In August 2016, I got a small voice recorder to help collect my thoughts.  I’ve realized I hear or read so many things.  Sometimes I have random realizations too.  I think I would remember things, but reality is, I don’t.

Since August, I’ve recorded a lot of random thoughts.  My plan has always been to transcribe those thoughts.  These thoughts are raw and unfiltered.  Outside of context, they may seem random, but this is step one.  I may elaborate on a particular thought in the future. I do not claim that all these thoughts are original, just a dump of what I’ve either consumed or thought.

Updated on 2-20-2017
Here’s the plan: Every Sunday On the first of every month I will transcribe my thoughts from the previous week month.  That’s it.  I do not plan to elaborate or comment further about each thought.  Just a transcription.

This first entry will be special and super long, because it’ll include all of my recordings since I started.

So, here they are:

August 2016

1. There are cigarette butts everywhere, what makes cigarette butts not littering?
2. Speed is only useful if you’re running in the right direction.
3. Similar to yoga, use an intention to start a talk.

September 2016

1. Idea is root in the Greek word idien, which means “to see”.
2. The riches are in the niches.
3. Meditation method: 100 second cold shower, amazing.
4. Market research: People, Product, and Places
5. Use Amazon for market research.
6. For Market Research: Use advanced search with Facebook, Google Amazon, Twitter and more.
7. When asking questions: Tell me a story when _____
8. Google awesome stories about your niche.
9. After an hour and ten minutes on the road, for what should be a 20 minute drive, I can see why people get upset with traffic.  This is ridiculous.  This is definitely how people have bad days, I’m so glad I don’t do these every day. Not a good way to start the morning at all.
10. If you want to achieve your dreams, wake up.
11. Explain your idea in: One page, one paragraph, one sentence.
12. Use archive.org to host podcast episodes.
13. Only go deep as you can.  The feeling that you get is the same that someone else gets.  Just because they go farther, doesn’t mean it’s easier.
14. Hitting a plateau is not necessarily a bad thing. It could mean that you’ve achieved the successes you’re looking for and you don’t know what’s next.
15. Coschedule.com
16. You can get what you want, as long as the other person gets what they want.
17. The most valuable resources is not money, it’s time.  Everybody has the same 24 hours everyday, no matter who you are.
18. For a good Kickstarter you want to be number one in your category. Everyday they don’t look how much money you make, but number of transactions.  So the goal is to figure out how to get small transactions and get popular everyday.  It really helps out.
19. Talk to your customers, not at them.
20. The years say, what the days can’t tell.
21. As an entrepreneur you need to learn to generate your own momentum, even when you have nothing.
22. Follow through with drone stuff.

October 2016

1. Score your responses to a survey “high or low”.  Focus on the top 20% as the market you want to focus on and the bottom 20% as areas to improve.  Those are the two best places to look.
2. Leonardo DiCaprio is working on a documentary about global warming.  Need to check it out.
3. The spiral model for iterative design is super important.  You “assess”, “design”, “build” and continuously do this in a spiral like motion until you get to a very focused pinpoint of what you want to achieve.
4. Check out “mentions” for competitive tracking on the internet.
5. The most dangerous negotiation is the one you don’t know you’re in.
6. When asking questions, interrupting is ok when asking for clarity. So when I think of something, just interrupt and ask for clarity, never assume.
7. In every two hour conversation, there’s at least 90 seconds of solid gold.
8. Comfort with silence is a technique that many people don’t have.
9. Embrace the coefficient of friction when trying to sell something. If someone’s willing to put forth the effort to make the purchase, they’re more than likely to spend more money right then and there.
10. Sometimes it’s better to model the outliers as that can help fix the middle itself.
11. Learn to delegate the tasks you like to do most.
12. If you think you’re capable of X, you’re at least capable of X+20%.
13. Your success in life is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to take.
14. Every day do one thing that scares you.
15. When interviewing someone for the first time, don’t ask them something they’ve been asked 10 or more times, as your first question.
16. We learn most from those we have the least in common with.
17. Technique over form
18. WP All Import Pro
19. Reviews+ for WordPress puts stars in Google for different products.

November 2016

1. Passion and progress are two different things.
2. Passion is about, purpose is to and for.

December 2016

1. To be really good at something you need a plus, equal and minus. Somebody is better than what you are, so they can teach you, somebody who is equal, so that you can work with them on your craft and somebody who is a minus so you can teach them.
2. We cannot be humble, accept by enduring humiliations.
3. When you complain, nobody wants to help you.
4. To deal with writer’s block, write about what makes you angry.
5. Those who are offended easily, should be offended more often.

January 2017

1. Blubrry for Podcasts, look it up.
2. Your inbox is a todo list that anyone can add an action to.
3. Losers react, leaders anticipate.
4. You know when you have A-players on your team, when they don’t just accept the strategy you hand them.
5. Losers have goals, winners have systems.
6. Read “1000 true fans” by Kevin Kelly.
7. Add a plus to the end of a Bitly link so you can see stats, such as referrals, giving insights to other markets.
8. Don’t try and find time, schedule time.
9. Edit for yourself, second edit for your fans, third edit for your haters.
10. “We end up spending the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it” – Thoreau
11. Read “Stone Soup”

Week of February 5th, 2017

1. Ours, is a culture where our ability to get by on very little sleep, which is kind of a badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic.
2. Read Plato’s “The Republic”.
3. The future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed.
4. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
5. Most people choose unhappiness over uncertainty.
6. Find my VO2 Max.
7. Robustness is when you care more about the few who like your work then the multitude that hate it.  Fragility is when you care more about the few who hate your work then the multitude that love it.  Choose to be robust.
8. Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
9. Roughly 90% of thoughts are fear-based, the other 10% is desire-based.
10. Desire is suffering.
11. Earn with your mind, not your time.
12. Passion comes from a combination of being open and curious. And of all, really going all in when you find  something that you’re interested in.
13. Break sales records following a really simple formula: Just be honest and transparent, in a broken industry.
14. The “I don’t have list” is a popular write-off for inaction.
15. As the access of information goes up, so does accountability.
16. Watch Steve Job’s Stanford commencement speech again.