“Deliberate practice is not mechanically repeating tasks that come easily, but rather targeting and attacking specific areas that need improvement…” - Psychology Today article
“I had an inner drive. I think that is the difference between the very good and the best.”
- Susan Polgar 4-time World Chess Champion
“Most all creative endeavors are somewhat unpredictable. They often seem ambiguous, hit-or-miss, trial and error. And unless people have a high tolerance for ambiguity and get their security from integrity to principles and inner values they find it unnerving and unpleasant to be involved in highly creative enterprises. Their need for structure, certainty and predictability is too high.”
- Stephen Covey
Hmm, seems like you could apply this to many things, career choices being one example.
Wouldn’t you say that private equity firms require structure, certainty and predictability in their investments?
“Satisfied needs do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that motivates.”
- Stephen Covey
Some quotes from Flow, which I finally finished very recently:
“Goals can lead into all sorts of trouble, at which point one gets tempted to give them up and find some less demanding script by which to order one’s actions. The price one pays for changing goals whenever opposition threatens is that while one may achieve a more pleasant and comfortable life, it is likely that it will end up empty and void of meaning…
Goals justify the effort they demand at the outset, but later it is the effort that justifies the goal…
There are simply too many goals competing for prominence, and who is to say which one is worth the dedication of an entire life? … The wealth of options we face today has extended personal freedom to an extent that would have been inconceivable even a hundred years ago. But the inevitable consequence of equally attractive choices is uncertainty of purpose; uncertainty, in turn, saps resolution, and lack of resolve ends up devaluing choice.”
It is interesting to think about cause and effect relating to the importance of goals. Is the reason for all the effort required because the goal is so important? Or is the goal made important as a result of all the effort required?
Effort therefore valuable goal? Or goal therefore supreme effort?
What makes a goal important?
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice there is.”
“If any man stopped and asked himself whether he’s every held a truly personal desire, he’d find the answer. He’d see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He’s not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the secondhanders’ delusion — prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can’t say about a single thing: “This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me.” Then he wonders why he is unhappy. Every form of happiness is private. “
- Howard Roark, Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
Great quote from investment manager extraordinaire, David Swensen, the six years he spent on Wall Street early in his career:
“I liked the competitive aspects of Wall Street, but — and I’m not making a value judgment here — it wasn’t the right place for me because the end result is that people are trying to make lots of money for themselves. That just doesn’t suit me.”
David manages Yale’s endowment, growing it from $1.3bn to $14bn over his 20 year tenure.
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”
- Winston Churchill
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