Category: Turning Stories
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The joys of blooming “late”
For much of my 20s, I spent a lot of time feeling like I was late. I blamed my teenage self for slacking off and having fun. I blamed him, effectively, for being a teenager. I wasn’t being nice or kind. When I was 25, I considered myself a late bloomer. I wrote to my…
Herbert Lui
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While the image of success is loud, real success is quiet
If you asked me nine years ago, success often involved images that conveyed money, power, and respect. It was very theatrical. Thanks to my stomach, I realized a truer, clearer, and more real definition of success. For some people, those images are worth everything, including their health. For me, I realized that they meant next…
Herbert Lui
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Sometimes, the quiet achievements are the most important ones
One winter night, nine years ago, I was a few bites into a pad gra prow with crispy pork when I felt like I was full. It made no sense because I hadn’t eaten in several hours. A part of me still felt very hungry. When I tried forcing the food down, a technique my…
Herbert Lui
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The writer’s room inside your mind
Many TV shows hire writers. These writers work together to discuss what they want to accomplish with the show, characters, and episodes. They also share what they’ve noticed and what has caught their interest. Each writer pitches ideas, writes and edits scripts, and in the process turns them into stories that, hopefully, stick with us.…
Herbert Lui
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Create full-time job opportunities by adding value as a freelancer
If you’re unemployed and seeking a full-time job, you could intentionally approach freelancing as if it were an alternative to the interview process. This can be effective, because every hiring manager has too many problems and too little time. They are, often, toiling away at work that doesn’t add leverage for them (nor does it…
Herbert Lui
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Imagined realities can be shaped
For better or worse, people know what “content marketing” is. It’s a genre. It also used to make me feel sick. I felt embarrassed, as if content marketing meant that I didn’t take writing seriously. I vented about it a few years ago. When I started a business which worked with software companies on their…
Herbert Lui
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Being frugal makes entrepreneurs less fragile
Many—maybe most—bootstrapped entrepreneurs tend to bias towards frugality. A dollar saved is a dollar earned. Saving money buys greater freedom, it also enables the entrepreneurs to survive longer, so they have more time to execute their plans or to get lucky. Here are some scenes from my career to illustrate: A client leased a beautiful…
Herbert Lui
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Don’t make maintenance a last resort
If you only ever visit the doctor when you have an emergency, you’d believe that every doctor’s trip should be urgent and borderline life threatening. “The doctor is so ineffective!” you might think. That’s not how it needs to be though. Annual check ups and visits with mild symptoms help you get ahead of the…
Herbert Lui
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Good judgment does not mean being judgmental
Anyone who wants to make good work needs to master the art of receiving constructive feedback, knowing what to do with it, and following through with making changes. “There are no writers, there are only rewriters,” says author John Seabrook. What pieces of feedback are useful? Which is most important? What are some possible solutions?…
Herbert Lui
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To get back into reading, choose a book just for fun
Whenever you fall off a reading practice, a useful way to get back into it is to read a book just for fun. Purely out of interest, curiosity, and joy. Some books that have done that for me lately: Office Ladies, Adversity for Sale, How Starbucks Saved My Life. When you don’t read, it’s easy…
Herbert Lui