Books

Time Kills Deals

This is a book about a set of principles and processes that can make any business, regardless of size or industry, grow exponentially.

I first learned about them from Elon Musk during the three years (2015–2018) I was president of Tesla.

Buying one of our cars online was laborious: It took sixty-four clicks from beginning to end. It was a long and tedious customer journey.

With each click, we could imagine potential customers pocketing their phones or closing their laptops in frustration.

Time kills deals.

This led Elon to set another stretch goal.

“Let’s get it down to ten clicks,” he said.

Removing every possible step in a process is the second mandate of the Algorithm, and this example fits neatly.

Book: The Algorithm by Jon McNeill

Read Like a Polymath: 8 Books That Train You to Think

1. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton & Matthew Sands
2. A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa & Murray Silverstein
3. Cosmos by Carl Sagan
4. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
5. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte
6. The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
7. Figuring by Maria Popova
8. Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

🪧 Read the full article

We Attract What We Feel

The real secret to effective visualization, though, is in understanding that it is not enough to just see the things that you want in your mind.

No, to visualize effectively for manifestation, you must immerse yourself in the feeling of having them.

Remember, we attract what we feel.

It is only when we can see what we want and then create the emotional experience of having it that we change our vibrational frequency.

Try this: If your previous vision board was limited by fear and doubt, go back and amend it now, or create a brand-new one that honestly represents all the things you really want. Before you do this, say to yourself, ‘If fear and doubt were no object, this is what I would like to manifest into my life.’ Put down every single thing that you want to attract.

Dream big and don’t hold back.

To manifest anything into your life, and to do so effortlessly and effectively, you must believe you are worthy of having it. Read that again.

Book: Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi

Exciting news, dear friends! 👉

In collaboration with our favorite @Books, we are excited to share that we are launching...

Summer Book & Movie Camp

A three-month summer program (June–August) combining a book club and a movie production club, all within our communities.

▪️ Book Camp (one book per month)

June: Start With Yourself – Emma Grede
July: You Can Just Do Things – Jay Yang
August: Venture Mindset - Ilya Strebulaev

Each month: reading, group discussions, and potential expert guests.

▪️ Movie Camp (three phases of production)

June: Pre‑production
July: Production
August: Post‑production

One meeting per month to discuss each phase, plus ongoing idea sharing. Guests can explain real‑world filmmaking steps.

Let me know how you like the project and whether you want to get a copy of the book!

Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Forgets

Your nervous system is always watching, learning, and protecting you—
even when you’re not aware of it.

Every time it senses a threat—real or imagined—
it reacts based on patterns it learned long ago.
From childhood moments, past stress, or unresolved experiences,
it stores everything to keep you safe.

And here’s the truth:
you may not consciously remember those experiences…
but your body does.

That’s why you can feel anxious, overwhelmed, or triggered
without knowing exactly why.

Because calm isn’t something you think your way into—
it’s something your body has to feel.

Your reactions today are not random.
They are your nervous system repeating what it learned
to protect you in the past.

But once you understand this,
you stop fighting yourself…
and start working with your body instead.

Because your healing begins the moment
you learn its language.

Book: The Secret Language of the Body by Jennifer Mann & Karden Rabin

Courage Will Free You

Courage isn’t about taking huge risks or completely changing your life overnight.
It’s about accepting that something good and beautiful is possible for you.

It’s choosing to imagine better outcomes.
It’s refusing to let your past or your mistakes define what your future can be.
It’s allowing good things to happen without letting fear take them away.

And here’s the truth—
what scares you most is often something your mind has exaggerated.

It’s not half as scary as you’ve made it out to be.
In fact, nothing is as scary as you imagine it to be.

When you take action, you realize you were only scaring yourself.
And instead of fear, you find something unexpected—
life is actually fun… adventurous… exciting.

You deserve to feel that excitement in real life,
not stay trapped in fears that exist only in your mind.

Book: The Life Beyond Fear by Ella Heart

You Deserve the Right Kind of Love

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

A bittersweet truth—our experiences are shaped not just by reality, but by who we are becoming.

You deserve the kind of love that doesn’t make you cry, that lifts you up, not tears you apart.
You deserve the world, and all the happiness that comes with it.

You deserve someone who looks at you like you are their everything—because you are.
Someone who makes you feel like you’re more than enough, not someone who makes you question your worth.

And if anyone ever makes you feel less than that… they don’t deserve you.

Book: Can We Be Strangers Again? by Shrijeet Shandilya

Pro Tip — A Three-Step Exercise to Improve Your Communication Skills

Want to fine-tune your communication skills? Try this simple yet powerful exercise. It serves to assess and improve how you come across to others.
1. Watch Yourself on Mute
Record a short conversation, presentation, or interview. Play it back with the sound off and observe your body language, facial expressions, and gestures.
Do you appear confident, engaged, and approachable? Or do you fidget, slouch, or look disinterested?
2. Listen Without Watching
Turn off the video and listen to the audio only. Pay attention to your tone, pace, volume, and inflection.
Does your voice sound engaging and confident—or monotone and unsure?
Are there unnecessary pauses or filler words?
3. Look for Key Moments of Disconnect
Watch the full video with both sound and visuals. Pause at key moments and ask:
Is my body language reinforcing what I’m saying?
Is my tone matching my message?

Even brief moments of inconsistency can erode trust. Identifying and fixing these will help you develop a more polished and effective presence.

Mastering communication isn’t about manipulation; it’s about creating an environment where others feel safe, valued, and heard—an atmosphere that encourages people to open up.

Book: Tell Me Everything by Brad Beeler

Avoiding Pain > Pleasure

Very astute and observant people know that what a person insults you with is often nothing more than the label they can’t acknowledge they actually give themselves.

If you realize this, you can keep your cool in such a conversation.
If not, you may get hooked into a mutual ego-defense session—i.e., an argument—with the person, unknowingly accepting their invitation to play a particular shadow game with them.

People work harder to avoid pain than to get pleasure.
While everyone wants pleasure as much as they can get it, their motivation to avoid pain is actually far stronger.

So when faced with the prospect of pain, the brain will work harder than it would to gain access to pleasure.

Book: Read People Like a Book by Patrick King

The 2nd Form of Wealth

Health is a type of wealth.
If you don’t feel good physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, all the money, possessions and fame in the world mean nothing.

“When we are young, we are willing to sacrifice all of our health for the pursuit of wealth
and once we are old, we become willing to sacrifice all of our wealth for even one day of good health.”

All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.
And that nothing tastes as good as top health feels.

Book: The Wealth Money Can’t Buy by Robin Sharma

Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows

“Since where you place your attention is where you place your energy, when you wake up in the morning and immediately start putting your attention and energy on all the people you have to see that day, the places you have to go, the objects you own, and the things you have to do in the three-dimensional world, your energy becomes fractured.

All of your creative energy is flowing away from you, to all the things in the outer world that compete for your attention—your cell phone, your laptop, your bank account, your house, your job, your coworkers, your spouse, your kids, your enemies, your pets, your medical conditions, and so on.”

“Every person, object, thing, place, or situation in our familiar physical reality has a neurological network assigned to it in our brain and an emotional component connected to it because we’ve experienced all these things.

Therefore, as you place your attention on all these elements, your energy is flowing away from you and it leaves little energy in your inner world of thoughts and feelings to create something new in your life.”

Book: Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza