances before they would increase my loan amount. I was thinking of a mini public offering in order to raise cash. All of our cash was tied up in shoes and assets. 1970s were the era where venture capitalists were formed. My holding company would be ‘Sports-Tek Inc’. There was little demand for our shares. We withdrew the offering in the end. I was always thinking about how to improve my liquidity position. I invited Grelle over for a party and made my pitch to it. However, he was not interested. Woodell’s family was also kind enough to lend me $5,000 and didn’t ask for interest. I felt burned out and tired. I challenged Grelle to a running race. Steve Perfontaine appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was an excellent runner with a great reputation. Later, I decided to approach Bank of Tokyo for funding instead. I met a guy named Cam Murakami and we struck a deal. Was Onitsuka plotting to break my deal by approaching other distributors? I was pissed and considered inviting Kitami to remind him of what Blue Ribbon could do.

Year 1971. Kitami accepted my invite and came to Portland. We gave him and his assistant a time of their lives. Kitami was angry and shouted at White, my banker. White was pissed and jumped out. Kitami mentioned that my sales were disappointing. I peeped at Kitami’s folder and saw 18 other shoe distributors in the US. He was relentless. We had done so much for Onitsuka and that was the way he was treating Blue Ribbon? I met Kitami for cocktails. Bowerman was drunk that evening, which was very unlike him. My consultants advised me to stick with Onitsuka for the time being. We had to stick to the devil because we relied on them for business. Kitami wanted me to sell Blue Ribbons to him. If I didn’t accept, he would approach stronger distributors. First National didn’t want to do business with us anymore. White told me to find another bank. I talked to everyone, and knew that I needed help desperately. Sumeragi approached me, saying he wanted to introduce quality shoe manufacturers in Japan. I always tried my best to spend time with my son, Matthew. If my relationship with Kitami cannot be salvaged, what hope was there left? I needed to find a replacement for Onitsuka. I arranged a meeting in Mexico, in a factory called Canada. I signed a contract with them. This would not violate my contract. I got Carolyn Davidson to help design a logo for the shoes. We looked through her designs. It had to signal ‘motion’. The logo we chose looked something like a wing. We kept debating on the name of the shoes. We wanted ‘Falcon’; ‘Bengal’; ‘Dimension Six?’ My head my splitting and we couldn’t come up with a good enough name. Johnson came up with ‘Nike’. It was the Greek goddess of victory. It was good because it sounded short and easy to remember. Anyway, our company’s motto was to be victorious. My relationship with Nissho was going well. He kept giving me cash. I wanted a public offering where I sold convertible debentures instead of stock. This was 1971 and the shares sold fast. Canada, the factory, was a letdown because the shoe couldn’t take the cold. Sumeragi promised to help me find new factories. He introduced me to Senter, a shoe dog. Sole was a guy Sumeragi hired. I met Chuck, CEO of Marcona Mining, for advice. Sole was nice and knew factories which could make shoes for Nike. We agreed to go to Japan to look at them. Sole Jr went instead as Sole was ill. Sole Jr was very rude towards the Japanese and it was embarrassing. The samples provided to me looked very good indeed. Now, I had to think of names for the different models. The tennis one would be Wimbledon. The basketball one would be the Blazer. The running ones would be Cortez, Marathon and Obori. Penny joined me in Japan. She had a panic attack and leg cramps. Now, I had to tell Onitsuka about my new business plans. Bowerman, in the meantime, kept trying to improve the sole of the shoes.

Shoe dogs were people who devoted themselves wholly to the making, selling, buying, or designing of shoes. – Phil Knight

Year 1972. Everything depended on Chicago. Nissho was our future, not Onisuka. Onitsuka didn’t know about it yet. Nippon Rubber first wave of shoes were not the best too. I was pissed and wanted to give up. However, I knew that I needed to pull together and work hard. We did better at the show than expected. Kitami was angry and approached me. Kitami managed to spy on our storeroom and saw all the Nikes there. Kitami brought his lawyer the next time we met. Jaquua was on our side and threatened to sue if Tiger wanted to cut us off the deal. Bowerman was Kitami’s secret consultant. I broke the news to our employees and told them we had to rely on Nike now. These were certainly trying times for our company. I felt that we could win big time. Everyone left in a good mood. Pre was a great runner from Oregon and we all rooted for him. We were thinking of marketing Nike shoes for him during races. Sports can certainly empower people and give them a sense of victory. The fans also can take part in the sport. It’s not so much about winning, but trying your best. Sales of Nike kept improving. Israeli terrorist kills a few athletes at the Olympic village in 1972 and shocked the world. Nastase was a tennis player who wore Nike but started winning tournaments. We wanted to sign a deal with him. We had a celebrity athlete endorser and I was elated.

It’s time we faced facts: If we’re going to succeed, or fail, we should do so on our own terms, with our own ideas – our own brand…Let’s not look at this as a crisis. Let’s look at this as our liberation. – Phil Knight

Grit to Great by Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval

Why Grit Matters. Steve Jobs, for instance, was ordinary growing up. How does a seemingly ordinary person become great? Perseverance matters more than talent. Grit is about sweating it out. Grit can be learnt. Excellence is a habit. Basically, the self-esteem movement has been a flop. Stop thinking that you are special. Sometimes, having too much self-esteem is bad as it will make you complacent. Grit is about living outside of your comfort zone and pushing your boundaries. Research has revealed that grit can be honed. Michael Jordan is so great because he trains so hard. Kaplan Thaler Group now has more than $3 billion in earnings. Sometimes, parents should let their children learn the hard way. Go to the School of Hard Knocks. There are basically 4 aspects of grit: 1) guts (confidence to take on something challenging); 2) resilience (staying the course); 3) initiative (Outsmart your opponent); 4) tenacity (relentless ability to stay focused). To master a skill well, it might take as much as 10 years. Can you fulfil your potential and be great? Write down your to-do list every day. Commit one month on each project. It is important not to give up.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. – Vince Lombardi

I know what hard work is all about. I still come back to what my strategy always was and will continue to be: I’m not the smartest guy, but I can outwork you. It’s the one thing I can control. – Michael Bloomberg

The Talent Myth. Talent is over-rated unless it is applied consistently. Having innate talent is definitely not sufficient. In fact, grit and IQ might even have a slight negative correlation. Those with grit are into things for the long haul. There are cons to using standardized tests. Educational qualifications might not signal much. Learn to deliver under pressure. Not all geniuses end up holding good jobs. Dave Thomas is the founder of Wendy’s restaurant chain. Hard work is good for the soul. When he was young, he worked extremely hard in kitchens. Thomas made sure that he did not compromise on quality. It is important to have integrity in whatever you do. Sadly, he passed away in 2003. We read Dave’s biography from head to tail and worked our socks off before finally managing to win the account. We went around talking to Wendy’s customers and employees. This was how we gained information on the ground about the company. The team worked long hours for the sales pitch to Wendy’s. We offered a lot of insight as to how to rebrand Wendy’s. Eventually, we won the business. Attitude matters a great deal. Learn to become an over-preparer. Think of how your strengths can be an asset for you. Spend 30 minutes more every day on something that matters to you.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. – Stephen King

In all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn’t social intelligence. It wasn’t good looks, physical health, and it wasn’t IQ. It was grit. – Angela Duckworth

You don’t need to be a Mensa member to be a success in today’s competitive work world, whether you’re pursuing an entry-level job, a managerial position, a big promotion, or the venture capital to strike out on your own. You need grit. – Linda Kaplan Thaler

Ditch the Dream. Put yourself into a grit state of mind and work hard. James Patterson worked at an ad agency but spent a lot of his time writing. He did it before reaching the office. It was inspirational to learn how determined he was. Visualizing your goal might not be a very smart thing to do. Often, we visualize the end goal but not the hard work. Rather, one should dream about roadblocks and how to get past them. Marin Aslop was a prominent music conductor who defied stereotypes about her. Eventually, she managed to lead a professional orchestra in conducting music. Learn to seize the initiative. Hard work can indeed get you very far. Passion needs a destination and guidance too. Goals can be re-evaluated from time to time. Learn to prioritize our ambitions and goals. Taking the first step is often risky, but one should do it. Make the goal your password for your computer. Write an action plan against a timeline. Pay attention to what others say.

