For Van and Luke, my pals

you may never see this, but it's there just in case.

  • Writer Susan Sontag on Persistence

    “It never occurred to me that I couldn’t live the life I wanted to lead. It never occurred to me that I could be stopped…

    I had this very simple view: that the reason people who start out with ideals or aspirations don’t do what they dream of doing when they’re young is because they quit.

    I thought, well, I won’t quit.”

    — Susan Sontag

  • Be Astonished

    “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
    — Mary Oliver

    Mary Oliver has so many good quotes and this might be one of the best

  • Path to a Lesser Goal

    “We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
    — Robert Brault

    Don’t let life sidetrack you from your goals. Don’t settle for less.

  • Did You Bargin Over the Price

    “If you don’t get what you want, it’s a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.”
    — Rudyard Kipling

  • Learn to Be Unconfortable

    Learn to be unconfortable. The more you can be ok being unconfortable, the more challenges in life you can overcome and the happier you will be.

  • Networking

    The most effective networking strategy has nothing to do with conferences, cocktail hours, cold emails, or any of the common ideas you hear.

    1) Do interesting things.
    2) Share them publicly.

    Repeat those two strategies and you’ll become a magnet. Like-minded people will come to you.

    (I got this from James Clear - jamesclear.com)

  • Success Is Hard

    Success is hard. Every force in the world is working against you. Persist. And leave the haters behind. The people that tell you you can’t do it and run you down for trying will certainly exist. They are wrong. Don’t stop moving forward.

  • Struggles

    One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.


    — Sigmund Freud

  • My Wage

    I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening when I counted my scanty store.

    For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why you must bear the task.

    I worked for a menial’s hire, Only to learn dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid


    — Jessie B. Rittenhouse

  • Fail A Lot

    Make sure you fail a lot. The more you fail, the more you refine the process and it gets sharpened. Keep failing, keep learing from it. It’s easy to get discouraged as you fail, but the more you go through it, the more experience you gain and you will start to see results that you’re proud of.