Quotes/ Wisdom – Tribe of Mentors

I’ve been slowly plugging along through Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferriss, and I’m really enjoying it. I try to write down at least one quote from each interview in my notebook. The book is full of great WISDOM!

I thought I’d share some today, in no particular order, without too much commentary from me. 🙂 Enjoy!

(*Note- I opted to not really include who these people all are. They are all high achievers/ experts/ great thinkers/ etc in a wide variety of fields. Many have very interesting pasts and stories- too much to list out here. Feel free to look them up though. Or read the book. 🙂 )

From Kyle Maynard:

🔷”Thinking of what makes me happy doesn’t give me that same clarity as thinking about what gives me bliss.”

🔷His motto, borrowed from a Navy SEAL: “Not Dead, Can’t Quit”. ❤️

🔷(I’m paraphrasing, about making decisions): When deciding how much you like something or want to do it, try rating it from 1-10, but remove 7 as an option. So many people tend to pick a “7” rating for things from speeches to coffees to even dates- which doesn’t give much clarity. It’s too vague. If you eliminate number 7, and you’re forced to pick between rating it a 6 or an 8, it becomes a lot clearer if it is something you want to even consider or not. –> THIS IS SO SMART!

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From Steve Jobs:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the 10 other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

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From Terry Crews:

“God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every great and extraordinary accomplishment was done through courage.”

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From Debbie Millman:

On busyness: “Busy is a decision. Busy is the most inauthentic and laziest excuse. We do the things we want to do, period. Busy= not important enough. You don’t find the time to do something, you make the time to do things. “I am too busy” has become cultural cachet for not doing anything we don’t feel like doing. Make the time to do the things you want to do, and then do them.”

“Avoid compulsively making things worse.” –> Haha, this is a good one!

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From Naval Ravikant:

“A sincere, uncompromising desire, placed above everything else, is nearly always fulfilled.” TRUE! When there’s a will, there’s a way.

“Ignore the unfairness. There is no fair. Play the hand that you’re dealt to the best of your ability.”

“”Memento mori”. Remember that you have to die. All of this will go to nothing. Remember before you were born? Just like that.”

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From Matt Ridley:

“Don’t be intimidated by anything. In the vast majority of the professions and vocations, the people who succeed are not any cleverer than you.” –> Great point and good to remember.

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From Niels Bohr:

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”

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From women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

“Students should go to college with an open mind. I advise them to ignore all the absolutism around them, both in terms of ideas + people. When they’re told that some people or ideas are wrong, hateful or offensive, a light bulb should go off in their heads. That is the moment their curiosity should be piqued to find out for themselves whether it is indeed a “bad” thing. Adopting an attitude of critical thinking is most crucial in learning anything.”

Note: I love this immensely.

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An anecdote about Einstein, shared by physics and astronomy professor Janna Levin (pg. 51):

“In 1915 he thought gravitational waves- ripples in the shape of spacetime- were the most important consequence of his general theory of relativity. He reversed himself a couple years later, claiming they did not exist. He goes back and forth like this for a bit.

Several years later, he submits a paper for publication asserting they do not exist. Somewhere between acceptance and going to press, he slips in an entirely new manuscript that says they do. A friend warns, “Einstein, you have to be careful. Your famous name will be on these papers.” Einstein laughs. “My name is on plenty of wrong papers,” he says.

In the 1930s he declares he does not know if gravitational waves exist but it is an important question. In 2015, 100 years after Einstein first proposes their existence, a massive billion-dollar experimental undertaking records gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes over a billion years ago, waves emitted long before humans emerged on the Earth.

We discourage failure, and by doing so we subtly discourage success.”

*Powerful story!! Things take time, and it’s okay to be wrong, a lot, along the way. It’s also okay to change your mind as you learn. 🙂

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Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for not realizing the 800 million dollar Mega Millions lottery drawing was already last night. Thought it was today (Wednesday) for some reason. I was planning to buy a couple tickets! Oh well! I saved our family a few dollars by not buying tickets, after all, so I’ll say I’m grateful I made that mistake. 😉 (P.S. Did you see the numbers? 7, 29, 60, 63, 66, and 15. No way would I have picked THREE numbers in the 60s!! Definitely wouldn’t have won that, anyway.)

EDITED TO ADD! Just checked my phone….apparently no one won!! Crazy!! The new jackpot is going to be over $1 billion. Maybe this is my big chance!!! 😆Better double check the drawing date this time. 😉