Lose the Safety Net. Are safety nets holding us back? Our minds are very powerful. Learn to identify worst-case scenarios and take calculated risks. Be mindful of the problem at hand. Do not let your mind control you. Prepare for the worst. Learn to go on autopilot. You can’t wait till you are risk-free. Many a time, we like to settle for something that is comfortable which won’t excite us. Be aware of how fear dictates your life. You need to ask till you get rejected. This is when you know that you are growing. It is always possible to learn and grow from rejection. Draw on your inner resources. Learn to go with your guts. It can be frightening to leave everything behind. Create your own high ‘wire’ in life. Stop making excuses for yourself. Learn to step outside your comfort zone.

Get into Wait Training. Waiting is painful and training is difficult. There are many excuses you can take to abort your mission. Boredom once in a while helps to hone resilience. This is useful as it trains delayed gratification. Self-control is difficult as people like instant rewards. You never know whether you will succeed in something beforehand. However, this is no reason for you to give up. It can take some time up to years before your work can come to fruition. Turn passion into perseverance. Determination will get you very far in life. Drug release is also a very slow process with little reward. Therefore, it is important to celebrate small victories. This is important as it will help one to keep the motivation levels high. For instance, reading quotes on a daily basis can motivate you. Navy Seals are required to make their bed. However, this act instils you with a small victory everyday which can be empowering. Sometimes, having a daily ritual is important. People are usually more creative when they are bored. Be a list lover. Be grateful.

When pursuing a long-term goal, people should focus on checking items off their list, rather than focus simply on making progress toward their goal in an absolute sense. – David Gal and Blakeley B. McShane

Bend like Bamboo. You can turn your disability into an asset. Be as resilient as your bamboo. It is flexible in nature. There are many life lessons which one can learn from bamboo. We need to be flexible in life. Be innovative and resilient when faced with difficult and trying situations. It is not about having a lot to lose. Rather, think about what you have to gain. Make the most of what you have. Optimists are generally more motivated to solve their problems. Optimists believe that they have the power to change their circumstances. The good thing is that optimism can be learnt. It is essential for resilience. One can learn faster through failure. Many people give up after failure. However, one shouldn’t do that. Learn to embrace the love of failure. Learn to view things from another perspective. Have an insatiable appetite for curiosity. People usually have either a fixed or growth mindset. Learn to create high expectations for yourself. Learn to embrace Plan B too. Recharge your spirit. Setbacks have the ability to propel you forward.

No Expiration Date. If you don’t use your intellect, it will rot away. You can usually push yourself beyond your limits. That is how some people manage to do extreme sports. You can chase your dreams at any age. The only limits are those that you place on yourself. You do not need to accomplish everything you need before 30. It is possible to create great work when you are old, just like Picasso. You must dig deep and realize that grit is indeed important. Our brain craves novelty. Learning to brush your teeth with your non-master hand can slow down aging in your brain. Exercise can help slow down cognitive decline. Exercise has a great way to improve cognitive functions. Keep moving. Moving helps to combat arthritis. Older workers are not less productive. Productivity can remain high even in old age. Be a re-inventor. It is important to try and love what you do. Retirement is an out-dated concept. Work is a good way to keep you mentally engaged. Learn to adopt a hundred-year plan when it comes to work.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul. – General Douglas MacArthur

Grit for Good. Humans are altruistic so that we can all survive. Our brains might be considered hard-wired to do good. Gratification can have a big impact on how we behave. It is essentially a form of reward. Always seek to help the less fortunate in society. Keep plugging at a problem till it goes away. You need grit and determination. Serving others can indeed make us happier people. Regular volunteering is a form of a meaningful activity to give back. If possible, give back to those who have helped you in the past. Try to make the world a better place for all. Start by volunteering for an NGO etc. Learn to join the grit movement.

Living the Singapore Story by the Singapore Times Press

This is the story of how Singapore became a modern metropolis even with no natural resources. This book features both ordinary and more well-known Singaporeans from all walks of life. The book is commissioned by NLB and produced by the Straits Times Press. The core focus of the book is on the people of Singapore. A never-give-up and courage is what enables our country to thrive. There are a total of 58 stories. All feature people exhibiting resilience and enduring hardship. Throughout the book, you will see people demonstrating passion in their work and each playing an important role in the building of society. Back during the kampong days, the spirit of ‘gotong royong’ was strong.

<1965 to 1974>

Paul Fernandez was an ex-teacher. He was happy to leave the kampong and move to one of the HDB flats. Back then, life in the kampong was unhygienic because of the nightsoil workers had to come. Later, I stayed in a flat in Queenstown. I have never shifted since.

Liu Thai Ker was Chief Executive of HDB from 1979 to 1989. Back in the early 70s, slums were present and it was filthy. By 1985, 80% of the population lived in flats. Design was the key and HDB spent time working out proportions of windows, facades etc. Eventually, HDB engaged private contractors to come in. To me, quality control was important. I often placed nation above self.

Noor Aishah Md Salim was the wife of the late Yusof Ishak. The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew picked Yusof Ishak to be the head of State. I picked up English in the late 1960s. Yusof passed away in 1970 and it was difficult being a widow. Thankfully, I managed to cope after his passing.

Winston Choo was the Chief of Defence from 1974 to 1992. Israel agreed to help provide advise on how to set up an armed forces. In the early 1970s, we bought second-hand tanks from Israel. The people are crucial to the successful running of the Armed Forces. Now, we have our own technology. It was challenging to get the different forces to work together.

Siah Nah Nam trained the army recruits in 1967. It was difficult to control the gangsters back then. Soldiers must learn to be aggressive. My children are my proudest achievements. In total, I spent 26 years in the army. It was important to get the job done. It is crucial to never give up.

When we were doing drills and struggling to carry causalities on a stretch from Lim Chu Kang to SAFTI, four to a stretcher and rotating among sex men, the Israeli trainer scoffed at us. They said that in Israel, it would be just one man carrying a casualty, and in the desert. – Siah Nah Nam

Tan Suan Yong was an ex-engineer who helped pave development in Jurong to form the first industrial estate. There were some leftover bombs on the Jurong hills. Contractors had to cut these hills and flatten them. JTC had to prepare the land for big MNCs to come. In JTC, I learnt a lot about loyalty. We also had to drive some of the farmers who were occupying the hills out.

JY Pillay was the ex-SIA chairman. The SIA staff were experienced and very competent. SIA learned to fend on its own and not rely too much on government support. A lot of the regional airlines were government owned and not very competent. Back then, the advertising and branding was solid. SIA was also daring when it purchased big Boeing 747s in the 1970s. In modern times, SIA has to face stiff competition from budget carriers and Gulf carriers etc.

Ngalirdjo Mungin was a Satay man. I observed from others and gradually picked up the skill. Gradually, I sold Satay on the streets and outside stadiums. It was tough work as I also had a day job at that time. In the 1970s, I had to move off the streets and set up my own store. Later, I handed the stall down to my son, who will continue my legacy.

Teo Kim Swee was an ex-taxi driver. He has been driving for 47 years. Back in the late 1960s, I drove a private taxi and had to be constantly on the lookout for police. Later, I also worked as a hawker. It was common to have 6 passengers in my taxi. In 1971, I got my official taxi license and we moved to metered fares. 75 years is the official retirement age for taxi years. I only had 4 years of primary school education.

Rosie Ang was the first woman’s car salesman. I once sold a car to Benjamin Sheares, our ex-President. I was into cars since young and my dad was working in Borneo Motors. Most of my colleagues were males and they didn’t believe in me. Work was easy as I often had many referrals.

