Cost is not just a function of what you pay for something. When you spend your resources on anything, you’re also giving up the ability to pay for other things, too. Imagine if you spend everything left after bills in your monthly budget on clothes or dining out or entertainment. You don’t save any money.…
I hate snow days. Let me be 100% clear on this: it’s not because of some anti-snow, grinch on a crusade against cold weather attitude. It’s not because I dislike the celebration or spontaneity of an unexpected event. It’s because of the snow day mindset. The mindset that school or learning is a dreary, boring…
So you call yourself a lifelong learner? What’s the best way to expand your mind, explore new concepts, and engage with big ideas? Podcasts! They’re great to listen to on your way to work, while running errands, or even when chilling at home. In no specific order, here are some of the best podcasts that…
Imposter syndrome: that feeling of doubt about yourself and your accomplishments, and the fear of being exposed as a fraud. It’s a common topic for entry level candidates: “I don’t belong here” “They’re going to find out I don’t know what I’m doing” “I got here through luck, mostly” All these can be evidence of…
1. Scrap the permission-based mindset. Waiting for permission is the fastest way to surrender your personal freedom and autonomy. You don’t need someone to say something is okay. If you know it’s right, based on examination and reflection, then go and do it. You don’t need someone’s accreditation to launch into the professional world. Build…
It’s tinkering, luck, and action that led to discoveries like penicillin, fire, and better recipes for hummus. Indeed, few of the great discoveries and inventions that have increased human flourishing were the product of a complex plan. Likewise, the best opportunities in life are often things we trip into, byproducts of chance or a fortuitous…
Even though your brain is an organ rather than a muscle, the practices you set up to strengthen your muscles also work to increase your brain power. My preferred system is: Fuel, Resistance, Rest, Repeat. Fuel In the same way that you’ll “bonk” or “hit the wall” at the end of a marathon if you haven’t…
Embarrassment is part of life. From sending out a mass email with an obvious typo to gruesomely mispronouncing a potential customer’s name, and even well-meaning attempts at humor that don’t go as planned I’ve done them all. Instead of shrinking, becoming paralyzed, and setting my career back when these missteps happen I’ve collected three tactics…
The more action you want to take, the more solutions you want to gain, the more you want to achieve, the more problems you’ve gotta have. Problems lead to questions, questions lead to discovery, discovery leads to progress.
Recently, I workshopped an interesting challenge with a potential applicant that makes a good case study on some of the unique ways we like to tackle ambitious goal setting and career planning. This person has a long-term goal of working for the company SpaceX who has an incredibly rigorous, demanding, and competitive application process. Because…
Something we’re passionate about at Praxis is creating value for our customers. It’s incredibly difficult to make an impact at a high growth startup when you have little to no experience in the workplace. That’s why our application process is so challenging. We don’t take money from applicants if we’re not confident they won’t thrive…
We label ourselves by the characteristics we show all the time. We define who we are as student, nerd, salesperson, musician, clown, or whatever fits. This label may be reasonable for now, but it can also carry a belief that the behavior or trait reflects something permanent about who we are as people. This is…
We received a question from an Office Hours listener: “When someone gives me a good idea, I’m great at executing on it, but I’m not good at being the guy who comes up with the creative idea. This hasn’t created any major problems for me because I surround myself with smart people and I ask…
This week’s episode of Office Hours is all about new opportunities. From how to find and connect with great companies in a new city, to how to create opportunities for yourself on the job by pitching improvements, to how to set yourself up for great opportunities in the future when you aren’t sure what you…
From a rigid school-based perspective, I have always been a terrible student. I was the problem child who questioned the work and did things my own way. If it didn’t have a foreseeable real-world application, I argued against the value of the lesson or test, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering mother, who home-schooled…