Javier Castellon Villanueva’s Reviews > Principles: Life and Work > Status Update

“If you recognize short-term failure as a step toward long-term success, which it really is if you learn from it, you won’t be afraid of it or made uncomfortable by it and you will approach all of your experiences as learning experiences, even the most difficult ones.”

“Supposedly, if you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water it will immediately jump out. But if you put a frog in room-temperature water and gradually bring the water to a boil, the frog will stay in place and boil to death. There is a strong tendency to get used to and accept very bad things that would be shocking if seen with fresh eyes.”

“Micromanaging is telling the people who work for you exactly what tasks to do and/or doing their tasks for them. Not managing is having them do their jobs without your oversight and involvement. Managing means: 1) understanding how well your people and designs are operating to achieve your goals and 2) constantly improving them. To be successful, you need to manage.”

“Be assertive and open-minded at the same time.

a) Ask yourself whether you have earned the right to have an opinion.
b) Recognize that you always have the right to have and ask questions.”

“the only purpose of tasks is to achieve goals”

GOAL MUST BE FRONT AND CENTER. IF NOT, WHAT ARE YOU WORKING TOWARDS?

“Tolerating problems might be due to not thinking that they can be solved, or not caring enough about solving them. People who tolerate problems are the worse off because, without the motivation to move on, they cannot succeed.

My twist: one of the best ways to actually begin working towards your goals is putting yourself into an environment where you are unhappy. Unhappiness is great motivation for action.

“People often worry more about appearing to not have problems
than about achieving their desired results, and therefore avoid recognizing that their own mistakes and/or weaknesses
are causing the problems”

“By and large, life will give you what you deserve and it doesn’t give a damn what you “like.” So it is up to you to take full responsibility to connect what you want with what you need to do to get it, and then to do those things—which often are difficult but produce good results—so that you’ll then deserve to get what you want.”

Changed font size. Pg 36 on paper font w/ certain size.

“You must approach these as distinct steps rather than blur them together.
For example, when setting goals, just set goals (don’t think how you will achieve them or the other steps); when diagnosing problems, just diagnose problems (don’t think about how you will solve them or the other steps).”

“Successful people know that nature is testing them, and that it is not sympathetic”

SHEEEEESH