Tools of Titans

Healthy ✅ Right before a fight, Floyd Mayweather would just sit and watch a basketball game. He was completely relaxed. ‘Why would I be wound up? I’m either ready or I’m not. Worrying about it right now ain’t gonna change a thing. I’ve done everything I can to be ready for this or I haven’t” ✅ If you keep doing something you’re not good at: improve it, eliminate it, or delegate it. ✅ Sleep: Get a chili pad, or drink 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of honey stirred into one cup of hot water for much better sleep. ✅ Best day in 7 years: Throughout the day, maybe once an hour, wish for two people standing or walking near you to be happy. That’s it. It will make you much happier. ✅ If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing. ✅ Use affirmations: Pick a goal and write it down 15 times a day in a specific sentence form, like "I, Scott Adams, will become an astronaut," and do that every day. Then it will seem like the universe starts spitting out opportunities. It looks like coincidences. Whether they are or not matters less than the fact they show up. Morning Routines Make your bed. Meditate. Over 80% of people covered in this book meditate. Do 5-10 reps of something. Getting into my body changes my mood and quiets mental chatter. Prepare tea. Morning pages or 5 minute journal (5-10 minutes): morning pages for getting unstuck or problem solving (what should I do?), 5 minute journal for prioritizing and gratitude (how should I focus and execute?). 5 Minute Journal: Morning: I am grateful for (3 things). What would make today great? Daily affirmations. I am… Night: 3 amazing things that happened today. How could I have made today better. Four categories for the grateful question: An old relationship. An opportunity you have today. Something great that happened yesterday. Something simple near you or within sight. Meditations Over 80% of the people in this book meditate. Loving Kindness: Sit in any posture that allows you to be alert and relaxed at the same time. Eyes open or closed. Repeat this cycle once per minute. Bring to mind someone you can easily feel loving kindness for. Wish for them to be happy. If the joy of loving kindness arises, put full attention on the joy until it fades. For the rest of the minute, rest the mind. Do this for 3 minutes. The only thing that matters is attending to the joy of loving kindness. Wealthy GOOD IDEA: If you’re in a startup environment, go to meetings even if you’re not invited and figure out how to be helpful. If people wonder why you’re there, say you’re taking notes. This is how Chris Saka got into meetings with the cofounders and became a fixture. ✅ Ask someone who is where you want to be in the future (robotics founder) for pros and cons to see if it’s worth it. ✅ We are who we pretend to be. Even when things are going terribly and I have no reason to be confident, I decide to be. ✅ When you think about making your business bigger, it's tempting to think the big thoughts: world-changing, massive action plans. But often it's the tiny details that thrill someone enough to tell their friends. Derek Sivers did this with the crazy and funny email to CD Baby customers. ✅ An hour before you go on your computer, figure out the ONE most important thing you need to do today and block out 2-3 hours to do it. Ask: "If this were the only thing I accomplished, would I be satisfied with my day?" "Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier later?" "What, if done, will make all the rest easier or irrelevant?" What you do is more important than how you do it. If you let your learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool. If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy. Journaling “Once we get those muddy, maddening, confusing thoughts on the page, we face our day with clearer eyes.” Morning pages don’t need to solve your problems. They just need to get them out of your head, where they’d otherwise bounce around all day like a bullet ricocheting inside your skull. It Doesn’t Always Have to be Hard Part of business strategy is solving the simplest, easiest, most valuable problem. Do an 80/20 analysis of your activities (which 20% produce 80% of results). You'll get a short list. Make "easy" the next criterion. Which highest-value activity is the easiest for me to do? You can build a career on 80/20 plus that question. Give the Mind an Overnight Task Reid Hoffman writes problems in a notebook for his mind to work on overnight. Next morning he spends the first hour solving that problem because it’s blank slate time. "Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious." , Edison Ideas To stretch creativity every morning, write 10 ideas. If you get stuck, write 20. It forces you to stop being a perfectionist, even if the ideas are crazy. 10 ideas I can make new. 10 ridiculous things I would invent. 10 things I was interested in as a kid that might be fun to explore now. 10 ways I might try to solve a problem I have. Forget purpose. It's okay to be happy without one. The quest for a single purpose has ruined many lives. Rules Tim Uses for Investing IMPORTANT: Tim had $140k to invest in companies. He invested $25k in Uber, and now that investment is worth over $100 million. Follow the rules below. If it has a single founder, the founder must be technical. Two technical co-founders are ideal. I must be eager to use the product myself. This rules out many great companies, but I want a verified market. Consumer-facing product/service or small business-focused product/service, not big enterprise software. These are companies whose valuations I can directly impact through my platform, promotion to my audience, introductions to journalists, etc. More than 100,000 active users or serial founders with past exits, or more than 10K paying customers. I want to pour gasoline on the fire, not start it. More than 10% month-on-month activity growth. Clean cap table, minimal previous financing or none, no bridge rounds. US-based companies or companies willing to create US-based investable entities (Shopify started in Canada, for instance). Have the founders ever had crappy service jobs like waiting tables or busing at restaurants? If so, they tend to stay grounded longer, with less entitlement and megalomania. Usually better decisions and better drinking company. This takes years. If each startup exits at 5 times its current Series A valuation, it should cover two-thirds of your fund capital. If a startup exits at 3 times its current valuation, it should allow you to walk away with $300K. Losers Have Goals. Winners Have Systems A "system" is asking: "What persistent skills or relationships can I develop?" versus "What short-term goal can I achieve?" Writing is a skill that needs practice. The first part of my system is practicing regularly. I didn’t know what I was practicing for, and that’s what makes it a system, not a goal. Resources Venture Deals Venturehacks.com (learning about VC) AngelList (jobs at fast growing startups)