Lie: You Need to Have Formal Mentors - Deepstash
A Job Seeker's Guide

Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection

How to write an effective resume

How to network and make connections

How to prepare for a job interview

A Job Seeker's Guide

Discover 49 similar ideas in

It takes just

7 mins to read

Lie: You Need to Have Formal Mentors

Lie: You Need to Have Formal Mentors

The concept of “mentorship” has become way too formal. Asking someone to be your mentor can come across as a big commitment.

Instead of focusing on finding a formal mentor, build a Personal Board of Advisors.

The key features of a Personal Board of Advisors:

  • Group of 5-10 individuals. The members don't need to know each other or that they are on your board. Informality is a feature, not a bug.
  • Unbiased (not family).
  • Diverse experiences.
  • Willing to provide raw, candid feedback.

182

1.71K reads

MORE IDEAS ON THIS

Lie: You Have to Wait for Luck to Strike

Lie: You Have to Wait for Luck to Strike

If you want to get lucky, start increasing your luck surface area.

It’s hard to get lucky watching TV at home. It’s easy to get lucky when you’re engaging and learning—physically or digitally.

Put yourself in a position to get lucky.

180

1.24K reads

Lie: The Smartest People Always Have the Best Answers

Lie: The Smartest People Always Have the Best Answers

The most intelligent people don't have the best answers—they ask the best questions.

Asking great questions is how you uncover the truth.

The sharpest minds will listen intently and then ask the one question that drills down to the core of the issue at hand.

It's a legitimate su...

182

1.09K reads

Lie: You Have to Become an Expert at Something

Lie: You Have to Become an Expert at Something

Society celebrates experts in any given field.

But as author David Epstein finds in Range, many experts succeed because of the range of pursuits that preceded their main endeavour.

Become a polymath. Generalize first, specialize later.

170

1.21K reads

Lie: There Are Shortcuts to Achieve Success in Life

Lie: There Are Shortcuts to Achieve Success in Life

Everyone wants hacks or shortcuts, but there’s literally no such thing.

If anyone tries to sell you one, you should run away.

The only “hack” is relentless consistency. It’s not glamorous—and it's not fun—but it works.

168

1.14K reads

Lie: Very Few People Have Anything of Value to Offer

Lie: Very Few People Have Anything of Value to Offer

Life gets so much better when you realize you can learn from anyone. No one is too old, young, rich, or poor to teach you something valuable.

Everyone has formed their own map of reality. By gathering data points from the maps of those around us, we sharpen the resolution of our own.

184

1.34K reads

Lie: Money Can Buy Happiness

Lie: Money Can Buy Happiness

Money is very directly correlated with happiness up to a baseline level of needs (food, shelter, etc.).

Beyond that level, there are clear diminishing returns to the happiness derived from each incremental dollar.

In some cases, there is negative utility from an incremental dollar as ...

178

2.42K reads

Lie: You Need to Have the Perfect Idea in Order to Build Something Meaningful

Lie: You Need to Have the Perfect Idea in Order to Build Something Meaningful

There’s no shortage of great ideas, just a shortage of people willing to put in the effort to capitalize on them.

Execution requires a combination of:

  • Intensity: To execute sprints of focused energy.
  • Consistency: To execute a marathon of these sprints.

Ideas a...

196

1.62K reads

Lie: You’re “Too Late"

Lie: You’re “Too Late"

It’s really hard to be “too late” with a mega-trend.

This fallacy is driven by the fact that humans are terrible at comprehending exponential growth. We see a rapid run-up and assume we're near the peak when the reality is we have just begun the ascent.

As a rule of thumb, when facing...

170

1.02K reads

Lie: There Are Timelines to Achieve Things in Life

Lie: There Are Timelines to Achieve Things in Life

The timelines we create for ourselves are mostly just arbitrary nonsense.

We create these fake timelines:

  • I need to hit [X] title by [X] age.
  • I need to have [Y] salary by [Y] age.
  • I need to win Forbes [X] under [X] otherwise I'm a failure.

188

2.22K reads

Lie: Take All the Advice that You Can Get

Lie: Take All the Advice that You Can Get

Most advice sucks.

It's well-intentioned, but it's dangerous to use someone else's map of reality to navigate yours—even if they're experienced.

Winners learn to filter and selectively implement advice—take the signal, skip the noise.

