Everything I Know by Paul Jarvis

When the gap between who you are and the projection of who you are (your ‘personal brand’) is as narrow as possible, you ring true.
cast yourself as the mentor. Your role is to provide the hero with advice, tools, gifts and insights to aid them in their quest for self-actualization.
Courage doesn’t come from an absence of fear; it comes from being afraid and moving forward anyway.
The world rewards people who try things and come up with new ways of doing business.
A large part of choosing your path is figuring out which values will determine your worth. Once that’s clear, it’s much easier to decide if the work you’re doing will increase or decrease your feelings of worth.
Work means offering a valuable product or service – and that work has to inspire people to pay you for it.
I try to ensure that everything I write or create makes sense to the audience I serve—which is primarily creative entrepreneurs.
The most successful people I’ve worked with speak to interested consumers instead of industry peers.
What has succeeded for someone else might lead you to utter failure. So why not do things your way by following your own path? Try, maybe fail, but do it on your terms, in line with your values.
If we don't let our weirdness rise to the surface, we don’t let our work stand out.
A funny thing happens when you focus on work that you love; more soon starts to appear. Like attracts like. Plus, that intersection between enjoying what you do and getting paid to do it is the sweetest place of all.
Money can be an enabler and it’s definitely an amplifier. If you’re focused on yourself, money will make you even more self-obsessed. If you’re focused on others, money can enable you to help more people in need (think: Bill Gates and his foundation).
Did I want to make a name for myself in the design industry? Nope, I'd rather just do my work and share it with anyone who’s interested, designers or not.
Sometimes, in order to stay true to yourself and your values, you need to innovate through change. And sometimes that means stopping and stepping back for a while.
starting without finishing is the same as not choosing.
Most reasons to delay are invalid if you get right to the core: no time, no money, no audience. These are all future concerns, which make it hard to start anything. Worry about those things later or not at all. Make small decisions at first, and start moving in a direction that feels right.
Start now. No excuses.
Spend your time worrying about what’s now, not what’s next. It’s the only way to ensure you do meaningful work regardless of an outcome you can’t predict or set.
You have to change your paradigm from consumption to creation. Then the possibilities are limitless.
If you think your idea is too big to start without funding or a full-time commitment, you're thinking too far ahead of yourself. Scale the idea back to its core and start immediately.
I’m not satisfied with anything, ever, so I feel like I need to keep stretching or I’ll die a stagnant, uncreative death. My tombstone will read: “Here lies Paul. He didn’t do a whole lot.” Even worse, it’ll be carved in some horrible typeface (like Comic Sans or Papyrus).
The less time you spend catching up on what you think you’re missing out on, the more time you can actually live your life, do your work, or connect with others in a present way.
Failure is a requirement for success, so don’t shy away from it. Instead, embrace failure as a stepping stone to greatness.
Perfection is a myth, so practice can never make perfect.
Everyone I know who’s good at what they do isn’t good because they have magic fairy dust or shoot unicorns out their ass. They're good because they do what they do as often as possible.
try not to create and judge at the same time. Creation and judgment are very different thought processes and can interfere with each other, so they must be done separately.
Stop chasing perfection. Stop focusing on small details that don’t matter and that hold you back from releasing big ideas.
When you're solving someone's problems with your valued expertise, you're going to satisfy a lot of people. They'll tell others how you helped them, and you'll have more people asking for help. So help people. Start doing it right now.
Find the intersection where your interests meet your skills and reach an audience that'll pay for your time, work, products or services.
There aren't really any experts, though, just people further along in their individual journeys. I guarantee that they all feel like frauds sometimes, too. But if you're good at your work and people value your opinion, then congratulations—you’re in the same group as the experts.
You are responsible for the work you put into the world, so why not make that work great?

Everything I Know by Paul Jarvis

Short Book Summary

My Overview

Book Notes