30 Days of Genius- Adrian Grenier

For the last time, Adrian's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics.

• Giving people the truth is a form of power
• Pure honesty builds a trust that is powerful. People follow honesty more than they would ever be loyal to mistrust.
• The journey is the purpose. There is no bell to ring at the top
• Lionel Richie. 'Nuff said. 
• Institutional learning limits learning to the institution 
• Learning withing the confines of an institution- like a school or university- means learning only happens within the constraints of that institution. Which isn't a bad thing, if you have the friends and colleagues to make that institution as expansive as possible. 
• But learning should always be happening, with no constraints. The benefit of not going to university or of purposefully expanding your learning beyond it is that you begin to learn from many different people.
• How do you make it in the movie industry? You have an iPhone. Go out and make something
• To end this series on anything but a metaphor would be wrong. We have all the tools we need in life. Any one who says otherwise is looking for an excuse. Film? iPhone. Entrepreneurship? Squarespace. Chefdom? A pan and some salt. Travel blogger? A car and safari.
• We can do whatever we want to do. Leave the excuses at home, and get after it.

30 Days of Genius- Caterina Fake

Caterina's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

This was one of the best interview in the series. A woman I hadn't heard of until now had an awesome impact! 

• 'Do what you love' sounds silly until it works.
• Cliches are cliches for a reason. Follow your dreams is a foolish thing to tell somebody, and probably even more silly to believe. Until it works, and you've succeeded doing something you love.

• Auto-didacticism. If you’re passionate about something and you want to learn it, you can. And you will.
• A major theme of this series is to always be learning. And, like learning all throughout life, that happens through willpower and commitment. Teach yourself the things you want to learn. Others won't teach it to you. You can learn from others, but you must teach yourself. 

• No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road, turn back
• The sunk cost fallacy is probably most prevalent in our own lives. If you're in the wrong job for a year, or your company has been making poor decisions, today is the earliest you can change that. And if it should be changed, don't put it off. 

• Don’t have time? Lies- we’ve all got time for the smallest daily commitment. What’s the story you’re telling yourself?
• Another 'Love This' moment. We've all got time. It's about prioritizing. Everyone- or at least everyone reading this blog post- has 30 minutes in a day that they can find to commit to pursuing an interest or a project.
• "What's the story you're telling yourself" is an alternative to Bernard Roth's (Stanford Engineering) mantra of "Live a life without excuses." Don't say 'you cannot because' or 'you did not because'. You simply did not, or found a reason you cannot. Remove the reason, and you'll make it happen.

• Success leads us astray. Stop chasing prizes. 
• The prize is not the goal. In many ways, there is no goal. Jeez I sound Buddhist.
• If I didn't tell CJ's Lionel Richie story that he referenced 8 times, it would be as if I didn't even watch the series. Lionel had a year where he was on top. He won a grammy, a tony, and 7 other awards. And when he reached the pinnacle of achievement, what did he find at the top of the mountain? Nothing. It feels good, then you get back to work.
• So stop chasing something you don't even understand. Enjoy the ride, that's the whole point.

30 Days of Genius- Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

• Think about what you want
• The 5 year plan said in much broader context. Think about what you really want. Then find ways to get there. Or find people who have already gotten there, and follow their pre-paved path. 

• Try things you love with a low-investment commitment 
• I'm often dismayed when I hear that my friends won't pursue writing or art or singing or pottery because of their current job. Pursuing something does not mean quitting all and doing it 60 hours a week. Try things out. Do them a few times. Implement them into your schedule. Make them a part of your life. Take a class. Over time, this becomes habit, and habit becomes life. 

• Who do you envy?
• Throw back to the first statement- who is in an position you want to be in? Can you go work with them? Understand their path?

• It’s all about being held accountable
• Set consequences for failure. Holding yourself true to your word does not work for everyone. There are services that help hold you accountable. If you tell friends what you're doing, you're held accountable. There must be something at the end of each daily habit to reward or punish you for doing it. 

• Admitting what you are is admitting what you are not
• And that can be both a disappointment and a great relief. Focusing on what you were born as and what you grew into, instead of what others may expect from you, allows you to live a happier and more honest life. 

• Goals are good for goals, not for habits
• Love this! Goals help drive results, habits help drive lifestyles. I had a goal of completing a marathon in under 4 hours. After 20 weeks of hard work, I did it. Then it took me 3 months to go running again.

30 Days of Genius- Brian Solis

Brian's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

• People spend 177 minutes a day on their phone
• Lord help us. I'm not surprised. And there are plenty of days when I might be adding to this number. But in many ways, that makes me said.
• On a more practical sense, imagine the opportunity! If you control part of someone's phone time, that's a valuable and memorable interaction.

