Random Pieces of Advice

Pieces of advice I noted from books I read.

A bunch of advice I noted from many various different books. Remember, all advice is autobiographical. This advice is advice I would have given myself at some point of time, it may not always apply to you. Your Mileage May Vary: Take what you like best and leave the rest.

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"If you don't have a plan, then you're planning to fail."

A university professor on the first day of class asked his students if any of them had a plan for their life. Only three students raised their hand. The class laughed heartily. They don't have a degree till now and they talk of a life plan.

25 years later, when the reunion took place the networth of these three students was more than the combined net worth of all the other.

It's that simple. If you don't have a plan you have already failed. Make a plan and follow it, don't worry about failing. Failure is only temporary setback if you don't let it it get you down. One plan fails, make another.

“If plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters - 204 if you're in Japan.” - Claire Cook

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“Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.” Socrates

One who stops learning after they get there degree normally reach no where. The successful keep on learning all the time. They read books to learn from others experience, they talk less and listen more to learn from the speaker, they attend seminars and they follow good newsletters.

The average man says that they believe in practical knowledge not on bookish wisdom. They argue that if books and seminars can grant success, then why isn't every one successful?

Because most people will never follow what they learnt beyond day 1, if they actually learnt something. Trust me, most people read a book trying to prove everything the author say wrong.

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” ⁣⁣⁣― Aristotle⁣⁣

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Most people spend the best years of their life in the place of the known. They lack courage to venture out into foreign territory and are frightened to leave the crowd. They want to fit in and are afraid to stand out. They dress like everyone else and behave like everyone else, even if doing so doesn't feel right to them. They are reluctant to listen to the call of their hearts and try new things, refusing to leave that shore of safety. They do what everybody else does. In so doing, their once shining souls begin to darken. Success lies in being true to yourself - and living life on your own terms.

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In 2014, a couple invited queen Elizabeth to their wedding as a joke and she actually showed up.

Moral of the story is that weird things happen if you have the courage to ask. If the couple hadn't invited the queen to their wedding, she wouldn't have shown up.

Does that mean that every door you knock upon will be answered? Obviously no. But that doesn't mean that we stop knocking on doors. Some will be answered, some won't but the more doors you knock, the more is the likelihood of them being answered.

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The man who decided to dip vanilla ice-cream in chocolate, to help a kid out of the paradox of choice, and sell it as Eskimo Pie made a fortune for the five minutes of creativity.

If you haven't been living under a rock, you know about Wordle. It was recently sold to NYT for upwards of 1 to 3 million USD. The game began as a birthday gift for his better half of a software engineer which took him less than a week to code.

The thing I am trying to say is simple, make gifts for people and make it with heart. It is very easy to buy things and gift them. But it is times harder and a lot more rewarding to make them something which they'll remember forever.

Remember, creativity is always rewarded by the universe. Sometimes in form of a fortune and sometimes in form of a beautiful relation, but it will be rewarded nevertheless.

"Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there’s footprints on the moon." - Paul Brandt

There is no limit to hat you can achieve. You have endless potential and can achieve anything you determine to.

Don't let others define your limits. YOU ARE LIMITLESS.

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After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box. – Italian Proverb

We must treat everybody as we treat our equals. That doesn't mean bowing and bending to the world but it means that we must not mistreat or misbehave with anyone.

A man's true character is seen not spoken about. One shall treat everyone with respect and humility keeping in mind that they shall reap what they sow.

"If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." - Sirius Black(JK Rowling)

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A wise sage met a beggar on the street one day. The beggar not knowing to whom he was speaking stopped the sage and asked him three questions: Why are you here? Where are you going? Is there an important reason that you are going there?

The sage looked at the beggar and asked him how much he generally made on a given day. On hearing the honest answer given to him, the sage said, "Please come and work for me. I will pay you ten times that amount if only you will ask me these three questions before I do my meditation, early each morning"

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"If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe." - Abraham Lincoln

The most common reason of failure is not lack of hard work or grit. It is the lack of preparation. Most people want to be billionaires, how many seriously study entrepreneurship and then implement it?

Many want to be bestseller authors, How many actually read and analyze authors? The same goes for all other fields.

Preparation always beats talent when talent doesn't prepare.

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If you don't act on life, life has a habit of acting on you. And the days slip to weeks and the weeks slip to months and before you know it, your life would be over. Life's pretty short- no matter how long you get to live. Before you know it, you'll be dust.

The point of wisdom is clear: stop living your life by default and start living your life by design. Get back in the game and take action to create the richer reality you know deep within your heart you were destined to create.

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Everyone buys books,
few ever read them.
Everyone wants growth,
few accept pain.
Everyone wants to be happy,
few ever change.
Everyone wants to sell millions of books,
Few ever write one.
Intention is nothing without action,
but action is nothing without intention.

There is an proverb, You can take a horse till the pond, you can't make it drink water.

The same applies to knowledge. It will provide you with the resources to do something, but it is up to you to do so.

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“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! -- how consoling in the depths of affliction! "And this, too, shall pass away." - Eastern Folk Tale

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It is so important that you are grateful for everything in your life. Many people focus on the one thing they want and then forget to be grateful for all the things they have. Without gratitude you cannot achieve anything through the law of attraction, because if you are not emanating gratitude from your being, then by default you are emanating ungratefulness. Be proactive and use the frequency of your being to receive what you want.

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"Most time is not wasted in days or hours, it is wasted in minutes."

All of us will spend most, if not all of our days, somewhat productively.

Then again, none of us are as foolish as to waste unto three to four hours daily.

But the five minutes we waste everyday, those are what we are gonna regret at the end of our time. We'll never regret the two hours we spent looking at the sky with our significant other. We will not regret the five day holiday with friends. But we will regret spending five more minutes on social media, which will add up to almost 2 months, over a lifetime.

What you do with your time is up to you, I just hope you don't regret it.

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

Opportunity seldom knocks twice. If you get an opportunity, say yes. The more you'll wait and aimlessly ponder, the higher the chances are you'll miss it.

We miss all the shorts we don't take, so why not aim high, hold steady and then take a shot; maybe it hits.

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THERE IS NO script for life.

Marriage isn’t right for everyone, a 9–5 isn’t best for everything, one job for the rest of your life or having kids or living in one place won’t suit all. The ability to resist conforming to the script, to resist trying to squeeze into society’s binary boxes or answer invalid questions and write fresh rules for how one's life will be lived is unquestionably much of the reason why one will find success and happiness.

It goes against conventional thinking, but with staggering rates of depression, marital breakdowns, burnout, anxiety and purposelessness, maybe we need some more unconventional thinking.

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Personal transformation is not a race. Actually, sometimes the harder you try to change, the longer it takes. So many people treat self-discovery like an extreme sport—rushing to get all their healing at a frenetic pace. They read book after book. They visit guide after guide and attend seminar after seminar.

SLOW DOWN

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on the road not the destination, maybe try looking at the beautiful view outside the car instead of waiting for it to reach the unknown monument.

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The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. - Chinese Proverb

Same way, the best time to startup was 15 years ago but the second best time in now.

Same way, the best time to start a youtube channel was 10 years ago but the second best time is now.

Same way the best time to start crypto was 5 years ago but the second best time is now.

Same way the best time to start a blog was last year but the second best time in now.

Time is going to go on regardless, would you rather look back in 5 years and be glad you started doing what you love? Or have five years pass with nothing new started out of fear you were too old then to start?

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And that’s all I have to offer. If you liked the post, click the heart and if you are interested in more such content; Please consider subscribing.

Thanks for Reading,

Warm Regards,

Arjun Agarwal.