| This is the Brain Pickings midweek pick-me-up: Once a week, I plunge into my fourteen-year archive and choose something worth resurfacing and resavoring as timeless nourishment for heart, mind, and spirit. (If you don’t yet subscribe to the standard Sunday newsletter of new pieces published each week, you can sign up here — it’s free.) If you missed last week’s edition — a brilliant forgotten philosopher on the hidden source of music’s supreme power — you can catch up right here. And if you find any solace, joy, and value in my labor of love, please consider supporting it with a donation – over these fourteen years, I have spent tens of thousands of hours and tremendous resources on Brain Pickings, and every little bit of support helps keep it – keep me – going. If you already donate: THANK YOU. FROM THE ARCHIVE | Walt Whitman on Democracy and Optimism as a Mighty Form of Resistance “Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive,” Zadie Smith wrote in her spectacular essay on optimism and despair. The illusion of permanent progress inflicts a particularly damning strain of despair as we witness the disillusioning undoing of triumphs of democracy and justice generations in the making — despair preventable only by taking a wider view of history in order to remember that democracy advances in fits and starts, in leaps and backward steps, but advances nonetheless, on timelines exceeding any individual lifetime. Amid our current atmosphere of presentism bias and extreme narrowing of perspective, it is not merely difficult but downright countercultural to resist the ahistorical panic by taking such a telescopic view — lucid optimism that may be our most unassailable form of resistance to the corruptions and malfunctions of democracy. That is what Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819–March 26, 1892) insisted on again and again in Specimen Days (public library) — the splendid collection of his prose fragments, letters, and diary entries that gave us his wisdom on the wisdom of trees, the singular power of music, how art enhances life, and what makes life worth living.  Walt Whitman (Library of Congress)Shortly before his sixtieth birthday and a decade after issuing his immensely prescient admonition that “America, if eligible at all to downfall and ruin, is eligible within herself, not without,” exhorting his compatriots to “always inform yourself; always do the best you can; always vote,” Whitman writs under the heading “DEMOCRACY IN THE NEW WORLD”:  I can conceive of no better service in the United States, henceforth, by democrats of thorough and heart-felt faith, than boldly exposing the weakness, liabilities and infinite corruptions of democracy.Having lived and saved lives through the Civil War, having seen the swell of “vast crops of poor, desperate, dissatisfied, nomadic, miserably-waged populations,” having witnessed the corrosion of idealism and the collapse of democratic values into corruption and complacency, Whitman still faces a dispiriting landscape with a defiant and irrepressible optimism — our mightiest and most countercultural act of courage, then and now and always: Though I think I fully comprehend the absence of moral tone in our current politics and business, and the almost entire futility of absolute and simple honor as a counterpoise against the enormous greed for worldly wealth, with the trickeries of gaining it, all through society in our day, I still do not share the depression and despair on the subject which I find possessing many good people.Zooming out of the narrow focus of his cultural moment — as we would be well advised to do with ours — Whitman takes a telescopic perspective of time, progress, and social change, and considers what it really takes to win the future: The advent of America, the history of the past century, has been the first general aperture and opening-up to the average human commonalty, on the broadest scale, of the eligibilities to wealth and worldly success and eminence, and has been fully taken advantage of; and the example has spread hence, in ripples, to all nations. To these eligibilities — to this limitless aperture, the race has tended, en-masse, roaring and rushing and crude, and fiercely, turbidly hastening — and we have seen the first stages, and are now in the midst of the result of it all, so far. But there will certainly ensue other stages, and entirely different ones. In nothing is there more evolution than the American mind. Soon, it will be fully realized that ostensible wealth and money-making, show, luxury, &c., imperatively necessitate something beyond — namely, the sane, eternal moral and spiritual-esthetic attributes, elements… Soon, it will be understood clearly, that the State cannot flourish, (nay, cannot exist,) without those elements. They will gradually enter into the chyle of sociology and literature. They will finally make the blood and brawn of the best American individualities of both sexes.Three years later, and ten presidencies before a ruthless government began assaulting and exploiting nature as a resource for commercial and political gain, Whitman revisits the subject under the heading “NATURE AND DEMOCRACY—MORTALITY”: American Democracy, in its myriad personalities, in factories, work-shops, stores, offices — through the dense streets and houses of cities, and all their manifold sophisticated life — must either be fibred, vitalized, by regular contact with out-door light and air and growths, farm-scenes, animals, fields, trees, birds, sun-warmth and free skies, or it will morbidly dwindle and pale. We cannot have grand races of mechanics, work people, and commonalty, (the only specific purpose of America,) on any less terms. I conceive of no flourishing and heroic elements of Democracy in the United States, or of Democracy maintaining itself at all, without the Nature-element forming a main part — to be its health-element and beauty-element — to really underlie the whole politics, sanity, religion and art of the New World.Specimen Days remains one of the most timelessly insightful books I have ever encountered. Complement this particular portion with Iris Murdoch on why art is essential for democracy, Rebecca Solnit on lucid optimism in dark times, and Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman’s animated tribute to Leonard Cohen’s anthem to democracy, then revisit Whitman on the essence of happiness and his advice on the building blocks of character. FORWARD TO A FRIEND/READ ONLINE/ donating=loving Every week since 2006, I have been pouring tremendous time, thought, love, and resources into Brain Pickings, which remains free and is made possible by patronage. If you find any joy and solace in my labor of love, please consider supporting it with a donation. And if you already donate, from the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU. (If you’ve had a change of heart or circumstance and wish to rescind your support, you can do so at this link.)monthly donation You can become a Sustaining Patron with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a Brooklyn lunch. one-time donation Or you can become a Spontaneous Supporter with a one-time donation in any amount. Partial to Bitcoin? You can beam some bit-love my way: 197usDS6AsL9wDKxtGM6xaWjmR5ejgqem7 RELATED READING: The Body Politic Electric: Walt Whitman on Women’s Centrality to Democracy * * * Octavia Butler on How (Not) to Choose Our Leaders * * * Hannah Arendt on Loneliness as the Common Ground for Terror and How Tyrannical Regimes Use Isolation as a Weapon of Oppression  |
Category: Cue, Nudge, Trigger, Prompt, shove, elbow, poke, Provoke, jog memory, sign, signal
today’s quote
| “Of all human activities, man’s listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.” via Today’s Quote https://ift.tt/33RVh94 |
did you know
Did you know…
… that today is Typing Speed Record Day? On this day in 1918, Margaret Owen set a typing speed record of 170 words per minute on a manual typewriter. Can you imagine what her speed would’ve been if she’d had access to an electric one?!
