I asked 18 financially independent real estate investors what advice they would tell their 22-year-old selves if they could go back to college graduation day. Here’s what they said.
How to stay resilient during this time of great uncertainty
I love this country. I want us to succeed. I hope for good things.
When one of the great filmmakers of our time almost gave up on his movie-making dream, this is how his wife convinced him not to
Following Ang Lee’s best director Oscar for “Life of Pi,” an essay he wrote in 2006 after winning the same award for “Brokeback Mountain” re-surfaced on the web and has been shared by many friends and colleagues. It’s a tremendously inspirational story of what it means to struggle, self-doubt, nurture, draw inner strength, persevere, love, and dream…. Read More
Crafting a career out of chaos with a liberal arts degree
This interview is with Katharine Brooks, Director of the Office of Liberal Arts Career Services at The University of Texas at Austin. Tell me about your career path. How has your career unfolded into your current role as the Director of Liberal Arts Career Services at the University of Texas? My career is a perfect example of chaos theory… Read More
If you’re not reading voraciously, you’re not love-driven
I recently had a thought-provoking conversation with a UX designer friend. We were talking about what motivates long-term high personal achievement. He made an observation that struck me. “Personal change and achievement can start with fear-driven motivation,” he said. “It can turn into will-driven motivation. But it can only sustain itself by being love-driven.” “Personal change and… Read More
Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You
A couple weeks ago a friend of mine recommended the new book by Cal Newport, “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” which argues that the best and most satisfying careers are those where your passion for the job emerges only after you’ve developed distinctive skills for it — because distinctive skills enable you to do… Read More
The 4 Ingredients To Career and Life Happiness
I wrote in the last blog post about Daniel Pink’s thesis in his book “Drive” about the three things that shape a motivating, fulfilling career: mastery, autonomy, and purpose. It made me think about similar themes Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, wrote about in his book “Delivering Happiness.” I remember reading Tony’s book last year after… Read More
Mastery, autonomy, and purpose
One of the best TED talks I’ve heard is by Daniel Pink, who wrote a book called “Drive.” In it, he argues that career fulfillment (and, ultimately, happiness) pretty simply comes down to having three things in your career: mastery, autonomy, and purpose. I’ll let him explain the details behind each directly in his own TED… Read More
You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backward.
While on the subject of Apple, I thought it befitting to look back at the commencement speech Steve Jobs delivered at Stanford in 2005. I’m always struck by the story he tells about stumbling into that calligraphy class at Reed College, and how a decade later when he was integrating typefaces into the Mac, he… Read More
“Your life’s work” – New Employee Welcome Letter From Apple
I recently saw this snapshot in my newsfeed of the welcome letter new Apple employees receive when they first join the company. Pretty inspiring. Not a lot of companies write letters to new recruits in such a motivating, mission-driven way. It takes a combination of company track record, confidence, high purpose, clear vision, and a little bravado… Read More
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