Over-promise and over-deliver

I first heard James Altucher talk about how we need to overpromise and over-deliver to continue to grow and be successful.

Since then, I tend to see this at play everywhere.

Taming pride

While preparing for his succession, after decades of having led the Mongol empire into one of the most dominant empires of that age, Genghis Khan finally gets around to spending some time educating his children on leadership and on what it takes to run an empire of that size.

Belief

I read Joel Greenblatt’s ‘The Little Book that beats the market’ a few weeks ago, and the investing thesis that he outlines is a fairly simple formula that boils down to identifying under-valued companies through simple objective metrics and staying invested in them for a pre-defined period of time.

Abundance

I’m currently reading the historical account of Genghis Khan and how he established the largest empire in the world during his time, spanning from modern-day Hungary to Monglia and from Siberia to India.

Genghis Khan wasn’t someone that set out to conquer the world. That wasn’t his…

Sabbaticals

Over the last twelve years, since I first started posting on this blog, I’ve averaged 3–4 posts a week. But, for the past few months, I’ve taken a break from the posts.

I’ve taken breaks before too, typically for a month or two at a stretch and never longer. This one has lasted…

Inertia

When I first started listening to music on Spotify, my experience prior to that was listening to music on the radio, where being forced to listen to ads every twenty or thirty minutes was a standard experience that I had been used to.

Processes

At a small business or a small startup, you don’t see a lot of processes in place. There are a few individuals and each one is trusted to get their bit done the best way they see possible.

However, as a company grows in number of people, more processes are introduced.

Discomfort

Most people find themselves defaulting to busywork like email and Slack because there is very little discomfort in that. It is very unambiguous. All we need to do is read what’s come our way and find satisfactory answers to that.

Patience

I’ve been reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation this weekend, and the one thing that stood out very strongly to me is this.

Things take time.

The plot epitomises the old saying that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’.

Inspiration

This week, my book to read has been Sarah Frier’s No Filter, which is the story of the founding of Instagram and it’s growth to a worldwide phenomenon that has changed the lifestyles of millions and the lives of hundreds of millions. Not ubiquitously for the better.