Abdul Rahman Mahbob was a veteran union leader. In 1966, essential services went on strike because of low pay. This prompted me to join the union. We fought to help men keep their jobs and to fight on. Now, times are a lot more peaceful and management and workers can work in tandem.

Kwan Chan Yong has been a domestic worker with the same family for the past 60 years. I was originally from China. After a few families, I finally joined the Yeoh family as a domestic helper. I get to travel with the family for quite a while. My duties include cooking and doing the marketing. My employers now consider me as part of their family!

Lee Khoon Choy was an ex-diplomat. I was an ex-minister. I was LKY’s political secretary from 1963 to 1965 and he sent me to Egypt on a diplomatic mission. I went there to ensure the safety of the embassy after we recognize Israel as a nation and we were afraid that the Arabs were going to cause trouble. Diplomacy always came to me naturally. I was also the ambassador to Indonesia from 1970 to 1974. Diplomatic relations between the two nations was not at an all-time high back then. Whatever I start, I know I must finish it well.

The late-PM Lee Kuan Yew admitted Singapore succeeded because people were determined to do well on their own. Many people believed we could not survive after being kicked out by Malaysia. We knew we didn’t want to be treated as second-class citizens. Confidence was the key to success. The right infrastructure was also important. The grit and determination of the people mattered a lot. It was necessary for us to be extraordinary in order to thrive. The core basics of our success are social cohesion, equal opportunities for all and meritocracy.

<1975 – 1984>

Elizabeth Lim Poh Suan was the highest ranking female bus driver. Back in the day, buses used manual transmission and had no air-conditioning. I started driving since 22. Now, mechanics help us maintain the buses. Long ago, ticket punchers were used. Less bus conductors are being used nowadays. There about 400 female drivers out of 5800. Most bus captains should be familiar with at least 5 routes each. As long as I am healthy, I want to continue working.

Alan Choe was Singapore’s first urban planner. I joined the HDB to plan to build flats. I was in charge of urban renewal. Lower tax was needed to incentivize the private sector to build things here.

Tan Gee Paw is PUB’s chairman since 2001. I was fascinated with the network of drains, canals and rivers. In 1974, the Public Works Department built the first recycling plant at Ulu Pandan. In 1977, I was tasked to clean up the Singapore and Kallang River. Sewers were built to every household. In 1998, the first NEWater plant was built. We could recycle wastewater successfully. Desalting water is currently very expensive.

Abd Rahman Khan Gulap Khan worked for 35 years in the police force and served in the CID. I was shot by the ‘Cop Killer’ in 1974. Some of my memorable incidents are the Greek tanker Spyros explosion in 1978. Another incident was the Hotel New World collapse in 1986.

Wong Yew Kwan served as the Commissioner of Parks from 1976 to 1983. LKY tasked him to help spruce up Singapore’s landscape. After we got his approval, MOF started giving us more funds. Despite urbanization, Mr Lee wanted to plant trees wherever and whenever we could. Mr Lee rarely praised people.

Gopinath Menon was the chief transportation engineer from 1991 to 2001. He was the man behind the introduction of ERP in Singapore. The Area Licensing Scheme went electronic and it was called ERP. The government collects $150 million per year from ERP but it was a necessary measure to cut down congestion in the town areas.

Geraldene Lowe-Ismail has trained tour guides for over 50 years. Back in the 1960s, taxi drivers could not speak proper English. I helped to create the Tourist Guide Training Guide and got tour guides licensed.

Goon Kok Loon was an electrical engineer who worked at PSA and kept the port going despite the strikes that took place. Containerization helped to improve port productivity. We decided to build a container terminal here. We beat HK in containerization. We formed alliances with overseas bodies.

Aziza Ali opened the first fine-dining Malay restaurant ‘Aziza’s’ from 1979 to 1998. By 25, I wanted to start a food business. I helped design the restaurant etc. I felt guilty when I sold wine in my restaurant, which was non-halal. After the recession, I decided to call it a day.

Samuel Lee, 32, was Asia’s first test tube baby. I was popular in the media back then. I was known by my friends as a ‘test-tube’ baby. Life has been ordinary since.

Liew Mun Leong is now the chairman of Changi Airport Group. He used to be the CEO of real estate company CapitaLand. In 1974, we started building Changi airport even as we were designing it. PSA had to reclaim land within 6 years. 66% of the land Changi Airport is sitting on is reclaimed land.

<1985 to 1994>

Lim Suet Kwee was the SG Girl and was a wax figure in the Tussaud’s wax museum. Since then, she has been the face of SIA in the 1980s and 1990s. The commercial ‘Around the World’ was memorable because I had to travel to 7 different locations for over 6 weeks.

Lim Pok Chin is the owner of Scanteak. It is ranked one of Asia’s best businesses. I started off as a painter. My dream was to be the Ikea of Singapore. I went broke twice running the furniture business. We have a 100 stores in Taiwan and about 11 stores in Japan.

Be humble. All that we have today was given to us by our employees, our customers and our suppliers. – Lim Pok Chin, on success

Dr Janwaljit Soin is a champion of national issues and is Singapore’s first female NMP. Back then, she was president at AWARE. It was important to have statistics to back you up in Parliament. I fought for fights for the people and for the government to extend more help to the elderly and the disadvantaged. We can do much more to help the elderly. People should be allowed to work as long as they want to.

Leslie Danker is the longest serving employee at Raffles Hotel. In 1972, I was hired and worked in the maintenance department. In 1989, the hotel was restored but a lot of my previous colleagues were not hired back under the new management. In 2004, I was made the hotel’s first resident historian.

Belinda Charles was hooked on teaching since 18. Teaching taught me to never lose my cool. I served as principal at SAJC. Many students thanked me for the discipline and strict requirements I expected of them. I tried to keep in touch with my students and it has been a very memorable experience.

Dick Lee is a musician and has writing many of the songs that Singaporeans grew to love, such as ‘Home’. I was involved in Michael Chiang’s Army Daze. Mad Chinaman was a hit in Japan. When I was young, I faced a lot of rejection. However, I kept at it and believed in myself. Make the most of what you have and go out and get it. I hope more local musicians step up.

Kenson Kwok started Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum. We had to reach out to international collectors. Back then, the museum scene was very quiet. It was difficult work to build up an artifact. The museum culture has been growing in the past 20 years.

Sister Thomasina Sewell is a nun and together with other nuns, they set up Mount Alvernia Hospital in 1961. She also helped set up the Assisi Hospice. Your presence is comforting to the patients. Now, the practice is to keep patients pain-free by giving them controlled doses of morphine. Our aim is to improve the quality of life for others. Seeing your patients go is tough, but I try my best to cope with it.

Lim Kim Seng is a bird specialist and can identify birds from afar. He joined the Nature Society. I can see as many as 100 species in a day. Now, he acts as a guide. I do not keep birds at home but I love to watch them fly in the wild. I try to learn to recognize bird calls.

Zaibun Siraj is the founding member of Aware. We registered ourselves as a society. The feminist movement was not big in the past.

Kopitiam Investment boss Lim Bee Huat has more than 80 outlets under his belt. In 1970, he worked part time as a coffee stall assistant. I had to do it as my family was poor. I tried to cut labour and I also place a lot of emphasis on selecting good stall locations. Everything is doable if you work hard and slog.

<1995 to 2004>

Shaiful Herman was one of the youngest SCDF officers to head a fire station. I loved CSI since young and I won an SCDF overseas Singapore government scholarship in 2002. It was not easy managing people who are older than you. I let everyone know that I was accessible and approachable. I managed to prevent a suicide attempt when I was working for the Alexandra Fire Station.

Dr Ho Nai Kiong is the head of paediatrics at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. I helped to set up a neonatal department. I had to try to save those premature babies. Now, the mortality rate for such cases are decreasing. Later, with more funding and technology, the infection rate reduced. Some of the premature babies grew up and did great things later on in life.

Peh Sing Woei is the CEO of Shing Lee Publishers and wants to expand his business. We export millions of mathematics textbooks globally. Our education system is very reputable. In Singapore, we teach mathematics using real-life items, pictures and formulas. Now, we rely on consultants and authors to write text-books. Education was a better way to life. I hope more and more countries can adopt the same way of teaching.

Benson Puah helmed the Esplanade Arts Centre. I was approached by the government to start this. I wanted the Esplanade to be a vessel to transform people. Many diverse types of programmes are showcased. Arts is important for our DNA. I was careful not to dilute our culture by copying what London, New York did.

Major Vincent Yeo was part of the advance team that flew in after the 2004 tsunami struck Indonesia. The scale of destruction was incredible. Many people were in a state of shock. The smell of death was overwhelming. You get a lot of exposure from attending to difficult situations. In the defence force, it is important not to take anything for granted.

Dr Tai Hwee Yee took over the management of ICUs in TTSH during the SARS outbreak. It was extremely fearful. It was extremely depressing when you see a colleague contracting SARS and then passing away. We put in preventive measure to reduce the rate of transmission. It was certainly a life altering experience and it was one which I could never forget.

Olivia Lum founded the water treatment company, Hyflux. Life was very difficult when I was young. My neighbourhood was poor. I was almost kicked out of Singapore because none of the schools wanted me as I grew up in Ipoh. Finally, Tiong Bahru Secondary accepted me. Later, I graduated from NUS and worked at Glaxo Pharmaceuticals. I sacrificed a lot to start the business. Now, Hyflux managed to win a lot of PUB’s projects.

Tommy Lim Chee Kiang is a crane operator at PSA. In a day, I can move about 200 containers. I am incentivized to work fast. It is important to communicate with the people on the ground and to ensure safety. The view from the crane is great and controlling the crane is like playing a computer game. I joined PSA 18 year ago. I am now a quay crane operator and also receive a special skills allowance. Although my mum passed away in 2009, I am sure she is proud of my achievements.

Angel Ng has been in and out of jail for drug related offences. However, with the Yellow Ribbon Project, she has turned her life around and now runs 3 call centres. I was rebellious and often engaged in self-destruction. After release from prison, I worked at the Connect Centre’s headquarters. I’m glad that many of the ex-convicts that we hire are doing well in life.

Wong Chen Liong supplies baking and dessert ingredients. He runs Phoon Huat. Dessert fads come and go. Now, more people are willing to spend on desserts. We import different ingredients from various countries. We have done well.

Kelvin Phua’s son, Glenn, is dubbed to be Singapore’s Stephen Wiltshire. His son is autistic but has incredible art talent. He uses pen down for his drawings. The drawings are very detailed and it usually takes him up to 20 hours to complete a piece. He draws from a photograph. He has managed to make money from the drawings and we see hope for him in the arts field in future.

<2005 to 2014>

Dipna Lim Prasad is a national athlete. I refused to give up even when I was too slow back then. In 2013, I broke the women’s 200m national record. Attempting hurdles was good because it would aid my rhythm and strides. I graduated from NTU with a degree in sports science and management. If you suck at something, spend time on it and you will eventually get better.

Carolyn Lim was struck by lightning and is now wheelchair bound. After being struck, I awoke from a 6 week coma. I was depressed because I had lost all motor skills and couldn’t speak. Since my illness, I obtained my masters from NIE and also launched a book. People are gradually more used to being around disabled people. Singaporeans need to be more understandable towards disabled people.

Koh Seng Choon is a social entrepreneur who founded Dignity Kitchen. It was a company to help train people to cook hawker foo. Kindness has no religion. I failed to obtain government grants. I asked professional cooks to help me teach the students. My whole dream is about giving back to society.

But don’t measure me by my profit – measure me by my social impact. – Koh Seng Choon

Kyra Poh is an expert at indoor skydiving. I have 4 Guinness world records attributed to my name. My dream is to continue competing and be better.

Ramesh Meyyappan was born deaf, but is now an internationally recognized theatre practitioner. My wife gave me the courage to pursue my dreams. Performing at NDP was one of the highlights for me.

Louis is an executive director of an animal rights group. Back then, I championed against animal abuse. I started the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society with 9 other Singaporeans. We have lobbied for harsh penalties for illegal wildlife traffickers. Taking care of animals is our moral responsibility.

Isa Kamari is the Deputy Director of commuter infrastructure at LTA. I published my first poem in 1979. It took 2 years for me to write ‘Satu Bumi’. In 2007, I won the Cultural Medallion. Satu Bumi has also been translated into English.

Leonard Tan is the CEO of PurpleClick, a search engine marketing firm. I learnt that that one must fail in order to succeed. It’s easy to start a business, but scaling it is difficult. We have nearly 40 employees now.

Too many young Singaporeans of my generation want a safety net before they are willing to take a risk, but I find that if an entrepreneur is not forced into a corner, the chances of him succeeding are low because he has nothing to lose. In Silicon Valley, it’s the opposite. – Leonard Tan

Juliana Chan’s research on nanoparticles allowed her to score scientific breakthroughs. Science is not for the faint-hearted and others might publish something similar to you before you can. I won awards with my research at MIT.

Adam Maniam is a Tamil-Eurasian-Malay-Pakistani lawyer and is married to a Chinese. We celebrated the various holidays in Singapore, like Deepavali and Chinese New Year. To me, religion should be a free choice. To me, doing good is more important and my wife and I have shared values. Our country is becoming more multiracial.

Jane Lee co-founded and let an expedition to scale Mount Everest in 2009. It was not an ordinary adventure. We trained for 5 years before climbing. I only made it to the summit because of supplementary oxygen. I am glad that I managed to inspire others to pursue mountain climbing as well.

Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance (Part 1)

Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Musk was broad shouldered and looked fit. We met for dinner. At first, he didn’t want to let me write about him. However, I interviewed many of his friends whom I already knew. He wanted to have a say in the editing. He could not stand factual errors. Musk was worried about Google building AI robots to destroy mankind. Finally, he relented and allowed me to write about him. Deep down, he respects resolute people who don’t give up despite facing rejection. We would meet once a month to have dinner and work on the book. He asked me whether I thought he was insane. I visited his headquarters of SpaceX. To Musk, he wanted to enable humans to live on Mars. He does say ridiculous things sometimes. He is like a deity in Silicon Valley for doing the impossible. He was in a techno-utopian club and is a well-intentioned dreamer. To an outsider, he is simply dreaming of utopia. SpaceX flew a supply capsule to the ISS; Tesla Motors delivered Model S and he was the biggest shareholder of SolarCity. These were some of his achievements. There is a rectangle printed outside SpaceX HQ and it says ‘Unity of Body, Soul and Mind’. There were hundreds of people in the factory helping to assemble rockets in Musk Land. There is the R&D for Tesla. Sometimes, he comes around as being shy and awkward. He often pauses when he speaks. He doesn’t talk nonsense and is usually very serious. Musk walks around and talks to employees. Silicon Valley had crazy ideas where people tried to make as much money as possible. However, nowadays, people just want to play it safe and avoid taking excessive risk. The dotcom boom showed that many companies just wanted an easy buck without creating physical products that added value. There was a decline in innovation in the year 2000s. Nowadays, people were just refining innovations without creating anything revolutionary. Peter Thiel had a similar view too. Was technology changing the world? Musk was different and he was wildly ambitious. EBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was daring and tried to reinvent the aerospace and automotive and solar industries. There was a high chance that he would fail. The Space industry was dominated by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Musk fears that the Russians will assassinate him if his space programme is better than theirs. Tesla makes fully electric cars and sells them on the Web. Electric cars do not require much servicing. There are many recharging stations around. Musk is also thinking of building end-to-end transportation system. He has a net worth of $10 billion and SolarCity is working well. Many people respect his drive and mission. Musk has one of the grandest tasks ever imagined. Musk credited his tough childhood for his success. He has a crazy schedule and gets little sleep. Musk has twice divorced (Justine and Talulah Riley). Musk organizes crazy parties on his birthdays. Riley tries to entertain him and let him take breaks from work. Musk was complaining that not many people were working on weekends at Tesla. There was a love-hate relationship with him. Musk is different from others at the Valley and wants to integrate technology for the long-term. You have to live in Elon’s world if you want to survive.

