I’m back. (What I’ve learned)
It’s your favorite material science and nanotechnology researcher!
I’m back. :-)
And yes, my readers, I know, you’ve all been wondering:
I’ve been building a biofortified provitamin A Maize for Southern Mexico, reading, and problem identification in the aerogel industry.
Separate article coming on that soon 🚀
I’ll make my reflections, experiences, and reminders from the past 8 months short and sweet with examples. Bonus resources included. ;)
For Everyday Life. 🌄
We need to be reminded more (of the basics) than learn something new.
- Reminder: Check up on the beliefs that you forgot to evaluate. Did you get enough sleep? Like DEEP Sleep?
Life is truly the world’s most beautiful catastrophe.
- We’re all going to die, anyway. So make your time here as beautiful and memorable as you can. You got nothing to lose.🙏🏽
Anti-Reminder: [Insert your name] is rushing his/her life.
- Think about it. What good are the progress you make and the recognition you receive if you feel like shit? If this is you, please stop reading, close the computer, and enjoy your present presence. You earned it.
For Success. 💸
Successful people in their respective fields always do the basics.
- If your skills were a pyramid, the basics are the base (width & depth) of your pyramid. The base grows the more you focus on the fundamentals (ex: mental awareness, beliefs/values, nutrition, sleep, hydration, social life, math, reading, writing, etc.)
You will be known by many, but not liked by everyone. And that’s okay.
- As you develop a name or focus, your content/product will be released to the public. Once you do, aim to be known by everyone. But not everyone’s going to like you and your work. That’s good. You have something unique that attracts a select few.
- TL;DR: If you have some haters or doubters, you’re on a good track.
Only invest in things that will be with me for the rest of my life.
- Real estate is a good investment, homes will still exist. You & I will still exist, so invest your time and money into yourself and the good people in your life. Books are not a bad idea, either. The foundation is irreplaceable and must be tuned for greatness (mental health, physical health, reading, writing, math, etc.)
I’m confident that my current action plan and your current action plan aren’t ambitious enough.
- Action Item: Take your current focus. Just 10x your current target. (Ex: If you said you were going to run 2 hours per week, run 20 hours per week. Might not get there, but you’ll definitely surpass your previous benchmark.)
Writing is the way to speak and listen at the same time.
- You need to hear more and say less. But we don’t have all the time in the world to comprehend everything. Writing is a filter to find what is the most important things for you from a discussion, reflection, etc.
“Maybe” is the word for people who don’t have the confidence to say “No” to someone’s face or can’t decide.
- Depending on how the question was framed, this belief of mine works. If you know what matters to you, “Maybe” is non-existent to you.
When against the crowd, the simplest actions, words, and thoughts are the ones that take the most mental energy but have the biggest reward.
- Ex: You never know when just saying “Thank you”, “Hello [name].”, or helping them out can change them. But we always think about what the people walking on the sidewalk will think of us. Reminder: The person you’re helping won’t remember any of the other people’s thoughts, actions, or words except yours.
The quality or quantity of information isn’t what’s stopping you, it’s your brain and your habits.
- If you’re privileged to have the Internet, everyone has access to the same information. It’s what we all don’t have access to that determines success. (The answer is your own 🧠) | Master what you solely possess before mastering what everyone has access to.
Information is the only thing that gives us our time back.
- Ex: Want to acquire Estonian? You could figure it out yourself, or you can find information written by other people on how to acquire Estonian properly and seek out people who successfully acquire the language.
- If you have a specific problem that you’re struggling with, find someone who has already solved it. People are everything.
Choose wisely where you SPEND your attention.
- If time was literal dollar bills, your attention is like the debit card. And congrats, you just used the debit card. Right now.
People who don’t want to listen have no advantage over someone who’s deaf.
- Eliminate the input, and you’re left with the perfect anti-mentor. Everyone needs an anti-mentor (someone to teach them about anti-mindsets, anti-skillsets, not-to-do list, etc.) Learn from their mistakes so you never have to do them yourself.
For Decisions. 💭
<5 decisions per day you consciously make matter.
- Those <5 decisions compound the success and happiness of tomorrow. And it keeps compounding. In other words, don’t do things unless it compounds your overall success and happiness for the next day.
You could post anything wherever & seem knowledgeable + deadly (in a good way) about a topic. Until people hear you speak.
- Ex: Lightning & Thunder (not the song lol, even though it’s 💯💯). Lightning looks scary, but it’s not that dangerous. Unless the thunder is almost immediately after the bolt. That’s how you make some NOISE!
Until you can replicate what someone else has done perfectly while taking a shit, you have no right to iterate and make it your own.
- My writing style was originally copied from a children’s book author who I knew. I replicated his style until I noticed ways to improve on his framework. You gain an understanding of the skills and go through the movements before you enhance them.
Don’t take advice from someone who is not in the same position in life that you want to be when you’re their age.
- Nobody is fighting for the success you want except you. Learn from the best via meetings, books, podcasts, etc.
Focused work is actually fun. Everything else is 💩
- Direction and consistency get you farther than anything in work. And don’t let anyone tell you that focused work is boring, most likely because they’ve never had a direction before ;)
Big success comes from an extreme focus on one topic and sticking to it for a very long time.
- Extreme Cases, but it’s true: Cristiano Ronaldo, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Stephen Schwarzman, Gordon Ramsay, etc. focused on one thing for a very long time, and never took their eyes away from it, despite the billions of opportunities shining brightly.
Process & Plan > Goal.
- A goal is a wish. Add more goals, and you have a X-mas wishlist. The process & plan is actionable now.
I’m responsible for where I am today. You are responsible for where you are today.
- Hey, it’s true. You want more time, but you just *probably* spent 2 hours on social media. For the adults here, you want to have success with women, but you just jacked off. That’s your call, buddy, not mine. (*Most likely* If you’re not where you want to be, you lack either a skill, trait, or belief.)
What you press “like” on social media (especially Twitter) is your résumé.
- It’s already happening, but the reason why is because it can give us a sneak peek into what only you have access to (your own 🧠).
Whatever pisses you off is your new master.
- Did that other guy get the girl you wanted and now you threw your phone on the ground? Perfect! Now you’re -$100 because of your fucked-up phone and how you lack the traits to ignore the failure. Basic example, but it could get worse. . .
Solving problems In Advanced Countries lead to money first. Impact takes some time. Solving problems In Developing Countries lead to impact first. The money comes in time.
- Botswana focused on reducing poverty, maintaining the law, providing healthcare, etc. In 13 years, the wealth of citizens increased up to 10,000%, and now, the Southern African Development Community in 2019 had a higher GDP than Switzerland ($17B more)
- When you buy shoes, the money comes first for the transactions. The benefit, impact, and *cough* validation from other people come next.
For The Mind. 💡
Drive > Motivation
- Ex: You and another dude both love this job opportunity to work with Bill Gates. If the other guy desires it a lot more than you, you won’t be able to beat him. You have an off-switch to the drive, the other person doesn't.
- TL;DR: Successful people lack something you have. Could be a trait, grit, desire, etc.
There is nobody on this Earth who can’t teach you anything.
- The more arrogant you are, the less you can learn something from anyone. Kill that ego of yours. With it, it’s just internal suicide for your growth.
A happy person is a dangerous one (perhaps the most dangerous of them all). They have control of their lives & will level up their game with ease.
- There are many types of capitals. The words “rich” and “wealthy” remind us of the wealth capital. But there is social capital, information capital, satisfaction capital, etc. Just a reminder, money only solves problems that involve money. Money won’t solve your procrastination or your divorced family.
How to find out what in the material world actually matters:
- Get a school backpack and fill it up. You can only use that backpack. Now go somewhere. And don’t come back to pick up the rest.
It’s harder to make an impact / spend time on something when everyone’s trying to work on it.
- An analogy from a mentor, Navid: You can continue playing the same game with the same console, or play a different game (aka using different controls, frameworks, skills, traits, and beliefs than the ones the others are using to try and win their old game).
To make an impact, you don’t start with an idea, it’s either an identified problem or a question.
- A business is a solution to a problem that people have. That leads to impact. So you must identify a need. Are people in pain because there’s no solution?
Action is impatient. It won’t wait for you. But you must be patient with the result.
- Did you miss the train? It’s not coming back for you. But it’s okay, another one is coming. Hmm, the next train arrives in 1.5 hrs. Your destination is another 2 hours from the train station. Can you be patient with the outcome?
Validation is only valuable at the individual level (1-on-1). At the global level, it’s just bullshit.
- Everyone has their own opinion on your idea(s). You need to find the opinion that actually matters. Or you can ask everyone and be lost af.
For Your Work/Business 📈
Progress grows or you grow.
- If you win and seize the day, you move the needle forward. If you don’t, time to reflect on where you can improve. You can grow your skillset, traits, values, etc.
To acquire skills, do more things {more volume}. To make progress, do fewer things {less volume}. Both require consistency, NOT intensity.
