Small life lessons

IMPORTANCE OF GOAL SETTING

Why to set goal?

Say you have a goal to sell a million apps <relevant example>

Why would you set such a goal?

Well, who doesn’t want to be popular, rich ?

The truth is that you set goals :

Because of what it will make of you in order to achieve them

I repeat

We set goals because of what the goal will make of you in order to achieve them.

The path is important. To sell a 1000 apps you have to learn marketing, you have to learn people skills, you have to complete, you need to have an economic moat around your product. All these skills are important and this is why you should set goals.

Compounding in daily habits:

One of the major human flaws is that we perceive everything linearly.

"I have been working on this idea for a month and I see no results"

"I have been exercising for 10 days now and nothing has changed"

Compounding is everywhere. You have to be wise enough to see it.

The results will compound and come back to you.

CHAINS OF Habits

Success does not come from a few big decisions.

It starts from the smallest of disciplines.

For example, given a chocolate bar and an apple, what do you chose?

Any human will take the chocolate bar, we perceive things linearly. But think this way, this habit or this choice is repeated for 30 years, what did you chose? From the choice of a  healthy body vs obesity/heart diseases. You got to be smarter than that.

Again you will say, its just one small decision. But this choice will compound. Every time you chose an apple, you increase the probability of making the same choice again.

Imagine that every action will stand for next 30 years. Neurons that wire together fire together. " My actions right now will stand for eternity and I have to act right now to decide how this will build up for next 30 years. " . By choosing exercise / study /newspaper, I am increasing the probability that I would chose this action again in my lifetime.

I am wiring myself for success by making small choices

Again, take the example of brushing your teeth before you go to sleep. Such a small discipline, such good results. If you do it today, it’s a good probability you will do it tomorrow, and maybe continuously for next 20 years.

TO BUILD UP A NETWORK OF RIGHT PEOPLE :  Surround yourself with good people . The process involves compounding of good people around you over time through these steps. When you meet someone new, do something nice for them. Open the gate, give a compliment. Pay attention to how they behave. The takers will just receive and try to suck out more out of you. The matchers will feel the urge to do something for you in return. Try to stick around with matchers and check if they are givers. Givers have to kept close and cherished.

Keep distance from the takers : respond to them slowly, try not to receive calls but do not burn bridges.

Adam Grant: Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success

Takers have a distinctive signature: they like to get more than they give. They tilt reciprocity in their own favor, putting their own interests ahead of others’ needs. Takers believe that the world is a competitive, dog-eat-dog place. They feel that to succeed, they need to be better than others. To prove their competence, they self-promote and make sure they get plenty of credit for their efforts. Garden-variety takers aren’t cruel or cutthroat; they’re just cautious and self-protective. “If I don’t look out for myself first,” takers think, “no one will.”

If you’re a taker, you help others strategically, when the benefits to you outweigh the personal costs. If you’re a giver, you might use a different cost-benefit analysis: you help whenever the benefits to others exceed the personal costs. Alternatively, you might not think about the personal costs at all, helping others without expecting anything in return. 

We become matchers, striving to preserve an equal balance of giving and getting. Matchers operate on the principle of fairness: when they help others, they protect themselves by seeking reciprocity. If you’re a matcher, you believe in tit for tat, and your relationships are governed by even exchanges of favors.

1. To build trust : treat every information shared with you as confidential unless you have explicit permission to share
2. Don’t tell anybody what to do. You can just share your experiences. People hate Being told what to do. Giving advice is like saying "I know better what to do in your shoes.". Draw a 4 quadrant chart to see if your advice works vs it was accepted  and you lose in every way

Ideas taken from role models like Jim Rohn, Guy Spier, Warren Buffett and multiple books