A useful exercise with any problem or idea is to visualize what you want to see happen for yourself over the next two years. The goal isn’t to solve anything. If you take an idea and just hold it in your head, you unconsciously start to do things that advance you toward that goal. The practice is what helps you to manufacture your own opportunities. In essence it builds confidence. Furthermore, this confidence helps you seize opportunities or create your own so that you can achieve what you desire.

Visualizing Our Goals

A limit automatically forces you to be creative, because now you have to come up with a way to get around it.Limits can be financial, biological, social, or even made up. When Steven Spielberg shot Jaws, he wanted to get an animatronic shark, but it was too expensive at the time. To get around this limit, he decided to film from the shark’s point of view, making the movie scarier than it could ever have been with some mechanic model. Ultimately, this is what made the movie a big hit and sparked a whole new point-of-view genre in horror movies.

Limits Make You More Creative

Ideas rarely enter the world fully formed and ready to go. That’s why he always remains open to changes, even after the idea has been released.For example, most of Twitter’s main features were user suggestions. People initially copied tweets they liked to share them, so Twitter introduced the “retweet.” When one user wanted to bundle together all tweets about the South by Southwest Festival, he added #sxsw to his tweets, and voilà, the hashtag was born.

Get The Raw Idea Out

Frustration is a great source of motivation. You can’t stop at building a solution. You have to use it too. If you’re not the most ecstatic advocate and power user of your own product, you’ll never be able to build it to a point where enough people use it so it’s profitable.

Solve Your Own Problem

this is the core of entrepreneurship – being the person who makes something happen for yourself.

The true promise of a connected society is enabling our dormant potential for empathy.

When you hand good people possibility, they do great things.

Your goals should be bigger than your ego

If you make the opportunity. you'll be the first in the position to take advantage of it

Creative lessons from the co-founder of Twitter.

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, discusses the power of creativity and how to harness it, through stories from his remarkable life and career. THINGS A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME From GQ's "Nerd of the Year" to one of Time's most influential people in the world, Biz Stone represents different things to different people. But he is known to all as the creative, effervescent, funny, charmingly positive and remarkably savvy co-founder of Twitter-the social media platform that singlehandedly changed the way the world works. Now, Biz tells fascinating, pivotal, and personal stories from his early life and his careers at Google and Twitter, sharing his knowledge about the nature and importance of ingenuity today. In Biz's world: -Opportunity can be manufactured -Great work comes from abandoning a linear way of thinking -Creativity never runs out -Asking questions is free -Empathy is core to personal and global success In this book, Biz also addresses failure, the value of vulnerability, ambition, and corporate culture. Whether seeking behind-the-scenes stories, advice, or wisdom and principles from one of the most successful businessmen of the new century, THINGS A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME will satisfy every reader.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

creativity

Creativity

startup

Startups

books

Books

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, discusses the power of creativity and how to harness it, through stories from his remarkable life and career. Things a Little Bird Told Me From GQ's "Nerd of the Year" to one of Time's most influential people in the world, Biz Stone represents different things to different people. But he is known to all as the creative, effervescent, funny, charmingly positive and remarkably savvy co-founder of Twitter-the social media platform that singlehandedly changed the way the world works. Now, Biz tells fascinating, pivotal, and personal stories from his early life and his careers at Google and Twitter, sharing his knowledge about the nature and importance of ingenuity today. In Biz's world: Opportunity can be manufactured Great work comes from abandoning a linear way of thinking Creativity never runs out Asking questions is free Empathy is core to personal and global success In this book, Biz also addresses failure, the value of vulnerability, ambition, and corporate culture. Whether seeking behind-the-scenes stories, advice, or wisdom and principles from one of the most successful businessmen of the new century, Things a Little Bird Told Me will satisfy every reader.

