If you need me, I will be in my feelings listening to Certified Lover Boy non-stop for the next three days. Don’t @ at me.…Walk good. 28all. Eya.*JS, AR, RH, AB*

The Warm-Up: 

“If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you must look forward, do so prayerfully. However, the wisest thing you can do is to be present in the present…gratefully.” ~Maya Angelou

The Core: 

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” ~Anonymous

“It takes maturity to learn from those who have everything you want, instead of envying and resenting them.” ~Orange Book

“If something looks irrational—and has been so for a long time—odds are you have a wrong definition of rationality.” ~Nicholas Taleb

“I hear people say all the time, ‘Well, you make a lot of money.’ Yeah, but I create a lot of value.” ~Nick Saban, Nick Saban, 7 Titles in, on Offenses, Defenses and Changes in College Sports, written by Alan Blinder

“Never imagine that skill and talent are all that matter. In court the courtier’s art is more important than his talent; never spend so much time on your studies that you neglect your social skills.” ~Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power

“Those that seek to understand do not seek the easy path, nor the shared collective. They seek depth, knowledge, mastery, and their soul. Understanding comes from seeking the person ‘under that which you stand…’ yourself.” ~Matt Gottesman

“I made a connection today (one of many) and someone asked me, ‘What’s in it for you?’ I told them, ‘the ROI for doing something without wanting anything in return immediately can be astronomical.’ Optimize for catalyzing daily, and all that good energy comes back in multiples.” ~Arlan Hamilton

“Best thing I can do is not build with you / When I could destroy you, that takes some [real] discipline / I could send a team to come drill you, I got a billion or two / And I know where…you live / [people] gotta chill with talking gangsta / You should just thank us, humble yourselves a little bit / This ain’t the same Shawn that you knew once…” ~Jay-Z, Love All, Drake ft. Jay-Z 

“I got feelings for you, that’s the thing about it, yeah / You know that it’s somethin’ when I sing about it, yeah / Momma used to be on disability but gave this ability / And now she walkin’ with her head high and her back straight / I don’t think you feelin’, I’m out here / Bein’ everything they said I wouldn’t be and couldn’t be / I don’t know what happened to them guys that said they would be…” ~Drake, Fair Trade

“The lion and the lamb my brother. Every churchian can quote John 3:16, but how many know or reflect on John 3:17. I say that to say this. As you know scripture in the wrong hands can be made to mean anything. Just as a man can walk into a baptism a dry devil and come out a wet one. Your words speak for themselves. Thank you for what you do. The results of your work and lessons are obvious in my household. Keep up the good fight.” ~@outsidabox1221 in response to @mrjasonwilson

“Saeed for his part wished he could do something for Nadia, could protect her from what would come, even if he understood, at some level, that to love is to enter into the inevitability of one day not being able to protect what is most valuable to you. He thought she deserved better than this, but he could see no way out, for they had decided not to run, not to play roulette with yet another departure. To flee forever is beyond the capacity of most: at some point even a hunted animal will stop, exhausted, and wait its fate, if only for a while.” ~Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

“It’s called a ‘blessing in disguise’ for a reason. You have to be in the right frame of mind to see it. Pray your self-awareness grows and you’re able to recognize the opportunities in front of you. Know your why. Remember the reason you started. Remind yourself of what’s to come if you stay dedicated to the process. Let go of outdated beliefs, unproductive habits, and negative self-imagines. Welcome faith, wiser time management, and peaceful understanding. Letting go is going to help you regain yourself. Inhale, breathe deep…and release it. The most courageous step to take towards healing your heart will be opening it up to learn new things again. A mindset shift is a major life change. Maintain your balance. Don’t get lost in the speed of things.” ~Rob Hill Sr.

“To me, a startup that creates a breakthrough has to force that choice because they’re trying to create a movement. They’re trying to move people to a different future of their design. People don’t move because of a comparison, they move because they see something radically different, not incrementally better…We want to go after an unbounded upside opportunity based on that insight. And we actually want to lean into risk. Most people I know if you said, ‘I’ll give you a choice between 80% chance of 5X or 20% chance of 50X,’ most people would pick the former, because they think of risk as avoiding failure. But I like to think of risk as something you take. Taking risks means, out there is an unbounded upside opportunity. The purpose of this seed round is to pursue it and decide whether we want to make an all-in bet on that insight.” ~Mike Maples Jr.  A Playbook for Startups, on Invest Like The Best w/ Patrick O’Shaughnessy

“Five years since I started managing my own money. Let’s pull back the kimono and share a few learnings…I still look for privates that are real businesses and not just ideas or products. They are more and more difficult to find at close to reasonable valuations. I’d love to work with entrepreneurs building real businesses. Fixed income has no place in my portfolio. At peak, preferred securities w/ qed income was a 10% allocation when the 10yr was >3 but now it’s almost 0. MF real estate with reasonable capital structures are better resources of income than any fixed income. Especially in SMILE states. All my public longs materially outperform indices over 1, 3, and 5 years yet I foolishly have trimmed at times just to add to my too big cash pile and a couple of times sold a lagging long lot of a winner for a modest tax loss offset. Both sales were always stupid and wrong…As always, the most important lesson I relearn again and again—simple works.” ~Paul Enright

Last Set: 

“When everyone agrees with you when you make a decision, you get paid linearly. When everyone agrees with you after the fact, you get paid exponentially.” ~Shane Parrish

Food For Thought:

“As the Church, we haven’t done a good job on teaching Jesus & the gospel’s perspective of suffering. Most of us don’t know how to suffer with Him. The worst time to explore the new theology is when in pain and in suffering. We have a tendency of pacifying our suffering with out of context scriptures and with our imaginary ‘God saids’. Your foundation is revealed in your suffering. What you’ve built your life on will be shown in pain and suffering. Jesus was talking to Peter in Luke 22 when he said, ‘Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.’ Jesus prayer for Simon is what should be our prayer…that the belief, the values & the faith we’ve built our life on will not fail in times of sifting & suffering.” ~Chandler Moore

Food For Thought II:

“The biggest thing that has changed for me — and you might be shocked when I say this — is that I’ve actually become, through the years and through the experiences, a lot less outcome-oriented and a lot more process-oriented. I think that approach carries over to the players because then they become less outcome-oriented, and they’re more focused on process, they’re more focused on one play at a time, exactly what do I have to do and how do I have to do it, what’s going to help me be successful here, and they’re not looking at the scoreboard like we’ve got to win the game. They’re focusing on one play at a time.” ~Nick Saban, Nick Saban, 7 Titles in, on Offenses, Defenses and Changes in College Sports, written by Alan Blinder

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