~~~
Today’s Inspirational Quote:
“One tree can start a forest. One smile can begin a friendship. One hand can lift a soul. One word can frame the goal. One candle can wipe out darkness. One laugh can conquer gloom. One touch can show you care. One life can make the difference. Be that one today.”
— Author Unknown
Did you know…. and today’s inspirational quote
Did you know…
… that today is First Passenger Train Day? On this day in 1825, George Stephenson operated the first locomotive that hauled a passenger train. The engine, later called Locomotion, took 450 people 25 miles from Darlington to Stockton at 15 miles per hour. The railway age had begun and George Stephenson was its guiding spirit!
~~~
Today’s Inspirational Quote:
“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
Top 10 WTF Reality TV Moments – Listverse
Top 10 Celebrities Cleared Of Serious Crimes – Listverse
True Self-knowledge
To arrive at true self-knowledge is to arrive at God-realization. God-realization is a unique state of consciousness.It is different from all the other states of consciousness because all the other states of consciousness are experienced through the medium of the individual mind whereas the state of God-consciousness is in no way dependent upon the individual mind or any other medium.A medium is necessary for knowing something other than one’s own self: for knowing one’s own self no medium is necessary.
——-AVATAR MEHER BABA[GEMS FROM THE DISCOURSES OF MEHER BABA By Meher Baba. An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook June 2011. Copyright © 1945 by Circle Productions, Inc. (a New York Corporation), Copyright © Adi K. Irani, 1967 Copyright © 2007, Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.]
Learning Body language from Vanessa van edwards – her newsletter i subscribe
I found Vanessa Van Edwards on Udemy when I was learning and beginning my Toastmasters Pathways journey. In one of the exercises we have there, we have to research a topic and speak. I found Apart from Content, it was Vocal variety, Gestures and Body Language, Personality which had important place in a Public Speaker’s repertoire.
Her focus and Special Expertise lay in BODY LANGUAGE. You can see the newsletter below, go to her website and take her Udemy courses if you are so inclined.
Are you ready for some interesting science facts? Me too!
As you might know, once a month I gather all of my favorite studies and tips into one fascinating, interesting, unique little newsletter. My goal is to share facts with you that you can then share with others. So then they say,
That’s so interesting!
…I also like to make them a game for you. Here’s what I got for you today:
1. Republicans prefer politicians with…
- deep voice and a square jaw
- big eyes and a longer than average face
- above average height
- small ears and bushy eyebrows
Seriously, research looked at this. This study found Republicans prefer politicians with 1. deep voice and a square jaw! I am gearing up for a big US election season. In fact, please mark your calendars to watch the US Presidential debate with me on September, 29th! My Watch Guide will help you look for interesting cues. I also analyzed the last five Presidential Debates for your amusement!
Presidential Debate Analysis + Watch Guides
I also analyzed of Kamala Harris’ body language. It’s going to be an interesting election year…
2. In conversation we tend to…
- Overestimate how much people like us
- Underestimate how much people like us
Does she like me?! Is a refrain I constantly say in my head. Good news! This study finds we tend to 2. Underestimate how much people like us!
Remember: You are likable. You are worthy.
3. Research says you should trust your…
- dog
- horoscope
- aha moments
- nightmares
You have a problem. You have been trying to solve it for hours. You go to sleep. You wake up at 2:00 a.m. thinking….”aha! I know the answer.” Turns out that you should trust that 3. aha moment! If you have taken any of our courses you know I am obsessed with aha moments. So I’m thrilled this study found when a solution to a problem seems to have come out of thin air, it’s most likely right.
From the study:
“A series of experiments conducted by a team of researchers determined that a person’s sudden insights are often more accurate at solving problems than thinking them through analytically.”Bottom line: Trust yourself.
