3OT: Poker, Momentum, & Ambition

Hey friends,

No newsletter last week since it was a holiday (Happy 4th of July btw!)

Quote of the week:

"People need love more than they need advice. Most people know the right thing to do, they just need someone to believe in them." - Lex Fridman

3 Things:

1. The World Series of Poker is going on right now, so I’ve been in the world of poker a lot. Here’s 3 life lessons I’ve taken from poker:

   1. Don’t talk about your bad beats. No one wants to be around the guy who’s constantly complaining.

   2. Just because things didn’t go your way doesn’t mean you made the wrong choice. Make +EV decisions and over time things will work out.

   3. You don’t have to be right all the time, just get the few big ones right and you’re golden.

       

2. Momentum is highly underrated by successful people, because they’ve had it for so long it becomes forgettable. But to people just starting out, it can be the difference between pushing through a hard time or giving up. Try to get momentum going as quickly as possible when starting something new.

    

3. A reminder from Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator, who’s advised thousands of startups and young ambitious people):

   “Some people know at 16 what sort of work they're going to do, but in most ambitious kids, ambition seems to precede anything specific to be ambitious about. They know they want to do something great. They just haven't decided yet whether they're going to be a rock star or a brain surgeon. There's nothing wrong with that.”

   From his great essay Cities and Ambition

    

    

Tweet I Enjoyed:

What I'm up to:

Working on a few YouTube videos. It’s been slow but consistent.

Cheers,

Ben

P.S. Thanks for all the book recommendations last week!