Through the ages, people have relied on the philosophy of Stoicism to conquer their difficulties. In addition to ancient Greeks and Romans, proponents included Frederick the Great, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Adam Smith and Theodore Roosevelt. Every year, former US president Bill Clinton studies the writing of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, a well-known Stoic philosopher. Stoicism – an operating manual for life – is a pragmatic philosophy that helps people overcome their difficulties.

Stoicism: Overcoming Obstacles

<ul><li>Stoicism rests on three primary disciplines: “perception, action and the will.”</li><li>Perception is the way you see the world. Viewing it realistically or with a bias can help or hinder you.</li><li>The right action is always directed, deliberate, bold and persistent.</li><li>The world can break your body, but thanks to willpower, it can never break your spirit and mind. You control your will.</li><li>Obstacles that stand in the way of progress can actually promote progress.</li><li>People improve by facing and meeting challenges head-on.</li><li>The obstacles you overcome provide benefits you could not otherwise realize.</li></ul>

The Key Takeaways

An ancient Zen parable features an almost identical line of thinking, stating: The obstacle in the path becomes the path…Within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.

Parallels With Zen Philosophy

Nothing we’ll experience is likely without potential benefit.

Stoicism and Marcus Aurelius’s wisdom motivated men and women throughout history, helping to spark the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the US civil rights movement and Silicon Valley’s amazing high-technology advances.Stoicism addresses real-life issues that confront everyone: “Are you worthy?” “Can you get past the things that inevitably fall in your way?” “Will you stand up and show…what you’re made of?”

The Wisdom Of Aurelius

Obstacles can provide benefits. First, you must move beyond typical responses to trouble, including “fear, frustration, confusion, helplessness, depression” and “anger.” Marcus Aurelius’s courage and self-knowledge enabled him to transform trouble and tragedy into triumph. Achieve similar results by adopting the vital Stoic lesson: “The obstacle is the way.”Marcus defined the methods to overcome obstacles: “Objective judgment, now at this very moment. Unselfish action, now at this very moment. Willing acceptance – now at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.”

Move Towards The Obstacle

<ul><li>How you see the world provides meaning to the events of your life. Don’t assign “good or bad” labels to events.</li><li> Put aside your fears and prejudices. See things for what they are. See the truth, not a biased interpretation of it.</li><li>How you think about and react to obstacles while maintaining your composure defines you.</li></ul>

The Discipline of Perception

Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.

The American industrialist John D. Rockefeller once worked for just 50 cents a day as a bookkeeper in Cleveland, Ohio. As an investor, he rode out major national financial crises in 1857, 1873, 1907 and 1920. Where others saw catastrophe and chaos, the objective, unemotional Rockefeller saw valuable lessons and opportunities. So much so, that by 1877, his perception and his nerve helped him corner “90% of the oil market.”

Story: Altering Your Perspective

During the 1960s, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a leading middleweight title contender. Carter was unjustly convicted in a triple-homicide case. In jail, he never ceded power to the warden or guards. He maintained his independence and his identity. Carter – and not the authorities – held control over his mind and spirit. He spent his time in prison working on his legal case. After 19 years, Carter got his verdict overturned. Once released from prison, he never looked back.

Story: Recognize Your Power

During the US Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant always seemed completely nerveless. Once, a shell exploded near him, and killed a horse right next to him. Unfazed, Grant calmly surveyed the battlefield through his field glasses. He saw that his troops were removing supplies from a steamship when it exploded. Everyone ducked for cover except Grant, who ran toward the shattered steamboat to help the survivors.

Story: Steady Your Nerves

NASA trained America’s first astronauts to remain cool under pressure and to avoid panic. The agency had the astronauts practice every aspect of their space flight “hundreds of times,” until the routines became commonplace. Comprehensive training eliminated the unfamiliarity of spaceflight.

Story: Control Your Emotions

Tommy John pitched in Major League Baseball for an astonishing 26 seasons. John always asked himself: “Is there a chance?” “Do I have a shot?” “Is there something I can do?” When he was 45 years old, the Yankees cut John. Unfazed, he appeared as a walk-on at the team’s next spring training. He worked hard, made the team and pitched the season opener, a win over Minnesota.

