This has been frequently requested of me ever since my earlier post about ‘The Six Month Conversation’ resonated with so many people. This follow up is about the framework Alexis and I devised with hopes of guiding our life journey together independently and as a couple. I know this post is arriving several years late, after tons of requests, so thanks everybody for your patience!
This has been frequently requested of me ever since my earlier post about ‘The Six Month Conversation’ resonated with so many people. This follow up is about the framework Alexis and I devised with hopes of guiding our life journey together independently and as a couple. I know this post is arriving several years late, after tons of requests, so thanks everybody for your patience!
The best investment you can make is in yourself.
Many folks know me as a person who’s driven by a broad curiosity and who’s keen to explore possibilities. As a result, people often ask me for recommendations on credible resources to learn from based on their knowledge level.
Below I’ve shared my response to recent inquiries as well as some areas I’ve been personally interested in.
People have asked about:
Macroeconomics: Economics Explained - Youtube
Personal Finance (foundations): Ramit Sethi - Book
Minimalism (lifestyle): Matt D’Avella - Youtube
Startups (resources): Startup School, by Y Combinator
Sales (foundations): Brian Tracy - Book
Negotiation: Chris Voss - Book
China-US Politics: Michael Pillsbury - Book
Small Business Self-Help: Michael Gerber - Book
Sci-Fi Series: Pierce Brown - Red Rising Saga
Recent/current personal interests:
Community (Vancouver): Vital Signs - Research Findings
Family Business: Family Enterprise Xchange / UBC Sauder
Coffee: James Hoffmann - Youtube
Kitchen: Equipment Reviews, by America’s Test Kitchen - YouTube
Dog Training: Zak George - YouTube
Consumer Safety (Canada): Marketplace, by CBC - YouTube
Indian Food (various)
If you’re interested in similar stuff I’ve shared before: Jan 2016, Jun 2018 (re: careers), Dec 2018
As I've been pushing hard on pursuing new opportunities lately and working through a handful of challenging projects, I've been pondering the question, "What is truly worth striving for?" in considering how to allocate my limited resources of time and energy.
This is the list of things I keep circling back to:
Excellence
Integrity…
This is a re-post for an answer by Franklin Veaux to a question on the site, Quora. I'm sharing this because it provides a perspective that people often do not consider. Food for thought.
Self-esteem is not something that should be outsourced to others.
People have enough trouble dealing with their own self-esteem issues, their own drama, their own everything... heaping yours on top is too much to deal with.
Blaming is a manifestation of this: you are outsourcing to a boss, the economy, a relationship, past work.
Understand that everything can be thought of independently. This wisdom helps one get crystal clear about the self.
This will be a very short post, and it's mostly my thinking around a puzzle-me-this notion.
I've recently encountered a number of situations where people acted highly irrationally. In some cases, their behaviour was very clearly against their own self-interest. The behaviour, if continued, would negatively impact their lives in a significant way. And the thing is, most of the time they know this is the case and can't take the steps to remedy their situation.
To what extent does an individual's surroundings influence their judgment? How long is enough for a person to wallow in their misery? How can an external party impact the person who's struggling? What is getting in the way of the individual taking steps to make a change?
Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.
- Princess Diana
The above quote by Princess Diana beautifully captures a core facet of how I live life. In this post, I will share with you a personal practice I've named the "Charity Fund," which is an important part of my philanthropic pursuit.
I'm sharing some of the advice* to pay it forward, in hopes that it will contribute positively to your life, love, business, and other pursuits.
Getting the right people on board (for whatever type of organization) is a topic I've been wanting to cover for a while now, either via blog or podcast. The problem is that I hadn't found a good way to put it concisely, given my tendency towards long-winded pieces.
A friend recently lent me a copy Jim Collins' book, Good to Great, where Collins describes: (1) how companies transition from being good companies to great organizations, (2) how most companies fail to make the transition, and then (3) offers some practical suggestions to implement these ourselves.
