Collected over years of trading, building, and reading. Some are borrowed, some earned the hard way, none are decoration: each one changed a decision at least once. Organised by the problem it solves.
The lines that cost the least to read and the most to ignore.
“While investing you make money on the buy.”
“Learn to go short. Or be ready to be bankrupt.”
“Buy time like a rich person. Buy things like a poor person.”
“Incentives drive actions.”
“Rich people don't get impressed by things you have. They get impressed by how rich you will be.”
“A crime where the penalty is a fine is only a crime for the poor.”
“If you want to make a billion dollars you will have to endure a billion dollars worth of pain.”
Goals are wishes. These are about the machinery underneath.
“You don't rise to the goals that you have. You fall to the systems you create.”
“You don't decide your future. You decide your habits.”
“Discipline is remembering what I said I wanted.”
“Impatience with actions. Patience with results.”
“Bias for action.”
“What you are not changing you are choosing.”
“Does your behaviour fit your future goals?”
“Deserve before you aspire.”
“How long will you put off doing what you are capable of doing just to continue doing what you are comfortable doing?”
For the days the curve looks flat.
“Everyone wants the view, but no one wants the climb.”
“Startups fail. Founders don't.”
“Stay small enough long enough, and you will be big enough soon enough.”
“What is your decadal game?”
“Talent is the ability to hit the target no one else can. Genius hits the target no one else can see.”
“Billionaire is a state of mind.”
“I demand high standards because what I ask for, I can also provide.”
“Escape competition through authenticity.”
“Someone with half your IQ is making 10x more because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves.”
“Just do the most interesting thing in life. Shit works out eventually.”
“What would I do if I wasn't afraid of failing?”
“It always seems too late.”
“Dream the impossible.”
“Kahan ja raha hu? Aukat ke bahar!”
Harder than markets, and with worse data.
“Trust is earned in drops but lost in buckets.”
“We don't build trust by offering help. We build trust by asking for it.”
“Don't eat with people you won't starve with.”
“It is impossible to live the right life with the wrong friends.”
“You can't really be friends with someone who has even a hint of jealousy about your work or anything about your life.”
“A friend to all is a friend to none.”
“During a meal with more than 3 people, don't speak private matters. With more than 5 people, never speak business. And never discuss your past with close friends, because close friends have other close friends. The people who speak together eat together, and guess who is the topic.”
“If you have a problem with me text me. If you don't have my number, you don't know me well enough to have a problem with me.”
“We judge ourselves by our intentions but others on their actions.”
“You find the people you love and then do life with them.”
When to roar, and when not to.
“A lion doesn't roar before the hunt, it roars after the hunt. Don't let them see you coming.”
“Stay humble, but let them know you could ruin everything if you wanted to.”
“Never accept a private apology for a public disrespect. They chose the audience and the stage, so you return the lesson at the exact same place. Disrespect given publicly must be answered publicly. Anything less teaches them you are safe to disrespect again.”
“No matter how rudely the question was put to you, always answer respectfully. History will remember your answer not the question.”
“Be ready to walk away from a negotiation. Otherwise you are just pleading.”
“Extremely smart people know exactly when to look stupid.”
“A bee doesn't waste its energy trying to convince a fly that honey is better than shit. Some minds are not meant to be changed. Save your energy for what actually matters.”
“Still water doesn't necessarily mean calmness.”
“If you see me in a fight with a bear. Pray for the bear.”
“Your maximum doesn't even reach my minimum.”
The ones I re-read when nothing else on this page helps.
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you figure out why.”
“It is not about the destination or the journey, but what you become during the journey.”
“Detachment isn't that you own nothing. It is that nothing owns you.”
“Real peace is in giving up things and not acquiring things.”
“You will stop fighting the waves when you know you are the ocean.”
“Happiness is peace in motion and peace is happiness at rest.”
“If you try to catch butterflies. They'll keep flying. But if you tend to your garden, they'll come on their own.”
“If you pray for flowers don't be surprised if it starts to rain.”
“Fastest way to kill something is by comparing it with something else.”
“Be curious not judgemental.”
“How cheap is your happiness?”
“Most human worries come from trying to please others.”
“You will never impress someone above you with assets, only people below you.”
“If you have people who love you unconditionally and financial security, you have an obligation to speak your mind.”
“If you are going through hell, keep going. Why would you stop in hell?”
“In order to start a new chapter of your life you need to stop re-reading the old one.”
“Don't start a new chapter if there are still words left in the old one.”
“Life has to be lived in forward but only makes sense in reverse.”
“Insecurities come out of scarcity.”
“You always have a choice. So choose wisely.”
“Don't believe your own bullshit.”
“It is not about what happens to you. It is about how you respond.”
“Add life to days not days to life.”
“Sun doesn't forget a village just because it is small. So does karma.”
“Nice to be important but more important to be nice.”