- Before I wrote “100 Nano-Stories: Bookmarked!”, I had no skills. But I picked up the skill to write with tons of content and learned o-chem, physics, math, etc. (A lot of things.) But in the past 8 months, my focus was on two things, and I increased the quality of the skills. But I always had to be making progress, whether fast or slow.
Honestly, people want you to do well. But the majority (deep down) don’t want you to do better than them.
- People are like that, unfortunately. But what are your values? Your beliefs? Your tolerance? Because no matter how many people help you, nobody is fighting for your success except you.
Reminder to stop tolerating things. Otherwise, you will defend nothing.
- Let’s take culture. You could walk out and make fun of American or British culture and perhaps get applauded lol. But if you do that with Arab Culture or with the prophet Muhammad, I’ll be waiting for your body to arrive at the closest funeral. You always question beliefs except for the ones that are engrained in you, and that’s where tolerance is.
- TL;DR: Tolerance can set the tone so the output is nothing but greatness and happiness.
Everything that could be created has been created. All problems could be eliminated. However, the majority of these creations stay in the mind, on paper, or lack feedback to get it on the money.
- We turn to all the information available in the world. But they’re not documented there. However, a good place to find “leftovers” of ideas is science fiction books.
Ignorance is a good thing* (*If controlled).
- Ignorance is like giving the car keys to a teenager. Anything can happen if they can’t control it. You don’t owe anything to everyone, except the people that matter to you.
“No” is the investment to increase your time (and focus).
- You first need time. But you want to be in time debt. Once you have free time, invest that time into yourself and things that can generate you more time in the long run, but at the moment, it’s as if you don’t have an extra second in your day. Keep saying “No” to things until you figure out what’s worth so much that saying “No” isn’t worth it.
Macro-Fast progress in the short term, Micro-Slow progress long term... OR... Micro-Slow progress in the short term, Macro-Fast progress long term.
- Ex: You learn about Climate Change for 7 months, then build in Web3 for a bit, and then Bottom Billion for a year. You make progress quickly in the short term, but it won’t compound. But if you focus on Graphene for +20 yrs, you will be in the top 1% of people and impact. In 7 months, progress was slow and boring. But in 20 yrs, you’re like God.
- TL;DR: More detours/changes short-term, less progress in ~10 yrs. Fewer detours short-term, more progress in ~10 yrs.
And The Miscellaneous. 🎩
The number of languages you know (spoken + code) is the number of purposes you serve to society when it comes to communication.
- The languages can serve and communicate ideas between other people. Even certain words that are meant to describe something can’t be translated directly into another language.
- Ex: Spanish → Madrugada | English → Very early morning, around 02:00
Procrastination loves indecision.
- Wanna start a blog? But do you think that your content isn’t good enough or you struggle to choose a topic? Or do you want to build 3 companies at the same time? Any of the companies can be worth millions of dollars, you just need to pick one.
Most frameworks were just inventions made by mankind to make a profit off of you.
- Ever heard of Pomodoro Technique, FOMO, etc.? When you realize that you care so much about what you’re working on that you don’t want to take a break, and that nobody cares if you’re updated with the current trends, it frees you mentally. SO MUCH.
Burnout is my fault. Burnout is your fault.
- Burnout comes from not being able to see a finish line in sight. No actionable progress or benchmarks to guide you. Just another headless chicken. But now you know not to make that mistake like me :-)
Everyone has knowledge that is valuable enough to be money. You just need to find the people who want it. People are everything.
- The phrase above is like a business. Do people want your knowledge because they have an urgency for it? Is the need for that knowledge growing? Can you find the people who want your information easily? Can they afford or access my knowledge? Just some thoughts 👀
If you can’t be perfect, then be authentic. :-)
- My articles are never 100% perfect. But I can give it my 100% effort and authenticity to make it appealing to my audience. That relieves me from unnecessary pressure. It should do the same for you.
World’s Biggest Problems (WBPs) is kind of a myth, ngl.
1. WBPs are just a bunch of baby problems, You just need a 🔥 strategy to separate the problems
2. Speak to people who have solved your specific problem & read their work
If you call it schoolwork, you’ll complete most of it at school. If you call it homework, you’ll complete most of it at home.
- In a classroom, we all get the same homework, but some people complete it quicker and more efficiently than others. Why? Not the information, it’s how they think, and their big, fat 🧠
Bonus Resources! 💻
© 2022 by Carlos Manuel Jarquin Sanchez. All Rights Reserved.
