Category: Turning Stories
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“Never do nothing”
It was earlier in his life, perhaps when he worked in finance, that Dave Spitz picked up a belief: “If you do everything on your to-do list, you’re succeeding. If you don’t, you’re failing.” Dave quit finance and eventually started California Strength, a training facility for Olympic weightlifting. While he owns a gym, he doesn’t…
Herbert Lui
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One chance
Dan Sullivan is a coach for entrepreneurs. He asks every prospective client a question, “If we were having this discussion three years from today, and you were looking back over those three years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress?” It’s a…
Herbert Lui
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What’s the point?
“What’s the point in planning, if it could all end at any time?” Dustin Gorton survived the Columbine massacre at age 18. He learned how fleeting life can be that day. A blog attributes a powerful reflection to him, penned when he turned 36. It reads, “I came away with the [lesson that] death is…
Herbert Lui
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Blogging for smaller audiences and deeper connections
Making good work requires making mistakes. It’s never a straight path to the final work. If a lot of people see your creative work all the time, then it’ll be more difficult for you to make imperfect work. You won’t have space to tinker and experiment so much. You won’t even just be able to…
Herbert Lui
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Three stories about emotional reactions
1. Anthony de Mello writes in Awareness: Imagine a patient who goes to a doctor and tells him what he is suffering from. The doctor says, “Very well, I’ve understood your symptoms. Do you know what I will do? I will prescribe a medicine for your neighbor!” The patient replies, “Thank you very much, Doctor,…
Herbert Lui
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Chipping away
I used to drop everything to focus on a single project at a time. I would try to do all the tasks as soon as possible, in the hopes of getting it done and out of the way so I could relax. For example, if I had an administrative project, I told myself I’d just…
Herbert Lui
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Discouragement is a test
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a sports commentator. I enjoyed watching sports, and I liked talking, so that sounded like a sweet job. My family gave me a hard reality check: How many people were there on TV that looked like me? How often did such job opportunities open up? What…
Herbert Lui
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Living the contradictions
Uncertainty is very difficult to live with—borderline painful. I used to think it was best to make a decision and move on, as soon as possible. Don’t look back, either. Flip–flopping was not acceptable. In her book Working Identity, professor Herminia Ibarra explores career transitions. She explains that rushing into a premature decision—to either stay,…
Herbert Lui
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The natural game
When Charles Duhigg attended his Harvard Business School class’s 15-year reunion, he was surprised to discover how many of his former classmates were miserable. One of them was earning over a million dollars a year, and said to him, “If you spend 12 hours a day doing work you hate, at some point it doesn’t…
Herbert Lui
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A useful rule for relationships
My friend James recently shared a simple, useful, perspective, “Assume that if you’re not the person reaching out to keep the relationship alive, it’ll die.” Useful for a variety of reasons: It puts you in the driver’s seat of your relationship. Don’t wait for a text from your friends, be the one reaching out! Twice…
Herbert Lui