The other day, I was scrolling through Twitter when a question froze me. “Who else smiles when reading their writing?” The lady wrote. My first thought was, “Not me madam, not me. I cringe when I read my stuff.”

She said my answer made her sad and hoped that one day I could also smile at my writing. I shrugged her kind reply off, not sure what I felt about it. Was I jealous? Sure I can be jealous sometimes, but no, this wasn’t jealousy. This was me refusing her well-intentioned wish.

I don’t want to smile when I read…

The most important skill in business is to make good decisions. What feature should I add? Which stock should I buy? What topic should I write about? Every good decision puts you one step further down the road to success.

The catch? No one taught us how to make good decisions. I never had a Decision-Making class at school, and I doubt you did. But we’re both lucky; we have the internet. Over the years, I’ve chosen many mentors who’ve taught me how to make better decisions through their content. Shane Parrish has recently become one of them.

Here’s an…

Despite having the same haircut, I’m no fan of Jeff Bezos. He mistreated his employees, escaped taxes, tried to buy an election, cheated on his wife, and a ton of other bad shit.

But the bastard is smart. His decision-making grew Amazon from an online bookstore to a wealthy (and somewhat scary) business empire. And given that the most important skill in business is to make good decisions, I believe we ought to steal some of Dark Bezos’s tricks. The 70% rule is one of them.

What’s the rule?

You should make your decision as soon as you have 70% of the information…

One

When I met Imen, I was five and she five and a month. We both loved math and snacks. One year later, we started to date. Translation: I’d walk her home every day after school.

On a casual Tuesday morning, our teacher announced that Imen was about to move to another country. “Why are you crying, Nabil?” the teacher asked.

“Who would I compete with in math class?” I said. I made sure the entire class heard me, Imen included. It was the first time I’d lie and regret it.

People deserve to know how you feel. Tell them.

Two

Once…

“One last try,” Jose told himself. For years, his goal had been to make money online, but, alas, he’d never earned a dime. In October 2018, he decided to try again, this time through Twitter.

One year and three months later, Jose’s annual revenue had grown from zero to $105,000. And all he needed were a laptop, a Twitter account, and a ton of perseverance.

Give, and you shall receive

“What the heck could I sell on Twitter?” Jose asked himself. “I’m a graphic designer. Perhaps I should start with a service. You know, like making fancy headers.” …

Most people know Sigmund Freud for his messed-up ideas, but of course, that’s only one side of the coin. If you check the other side, you’ll find brilliant stuff like the concept of Defense Mechanisms.

Defense Mechanisms are your subconscious mind’s way of shielding you from too-difficult-to-handle emotions. The result is often a distorted reality. For instance, addicts don’t want to feel weak (difficult emotion), so they insist their substance abuse is under control (distorted reality). Except, the said control is as good as the one a four-year-old has over a Marshmallow box. …

The year was 2010, and Brian was home for Thanksgiving. While browsing the internet, he stumbled upon a document called the Bitcoin Whitepaper.

The said paper explained how to create money using a network of computers instead of banks and governments. Brian saw in Bitcoin an opportunity to create economic freedom, and he wanted in. So he grabbed his computer.

At the time, Brian had no idea the app he started to build would later become a company worth $86 billion.

He quit Airbnb and met his co-founder on Reddit

Brian spent two years growing Coinbase from a vague idea into a prototype. He coded for Airbnb during the…