Jeff Bezos Source: Forbes

Contradicting Yourself →

Jason Fried retelling Jeff Bezos's observation of successful people:

He said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy — encouraged, even — to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.

He’s observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary.

Great advice.

I believe that the wisest people aren't the ones who have all the answers. Rather, they are the ones who constantly ask the right questions. And it's these same questions that should be asked not just once, but continually over time.

Never pigeonhole yourself into the "I'm going to do this this way because that's the way I've always done it" mentality. What holds true today may no longer hold true tomorrow.

I've come to the conclusion that the price of pursuing your craft is to feel alone sometimes, to know that you're not understood by some, and to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

—Unknown