The little things have a big emotional payback, and guess what? Chances are, at least one person you make smile is on the front lines with you, quietly battling something nearly identical.

If you don’t care about yourself, make it about other people.

If we let the storms pass and choose to reflect, we come out better than ever.

You have gifts to share with the world. You are not alone. You are not flawed. You are human.

The paper is like a photography darkroom for my mind.

It has never been easier to create content self-published, but it has never been harder to get the attention you want, or need, to really put something into orbit.

The quality of my writing dropped miserably if I tried to do more than four hours per day. It’s not necessary to put in 9-5 hours.

Rather than fight for attention with everyone online, I’ve focused on attending and speaking at events where bloggers are the attendees.

Don’t save your best for volume two

When you’re writing and you start to feel really uncomfortable, that’s when you know you’re starting to get it right. I’d imagine that applies to photography. It applies to everything.

For reaching influential people, I think that in-person is the least crowded and most effective way, because they have to trust the messenger before they will endorse the message.

Being called a huckster and a charlatan started several years ago, so that’s something I’m accustomed to. In most cases, it doesn’t bother me.

There is a place, at least in my life, for a decent amount of hedonism.

I did not grow up playing tennis with Steven Spielberg and drinking wine with Jerry Seinfeld – I grew up serving coffee to those people.

I suppose my professional life can be split into writing books that all sound like infomercial products, most notably The 4-Hour Workweek, and then tech investing.

I always thought I was going to end up teaching ninth grade.

My mom always encouraged me to march to my own drummer.

I’m really impatient and I get angry about things that I view as deliberately slow and sloppy. And that anger can be harnessed sometimes in a really productive aggression but it also wears you down at both ends.

We all get frustrated. I am particularly prone to frustration when I see little or no progress after several weeks of practicing something new.

I remember when I had my first real business anything in college, teaching this accelerated learning seminar. I felt richer than I’d ever felt in my life because I was making $8.00 an hour in the college library.

For most people, somewhere between six and seven billion of them, the perfect job is the one that takes the least time.

Reality is negotiable.

The New Rich (NR) are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility.

Options – the ability to choose – is real power. This book is all about how to see and create those options with the least effort and cost. It just so happens, paradoxically, that you can make more money – a lot more money – by doing half of what you are doing now.

You don’t need more recipes. You need to learn to cook without them.

Don’t dismiss people, don’t be a dick, and don’t rush. Play the long game.

Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence. 

You can fail at plenty as long as you get a few important things right.

If you want to have more, do more, and be more, it all begins with the voice that no one else hears.

Just because they say it can’t be done doesn’t make it so.

If you let pride stop you, you will hate life. 

If you believe you can change the world, which I hope you do, do what you believe is right and expect resistance and expect attackers.

The objective is to control your time – a non-renewable resource – and apply it where you have the highest leverage or enjoyment.

It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.

Give vulnerability a shot. Give discomfort its due. Because I think he or she who is willing to be the most uncomfortable is not only the bravest, but rises the fastest.

The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.

The bottom line is that you only have the rights you fight for.

Stop wishing and start doing.

Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.

Never, ever give up.

Age doesn’t matter: an open mind does.

Big things are coming.

The gems I’ve found were forged in the struggle.

Tomorrow becomes never, no matter how small the task, take the first step now.

If I want a better-than-average career, I can’t simply ‘go with the flow’ and get it. Most people do just that: they wish for an outcome but make no intention-driven actions toward that outcome. If they would just do something most people would find that they get some version of the outcome they’re looking for. That’s been my secret. Stop wishing and start doing.

Most “superheroes” are nothing of the sort. They’re weird, neurotic creatures who do big things despite lots of self-defeating habits and self-talk.

You develop confidence through action, and you have to have courage first.

Babe Ruth struck out all the time, but he’s not remembered for that. He’s remembered for what worked.

It doesn’t take much to seem superhuman and appear “successful” to nearly everyone around you. In fact, you just need one rule: What you do is more important than how you do everything else, and doing something well does not make it important.

Great creative work isn’t possible if you’re trying to piece together 30 minutes here and 45 minutes there.