4. Some of Beethoven’s famous works may have been inspired by…
- His cat
- His daughter
- His view of the ocean
- His heartbeat
A cardiologist, medical historian, and a musicologist teamed up to analyze Beethoven’s famous works. They found some of his rhythms may in fact reflect the irregular rhythms of his own heart, caused by cardiac arrhythmia! 4. his heartbeat might be what inspired his work!
…you never know what can be your spark of inspiration! Be sure to check out our post:
40 Productive Things to Do When You’re Bored
5. True or False: How much you worry can change over time.
I have come out publicly as a neurotic. And it turns out science has found that the worrying part of our brain can change over time (true!). AND this is different for men and women.
“Women high in neuroticism tended to have thinner cortex in the anterior cingulate with increasing age, while men high in neuroticism tended to have thicker cortex in the anterior cingulate with increasing age, compared to those with lower levels of neuroticism.”
So… don’t get mad at your partner, friend, spouse for worrying too much–they can’t help it!
To your success,
Vanessa
The Beacon Newsletter I subscribe to
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It’s Tuesday, September 15, and a new bill is paving a path to employment for California’s incarcerated firefighters. Inmate firefighters have battled some of California’s most destructive wildfires, including the Thomas Fire, the Mendocino Complex Fire, the Ferguson Fire, and the Camp Fire. But for years, most former inmates who had received firefighting training were ineligible to become professional firefighters; their criminal records prevented them from getting the state license necessary for employment.That changed on Friday, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2147 into law. The bill, which was sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Eloise Reyes, makes it easier for former inmates who have received training as firefighters to have their criminal records expunged. With a clean record, former inmates can obtain the emergency medical technician (EMT) certification that is needed to work in a municipal firefighting department.“CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform,” Newsom tweeted after signing the bill. “Inmates who have stood on the frontline, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter.”With the passage of AB 2147, some former inmates have said they are eager to apply to a firefighting job. “The news is huge,” said Michael Gebre, a former incarcerated firefighter, in an interview with NPR. “With me being an EMT, I could do more for the community that I serve.”— Joseph Winters THE SMOGNeed-to-know basisYesterday, in a visit to California to meet with Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials, President Trump confirmed once again that he does not understand or believe in climate change. After blaming this year’s historic wildfires on forest management practices alone, the president assured them that “it’ll start getting cooler.” When the state secretary for natural resources quipped back, “I wish science agreed with you,” Trump responded, “Well, I don’t think science knows, actually.” A natural buffer that is helping to prevent two important glaciers in Antarctica from flowing out into the sea is deteriorating, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery. If one of these, the Thwaites glacier, collapsed, it could trigger the collapse of the entire West Antarctic ice sheet, which could raise sea levels by about 10 feet.Meanwhile, on the other side of the earth, temperatures in the Arctic have skyrocketed, likely changing the climate there for good. In fact, the Northern Hemisphere as a whole just had its hottest summer on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Monday.— Emily PontecorvoThe post Firefighters beyond bars appeared first on Grist. MORE GRIST FOR YOUR MILL Right-wing conspiracists falsely linked antifa to wildfires. Then the Russian media gave them a boost.How overlapping false claims about the wildfires ricocheted around conservative social media thanks to a bogus story from Russia. What oil executives say when they think no one’s listeningSecret recording shows they still think they can advertise their way out of the climate crisis. Google plans to power your searches with carbon-free energy by 2030Google’s announcement comes as historic fires linked to climate change have burned millions of acres across the Western U.S. ‘Climate arsonist’: Biden slams Trump’s wildfire response with a new insultThe presidential candidates just had their first scuffle on climate. Will the West’s giant fires spark a climate awakening?“If this doesn’t open people’s eyes, I don’t know what will.” |
A SPECIAL DAY TOMORROW – 12TH SEPTEMBER 2020.
Return of Myanmar’s smiling turtle is reason to be cheerful | Life and style | The Guardian
My paintings
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The Master serves. Mastery in servitude
The Master serves the whole universe out of the finality of his infinite consciousness, and those who serve the Master and obey him also have their share in his universal work. Their service has the advantage of his wisdom and insight.Willing participation in the work of the Master not only raises the value of service, but creates the best opportunities for spiritual enlightenment. In importance, service originating in the instructions of the Master is second only to the service rendered by the Master himself.-
——AVATAR MEHER BABA
[GEMS FROM THE DISCOURSES OF MEHER BABA By Meher Baba. An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook June 2011. Copyright © 1945 by Circle Productions, Inc. (a New York Corporation), Copyright © Adi K. Irani, 1967 Copyright © 2007, Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.]
Beside the point? Punctuation is dead, long live punctuation | Aeon Essays
Photo by Corbis/Getty
is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of English at the University of Sheffield, working on parentheses in Renaissance romance. Her first book ‘Refrains in Early Modern Literature’ is forthcoming, and she is currently writing a book called ‘Standing on Points: The History and Culture of Punctuation’.Listen here
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Punctuation is dead – or is it? If you’ve ever texted ‘im here’ or ‘its in the car’, you’re in good company. Most of us have, at some point since the dawn of texting, transgressed the boundaries of good grammar, and swallowed one apostrophe or another in the name of speed or convenience. Studies have shown that such textisms as deliberate spelling mistakes, abbreviations and omission of apostrophes don’t deteriorate language skills, but boost them – provided such texting goes hand in hand with ‘proper’ grammar education.
