Our society has an incomplete definition of attraction. Between the billboards, magazine covers, and Instagram models, we forget that attraction doesn’t just mean appearance. While yes, how something looks is a piece of the equation, there are many other factors in play, like playfulness and courage. When we start to hone in on this more nuanced definition of attraction, we open the doors to connection with others.

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Tolerance is most typically understood as tolerance for others. But this is just to get away from the more difficult question: how tolerant are you of yourself? We as humans bend to the horizon of freedom, so we mutually understand, empathize, and forgive each others’ shortcomings. However, when we look inward, we recognize that we are relenting to our instinct and not pushing past it to achieve our future goals.

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Education means “to draw out.” But we spend our formative years sitting in classrooms getting information pushed in. This is the problem with our education system; it fundamentally, by translation, is not education. Most graduate without having unique thoughts provoked inside of them, a complete ignorance to their own cognitive and creative abilities.

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At any moment, we’re either being led or leading others. When leadership is effective, it feels like those being led are acting from their own volition. On the other hand, ineffective leadership can be sensed from a mile a way. So what exactly lies beneath a good or bad leader that makes this difference so apparent? What are those personality traits that inspire others to produce amazing, consistent results?

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The human experience is far too complex to bucket into categories. But because complexity is uncomfortable to live in, we create labels to anchor ourselves in some sort of truth. We tell ourselves things like, “I’m this way because I’m a shy person.” But what you really are is justifying behavior through a label. At the core of this is a close cousin of ego: that need to believe you are some way for some reason.

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We focus so much of our attention on the customers. But what about the employees? Sure, workplaces today champion healthy company cultures with happy hours, retreats, and fitness packages, but what do any of those things have to do with the brand? It turns out that a fusion between the company culture and the brand is what pushes the great companies to the top.

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It’s easy to be skeptical of the world. With news headlines focusing on the negative and our social media accounts only broadcasting the positive, it’s difficult to accurately gauge the world around us. So, we place a skeptical lens in front of our eyes to keep the mystery at bay. The byproduct of this is that we become closed off to understanding the people around us and more importantly, understanding ourselves.

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Bill Gates has effectively cured malaria. That’s the power of charity. When the wealthy band together, real threats to the human race can be wiped out. But this requires getting the billionaires to take out their wallets. How you do this is through guerilla marketing, putting yourself in front of them and demanding their attention and checkbook.

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We don’t ever think Ancient Greece can help us. But what if those epic novels and thousand-page philosophy reads were distilled into a more digestible read? What if you could boil down the robust history and narrative into a more simpler story of personal interest? The takeaways are eerily potent despite the thousands of years separating us from these tales.

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We’re told to never give up. That our goals can be achieved through relentless willpower. Bu is that actually how successful people accomplish their goals? Is that what the definition of persistence is? Never giving up? When you start to peel back the layers of the complicated onion called persistence, you see that it’s much more complicated than a refusal to quit.

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