I would like to die thinking that humanity has a bright future. If we can solve sustainable energy and be well on our way to becoming a multiplanetary species with a self-sustaining civilization on another planet – to cope with a worst-case scenario happening and extinguishing human consciousness – I think that would be really good. – Elon Musk

I think there are probably too many smart people pursuing Internet stuff, finance and law. That is part of the reason why we haven’t seen as much innovation. – Elon Musk

It’s the sweeping goal that forms a unifying principle over everything he does. Employees at all three companies are well aware of this and well aware that they’re trying to achieve the impossible day in and day out. – Ashlee Vance

I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. That’s why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another five to ten – how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe ten hours? That’s kind of the minimum? I don’t know. – Elon Musk

We’ve grown fucking soft. I was just going to send out an email to Tesla employees: “We’re fucking soft.” – Elon Musk, after learning that less employees at Tesla were working on weekends

Africa. The public first met him in 1984. He was a software programme back then. Back then, he had big dreams. He fantasized about space and battles. When he was young, he liked the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He wanted to strive for greater collective enlightenment. He also relied on philosophy texts. Musk was born in SA in 1971. He wanted to leave Africa because of the apartheid violence that ensued in the 1970s. He plotted an escape from SA. America was the land of dreams at that time. Musk’s grandfather was a great inspiration to him. His name was Joshua Norman Haldeman. Initially, his grandpa worked on a farm and later moved to doing odd jobs before finally becoming a chiropractor. Later, he bought a plane and also wrote a book on planes. However, in his later years, Haldeman sold everything and then moved to SA and opened a chiropractice business. Haldeman never believed in punishing kids. He was an adventurous man as a pilot. Musk admits that he might have adopted the risk tolerance level of his grandpa. Maye was Elon’s mother. Elon’s father was Errol. Errol worked as an electrical engineer while Maye was a dietician. Elon has a brother named Kimbal and a sister named Tosca. Elon tended to space out sometimes. He was really obsessed about thinking and would be oblivious to those around him. Elon was gifted at maths and science. Since young, he had an obsession with reading. He plowed through books like ‘The Lord of the Rings’. His knowledge was also impressive because he memorized facts from the encyclopaedia. Only when he grew older that he developed strong relationships with his family. Later, his parents underwent a divorce and Elon decided to live with his dad. Elon loved learning engineering stuff from his dad. Errol was proud of Elon’s achievements. Elon had a bad childhood and had some bad memories of Errol. When he was young, Elon experimented with gunpowder and was lucky not to have hurt himself. Back in the day, he and his brother would go for adventures in South Africa. Musk was often hounded by bullies when he was in school. Elon was not the brightest kid in school. The only subjects he was interested in was computing, maths and science. South Africa was like a prison for Musk.

Maybe I read too many comics a kid. In the comics, it always seems like they are trying to save the world. It seems like one should try to make the world a better place because the inverse makes no sense. – Elon Musk

Canada. Musk’s uncle wasn’t in Canada. He tried to contact his cousins which he knew. Musk did odd jobs for a living. Finally, Musk enrolled in Queen’s University. His brother and him cold-called people and wanted to ask them out for lunch. They got to meet Peter Nicholson, a top executive at Bank of Nova Scotia. Christie was Peter’s daughter and Musk liked her. Musk knew Justine Wilson from Queen’s. They both were top students in the school and very academically driven. Although Justine dated other people, Elon was persistent. Elon simply did not give up. Elon liked board games and could play it for hours on end. When he is interested in something, he develops such a deep interest into it that not many people can match. Musk enjoyed his time at Penn. He made a good friend in school. He was Adeo Rossi. Elon hated the taste of alcohol. Back then, he had great ideas on how to harness solar energy. He could link scientific research into how to profit via setting up a business. He was not chasing fads and the ideas for his businesses had already sprung up in college.

If there was a way that I could not eat, so I could work more, I would not eat. I wish there was a way to get nutrients without sitting down for a meal. – Elon Musk

Elon’s First Start-up. Kimbal and Musk took road trips. The Web was up and coming at that time. Kimbal thought of a business of creating an online network for doctors. Musk was keen on his ultra-capacitors. In the day, Elon worked at Pinnacle. In the evening, he worked on Rocket Science Games. He dropped out of his PhD programme and went for the Internet’s craze. Elon was a self-learner and liked to find out stuff on his own. Their first start-up would be Zip2. It was like a ‘yellow’ pages of the web. Errol, his dad, gave him money to aid at the initial stage of the business. Musk and Kimbal lived in the office. They did door to door sales and were very poor indeed. Musk didn’t seem to go home during the weekends. Kimbal was the optimist. The business didn’t take off and many customers rejected him. The sales report was depressing indeed. Musk kept making improvements to the Zip2 software. Investors were bought into Musk’s passion for the company. He was willing to risk a large chunk of his time. Greg Kouri was his business mentor. Mohr Davidow, a VC, invested $3m in the company. Zip2 wanted to sell to newspapers, who would then sell to others. They wanted to do away with the door-to-door model. Musk was a CTO now. However, the VC hired a CEO and Musk had to lose control of the company. Elon wanted to be CEO. Elon was not as skilled as the best coders in town. Musk was in control now, he wasn’t soft when he was back in school. Elon tended to criticize senior people upfront but soon mellowed with age. To him, the word ‘no’ doesn’t exist. Elon’s mentality was ‘do or die but don’t give up’. Zip2 had great success courting newspapers. Musk brought the matter that he wanted to be CEO again and to sack the existing guy. The board were not pleased by his defiance. Microsoft was competing with Zip2 and was doing better. Compaq computer bought Zip2 for $307 million and the owners were delighted. This lesson was important and taught Elon of the importance to have control and that investors might change your business model of your company sometimes. Elon sometimes fixed people’s problems for them without telling them. People didn’t like that. He made a good profit from his first business.

If you asked Elon how long it would take to do something, there was never anything in his mind that would take more than an hour. We came to interpret an hour as really taking a day or two and if Elon ever did say something would take a day, we allowed for a week or two weeks. – Jim Ambras

PayPal Mafia Boss. Elon was confident after the sale of Zip2. The bank of Nova Scotia passed up the opportunity for a trade worth a lot of money as they didn’t want to invest in debt of developing countries. Elon realised that bankers were stupid and they didn’t take their opportunities. They simply followed other people blindly. Then, he wanted to create an Internet bank. By then, security was not good and that might pose a threat to banking transactions online. He wanted to create a bank to process online transactions and navigate all the regulatory loops. The starting name for the company was X.com. He bought an apartment and a sports car with his new found wealth. He thought X.com would be the next big thing. Musk joined the big boys club in racing. Then, he got into a minor accident, which damaged the car. Musk invested $12m into X.com. X.com had the potential to be a revolution. It was an industry which he wasn’t familiar with. Musk started the company with Ho, Fricker and Payne. Elon had to read up on banking to understand how it worked. Regulatory problems were horrible. Fricker was displeased as Musk was making visionary statements which did not promise anything. Fricker ordered a coup and took everyone with him. Elon was upset but wanted to continue. Elon tried to seek venture capital. X.com tried out radical banking ideas and a P2P money transfer system. Many people were hooked on this service. Peter Thiel and Max Levchin were working on Confinity. They were in direct competition with one another. It was like head-on competition. Musk worked crazy hard. Finally, X.com and Confinity decided to merge and join forces. There was a tech rift and Thiel resigned. Levchin threatened to walk out of the business. Fraud was present as X.com couldn’t cope with the number of transactions. A group of employees wanted Thiel back as CEO and to kick Musk out without letting him know. The board voted and Thiel replaced Musk. It was split and some employees were not happy that Musk was removed. Thiel renamed X.com as PayPal. Elon, instead of being bitter, supported Peter and continued investing in PayPal. Finally, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion and Elon netted $180m after taxes. Musk had a bad reputation as the media saw him as being ego-centric. Some investors didn’t like the ‘I-know-it-all’ attitude. The PayPal mafia were known to be the brightest people around. Given even time, Musk tends to achieve his ambitious goals. Justine and Elon had a good relationship at that time. Finally, Elon proposed to Justine. Elon was never afraid of responsibility. Later on during the marriage, Elon mentioned how he didn’t like her shortcomings. The marriage didn’t last. Then, Elon fell terribly sick after contracting Malaria from a trip to Africa. He nearly died. A vacation almost killed him.

