“I hate everyone I work with,” I told my astrologer / therapist. “I feel like everything I say is fake just so people can like me.” I had clients calling me at 4 in the morning asking for advice. Then they would forget to pay their bills. Years later I was calling new clients in… Continue Reading

I feel I need to make a post about this. Tell a story. Make it poignant. But it’s really all I want to say: Get. Keep. Grow. It’s really hard to do those three things. It’s three different skills. Like with money. Getting it. Keeping it. Growing it. I’ve succeeded and failed at all three.… Continue Reading

I had to interrupt him. I was too curious. I thought I would die if I didn’t ask. Whenever you are curious about something, don’t forget to ask a question. Curious. Question….Curious ==> Question. The only things you will ever remember are the questions you ask when you are curious. Curiosity is the ONLY technique… Continue Reading

“There are three types of people,” astronaut Chris Hadfield told me, “-1, 0, and +1”. Chris Hadfield spent 166 days in space in the space station ISS. While there he also sang “Space Oddity” and uploaded (or can you say “downloaded” in this case) the video to YouTube where it was viewed 25 million times.… Continue Reading

Rich Roll was having a heart attack on his staircase. He was fat. He hated his work. He was unhappy. A few years later he ran, swam, biked, 703 miles in seven days when he was 45 years old. When he was 40 he had a job he was unhappy at but he was still… Continue Reading

Not everyone can be a Mark Zuckerberg! Not everyone can be an Elizabeth Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford at 19, started a business in a basement, and is now a multi-billionaire. Not everyone can be a Bill Gates. Or a Beyonce (although Claudia wants to be Beyonce in her next life. Which I hope… Continue Reading

I did an experiment. I can’t wait to tell you about it. There’s one trick that everybody who writes sales knows and nobody else seems to know. This trick is so effective that Microsoft Word has it even built in so you can test while you write. First, I took the most popular 30 articles… Continue Reading

My mom told me I looked disgusting. I was eating cereal. Reading a book. In a few minutes I would go to school. She had just woken up. Walked into the kitchen. Saw me. Said her thing. Not the worst thing in the world. Not something you can’t overcome. I was maybe 16. I liked… Continue Reading

I lost my keys and was locked out my apartment. It was the middle of the night and I had nowhere to go. I left a message for the landlady. I tried to climb up the fire escape to see if I could sneak in but I’m afraid of heights. About two stories up, I… Continue Reading

Choosing yourself means taking risk, means not being afraid what people think, or your chances of success or failure. It means doing what you want and hopefully helping the world along the way. Because when you help others, that’s how you get paid in a choose yourself world. Elon Musk is inspirational to many people,… Continue Reading

I want to be under water and float and not move. I love that feeling. Water completely surrounding me, I make every part of my body go limp. Thoughts rise up and create little thought bubbles above me on the surface. I don’t like to think too hard. When I float, I enjoy thinking of… Continue Reading

I asked Claudia if she would still love me in 40 years. I don’t know why I asked. Maybe because she was making me coffee. If every morning someone asks you to make coffee, how can you love him? Maybe she would get tired of it. To be blunt: I would not like making her… Continue Reading

Louis CK turned down $500,000 a year from Conan in the early 90s so he could go broke instead. Conan wanted to hire him as head writer of his show. Every step of the way in the 20 years since he put a challenge in front of himself that seemed impossible and it was until… Continue Reading

The woman had tattoos etched beautifully over her arms and told me the story of each one. Her husband owned the rights to 14,000 songs and told me the 20 year roller coaster ride of how he had acquired them. He owned the rights to almost all my favorite songs. I learned an immense amount… Continue Reading

I’ve given up right before the finish line. It’s not as bad as people say really. It even has a nice ring to it. French. “I’m a self-saboteur”. Maybe I’m a spy. Like, right when you are about to make a lot of money, or finish a book, or get a job, or whatever, you… Continue Reading