Story: Stay Aware And Curious

Stay objective. When necessary, change the way you interpret what you see. Don’t agonize over the past or worry about the future. Focus your thoughts and actions on the present. Find the good in the bad. Stay bold.

The Discipline Of Perception: Lessons Learned

When you are deliberate, bold and persistent, you are better prepared to take “right and effective” actions. Use the “creative application” of action to dismantle obstacles.Set out to develop the “Minimum Viable Product,” as identified by Silicon Valley’s iterative MVP philosophy. Remember the engineering touchstone: “Failure is a feature.” Learn from every failure. Treat your job like the most important work in the world. Stay aware that sometimes a flank attack will work better than a head-on charge.

The Discipline Of Action

The world can knock you down and break your heart. But if you harness your willpower, no knockdown blow can deter you. Your will – not anyone else’s – puts you firmly in charge of your life and accomplishments. Proper willpower is steady, not blustery. You connect to your internal power without braggadocio; the best strength of will springs from “humility, resilience and flexibility.”Postmortems are useful; so are pre-mortems – thinking in advance about “what could go wrong.” Sometimes you must simply acquiesce when things don’t go your way.

The Discipline Of Will

Across the centuries, academics in their ivory towers tried to assume ownership of philosophies such as Stoicism and tried to guard it as part of their exclusive domain. As developed by Seneca, Zeno and others, the philosophy of Stoicism was never intended to be isolated as remote, sterile intellectualization. Those sages first promulgated Stoicism as “an operating system for the difficulties and hardships of life,” and that is how it should remain.

Stoicism: The Operating Manual

Don’t let the force of an impression… knock you off your feet; just say to it: Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test.

Media strategist Ryan Holiday explains how contemporary people can utilize some venerable Stoic principles to turn obstacles into advantages. 

We give up too easily. With a simple change of attitude, what seem like insurmountable obstacles become once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Ryan Holiday, who dropped out of college at nineteen to serve as an apprentice to bestselling 'modern Machiavelli' Robert Greene and is now a media consultant for billion-dollar brands, draws on the philosophy of the Stoics to guide you in every situation, showing that what blocks our path actually opens one that is new and better.If the competition threatens you, it's time to be fearless, to display your courage. An impossible deadline becomes a chance to show how dedicated you are. And as Ryan discovered as Director of Marketing for American Apparel, if your brand is generating controversy - it's also potentially generating publicity.The Stoic philosophy - that what is in the way, is the way - can be applied to any problem: it's a formula invented more than 2,000 years ago, whose effectiveness has been proven in battles and board rooms ever since. From Barack Obama's ability to overcome obstacles in his election races, to the design of the iPhone, the stoic philosophy has helped its users become world-beaters.

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

books

Books

#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller The Obstacle is the Way has become a cult classic, beloved by men and women around the world who apply its wisdom to become more successful at whatever they do. Its many fans include a former governor and movie star (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a hip hop icon (LL Cool J), an Irish tennis pro (James McGee), an NBC sportscaster (Michele Tafoya), and the coaches and players of winning teams like the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Cubs, and University of Texas men’s basketball team. The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”  Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck. If you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages. And along the way it will inspire you with dozens of true stories of the greats from every age and era.

Ryan Holiday is media strategist for notorious clients like Tucker Max and Dov Charney. After dropping out of college at 19 to apprentice under the strategist Robert Greene, he went on to advise many bestselling authors and multi-platinum musicians. He is the Director of Marketing at American Apparel, where his work in advertising was internationally known. His strategies are used as case studies by Twitter, YouTube, and Google, and have been written about in AdAge, the New York Times, Gawker, and Fast Company. He is the author is *Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator*, which is due out in July. He currently lives in New Orleans, with his rebellious puppy, Hanno.

