Derek Documents

Jim Rohn is the Godfather of self-development programs. He's helped countless people improve themselves and others, including a young Tony Robbins.  These are my (sparse) notes from  The Ultimate Jim Rohn Library  audiobook: Goal Setting  1. What 5 things have you already accomplished that you're proud of? 2. What do you want in the next 10 years? List at least 50 things.  3. Rate each item 1, 3, 5, or 10 for an estimate as to how many years each item will take to achieve.  4. Count how many of each (1, 3, 5, and 10) you have.  5. On your list of 1-year goals, which are the 4 most important?  6. Why are those 4 goals important to you?  *When the Why gets stronger, the How gets easier. *Purpose is stronger than object. *"What kind of person must I become to achieve all I want?" *When you've accomplished some goals, you need more goals to accomplish.  *Celebrate a significant / important goal reached. *Celebrate family goals as a family. *...

This book   contains the information they should have taught you and me in high school business classes. It sheds a light on how brokers get rich while pillaging their clients' nest eggs through excessive fees. It's also a labor of love; Tony Robbins is donating 100% of the proceeds to Feeding America. Please utilize the information contained here (and more thoroughly in the book) to take back your financial destiny. If you find the information useful, please pay it forward by sharing it with others who can benefit from it. Introduction V2MOM [Marc Benioff]  1. What do I really want? (Vision.) 2. What is important about it? (Values.) 3. How will I get it? (Methods.) 4. What is preventing me from having it? (Obstacles.) 5. How will I know I am successful? (Measurements.)  "The secret of getting ahead is getting started."  -Mark Twain "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignoranc...

 My notes from this solid book on communication and networking.  Don't Keep Score     Generosity, not greed.  What's Your Mission?     A goal is a dream with a deadline.     1. Goals that will help you fulfill your mission (3 years from now)     2. Connecting those goals to the people, places, and things that will help you get the job done     3. Best way to reach out to the people who will help you accomplish your goals Dinner Parties     1. Create a Theme     2. Use Invitations     3. Don't Be a Kitchen Servant     4. Create Atmosphere      5. Forget Being Formal      6. Don't Seat Couples Together     7. Relax Tips on Becoming an Expert       1. Get out in front and analyze the trends and opportunities on the cutting edge.     2. Ask seemingly stupid questions.     3. Know yourself and your talents. 8...

Here is Tony Fadell 's description of a product manager in Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making :  Product Manager or Product Marketing Manager Product marketing and product management are essentially the same thing--or at least they should be. A product manager's responsibility is to figure out what the product should do and then create the spec (the description of how it will work) as well as the messaging (the facts you want customers to understand). Then they work with almost every part of the business (engineering, design, customer support, finance, sales, marketing, etc.) to get the product spec'd, built, and brought to market. They ensure that it stays true to its original intent and doesn't get watered down along the way. But, most importantly, product managers are the voice of the customer. They keep every team in check to make sure they don't lose sight of the ultimate goal—happy, satisfied customers.  The customer needs a voice on the ...

  This is the third time this concept has popped up in my life in the last couple weeks. Dr. Nicole LePera, in her great book How to Do the Work , says we are not our thoughts, we are the thinker of our thoughts.  David Goggins talks about creating Goggins , his alter ego that pushes him to accomplish incredible feats, in the inspiring Never Finished .  A couple more related sentiments: Meditation philosophies often tell us that we are not our thoughts, we are the observer of our thoughts.  Creating a fictional board of directors for You Inc. has been recommended by [I'm blanking on which famous business guru said it]. I've made it a point to focus on remembering lessons that show up in multiple places--especially ones spanning diverse cultures. This one certainly fits the bill.  In order to reach our full potential, we should cultivate an inner witness. One that pushes us to act (with responsible detachment) according to our virtuous goals. 

Love your fate.  This central tenant of Stoicism , the most useful Western philosophy in my opinion, is about embracing whatever life throws your way.  External forces outside of your control don't dictate how you feel. Your thinking, how you interpret and respond to the the things outside of your control, does, which in turn shapes your reality.  Accepting the "bad" with the "good" positively reframes your experiences.  The only quote from Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck that's stuck with me for several years after reading it is this: "Wanting a positive experience is itself a negative experience." To me, that's incredibly profound.  Accepting your fate, no matter what it entails, will make you happier.  Even if that fate is being trapped in Punxsutawney, PA by a blizzard to replay the same day over and over and over again... Happy Groundhog Day!      

Is the difference between 0 and 1.  It's not some incremental improvement. It's crossing a chasm--going from nothing to something.  Over the past couple weeks I've brought this blog back online after unpublishing all of it several years ago. This entailed going through dozens of old posts.  I deleted all the haiku. Most of them were trash; all of them were a lazy way to fulfill my self-imposed one-post-a-day quota. Several longer posts were unproductive rants from a hurt, angry young man. These were deleted as well.  However, the majority of the non-haiku posts were (in my opinion) worthwhile, positive insights that I still believe today.  The problem? Aside from writing brief blog posts, I did nothing to execute on these valuable sentiments. There was a (shallow) understanding with no action.  Don't let 6 years go by (and it really does fly). Start doing things that are in accord with your highest values. Today .  The do more tomorrow. And the next da...