9 Things

I often take screen shots of things that I want to remember and leave those pictures in Dropbox. Part of this afternoon was spent cleaning out and reorganizing Dropbox and I came across a comment written by Paul Carr back in 2011 on a post called Clues on Oli Barrett's blog.

1. Get some sleep.
2. Get some exercise.
3. Get some peace and quiet.
4. Write to people out of the blue and ask them if you can come and see them.
5. Write some goals down.
6. Resend emails to busy people.
7. Read some business books.
8. Try to be nice to people
9. Try to be helpful.

Basically, Oli's post summed up 9 things people should do in order to live a better life. Most of them were really basic, like get some sleep, get some exercise, and get some peace and quiet. At the end of the article, he asked people to leave comments about what their 9 things were and this is where Paul Carr's gem can be found:

1. Read biographies of people whose world you know nothing about. If you're a writer, read biographies of physicists and explorers. If you're a physicist, read biographies of statesmen. Don't read business books, except for those written by people who have actually invented something, or built a billion dollar company. Everything else is just bullshit.
2. Manners are what separates us from the chimps. Punctuate.
3. Whatever you do, make sure it's something you can one day proudly tell your grandchildren about.
4. Invest in a good pen and a good watch. Use them.
5. The more you want to have sex with someone, the less you should make them your business partner.
6. Tell the truth. It's worth it in the long term.
7. Play the long game.
8. Build a network of friends, not contacts. Meet interesting people, stay in touch with the ones whose company you enjoy, cut loose the ones you can't stand. Don't nurture a relationship with someone you don't like personally - it's not worth it.
9. Always leave them wanting more.

Every single one of those ideas is on point.