Ryan Holiday

The Obstacle Is the Way

The Obstacle is the Way

<ul><li>The American dream the middle class keeps chasing is dead.</li><li>You have to make yourself the only person who controls your dreams.</li><li>Choosing yourself begins with a daily practice of good habits in 4 areas:</li></ul><ol><li>Mental health</li><li>Physical health</li><li>Emotional health</li><li>Spiritual health</li></ol>

Some Key Points From This Unusual Book

In 2008 the American dream bubble abruptly burst. The world’s biggest financial crisis lead to companies ruthlessly cutting costs – mostly in the form of people.Almost everything can now either be outsourced or done by technology, which is why thousands of college graduates now find themselves unemployed or underpaid – the end of jobs is here.But what should you do if your fancy college degree now only gets you a job at McDonalds? Is it all bad? No. Here’s what to do.

The American Dream Is Dead

Remember this: You have to make yourself the only person who controls your dreams.If financial freedom is your dream, then you have to control your income, which means creating products, freelancing, making passive income from affiliate marketing, selling books, courses, teaching seminars – do any one, or even better, all of these.Why aren’t you the only one who controls your dreams already? Because you’re afraid.<ul><li>Afraid of what our family will think if we leave our “stable job”.</li><li>Afraid of what friends might say.</li><li>Afraid of our customers rejecting us.</li></ul>

The Only Person Who Controls Your Dreams

Rejection—and the fear of rejection—is the biggest impediment we face to choosing ourselves.Avoiding rejection is a powerful motivator. But it makes us miserable.As long as you choose to live with that fear, instead of acting in spite of it, you are giving others the power to make your choices for you.

We Usually Avoid Conflict And Rejection

There’s a saying, ‘The learned man aims for more. But the wise man decreases. And then decreases again’.This is about a new phase in history where art, science, business, and spirit will join together, both externally and internally, in the pursuit of true wealth.What you need to do is build the house you will live in. You build that house by laying a solid foundation: by building physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health

A New Way Of Living

I have to count the things that are abundant in my life. Literally count them. If I don’t they will begin to disappear.

Only think about the people you enjoy. Only read the books you enjoy, that make you happy to be human. Only go to the events that actually make you laugh or fall in love. Only deal with the people who love you back, who are winners and want you to win too.The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur are the ability to fail, to have ideas, to sell those ideas, to execute on them, and to be persistent so even as you fail you learn and move onto the next adventure.

The Focus On The Joyful LIfe

Pretend everyone was sent to this planet to teach you.

The only truly safe thing you can do is to try over and over again. To go for it, to get rejected, to repeat, to strive, to wish. Without rejection there is no frontier, there is no passion, and there is no magic.Every time you say yes to something you don’t want to do, this will happen: you will resent people, you will do a bad job, you will have less energy for the things you were doing a good job on, you will make less money, and yet another small percentage of your life will be used up, burned up, a smoke signal to the future saying, “I did it again

Do What You Love To Do Even If You Get Rejected

Success comes from continually expanding your frontiers in every direction—creatively, financially, spiritually, and physically. Always ask yourself, what can I improve? Who else can I talk to? Where else can I look?Every time you say yes to something you don’t want to do, this will happen: you will resent people, you will do a bad job, you will have less energy for the things you were doing a good job on, you will make less money, and yet another small percentage of your life will be used up, burned up, a smoke signal to the future saying, “I did it again’.

Keep Digging

I don’t like the word purpose. It implies that somewhere in the future I will find something that will make me happy, and that until then, I will be unhappy

<ul><li>Rodney Dangerfield didn’t succeed in comedy until his forties.</li><li>Ray Kroc was a milkshake salesman into his fifties. Then he stumbled onto a clean restaurant that served a good hamburger run by two brothers with the last name McDonald. He bought McDonald’s when he was fifty-two.</li><li>Raymond Chandler, the most successful noir novelist of all time, wrote his first novel at age fifty-two.</li></ul>

Stories: Success Has No Age

Think of two people in your network who don’t know each other but you think can add value to each other’s lives. Introduce them. Do this every day. Get better and better at it. The more value you bring to the people in your network (even if it doesn’t directly bring value to you in an immediate way), the greater the value of your network. And then the greater value you will have

