I just loved this little piece of advice from Ryan Holiday’s newsletter (which you should subscribe to)…
For everything you add, take something away. There’s a great story of Mark Parker who, just after he became CEO of Nike, called Steve Jobs for advice. “Just one thing,” Jobs said. “Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.” “He was absolutely right,” Parker said. “We had to edit.” Because we’ve always done it this way, is not a good reason.
I also liked this one – because while Ryan and his wife opened a bookstore – my wife and I opened a wellness-oriented Bed & Breakfast – because none of us should be waiting for “someday”…
The number one thing people say when they hear we have a bookstore is “I’ve always wanted to do that.” That’s a sad thing to say. If you want to do something, do it. I’m not saying it will be easy or even fun…but Seneca is right when he said that the one thing fools all have in common is that they are always telling themselves someday.
