Q4: What’s your 90 days of work that will change your future and put you on your path to your dreams? #thecoinflyp…Walk good. 28all. Eya. *SB, WC, DK, PR, KO*

The Warm-Up: 

“Now let’s play again. If you had to trade three months of distractions and comfort for a shot at catalyzing your career, are you in? What’s crazy in the moment just might become the answer in the long haul.” ~David Kagulu-Kalema, Founder, The Coin Flyp

The Core: 

“Simplicity compounds. Complexity zeros out.” ~Shane Parrish

“Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.” ~Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Some people listen when they need to; people that get ahead listen all the time.” ~Shane Parrish

“Free education is abundant, all over the internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.” ~Naval Ravikant

“Entrepreneurs are people who choose to improve society instead of complaining.” ~Orange Book

“They wanted me to be here…To be wanted, that’s what anybody wants in the world. …I’m happy to be home.” ~Jimmy Butler, on joining the Heat

“Working on a problem reduces the fear of it. It’s hard to fear a problem when you are making progress on it—even if progress is imperfect and slow. Action relieves anxiety.” ~James Clear

“Friendly reminder to startups: customers don’t care about how brilliant your technology is. They only care about how simple your solution is. Focus on the latter at all costs.” ~Aaron Levie

“Success is about building a set of daily practices, it is about growth without goals. Continuous, habitual practice(s) trumps achievement-based success.” ~Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Growth Without Goals

“Investing 101: Markets go up and markets go down but how investors ascribe value to businesses rarely change that much in the end: Capital light >>> Capital heavy. Product moat >>> Capital moat. Network effects >>>Martketplaces >>> Everything else.” ~Chamath Palihapitiya

“Porn…Porn isn’t real sex. Cocaine isn’t real energy. Alcohol isn’t real courage. Gambling isn’t real investing. Video games aren’t real life. Caffeine isn’t real adrenaline. Nightly news aren’t real facts. Social media isn’t really social. Business books aren’t real business.” ~@billionairebullclub

“Your preparation is you facilitating God’s plan. I’m preparing like I want to be used, like I want miracles to flow through me…Preparation is when the miracle happens in you so that the miracle can come through you… I don’t do it so man can approve it, I do it so God can use it.” ~Sarah Jakes Roberts, In Demand

“Some thoughts for life, community and business: You don’t even imbalanced scales by putting equal weight on both sides. We put more weight where it is needed to get to balance. Even then, unless incredibly precise, the scales teeter a bit, but at least there is general balance…When we want to grow in any area, we disproportionately invest in that area, and we don’t spread our efforts equally across all current things. This is the way to evolve and improve over time. It’s not only ‘okay’ to focus in one area to advance it, but that is required to drive progress, because other areas with more gravitational pull, comfort, or inertia will naturally take resources and space and starve the thing we want to improve of the oxygen it needs to grow…When we want to strengthen our legs (for example), we don’t only work out our whole body. We do more leg workouts specifically. When we want to improve a function in our business, we evaluate, build a plan to elevate capability, and apply dedicated resources to that area…Any area that in inequitable or deserving of growth needs dedicated resources, community, energy, and more. Addressing areas of needed work not only strengthen that thing, but also helps the overall body, organization, or community, because so many things are connected.” ~Kat Cole

Last Set: 

“Even if we had another Black president and a Black cabinet, it will not bring racial equality to our country, end police brutality, or affect the Black circumstance at large. The only thing that will allow Black people to have the agency, freedom, and equal footing in America is economic inclusion. We have been systematically removed from economic advancement since the beginning of time in this country that we built. To explain what economic inclusion means, I find it pertinent to give a quick history lesson on what economic exclusion is...” ~James Norman, A VC’s Guide to Investing in Black Founders

Food for Thought: 

I can’t imagine the struggles everyone’s faced through COVID-19, but between the global pandemic, racial injustice, and the looming election, there are so many things pulling people apart. What is something you can do with the last ~90 days to get closer to someone? Use the rest of 2020 not to blame our circumstances on it, but rather as an accelerant to get closer to your dreams. To be clear, I know everyone’s situation is different; this aint meant to be tone deaf as much as it is to urge us to show gratitude.

I received this text earlier this week, right at a time when I was in my feelings, questioning if the MML was reaching people and a litany of other things:

“Love what you’re doing with the MML. Remember reading for the first time in 2014 and to see where you’re at and the discipline is inspiring. Keep it up fam. Hope all is well.” 

It’s wild cause I had just read his article and thought something similar. I’ve always admired his quiet hustle while at Amherst, handling business on and off the court, or how he refereed the intramural basketball championship game, one of my fondest sports memories, or all he’s building with The Coin Flyp…Keep going DK.

“I’ve written about deliberate practice before and how true change comes from an extreme amount of effort over a period of time until new habits are second nature. The deeper reason why Jimmy’s dedication grips me is because I speak to athletes all the time about change. I hear endless stories about the difficulties of changing and reinventing one’s self. The word reinvention doesn’t always come up, but these conversations reveal how rewarding change can be for one’s life. Jimmy’s story offers a template for anyone to use and it’s not about locking yourself away from the world. It’s about making short term commitments to deliberately build long lasting competence.” ~David Kagulu-Kalema, Founder, The Coin Flyp, Jimmy Butler’s Disciplined Summer Of Isolation & The Lesson It Teaches On Reinventing Yourself