Be A Connector

<ul><li>If you have an idea, don’t focus on the money. Don’t focus on how you will make a living. Do this: Build your product. Sell it to a customer. Start shipping. Then quit your job.</li><li>Often the real reason someone buys from you is not for your product, but for you</li><li>If you want to be successful, you need to study success, not hate it or be envious of it. If you are envious, then you will distance yourself from success and make it that much harder to get there.</li><li>As yourself: What’s the lifetime value of the customer? What are the ancillary benefits of having this customer?</li></ul>

Success And Your Customers

What to do when struggling with idea topics:Search phrases on social media like: ‘I wish I had’, ‘I just paid someone to’, ‘is the worst product’, ‘is a horrible company’, ‘has a terrible website’, ‘is my favourite website’, ‘does anyone know how...' This will expand your thinking and provide you with puzzle pieces to connect.

Finding New Ideas: Mental LEGO

Honesty is the only way to make money in today’s world.

A holistic book on improving every part of your life.

The world is changing. Markets have crashed. Jobs have disappeared. Industries have been disrupted and are being remade before our eyes. Everything we aspired to for “security,” everything we thought was “safe,” no longer is: College. Employment. Retirement. Government. It's all crumbling down. In every part of society, the middlemen are being pushed out of the picture. No longer is someone coming to hire you, to invest in your company, to sign you, to pick you. It's on you to make the most important decision in your life: Choose Yourself. New tools and economic forces have emerged to make it possible for individuals to create art, make millions of dollars and change the world without “help.” More and more opportunities are rising out of the ashes of the broken system to generate real inward success (personal happiness and health) and outward success (fulfilling work and wealth). This book will teach you to do just that. With dozens of case studies, interviews and examples–including the author, investor and entrepreneur James Altucher's own heartbreaking and inspiring story–Choose Yourself illuminates your personal path to building a bright, new world out of the wreckage of the old.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

The world is changing. Markets have crashed. Jobs have disappeared. Industries have been disrupted and are being remade before our eyes. Everything we aspired to for "security," everything we thought was "safe," no longer is: College. Employment. Retirement. Government. It's all crumbling down. In every part of society, the middlemen are being pushed out of the picture. No longer is someone coming to hire you, to invest in your company, to sign you, to pick you. It's on you to make the most important decision in your life: Choose Yourself. New tools and economic forces have emerged to make it possible for individuals to create art, make millions of dollars and change the world without "help." More and more opportunities are rising out of the ashes of the broken system to generate real inward success (personal happiness and health) and outward success (fulfilling work and wealth). This book will teach you to do just that. With dozens of case studies, interviews and examples-including the author, investor and entrepreneur James Altucher's own heartbreaking and inspiring story-Choose Yourself illuminates your personal path to building a bright, new world out of the wreckage of the old.

James Altucher

Choose Yourself

Choose Yourself!

<ul><li>We struggle with habit change because we have unrealistic expectations of how things will turn out, how others should be, and how we should be.</li><li>When our expectations aren’t met, we feel disappointed, frustrated and sad.</li><li>When we turn from our Mind Movie and embrace reality, we overcome our inner resistance to habit change.</li></ul>

Key Insights

There’s a projector in our minds, and it’s constantly playing a movie about how we’d like things to be, our ideals about the world, our expectations of how things will turn out, how others should be, [and] how we should be.The Mind Movie is what stands in our way of making habit changes. It tells us that changing a habit should be easy and fun, but the reality is that we must wander outside our comfort zone.The Childish Mind is the part of our mind that complains about how things are, that fears discomfort, that just wants pleasure and comfort, that doesn’t want things to be difficult.