185

1.22K reads

Lie: Most People Are Bad

Lie: Most People Are Bad

Fear generates clicks—the media knows it and they capitalize on it. So if you watch the news, you're hit by a barrage of pain, suffering, and fear.

The message is to avoid your neighbour—to fear thy neighbour.

Always remember: There are a few bad people out there, but most people are ...

175

1.12K reads

Lie: You Should Say No to Most Opportunities

Lie: You Should Say No to Most Opportunities

It's in vogue to say that you should learn to say no in order to protect your time.

In reality, it depends.

As a general rule of thumb:

Early on, say yes—it puts you into growth-conducive situations. Saying yes allows you to expand your luck surface area.

Once you're estab...

176

1.5K reads

Lie: The world is run by remarkable people

Lie: The world is run by remarkable people

An empowering realization: Most of the people you admire are unremarkable.

Their success is not due to some intrinsic difference.

They simply built leverage to scale efficiently and had a powerful combination of effort, focus, long-term consistency, and luck.

177

1.22K reads

Lie: You Can Learn Everything You Need to Know by Reading Books

Lie: You Can Learn Everything You Need to Know by Reading Books

You can read every business and self-help book in the world, but ultimately the only way to learn is by screwing it up.

Reading and studying are nothing without battle-testing.

Don’t fear failure—just learn to fail smart & fast.

179

1.22K reads

Lie: Big Changes Will Just Happen on Their Own

Lie: Big Changes Will Just Happen on Their Own

Nothing just happens—that’s for the movies, not real life. You have to kick down the door and blast through to the other side.

Big decisions are better made fast than slow. Slow typically leads to overthinking and paralysis that keeps people from making the leap. Fast allow...

188

1.27K reads

Lie: Your GPA and Test Scores Will Define Your Future

Lie: Your GPA and Test Scores Will Define Your Future

Once you're past your first job, no one will ask about that stuff—if they do, you shouldn't take that job.

To be successful, you either need to learn how to build or you need to learn how to sell. People who know how to build AND sell are unbeatable. 

If you aren't technically gifted,...

180

1.11K reads

Lie: You Have to Be Interesting to Get Ahead in Life

Lie: You Have to Be Interesting to Get Ahead in Life

Interesting people sound impressive, but the reality is that being INTERESTED is more important than being INTERESTING.

Interested people ask questions, listen, and observe. They are prone to diving deep to understand the world around them.

They win by compounding knowledge efficientl...

179

1.19K reads

Lie: Money Is the Only Type of Wealth

Lie: Money Is the Only Type of Wealth

In reality, there are 5 types of wealth:

  • Financial (money)
  • Social (relationships)
  • Physical (health)
  • Mental (health, knowledge, faith)
  • Time (freedom)

The blind pursuit of financial wealth can rob you of the others. Never let t...

249

3.47K reads

Lie: You Don’t Have to Work Hard

Lie: You Don’t Have to Work Hard

It's very in vogue to say hard work is overrated—but it’s not quite true.

What you work on is more important than how hard you work, but if you're striving for great things, you have to work hard.

  • You can get to the top-10% by either working hard OR smart.
  • You can only re...

200

2.05K reads

Lie: Your Friends Will Always Be There for You

Lie: Your Friends Will Always Be There for You

Most of your friends aren’t really your friends.

They’re just along for the ride when it’s fun, convenient, or valuable—they'll disappear when it's not.

Your real friends are there when it is none of those things. They are there when you have nothing to offer in return.

Cherish ...

182

1.33K reads

Lie: The World Is a Zero-Sum Game

Lie: The World Is a Zero-Sum Game

If it bothers you to see other people succeed, you’re definitely not gonna make it.

Distance yourself from anyone who spends time bringing others down.

Celebrate everyone’s wins and you’ll start winning more. A rising tide lifts all boats.

184

1.32K reads

Lie: Free Time Is Bad

Lie: Free Time Is Bad

Hustle culture told you that free time is lost productivity.

The reality: free time is a "call option" on future interesting opportunities.

When you have free time, you have the headspace and bandwidth to pursue new ideas. Free time creates alpha.

Learning when to say no creates...

175

1.48K reads

CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

margarerichard

Administrator in education

This covers... everything.

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving & library

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Personalized recommendations

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates