When I first came across that speech, I was still working in hospitals as a doctor. But it really made me think about what I should be doing… my job was great, but frankly I felt like I was just doing a job, to climb the career ladder, to make a steady paycheck, just another guy in the cog of the machinery running the rat race. Then I realised, that if I only had another year to live, there was plenty else I would want to be doing.

Here’s the full video. I highly encourage you watch it if you have not:

Here is an excerpt:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

-Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

2 years ago, my friend Gerard sent me some writings of Carlos Castenada. I quote:

“A man of knowledge chooses a path with a heart and follows it and then he looks and rejoices and laughs and then he sees and knows. All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. However, a path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy-it does not make a warrior work at liking it; it makes for a joyful journey; as long as a man follows it, he is one with it.”

I’ve since decided to live life on my own terms. It’s bee no easy ride, but I certainly am having a blast living my heart out.

Related Posts:

• April 8, 2009 — Warren Buffett’s 7 Secrets for Me (and YOU) to Living a Happy and Simple Life
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• August 13, 2008 — The 5 Success Secrets of Michael Phelps (+ Bonus secret)

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I accidentally bought a copy of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham when I was a student. It came as a £2 bonus in my shopping cart.

But I never read it. In fact I think I sold it off for £1.50 after it collected dust for a year, at a loss of 50p.

Clearly I knew nothing about investing!

Benjamin Graham for those of you who don’t know, was Warren Buffett’s mentor. They have very similar investment strategies based on value investing. Coincidentally I came across a presentation years after selling The Intelligent Investor that Buffett made to a bunch of MBA grads.

I became fascinated with Buffett’s investment strategies behind Coca Cola and Wrigley. More than anything else were the simplicity behind his strategies, and Warren’s philosophies and approach to life itself.

For the world’s richest man, Warren Buffet is a simple man. He never flies in a private jet — even though he owns the largest private jet company in the world. He also lives in a small three-bedroom house he bought 50 years ago, and keeps himself occupied by playing online bridge (mostly with Bill Gates).

As a side note, it may also interest you that Warren Buffett is Bill Gates mentor. Yep. The world’s richest man mentors the world’s second richest man!

One advice I recall most vividly from Warren Buffett was when he talks about never to do anything that you would not want on the frontpage of a newspaper.

That’s stuck with me. I’m sure we have all done things we’re not proud of in our lives.  You only live and learn.  But ever since I heard his advice, I’ve tried to live by this.

More than anything else, it is refreshing, and inspiring, to hear of a man with all the wealth in the world who still believes that happiness lies not with riches but within yourself. Bill Gates is trying to live up to that now, having quit Microsoft, to focus on the Gates foundation and give his wealth away. But the difference with Warren and Bill Gates is that Gates is still trying to win the Nobel Peace Prize! And I bet you it’ll happen eventually or else he’ll probably throw a tantrum and hit some blue screen death button. lol.

I want to share 7 of Warren Buffett’s secrets with you that I have been applying to my own life. Simply integrating some of the following wisdom I learned from Warrent Buffett into your own life could radically change your life. It has certainly changed mine in some ways.

Secret #1: Happiness comes from within.

“In my adult business life I have never had to make a choice of trading between professional and personal. I tap-dance to work, and when I get there it’s tremendous fun.” — Warren Buffett

If you do what you love and love what you do, you’ll naturally be productive.

When I used to work in hospitals, I found most days a bit of a drag, and having to drag myself out of bed, drag myself to the hospital, and by the time I got home, I felt like dead man walking. But now, I wake up most mornings loving what I do. I can’t wait to get started with the day. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time! I wish days were longer, even though what I do technically could be considered more draining for some people. But I enjoy it.

So find what excites you. And no matter what, that should be your goal.

Secret #2: Find happiness in simple pleasures.

“I have simple pleasures. I play bridge online for 12 hours a week.” — Warren Buffett

There are certain things in my life that make me very happy, and most of them are pretty simple pleasures. e.g. I love strolling by the seafront. I like to sit in cafes to people watch. I love filming silly videos and editing photos. I used to eat at a mosque when I was a student that served one of the best dishes of my life for just £3.  All of these things, in my opinion, are simple pleasures. They be done for close to nothing, in fact, except for the £3 meal, the rest can be done for free.

So perhaps happiness is closer to you beyond the $500k fancy car, the expensive clothes, or the big million dollar beach house.  And if the world’s richest man says so, I’d listen.

Secret #3: Live a simple life.