He’s willing to take an insane amount of personal risk. When you do a deal like that, it either pays off or you end up in a bus shelter somewhere. – Ed Ho

Mice in Space. Elon was 30 in 2001. People often bragged about the long hours they worked. The couple decided to move to LA. The call of space attracted him. Now, Elon was crazy about space. LA would be the HQ. Most of the aeronautics work was held there. Zubrin invited Musk for coffee. He educated Elon on some experiments. It was possible for mice to reproduce in space. Although Elon didn’t know a lot about space, he was willing to find out. Elon started donating money to the Mars Society. Elon wanted to send mice to Mars, and not just into orbit. The intent was for the mice to procreate along the way. Elon felt that the public should focus more on space. He was alarmed as NASA wasn’t planning anything too. Elon wanted people to consider the potential of Mars. There were many people who were interested in his project. The plan was to build a greenhouse on Mars. Elon has the belief that he will be the guy who will change the world. The problem was funding and Elon had to have at least 200 million to spare. Elon started to explore how much a launch to Mars would cost. Elon and his friends headed to Russia and planned to buy a rocket. The Russians didn’t think Elon was a genuine buyer and insulted him. He was pissed and stormed out of the meeting. Russia were the only ones who had cheap rockets. Then, on the plane back to LA, Elon thought that we could build the rocket ourselves. Space exploration was risky and you could blow your fortune. Elon built a spreadsheet and calculated the cost of building a rocket and read astronomy books. Some of his colleagues thought that he would fail. It was then that Tom Mueller met Elon. Mueller was a geek in astronomy. He managed to build liquid-fuel rocket engines. Mueller met Musk and they started chatting. Soon, he was in the team. The plan was to reduce the cost of sending things up to space. Space Exploration Technologies was founded in June 2002. The engineers and machinists would be working close to one another. They wanted to revolutionise the space industry.

Being a private company, Elon could avoid the waste and cost overruns of government contractors. It might soon be possible to send satellites to space in a cheaper fashion. Their first launch would be called Falcon 1. Many people wrote Elon and his team off. Justine’s son, Nevada Alexander Musk, passed away when he was 10 weeks old. Justine had other kids later on. Elon didn’t want to talk about the baby’s death. Elon had an A-star team at SpaceX. Brown was his assistant and she helped a lot as well. Boeing had large and cumbersome projects. Hollman soon joined Elon’s team. SpaceX was working on a crazy timeline and wanted to launch their rocket only 15 months after the company started. Many of the engineers worked all nights. Empowerment also kept the team going and motivated them. Many of the tests were failures. Elon hated excuses or the lack of clear plan. Elon was not afraid to get his hands dirty. The SpaceX family was tight and united. The first prototype was unveiled to the public in Dec 2003. Hollman was stressed and was at a breaking point after he broke his glasses. Elon heard him whining at work and offered to pay for his Lasik surgery. SpaceX revealed plans to build Falcon 5, where the rocket would have enough power to reach the ISS. Musk looked out for graduates who did well in school but also had done exceptional things with their talents. Many suppliers could not keep up with SpaceX’s schedule. Elon hated the standard relationship-building exercise with salespeople. Sometimes, Musk tried to claim credit for the work and this infuriated the engineers. Things didn’t work well and Falcon 1 launch was delayed. SpaceX had to find a launch pad. There was also always something to do at SpaceX and there were plenty of engineering problems to solve. The problems kept coming. It was a bonding experience. In Nov 2005, the rocket was ready for launch. It failed and the next launch was slated for Dec instead. The project delayed again till Mar 2006. The rocket launched but disintegrated midway. Hollman and Musk had a shouting match as Musk thought that it was Hollman’s fault for the crash. The engineers vowed to take a more disciplined approach in future. On Mar 2007, Falcon 1 launched and flew for 5 minutes before crashing again. Elon was a very optimistic guy. This was a guy who thought big.

I had friends who complained that their husbands came home at seven or eight. Elon would come home at eleven and work some more. People didn’t always get the sacrifice he made in order to be where he was. – Justine Musk

The longer you wait to fire someone, the longer it has been since you should have fired him. – Elon Musk

SpaceX is in this for long haul and, come hell or high water, we are going to make this work. – Elon Musk

All Electric. Straubel liked to play with chemicals in his younger days. He wanted to develop his own software and control energy. The clean-tech movement was still new. He built an electric car. However, electric cars had limitations like battery life. He formed friendships with those in Stanford. Lithium ion batteries were getting better at that time. Straubel wanted to build an electric car made up of lithium ion batteries. In 2003, he met Elon Musk. Elon wasn’t keen on the plane project but was keen on the electric car project. Elon initially wanted ultracapacitors as batteries. Elon gave him some money. AC Propulsion had a tzero car and Elon was deeply impressed by it. Elon was determined to build a high performance base car and electric powertrain. Eberhard was a great engineer. He was also interested in the AC Propulsion cars. Eberhard later started a company on electric cars manufacturing. They were targeting the rich people in the US. Eberhard and Tarpenning incorporated their company in July 1, 2003. It was called Tesla Motors. The last successful car start-up was Chrysler. There were plenty of hurdles they needed to cross. They decided to sell their cars direct and to license technology from AC Propulsion. The founders wanted Elon Musk on board to provide funding for a prototype. Finally, Elon agreed and wanted to end US’s addiction to oil. Later on, Musk and Eberhard would experience a power struggle. Straubel joined their team too. They were planning to build a car from scratch. They found a make-shift office and started work. The body would be the Lotus Elise body. Dave Lyons was a brilliant engineer who was on their team. Elon invested $9million more into the company. Suddenly, one of their batteries caught fire. It was a setback as there were safety issues. Tesla was on a verge of a breakthrough. The Roadster body still was a work of progress. By May 2006, there were a hundred employees. Google’s founders also invested in the car. The cars were well designed and could go from zero to 60 in about 4 seconds. The car costs more than $90,000 and could drive 250 miles on a single charge. Many rich people wanted in. When tests were run, engineers would solve the problems on the spot. Detroit was not a very friendly place for business. It was a big turn off. Eberhard didn’t like Elon as he kept wanting to make the car more comfortable but this delayed the shipping. Later on, the company would have big problems trying to mass produce cars. The transmitted and gear change was a big problem and was difficult to solve. They set up a factory in Thailand but managing the Thai workers was difficult and frustrating. Watkins was hired to diagnose the manufacturing problems. There was excessive expenditure in equipment and materials. The actual costs turned out to be $170,000 per car and they were only selling it for $85,000. The company continued to miss deliveries while Eberhard was CEO. The cost figures made people think that Eberhard was mismanaging the company and not bothering about cost. Eberhard was demoted by the board and Michael Marks would be CEO. In Dec, Eberhard left the company. The car still had problems. Marks and Elon had disagreements. Marks had the intention to sell the company away. However, Elon disagreed and wanted to control it. Ze’ev Drori replaced Marks in 2007. Musk was hands-on and would work on pressing problems personally. Musk ran the place like a military camp. Elon was sharp in spotting details. Elon could be very imposing. You must be as crazy as him to survive. Straubel admired Elon’s work ethic. The company was almost made bankrupt as they were bleeding funds. Elon tried to persuade investors to pump in more money.

