Top 15 Paul Millerd Quotes

deferred joy doesn't work

grinding now and embracing pain for a theoretical future payoff incurs far more psychological debt than people think

I suspect the debt compounds too

i dont think most people actually want time or money

many people who pursue money, get shocked that once they have it, time is even better

but after that, eventually people realize, all you really want is a life of caring - work, family, things you care about

i beg you to put some sort of creative work above money, status, connections, future opportunities, and all that

the world needs more of that energy

not another sales funnel, or cheap content that "works"

your worst fear is going broke

mine is ending up in a meeting i dont want to be in

we are not the same

I find myself exhausted reading about successful people talking about successful tactics to build a successful life

show me the flaws man, be human, be normal

Optimizing for joy and fun works far better than you’d think given how deeply we think suffering is the key to work.

i have zero goals

all you goal people i find incredibly weird

I am rooting for you to do the work that matters to you and to stop coping with some made up ikigai diagram that says you need to get paid for it.

You don’t need to find the thing

You just need to find the thing that leads to the thing that leads to the other things

And then through that you realize that you can build a life out of enjoying a bunch of things without ending up finding the thing at all

Picking a path in life is not about being right. In fact, I think trying to be right is a trap.

I think the best way is always to embrace the sadness of potentially being wrong about how you are living, right now

Generally I’ve seen that finding a satisfying life path is easier if you quit your job before you are “financially independent” whatever that means to you.

Post exit founders often struggle the most because they can’t just turn it “on” again. Their skills is doing a whole years long pursuit. So there is more resistance to running that back. But for the most part they do just end up running it back. The happiest tend to be the ones that don’t do it to run away from the inner feelings that crop up post exit

The problem with making lots of money is that people tend to overindex on using the skill of making money as a way to spend one’s time.

Doing new things not only means less money but being bad at something.

by liking this post, you will start a butterfly effect that will traverse the cosmos and start a chain of events that will snap someone out of hustle-induced self-coercion, kickstarting them on a path to loving themselves without them knowing

you dont have to try to monetize everything

especially early

you are allowed to just have fun

My books are not for everyone

I don’t want to “impact 1 million people” or anything like that.

I let go of most grandiose stories in my 30s

They are a distraction anyway

I write for the weirdos. The people who must find a different way. And I write in a way that feels good.

there is no amount of money that will actually give you freedom

and you can feel free on way lower amounts of money than is popular to claim