“I just naturally want to do things that make sense. In my personal life too, I don’t care what other rich people are doing. I don’t want a 405 foot boat just because someone else has a 400 foot boat.” — Warren Buffett

I recently purchased a book called Affluenza by Oliver James. The idea of the book is that an epidemic of ‘Affluenza’ is spreading throughout the world. Keeping up with the Joneses is the worst epidemic among those who should never contemplate that notion in the first place. Less is more.

Oliver James spent 9 months travelling through different cities and cultures, including Sydney, Singapore, Moscow, Copenhagen, New York and Shanghai. In each place he interviewed several groups of people to discover why do so many more people want what they haven’t got and want to be someone they’re not, despite being richer and freer from traditional restraints. And, in so doing, James uncovers the answer to how to reconnect with what really matters and learn to value what you’ve already got. In other words, how to be successful and stay sane.

I never finished the book, because it does get dry and repetitive (only 3 stars on Amazon) but it explains and captures the Affluenza phenomena really well, and definitely changed my perspective alot in recent months about what would really make me happy.

Secret #4: Think Simply.

“I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only the things I completely understand.” — Warren Buffett

I have found that sometimes I do overcomplicate matters, and make things alot more complex than they really are. Sometimes the solutions are so simple and right in front of us, but we go about things in such a roundabout way. Keep your thoughts simple and it will keep your life simple.

If you apply this rule in your life, you can develop clarity and sanity in your thoughts. Life is about simple yet profound choices.

Secret #5: Invest Simply.

“The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.” — Warren Buffett

I hate investing. I never considered myself a very good investor when it comes to stocks and shares. I am pretty good at investing in businesses and my own ventures, but when it comes to investing in stocks and shares, I often result in massive losses.

The truth is, I probably overcomplicated things. For example, about a year ago, I was recommended to a professional investment manager. I thought I’d give it a try, with very small amount per month. The following is a sample of the portfolio which I invested in: UK Growth Fund C, UK Equity Income Fund C, UK FTSE All Share Index Tracking Fund C, European Fund C, Smaller Companies Fund C… split into something like 20%, 15%, 15%, 25%, 25% or something retarded like that.

In all that time, when I lost over 50% of my investments, if I had just studied the market, Gold and Oil would have been easily spotted as winners. And those 2 simple investments alone, I would have made a nice bunch.

So I guess the lesson is: Often, the simplest route to investing will bring you the most riches, and the most happiness.

Secret #6: Have the right friends and mentors in life.

“I was lucky to have the right heroes. Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be. The qualities of the one you admire are the traits that you, with a little practice, can make your own, and that, if practiced, will become habit-forming.” — Warren Buffett

One of my favorite sayings this year is ‘The top people you surround yourself with define who you are’. This has probably been the biggest lesson to me. It took a long time to drill into my head. My social circle have changed drastically in the past couple of years. I came to realise that having the right friends and mentors are as important as having purpose in your life. Having the wrong influences and mentors are as devasting as having a wrong purpose in your life. I owe alot of changes and transformations in both my mindset and
skillset in recent months to some people that I truly consider as my heroes.

But it was not always like this. For a while in my life, I was surrounded by the ‘wrong’ people and I didn’t even know it. In the process, I unfortunately was so emotionally invested and somewhat codependent on these relationships that I kept trying to grasp onto them. The truth was, actions speak for themselves. It’s a waste of my time to even delve into this any further. All I know is that if I don’t let go, history will just keep repeating itself. Loyalty to friends is a big deal to me, and in this case, I could not justify it anymore.

Secret #7: Making money isn’t the backbone of your guiding purpose; making money is the by-product of your guiding purpose.

“If you’re doing something you love, you’re more likely to put your all into it, and that generally equates to making money.” — Warren Buffett

I’m still really defining my ‘purpose’. I have a pretty good idea now, and the motivation surprisingly isn’t purely money. I must admit that at one point, it was strongly so. I truly believe in what I am about to do is going to change the world, and for the better. And that in itself drives me. I find myself almost talking about it on a daily basis now and I think people around me, especially my inner circle, can see how strongly it’s motivated me in the last year.

Also, when money is the main motivator, it makes it hard to find the courage, determination, and patience to push through. The truth is, making money is NEVER easy at the start. Its brutally difficult and requires will power, risk taking, courage and determination. And alot of patience.

Hence don’t focus on the money, but on enjoying the process. I love what I do now, and actually enjoy it. I get paid in return for my knowledge, skills and ideas. I hope it stays that way, and money never become the object and end all of your motivation.

If you like this post, please leave a comment, digg it, twitter it or stumbleupon it! :)

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• March 1, 2010 — “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!” Steve Jobs Commencement Speech
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“I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.” – Michael Phelps: “The Greatest Olympian of All Time”

M
ichael Phelps is the man. Nuff said. I haven’t really been following the Olympics too closely because I’ve been working my ass off lately (on the upside making a $).