• You don’t create experiences by doing what others have done before 
• Referencing the Virgin Airlines Safety Video, Brian makes the point that ingenuity is what drives impressive experiences. Copying past models is a standard. Be the one who breaks the mold. 

• "It’s not good enough to be good enough. It’s not good enough to be the best. You have to now understand the impact you want to have and the role you want to play in someone's life and who that person is and design for all of it." 
• Speaking to a company's tactics, not personal accomplishment, Brian talks about today's society requiring deeper thinking of the companies that feed it instead of just great products. The Triple Bottom Line approach is what guides great creative organizations.

• Starbucks doesn’t look at other, competitive, coffee shops for inspiration. They look at PayPal, Apple, and other great tech companies. 
• Inspiration comes from across industries. All coffee shops are doing similar things. All payments companies are doing similar things. And if they're not, then copying them will only get you to their level, not beyond it. If you want to be great, your organization needs to look at the best of other industries and find ways to apply that to your own. 

• No one achieves greatness without completely exposing themselves
• Vulnerability leads to empowerment. It's like the tale of the athlete with great potential who, always afraid of injury or embarrassment, never quite reached it. Work as hard as you can. Be open and honest. Take risks. Greatness is not guaranteed, but it's definitely more likely. And the ride becomes more of a roller-coaster than a merry-go-round. And c'mon. Who really likes the merry-go-round?

30 Days of Genius- James Altucher

James' words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

• Physical health, personal relationships, creativity, practicing gratitude
• These are a few of my favorite things! Just kidding, it's what James tries to practice every day. If he takes care of each of these four, he knows he is having a good day.

• The world is full of hyphens (5 creative projects)
• CJ has repeated this often, and now he found a supporter. It seems everyone is defined by their side projects now. Do more of these, and you will find more happiness and more success.
• It has been found that 5 creative projects is the perfect number to inspire the greatest creativity. Juggle lots of balls, because that's when the going gets good. 

• A lot of success is about knowing how to do tiny experiments
• Test things in little ways. Run small experiments. Try something, learn to let it go. Create mini versions of the future you want to imagine. 
• In other words, don't commit 100% of your time and money to something until you've tested a small version of it. 

• See what’s happening now, and let others decide if that’s the future. 
• It's too hard to predict the future. Let others do that, because they'll make more mistakes than good decisions. It's your job to do things well today, and make today a priority every day.

• Technology doesn’t excite me that much- what excites me is the variety of choices it brings
• I suppose those two are one and the same, but James draws a clear distinction. Technology is a toy box of opportunity. It presents options within itself, and by nature of providing ways for us to explore other opportunities as it saves us time in the realm of the mundane. Thanks, technology!

30 Days of Genius- Tina Roth Eisenberg

Tina's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics.

• What are you side projects?
• Side projects inspire creative work in themselves and in your main work. They are works of passion and interest. They force you to deal with constraints of time, money, and resources, but often come out with great results. Have side projects- it's fun and important to the world. And to yourself.

• Confidence is impressive, enthusiasm is infectious. Confidence is about yourself, enthusiasm is about something else.
• There are two ways to pitch an idea or inspire an audience. Always choose to intermingle enthusiasm into your confidence. Confidence could be more practical and unbiased, but it's enthusiasm that really gets others inspired to your dream. 

• The thing that’s hard is there to keep everybody else out, not to keep you out -CJ
• CHASE JARVIS DROPPING FIRE. You should be thrilled to do that hard things, because that means no one else is doing them. You are unstoppable because you are controlled by you. You can't speak for anyone else's will power or abilities- but you can always accomplish the hard thing.

• Stop complaining. Fix it, or let it go.
• Tina's advice? On point. If you find yourself complaining about something for extended periods of time, either devote the effort to fix it, or agree to let it go and move on with your life. 

30 Days of Genius- Neil Strauss

Neil's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

• You don’t know if it’s good. You just know that you made it. 
• You can't critique your own work as well as the rest of the world can. You don't know if it's good or bad. It's simply yours. Release it, and see what comes of it. 

• You throw a pebble in a culture and you don’t know where the ripples are gonna go. The question is- are you going to throw it. 
• Taking risks is important to you and to the world. Risk-taking ensures that you're making a difference. What that difference becomes is always a mystery. But that the difference exists is reliant on your risk taking.

• Don’t share it until you think it's good. If you’re sharing something that you know is imperfect, you’re losing your opportunity for valuable feedback
• This is a clarification on the common entrepreneurship trope of 'release as early as possible.' Put out good work, not bare bones work. This does not mean to wait until it is perfect- just until you are happy with it.

