One-Liner Lessons: Timeless Wisdom in 10 Words or Less
Here's a selection of one-liner lessons from my journal with a little bit of added thought from myself.
Last February, I kept a journal where I wrote one line each day. For the prompt, I chose “one idea from a book.” Upon revisiting that journal recently, I realized that I somehow ended up with 30 entries despite there being 29 days that month. Still, despite my questionable ability to do simple arithmetic, I wanted to share a selection of these one-liner lessons with a little bit of added thought from myself.
The cool part, though, is that all of these one-liners are so short, they are impossible to forget. No joke. True to the title, the longest tops out at an astounding eight words and the shortest is a mere three words. Please enjoy. And before you ask, yes, this time I counted it all correctly.
Don’t make decisions when hungry or tired.
Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I come back to this thought. Why? Because typically those feelings of overwhelm have a direct correlation to either how hungry and/or tired I am. From there, I either eat or take a nap to reset. I know I’ll make a better decision once I check those boxes.
Solve for your own problems.
Paralysis by analysis is so easy these days. We face a seemingly endless barrage of trends, waves, and disruptions that we must leverage into new business opportunities. Otherwise, you’re an idiot. Don’t listen to them. When looking for new ideas and opportunities, start by solving your own problems first or by making something you’d use. You’ll enjoy the process at least 100x more, have a deep understanding of what to build, and (here’s the kicker) you’re not the only one with that problem so your idea will find its way into the real world quicker than you think.
Simple process > complex process.
We love to inject complexity into everything. There is probably some deep-seated biological reason behind this, but we need to resist it. Simplicity is a force multiplier and allows us to focus on what matters as opposed to busy work.
Read permanent knowledge.
Permanent knowledge is anything but the news. Read more books. Tune out the noise of the news cycle or at the very least limit it.
Out-teach the competition.
It sounds stupid to say, but the best products are the ones that get adopted. And how does a product get adopted? By teaching people how to use it. Therefore, in any competitive market, we need to out-teach the competition. Knowledge is power and gets more people using your product.
Enjoy the process because that is life.
My all-time favorite book series is The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (go check it out if you haven’t). One of the recurring themes in the book is Journey before Destination. We all end up at the same destination when our time is up. The journey and the people along the way, though, are what make it all count. Journey before Destination.
If you think a competitor stinks, say so.
Admittedly, this one is controversial. But, I believe that if you honestly have a superior product or feature; you need to tell people. This does not mean mud-slinging or baselessly bashing a competitor. It means being honest about your product versus another’s product.
Run the business as if it is yours.
I’m a big believer in practicing ownership and treating the things you don’t own in your life as if you own them. This is about being over-the-top or dramatic about it. Just leave things better than when you found them. You’d want someone to do the same for you.
The only way to learn is to do.
Whenever I’m paralyzed by research, I come back to this thought. It’s so simple yet so easy to ignore. Ultimately, the best way and only way to learn is to do the thing you want to learn. It’s how we’ve learned since our days of making fires in caves.
Where lies a man’s treasure lies his heart.
As Charlie Munger says, incentives rule the world. And the easiest way to find out where someone’s interests lie is to follow the money.
You don’t have to know everything.
But you must possess the skills necessary to learn continually when new things arise.
Life is short, run long.
Running is a moving meditation for me. It’s where I think, process, and reset myself. Whenever there is an opportunity to stretch my run just a little longer or try out a new route, I take it. Life is too short to deprive ourselves of that reflection time. It’s too important.
Learning starts with changing behavior.
I love this reminder. It’s easy to think that learning is just absorbing knowledge. However, that’s only step one. Step two involves changing yourself in response to your newfound knowledge. It doesn’t need to be grand. It can be small. The purpose of knowledge is to better us, and that starts with incremental change.
About right > precisely wrong.
Precision is good, but being right (even if just approximately), is what matters. Beware the false security of precision and embrace seeking the right outcomes instead.
All advantages have a shelf life.
I believe this is from Morgan Housel’s Same as Ever, which is a book I highly recommend. What Housel is saying is that a competitive advantage is never an advantage forever. Innovation happens, things change, and the unexpected can happen at every turn. So, how do you beat back the tidal wave that wears away your advantages?
The best investment is yourself.
You continually and relentlessly invest in yourself. It’s the rare investment where you control and can dictate the outcome. Plus, you’ll never ever regret it.