Josh Kaufman Quotes

Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions. — BILL ALLIN, SOCIOLOGIST AND EDUCATION ACTIVIST

لن يحصل المجتمع الذي يحتقر التميز في السباكة كنشاط متواضع، ويحتمل الرداءة في الفلسفة لأنها نشاط محترم، على من يجيد السباكة أو الفلسفة، ولن تكون أنابيبه سليمة، أو فلسفته منطقية. - جون دبليو. جاردنر، رئيس سابق لشركة كارنيجي

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. — HENRY FORD,

Value can’t be created without understanding what people want (market research). Attracting customers first requires getting their attention, then making them interested (marketing). In order to close a sale, people must first trust your ability to deliver on what’s promised (value delivery and operations). Customer satisfaction depends on reliably exceeding the customer’s expectations (customer service). Profit sufficiency requires bringing in more money than is spent (finance).

The best way to invest willpower in support of skill acquisition is to use it to remove these soft barriers to practice. By rearranging your environment to make it as easy as possible to start practicing, you’ll acquire the skill in far less time.

Intervention bias makes us likely to introduce changes that aren't necessary in order to feel in control of a situation.

In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. — BENJAMIN BREWSTER, EPISCOPAL BISHOP

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. — HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Economic Values that people typically consider when evaluating a potential purchase. They are: 1. Efficacy — How well does it work? 2. Speed — How quickly does it work? 3. Reliability — Can I depend on it to do what I want? 4. Ease of Use — How much effort does it require? 5. Flexibility — How many things does it do? 6. Status — How does this affect the way others perceive me? 7. Aesthetic Appeal — How attractive or otherwise aesthetically pleasing is it? 8. Emotion — How does it make me feel? 9. Cost — How much do I have to give up to get this?

Providing value in Product form is valuable because Products can be Duplicated . This book was only written once, but individual copies can be printed and delivered millions of times to readers all around the world. As a result, products tend to Scale better than other forms of value, since they can be Duplicated and/or Multiplied (all discussed later).

Management is the act of coordinating a group of people to achieve a specific Goal while accounting for ever-present Change and Uncertainty.

As much as I enjoyed yoga courses, it was hard to make time for them. Generally speaking, my work arrangements were flexible, so it was mostly a psychological problem: it was hard to convince myself it was acceptable to go twist my body into knots for two hours when there was work to be done.

Dunbar’s number” is a theoretical cognitive limit on the number of stable social relationships humans can maintain at one time. According to Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, humans have the cognitive capacity to keep track of somewhere around 150 close personal connections. Beyond this limited circle, we start treating people less like individuals and more like objects, and groups of people beyond this limit are likely to splinter off into subgroups over time.

Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price they're willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser's needs and expectations and (5) provides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.

For some people (like me), business is more of a creative endeavor — a way to explore what’s possible, help others, and support yourself at the same time. From this perspective, as long as you’re making enough Profit, your business will continue to be successful.