The Movie Inside Our Minds

<ul><li>Gratitude is a great antidote to resistance that we can practice each day, including when our Childish Mind eventually starts to rebel against doing the habit.</li><li> Take mistakes in stride, and take the long view that what really matters is not whether you mess up for a day or two, but what you do over weeks and months and years.</li></ul>

Taming The Childish Mind

<ul><li>Consider writing a short journal entry about your reflections, to solidify your learning.</li><li>Treat habit formation as a learning process, as a way to learn about yourself, your mind, mindfulness, resistance and more.</li><li>Gradually the habit becomes your new normal and you can expand a bit more, pushing your comfort zone a little at a time”.</li></ul>Question: “What does the resistance feel like? Is there a way to accept the thing you’re resisting, accept the discomfort, relax into it, and find gratitude for it? What is good about the discomfort?”

Understanding How Habits Are Formed

A key habit skill is learning to flow around the disruptions and just keep going.Notice feelings of discomfort and uncertainty, and stay with them. Get to know them. Get intimate with these feelings.When we experience groundlessness — a feeling of not being anchored, not certain, things not going our way, a feeling of loss — our minds don’t normally like it.One of the most difficult tasks we can give to our Childish Mind is letting go of what it really wants, and accepting life as it is, seeing that it’s already enough

Going With The Flow

<ul><li>A good practice is to not attach to the outcome. Have a good intention for the habit, but don’t worry too much about how it will turn out because you can’t control that”.</li><li> Tell yourself that when you slip and fall, it’s just another lesson that will teach you to be better at change.</li><li>Mistakes means you’re pushing into new ground and exploring something interesting — if you weren’t, you wouldn’t make mistakes.</li><li>See every mistake as an opportunity to learn, a thing that you can get better at, the feedback that’s so crucial for improvement.</li></ul>

Overcoming The Burden Of Making Mistakes

<ul><li>Form new, positive habits at least three times before taking on a quit”.</li><li>The first thing you need to do before you attempt to quit a habit is track it for three days and try to write down every trigger for the habit.</li><li>Each bad habit meets some kind of need, or you wouldn’t be doing the habit.</li><li>For each trigger and need, write down a positive replacement habit that will meet the same need.</li></ul>

Positive Habits Vs Bad Habits

Watch an urge gently, without judgment or wishing the feeling weren’t there. Treat it like a friend, kindly. And see that this feeling is impermanent, just arises but will pass, like a cloud. This is the whole meditation: just watch with curiosity and kindness, not attaching to the feeling or needing to act on it.Tell yourself you can do this, you’re strong, you got this. And be realistic in that things won’t go as planned, but those are learning opportunities. In the long run, you’re going to make it, because you’re worth it.

Handling The Urge

The real question isn’t whether you’ll mess up, but what you’ll do if you do mess up

<ul><li>Pick one new, easy habit you can do once a day</li><li>Don’t start right away</li><li>Create a vow</li><li>Create a space</li><li>Set a trigger & a reminder</li><li>Start with a Minimum Viable Habit</li><li>Focus on enjoying the habit</li><li>Practice mindfulness</li><li>Watch your Mind Movie</li><li>Reflect and journal</li><li>A daily practice</li><li>Increase gradually</li></ul>

How to Create a New Habit

<ul><li>Don’t attempt a quit until several successful new habit changes</li><li>Track your habit</li><li>List your triggers</li><li>List your needs</li><li>Come up with replacement habits</li><li>Use techniques you’ve learned</li><li>Gradual change vs. cold turkey</li><li>Learn to recognize urges as they arise</li><li>Form the right mindset</li><li>When you fail, get back on track and don’t let it derail you</li></ul>

How to Quit a Bad Habit

A guide to overcoming the mind's resistance to change, with a method for forming habits, increasing mindfulness, and dealing with life struggles.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

habits

Habits

Leo Babauta

Essential Zen Habits

Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. It can motivate you to perform at a high level and deliver top-quality work as it can cause you unnecessary anxiety and slow you down. So how you can harness the positives of your perfectionism while mitigating the negatives? What practices can you adopt to keep your perfectionism in check?

How to manage your perfectionism

A lot of perfectionist tendencies are rooted in fear and insecurity.

Many perfectionists worry that if they let go of their [meticulousness and conscientiousness], it will hurt their performance and standing. And so they cling to their perfectionism even when it’s counterproductive.

