R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness

A certain portion of being a leader requires you not to conform. Have the ability to stand on your own 2 feet.

I talk about how you can build wealth over the long term. It’s actually very simple to build wealth in a technical sense, however behaviorally is very difficult to do. You need to simply save and invest, and be generous over a long period of time. However, when you do this you’re gonna feel like you are behind everybody else.

We need to remember how tippy the world actually is. There is a tremendous amount of structure and path dependency with most things in our lives. You have to look back and be appreciative of the positive things that happened to you because it could easily go one way or the other.

The world has unlimited number of implicit biases against you. You have to realize that you just got to get up and get going and not worry about those biases. They do hold you back, however your goal is to simply just kick butt despite those biases.

I talk about what you should expect with new product development and a new start up. Expect that it’s going to be a long slow grind and there’s not gonna be much going on. It’s gonna take a heck of a lot longer than you think it’s going to take.

What starting a business is actually about and what you’d expect if you get a college degree about. It is not the fact that you’re getting these endpoints that matter, but is the fact that you’re doing the daily grind every day.

I talk about the importance of being a role model and living a healthy and good life. Sometime in the future perhaps other people will respond to what you’re doing, but other than that there’s nothing you can do to change how they behave. The only thing you could do is simply just live a healthy and good life so that others might actually come talk to you in the future.

I talk about how it is stressful to not know whether you should work or not work during the holiday season. Remember that it’s OK not to work and it’s OK to work during the holidays. Just find a thing that works for you.

Remember that your life is unique. Quit looking for the quick win, and look to lean into what you do best. It’s going to be hard, but you just have to keep taking one step after the other.

Whether you’re homeless or Fortune 500 CEO, remember to address the things that you need to address.