Biz Stone

Things a Little Bird Told Me

Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind

Did you know that many of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs have mentors? They understand that success is not a one-person show and that mentors can help keep their businesses innovative and relevant.
According to Richard Branson, a large reason entrepreneurs don’t get mentors is because they feel it is a sign of weakness, but this is a big misconception. Entrepreneurs with mentors show that they are willing to learn, open to different perspectives and adaptable to change.

The Billionaires And Their Mentors

A small amount of time invested on your part to share your expertise can open up a new world for someone else.

Zuckerberg talked about his inspiring mentor Steve Jobs. “He was amazing,” said Zuckerberg. “I had a lot of questions for him.” He described how Jobs gave him advice about how he could build a team that was as focused as Zuckerberg on building “high quality and good things”. They also both believed that their life paths were meant for more than just building businesses. They wanted to change the lives of people. Zuckerberg wrote in a final farewell Facebook post to Jobs: “Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world.”

Steve Jobs: The Mentor Of Mark Zuckerberg

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

Bill Gates credited Warren Buffet for teaching him how to deal with tough situations and how to think long-term. Gates also greatly admires Buffet’s “desire to teach things that are complex and put them in a simple form, so that people can understand and get the benefit of all his experience.” Buffet is empowered by Gates too. “What I really most admire about Bill is the view he has about what he should do with the wealth he’s accumulated…he knows he’s a beneficiary of a terrific society.”

Warren Buffet: Mentor Of Bill Gates

If you ask any successful businessperson, they will always (say they) have had a great mentor at some point along the road.

Richard Branson understands the importance of mentorship. Branson asked British airline entrepreneur, Sir Freddie Laker, for guidance during his struggle to get Virgin Atlantic off the ground.Branson believes the first step to finding a great mentor is <a href="http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/the-importance-of-having-a-mentor-in-business">admitting you can benefit from a mentor</a>: “Understandably there’s a lot of ego, nervous energy and parental pride involved, especially with one- or two-person start-ups…Going it alone is an admirable, but foolhardy and highly flawed approach to taking on the world.”

Sir Freddy Laker: Mentor Of Richard Branson

If you have an experienced mentor it can be life changing and extremely valuable to your personal development and your business. 
Whether your relationship is just for one year, or ongoing throughout your business journey, mentorship can empower you and drastically increase the chance of your business succeeding.

The Bottom Line

Ever thought of getting a mentor? Read about 3 famous billionaire entrepreneurs and mentors who helped them achieve their goals..

career

Career

Three Famous Billionaire Entrepreneurs and their Mentors - Small Business BC

No deal is better than a bad deal

For good negotiators, "No" is pure gold.Why?That negative provides a great opportunity for you and the other party to clarify what you really want by eliminating what you don't want.Remember:"No" is a safe choice that maintains the status quo; it provides a temporary oasis of control.

Beware "yes", master "no"

We've been conditioned to fear the word "No". But is a statement of perception far more often than of fact. "No" is often a decision, frequently temporary, to maintain the status quo.Remember:Change is scary, and "No" provides a little protection from that scariness.

All starts with "No"

When you preserve a person's autonomy by clearly giving them permission to say "No" to your ideas, the emotions calm, the effectiveness of the decisions go up, and the other party can really look at your proposal.Remember:Great negotiators seek "No" because they know that's often when the real negotiation begins.

Let them say "No"

When someone tells you "No", rethink the word in one of its alternative meanings:<ul><li>I am not yet ready to agree</li><li>You are making me feel uncomfortable</li><li>I do not understand</li><li>I don't think I can afford that</li><li>I want something else</li><li>I need more information</li><li>I want to talk it over with someone else</li></ul>Then, after pausing, ask solution-based questions or label their effect:<ul><li>"What about this doesn't work for you?"</li></ul>Remember:People have a need to say "No." So don't just hope to hear it at some point; get them to say it early.

Train yourself to hear "No"

<ul><li> Counterfeit: When the counterpart wants to say "no" but feels that "yes" is an easier exit route or just wants you to keep talking to get information. </li><li>Confirmation: It is usually innocent; sometimes it is used to set a trap but almost always it is a simple statement without promise. </li><li>Commitment: It is the one that matters, it is the real agreement that leads to action. This is the one you should be looking for. </li></ul>Remember:An early "Yes" is often just a cheap, counterfeit dodge.