But I did catch a bit of Phelp’s signature event, the 200m butterly, on TV today, which inspired me to write this article.

If you saw this, you would have realised that his goggles filled with water from the dive. If you swim, you know how tricky that makes it not knowing exactly where you are going. Especially in the Olympics.

But guess what. Phelps still broke the world record and won a gold medal.

Phelps is now enroute to eclipse Spitz’s tally of seven gold medals at one Olympic Games. Phelps has won five gold medals this week, all in world-record time, with the 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly and 4×100m medley to come.

And guess what Spitz has to say about Phelps?

“You haven’t seen nothing yet.” He could break his arm before Beijing, but as long as they have some duct tape, they can just tape him back up and he’ll swim — and win.” -Mark Spitz, 1972 Olympic World Record 7-Time Gold Medallist

Phelps, by the way, has hit a total of 10 gold medals, but before statisticians could even update their records, Phelps added another gold medal in the 4×200m freestyle relay, taking him to 11 gold medals with the title as ‘The Greatest Olympian in History.”

So is it as easy as he makes it seem?

5 Secrets to Michael Phelps Success (+ Bonus)

In view of the popularity of the Warren Buffett article on Living a Simple and Happy Life, I thought I’d write a bit on Michael Phelps, focused more on achieving success.

I spent (my very precious evening) researching facts, interviews and quotes I can find to put this together.

Overall, I can break it down into 5 different simple things he does.

They are: Struggle, Win, Prepare, Focus and Persistence

(and bonus secret at the bottom but don’t read it until the end…)

1. “Struggle“

“Every morning I wake up at 4.30-5.00, and it takes me a while to get up in the morning but it’s the Olympics, you have to. I need to recover as much as I can and it is crucial for the coming events,” – Michael Phelps

Phelps is no different from you nor I. He is human, and a creature of habit.

He admits struggling to wake up early in the morning. He loves to take naps in the middle of the afternoon.

The difference between you, me and Phelps, is that the Olympian is willing to put in the psychological struggle and emotional climb to move onwards and upwards. Imagine swimming for 10 hours+ a day, then taking daily ice baths to help his body recover from the grueling schedule. Imagine having to whoof down gargantuan amounts of pasta and pizza between races. He does manage to squeeze in 2 massages a day… oooh… that would make my day, but it’s definitely not as fun as it sounds.

Now that I have sort of left the rat race, I can wake up pretty much whenever I want and do what I like. But I have to constantly remind myself of my end goals and plan of action. It certainly has forced me to grow though. I have to push myself to get things done, instead of just watching movies all day or surfing random websites. Something we all do as a natural tendency.

So how do you counter such natural tendencies?

First, accept the natural tendency for us to be lazy, to be unproductive if given all the time in the world, to not challenge ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically…. and realise once you accept this that the only way to move upstream is against the current, otherwise you’ll be flushed downstream.

As Frederick Douglas one said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Celebrate the struggle, accept it if you want to move onwards and upwards. For better or worse, your future is determined in large part by what you dream of, and the steps you take and struggle you go through to make them come true.

2. “Win”

“I hate to lose. When you lose a race like that, it motivates me even more to try to swim faster.” – Michael Phelps

While talking about his two bronzes in Athens in 2004, Phelps insisted that he disliked losing, and ever since then, he’s tried to swim faster (see 1. Struggle).

“Four years ago I wanted to race and I hated to lose, getting third in the 200m freestyle and when I do lose in races like that it motivates me to swim faster,” -Michael Phelps

Winning and losing are interesting subjects. For one, I think the message behind what Phelps is saying is not about ‘winning’ itself.

If you read closely between the lines,Phelps is actually talking about the will to win.

The will to win = the passion, the desire. Not the medal.

Zig Ziglar once said something about how “winning is not everything. It’s the effort to win.” And I guess that’s what Phelps is referring to also. And part of that may involve having to take risks, make mistakes, and just take action to get somewhere. Something I need to do more often for sure.

Losing is a good thing. Start making mistakes. Start taking risks. Otherwise you won’t find your desire to progress nor get anywhere.

3. “Prepare”

“I prepare myself the best I can, to compete the best I can” – Michael Phelps

We all know that preparation is a virtue. But how many of us actually follow this religiously?

For example, I’m writing this post at 00:18 when in less than 7 hours I have to wake, then I am on-call for 96 hours straight. I haven’t even finished packing my bags for the weekend, nor am I anywhere close to where I have to be at 8 am tomorrow morning. I have to take a train, and I have no clue when it’s leaving.

Prepare!

