Do something great, and then talk about it Most everything we do in life is a form of marketing. Convincing a spouse or a co-worker of an idea, using our daily work to make a little bit of difference, even (especially, rather) curating our careers. When you update your resume…
You have your vocation and you have your advocation - Author's mentor You need something that takes care of the bills. And you have something (at least I hope you have something) that you care about. A larger thing that matters to you. Very rarely, you can put the two…
You see this in a lot of business type books and resources. "Pay yourself first" usually means something like waiting until the last moment to pay back debt (or make a payment on one) or some other form of valuing yourself over others. But you can apply it to other…
Any marketable skill, no matter how advanced or niche, is built on a foundation of simpler skills. Seen differently, successfully executing any skill is directly dependent on your ability to execute the simpler ones. Let's try an example. Jeff Atwood says that programmers are typists first, programmers second, and I…
In his memoir, Eat a Peach, David Chang talks about all the other stuff that you have to do in order to successfully run a business. Things like getting good at real estate, basic contract law, navigating bureaucracies for regulations, and so forth. He calls this the Compound Art -…
> “Over the years, I’ve realized that in any new situation, whether it involves an elevator or a rocket ship, you will almost certainly be viewed in one of three ways. As a minus one: actively harmful, someone who creates problems. Or as a zero: your impact is neutral and…
In the thing that you use to pay your bills, become exceptional at it. Become the linchpin in your discipline. This creates job security but not in the boring, kafka-esque way that you’re allowed to rest on your laurels and continue to get paid. I mean job security in…
> You have your vocation, and you have your avocation You will hear many people saying “Follow your passion”, “Follow your heart”, or something along those lines. This is a lazy platitude and can get you into trouble (or worse, broke). Your passion does not pay the bills. Your zeal for…