3 types of "Yes"

Saying "No" often spurs people to action because they feel they've protected themselves and now see an opportunity slipping away.Remember:"No" is not a failure. Used strategically it's an answer that opens the path forward.

"No" is protection

<ul><li>"No" allows real problems to come to light</li><li>"No" protects people from making bad decisions</li><li>"No" slows things down so people can think through their decisions</li><li>"No" helps people feel safe, secure, emotionally comfortable and in control of their decisions</li><li> "No" boosts everyone's efforts</li></ul>Remember:As Dallas Mavericks said "Every 'No' gets me closer to a 'Yes'"

The skills of "No"

If despite all your efforts, the other party won't say "No", you're dealing with people who are indecisive or confused or who have a hidden agenda. In cases like that you have to end the negotiation and walk away.Think of it like this: No "No" means go

Force the "No"

A former international hostage negotiator for the FBI offers a new, field-tested approach to high-stakes negotiations—whether in the boardroom or at home. After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’s head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives. In this practical guide, he shares the nine effective principles—counterintuitive tactics and strategies—you too can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal life. Life is a series of negotiations you should be prepared for: buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

A former international hostage negotiator for the FBI offers a new, field-tested approach to high-stakes negotiations—whether in the boardroom or at home.After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’s head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives. In this practical guide, he shares the nine effective principles—counterintuitive tactics and strategies—you too can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal life.Life is a series of negotiations you should be prepared for: buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.

A 24 year veteran of the FBI, Chris Voss is one of the preeminent practitioners and professors of negotiating skills in the world. He is the founder and principal of The Black Swan Group, a consulting firm that provides training and advises Fortune 500 companies through complex negotiations. Voss has taught for many business schools, including the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, Harvard University, MIT's Sloan School of Management, and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, among others.

Chris Voss

Tahl Raz is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Tahl Raz has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Tahl Raz's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Tahl Raz

Never Split the Difference

That's sounds quite ridiculous. Tho is a matter of fact which makes a person identify his capabilities and grow not just rich but being successful in future. Elon Musk had several failures and not just several but severe failures which came up as strong barriers in his life but he stood still fighting all odds and making it to be the top rich.

Art Of Failing Successfully

His ideas, initially termed dreams by many, have turned into realities. He could be regarded as a serial entrepreneur, an entrepreneur who continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses, instead, we have coined a new term for him: ‘parallel entrepreneur’. Someone who has implemented his ideas parallely in more than one industry.

Ideas Lead The Future

But before reaching on top of one of the tallest mountains, Musk had to go through many lows, failures and problems. But he is on top of the mountain because he believed

Belief 

If something is important enough you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure.

Failure, as much as it hurts, is an important part of life. In fact, failure is necessary.I have failed more times than I’d like to admit. And I’m not talking about small failures; I’m talking about the kind of failures that rock your world, completely altering the landscape of your relationships, finances, and mental-wellbeing.And, if you’re anything like me, then you’ve also most likely failed many times over. I can’t say that I particularly enjoy failing, but failure, through its life-altering lessons, makes us into better persons.

In fact, failure is life’s great teacher; it’s nature’s chisel that chips away at all the excess, stripping down egos as it molds and shapes us through divine intentions.Without failure, we’d be less capable of compassion, empathy, kindness, and great achievement; we would be less likely to reach for the moon and the stars.It’s through failure that we learn the greatest lessons that life could teach us.

Failure Is Life's Great Teacher  !!! 

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

The art of failing successfully is a special phrase which can add up huge value to life. Most importantly we should never look upto failures as failures in fact it should be more of a special case study to you

We all know Elon Musk as the brainiac, who also happens to be worth almost $12 billion. But, before being a billionaire, his only assets were his brain and a vision to change the world and humanity.Hi... 