And to top it up, there’s plenty of reading I’ve been wanting to do to ‘prepare’ for these next 96 hours, as I could be dealing with subjects that I am unfamiliar with. And you guessed it. I haven’t done the work!

That’s not what I would call great preparation.

I do fluctuate between being very prepared with certain things, and not so much with others. And I’m sure you do too.

I guess it comes down to deciding what’s important to you and in realising that while ‘practice may not make perfect, it will make better.’ I am a bit of a perfectionist so I do often have grand plans. So the lesson for me personally, is to be more organised so that I follow through. Work backwards from the end goal, and decide what steps need to be taken and make a plan to follow through with it.

4. “Focus”

“I have so many races, so much to do in every race, I have to keep 100 per cent focused. No matter how good, you have to force it out of your head,” – Michael Phelps

The mistake I used to make is to take on 10 projects at once, and never finish any one of them. At the earliest signs of an obstacle, I end up thinking it’s not worthwhile to pursue.

But then I realised that all my successful friends and mentors have one trait in common: they stick to one thing, and push through to the end until it’s complete and done with.

Focus is something I need to work on. My head tends to get like chattering monkeys. I’m probably an undiagnosed ADD. I come up with 100 great ideas, like to kick them off, but need to be more of a focused implementator.

I’m getting better at this now. I’ve now only got just a couple of things I’m focused on, and immediately have watched a rise in my income streams, and cut down on the signal to noise ratio.

Focus on one thing at a time, and give 100% on what you’re focused on.

5. “Persistence”

“If I didn’t swim my best, I’d think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.” – Michael Phelps

I have left this one for the very end, because it is probably the number 1 key to succeeding in anything. Desire and persistence. You have to want what you want and persist in getting it.

You see, the way I see it, if you want something badly enough and must have it, you will always find a way. ALWAYS.

You will do whatever it takes. If you want something badly enough, you will do WHATEVER IT TAKES. I am writing this in capital because as a self-affirmation actually. Whatever it takes means you will persist with no exception.

Notice I didn’t just say persist. I said persist with no exception. That’s a phrase I learned from Andy Andrews in Seven Decisions (great read if you haven’t checked it out, get it). And it makes absolute sense if I look back over my own life.

In my own life, alot of my friends think that I’m a natural and effortlessly get things I want, whether it be the dream job, money, girls, or whatever else.

It’s not true.

Look at Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett etc. Sure, they all have some talent and affinity to what they do best. And they never make it look difficult. But do you think they struggle? Hell yeah they do.

Frederich Nietzsche once said, “”The strongest have their moments of fatigue”. Just as a magician could make a magic trick look natural and simple, the reality is that they had to struggle alot to get it appearing that way.

“I’m the same kind of guy before all this happened.” – Michael Phelps

I don’t openly admit it because I do like the image of being a natural, just as Tiger Woods likes to make his swings appear effortless or Michael Phelps laps through looking so cool.

The truth is, EVERY step of the way to get the best things I want has been a struggle.

Persist with no exception.

“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps

It’s easy for us to look at successful people at what they do and because they make it look so simple, we think that they have some innate talent or magical ability to do it. That’s either because you don’t think you can succeed, or because you don’t want to think of success as work. My friend AJ was talking to me about this recently, and my personal take is that anything is possible, and that I can learn it too.

“I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming.” -Michael Phelps

I am also actually embarrassingly ambitious. Just as Michael Phelps wants to change the course of swimming history, I want to create some major change in this world. Who knows, maybe some day.

6. BONUS SECRET

“There is a one woman in China that claimed she paid $50 to get my e-mail address. It was pretty shocking. I got one this morning from Scotland. A girl’s requesting a signed photo of me.” – Michael Phelps

Haha. You gotta love this one. Yep. Part of a trait of most successful guys is an inflated ego.

Ok, I sort of mean this as a joke, but at the same time, it’s kinda true, with a few exceptions.

I guess you gotta love yourself if you want to do well, right? :)

FINAL CONCLUSION:

Prepare. Desire. Struggle. Persist. And Win.

And when you’re rich, famous and super successful, and the girls (or guys) are all over you, don’t forget to mention this post.

Or if you like it, you can help share it and stumbleupon or twitter it now. Just click the ‘Thumb it Up’ button below if you like what you read :)

Related Posts:

• March 1, 2010 — “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!” Steve Jobs Commencement Speech
• April 8, 2009 — Warren Buffett’s 7 Secrets for Me (and YOU) to Living a Happy and Simple Life
• August 13, 2008 — Are you kidding? Child Singer ‘faked’ at Olympics… cuz she was too UGLY
• August 11, 2008 — Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony 2008 – Fireworks Were (Partly) Fake

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