Jan, 2020

The Big Idea: In the end, relationships are all that matters.

• Balance when establishing your career, in my view, is largely a myth. However, you can still experience a lot of reward while working hard on the way to success.
• The most important decision you’ll make is not where you work or who you party with, but who you choose to partner with for the rest of your life.
• Get to a place that’s crowded with success.
• Money can buy happiness, to a point. But once you reach a certain level of economic security, the correlation flattens.
• Invest in relationships. The payoff, small at first, is immense much later.
• The definition of “rich” is having passive income greater than your living expenses. Keep your living expenses low and you can be rich quickly.
• Consumption of alcohol predicts unhappiness better than any other factor.
• Invest in experiences over things. Drive a Hyundai and take your wife to St. Barts.
• Providing comfort for someone you love at the end of their life is deeply satisfying.
• The happiest people are those in monogamous relationships who have children.
• Everyone experiences failure and tragedy. The key to success is the ability to mourn and then move on.
• Talent alone won’t get you within spitting distance of 0.1 percent. Hard work is more important.
• Passion is overrated. Find something you’re good at and passion will follow.
• It takes much less money than you think to be a great dad. Don’t let your ego mislead you.
• Boring is more profitable. I try to avoid investing in anything that sounds remotely cool.
• Help take care of your parents. Start now.
• Show up early. Have good manners. Follow up.
• If you’re good at working at a big firm, then you are likely better off doing just that — and not struggling against the long odds facing a small firm.
• Entrepreneurship is a sales job with negative commissions until you raise capital, are profitable, or go out of business.
• You don’t need a Nobel to see the similarities between 1999 and 2019.
• Recessions are great times to launch a company. People, real estate, and services are all much less expensive.
• Boom times are better times to develop your career at a big firm, when others are leaving to get rich during the boom times.
• If you’re an entrepreneur or find yourself sitting on assets that represent a large portion of your wealth, I’m comfortable saying that while a bull market may not be the best time to sell, it’s most certainly not a bad time to sell.
• I’m 80 percent in cash in 2019, which most reasonable financial managers will tell you is stupid.
• Your gains and losses in the market are never as good or bad as they seem.
• Take care of your credit score.
• I’ve started nine companies: three were wins, four were failures, and two were somewhere in between. Only in America.
• Reach out to friends on a regular basis.
• Professional success is the means, not the end. The end is economic security for your family and, more important, meaningful relationships with family and friends.
• My willingness to endure rejection from universities, peers, investors, and women has been hugely rewarding.
• Love and relationships are the ends — everything else is just the means.
• The key decision you’ll make in life is who you have kids with.
• There is one shortcut to happiness: finding someone who chooses you over everything.
• Here is the advice on marriage I offer: Don’t keep score. Don’t ever let your wife be cold or hungry. Express affection and desire as often as possible.
• Nobody has an algorithm for successful parenting.
• Exercise is the only real youth serum .
• Marketers hate old people. Old people spend their time and money on things that matter, like healthcare, loved ones, and college funds for their grandkids instead of vintage sneakers, iPhones, and Keurig pods.
• A house isn’t a much better investment than any other asset class.
• A better proxy for your life isn’t your first home, but your last. Where you draw your last breath is more meaningful.
• Where you die, and who is around you at the end, is a strong signal of your success or failure in life.
• I believe parents want two things: 1. To know their family loves them immensely. 2. To recognize that their love and parenting gave their children the skills and confidence to add value and live rewarding lives.
• I don’t think we go to an afterworld, but I do believe we can get to heaven while still here on Earth.
• We are hunter-gatherers and are happiest when in motion and surrounded by others.
• My life is easy compared to the billions of people who have trouble putting food on the table or who struggle with illness.
• How can you live to be one hundred? Have good genetics, live a healthy lifestyle, and love others.
• The successful are often rude and greedy. The super-successful people I know are usually nicer, more generous, and generally better mannered.
• Gratitude is consistently correlated with greater happiness.
• Nobody ever says at a funeral, “He was too generous, too kind, and much too loving.”