Characteristic of Succesful People......

 

During my internship at Barclays Capital I was assigned to a team of 3 that took positions as big as the rest of the trading floor combined. It was the heavy weight dream team of 3 ex Goldman bankers. And me!

The team's head was Marc Cheval (might be spelled wrong - I've not been able to find him on Google despite trying all spelling variations - it's like he's disappeared - I've wanted to meet him again just to say thanks for his positive influence).

Anyway, Marc was once giving me a lift on his way back home in his flashy sports car, and said,  

"Look, Asim, a lot of people say they will learn French, or lose weight, or they will read some book."

"The difference between most other people and me is that I don't do them tomorrow, I actually do them. Today."

He explained, "I'm tired right now, but I don't care. I'm going to drop you off, get home, and I will read at least a couple of chapters of [some finance book I can't recall]. I don't care how f***ing tired I am. I am going to get through a couple of chapters. Because I don't do things tomorrow. I do them today."           -Asim Qureshi

The skill of persistence or continuing to go forward when everything is against you.

 Despite probability, your family, your past, your performance, your burdens and circumstances, and your potential being against you, you still continue to persevere.

You do not let go and the only thing that may stop you is death. This is a very underrated skill in today’s world.

Usually, we withdraw, quit, or give up quickly because we do not get immediate or instant gratification. We lack the sheer tenacity and endurance. 

We like the idea of a long term goal, but many of us will never accomplish it because our mind’s stamina is almost non existent and our attention span is even worse. 

      We are inclined to give up as soon as something goes not according to the plan.

                                        -

                                                             -                                             - Anna Sharudenko

Are you Happy?

I am as happy as humanly possible.

I am sometime very happy, sometime moderately happy and sometime unhappy as well.

And it is natural because all of these are cause and effect of each other.

Let me explain this by help of a story.

One day Nasruddin saw a man sitting in a pall of gloom.

When asked for the reason behind his sorrow, the man replied that his life had become so miserable that he had collected all his money in a small bag and was wandering around seeking happiness.

 All of a sudden, Nasruddin picked up the man's bag and dodging him disappeared from his sight. The man was running all around to catch Mulla and get the bag which was his only possession.

After some time Nasruddin placed the bag at a place where the frantic man could see it and then hid himself behind a tree. When the man found his bag he forgot his grief and began dancing with joy.

Mulla murmured – ‘This is one way to bring happiness to a sad man?

This is how life is.

• A day is brighter after a good night sleep.
• A night is sweeter after a hard day of work.

You value happiness much more once you have experienced unhappiness.

Hence, even occasional unhappiness is a source of happiness for me because I know that when night passes, you start a new day - Dr.Awdhesh Singh

Stop Fighting About.....

I recently found myself in combat, fighting with someone over something I thought I deserved.

I think I felt I needed to stand up for myself.

I put everything, everything on the line.

Mid-argument, feeling stressed, exhausted, sad, disappointed - it hit me that I did not truly want what I was fighting for.

What I was experiencing was a misguided battle for something that used to be important to me but no longer was.

A relic.

It was time to let it go.

I dropped the fight right in the middle of feeling all tangled up in it. I lay my weapons down. I said I was sorry and explained where I was coming from.

The stress diminished. The sadness. The disappointment. Gone.

I feel free.

I am going to stop fighting over anything I don’t actually want, and I wish the same for you. 

-Dushka Zapata

Kids and Young People

What you need for Happiness?

In One Word: Progress.

When we are caught in the confines of our life we begin to despair.

It’s only ever when life is looking grim and there is nothing to tell us that things will be different tomorrow that we begin to surrender.

Like an animal in a cage it can’t escape begins to accept its fate, we look at life and settle for a life we never wanted to have.

And this breaks some of us

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To be happy, and to gain the ability to smile you have to look for some form of progress in your life.

Something that tells you “This will not last”.

Even if it is just your belief, at the end of the day, that you have done something to change just by an inch, it’s good enough.

The point isn’t in how fast or drastic this change occurs, but only that it does.

When our life progresses, when something moves us forward, the world opens up to us.

The door of the cage opens and the entire world bursts with possibilities and opportunities.

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For that there is only one thing we must do: Walk.

We must walk out the cage, into the open, and explore.

What that means for you is that you have to find something to do and do it.

