Kareem Mayan's Weblog

What are you putting off out of fear? Usually, what we most fear doing is what we most need to do. That phone call, that conversation, whatever the action might be – it is fear of unknown outcomes that prevents us from doing what we need to do. Define worst case, accept it, and do it. I’ll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous business people for advice.

— Tim Ferriss in The Four Hour Workweek, via The Rawness

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

— Muhammad Ali

Courage overrides self-doubt, but does not end it.

— Mason Cooley

It doesn’t matter what we SAY is most important, it’s where we place the bulk of our energy that speaks to who we really are.

— Kathy Freston, “Quantom Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness” (via coffeeanddreams)

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the will to act despite the presence of fear.

— Unknown

Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.

— M. Ghandi via alex bogusky

tedr:

The reason I said fuck you facebook last night, and the reason I don’t like getting an email from Facebook saying ‘Friend X wants to check you in’ is that they default to forcing their users to use a feature. And they are more than happy to send you unlimited emails to ry and do it.

When I log in to Facebook today to block these emails the first thing I saw was he above modal. It again makes me want to say fuck you Facebook, fuck you slowly with a chainsaw. The options they give their users are ‘Accept Now or Decide Later’ they don’t even give an option to ‘Reject Now’. So really it says ‘Accept Now or Accept Later.’ And of course you won’t be surprised to hear that after going through my user account settings I’m still not sure if I’m able to stop getting these emails.

The reason I say fuck you to Facebook is not because it annoys me - even though it does - it’s because they are creating a norm of what Internet users should expect their options to be which is accept now or accept later. People like my mother and sister get steamrolled by these types of options. I know because they ask me ‘do I have to do this’ and ‘why does your brother want me to do this, I don’t want to hurt his feelings by not doing it’. We realize it’s just a viral conversion strategy and can make an independent decision. Most users at the moment think they are hurting a friend’s feelings if they say no. 

Sure I can delete my account from Facebook - if I jump through all the hoops - this is not about me. This is about the mindset they are inculcating in 500 million Internet users that you need to do what the website wants. It’s a mini dictatorship done under the guise of having a choice and it’s only going to get more and more aggressive.

Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity.

— Michael Johnson

In Praise of Quitting Your Job →

As a creative person, you’ve been given the ability to build things from nothing by way of hard work over long periods of time. Creation is a deeply personal and rewarding activity, which means that your Work should also be deeply personal and rewarding. If it’s not, then something is amiss.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

— Confucius