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Elon Musk and the art of failing successfully

We live in the now culture: We expect our online order to be delivered within a day. We know within minutes what events are taking place. We expect instant answers to our questions. When it comes to success, people assume that they can reach it the same way, then get unhappy if it doesn't. However, success is not meant to be instant.

Success takes time

Success that happens faster than your personal and professional growth won't be sustainable because you won't be in the position to deal with that success. Look at lottery winners. Studies show that 70% of them end up broke within seven years because they could not handle billions of dollars. For success to be sustainable, you need to become the person who can handle success—for example, rubbing shoulders with other successful people, public speaking, leadership skills, overcoming your fears.

The cost of overnight success

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Personal and professional growth is as important as the ability to build a business. You should always grow as an individual otherwise your business will stagnate or regress. Find a coach or mentor to help set some goals for personal and professional growth. Consider the following areas:<ul><li>Interpersonal skills: Basic communication, dealing with conflict, or negotiation skills.</li><li>Leadership training: Decision-making, learning how to mentor and teach others, delegation skills, public speaking, risk-assessment.</li><li>Strengthening mindset: Releasing beliefs that hold you back.</li><li>Life balance.</li></ul>

Becoming the person you need to be

How to become the person you need to be and see sustainable business growth. 

Be Grateful Your Business Isn't an Overnight Success

How to manage your time fixing up your work and doing your job efficiently and in a effective way. There are tips to manage your tone and workload and how to perform your tasks attentively and be consistent.

How To Manage Work Load

Have a list of all your jobs and odd jobs and other workshops webinars or other micelleneous activities for the day and maintain your list according to you preferred alloted time frame and stricly adhere to that.

Have A List Of All Your Work For The Specific Day(1/10) 

Always identify the most important task of the day Or the most hard job to start off Or as per your convineance and maintain your worload accordingly. The most you focus on your

Identify The Important Once (2/10) 

Maintain specific time limits for your work. If you love to do something you cannot transfer your whole time channel to that work and be unproductive for the whole day. Divide your work and work for each section as designated

Have Special Sections For Each Of Your Job(3)/10) 

Refresh your list midday to consider your laggings and proceedings. This will help you to analyze your work position or structure and your progress. Always highlight what's important in that day and which work is necessary for you to do.

Refresh Your List And Highlight Whats Urgent(4/10) 

List down 25 goals and then select your top 5 and cut out the rest. Thus will help you choose the direction to work .

Specific Goals And Cut Out "Good Enough " By Buffet Theory(5/10)

Having distractions throughout your day is normal, whether you have shifted focus to another task or are responding to a coworker. You might also need breaks during the day to relax and refocus. When you accept that distractions will happen, you might have an easier time including them in your schedule. You can even schedule your breaks, such as a 10-minute coffee break mid-morning and a 15-minute walk late afternoon.

Account For Distractions!! (6/10) 

Be realistic. You probably can’t get to everything on your list. After you prioritize your tasks and look at your estimates, cut the remaining tasks from your list, and focus on the priorities that you know you must and can complete for the day. While cutting your prioritization list down, focus on the main things that will bring you feelings of accomplishment for the day. Then take a deep breath, dive in, and be ready for anything.

The Rest Theory For Managing Workload(7/10) 

It may be tempting to multitask to accomplish more, but it is often better to focus on one task at a time. This strategy can ensure your full attention is on that assignment so you can efficiently complete it before moving on to the next item on your list. You could have a higher chance of turning in quality work when you are not distracted by other tasks.

Multitasking At Your Convenience (8/10) 

One of the steps in the five-step “Get Things Done” (GTD) methodology from productivity consultant David Allen involves critical reflection. Frequently reviewing your task list and priorities is key in “regaining control and focus”, Allen argues.