Psychological Causes

“Ask yourself: Am I using my time wisely? Am I being productive?” focusing on “maximizing the impact” of your work.You’re going to be “less perfect about some things, so you can concentrate on what’s important.”

1) See the big picture

Managing your perfectionism also requires you to calibrate your standards.Ask always for feedback from others on your work to see if it is good enough from their perspective and adjust your own standards.“What you’re saying doesn’t have to be the final word, it just has to contribute something useful.”

2) Adjust your standards

"The pursuit of perfection is a bit like wandering on an aimless journey, You keep walking and walking, but you’re not sure that you’re getting any closer to your destination”

Create a checklist for each task to know when it will be done independently of your satisfaction level.“You’re following a process with discrete and measurable goals,”. Once you’ve ticked off the items on your list, “you’re done.”

3) Create a checklist

Many perfectionists have <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/02/how-to-stop-obsessing-over-your-mistakes">a proclivity to ruminate</a> — repetitively mulling over a thought or problem without ever coming to a resolution. “It’s related to anxiety,”People who ruminate tend to be “less forgiving of themselves.” It’s unhealthy, and it’s unproductive.Identify your triggers. “learn to recognize when you’re ruminating,”Don't Trust your first reaction, Try hard to get perspective and give yourself time and distance before taking action.Think positive, <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/04/how-perfectionists-can-get-out-of-their-own-way">Think about the successes you’ve had</a> in the past, reminding you of meaningful outcomes you've accomplished without being 100% certain.

4) Break the cycle of rumination

Talk to someone about your tendencies, and be honest and open. Make it clear that you want to hear how you come across.  “Say, ‘I may get defensive, but I promise to think about what you say.’” And be sure to make good on that pledge.

5) Get perspective

Undertake a weekly review, in which you reflect on your progress.Try to get some psychological distance and ask yourself: “Was there anything I avoided this week due to fear of making mistakes? Were there any instances where my perfectionism was not worth it? Were there any times this week when I took action, even when I felt uncertain, and ended up moving things forward?The goal is to learn where perfectionism has a positive impact and where does not."you’re not fundamentally “changing course”; rather, you’re, “redirecting your personality.”

6) Monitor your process

<ol><li>Learn to recognize the point of diminishing returns when you’re aiming to complete a task perfectly. Sometimes just getting it done is a worthy goal.</li><li>Reflect on your progress. Identify examples of when you successfully moderated your perfectionist tendencies.</li><li>Calibrate your standards. Oftentimes what you’re writing or saying doesn’t have to be the final word, it just has to contribute something useful.</li></ol>

<ol><li>Mistake ruminating for problem-solving. When your mind is twisting and turning, seek out distractions to break the cycle.</li><li>Toil in pursuit of an amorphous goal of perfection. Create a checklist that ensures you follow a process with measurable targets.</li><li>Go it alone. Ask others — a trusted colleague, friend, or mentor — for perspective and support.</li></ol>

Don't

I've always been struggling with being less productive and less accomplished until I've discovered that I actually suffer from perfectionism. This article had helped me at that time to start thinking differently and getting things done appropriately !

Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can motivate you to perform at a high level and deliver top-quality work. On the other, it can cause you unnecessary anxiety and sometimes annoy your colleagues. How can you harness the positives of your perfectionism while mitigating the negatives? Start by recognizing the opportunity cost of your behavior. Sure, you can spend an additional five hours making that PowerPoint presentation perfect, but is that a productive use of your time? Will it make a material difference to your boss or client? Focus on maximizing the impact of your effort so you can concentrate on what’s important. Similarly, learn to calibrate your standards. Of course, as a perfectionist you’re never going to aim for merely adequate — nor should you. But the next time you find yourself nitpicking niggling details, ask a trusted colleague for feedback. You may discover that your first draft is already good enough.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to Manage Your Perfectionism

“Life is growth. You grow or you die.”