Suppressing the little typographical hook that is the apostrophe might, however, pose graver issues when it occurs in public, such as in ads or pub signs, or even street names. Is it different if the state flaunts language rules? Enter the international Apostrophe Protection Society, with its attempts to call out misuse and spread good practice. But November 2019 saw the announcement of the society’s demise, and owing not only to the highly respectable age of its founder John Richards (96): it would close, the society said, because of the ‘ignorance and laziness present in modern times’. The announcement made global news, sky-rocketing the traffic on the charmingly old-school website some 600 times, which led to its temporary disappearance from the web, and an outcry against the society’s closure. Punctuation habits might be changing, but we still care.
Are prescribed grammar rules necessary, though, or a relic of some fussy conservatism and elitist era? Do we really need apostrophes (or any other mark of punctuation for that matter) or could we get rid of them for the sake of brevity? Is Princes Street rather than Prince’s or even the formidable Princes’ Street really a sign of our careless inattention to detail today? If punctuation can fall away and the words still make sense, why did we need it in the first place? Punctuation, like any other cultural production, has a tumultuous history full of public good and personal interest.
EU STARTups NEWSLETTER
It’s Charlotte here again, with an update from EU-Startups. Despite Thomas officially being still on paternity leave, last month we’ve been working on some very exciting new projects for you at EU-Startups. Can’t wait to find out? Read on!
Startup PR: In the next addition of the EU-Startups podcast we’ll be interviewing ourselves (!) and bringing you some tips and tricks on how to get press coverage for your startup at EU-Startups, as well as other tech publications. Think of it as a ‘How to get noticed by the press’ edition. Coming soon!
EU-Startups CLUB: Next Monday, 7th September, we will be launching our CLUB Membership programme. Although it’s still in the works, we can already tell you there will be different packages for our readers, startups, and investors/corporates, each with a cool tailored list of benefits. This will be a HUGE step for EU-Startups, and we hope we can count you in when we’ll be finally launching soon. Stay tuned! 🙂
Europe’s Google competitors: Google has too much market power. Would you agree? This week, our contributor Bojana is introducing you to 5 European Google competitors to watch.
Job Board opportunity: Don’t forget that until next Monday you can still upload job postings on the EU-Startups Job Board at no cost. With this little initiative we aim to support startups and job seekers during the current pandemic – we hope it helps a bit!
Italy’s COVID recovery: Our Italian contributor Claudia has been doing some in-depth interviews with startups, hubs, incubators and stakeholders to ask: How will the startups from the South of Italy recover from the pandemic? In this piece she dives into the challenges, possibilities and future startup landscape.
Founder Interview: Our contributor Floraidh has been focusing on the experience of BAME (Black, Asian, Minority, Ethic) founders, and just interviewed Kenny Alebge, founder of Home Hero, on their recent funding round, company culture, diversity and the power of mentoring.
Also, as many schools re-open across Europe and many of you return from summer holidays (maybe even to your real office or co-working space), my colleague Thomas will also start to come back from paternity leave soon (part-time). This means that the next newsletter edition might already be sent out by him again.
If you have any urgent questions in the meantime, please direct them to me for now, as this would help his inbox from overflowing too much! 🙂
Saludos from Barcelona,
Charlotte
Charlotte Tucker
Head of Content
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
EU-Startups.com
Menlo Media S.L.
Calle Encarnació 103, 2-2
08024 Barcelona, Spain
Charlotte.Tucker@EU-Startups.com
WORD OF THE DAY
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| Examples of Logomachy in a sentence
“A logomachy might seem silly, but it’s important to get your message across.” “We had a bit of a logomachy over what our new team slogan should be.” |
Nik’s Book Summaries Newsletter I like
Hi, it’s Nik again with 3 more free and life-changing book summaries just for you!
Do you like audiobooks? We do! It’s an extra way of learning from great books anytime, anywhere. But if you bought 300 full audiobooks, that’d take you 100 days of straight listening – and $6,000.
To speed all that up for you, we put together 300 audio recordings of our short summaries. For just $49, you’ll get 900 great lessons from the world’s best non-fiction books, available through an exclusive SoundCloud playlist and for you to download offline and take wherever you go!
Get 300 Audio Summaries for Just $49 >>
And now, on to our books of the week!
Own Your Everyday by Jordan Lee Dooley
1-Sentence-Summary: Own Your Everyday shows you how to let go of comparison, stress, and distractions so you can find your purpose and live a more fulfilling life by sharing inspiring lessons from the experiences of author Jordan Lee Dooley.
- Always dive deep enough to find the root of your problems if you really want to solve them.
- Let go of the pressure to perform by eliminating the habit of comparing yourself to others.
- To beat distractions, look at their future consequences with the 10-10-10 rule.
If you need some powerful lessons to motivate and inspire you, this book is for you.
Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly
1-Sentence-Summary: Resisting Happiness shows you how to get more joy in your life by exploring the roadblocks you unknowingly put in the way of it, explaining why it’s a choice, and giving specific tips to help you make the decision to be content.
- Remember to read and that money isn’t everything if you want more meaning in life.
- Learn the joy of being alone.
- Practice delaying gratification and make sure you keep good friends close to reach your full potential.
If you want to become happier, this book is for you.
The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
1-Sentence-Summary: The Art Of The Start is your guide to beginning a company and explains everything from getting the right people on board to writing a winning business plan and building your brand.
- Your first goal as an entrepreneur must be to create meaning, not make money.
- Prepare your Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks to have direction and purpose right from the start.
- Set yourself up for success by creating a business plan.
If you want to start a company that gets off on the right foot, this book is for you.
That’s it for this week, have a great weekend!
Happy reading,
-Nik
StrengthsFinder – PDF Drive
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath – PDF Drive
Random Paragraph
The red ball sat proudly at the top of the toybox. It had been the last to be played with and anticipated it would be the next as well. The other toys grumbled beneath. At one time each had held the spot of the red ball, but over time they had sunk deeper and deeper into the toy box.
My Haiku
Confessing pictures
Nothing left on dual sides
Menace after death
What’s Cooking – allrecipes newsletter
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Random Paragraph – writing prompt
Sometimes it’s simply better to ignore the haters. That’s the lesson that his dad had been trying to teach him, but he still couldn’t let it go. He latched onto them and their hate and couldn’t let it go, but he also realized that this wasn’t healthy. That’s when he came up with his devious plan.
Gastro Obscura Newsletter I like
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Nik’s Book Summaries Newsletter I like
Heyo, Nik here with your free summary of the day.
If you enjoy these, check out our reading guide. It’ll help you learn and remember more from everything you read.
Happy reading!
Want to get just one weekly summary roundup? Switch to weekly.
1-Sentence-Summary: The Art Of The Start is your guide to beginning a company and explains everything from getting the right people on board to writing a winning business plan and building your brand.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author:
You’ve heard that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” This is sound advice, but too frequently we get stuck before we even make the initial push forward.
This is especially true if you’re thinking about starting a company. And who can blame you? With such a momentous task at hand, it’s no wonder you’d get stuck in the planning stages.
But if you don’t ever start, you’re not going to experience the success that becoming an entrepreneur will bring you.
That’s why you’re going to love Guy Kawasaki’s tips in The Art of The Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything. It’ll teach you all the planning you need to do and just what your first steps need to be so you can build a winning company.
Here are the 3 biggest lessons I’ve learned from this book:
- Your first goal as an entrepreneur must be to create meaning, not make money.
- Prepare your Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks to have direction and purpose right from the start.
- Set yourself up for success by creating a business plan.
Got your winning business idea ready? Let’s jump into these lessons and discover how to make it happen!
If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.Download PDF
Lesson 1: Making money isn’t as important as creating meaning.
Before I began my entrepreneurial journey, I was apprehensive about it. I’d see corrupt billionaires and guys advertising their get rich quick scheme with flashy cars and big houses. I wanted nothing to do with any of that stuff. And I definitely didn’t want to become that kind of person.
The reason these things are so tacky and obnoxious is that they go against everything that business should be. It’s more about the money than making a difference, which is what winners focus on before cash.
Your company does this by making a product or service that makes the world a better place. And the more what you do or sell improves the lives of your customers, the more successful your business will be.
This happens because when your primary focus is money, the main motivation is greed. That attracts dishonest people that make your customers feel uncomfortable, just like the guys with sports cars.
Contrast this with a company that focuses on creating value and truly helping people. If you’ve ever worked at such a place then you know the powerful motivation that trying to make a difference brings.
You can build this meaning into your company from the start by identifying a mantra that supports it. This is different than a mission statement but is also a short and powerful phrase that reminds everyone of your why.
Nike’s, for example, is “Authentic athletic performance.” And Disney uses the mantra of “Fun family entertainment” to remind themselves of their purpose.
Lesson 2: If you want purpose and direction from the beginning, prepare your Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks with the MAT framework.
Have you ever worked at a place that seems like it’s going nowhere? I’ve been there before and it’s not really fun. You don’t want to create this kind of environment for your employees. To avoid this, use the MAT framework to get direction:
- Milestones
- Assumptions
- Tasks
The initial step is to identify milestones, which are the big events on your way to accomplishing your business goals. This is vital because it lets you see clear steps in the path to success and review how well you’re doing at each of them.
You might, for example, set a milestone of establishing a “proof of concept” for your product to make sure it will actually work. A good follow-up step would be to finish the prototype. And last, you’d want to track the milestone of getting funding to make it.
Next, you must review the assumptions you’re making about your business. Brainstorm a list of everything that you think is true about your idea that might not actually be accurate. You want to look specifically for thoughts that you have no data to back up. Keep track of them to see whether or not you were right about them.
Last comes listing the tasks that you need to do on a daily or weekly basis to meet your milestones. These can be anything from setting up insurance policies for your employees to acquiring office space.