I would tell those employees that they will get to see their families a lot when we go bankrupt. – Elon Musk, after Tesla employees complained that they couldn’t see their families as they made to work on weekends due to car production problems

I never want to hear that “it was the standard way things had always been done” phrase again. What we have to do is fucking hard and half-assing things won’t be tolerated. – Elon Musk

For Part 2, click here.

Willpower By Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

This book seeks to enable you to take charge of your life, teaches you how to be self-disciplined and how willpower can eventually bring you success. Willpower can also be grown and nurtured.

However, intelligence cannot be increased permanently. Self-control can. Willpower is like a muscle, which can be strengthened through repeated use. A lot of non-achievers suffer from a lack of willpower. People often succumb to desires. Modern people were not as strong willed as the Victorians in the past. Modern times tend to focus on do what makes you feel good. People initially thought confidence mattered a lot and that it determines your success. Research proved otherwise. One way to avoid temptations is to distract yourself. The marshmallow experiment has shown that resisting temptations can lead to success in life. Self-control can also predict grades accurately and is a vital strength to key to success in life. Learn to perform goal setting.

Amanda Palmer built character and willpower from being a human statue. The ability to stand still is all in your mind. Exercising willpower like this makes you tired after a while. Willpower can be depleted fast, as shown when the students who ate the radish while looking at the chocolate cake, gave up quickly during the puzzle stage. It is like a muscle, which can be fatigued after long use. If you use too much willpower in the office, your relationship might suffer as you don’t have enough energy to channel to your loved ones. If you try to suppress your emotions, that takes up willpower as well. Ego depletion describes ‘people’s diminished capacity to regulate their thoughts, feelings and actions.’ This also means that the conflict monitoring system in the brain is less able now. Recent experiments suggest that people will over-react when they are ego-depleted. Students experience ego depletion during periods of exams. Money can improve one’s willpower temporarily. Researchers have proven the following: 1) you have a finite amount of willpower that becomes depleted as you use it. 2) You use the same stock of willpower for all manner of tasks. Willpower has 4 types. Control of thoughts. Control of Emotions. Impulse control. Performance Control. Aim to just focus on one project at a time. Don’t overload yourself. Keep to one resolution at a time.

Food containing sugar can give you a temporary boost in brainpower. Energy from food gets converted into simple sugars like glucose. Your body consumes a lot of glucose when you are feeling unwell. People with low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, have problems concentrating and suppressing their emotions. There is also higher tendency for violence. Blood sugar is a key factor when determining the tendency in which criminals commit crimes. On the other hand, diabetics tend to be impulsive, distracted, have problems with alcohol, anxiety, depression etc. Breakfast is key to having a good start to a day. Moral of the story is: no glucose, no willpower. Ego depletion causes the brain to engage in other activities, rather than the one it is currently engaging in. In general though, women have better self-control than men. Solutions one can take include having a good breakfast, having enough rest. Don’t get into arguments before meals. For smokers, don’t try to quit when you are on a diet. In reality, it is better to go for the slow burners, such as proteins or complex carbohydrates. Food with a low glycemic index. ‘When you’re tired, sleep.’ If you shortchange yourself on sleep, it results in a decrease of self-control. Long term sleep deprivation may lead to a higher risk of diabetes.

To get the most out of your willpower, use it to set aside enough time to sleep. You’ll behave better the next day – and sleep more easily the next night. – Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

It is important to regulate the goal as well, meaning you know what it takes to get you there. In reality when it comes to goal setting, people worry too much, they get less done, and both their mental and physical health suffers. Avoid conflicting goals at all costs. People who are drug addicts usually like to see the payoff now and set only very short term goals. It is crucial to always have a long term goal in mind. Proximal goals (short term) VS Distal goals (long term). Daily plans lack flexibility and are difficult to execute. In times of war, it is imperative that militaries plan well for them. However, the plan needs to allow for flexibility and improvisation. David Allen was someone who tried a wide variety of jobs in life. He believed in keeping the work desk neat. He used the tickler file 31 folders. One for each day of the month. It reminded you of what is needed to be done on that particular day. The to-do list needs to have very specific actions, such as ‘driving to the jewelry store.’ It has to be specific so that it will not ambiguous and you will procrastinate doing it. Eliminate your monkey mind by coming up with specific goals. The Zeigarnik effect. The Zeigarnik effect ceases to exist once people have a concrete plan. Our unconscious mind is asking our conscious mind to make a plan. Your mind will only stop worrying if you have a concrete plan to execute something in the future to achieve your goals. Do it, delegate it, defer it or drop it. Being very decisive helps a lot.

When you make an agreement with yourself and you don’t keep it, you undermine your own self-trust. You can fool everybody but yourself, and you’re going to pay for that, so you should be aware of the agreements you make. – David Allen

Uncompleted tasks and unmet goals tend to pop into one’s mind. Once the task is completed and the goal is reached, however, this stream of reminders comes to a stop. – The Zeigarnik effect

Eliot Spitzer had a tough time when he was the governor of New York. He engaged a prostitute, even though he was full aware of the consequences. He was an honest and upright man before he was made governor. He suffered from decision fatigue. Whenever you make a decision, it uses up a little of your willpower. Making decisions saps your willpower. Automatic is when the problem is simple and controlled is when the problem is more difficult. There are no such things as a free choice. However, if you like to do a particular thing, making decisions on that will not affect your willpower in the short term. It is much easier to choose something for others. Even for judges, they were biased in the morning and granted more parole cases in the morning as compared to afternoons. This is attributed to them having a good breakfast and not experiencing decision fatigue yet. Judging is hard mental work. When willpower is low, people tend to defer decision making, so as not to lose options. This problem also applies when finding a mate. It is easier to choose when you are not spoilt for choice. ‘Above a certain point, increases in price are not worth the extra gains in quality’. Once decision fatigue affects someone, he will tend to listen to the salesman’s recommendation.

Mint.com’s software helped people to track their personal finances and expenditures. Computers can help make us more self-aware, in this sense. Those who were more self-aware made better decisions and worked harder. Self-awareness is to compare what you see to what it should or might have been. It’s like comparing yourself to a set of standards. Just by looking at the mirror, people were more likely to follow their inner values. Looking at the mirror indeed makes one more self-aware. ‘A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.’ Anthony Trollope. Don’t make drastic changes, instead, take tiny steps to change things. People care about what others think of them. Hyperopia is a condition when one focuses too much on the future at the expense of the present.

For contentment, apparently, it pays to look at how far you’ve come. To stoke motivation and ambition, focus instead on the road ahead. –  Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

‘The more the body suffers, the more the spirit flowers.’ David Blaine. He is self-described endurance artist. He is obsessed with performing feats that require huge willpower. He managed to hold his breath for almost 16 minutes under water. However, in an attempt to beat the world record, he suffered in front of a live audience. He believe that willpower can be trained and developed. Research has shown that practicing emotional control does not strengthen willpower. You need to override bad habits to improve willpower or by diligent self-monitoring. Your willpower doesn’t get depleted so quickly when you train your stamina. The key is trying to change a habitual behaviour. Exercise is a good way to improve both mental and physical stamina. Self-control is pervasive and will enter every aspect of your life. However, David Blaine also succumbed to temptations in his daily life and especially in between stunts.