<ul><li>As Nike was a growing company, Knight made almost no profit, his business struggled, and faced bankruptcy many times.</li><li>He had an MBA from Stanford University and left a full-time career as an accountant to sell shoes.</li><li>He had to follow his passion – his calling. He felt it was important that the work he spent his life on needed to feel meaningful, purposeful, and creative.</li></ul>

Chase A Calling, Not A Career

<ul><li>In the early 1960s, the athletic shoe industry was dominated by German companies Adidas and Puma. </li><li>Knight’s “crazy idea” was that Japanese-made shoes could gain popularity in America as Japanese cars had been. He pursued his idea, and eventually found great success.</li></ul>

Pursue Your “Crazy Idea”

<ul><li>Blue Ribbon Sports (Nike), was on the verge of bankruptcy for almost two decades.</li><li>He faced challenges acquiring funding, landing orders on time, and difficulties with manufacturers throughout the early days and pushed through to find the accomplishment that Nike has today.</li></ul>

Success Does Not Come Easily

<ul><li>He openly acknowledged that starting a business was risky, and he was willing to face that risk. </li><li>He felt that failure would gain him wisdom, and wisdom is an intangible asset. </li><li>Failure is an opportunity to learn and do better next time.</li><li>He said in the past that if he had failed, he would have just tried again with more wisdom.</li></ul>

Failure Is An Opportunity

<ul><li>He started his journey with the desire to import high-quality, low-cost shoes.</li><li>Nike consistently focused on the quality of their shoes and were constantly innovating ways to improve them.</li></ul>

There Is Value In Quality

<ul><li>Traditional advertising was not favored by Knight.</li><li>He valued publicity and focused on signing popular athletes to become brand representatives for Nike.</li><li>These iconic athletes increased public awareness of Nike and the plan was a huge victory for the brand.</li></ul>

 “Advertising” Takes Many Forms

<ul><li>Nike and Adidas have a well-established brand rivalry. </li><li>Knight looked to Adidas as inspiration, but also as their main competitor.</li><li> He felt Adidas was arrogant and had a negative view of them, but that did not stop him from learning from them. </li></ul>

 Learn From Your Competition

It is no secret that Nike shoes are manufactured offshore.Though the company receives criticism for using foreign labor, he details the changes and efforts he made to improve conditions for workers in his factories.

Improve Where Improvements Can Be Made

Phil Knight gives credit to the employees that supported Nike through its growth and recognizes them enormously for helping the company to grow and succeed.

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

<ul><li>He observed that none of the great leaders micromanaged their teams.</li><li>They did not tell people how to do things, they would tell them what to do, and trust them to get it done.</li><li>This resulted in Knight hiring people with passion and ability and allowing them to solve problems on their own.</li></ul>

Trust Your Team

<ul><li>Knight acknowledges that “never give up” is an overstated piece of advice. </li><li>However, he recognizes many moments in Nike’s early years where it was exceedingly difficult to keep the company going, and it would have been easy to quit. </li><li>Pushing through those challenges has earned him the success that Nike has today.</li></ul>

Perseverance Pays Off

It is easy to feel unproductive when you view a task as a huge project. When you break that project down into small goals and success markers, it becomes a lot easier to manage, and the little amount you complete each day, adds up until the job is done.

A Massive Project Is Just Many Small Projects

<ul><li>In the early days of Blue Ribbon Sports, Knight gained success by projecting confidence and success. </li><li>He had to participate in many meetings and business deals with experienced and essential business people, and by acting successful, he eventually became successful.</li></ul>

Act Successful Until You Become Successful

<ul><li>Knight goes into great detail about how his world travels expanded his knowledge and viewpoints. </li><li>He values the wisdom that he gained from his travel as a young man and is a proponent of young people (with the means to do so) traveling as much as they can before they settle into careers.</li></ul>

Travel To Gain Experience And Wisdom

<ul><li>A large focus is placed on the hard work, dedication, and perseverance that it took for Knight to grow Nike.</li><li>However, Knight also acknowledges that luck played a role in his success. Hard work, dedication, and perseverance play a role in providing more opportunities for luck.</li></ul>