• Lock yourself in a room. Remove all distractions. Remove all excuses. 
• So much of procrastination is self-imposed distraction. Phones ring. Internet gets exciting. Friends say hi. If you remove all of these and set rules for yourself- like the writing 20 pages before getting your freedom from your self-imposed cell- you'll find that creating is less daunting than it seems. 

• Money can’t buy happiness, but experiences can. And money can buy experiences. 
• Money isn't evil. It should be sought after, but for the right reasons. Not for the sake of money, for the sake of opportunities.

30 Days of Genius- Austin Kleon

Austin's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics.

• What can I do that will mean the most to the most people
• Take action with great consequences. Do things that create waves, not ripples. Spend your time in a world in which your actions mean something to people other than yourself.

• Good poets copy great poets steal
• If you follow one person it's plagarism. If you follow many then it's innovation. Take from the wisdoms of others. They worked hard to make your work more meaningful. 

• Creativity is about having a network
• You need other people around you to inspire creativity. You can't do it alone. And you shouldn't have to. It's not that the lonely artist or the mad scientist or the single passionate entrepreneur is dead. It is simply easier to be a team player. 

• Productivity is so overrated in so many ways. 
• A fascinating little statement. Productivity means you don't spend time with your mind aimlessly wandering the ether of it's imagination. Being productive and being innovative are often on opposite ends from each other. And you need the latter to ensure that your productivity is going towards a good cause. 

• I’m going to make the worst thing I can make
• Do things as a test. Stretch your imagination. Put weird constraints on your work, and you'll return with fun results.

• "Everyone the same age as you is really just an alternate universe of your life with choices you didn’t make"
• I LOVE this concept. We could have all been the 22 year old, or 40 year old, or 87 year old who lives next door. Instead, we did what we decided to do. And that's what got us here. Think about the choices your counter-universes made. Look into how people older than you are living. Decide where you want to go, and the life choices that will take you to that universe. 

30 Days of Genius- Daymond John

Daymond's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics.

• "It wasn’t that moment. It was the 6 years leading up to it."
• There isn't a moment that changes lives. Well sure, maybe there is. But that moment does not exist without the years of effort it took to get there.
• The most noticeable thing about the Empire State Building is the radio antenna on the top. But no one would ever notice that if it wasn't for the hundreds of floors below it. 

• "You still have to wake up at 5:59am and go to sleep at 12:01"
• Just because things are easier to start today than ever before (and, without a doubt, they are), doesn't mean it takes anything less than crazy hard work to succeed.

• "You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with"
• A classic. We all mold ourselves to the person we are spending time with. Mold up, not down.

• You have to be able to put yourself in 2-5 words. “I’m on a quest"
• Who you are, what you stand for, and what people think of you should all be summed up simply.

• Be active in your own education
• Waiting for education to come to you is the broken model we still live in today. It's the K-12. Want to learn more and be more? Take control.

• "Life is a series of mentors."
• We're always learning, and there are always people out there to teach us. Always have a mentor, no matter the discipline. 

30 Days of Genius- Brandon Stanton

Brandon's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

• "Always be tough on yourself, always be tough on your work. Humans of New York is never the same as it was 6 months ago."
• You should always be changing as a creative and an individual. Good work is different today than it will be tomorrow. You should be critical of your past work so that it can constantly grow and change.

• "It’s a blessing to be the first one who gets bored with your own work."
• You are the first person to see your work, so you should be the first person to get bored with your work. That means you'll be the first person who wants to create new work, and it will constantly be different.

• "People listen when I speak because I very rarely speak."
• Make your words meaningful. Make your audience value your output, because it is rare and thoughtful.
• Wasn't it Napoleon who said "do not speak unless you are the smartest one in the room."? And look where that got him...

• "We all have advantages and disadvantages unique to ourselves. But everyone has the same capacity to work."
• You'll likely not be the best at something. You're also almost definitely not the worst. But the one thing you can be great at is work. It's one of the few things truly within your control. Work harder and longer than anyone else, and you'll see great results.

• "Following your dreams is nothing but hard work."
• Don't be the musician following her dreams without playing your instrument every single day.
• You're not actually following your dreams as a photographer without taking 100 pictures every single day. 
• Don't make "I'm following my dream" an excuse to not work hard. You need to work doubly hard to bring your talent to the forefront.

• "People are paralyzed by the need to make something great."
• Great work is a long, tedious road. It's spotted with releases of good things, long before there is something great. 
• As an amateur anything, you cannot be afraid of releasing something not great. Put the work out there, it won't ever be perfect anyway.