3 quotes for Dec 18

More than purpose, we also need realism. Where do we start? What do we do first? What do we do right now? How are we sure that what we're doing is moving us forward? What are we benchmarking ourselves against?

– Ryan Holiday

When I moved back, I thought passion and purpose were all one needed. If these two were present, then nothing else mattered. Well, sure. Except there's the small matter of what should one actually do and how does one go about doing it?

Are we doing the right thing? Are we staying true to our mission and values? Or are we going against what's true to our hearts to make more money or get more clients or whatever?

Purpose is important. Passion, I'd rank much behind purpose. But like Ryan says, realism is crucial.

I've never been able to predict accurately. I don't make money predicting accurately. We just tend to get into good business and stay there.

– Charlie Munger

During a period where everything as we know it has been rocked, it has been tempting to try and predict when things will be normal, when we can get back to certain things in business and in personal life and all that.

When someone like Munger says this, you realise that you go back to what's under your control. Be the best at what you can do. Don't predict. In fact, plan for the worst case scenario. Coz everything will be a level up from there.

How fast you can reach someone has nothing to do with how quickly they need to get back to you. The content of the communication dictates that.

Emergencies? Okay.

You need me to resend that thing I sent you last week? That can wait.

You need an answer to a question you can find yourself? That can wait.

You need to know what time the client's coming in three days from now? That can wait.

– Jason Fried and DHH

Not having a stretch of time where I work undistracted has been a huge issue. Interruptions, either in the form of email or chat or phone calls or whatever, or distractions that are just due to poor habits and lack of focus get in the way of us getting into our work and producing quality effort.

For a lot of us, meetings and other people's demands are a huge problem. That's external. As these two fine folks (c0-founders of Basecamp) tell us, most things can wait.

Don't confuse urgent and important and neither.

Thanks for reading. Do share your thoughts or any quotes that you fancy.