Every Saturday, I send out 10 ideas I can't stop thinking about. To help you build companies, make content, and follow your obsession.
🏴 On obsession, taste, and mental warfare. Ten Bullets.
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To the obsessed, Here are your weekly Ten Bullets. A list of ideas I can't stop thinking about- to help you build companies, make art, and find your obsession. 1. On obsession: "There's one thing that's true in every single instance. I learned this from watching all these documentaries of all these different people in all these different industries. From athletes, like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan. Then musicians, like Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Michael Jackson. And then into businesspeople as well. And I just looked across the board- what is the thing that makes people really good at stuff? I think the one thing it is- is pure love and obsession for what they do. I don't mean they just like it. They're probably to the point that most people would argue is bad, or disturbing. They're infatuated. Obsessed. It's the thing they think about from the minute they wake up in the morning until when they go to sleep. Then they'll dream about it too. They will sacrifice anything, to keep feeding that love. One thing really stuck out to me from one of Michael Jordan's documentaries. They asked him, 'What's the secret to being the best basketball player in the world?' And he goes, 'Well, it's simple. The secret is to fall in love with the game.'" - Sam Ovens, The Greatest Factor That Determines If You'll Be Successful [YouTube] (h/t Andrew Kirby) What do you do by default? 2. On the details: "She is notorious for controlling every last detail. God is in the details, she replies. I’m not a creative person. I cannot draw, I cannot sketch. I cannot make anything. I just have to make sure things are done right." - Anna Wintour [Founders Podcast #326] 3. On addictions: "I've got an addictive personality. It's why I don't do drugs, I avoid drinking. I focus on the things in life I can let myself get addicted to." - Casey Neistat, finding out i can never run again [YouTube] 4. On creation:
"if you have all three, hire" - @anuatluru 5. On what's easy: "I get more nervous being myself, than being the comedic persona. Being funny. Being funny I find very easy. It's an interesting sort of life lesson- what do you find easy that other people find difficult? Go for that. Do that for a living." - Jimmy Carr - The Secret Hacks For Living A Fulfilled Life - Modern Wisdom 691 (Chris Williamson) 6. On taste:
I have a moodboard with thousands of screenshots, pictures, etc. It's the foundation for everything I create. Everything. (I use mymind- it's great because you can right click/save from anywhere on the internet). I've realized this behavior is not totally normal. You have to build a habit of recognizing when your brain lights up, when a certain font sets off fireworks, when an ad makes you click, when a color feels *just* right. These are the design equivalent to 'highlights' you take while reading. Take them. 7. On genius: "Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far." - Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (h/t Tyler Cho) 8. On mental warfare: Learn to laugh at the mental warfare you play with yourself. Before a long run, everything hurts. Before a big meeting, nothing is ready. Before a big launch, it's not the right time. This is the only fight that matters. Once you see it for what it is, you realize it's just a game. Then, you can finally start playing. 9. On doing: "Predicting rain doesn’t count, building the ark does.” - Warren Buffett 10. On hard problems: "I believe that it’s easier to do a hard startup than an easy startup. People want to be part of something exciting and feel that their work matters. If you are making progress on an important problem, you will have a constant tailwind of people wanting to help you. Let yourself grow more ambitious, and don’t be afraid to work on what you really want to work on. If everyone else is starting meme companies, and you want to start a gene-editing company, then do that and don’t second guess it. Follow your curiosity. Things that seem exciting to you will often seem exciting to other people too." - Sam Altman (h/t Build or Die) If you enjoyed this, forward it to an obsessed friend. 🏴 If you were sent this, click here to subscribe. To read the Ten Bullets archive, click here. Stay obsessed, Zach 🏴 |
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Ten Bullets - For The Obsessed 🏴
Every Saturday, I send out 10 ideas I can't stop thinking about. To help you build companies, make content, and follow your obsession.
To the obsessed, Here are your weekly Ten Bullets. A list of ideas I can't stop thinking about- to help you build companies, make art, and find your obsession. 1. On fear: "If you’re not scared, you’re not pushing: In the summer of 2020, in the midst of some pillow talk with my wife, I confronted the existential dread I had towards the leap of faith I was about to take by starting Varda [his company]. I thought, why would I do this to myself, starting a company is a miserable experience....
To the obsessed, Here are your weekly Ten Bullets. A list of ideas I can't stop thinking about- to help you build companies, make art, and find your obsession. I ran my first marathon on Saturday, in Memphis. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I entered a new level of The Dark Place, and saw a new version of myself, that will be here forever. I'll write more on the experience, the journey, and what's next with running. But all I know is, I haven't been obsessed with something like...
To the obsessed, Here are your weekly Ten Bullets. A list of ideas I can't stop thinking about- to help you build companies, make art, and find your obsession. 1. On creating for yourself: "I think it's terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people's expectations. They generally produce their worst work when they do that. Never work for other people at what you do. Always remember the reason you initially started was that there was something inside yourself- that you felt- that if...