Consistent Reviews (9/10) 

Always have a plan and an overview of all your tasks for the dayRemember, the purpose of prioritization is to spend time working on the important tasks, those things that will make a difference in the long run and move you in the right direction. When prioritization is handled well, you’ll feel less reactive and more focused and intentional. The aim is to complete work that signifies true progress, and let all the rest—all the “busyness”—fall to the wayside.

Planning Is The Key (10/10) 

It's important on how you take up your daily tasks as to how you build your day and turn it into a productive one

How to prioritize your work? 

To establish and run a successful business, start out by building the following skills:<ul><li>Be proactive: This refers to your ability to “make things happen.” Proactive founders are highly engaged in the “big picture” of the company and have the ability to turn their dreams into reality.</li><li>Be agile: Agility is your ability to adopt a flexible mindset. Especially in times of uncertainty or crises, an agile mindset is critical to decision-making because it helps you adapt yourself quickly to a changing situation.</li></ul>

Starting a venture

A company can continue to grow as long as the leaders are open to learning on the job, acquiring information as your company, the industry, or the world evolves, and adapting to new and challenging situations every day. It’s this mindset that helps companies evolve, expand, and reach newer markets and audiences. When you assume that you know everything there is to know about your business, you’ll end up building a culture that’s resistant to change and slower to grow.

An active approach towards learning

This refers to your ability to acknowledge mistakes when they occur and use them as valuable lessons about yourself and your business. Doing so will help you see the gaps in your business, lean on people with more knowledge or experience, and course-correct as you move forward. Moreover, it will free you from being over-critical or fixating on things that may hold you back.

An active approach towards making mistakes

Steve Blank proposed a theoretical model for a startup team that includes founding members with the following core skills: visionary, hacker/hardware, hustler, designer.<ul><li>The visionary is “the person with the dream,” the one who has the inspiration and charisma to draw others to the idea. </li><li>The hacker is the “expert” who makes the product or service. </li><li>The hustler is usually someone who can manage everything from operations to sales.</li><li>The designer is usually the UI/UX specialist, someone who can bridge the gap between the client, the consumer or audience, and the technology.</li></ul>

Building a strong team

Don’t look at leadership as just a competency. Rather, it’s a relationship that you build with those who work with you and for you. You cannot impose this relationship but have to earn it over time — through daily acts of checking in with your team, communicating your vision, and caring for your employees.You may be great at setting goals but are you in touch with your employee’s realities? Ask yourself: Do my employees feel reassured in the company’s vision? Am I communicating with clarity? Are there concerns that I may be overseeing? How do I build trust among different teams?

Becoming a great leader

Ask an Expert: What Skills Do I Need to Run a Startup?

A key to understanding how well you know a subject is how easily you’re able to explain it to others. As I shared last year in “<a href="https://www.mickmel.com/explain-it-to-me-like-im-five/">Explain it to me like I’m five</a>“, being able to distill a complex subject down is a great skill to develop.

If you can’t describe it, you don’t know it well enough

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.”

<ol><li>It helps you to better understand what you’re actually doing. Taking the time to write out a process is often very beneficial for the one doing it.</li><li>Long-term, it makes it easier for others to help with your work. At the time of this writing, our project manager at GreenMellen is out on maternity leave, but the processes that we have in place for her work allow us to continue on relatively seamlessly (though we’re very excited to have her back soon!).</li></ol>

The two benefits of a solid process

Having a solid understanding of what you do, including analogies and processes, will help make your work easier for others to understand, and the output of it more valuable for others to consume.

A key to understanding how well you know a subject is how easily you're able to explain it to others. As I shared last year in "Explain it to me like I'm five", being able to distill a complex subject down is a great skill to develop. In the case…

problemsolving

Problem Solving

communication

Communication

If you can't describe it, you don't know it well enough

Almost everything that’s in your house, in your workplace, and on the street used to be technology at one point in time. There was a time when oil was a technology, that made J.D. Rockefeller rich. There was a time when cars were technology, that made Henry Ford rich.You want to figure out which one of those things you can provide for society, that it does not yet know how to get, but it will want, that’s natural to you, and within your skillset, within your capabilities.And then you have to figure out how to scale it. So, everybody can have one.