Lesson 3: A business plan will set you up for success.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin:
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
A plan is anything that identifies our objectives and the steps we’re going to take to reach them, and this is no different for a business. Although it might sound formal and even maybe useless for a startup that has a lot of unknowns, but this is a vital step on your path to profit.
Think about your stakeholders, for example. They might not ever read it, but you’d better bet they’ll ask for it. And you’re never going to get funding from investors unless you have a business plan.
Having one is great, but the steps you’ll take to make it are also helpful for many reasons. The process of writing it gives your team a chance to work together more efficiently, for example.
It might even tell you how much you don’t want to work with the people you’ve got on board. That’s a really important piece of information to have as early as possible!
Additionally, the process of reviewing all that you need for a good plan will show you gaps in your thinking. For instance, you might have nobody on your team preparing for customer service.
The trick to making an effective business plan is making sure the executive summary is spot on. It’s a four-paragraph abstract of the entire plan and is the first thing anyone reads. Make it good and you’ll attract attention and success!
The Art Of The Start Review
It’s funny, with all the talk The Art Of The Start had of iPods and Hummers, I definitely got a big 2004 vibe from it and guess when it came out? 2004! I think that’s also a big reason why I struggled with many of these ideas-because they’re already outdated! Luckily he recently released version 2.0 which we’ll have to summarize soon. I’m looking forward to it too because I felt like this version makes starting a business more difficult than it needs to be!
Read full summary on Blinkist >>
Learn more about the author >>
Who would I recommend The Art Of The Start summary to?
The 24-year-old who is thinking that they want to become an entrepreneur, the 56-year-old CEO that has a new idea for a product but needs some help planning it out, and anybody that wants to know how to start a business.
The post The Art Of The Start Summary appeared first on Four Minute Books.
Keep learning,
-Nik
PS: Want to get more out of everything you read? Check out our guide!
Random Paragraph
Colors bounced around in her head. They mixed and threaded themselves together. Even colors that had no business being together. They were all one, yet distinctly separate at the same time. How was she going to explain this to the others?
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Take a Stance – Stand Up to it!
“Sometimes you must agree with someone’s opinion for the sake of being polite and modest, but within you, you know that you are not foolish and crazy.”
―
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Seth Godin Newsletter
The relativity of time
Two things are true simultaneously:
We’re running out of time.
We have too much time on our hands.
How can we be at a deadline and bored at the same time?
We always are.
Our experience of time relates to engagement, fear, opportunity, and culture.
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Take a Stance
“If you have an elegant stance, a noble stance, an ethical stance, or a scientific stance, you will not be appreciated by the inelegant, by the ignoble, by the unethical or by the unscientific people!”
―
Eagle’s Stance
“Let an eagle’s stance in life be your stance too: Noble and powerful!”
―
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Random Paragraph
I’ve rented a car in Goa and have reserved a hotel in Palms which is just north of Beach. We’ll drive from Bengaluru through Dandeli Forests and possibly do a short hike on our way down. Then spend all day on Monday at North Goa Beach. We can decide the next morning if we want to do more in North Goa or South Goa before we head back.
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(Joe Raedle via Getty Images)
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Seasoned Nuts quotable
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| “Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are”
“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company” |
Pickled Grapes Recipe | Allrecipes
Nik’s Book Summaries Newsletter I like
Heyo, Nik here with your free summary of the day.
If you enjoy these, check out our reading guide. It’ll help you learn and remember more from everything you read.
Happy reading!
Want to get just one weekly summary roundup? Switch to weekly.
1-Sentence-Summary: Resisting Happiness shows you how to get more joy in your life by exploring the roadblocks you unknowingly put in the way of it, explaining why it’s a choice, and giving specific tips to help you make the decision to be content.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author:
You want to be happy. But every time you try to catch joy, it seems to slip through your fingers, replaced by worry and stress. You can’t put a price on fulfillment because it’s so valuable, but it also comes at the cost of hard work.
The trouble is, figuring out just where to put in the effort to make it happen isn’t always so easy. In the information age, there are infinite routes you can go down to try to grab a sense of wellbeing. The trick is just to find the right ones for you.
Interestingly, you need to begin looking for happiness by identifying what’s making you sad. Once you uncover these roadblocks, then you can begin removing them to let joy have free reign in your life.
Figuring this all out is just the topic of Matthew Kelly’s book Resisting Happiness. You’ll see what practicality, philosophy, and Kelly’s personal experiences teach about how to eliminate what holds you back from true fulfillment in life. And you’ll learn every step you need to take to get there in your own life.
3 of the best principles I got from this book are:
- Remember to read and that money isn’t everything if you want more meaning in life.
- Learn the joy of being alone.
- Practice delaying gratification and make sure you keep good friends close to reach your full potential.
Let’s get right into it and discover what Kelly has to teach us about happiness!
If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.Download PDF
Lesson 1: For a more meaningful life, remember to read and that money isn’t everything.
In college, reading wasn’t at the top of my to-do list. It was difficult to manage a schedule full of classes and a social life and still find time to get into a good book.
But what I didn’t realize was that my lack of reading was one of the things holding me back from happiness.