Action often comes from creating a journey, and to go on a journey you must have a goal.

Again, the goal does not have to be reached quickly nor effectively. Progress has to be made, that’s all!

Invest yourself in what you do, get better at it, find some progress and reward yourself for it when you see it.

Practice learning a difficult song on the piano and reward yourself for every bigger sequence of notes you can play.

Work hard in your job and pay attention to how much work you get done, celebrating each day you get even slightly more than done the last.

And invest in your relationships. Make a note of every time something great happens or you feel happy in that relationship.

Note the progress!

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This is why chasing happiness itself is pointless. You can’t do it.

Happiness doesn’t come from what you buy or the small gifts you receive.

It’s a side product of progressing and living through your life!

If you want to be happy, all you need to do is focus more on that progress.

See it every day, look out for every open minute and act only to reach further in every area of life.

And if you then let the progress be the reward, happiness will come to you.

 
                                                    -Lukas Schwekendiek

Failure?

As I look back on my life I see many more failures than I do successes. Most of my projects went nowhere. But a few of them succeeded, some beyond any reasonable expectation. I keep thinking that another one of those is on the way.

Examples: I wrote 10 books. One of them became a best-seller. I started about 15 major physics projects. Most were cancelled before they could reach fruition; a few succeeded moderately, and are still quoted in the literature (but only the specialists know about them); two were awarded Nobel Prizes (to my students who took them over). I started several businesses (consulting, shale gas exploration, optical devices) which did OK, but only my most recent one Home-Deep Isolation looks like it will change the world.

So you keep at it, and try not to be bothered by failure.  -Dr.Richard Muller

 

(/* Learn from Every Failure And Keep Applying Your Learning */)

Genius ?

Most Overlooked Pleasure in Life

Let’s say that your normal happiness is a nice, even 6/10.

You are kinda-happy in general, but you don’t walk around grinning like a crazy person.

And then something bad happens.

Perhaps there is a difficult period: a divorce, being fired, financial difficulties, rejection, family problems, health problems.

Whatever the case may be.

Those are tough experiences that cause prolonged hardship and stress. And things that all of us will deal with at some point.

You can’t sleep at night. Often you go back to back nights with only a couple hours of sleep. You’ll feel anxiety.

Often, you’ll deal with depression. You are treading between a 2–3 out of 10 vs your usual 6 on a happiness scale.

The experience is terrible.

One thing I’ve noticed:

                                      When you come out of the smoke, when you get through that experience - there is this prolonged euphoria.

You’ll feel 8/10, 9/10.

                   Like a prisoner who has set free. You’ll be smiling for a long time.

Overcoming hardship, the other side of the tunnel, people forget that sweet feeling.

It always gives me something to look forward to. It helps me get through it.       -Sean Kernan

Habits of Highly Successful People

At the age of 25, Alex Cotraviwat became a self made millionaire.

In 4 years he had built up a cutting edge clothing company called Kallusive.

His clothing was featured in stores like Fred Segal and Metropark. You could see it on dance crews on the hit show America’s Best Dance Crew. Celebrities would be rocking his shirts.

Life was good. For a while.

Two years later, Alex nearly lost everything.

His largest client, Metropark, had gone bankrupt. His bank account had been drained down to $67.

One day, while sitting on the curb of his home street in Arcadia, Alex hung his head, as the reality of the situation started to sink in. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t sure if he could recover from the situation.

At this moment, most people would have quit. Alex didn’t.

His wife Yuna and co-founder Michael took a seat next to him. Yuna put her arms around him. They told him that if anyone could rebound, it was him.

So what did Alex do?

He sold his house in Arcadia and invested the money into building his next new business.

It was all or nothing.

Two years later, Alex is now the CEO of Jaback Group, a holding company that owns and operates 20 subsidiaries. His companies span the areas of consumer goods, natural products, fashion, and entertainment.

And guess what? He’s a self made multi-millionaire. Again.

