It isn't enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.
Tim FerrissRead
Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you're moving.
Interpretation
People are often quick to discourage new ideas, but once you're making progress, they are less likely to interfere.
This quote by Tim Ferriss highlights the tendency of others to discourage new ventures and initiatives before they even begin. It suggests that many people fear change or new ideas, often preemptively expressing skepticism or doubt. However, once someone starts moving forward with their goals or projects, the same skeptics tend to withdraw their negativity, demonstrating that momentum often breeds acceptance and even support.
In practice
This quote can be shared at a motivational speech to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs.
It isn't enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.
The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.
It's just astonishing to me, but not surprising in some respects, how dependent we are on the somewhat meaningless and certainly ephemeral feedback that we get from strangers on the Internet. I think that's a dangerous dependence to develop.
I always point people to the article '1,000 True Fans' by Kevin Kelly. If you choose your thousand ideal customers or readers properly and find the single author blog that targets that audience, you never have to do any more marketing. You're done. That is a lesson that very few product developers and marketers have learned, and it's unfortunate.
By using money as the scapegoat and work as our all-consuming routine, we are able to conveniently disallow ourselves to do otherwise: 'John, I'd love to talk about the gaping void I feel in my life, the hopelessness that hits me like a punch in the eye every time I start my computer in the morning, but I have so much work to do! I've got at least three hours of unimportant email to reply to before calling prospects who said 'no' yesterday. Gotta run!
Being busy is a form of laziness - lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
That's my job: work hard, win, and inspire.
If you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.
There will always be somebody more successful, more beautiful, more talented. You have to realize, you're not running their race. You're running your race.
If two or three agree on a common purpose, nothing is impossible.
Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer.
Whatever you do, make sure you want to write more than you want to be a writer. Make sure you want to act more than you want to be an actor. That is what will sustain you.
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