Category: Turning Stories
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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
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A useful belief for tasteful entrepreneurs
The first year after Daniel Vassallo quit his job and went independent, his income was $33,000. The year after that, he made 10x. If you asked him how that happened, he would describe it like this, “I got a new sense of urgency at the end of 2019 and started working backwards from my financial…
Herbert Lui
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Stories as psychological moonshots
In 1969, commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo 11 on the moon. It was the first step to send people into space and discover literal galaxies of new possibilities. This project became the archetypal one for ambitious, exploratory, work; we now use the word “moonshot” to describe projects that…
Herbert Lui
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Deliberate play
When I was a child, my parents enlisted me in piano class for the better half of a decade. Those were long years. Every day, I was tasked with practicing two or three songs six times. During exam season, I would need to practice my exam songs ten times perfectly—which meant that if I made…
Herbert Lui
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Every dollar you save is a coupon on the next thing you buy
Retailers often offer incentives to encourage customers to buy more stuff. This can look like buy two get one free, buy one get one 50% off, flash sales, and free shipping thresholds. Most of these mechanisms are designed to short circuit your brain. They work against clear thinking; they give you a limited time constraint…
Herbert Lui
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Worth the wait
Late is better than never, and it’s never too late. Even if the line is long, and you missed a chance to join earlier. If the best time to start was yesterday, the second best time is today. Being patient is much easier than it looks. Some lines don’t need you to be present, so…
Herbert Lui