Today I see that reading is an important window into the world around me. And as I pick the right authors, it’s like having their guidance right next to me when I’m trying to figure something important out.
Think of books like friends that you can turn to for an escape when life gets difficult. They have the power to change your perspective and improve your attitude.
Another important factor that could be holding you back from joy is placing too much emphasis on money. You do need it, but looking for opportunities to help others without the expectation of a reward is a sure path to fulfillment.
Picture this. The author goes to his neighbor Joe and offers to pay him $1,000 an hour to plan trees at the elementary school down the street. Joe puts in a couple of hours of half-hearted work and leaves richer but feeling empty.
Contrast this with the feeling Joe would have if the author asked him to volunteer his time. He might work hard all day to do what the school needs rather than just get paid and ends up happier and more fulfilled as a result.
Lesson 2: Nurture the relationship you have with yourself through solitude.
One time in college I was having difficulties with relationships and tried what I thought was a strange idea at the time. I took a day off work and made a plan to hang out with myself for the entire day. I even left my cell phone at home!
It turned out to be one of the most memorable and enjoyable days of my life. I spent time eating food I love, took a drive into the mountains for a picnic, and watched one of my favorite movies.
Unknowingly, I’d unblocked one of the most common roadblocks in the way of happiness-discovering the joy of being by myself.
Loneliness can be a scary prospect, especially if you’re used to always being with other people. You might even go to great lengths, making stupid decisions and getting into bad relationships, just to avoid it.
But consider that by spending more time alone, you’re nurturing a relationship with the one person you’ll never be without-yourself! It might sound counterintuitive, but more time alone will help you beat loneliness.
You also get a chance to dive into who you really are every time you plan to spend time by yourself. In fact, this is the only time you have to get to know your personality, so use it wisely and get plenty of it!
Lesson 3: If you want to reach your full potential, you’ll need to have good friends and to practice delaying gratification.
Being alone is important but it’s not everything. You’ve got to have friends, but the right kind if you want to truly be happy.
In tenth grade, I was terrified of social situations. I wouldn’t even ask a girl on a date I was so scared. But at the beginning of the next year, I met a group of friends that improved all of that.
I began spending a lot of time with one in particular who completely changed my life. The first weekend after we’d met he pushed me to ask a girl to the Homecoming dance.
I didn’t want to, but I knew that it was good for me so I did it anyway. Not only did I have a great time, but I also got out of my comfort zone and grew as a person.
In the months afterward, I transformed from an awkward and shy kid to a far more confident young man. If it weren’t for the help of friends that cared about my progress, I wouldn’t be who I am today!
Don’t keep holding yourself back from reaching your full potential by hanging around with mediocre people. Find a new friend group, and specifically look for high-quality people that you know will push you to be your best self.
It will change your life, and in the process, you’ll find a lot more fulfillment along the way!
Resisting Happiness Review
Resisting Happiness is a great book and one that I would highly recommend to anyone. I really like the idea that the path to joy comes from removing the roadblocks we put in the way of it. The tips this book gives are already giving me a lot of great ideas about what makes my life more fulfilling and how to double down on those practices!
Interesting Newsletter from Nik
Would They Miss You If You Were Gone?
A simple definition for doing work that matters
Four years ago, after six months of hard work, I finally did it: My email list reached 10,000 subscribers. I was ecstatic.
10,000 people. That’s a small stadium. Imagine a sold out arena, waiting for you — just for you — to share your latest work. This would be my big break. I was sure of it. With 10,000 people marching behind me, nothing I make would ever fall flat again.
You can see where this is going. I’m about to swallow a bitter pill here.
Later that year, I heard Seth Godin define permission marketing:
If that email you were going to send to 10,000 people tomorrow — if it didn’t go out — how many of the 10,000 people would say: “Where is the email?!” If the answer is none, then you don’t have permission. You’re just being tolerated.
Convinced that my dedicated subscribers loved me, I decided to run an experiment: That week, I didn’t send out my newsletter. No announcement. No warning. I just skipped one email. What would happen? Who would ask for it? How many people? Would they be concerned? What would they say?
I woke up the next morning to a sobering realization: No one had emailed me. No one had asked for the newsletter. I waited. One day. Two. Three. Nothing. Crickets. No one missed me when I was gone. Ouch.
The all-important question in marketing, art, and doing great work is this: “What does it mean to matter?” According to Seth, there is a simple answer:
Would they miss you if you were gone? I don’t know who they are, I don’t know what gone means, but those people that you’re seeking to have an impact on, would they miss you if you didn’t show up tomorrow?
In my case, people didn’t. Maybe, they thought my newsletter was nice. Maybe, they enjoyed an article or two of mine. Clearly, however, none of my readers considered my work essential. They could easily do without it.
It hurts to find out that the tribe you’ve assembled with your blood, sweat, and tears will disband the second you stop talking to them, but the message it sends is clear: You never formed a real tribe in the first place. You just talked enough people into following along. You convinced them to take the flyer, to try the free sample, to sign up for the trial subscription — but you didn’t do the hard work of building a loyal relationship.
