Curiosity Chronicle

I recently came across a quote that hit me hard: "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." — Henry Ford Every meaningful path in life is lined with obstacles. If you've ever pursued something grand or ambitious... Building a business Raising a family Changing careers Reaching an athletic milestone or anything in between ...you know the path is never smoo...

Want the key to success? As crazy as it sounds, I might actually be able to give it to you in the next 3 minutes... You see, I spend a lot of time thinking about common threads across the lives of the people I admire. These are all people who are winning in their chosen worlds, whether that be a CEO in the boardroom, an artist in the symphony hall, an athlete on the field, a mom or dad in the home...

In honor of Father’s Day, I asked over 1 million readers a simple question: What was the single best piece of advice you ever received from your father? I got thousands of replies, which ranged from playful and witty to thought-provoking and emotional. Here were my favorites… ••• Mel Robbins said my book will “push you to rethink everything about how you’re spending your time.” You can get it now...

When life gets hard, most people retreat to one of two worlds: Naive Optimism: This is the world of pure positivity. It is marked by an unwillingness to confront the harsh facts, but also by a steadfast belief in the ability to navigate through to the other side. Hopeless Realism: This is the world of pure negativity. It is marked by a desire to face the facts, but also by a loss of hope for the a...

It’s commencement speech season. I recently shared ​a series of powerful lessons​ from David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water commencement speech on its 20th anniversary. Well, as it turns out, 2005 was a legendary year for wisdom from the commencement stage. Just a few weeks after Foster Wallace’s brilliance, on June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs stepped to the podium to deliver the annual commencement addr...

According to a famous legend, the ancient land of Phrygia (in what is now modern-day Turkey) was without a king. An oracle proclaimed that the next man to enter the city in an oxcart would become its king. Soon after, a man named Gordius rolled into Phrygia on an oxcart with his wife and son and was swiftly proclaimed king of the land... ••• My first book has its biggest sale ever: 50% off! Now's...

In 1968, an ecologist named Garrett Hardin published ​an essay​ that described the perils of individual short-term thinking on shared resources: "Picture a pasture open to all...the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another...Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd withou...

I recently came across a quote I can't stop thinking about: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..." – Ralph Waldo Emerson We live in a world that celebrates consistency. You're reading a newsletter that ​celebrates consistency​ . We're taught that success is found on the other side of consistent action. That showing up, repeating our actions, day after day, is the only surefire...

In 1921, an Austrian philosopher named Ludwig Wittgenstein concluded his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus with the following passage: “My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.)” In simple terms, Wittgenste...

Last week, I went on my first “Think Week” retreat. Three days. Limited connectivity. No meetings. Just reading, deep conversations, journaling, and thinking. I typically try to take a “Think Day” about once a month—but with the utter chaos of my book launch and tour over the last 12 months, I hadn’t been able to create the space necessary to zoom out and properly engage in this ritual. If I’m bei...

One of my favorite quotes comes from ​ Siddhartha ​ by Hermann Hesse: “We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.” It highlights a story that plays out over and over again in our lives: You’re doing the work. You’re showing up. You’re taking action. But the rewards you expected are nowhere to be seen. And that’s exactly when the sel...

Have you ever grown frustrated by the observation that the people who know the least seem to be the most confident in their knowledge? You're not crazy. It's a very real, and very damning, psychological phenomenon. In 1999, researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger studied the bizarre case of McArthur Wheeler, a would-be bank robber who was caught after robbing two banks in broad daylight... •••...

Exactly 20 years ago, on May 21, 2005, author David Foster Wallace stood before the graduating class at Kenyon College and delivered the annual commencement address. The speech completely rewired my brain. Each year, I reread it. Each year, it hits differently. To mark the 20th anniversary of the speech––known as This Is Water ––I want to share five lessons that changed how I see the world (and co...

Here's a question I like to ask myself when I feel stuck: If an outside observer watched me for a week, how serious would they say I am about achieving my goals? Think about it. It's easy to convince ourselves that we're fulfilling our responsibilities. That we're doing what's necessary to build the life we want. That we're showing up with energy and focus on a daily basis. But what would an unbia...

We all do it. We stay in jobs that drain us. We cling to relationships that no longer bring us energy. We hold onto possessions, identities, and goals that don’t serve the future we're trying to build. It turns out there's a simple cognitive bias to blame—and understanding it may be the key to fighting back... ••• SPECIAL OFFER: The e-book edition of my book is on a major sale this week for just $...

My son turns three years old this week. Over the last few months, I've grown increasingly excited by the idea of writing him a series of letters he can read as he grows up. My hope is that they serve as a compass for his journey (and maybe for anyone else who happens to read them). What follows is the first letter he'll read... ••• Big News! The ebook edition of ​ The 5 Types of Wealth ​ is on a m...

There’s a story about Apple founder Steve Jobs that I love: When he was 12 years old, he cold-called Bill Hewlett—co-founder of the pioneering technology company Hewlett Packard—to request spare computer parts for an electronics project he was working on. Surprised by the request, Hewlett not only sent the parts, he also offered him a summer internship. That opportunity further accelerated the you...

Last week, investor Bill Ackman hosted a fireside chat conversation in Omaha in front of a standing room only crowd of 500+ investors. Ackman was joined onstage by Ryan Israel, his partner and Chief Investment Officer. During the conversation, an audience member asked Israel a deceptively simple question: "How do you know when to sell a stock?" In a sharp, thoughtful reply, he outlined three reaso...

Last week, I had the rare opportunity to spend one-on-one time with some of the most uncommon minds in the world while attending the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in Omaha. This piece is my attempt to distill and synthesize the notes down to a set of lessons. 11 lessons from a week with legends: (1) Being misunderstood is the cost of entry, (2) Regularly question your certainty, (3) Awareness...

Your entire life will change when you realize that growth feeds on meaningful struggle. When you avoid that struggle, you literally starve your growth of the oxygen it needs to thrive. ••• My first book is a 7x NYT Bestseller and has reached over 200,000 people around the world in three months since its release. Join the movement to redefine what it means to live a wealthy life. Order  The 5 Types...

If you're reading this newsletter, chances are you self-identify as an ambitious, high-achieving individual. Or, at a minimum, you aspire to be one. You probably take pride in your ability to analyze a situation, deconstruct the problem, create potential solutions, and execute against them. And, up to this point, you've mostly been rewarded for that. We live in a world obsessed with numbers and an...

I define an asymmetry as something where the risk is limited but the reward is potentially significant. It's an action with an asymmetric return profile : If it doesn't work out, the cost is small, but if it does work out, the reward is large. I've been keeping a running list of the most powerful asymmetries I've found—the tiny investments with potentially outsized returns. This piece shares 44 as...

There are certain taxes of life that we must happily pay: Periods of loneliness are a tax on personal transformation. To achieve the growth we want, we need to accept that there will be periods when we've left our prior environment and have yet to find our new one. Hard conversations are a tax on deep relationships. To build the deep bonds we want, we need to accept the hard conversations that rep...

Morning routines have been a hot topic of discussion lately, mostly prompted by a mega-viral video of an Instagram influencer running through his elaborate minute-by-minute rituals. It's incredibly good content—the ASMR sounds, the shots, the execution—but is having a fancy, complicated morning routine really going to change your life? If you aren't going to start dunking your face in expensive bo...

In a world that values sameness, standing out is never free. But those who endure unlock the door to the most extraordinary lives. This is a brutally honest list of the traits I've observed in people who truly stand out. These are the traits I aspire to live by. 9 uncommon traits that will make you stand out: (1) Be anti-insecure, (2) Cheer loudly (and without qualification), (3) Practice the art...