#17. The 15-minute rule

How do we attract opportunities?

Great opportunities come to everyone all the time, but only trained and prepared people can notice and take advantage of them. 

You may ask, where can I find these opportunities? This town, this neighborhood, is far away from Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley.  

If you have not read it yet, please read this first:

I will commit a faux pas by using a cliche, but in this case, I believe this saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” 

I swear this was a coincidence, but when I thought about it, the average book takes about 10 hours, and you should listen to or read at least a thousand of them. Yes, coincidentally or not, this comes to the famous 10,000 hours coined by Malcolm Gladwell in his bestseller Outliers. That amount you can achieve in about 4 to 6 years. It sounds like a lot, but it is the best investment of your life. This is one of the main reasons why I prioritize reading in my free time.

The opportunities come in random conversations, on vacation, in the store, or on social media. People will pick you out of the crowd.

Start here. Buy a book: Uki’s Book Library.

How do you keep on the right course?

Try to remind yourself and reflect on “What I have just done to make my life better?” every 15 minutes.
Then, decide, “What should I do next to become a better human?”

One of my critical principles is this 15-minute evaluation of time well spent. 

Often, the answer is to eat, sleep, or laugh with friends. Many times, it is to get out to breathe and exercise.

However, the differentiator will be how often you decide to read, study, and work hard to improve yourself. It is all about good habits. Once again, your habits will define your success.

Of course, you will forget to ask yourself this question. That is why it is good to have a diary or blog (weblog) that reminds you of your principles.

Naturally, we all maximize energy preservation, aka, we are lazy. Surprisingly, a simple statement works well for me: “I am not a lazy person.” Corny, yes, but I say it often. That is all that is needed; I get up and get going.

Respectfully,

Uki D. Lucas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ukidlucas/
https://x.com/ukidlucas
http://www.UkiDLucas.com/

Books I have recently read. 
Please add them to your Amazon wishlist.

How can you get more value from this?

1. You should personalize your profile so I can write about topics that interest you.

2. You should reply to my emails. It makes us friends.

3. You should share this letter with friends. I am not kidding.