Picking Nuggets

🟠 Insightful nugget by Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO of Uber), from an episode of the podcast Acquired:

I always tell people that the most common mistake that I see in young people is that they overplan their career.

Like… “I want to do X” or “I want to be Vice President” or “I want to make so much money by a certain time”.

And when you overplan your career, there's this human bias — which is to look for signal that agrees with the plan that you have and ignore everything else that doesn't agree with it.

So, my advice for young people is: don't overplan.

You never know what opportunities are going to come up.

I planned to stay at Allen & Company my whole life. It was my place.

But, being open to possibilities, being open to opportunities… and then when you get that opportunity… going all in!

[So] don’t hedge. If you're going to be in something, go all in.

And do what's required of you, and then like 50% more! Like… blow people away!

And then, you know, tomorrow maybe something else comes up, and you'll get there, but while you're in, you go all in. But at the same time, keep your eyes open, because you never know.

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P.S. If you would like to also see my reflections on this nugget, check out the full piece on my blog! - www.littlealmanack.com/p/dara-khosrowshahi-advice

1 day ago | [YT] | 304

Picking Nuggets

"It's good to learn from your mistakes. It's better to learn from other people's mistakes."
- Warren Buffet

"My prescription for misery is to learn everything you possibly can from your own experience, minimizing what you learn vicariously from the good and bad experiences of others, living and dead. This prescription is a sure-shot producer of misery and second-rate achievement."
- Charlie Munger

“Learning from mistakes, other people’s mistakes, is the best way to learn. Why learn from your own mistakes? You know, why learn from your own embarrassment? You got to learn from other people’s embarrassment. That’s why we have case studies, and isn’t that right? We’re trying to read from other people’s disasters, other people’s tragedies. Nothing makes us happier than that.”
- Jensen Huang (Founder of Nvidia)

3 days ago | [YT] | 239

Picking Nuggets

I think the one thing that we did that worked best of all...we were always dissatisfied with what we already knew-we wanted to know more. If Warren and I had stayed frozen in time, [Berkshire] would have been a terrible place. It's only that we kept learning that made it work and I don't think that'll ever stop.

- Charlie Munger

5 days ago | [YT] | 182

Picking Nuggets

i always loved this advice from Jim Rohn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EfIc...

5 days ago | [YT] | 28

Picking Nuggets

I loved reading the book Alchemy, by Rory Sutherland.

The core message of the book reminded me this quote from Charlie Munger:

"One of my favorite stories is about the little boy in Texas. The teacher asked the class, 'If there are nine sheep in the pen and one jumps out, how many are left?' And everybody got the answer right except this little boy, who said, 'None of them are left.' And the teacher said, 'You don't understand arithmetic.' And he said 'No, teacher. You don't understand sheep.'"

1 week ago | [YT] | 259

Picking Nuggets

We can all be our own university if we have no desire to be anointed "Dr. This" or "Dr. That," or be favored by those so categorized. The only requirements are a curious mind, books, and experience.

- Dee Hock (Founder of VISA)

1 week ago | [YT] | 230

Picking Nuggets

🟠 Insightful personal story from Steve Jobs (from the book - Make Something Wonderful):

You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life.

I am invited to speak at Stanford’s business school once or twice a year, and I always try to do it. I had accepted an invitation to speak one Thursday late in the afternoon, and I wasn’t feeling very well and I had a dinner later that evening with some important customers up at a winery on Page Mill Road.

The room for my talk wasn’t large enough, and all the seats were full so some of the students were sitting in the aisles. One of the professors asked them to clear the aisles in case a fire marshal should appear, and one girl who was being evicted quickly sat down in one of the four seats they had left vacant in the front row for me and whatever entourage I might be bringing.

When I arrived alone and sat down in the front row, it didn’t take me long to notice this really cute girl sitting next to me. I think she was stunned when it was me that got up to speak. And I knew something was up when I was staring at her, forgetting what I was talking about mid-sentence.

After my talk, I stayed around to speak with some students, and she stayed too.

But then she left.

I didn’t know who she was, and thought I might never see her again.

So I wound things up and left too, and I caught up with her in the parking lot.

I asked her if she would have dinner with me on Saturday.

She said yes and gave me her phone number.

As I was walking to my car, I asked myself: “If this was the last day of my life, would I rather have dinner with the important customers or her?”

I raced back to her car, just as she was about to drive off, and asked her “How about dinner tonight?”

She said: “Sure,” and we were married 18 months later.

Yea, it might have worked out if I had waited until Saturday night, and those customers might have given us a few more orders if I had shown up.

But who knows, maybe she had a hot date Friday night and things would have turned out much differently…

You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life. It just happens. Maybe its random, maybe its fate. Either way, you can’t plan for it. But you want to recognize it when it happens, and have the courage and clarity of mind to grab onto it.

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🧠 Personal reflection:

This idea deeply resonated with me, because it’s something I learned this year… from experience! And it proved even more true whenever I:

1. Followed my genuine interests
“Go do something great and your network will instantly emerge.”
- Naval Ravikant

2. Lived a more adventurous life
“You have calibrated life when most of what you fear has the titillating prospect of adventure.”
- Nassim Taleb


And as Steve Jobs said, courage is a very important ingredient...

Some of my other favorite quotes (on courage):

"Courage is the only virtue you cannot fake."
- Nassim Taleb


"Courage is grace under pressure."
- Ernest Hemingway


"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius."
- Peter Thiel


"If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid."
- Robert Greene


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If you enjoyed this nugget, you can find many more on my weekly newsletter The Little Almanack - www.littlealmanack.com/

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 675

Picking Nuggets

This year, my free (140-page) Nuggets Ebook has been downloaded over 6,000 times and received 100 ratings! 🙏 A huge thanks to everyone who has contributed!! And if you haven't grabbed your free copy yet, you can download it here - pickingnuggets.com/

3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 133

Picking Nuggets

I have done many great things perfectly-the ones I imagined but never attempted.
- Dee Hock

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 251

Picking Nuggets

"As you advance in age, if you’re doing things right you go back to your childhood values."

- Nassim Taleb

1 month ago | [YT] | 405