Give Society what it doesn't know how to get

The internet connects everybody. That is its superpower. So, you want to use that. You can find your audience for your product, or your talent, and skill no matter how far away they are.It allows you to scale any niche obsession. It could be like people who collect snakes, to like people who like to ride hot air balloons, to people who like to sail around the world by themselves, just one person on a craft.You can go out on the internet, and you can find your audience. And build a business, , and build wealth, and make people happy just uniquely through the internet.

The Internet Has Massively Broadened Career Possibilities

When you’re competing with people it’s because you’re copying them. It’s because you’re trying to do the same thing. But every human is different. Don’t copy.No one can compete with you on being you. It’s that simple. And so the more authentic you are to who you are, and what you love to do, the less competition you’re gonna have. And normally that would have been useless advice pre-internet. Post-internet you can turn that into a career.

Escape competition through authenticity

All returns in life come from compound interest in long-term games. Whether it’s goodwill, or love, or relationships, or money.If you want to be successful, you have to work with other people. And you have to figure out who can you trust, and who can you trust over a long, long period of time, that you can just keep playing the game with them, so that compound interest, and high trust will make it easier to play the game, and will let you collect the major rewards, which are usually at the end of the cycle.

Play Long-Term Games With Long-Term People

When you switch industries, you’re starting over from scratch.Every time you reset, every time you wander out of where you built your network, you’re going to be starting from scratch. You’re not going to know who to trust. They’re not going to know to trust you.When you have been doing business with somebody, you’ve been friends with somebody for ten years, twenty years, thirty years, it just gets better and better because you trust them so easily.Get some traction. Get purchase, and don’t lose it. Gain some initial traction, and never fall back, just keep ratcheting up, and up.

Returns come from compound interest in iterated games

The three-part checklist that you cannot compromise on. You need someone high-energy because the world is full of smart, lazy people.It’s not meant to say someone is smart, someone else is stupid. But it’s more that everyone is smart at different things.And then energy, a lot of times people are unmotivated for a specific thing, but they’re motivated for other things.Then high integrity is the most important because otherwise if you’ve got the other two, what you have is you have a smart and hard working crook, who’s eventually going to cheat you.

Pick Partners With Intelligence, Energy and Integrity

Self-esteem is the reputation that you have with yourself

Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists; their beliefs are self-fulfilling.To create things, you have to be a rational optimist. Rational in the sense that you have to see the world for what it really is. And yet you have to be optimistic about your own capabilities, and your capability to get things done.We’re genetically hardwired to be pessimists. Adapting for modern society means overriding your pessimism, and taking slightly irrationally optimistic bets because the upside is unlimited. If you start the next SpaceX, or Tesla, or Uber, you can make billions of dollars of value for society

Partner With Rational Optimists

Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion. It’s not by going to school for whatever is the hottest job, it’s not for going into whatever field investors say is the hottest.Specific knowledge is found by observation. You almost have to look back on your own life and see what you’re actually good at.Your specific knowledge is observed and often observed by other people who know you well and revealed in situations rather than something that you come up with.

Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge

It’s on the bleeding edge of technology, on the bleeding edge of art, on the bleeding edge of communication.Specific knowledge is highly specific to the situation, it’s specific to the individual, it’s specific to the problem, and it can only be built as part of a larger obsession, interest, and time spent in that domain.

Specific Knowledge Is Highly Creative or Technical

The best way to arm with specific knowledge is just to follow your own obsession.It’s important that one not start assembling things too deliberately because you do want to pick things where you are a natural. Everyone is a natural at something.And then there are probably multiple things you’re natural at because personalities and humans are very complex. So, we want to be able to take the things that you are natural at and combine them so that you automatically, just through sheer interest and enjoyment, end up top 25% or top 10% or top 5% at a number of things.

