On excellence
The best are always learning.
Read like crazy.
Think alone.
Keep a journal.
Write stuff down the moment you see it.
Review regularly.
Memorize the big ideas to fluency.
Attack your best ideas.
And never get high on your own supply.
You don't have to be gifted. You do have to be deliberate.
FS Blog
“I’m sure there’s mottos I could say that would be aspirational mottos, but the real one is ‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.’ From being in sports to going to school to being in product, in my opinion, if you’re going to do something, do it to the best of your ability, because that’s what you do with your day. You spend so much time
... See more'I have enormous respect for my art as an art and my craft as a craft, for skill, for experience, for hard thought, for painstaking work. I hold those things in reverence. I respect commas far more than I do congressmen.
[…]
Revision clears unnecessary obstacles away so the reader can receive the story. That is why the comma is important. And why the
... See more“Excellence is an aesthetic: consistently showing up forces everyone else on the team to do the same.”
— Sam Gerstenzang, Four sayings that changed how we operate
Ad legend Bill Bernbach letter on creativity, written in 1947:
Dear ________:
Our agency is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of
... See more
