Suggestions for a good life from Jim Collins, a leading business thinker.

  1. Build a personal board of directors. Don’t populate thos board based on accomplishment, but on character and values you want to emulate.
  2. Turn off your electronics–not for others but for yourself. Down time and white space gives you time to think. You need the quiet to think.
  3. Work on your three circles. What are you passionate about? What are you genetically coded for? What could you do that would be useful to society? Study yourself like a bug. Get input from others around you.
  4. What is your questions-to-statements ratio? Can you double it, so you are asking way more questions than making statements?
  5. Suppose you wake up tomorrow to learn that you suddently have $20M and that you only have 10 years to live. What would you stop doing immediately? Maybe you should stop doing that anyway.
  6. Start your stop doing list. Be clear about what to stop doing.
  7. Unplug everything that’s just a distraction.
  8. Find something that you have so much passion for that you will be able to endure the pain to make something great.
  9. Take the time to clarify your personal values.
  10. Prepare to live a life where at 65 you feel that you are only 1/3 through the work.

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