You just did “the hustle dance,” as Seth calls it:
Would they miss you if this new product, this new project didn’t come to the world? Or do you have to do that whole hustle dance, “Look at me, look at me,” jump up and down, offer for a limited time, bla bla bla… To game it so they’ll actually transact with you. That work doesn’t feel like it matters to me.
It’s easy to think you’re doing work that matters. That, somehow, your marketing is different. You have good intentions. You really want your audience to succeed. But you might still cut corners. We all succumb to the temptation sometimes.
Clickbait is still clickbait, even if you deliver on your promise. Selling is still selfish if your main goal is to make money. Giving gifts is not generous if it comes with expectations. In many ways, reciprocity has been corrupted.
If what you’re doing feels like playing a game, chances are, not many will miss you when you’re gone. You’re just another player who dropped out. Fine. Less competition. Less hassle. Less clutter in my inbox.
Here’s another question: Where is the sacrifice? How much are you really sweating? If we can’t see your effort in what you make for us, how can we know you mean what you say?
The only way to show people you have their best interest at heart is to actually do. You can’t fake it. You either do something selfless, or you don’t. It’s one of the few things in life that are surprisingly black and white and, most of the time, plain to see — at least on a long enough timeline.
When I didn’t hear back from my fans, when no one missed me when I was gone, I was devastated. I questioned everything I was doing. I changed things. I tried to do better.
Last year, I started another newsletter. I put in hard work. Real work. It grew fast. It was free. I sent it every day. I came up with themes. I wanted to help so badly. I really tried.
To this day, it’s not as big as my first one. It has about 5,000 subscribers. But, often, when I missed a day or didn’t share something in a while, a few people checked in. “Hey, Nik, are you okay?” “Hey Nik, where are the emails?”
It’s great to see you’re moving in the right direction. It feels good to be missed when you’re gone.
It’s okay. You’re not perfect. Take your time. Learn to stop dancing. Start making. Take your ego out of the equation. Not for a while. Not for this one thing. Completely.
Watch what happens. Watch how, slowly, the magic unfolds. Watch them start to miss you when you’re gone.
Write like a pro,
-Nik
PS: Want to take your writing game to the next level? Check out Write Like A Pro.
The Beacon Newsletter
The Beacon
It’s Monday, August 24, and the Pebble Mine project could be delayed indefinitely.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will issue a letter today giving the developers of the Pebble Mine, a proposed gold, copper, and silver ore mine in Alaska, 90 days to submit a new plan to mitigate the project’s impacts on wetlands and streams. The new conditions could delay final approvals for the controversial mine until after November’s presidential election.
The planned site for the proposed mine is near streams that foster spawning salmon, which in turn support the world’s largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery, Alaska Natives who depend on subsistence fishing, and a large sport-fishing industry. The Obama administration vetoed the project after determining that it would impact salmon harvests. Under the Trump administration, the Army Corps reversed that finding but did determine that the proposed mine would impact wetlands and streams.
The chief executive of the company behind the mine said the firm plans to move forward with the mitigation plan. But with mounting opposition — which strangely has united Donald Trump Jr. and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, the future for the Pebble Mine is growing dim.
— Emily Pontecorvo
Smog clouds
THE SMOG
Need-to-know basis
Tropical Storm Laura killed at least 13 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic over the weekend and caused Puerto Rico to declare a state of emergency. Laura is expected to soon intensify into a hurricane and hit the Gulf Coast of the U.S. byThursday.
Two crew members died on Friday after a dredging vessel struck a submerged pipeline, causing an explosion and fire in Corpus Christi, Texas. Two other crew members are still missing, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality reported that the vessel hit a propane pipeline, while the Port of Corpus Christi claimed it had struck a natural gas pipeline.
A recent study found that babies born to mothers who had breathed in smoke from a 2104 coal mine fire in the Australian state of Victoria were more likely to have respiratory infections in early childhood. The researchers warned that as climate change increases the risk of wildfires, more pregnant people will be exposed to pollutants that will impactt their future children’s respiratory health.
— Angely Mercado
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Random Paragraph
“Begin today!” That’s all the note said. There was no indication from where it came or who may have written it. Had it been meant for someone else? She looked around the room, but nobody made eye contact back. For a brief moment, she thought it might be a message for her to follow her dreams, but ultimately decided it was easier to ignore it as she crumpled it up and threw it away.
Surrender yourself to the cause of God.
Divine Love will make men selfless and helpful in their mutual relations and it will bring about the final solution of all problems. The new brotherhood on earth shall be a fulfilled fact and nations will be united in the fraternity of Love and Truth.
My existence is for this Love and this Truth; and to suffering humanity I say: Have hope.
I have come to help you in surrendering yourselves to the cause of God and in accepting His Grace of Love and Truth.
I have come to help you in winning the one Victory of all victories—to win your self.
——-AVATAR MEHER BABA
[GEMS FROM THE DISCOURSES OF MEHER BABA By Meher Baba. An Avatar Meher Baba Trust eBook June 2011. Copyright © 1945 by Circle Productions, Inc. (a New York Corporation), Copyright © Adi K. Irani, 1967 Copyright © 2007, Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust, Ahmednagar, India.]