30 Pearls of Wisdom I Wish I Knew Before I Turned 30
30 important lessons from brilliant people to uplift you, inspire you, motivate you and keep you going!
Inspiration can come to you from all ways, only if you are looking for it. Many things in the world work this way. You will find an answer only when you are searching for it. Great ideas cling on to you, alongside millions of other people in the world at the same time, but only those few, who are brave, fearless, who begin the execution of that idea with all their might gets access to the universal energy to manifest the idea to something greater than themselves.
I wish I knew how the world works a decade ago, I would have been half a century ahead of time by now. Nevertheless, I am on the trajectory and headed in the direction I always dreamt of. I have hence put together a list of pearls of wisdom that perhaps could help you do better than yourself as these wise pearls are from some brilliant people that the world has seen.
May you be the best version of yourself!
About the important parts of life
- “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw
2. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
― Helen Keller
3. “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
4. “Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” — Richard Branson
5. “Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
6. Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms — you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.―Seneca
About happiness and obstacles
7. “Our actions may be impeded but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” – Marcus Aurelius
8. “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is a content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” ―Seneca
9. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”―Seneca
10. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”―Epictetus
11. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw”
About learning
12. “If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
13. “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” ―Epictetus
14. “We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions. Strong leaders engage their critics and make themselves stronger. Weak leaders silence their critics and make themselves weaker. This reaction isn’t limited to people in power. Although we might be on board with the principle, in practice we often miss out on the value of a challenge network.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
15. “Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“Learn from the mistakes of others, You can’t afford to make them all on your own” — Chanakya
About ideas and thinking
16. “Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“Thinking like a scientist involves more than just reacting with an open mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong — not for reasons why we must be right — and revising our views based on what we learn.”
― Adam M. Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
On friendship
17. “In the deepest sense of the word, a friend is someone who sees more potential in you than you see in yourself, someone who helps you become the best version of yourself.”
― Adam M. Grant, Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World
“Be wary of friends — they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.” — Robert greene
“Keep your friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent”
― Robert Greene
Success and failure
18. “You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
19. “What really makes successful entrepreneurs is not the nature of their idea or the university they went to, but their actual character — their willingness to adapt their ideas and take advantage of possibilities they had not first imagined.” — Robert Greene, Mastery
20. “The moment you rest, thinking that you have attained the level you desire, a part of your mind enters a phase of decay.” — Robert Greene, Mastery
21. “No thank you, I can’t afford to panic.” — Ryan Holiday
“There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous.
About growth & focus
22. “As long as you are alive, you will either live to accomplish your own goals and dreams or be used as a resource to accomplish someone else’s.” — Grant Cardone
23. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” — Angela Duckworth
24. When I get knocked down, I’ll get back up. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I’ll strive to be the grittiest. — Angela Duckworth
25. “Banking! (Snort!) I made [my money] on the seas, and in the mines, and in the cattle wars of the old frontier! I made it by being tougher than the toughies, and smarter than the smarties! And I made it square!” — Scrooge McDuck (from DuckTales)
26. “Psychologists and researchers claim our brains need up to 25 minutes to regain our momentum after each distraction.”
― Damon Zahariades
27. “10 times the actions, 10 times the goals, and you’ll get everything you ever dreamed of.” — GC again!
28. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.”- Jeff Bezos
29. “Life is growth. You grow or you die.”
― Phil Knight
30. “So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.”
― Phil Knight
It's all about the struggle. Put yourself in a kind of struggle that requires you to achieve peak performance to beat yourself out of it. I learnt that peak performance comes when you are doing nothing but struggle. Growth comes at a point of resistance, skills are the outcome of the struggle
It took me about half a decade to read through many books and skim through many of the podcasts and the quotes above are filtered from thousands of other quotes I have noted and refer to as wisdom in the need of the hour. Hope this was useful.
