Life lessons

I’ve written down a couple of things I’ve learned on my life journey that may help or at least inspire others (I often revisit them and read them as reminders). Probably I haven’t said anything new, and I believe we all know these things deep inside, but we might not always put them into words or say them out loud.

1. It doesn’t matter where you come from, the bad circumstances, and the misfortunes you’ve experienced in life. If you deeply desire and seek to fulfill your dreams, goals, and visions, you will find a way. There is no compromise with your life dreams. (On a personal note, I survived a devastating war in my home country, a period of great inflation, personal poverty with little to hope for, and still managed to find my way out.)
2. You need to clearly know what you want in life to get there, and if you don’t, you must seek to find out. It’s a process, but it will come to you if you seek it. Otherwise, it will be like buying a bus ticket without knowing where you want to go. How do you expect to arrive there when you don’t know where you want to go?
3. No matter how challenging life may be, you need to think big. Focus on taking action and solving your problems. There’s no point in dwelling. Someone wisely said, ‘Smart people are not people without problems; they have simply found a way to solve them.’ You should strive to be smart.
4. If you look at your life as a startup, you are its investor and CEO. It’s your job to make it successful, whatever success means to you. Just as there are no winners or losers in the game of business (it’s an infinite game), there are no winners or losers in the game of life (it’s an infinite game).
5. Time is valuable! I realized very late that time is precious and one of the most valuable things you possess. Think about where you are spending your time and what you will gain from it. Think of yourself as a system: you input time and get some outputs. Aim to be like a perpetual motion machine, inputting a little and gaining a big output.
6. Life will challenge you, again and again, like toreadors facing a bull. But you must keep going. Love and be grateful for the race and fight that was given to you.
7. There is no point in being afraid to fail. What’s the worst thing that can happen? No matter what happens in life, your family will still be your family, your friends will still be your friends, and the world simply won’t care about your failures.
8. Life is hard, and it becomes even harder and more complicated when you aim high. There are no shortcuts in life. Accept it and try to manage the chaos.
9. You should have your own one thing that you are chasing in life. Forget about everything else. When you achieve your one thing, find another, and then another.
10. Work on your different projects—side projects, home projects, things that are fun and interesting for you. Because eventually, projects lead you to people, and that is what’s important, people, not projects. People will fulfill and inspire you in ways you can hardly imagine. And who knows, maybe you can turn your project into a startup. I surely did.
11. Read books and strive to implement the knowledge you gain. All the knowledge in the world is in books. Absorbing as much of this knowledge as possible will make you a better person. You change a bit with each book you read, just like you change a bit with each person you encounter.
12. (Partially taken from Naval Ravikant.) The only way to get rich (but first, ask yourself why?) is to create wealth and abundance for others, to serve others. Society will reward you for this. As a way of saying thanks, they will give you money. When you have money, you can gain some level of freedom and independence to pursue your ideas and accomplish your own vision for the world. Use it to give back to society and start the cycle over. The point is not to be rich (at least for me), but to have the means and opportunity to create and give back to others. You will feel enormous fulfillment in creating opportunities and helping others (at least this is my vision).
13. Be kind and generous. Don’t live by the mantra of ‘I will do for you, and I expect you will do for me.’ That’s not a good characteristic. Try to live by ‘I will help you, and the best I can hope for is that you will help the next person.’ This is how we will all progress, benefit, and form an amplification circle. Whether you want it or not, it will come back to you, amplified by the many people who did the same before you.
14. Be curious. This will lead you on many unexpected, interesting paths. See what happens…
15. For me, at least, it’s like this: you see a mountain top, then you go after it. After days of hard climbing, if you are persistent enough, you will get there. After some time being on top, you notice another, even higher mountain. You wonder if the view must be more amazing from there. You want to go there. But you need to come back to the bottom and then work hard to reach it. That’s life, full of ups and downs. But the view is amazing every time you reach the top.
16. Life should be like an adventure, full of encounters, hardships, things to overcome, solve, sadness, joy, happiness, love, friendships, departures, losses, and wins. Don’t be afraid to go on an adventure and try things out. People who are afraid are people who don’t have much to tell. As Tyrion Lannister said in the latest episode of Game of Thrones, the most powerful things in the world are stories. Have an adventure and a great story to tell!
17. After your time here ends, only the deeds of your love remain. Love for your family, love for your friends, love for the things you create, do, and cherish. Try to leave as many deeds of love as possible. That is how you stay remembered. We remember all the great people who left us the good deeds of their great love, especially the ones who shared great love for the things they created and did for the benefit of all of us.