5 lessons for writers and creative entrepreneurs

As a writer and digital entrepreneur, I’m starting to realize that success in any creative field is part art, part science. The art part requires you to bring forth your personality, enthusiasm, and authenticity. The science part requires you to study the process, learn from the best, hone your skills, and strategize.

Italian restaurateur Massimo Bottura is a creative genius who does exactly that. He’s an artist in his approach, but he’s a scientist in his methods. …

No, I didn’t write every day.

On October 30, 2019, I published my first article on Medium — and I wrote it because I had a message I wanted to share. It was my story of how I quit my job at Google to start my own company, only to find out about the truth of entrepreneurship — that it’s not as glamourous as the media paints it to be. No, it’s a rough and lonely game, an emotional rollercoaster riding straight into the unknown.

Today, a year later, that article has amassed 50,000 views.

People tell me I was lucky to have my first article go viral, but I like to think otherwise. The article was honest, raw, and vulnerable, and above all, inspiring and relatable. It told a story, and that’s why people began sharing it. …

A guide on how to live a good life

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had this dream of changing the world, but growing up, I had no idea how — let alone what I wanted to do with my life.

So I tried different things: I studied abroad, I worked at Google, I backpacked for lengths at a time, I launched my own online business. I kept on looking outward, never truly feeling any sense of contentment or peace, until I arrived at these words by the 13th-century poet, Rumi:

“Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. …

Quality matters more than quantity.

People often preach that the more books you read, the better. I like to think otherwise — the more deeply you read into a great book, the better.

Sure, you can read fifty books a year, but is that really necessary? Are you absorbing as much as you can from each one of these books? Are you taking the time to apply the models and concepts the authors present?

The number of books you complete in a given year is just a vanity metric. What matters more is identifying a selection of great books that would allow you to level yourself up and then, going deeper into them to fully absorb — and apply — the ideas they share. …

Are you the victim or the instigator?

There once was a man who sat on a fishing dock and observed how a bunch of live crabs, in a bucket, behaved. While all of them squirmed at the bottom, every now and then, one crab would crawl up the side in an effort to reach the top and escape. But each time it made its way closer to the rim, a crab from below would reach up and pull it back down. Then, another crab would climb upward, and again, one crab from the bottom would tug it back down.

A crab placed alone in a bucket will easily climb out and escape, but when you place it with a few of its mates, this interesting phenomenon occurs: One at a time, as the crabs try to escape, other crabs will pull them back down to their misery and the group’s collective demise. …

Especially when faced with adversity

Life can be rough sometimes.

One day you’re planning how to expand your business, the next day, you’re trying to figure out how to keep it afloat in a pandemic. One moment you’re driving your car on the freeway, and in the next, you’re stretched out in an ambulance.

Sometimes, when the wave of adversity hits, it arrives in the form of a tsunami. It’s big. It’s overwhelming. It’s scary. And, in an instant, it sweeps away all sense of normality. But as Maya Angelou famously wrote:

“You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.”

This year has been a difficult one, not just for me, but for all of us. …

Timeless lessons on fear, love, and creative work.

Perhaps it might come as a surprise to you, but there’s a lot that you and Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most celebrated painters from the 19th century, have in common. He confronted several of the same existential challenges that you, me, and many people and aspiring creatives face today. For instance, when, at the age of 26, Van Gogh was fired from his job as a preacher in a small village, he moved to a nearby village and took up drawing and writing. He chose a different path for himself. …

Use them to design a life that works for you

You might not realize it at the moment, but sometimes, what can seem like the most trivial interaction can become one of the most impactful in your life.

Three years ago, while working at Google, I struck up a conversation with a colleague on my floor. He was on a different team, sat three rows behind my desk, and his realm of work had nothing to do with mine, but our chat introduced me to the idea of Life Design — an idea that would change the trajectory of my life.

The concept of life design was first introduced by Silicon Valley innovators and Stanford University professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Inspired by years of teaching Design Thinking, they both believed that in order to create positive change in our lives, we first need a process — a design process — that would allow us to identify what it is we want to change and how we can go about creating it. …