Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” –Frederick Douglass

I’ve gotten better at telling my brain “no” when it wants to relate to conversation with a “bigger” story. What I mean is, somebody might be telling me a story about an experience they had, while I have a related story that sounds even bigger or more dramatic than theirs. Rather than wait for a moment to jump in with mine, I’ll just let that desire

“The great majority of that which gives you angst never happens, so you must evict it. Don’t let it live rent-free in your brain.”

“Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.”

“If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.”

“It is likely that most of what you currently learn at school will be irrelevant by the time you are 40. . . . My best advice is to focus on personal resilience and emotional intelligence.”

Enneagram

I feel like a lot of people in Silicon Valley serialize their lives. They think, “First I’ll do college. Then I’ll do a startup. Then I’ll make money. Then I’ll do X.” There’s some truth in that [approach], but most of the most important stuff has to be parallel-processed, like your relationships and your health, because you can’t make up the time

a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? My two favorite books are: The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson. This book offers you a blueprint of your personality. This is important. Let’s say you learn you’re a tiger. You now know not to waste time trying to get rid of your stri

“Don’t believe everything you think.”