chowyonghan Author

The airport test

(Extracted from Whatever It Takes by Stephen Schwarzman) When I interview people for Blackstone, I’m looking to understand whether an individual will fit our culture. At a minimum, this includes the airport test:...

November 10, 2019| People Read More

The gap between your dreams and reality, and the path to take

(Extracted from Whatever It Takes by Stephen Schwarzman) Every entrepreneur knows the feeling: that moment of despair when the only thing you are aware of is the giant gap between where you find yourself and the life...

November 9, 2019| Execution, Path Dependence Read More

I’m an ambitious monk

For many years I have felt I was pulled in two different directions. On one hand, I wanted to be bolder in my actions so that I can grow the business and achieve greater results. Sometimes I felt I need to do things...

November 7, 2019| CYH Read More

Your practice has to be at a ‘just right’ level

(Excerpt from Atomic Habits by James Clear) The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty. If you love tennis and try to play a serious match against a four-year-old, you...

October 27, 2019| Yin Yang Read More

How to figure out what to do in life and business?

(Extracted from Atomic Habits by James Clear) At some point, you need to make sure you’re playing the right game for your skillset. How do you figure that out? The most common approach is trial and error. Of...

October 27, 2019| Life, Strategy Read More

Good habits are hard because doing them suck a lot of energy and we are energy misers

(Excerpt from Atomic Habits by James Clear) Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible. It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two...

October 26, 2019| Resistance, Via Negativa Read More

Why early civilisations prospered in Europe and Asia

(Extracted from Atomic Habits by James Clear) The primary axis of the Americas runs from north to south. That is, the landmass of North and South America tends to be tall and thin rather than wide and fat. The same...

October 26, 2019| Nonlinearity, Resistance, Structure drives behaviour Read More

Find a career with compounding effect

(Extracted from How To Be Successful by Sam Altman) You also want to be an exponential curve yourself—you should aim for your life to follow an ever-increasing up-and-to-the-right trajectory. It’s important to move...

October 25, 2019| Nonlinearity Read More

You cannot improve much in a club whom you are a member of

I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members. Max Groucho...

October 23, 2019| Inversion Read More

Targeted marketing, don’t bombard

(Extracted from Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday) They try to go everywhere and end up going nowhere. What’s the point? Most of those people never become your customers. Growth hackers resist this...

October 21, 2019| Marketing Read More

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