Success Has An Element Of Luck

<ul><li>Knight demonstrates very well that storytelling is a powerful tool.</li><li>There is a history of Nike’s most effective and famous ad campaigns coming from a place of storytelling.</li><li>Engaging your audience will have a profound effect on your marketing and brand.</li></ul>

Understand The Importance Of Storytelling

<ul><li>Like all business owners, Knight understands the importance of knowing who Nike’s audience was. </li><li>Having this information, and fully understanding it gives you the tools you need to create products, marketing, and branding that resonate with those intended to experience it.</li></ul>

Know Your Audience

<ul><li>Brands must have a mission that the public can agree with and get behind.</li><li>Nike’s current mission is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.”</li><li>This statement aligns with Knight’s understanding of the need for a deeper purpose. </li></ul>

Your Brand Needs To Inspire

<ul><li>Knight’s focus was always on the quality and performance of his products, however, delivering his orders on time was more important to him. </li><li>In the early stages of importing his shoes, there were often times they struggled to receive their orders on schedule. </li><li>The quality of a product is irrelevant if your customers can not trust you to deliver it on time consistently.</li></ul>

Delivery Trumps Perfection

<ul><li>His life revolved around the concept that growth was the most important thing in his life.</li><li>He risked everything, on multiple occasions, to grow Nike into the company we know today, and took extraordinary measures to pursue personal growth through his study, reading, and travels.</li><li>Growth and life are one and the same for Knight.</li></ul>

Life Is About Growth

We bring you lessons from self-made billionaires to point you in the right direction

business

Business

Lessons From Self Made Billionaires

Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.

In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.

career

Career

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed 50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed 8,000 his first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top 30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business--a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream--along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.

Philip Hampson Knight, whose nickname is "Buck", is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and current chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and previously served as chairman and CEO of the company.

Phil Knight

Shoe Dog

In an economy, Pareto Optimal state when no further changes in the economy can make one person better off without at the same time making another worse off. Named after Italian economist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilfredo_Pareto">Vilfredo Pareto</a> , the idea simply refers to situations where you can (or can’t) improve something without trade-offs.Consider designing a car where you care about speed and safety.<ol><li>You have one design that’s fast but dangerous.</li><li>Another that is slow and safe.</li><li>A third that both moves like a tortoise and has the tendency to spontaneously catch fire.</li></ol>

Getting Better Without Getting Worse

How should you compare these three designs? The third option is obviously worse than the first two - it's slow and dangerous. But between the other two is a question of values. Maybe a race car driver would prefer faster at the cost of some safety. Maybe the soccer mom wants safety over speed.This is the idea of Pareto efficiency in a nutshell. A car design would be Pareto efficient if there’s no other design that allows you to get more speed or safety without getting less of the other.

Comparing Trades

What if there are more designs than the presented three? Such possibilities exist in some situations, surely with habits and situations. Here, putting them all on a graph, we can see that any of the ones on the inside of the frontier are bad choices. Why? Because there’s always a car that’s somewhat faster or safer without making sacrifices. There must always be something better, an ideal possibility, regardless of it's application in reality.

Efficiency Frontier

We all want to do everything, and feel guilty when we miss out on some. But.. 

Striving to eliminate waste is good. But eventually you'll reach a point where hard choices are needed to do better.

Can You Get More Done Without Making Sacrifices?

Find  Self Improvement Tips - Curated from popular Books like Atomic Habits, 48 Rules of Power, Deep Work, Rich Dad Poor Dad and way more!

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3-2-1: Happiness, the opinions of others, and accepting the reality of slow progress

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3-2-1: Prioritization, making the most of what you have, and reading as a form of travel

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

The Obstacle is the Way

Choose Yourself!

Essential Zen Habits

How to Manage Your Perfectionism

Shoe Dog

Can You Get More Done Without Making Sacrifices?

3-2-1: Small habits with big plans, the shape of genius, and advice to a younger self

3-2-1: Happiness, the opinions of others, and accepting the reality of slow progress

3-2-1: The effect of criticism, a gift you can give yourself, and the ultimate luxury

3-2-1: Prioritization, making the most of what you have, and reading as a form of travel

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.