Joe Stampone

Before you enter any debate, ask yourself two questions:

1.       Does this person show a willingness to listen and change their mind?

2.      What evidence would cause me to change mine?

As the old saying goes, “Never wrestle a pig in the mud. You both get dirty—but the pig will enjoy it.”

Perhaps this is all best summarized with one simple line:

If

I’ll make a controversial statement here: in pure investment terms, there’s no intrinsic reason for long-term investors to be concerned with volatility (as distinguished from the risk of permanent loss). Warren Buffett famously says he’d “rather earn a lumpy 15% return than a smooth 12%.” Why wouldn’t everyone?

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things."

It’s particularly tough because it rarely feels like you’re chasing field mice in the moment. You’re busy. You’re active. And in a culture that celebrates busyness as success, it‘s easy to convince yourself that you’re making progress.

But busy doesn’t mean effective. Motion isn’t momentum. A rocking horse moves all day, but never goes anywhere.

So,

The message was clear: preparation is a form of respect for others’ time and for the work itself.

“If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.”

You are in control. Of everything. It's all on you. Nobody is coming to save you. But you are entirely capable of figuring it out. Of squeezing everything you want out of this life. You are at the wheel. Never let go.

We do hard things because nothing feels better than a hard-earned win. Nothing. The pain. The struggle. The resilience. And then, the reward. The thrill of knowing that you paid the cost of entry for the thing you wanted to achieve. Hard things are good for the soul.

We're wired for novelty, but life rewards repetition.

Good ideas are rare. When you find something that works, you've found gold. But instead of mining it, we go looking for more gold.

We'd rather have ten ideas that might work than one that does.