Hidden Genius

A great exercise is to ask yourself: “Who’s the person living my dream life?” Identify that person, research their early life, and figure out how they got to where they are today. As Bryant said, “We’re surrounded by people who do incredible things, and the information is right there for us to learn from.” Listen intently, take what you have learne

We are all the unreliable narrators of our life stories. When we look at our days, we’re often the main character and everyone else plays a supporting role. What could you learn if you told your personal story from the perspective of a different character in your life?

Remember, there is no bad time to bet on yourself. Start a newsletter, a passion project, or a new venture that lets you tie your identity to something that actually matters—your own name. Nothing is more liberating.

If Sara Blakely hadn’t cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose, she wouldn’t have built Spanx into a billion-dollar empire. If Brandon Stanton hadn’t picked up a camera after getting fired from his finance job, Humans of New York wouldn’t touch millions of lives every day. If I hadn’t started sending a tiny email newsletter in 2017, you wouldn’t be re

When someone asks, “So, what do you do?” you will likely respond with your most impressive identity. For many people, the answer is their job title. For five years, my primary identity was “Polina Marinova, writer and editor at Fortune magazine.”

Social media only exacerbates the problem. We label people as fixed characters—incapable of change. Entire swaths of people become “addicts,” “racists,” “socialists,” and “criminals.”

You can upgrade your mental software on a regular basis by seeking and ingesting quality information.

“I try to sprinkle good sources of information all around,” he says.

“It’s pretty simple—you gotta limit inflammation in the body whether it’s through diet, nutrition, or your thoughts,” he says. A balanced diet applies to both food and content.