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Strengths are our trump cards.
We already have an edge over them.
They make us start ahead of everyone else.

Weaknesses are our jacks.

We will have to work more than everyone else to even be at par.

Then why is it that people are told to work on their weaknesses and not on their strengths?

Working on our strengths gives us a competitive advantage.
Working on our weaknesses doesn’t offer that; every bit is a struggle.

Strengths increase on the principle of compounding; so do our weaknesses.

Which one would you choose then?

“I don’t know what to do with my life.”

We happen to tell this to ourselves early in our lives, especially when we see people younger than us becoming successful YouTubers, rocking on Reels or becoming child prodigies - and our wanderings make us wonder if we will ever “make it” in life.

However, there’s only one kind of people that do not make it, if ever: Those who do not move.

For the rest of us, for those who keep exploring, for those who keep looking, and for those who are never satisfied with settling, we will somehow figure out what to do with our lives.

Success is in exploring, and not setting with your own mindset that doesn’t let us nurture.

What did you do today?

Learned something?
Met someone interesting?
Took notes and executed upon your ideas?

Or watched Netflix, ate junk food and slept a little more.

And what will you do tomorrow?
Day after?

Quicker than you know, the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years.
Quicker than you know, your present turns into your future.

By the choices you made today.

The best way to predict your future is to look at your day today.

Sara Blakely is a tremendously successful businesswoman.

Someone asked her, what do you attribute your success to?

She said, “Every night at the dinner table, my father would ask my brother and me, ‘What did you fail at today?’”

Did you fail today?
Did you get knocked down and bruised today?
Did you face rejection today?

Sara had it ingrained in her mind that it’s okay to fail.
What was not okay was to live with that failure.

Treat failure as a part of life, and it will turn success into a habit.

When we point a finger at someone else, we are unable to join hands together.
When we think someone else is wrong, we hardly stop to think they could be right in their shoes.
When we confront, it is in accusation mode instead of access mode.

It’s easy to win conversations by gathering all the evidence against someone, it's difficult to gather all the reasons why they could be perfectly right.

Instead of winning conversations, having one helps.

If given a chance to trade anything of the wealthiest people, what is the right thing to trade?

Their money? Status? Network? Hard work? Life Lessons?

The best thing to trade for is their curiosity.
What do they think about the most? What is the pattern of their thinking? What are their mental models?

Curiosity can make us figure out a way to make a motor car in a world where everyone wants a faster horse cart.

Lack of it, can make us believe we are meant for slow commutes forever.

Having the wealth of the wealthy is like eating fish.
Having their curiosity is learning how to fish.

An alcoholic father had two sons.

One grew up to be an alcoholic.
When asked why, he responded, “I watched my father.”

The other grew up hating alcohol.
When asked how he chose to be sober, he responded, “I watched my father.”

So it wasn't about what happened to them.
It wasn't about the circumstance.
It wasn't about the situation.

It was about what they took from it.
It was about the stories they told themselves of what they went through.

We are the stories we tell ourselves.

Given how rapidly everything changes now, I often wonder what is the most important skill of the 21st century?

Is it to code? To become an AI expert? To be a storyteller?

I believe the most important skill of the 21st century is the ability to learn something new, whenever required.

If we have the ability to become a student whenever we have to and not think of our school or college as the only occasion to do so, we will have the superpower to face the world.

The future belongs to those who stay students forever.

When we only do what we were told to do, we own the output.

If anyone else gets that work done better, cheaper, faster than us - they would replace us.

Owning the output makes us dispensable

However, if we stopped and asked ourselves, “Why am I being told to do what I have been told to do?” we will own not just the output, but the outcome as well.

Owning the outcome will surprise people each time we deliver stunningly more than what we were supposed to do.

Owning the outcome, instead of the output makes us indispensable.

You’re starting something you’ve never done. It’s making you anxious. You find yourself lacking confidence.

What if I fail? What if I’m laughed at? What if my critics say: “I told you!”

It’s impossible to have 100% confidence when you’re starting something new.

It's 100% possible to know that you will figure it out.
That you care about your progress more than what people think of you.
That even if you fail, you will own it and make it better.

Confidence that you don’t have confidence as of now but will figure things out is the only confidence you ought to have.