Sam Altman has written a brilliant post on his learnings in the last 30 years. It’s terrific advice, you appreciate the depth of each point as you read the post again and again.
Here’s the original post. http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short
I figured i’ll take an attempt at the things I’ve learned over the years. A lot of this is self contemplation.
1) On money: Money buys freedom and alllows you to focus on the important things. Pay attention to the amount of money you make, making $1 might be fashionable for Zuckerberg but isn’t essentially a good idea for you.
2) Financial discipline: All the money in the world will not get back time that passed you by. So 5k saved at 23 would be a lot more at 30 but that money can’t buy you the experiences you missed. Focus on earning more rather than saving every penny. Buy insurance, the rest is ok.
3) Time: Time is the most limited resource you have. And it goes by fast, in the blink of an eye. Let go of the past, the time you spend worrying is the time you’re not focusing on the future.
4) Learn to forgive.
5) Spend time with your parents: If you’re not staying home it’s quite likely that you see your parents about 15 days a year. Spend more time, go home more often.
6) Build stuff: I love the process of creating stuff. I suck at the arts or singing but writing gives me peace and clarity.
7) Tweet: Looking back at your timeline is a fun way to remember the different points in your life.
8) Work and success: Work on something you care about. This is difficult. Figuring out what you care about the most and actually getting to work on it is hard. If you don’t connect with the mission you’re working on, you’re probably going to get bored in a while.
9) Risk is over-rated. Not having a job for a couple of months isn’t going to kill you.
10) Learn to worry less. Worry rarely solves anything.
11) Don’t neglect your body. Your physical health reflects in your mental well-being.
12) Read more non-fiction: Fiction and stories are great but if you’re looking to expand your mind catch a copy of the ‘Last Lecture’.
13) Go out of your way to meet new people: The people around you make you the person you become. New people bring new perspectives and new experiences.
14) Plan: Set ambitious goals. Most of your plans won’t work out, try to reach at least 50% of your goals.
15) Work on hard problems.
16) Challenge yourself: To grow you need to challenge yourself. Come out of your comfort zone and re-learn certain things.
17) 30 day challenges are the best: I learned to drive, swim and play the guitar(some songs) all with a 30 day challenge.
18) People are complex and people change. Accept it.
19) This too shall pass.
20) When you feel like you’re at the bottom, think of the time you were worse and how it all got better.
We over-estimate what we can do a day and underestimate what can be achieved in a month, a year
22) Consistency is the key: A big part of success for anything is just showing up day after day, week after week.
This was first published on my blog http://feynmarketing.com/post/126074594651/life-is-short-make-it-count
I’ll also like to take a moment to thank my parents, big bro, Neha, Kshamank and everyone else who’ve been a big part of my life.
Wish you all a happy new year. Upwards and Onwards!