As long as you were motivated to do some kind of exercise, your overall willpower could improve, at least over the course of the experiment. – Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

Getting your brain wired into little goals and achieving them, that helps you achieve the bigger things you shouldn’t be able to do. It’s not just practicing the specific thing. It’s always making things more difficult than they should be, and never falling short, so that you have that extra reserve, that tank, so you know you can always go further than your goal. For me that’s what discipline is. It’s repetition and practice. – David Blaine

Henry Morton Stanley was a great explorer. He explored many parts of Africa. Stanley had an indomitable will. He lost his father at a very young age and his mother taught him about willpower African people were extremely hostile to foreigners, but he managed to overcome all this. ‘hot-cold empathy gap’ is when it is hard to predict what we will be like when the situation is intense and stressful. People usually only plan for pleasant, peaceful situations. When men are in a hot, impassioned state, they were more likely to want to agree to have a threesome, with another guy involved. Only save your willpower for emergencies. Precommitment is one technique. Tell yourself you can’t leave the path, that it is disgraceful or sinful etc. Example, use a firewall on the internet. There are websites which enable to state your goals and if you can’t achieve them, a certain form of punishment will be ‘meted’ out. Setting a penalty for yourself which force you to achieve your goals. If the precommitment is set long enough, it becomes a habit. Stanley shaved the first thing in the morning. He was a very orderly man. Orderly behavior can actually improve self-control. External order and self-control are co-related. Self-control is only required during the period when the habit is formed. Once you make something a habit, you will be able to conserve your willpower. ‘I was not sent into the world to be happy, I was sent for special work.’ Henry Morton Stanley

Often it appeared as though it were wholly useless to struggle against evil, yet there was an infinitesimal improvement in each stage. The character was becoming more and more developed. – Henry Morton Stanley

Eric Clapton was an alcoholic and a drug addict in the past. He liked to binge drink and had suicidal tendencies. It lowers blood glucose and self control. When part of you wants to do something and part of you does not, alcohol will make you do that something. He prayed every morning. He didn’t believe in a God. However, praying did work. The same thing worked for Mary Karr. Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) helps improve self-control. AA is a session for alcoholic. people to get together and share their problems The more meetings you attended, the less likely you will drink. AA seemed to be as good as seeking professional help to quit alcohol. Why?. Members get rewarded for not drinking and can choose a sponsor, who is someone who they are supposed to contact to track their progress. The warehouse effect. The last reason is that AA is socially uplifting. People drink and smoke because of peer pressure. People may be a higher power in your life. It need not be a religious figure, like God. The people who needed to seek help from others were about to quit more easily. Social support can work both ways though. A lack of friends tends to lead to alcohol abuse. Just by relating your past experiences will force you to be more self-aware. If you mention your goals to your friends, it is more likely you will stick to them. Social influence matters a lot. Religious people are less likely to develop bad habits and have better social support groups. They also have better self-control. Religion affects both building willpower and improves monitoring. Religion has the diminishing people’s temptations effect. It requires good discipline for one to follow a religion as it involves attending services, prayers and rules. People who visit churches for other motives will likely not experience better self-control. ‘Hyperbolic discounting’ is when the temptation is right in front of you and you find it very hard to resist. It takes just 1 lapse to establish a long-term pattern. It is important to set a bright line, meaning zero tolerance with no exceptions.

Contrary to popular stereotype, alcohol doesn’t increase your impulse to do stupid or destructive things; instead, it simply removes restraints. – Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

Early psychologist believed having better self-esteem could change your life. A lot of people believed the key to success was self-esteem. A lot of parents encouraged their kids to think highly of themselves. Many of those who commit crimes have low self-esteem. From self-esteem to narcissism. Which came from? Good grades led to self-esteem? Or self-esteem led to good grades? Improving an academically weak student’s self-esteem did not make much difference to their grades. Serial rapists have very high self-esteem as well. Children, in general, have very high self-esteem. It might also be hard to get along with someone with high self-esteem. There are two benefits associated with high self-esteem. They are taking initiative and feeling good about yourself. High self-esteem can lead to narcissism, conceit and arrogance. When a problem arises, they tend not to act because they already feel their skills are adequate. Asians tend to have better self-control than the Americans. James Flynn argues that they do not have higher intelligence but are better able to make use of their intelligence. Asians believe more in delayed gratification. You get self-esteem from being praised and rewarded, not by boasting to others or flaunting your wealth/arrogance. Asian parents were more supportive of self-control, rather than self-esteem. You can’t keep letting your children win. They will climb all over you. The speed/consistency of the punishment matters more than the severity of it. You have to do what is right, even though disciplining the child in public might seem awkward. It is very important to lead by example. When the baby cries, sometimes let them be. Then go over and comfort them, then withdraw again. Repeat this until they can sleep in peace at night without disturbing you. Don’t let them think they can get their way just by crying. Set house rules like using colored rings, whereby one ring for a good deed entities the kid to 15 minutes of play. It is very important to understand the importance of saving. It is important to set rules and be consistent. Once the child is ready, let them set the rules. Both genetics and the environment played a part. Those children whose fathers’ voluntarily left the home were even less likely to succeed in life as compared to those whose fathers’ left due to other reasons, like work.

Success is conditional – but it’s within your reach as long as you have the discipline to try, try again. – Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney

Everybody wants flat abs. If you want to lose weight, do the following 1) Never go on a diet; 2) Never vow to give up chocolate or any other food; 3) Whether you’re judging yourself or judging others, never equate being overweight with having weak willpower. Dieting and self-control are not strongly correlated. Exercise alone isn’t enough to ensure weight loss. Dieting is much harder. Your body will fight against it. And once you had food readily available, you will become fat again. Instead of going on a diet, take gradual changes to ensure long term effects. Set realistic goals. People usually set unrealistic goals. ‘Diets work at first but fail miserably in the long run.’ Self-control can fail when it comes to weight control. What-the-hell effect. Once you bust your calorie intake for the day, you have failed and will just continue eating. Your body knows what is the optimal amount of food you should eat. Diets rely more on external cues, not internal ones. Obese people were in fact more likely to go on diets. However, once you fail to follow to the plan strictly, you are screwed. Suppressing your feelings while in the cinema tends to cause you to overeat later. Dieters are trapped in this cycle. This the nutritional catch-22. ‘In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower. In order to have willpower, a dieter needs to eat.’ Other ways of fighting the flab include precommitment. Keep the sweet food out of reach and out of sight. Brush your teeth early in the night is one way. There are websites where you can set penalties for yourselves if you fail to hit certain targets. Try to switch to automatic thinking. Whenever you think of sweet food, put on your running shoes, for instance. Constant monitoring like weighing yourself will help a lot in weight loss. Buy smaller plates and thin glasses at home. Avoid snacking when watching a movie. Simply by telling yourself you can eat something later is a way of ‘satisfying’ your craving now. When it comes to desserts, tell yourself that you can have it later. Never say never to nice food. Just say you will be able to have it tomorrow.

‘The best way to reduce stress in your life is to stop screwing up.’ People with good self-control need to resist to temptations less. This is ironic. The explanation is that people like that know how to keep their lives in order so as to minimize conflicts. Don’t procrastinate. That is the key. It is extremely common to procrastinate. The problem stems from impulsiveness. Men face more of this problem than women. When faced with a difficult task, men tend to be impulsive and do something else to make themselves feel good. It is not good to work under tight deadlines as your performance suffers. It seems like from research, procrastinators are healthier, but they suffer more in terms of grades. Every decision you make requires willpower and it will make you feel tired. How to sense for ego depletion? Once depleted, you will be liable to make mistakes. Force yourself to think long term and write down your decision steps. If you need to think very hard, remember to eat first. This includes an exercise regime, picking up a new skill etc. Pick the right battles in your life. Do self-reflection at least once a year. Use it to track your progress of goals. Don’t be too ambitious. Set yourself tight deadlines if you know you have the ability to achieve them. ‘Make a to-do list’ with a specific plan. To avoid the planning fallacy of being overly ambitious, think back to your past. Even if you are working on your goal, don’t forget to exercise and take care of your hygiene. Ensure adequate sleep. Change a bad routine. Try to delay your gratification. Monitor your goals frequently. Give yourself rewards as they will continue to motivate you. Research has shown that people with willpower are more altruistic and more willing to help others.

The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one. The psychological principle is that anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment. – Robert Benchley

Write or nothing. It’s the same principle as keeping order in a school. If you make the pupils behave, they will learn something just to keep from being bored. I find it works. Two very simple rules, a) you don’t have to write, b) you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself. – Raymond Chandler