There are only two excerpts (one from a book and one from a speech) that I have framed in my entire home and they are the two below. Together, they sum up how I view the world better than I ever could.
1. Derek Sivers
From the book “How to Live”:
Here’s how to live: Create.
The most valuable real estate in the world is the graveyard.
There lie millions of half-written books, ideas never launched, and talents never developed.
Most people die with everything still inside of them.
The way to live is to create.
Die empty.
Get every idea out of your head and into reality.
Calling yourself creative doesn’t make it true.
All that matters is what you’ve launched.
Make finishing your top priority.
When most people see modern art, they think, “I could do that!”
But they didn’t.
That is the difference between consumer and creator.
Which would you rather be?
Someone who hasn’t created anything in years because you’re so busy consuming?
Or someone who hasn’t consumed anything in years because you’re so busy creating?
2. Teddy Roosevelt
From the speech “Citizenship in a Republic”
The Man in the Arena
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Other Works Worth Reading:
These are books and essays that I often reread every so often and each time I always come away with new insights and inspiration.
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What to Do by Paul Graham
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Atomic Habits` by James Clear
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Company of One by Paul Jarvis
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The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
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The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
- Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
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The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
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Die with Zero by Bill Perkins
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Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- How to Do Great Work by Paul Graham
- How to Pick Your Life Partner by Wait But Why