money

Money is a need but not the end of life.
What will you do with all the money when it cannot cure your cancer? What will you do with all the money when you have no one around to live life with?
What will you do with all the money when you have to eat sleeping pills? What will you do with all the money when you are haunted by loneliness? What will you do with all the money when you know everyone around you is for your money?
What will you do with all the money when you are too old to do anything with it?
What will you do with all the money when it cannot bring back the little moments like seeing your child grow or parents getting old?

Think.

The Compound Effect

Recently I finally picked up The Compound Effect, Suraj had recommended me this book. I liked the simplicity and size in which the author gets done by sharing everything. The book made me feel like a condensed version of Grit, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and The power of habit.

The book is divided into 6 chapters: Choice, Habit, Momentum, Influences, and Acceleration. All these chapters are loaded with examples that can help in motivating for sure. 🙂

Simple summary:

One has to add a small change in life and continuously do it without failing. As time progress, repeating and redoing the action will get the desired result. Example: Losing weight, quitting alcohol, and all.

It requires hard work, it is not an overnight achievement. A lot of hard work, persistence, and self-belief are needed.

The author talks about a daily journal, like Benjamin Franklin, to list daily ritual and virtue/vice calculator. He also talks about believing in forming a good habit, keeping a company of great people, avoiding idiot box and spending quality time.

I would recommend this book to everyone.

Track

Why do we have to do everything unconsciously? Are we mere two-legged animal wandering without a purpose?

  • How many beers did you consume last week?
  • How many hours did you spend binge-watching?
  • How many meals did you order from outside?
  • What books did you read last week?
  • How many lives did you impact positively?  
  • What is your Virtue? What vices are hovering in your life?

Please track them, don’t live a life being clueless. Track your life, it will add meaning to your existence. It will make you a better human, making a better world around.

naysayers

Reading Wright Brothers makes me realize that naysayers have existed since inception. Added screenshot of two incidents where they denounced flying & fun of the experiments.

In the end, it is our self-belief that keeps us going. It requires hard work, perseverance, persistence. Quitting after trying few times is easy.

Bicycle

While reading The Wright Brothers, I felt great knowing the reception bicycle got from society. It took everyone by surprise and opening a bicycle shop was a craze. The Wright Brothers started a bicycle shop after failing in the printing press business. This reminds me of Benjamin Franklin and his career. 🙂

Added some excerpts from the book.

little

“How Much Land Does a Man Require?” is an 1886 short story by Leo Tolstoy. The story speaks of a greedy farmer.

What happened to our little happiness: running after butterflies, kite fight, or dancing in the first monsoon rain? Or eating mangoes from orchid during summer, swimming in a village pond, and learning to float.

We have forgotten little happiness or times have changed? Or is it more to do with our fast pace or a 360-degree redefinition of happiness has emerged?

Got a video call this from a cousin, he was enjoying fresh mango from the orchids. It took me to my past.

law

I know many of us dislike governments’ effort on multiple fronts. We have so many suggestions. A billion population of India is a nightmare for implementing anything and law is just one of it.

Instead of cribbing, we have to work with our government in most of the effort. That will make India a progressive nation.

To see the change, you have to follow shoulder to shoulder with stakeholders and be part of the change. Things take time, but that does not mean we should give up.

Bullshitters

Bullshitters are individuals who claim knowledge or expertise in an area where they actually have little experience or skills. I was reading this interesting paper and below are the summary.

Data: They collected data from over 40000 participants across 9 countries with various socio-economic backgrounds and genders. 

Other related paper:

Bullshitters are found to exhibit high levels of overconfidence and believe they work hard, persevere at tasks, and are popular among their peers. In another paper (Petrocelli, 2018) with a limited sample size. He finds that participants are more likely to bullshit when there is pressure to provide an opinion, irrespective of their actual level of knowledge. Petrocelli also concludes that individuals are more likely to bullshit when they believe they can get away with it, and less likely to bullshit when they know they will be held accountable for the responses they provide. 

Some other interesting finds via the paper:

  1. Young men are, on average, bigger bullshitters than young women.
  2. Socio-economic advantaged teenagers tend to bullshit more than less privileged ones. 
  3. Immigrant kids are bigger bullshitters then natives in Europe. 
  4. US and Canada kids tops in the list of bullshitters among counterparts in the test from 7 other countries. 

The paper also attributes Social desirability bias one factor which results in bullshitting. 

You can also find the HN thread discussing the same.

Bonus: I have highlighted some sections of paper with marker and uploaded it, In case you want a quick read and skip many other pieces of literature. 

Sales

I read Sequoia Capital post on sales. It covers many aspects brilliantly. I am adding some below:

  1.  Perceived values: Work on marketing your product and increase it.  
  2.  Don’t sell for cheap: Apply decoy effect if it helps.
  3. Know your pinch point: Find the fat tail, people who will pay most.

My sales journey has taught me a few more things. I am running an early stage niche SaaS business.

  1. Early adopters: You need a few early adopters whose pain you are solving.
  2. Integrity and dependability: Your organization should foster these virtues. 
  3.  Self-belief: You need to have self-belief in your product. 
  4.  Incentive: Is your product incentivizing enough that customers will let go of the switching cost effort?

On top of all these, there are some pricing levers one has to look at. 

  1. Pain: Are you building a painkiller or vitamins? Most of us pay for painkillers.
  2. Desire to progress: You cannot incentivize, evangelize, or market your product to sell someone who has no desire to progress. 
  3. Willingness to pay: Find people who can pay for your product, people with enough budget.

What will be your advice, what more can be added?