You can’t be too deliberate about assembling specific knowledge

Compilation of ideas from Naval Ravikant's tweetstorm on wealth creation in the modern era

How To Get Rich Naval - Every Episode

Play long term games, partner with intelligent people and arm yourself with specific knowledge

The Kelly criterion is a popularized mathematical formulation of a simple concept: Don’t risk everything. Stay out of jail. Don’t bet everything on one big gamble. Be careful how much you bet each time, so you don’t lose the whole kitty.The number one way people get ruined in modern business is not by betting too much; it’s by cutting corners and doing unethical or downright illegal things. Ending up in an orange jumpsuit in prison or having a reputation ruined is the same as getting wiped to zero—so never do those things

Kelly Criterion: Avoid Ruin

It is a game theory by Thomas Schelling. It’s about multiplayer games where people respond based on what they think the other person’s response will be. How do you get people who cannot communicate with each other to coordinate?Seems impossible, but you can use social norms to converge on a Schelling point. Suppose two companies are competing heavily and hold an oligopoly. Let’s say the price fluctuates between $8 and $12 for whatever the service is. Don’t be surprised if they converge on $10 without ever talking to each other.

Schelling Point: Cooperating Without Communicating

Negotiations are won by whoever cares less. Negotiation is about not wanting it too badly. If you want something too badly, the other person can extract more value from you.If someone is taking advantage of you in a negotiation, your best option is to turn it from a short-term game into a long-term game. Try to make it a repeated game. Try to bring reputation into the negotiation. Try to include other people who may want to play games with this person in the future.

Turn Short-Term Games Into Long-Term Games

Once you’ve been in a good relationship with somebody for a while whether it’s business or romantic life gets a lot easier because you know that person’s got your back. The most under-recognized reason startups fail is because the founders fall apart.A startup is so difficult to pull off, so removing potential friction points between founders can be the difference between success and failure. Also, It’s better to have a few deep compounding relationships than many shallow, non-compounding relationships.

Compounding Relationships Make Life Easier

Price discrimination means you can charge people based on their propensity to pay.You can’t charge people different amounts just because you don’t like them. You have to offer them something extra. Something rich people care about.It works because rich people are willing to pay more. You just have to give them the extra little things they need to signal they’re rich or that little bit of comfort they want.A lot of enterprise software companies use price discrimination, especially with freemium products.

Price Discrimination: Charge Some People More

Consumer surplus is the excess value you get from something when you pay less than you were willing to pay.I’ve made some money and get a lot of joy from my Starbucks coffee. So if my coffee cost $20, I would pay it.But Starbucks can’t price the coffee at $20 just for me, because they’re selling the exact same product to others. So I’m getting a lot of consumer surplus out of the coffee.All businesses generate consumer surplus. Amazon might be a trillion-dollar company, but I’ll bet they’re generating trillions in consumer surplus through people’s willingness to pay for convenience.

Consumer Surplus: Getting More Than You Paid For

You’re joining a startup and getting stock options, and the founder says, “This company is going to be worth $1 billion, and I’m giving you 0.1% of the company; therefore, you’re getting $1 million worth of stock.”The founder is negotiating based on what it’s going to be worth in the future. You have to figure out what it’s worth today by applying a discount rate, or an interest rate, that accounts for the massive risk startups face. You’ll end up with the amount the company is actually worth today. That’s the price at which a venture capitalist would invest in the company.

Net Present Value: What Future Income Is Worth Today

An externality is where there’s an additional cost imposed by whatever product is being produced or consumed, that’s not accounted for in the price of the product. The environment is finite and precious, so we have to price the product properly and fold that back into the cost of products.If people are wasting water, or polluting in other ways, society should charge them what it costs to clean up the pollution and return the environment to a pristine state. But if you raise the price high enough, you’ll knock out pollution. That’s much better than feel-good measures like banning plastic bags.

Externalities: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Products

Kelly Criterion, Compounding Relationships and Calculating Hidden Costs of Products

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