Jan Ebbinghaus (@mrjanebbinghaus) • Hey

Publications

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There is a big difference between being interested in something and being committed to something. Committed people do what interested people won’t.
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Quote on the power of delayed gratification: "Be careful not to compromise what you want most for what you want now." - Zig Ziglar Delayed gratification is the key to the life of your dreams. Embrace it.
The most common response when we're scared is avoidance. The longer we wait, the greater the fear. Action reduces fear.
Winning tomorrow starts today.
The best returns come from your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.
Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.
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“If you wait to invest until you know what’s gonna happen, it’s already too late. That’s why humans suck at investing. They only do one thing really well: They buy what they wish they had bought - and they’re spectacularly good at it.” — Mark Yusko
Too often, the people we ask for feedback are nice but not kind. Kind people will tell you things a nice person will not. A kind person will tell you that you have spinach on your teeth. A nice person won’t because it’s uncomfortable. A kind person will tell us what holds us back, even when it’s uncomfortable. A nice person avoids giving us critical feedback because they’re worried about hurting our feelings.
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On the power to choose: "Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." - Khalil Gibran You choose how to perceive the world. Choose wisely.
Quote on the importance of action: "The shortest answer is doing the thing." - Ernest Hemingway Stop talking about the thing. Stop asking about the thing. Stop gathering more information about the thing. Just do the thing.
The more comfortable you are with yourself, the less you need the approval of others.
Tiny Thoughts 1. The highest form of leverage is reputation. (or 1000x $PEPE on Bybit haha) 2. Imagine what you could accomplish if you weren't focused on being right all the time. 3. Reasoning in public forces discipline of thought. If your reasoning is correct, you have nothing to fear. If it's wrong, you have everything to learn.
#quote for thought: People spend too much time on the last 24 hours and not enough time on the last 6,000 years. — Will Durant
The price you pay for doing what everyone else does is getting what everyone else gets.
Every single person you see is fighting a battle you'll never know anything about. Think about that before you judge anyone on the basis of some tiny sliver of information. It will help you live a more positive, empathetic life.
Don't do it the "right" way, do it your way.
Quote to deserve what you want: "How to find a good spouse? The best single way is to deserve a good spouse...To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want." - Charlie Munger You can't hope to attract a set of values that you yourself aren't embracing. Live what you want to receive.
Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day, if you live long enough, like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.
Alignment: The Key to Success Nobody Ever Taught You I spend a lot of time thinking about this simple idea: The person who aligns themselves with the general principles of the world goes further and faster than the person who doesn’t.
The person who focuses on fewer things goes further than the person distracted by many.
Before you work harder on something, identify the leverage point. Working smarter is the most valuable form of working harder.
Remember: When in doubt, zoom out.
Quote on the power from within: "Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power." - Lao Tzu All great things start from within. Change yourself to change the world.
Talent and potential mean nothing if you can’t consistently do the boring things when you don’t feel like doing them.
“Impatience with actions, patience with results.” — Naval Ravikant
Quote on the dangers of more: "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." ― Epicurus Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough.
“‘Give yourself a lot of shots to get lucky’ is even better advice than it appears on the surface. Luck isn’t an independent variable but increases super-linearly with more surface area—you meet more people, make more connections between new ideas, learn patterns, etc.” — Sam Altman
A simple rule for the decision-maker is that intervention needs to prove its benefits and those benefits need to be orders of magnitude higher than the natural (that is non-interventionist) path. We intuitively know this already. We won’t switch apps or brands for a marginal increase over the status quo. Only when the benefits become orders of magnitude higher do we switch.
Eureka moments are overrated. Effort is underrated. Data: your first idea is rarely your best idea. The more time you spend brainstorming, the more space you make for divergent thoughts and unexpected connections. Creativity flourishes with persistence and patience
Everything on sale right now. Accumulating. Enjoy your weekend. LFG
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin You get one chance at this life. Why not create something remarkable?
If you spend a lot of time thinking about closed doors, you'll spot a lot of closed doors. If you spend a lot of time thinking about open doors, you'll spot a lot of open doors. You'll always find what you seek.
What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days. Push through the grind and maintain the momentum.
Like any software program, you have to keep adding features and deleting bugs. The current version of you will not be able to compete in the marketplace beyond the next quarter.
Tiny Thoughts "Talent and potential mean nothing if you can't consistently do things when you don't feel like doing them." "If you're not willing to look like an idiot in the short term, you will never look like a genius in the long term."
You end up with no talent if you think you can be talented at everything. You end up with no friend if you think you can be friend with everyone. You end up with no "home" if you think you can call "home" everywhere. You can't have everything. Make your choices, then commit.
The Power Of Curiosity “Problem solving has to do with curiosity. It has to do with people wondering: "What makes something do something?" And then to discover, when you try to get answers, they’re related to each other. The things that make the wind make the waves, the motion of the water is like the motion of air which is like the motion of sand.” — Richard Feynman
Quote on the source of true joy: "Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness." - Leo Tolstoy Fulfillment is found through connection to something bigger than the self. Find service, find joy.
"The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person who negotiates with themselves every day."
The Parable of the Two Arrows "In life, we cannot always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional." — Viktor Frankl, Austrian philosopher + Holocaust survivor "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response." To create the space and move forward after a negative event: Pause, Reset, and Choose.
The Money Paradox You have to lose money to make money. Every successful investor and builder has stories of the invaluable lessons learned from a terrible loss in their career. Sometimes you have to pay to learn. Always put skin in the game.
The biggest obstacles are internal. In the long term, you can't get better results than your consistency.
Not all progress is visible. Not all victories are celebrated. — Just because others can't see the results doesn't mean you're not getting better. — Just because someone is ahead of you doesn't mean you are on the wrong trajectory. — Just because no one notices doesn't mean it doesn't matter. — Just because there is no applause doesn't mean you didn't score.
Quote on the artist within you: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso There's an artist buried deep inside. Never lose the artist within you.