40 Things I have Learned in 40 Years
Halfway into my lifetime, I thought I’d document the things I have learnt so far as a reflection. (This is purely opinion and personal perspective)
Love and passion have nothing to do with one’s own liking. It is purely endurance through time, especially the suffering rather than enjoyment. 爱是恒久的忍耐。
The more you analyse the less action you will take.
Your child owes nothing to you, but you owe everything to your child.
Parenting is all about leadership and coaching. You do what you need to do and then get the hell out of the way.
Be obsessed in a topic with disinterest and you will likely succeed anyway.
By focusing on possibilities rather than opportunities, we can help shape the world in more meaningful ways.
There are certain things that can be cultivated, and some that can’t. Focus on those that can be.
Fate brings people together in different ways and for different purposes. Don’t be too caught up by the definitions of families and friends, or strangers and others.
One can achieve a lot more by setting a direction instead of a destination.
Meaningful progress can only be cultivated through extended periods of time. What comes by quickly are more prone to vanish quickly too.
There is a distinction between addressing a problem vs addressing a market demand.
The act of continual striving for excellence, despite where you are at at any moment, is the key to the creation of amazing things and miracles.
Every success is unique in its own way, but most failures look identical.
Very often, people disguise their innate urge to force their beliefs onto another person by justifying that it is “out of love” or “I care about you”.
We do not know enough about anyone to make any judgement on their actions, at all.
First rule of entrepreneurship: There is no rule. This applies to life as well.
You can only join the dots looking backwards but you can never create the future using pure logic and analysis.
When we were born, we didn’t know why we were brought to the world. And we won’t know how or why we are going to die neither. They only thing we can take charge, is to live.
What we think is a problem might not be so for another person, even if it’s so obvious to you.
Even if you end up carrying out the same actions, it makes a big difference to the outcome by initiating your thoughts with “I want to be …” instead of “I want to have …”
Asking thought provocative questions is more effective than straight out telling people what to do.
Having substance is the most sustainable competitive advantage. And substance can only be developed through time.
If you think that something is a problem, you can fix it yourself immediately. We don’t need other people to agree with us to take any action.
The ingredients to make a plan work will only be unfold after you start executing the plan. Hence, an idea or a plan is merely an excuse for us to get out of our chair and start doing something.
Money is a tool, a rather efficient tool, and that’s about it. When you can’t access a hammer at the time, you would just pick up anything that might also do the job, even if it’s less efficient.
For certain things, incremental change will get you there. For other things, transformational change is required. We cannot rely on a single formula for all things in life.
Coffee makes me feel more focused, even though it is not the healthiest beverage in the world. Life is kind of like that, we don’t need to be “right” all the time. It’s ok to forgive ourselves on certain things, maybe that’s exactly what you need at that time.
History is being written every second, well millisecond or even yoctosecond. Every moment we are living in a new cumulation of the past. That’s what makes life so interesting for everyone.
Whether we like it or not, we are all destined to fulfil a certain function in our lifetime. Chances are, it might not be what you desired or expected, but that’s what you are here for.
Life is actually very fair. Just that we do not have the full context to apprehend exactly why things happen the way they are at that moment. What we can see in our lifetime is only a very small part of the entirety.
Happiness and sadness come as a bundle. We need the opposing emotions to truly understand how it feels to be happy or sad. It is only with emptiness that one can get inner peace.
There is a distinction between “to win the game” and “to play the game”. If you go in with the latter, you have already won.
When we don’t feel right about certain things in our lives, we can change it. But nothing would happen if we just sat there, we must react to it and take action.
When you turn a hobby into a job, sooner or later you will start hating it. But if you turn your job into a hobby, you will endure it a lot more.
You can never find the things that you want. You will have to attract them.
A framework and your own set of principles are all you need to succeed in anything. When you try to look for the perfect plan, it paralyses you.
If everyone agrees that something is a good idea, there’s very little room for further value creation. Innovation mostly happens with a ridiculously bad-sounding-thought initially.
Being efficient in small daily chores will create a lot more capacity for you to think through and make decisions for more important things in life. Start by doing the small things really well.
One of the best things a person can do for another person is to tell them the brutal truth. Once you start appreciating more about rejections and people telling you that you are wrong, you will see transformational changes in your life.
Doing things that no one wants to do, for the benefits of others, without an expectation of reward, is probably the closest definition of what result in happiness in life. 我不入地狱，谁入地狱。