Here are the top 10 habits Alex has embraced to find success:

1. Have an excuses jar - It’s simple. One of the key reasons that Alex is successful is because he doesn’t make excuses. Period. If you need help building this habit, use an “excuses jar.” Every time you make an excuse in your head or when someone hears you making an excuse, you have to put $20 into the jar. The reason this is so effective is because when we make excuses, we usually use it to give ourselves a reason to be lazy or to give up. In this case, you’ll feel the financial pain of making an excuse. Want to be down $20 every time you make an excuse? Didn’t think so. If $20 isn’t enough to make you feel the pain of making excuses, up the ante!       
2. When in doubt, start - Here’s a secret most successful people don’t usually talk about: Everyone sucks in the beginning. When Alex first started creating t-shirts for his clothing company, he literally lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He had no experience in the clothing industry, no connections in the industry and a huge learning curve. But he learned. And along the way, he got better and better. Eventually his clothing became a huge hit with dance crews on TV shows and celebrities too. So don’t get too caught up with what you don’t know or worry about how hard the journey is going to be. Just get started. Now.                                                                                                                                                                   
3. Make preparation a requirement - When Alex had his first big sales pitch with Metropark, he did his research in advance on the purchasing team. He memorized their photos, names and titles to make sure he was really prepared for the meeting. When he arrived at the Metropark office, he met the Assistant Buyer outside on a table. After showing her his portfolio of clothes though, she declined to move forward. At this point, most people would have just left the meeting dejected. But right at that moment, the Head Buyer walked out of the office and right by Alex. He recognized her in an instant - because he had prepared. He ran up to her and asked her for just one opportunity to show her how amazing his clothing line was. And guess what? She agreed to give him a meeting. She took him into a conference room with the CEO sitting there. The CEO offered him 15 minutes. Alex replied, “I only need 5 minutes.” They ended up talking for an hour. At the end of the meeting, the CEO agreed to put his clothing into all 78 stores at Metropark. Think that would have happened if Alex didn’t do his homework?                       
4. Invest in yourself daily - Every single day, Alex does one thing that improves his life. For example, some days he’ll meet with experts in different industries to learn from them. When he had wanted to learn about the entertainment industry, he asked for a meeting with Sean Dulake and Chris Martin, co-founders of Third Culture Content, an award winning entertainment company with a show streaming on Netflix. He was so excited about what he learned he decided to join them as a co-founder. That one meeting led to an amazing transition into owning an entertainment company. Focus on investing in yourself every single day. You never know what could come of it.                                                                                                                    
5. Take the long view - When things go bad, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. But instead of panicking and worrying, one habit that Alex does helps to keep him steady in the toughest of moments. He takes the long view. For example, when Alex first got into the food business, he didn’t know anything about the industry. Did that mean it would be painful and hard to learn in the short term? Absolutely. But the long view of building a great plant based company and helping people live healthier lives was going to be worth all of the short term sacrifice.                      
6. 1 hour of clarity - What do most people do when they wake up in the morning? They grab their phone and check their email or the news. Instead of doing that, Alex opts for a moment of clarity. Meditate. Enjoy a nice breakfast. Go for a walk. Get your moment of clarity.                         
7. Thank someone - It can be anyone. The cashier at the grocery store. The mentor who helped guide you when you were just starting your career. Your parents. One of the best moments in Alex’s life is when he was thanked his parents…by taking care of their retirement. That was his way of saying thank you and it filled him with so much happiness. Take a moment to practice gratitude towards someone.                                                                                                                     
8. Strong opinion, weakly held - Alex and his teams routinely go through debates on their conclusions. It’s incredibly healthy because it promotes a dialogue of transparency that gets people working towards the best solution possible. Alex’s approach is “strong opinion, weakly held.” This means that Alex expects people to bring their conclusions and opinions to the table for the discussion. From there, the “weakly held” part simply means that you look for information, data or indicators that would prove your conclusion wrong. Sometimes the conclusion is strong enough to hold its ground. Other times it cannot…and you end up with a better conclusion. That’s the beauty of this process.                                                                                
9. 15 minute pick me up - Feeling a bit sluggish or down? Use Alex’s “15 minute pick me up” habit. For 15 minutes, do an activity completely different from what you’re currently doing. Just make sure it lifts you up. For example, you could dance to your favorite Youtube video. You could sing a song. You could yell out from the rooftops “I’m going to make a difference in this world!” You could make a silly video to make your friends laugh. Take the time to lift yourself up.                                                                                                                                               
10. Daily pep talk - Repeat these words after me: I will keep improving. I will follow my heart. I will do the right thing. I will achieve my dreams. I will give it my best. Got it? Good. Now get out there and be the best that you can be!          -Mr. Nelson Wang