In 2008, Spotify set the ambitious vision to create a legal music streaming service that could compete with piracy. Their initial strategy was clear-cut: secure licensing deals with major record labels, build a robust platform, and acquire users. But the path that led to their current 626 million active users was anything but straight. They … Read More
Back in 2018, I spent weeks learning everything about rare teas to start a new business; I studied every resource I could find, saved them in a folder, took copious notes, and then… Nothing. When it was time to take the first real step, I hesitated. The hesitation turned into procrastination, endlessly tweaking and perfecting … Read More
Stephen King didn’t become a bestselling author by reading about writing—he became one by writing every single day. The same applies to many successful people across various fields. They didn’t just gather information—they took deliberate action, committing to daily practice that helped them refine their skills. Yet, so many of us continue to endlessly collect … Read More
In 2019 I made a pact to write a hundred articles in a hundred workdays. Since then, I have written and published one new article almost every week, and I have kept with this cadence while running a business and studying for my PhD. This is my longest running personal experiment. Over the years, a … Read More
Making your bed in the morning, that first cup of coffee, grabbing a croissant on your way to work, listening to your favorite podcast on the train… As much as we wish for each day to be different, repeating some of the same actions is an important part of our lives. Researchers have found that … Read More
Since we are born, a set of defaults influences our goals, our relationships, our tastes. From fashion to friendship, many of the choices we make in life are imperceptibly constrained by default definitions. For example, the default definition of education is formal schooling. The default definition of love is monogamy. The default definition of success … Read More
“What am I here for?” is one of the oldest questions humans have been grappling with. For millennia, religion has provided for many a source of meaning — the comforting idea that someone was in control and that, even if we didn’t have the ability to comprehend it all, the world ultimately made sense. With … Read More
Success is commonly defined as reaching one’s goals. Getting accepted into a prestigious program, building a profitable business, becoming a doctor, completing an online course… Whatever the goal may be, success is simply bridging the gap between where we are and where we want to go. The Internet and our bookshelves are filled with exhortations … Read More
With social media at our fingertips, we are regularly alerted to the news of a friend’s new car, an ex-colleague being awarded yet another promotion, or the lavish holiday your neighbors have somehow managed to afford. It’s hard to not get swept up in the pursuit of social status. Far from being a modern phenomenon, … Read More
When your motivation vanishes, what can you do to get it back? Many of us will buy an inspirational book or watch motivational videos, thinking this will help us get our mojo back. But these tricks are unlikely to be successful. In reality, motivation only starts to build again once we have taken the first … Read More