Codex Audentia

There seem to be roughly two approaches to accomplish something great. One is to put yourself in a position where, if you don't succeed, you "die." There is no backup, no plan B. It's what's called "jumping off the cliff and building an airplane on the way down." Doing it this way is more chaotic, more exhilarating, and also automatically makes you more focused. It also makes your team more tight, because nothing bonds people better than trying to overcome a large shared threat. The high stress is accompanied by high euphoria. I'll call this, quite literally, "falling" to succeed.…

Nobody can be the expert on everything. As an entrepreneur, I always have to find people who know more than me, and trust them to do their job. But hiring is tough (and that's probably an understatement). People lie in interviews all the time (from both sides) trying to make the best impression. And often, jobs go to the best salesperson, not the most suitable person (at least for non-technical/managerial roles). When I'm hiring someone – whether it's a freelancer on Upwork or Fiverr, or a consultant – I use one key criterion to filter them out, and it works…

It took me a long time to learn that being a HIGH-PERFORMANCE PERSON demands the "monk life." Any great endeavour, personal growth, or massive success is rooted in sacrifice. A balanced life is an average life. Achieving high performance means you can only obsess over 1-2 priorities (maybe 3) in your life — the ones that bring you the most meaning and joy — and everything else usually has to be renounced. When looking for the City of Gold in the rainforest, you must be willing to take a machete in your hands and hack away at the vines in…

I've been reading a lot again. I sometimes wonder, when was the last time I had the urge to jump out of bed in the morning? It certainly has felt like years. I believe the last time it happened was while writing or promoting an essay over several days, or any other project that was incredibly meaningful and important to me, was a lot of fun, was challenging to figure out, had a deadline, and usually involved accountability to other people. I have an obsessive personality — I can, and dare I say need to get obsessed with something to…