Category Archives: Self-Improvement

Investing For Dummies

Posted on May 2, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I recently wrote the following as a response to one of Sebastian Marshall’s posts about investing, in which he breaks down what he’s learning about the financial game, the reasons people shouldn’t try to pick their own stocks, and how … Continue reading →

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Get Rich?

Posted on May 1, 2011 by AJ Kessler

A lot of people I know want to get rich.  The problem is, most of them probably couldn’t answer this very simple question: How do you define “rich”? Is it a sequence of numbers following a dollar sign? Is it … Continue reading →

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Deadlines Force Creativity

Posted on April 30, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Inspiration and work ethic, they ride right next to each other. When I was an upholsterer, sometimes you’re not inspired to reupholster and old chair. Sometimes it’s just work and you just do it because you’re supposed to. And maybe … Continue reading →

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Poke The Box

Posted on April 29, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Not only do I think Seth Godin’s new manifesto, Poke The Box, is worth reading, I think there’s some ideas in it that are so important I’m putting them down here so I don’t forget them.  The book is only … Continue reading →

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Change Is Good

Posted on April 28, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I know a lot of people who not only fear change, but hate it.  I had never really understood why.  To me, change is always good.  I’ve never gone through a change and said “I wish that never happened.”  Even … Continue reading →

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Anxiety

Posted on April 27, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance. – Seth Godin

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Failure Is Good

Posted on April 26, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Most people are afraid of failure.  I know I certainly am at times.  The problem is, failure is often the best way to learn.  When you succeed at something difficult or amorphous, you usually don’t know why: a lot of … Continue reading →

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Ego Is Good

Posted on April 25, 2011 by AJ Kessler

From Seth Godin’s Poke The Box: Somewhere along the way, ego became a nasty word.  It’s not. When our name is on a project, our ego pushes us over the hump and drives us to do even better work.  Ego … Continue reading →

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If You’re Not Curious, You’re Boring

Posted on April 24, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I have no special talent.  I am only passionately curious. -Albert Einstein I really believe curiosity is everything.  Those who aren’t curious about the world are boring and never accomplish anything great.  I can understand how people can go through … Continue reading →

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Now Is A Great Time To Be Young

Posted on April 23, 2011 by AJ Kessler

It seems like every day that I hear how hard it is to be young these days.  There’s no jobs, students are laden with debt, etc. etc. This seems like total bullshit to me.  For example, this NY Times piece … Continue reading →

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Hired Guns

Posted on April 19, 2011 by AJ Kessler

When Alex Rodriguez wanted a new contract to reflect the fact that he may end up as the all time leader in HR, hits, RBIs, and runs scored, he didn’t negotiate the deal himself.  He hired super-agent Scott Boras, who … Continue reading →

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Negotiation, Persuasion, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Being Owned

Posted on April 18, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I’m not in show business because I don’t have to go to the meetings, I’m just not a part of it, I don’t belong to it. When you “belong” to something. You want to think about that word, “belong.” People … Continue reading →

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Trouble Focusing? Clean Your Workspace

Posted on April 17, 2011 by AJ Kessler

This is an interesting study from the University of Princeton’s Neuroscience Institute: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21228167 Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate … Continue reading →

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Being Done

Posted on April 16, 2011 by AJ Kessler

The point of being done is not to finish, but to get other things done. - Cult of Done That feeling of completing some big project is fantastic.  It feels like you’ve pushed a giant stone off your chest.  It should … Continue reading →

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Short and Sweet

Posted on April 15, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. -Mark Twain Three Sentences (http://three.sentenc.es/) is an intriguing solution to a problem many people don’t even recognize exists.  Emails are often too long, especially … Continue reading →

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