I don’t know exactly when I became obsessed with quotes. I have been writing them down everywhere since I was a teenager.
I enjoy sharing a daily quote either on Slack’s work chats, WhatsApp groups, or any social network I belong to.
I do it genuinely. I don’t want to prove anything, I just want to express my feelings and beliefs over quotes.
But more than that, I want to convey and impact other’s life because quotes and their effects have changed mine.
They are the booster for my day — they are the breathing to start a writing session. They chill me down when I am sharing them.
Quotes are the pusher of our mind and body
I am a true believer that we constantly need something or someone who acts as a pusher to get things done, who moves us forward toward our dreams.
…And that’s what exactly quotes do. They are the pusher, the booster, the catalyst, the gasoline that our mind and body need to make the most of our day.
Whenever I read or see a quote that resonates and touches me, I write them down and immediately share it over my networks.
Here is a curated list of the most powerful, impactful, and deeper quotes from contemporary successful people I follow.
1. You need to go deeper, not wider — Darius Foroux
This is my favorite. I am intimately tied to it.
Let’s talk about a few scenarios of how this applies in our lives.
First, our modern world is in a rush. It is trying to build things superficially.
We are fully obsessed with the surface of things. The worst is that we think we are doing it right.
We often build shallow relationships with our friends, wives, girlfriends, and the most important one — with ourselves.
Secondly, if we now jump on the writing ground, we forget that we need to create not only a strong but also a profound connection with our readers.
That intention to connect in a deeper way with the reader moves away when we are obsessed with claps, views, and the traction of the piece.
Finally, when it comes to learning, we often think that learning horizontally will open more opportunities. This might be true as long as we want to be an average person or tolerate low-level living.
Yet, if you want to stand up from the crowd, you not only need to be proficient but also dominate the field you are interested in.
Put it simply. Bet on deeper learning rather than wider.
Bet on having a decent knowledge of anything and be an expert at something. Go from the root to the leaves.
2- Earning money online is a privilege, not an entitlement. — Tim Denning
Maybe this is more for content creators, but it could be applied to other or related online businesses too.
Tim is a writer I respect immensely.
I have been following his outstanding, powerful, and human-sense work for almost three years.
His work has touched my life profoundly in different ways.
In every single piece, you will find at least one powerful quote, either by himself or from another author.
One of them that changed my perspective of online business was this.
Earning money online is a privilege, not an entitlement. — Tim Denning
We take for granted that make money online is an entitlement that everyone has won just because of the simple fact we are content creators.
While it is true, we have the freedom to perform actions to make money, it doesn’t mean it is an entitlement to get it.
We don't need to expect to get it just because we put our soul and heart into the work.
If we really want to grow from the ground, so we will need to embrace the fact that making money online is a privilege.
We are still alive here, thanks to our readers who spend their priceless time reading our pieces.
They have trusted in us. Just like, you now are doing it by reading this piece.
Money distracts us from delivering the right, useful and unique content.
And sometimes we misunderstand that to make money is an entitlement we have won for the thousands of words we have written. Which is totally wrong.
3- Your Life is a Direct Product of Your Standards — Benjamin Hardy
Who you are and where you are now is your, and only your entire responsibility.
No one else is responsible for the current state of your life. Your family, wife, husband, government, friends aren’t. Even if one of them or something else has hurt you at some point.
As the same author says, “if you are willing to tolerate low-level living, that’s what exactly you’ll get.”
Your life standards determine the final version of yourself. They also determine how well you will perform in any area of your life as a father, as a husband, as a teammate, etc.
Low standards
I have been doing regular workouts since I was a teenager. Yet lately I easily fall into the junk food temptation.
So I need to set a high standard on this to get out of it.
Blaming others is super easy. Build awareness and acknowledge our mistakes is a fu*** tough thing. We have to do it at some point, anyway.
4. Rich people buy luxuries from the money their money made them; poor people buy luxuries from the sweat of their brow and hard labor — Anthony Moore
This quote is pretty special. Its impact on the pursuit of financial freedom is brutal.
Who doesn’t want financial freedom in this world? Most of us. You, me, and a few more!
In this quote, Anthony highlights the differences in how rich and poor people and relate to money.
Rich people play differently than the poor ones.
I was a poor person, both mentally and financially. I grew up with certain wrong beliefs about money.
- Chasing money is bad.
- Money is not happiness.
- Money doesn't buy happiness
- Money makes people selfish, and the list goes on…
We were taught instead, go to classes, get good grades and find a job. This has killed thousands of dreams. Education isn’t wrong, the way we built the system is the problem.
Takeaway
Having said that, we can make a big stop here and start to understand how money really works. I started out to see this when I realized I was in a really huge debt situation.
The root causes why I fell into that situation wasn’t that I bought luxuries. The reality was I hadn’t understood how money works and how to build the best relationship with it.
4- Stop trying to reinvent the wheel — Rotate it instead — Michael Thompson
In the software development field which I am in, this is something we hear constantly and everywhere.
In that field, reinvent the wheel means duplicating a basic method or functionality that has already been created or optimized by others. So you don’t need to do it again, you need to just use it instead.
When it comes to writing, it means that you don’t need to try to overthink your pieces trying to make them so original. Even more so if you are just starting out your writing career.
Look for perfection is basically reinventing the wheel. You are trying to do something against what has been tested for others before.
We spend too much of our limited time and energy thinking that our audience will love our work because we have a unique way to share things.
You will end up with zero reads. This will make you feel frustrated. Oops! You were wrong.
Don’t worry. You will find your unique voice in the writing process. Don’t chase perfection. Bet on progress instead.
5- Write to expand your influence, not your wallet — Stephen Moore
First thing first.
If you are a content creator like me, you will feel identify with this.
Every writer and blogger has different life situations. Some of us might be debt-free and have no worries about money, so following Sphene’s advice could be so easy.
Yet, others might have not the same luck. They need money to survive today. They are urgent to put food on the table.
At some point in my career, I was in that exact survival mode, so I feel identified with those guys in that same situation more than well.
No doubt that each person’s circumstances could determine or change the perspective to write to expand our influence or to put a few pennies into the pocket.
Takeaway
While it is true that being in a survival mode is tough, you have to think in the long run somehow. So make a stop and think seriously about this.
Your hurry won’t change the outcome, the constant and high-quality of your work eventually will, though.
Final Thoughts
I am really obsessed with quotes. I am intimately connected to them.
I want to share them everywhere and become a better person thanks to them.
Quotes have become the booster, the catalyst, the gasoline to inspire me and also others.
Quotes changed my life not only because of the meaning of themselves but also because of the guys who stated them, they lived through them.
Quotes without actions are fruitless.
Whatever field you are in, prefer to go deeper rather than wider. For sure, this will make more sense if you want to stand out from the crowd rather than stay on average.
Set high standards. Your life is a direct product of your standards.
Finally, don’t reinvent the wheel, every idea or thought you have now had already been thought by some else before. Just ship it!
Thanks for reading.