Friday 5: Timeless vs time-bound knowledge, why ambition requires risk, and the recipe for breakthroughs

Here are 5 ideas, quotes, questions, and more to ponder this weekend.

When it comes to learning, the expiration date of what you learn matters.

Learn what’s going to stay relevant 50 years from now. Not what's going to expire in a month.

Ground yourself in timeless ideas, concepts, and stories.

---

“If you absolutely can’t tolerate critics, then don’t do anything new or interesting.” — Jeff Bezos

Ambition requires risk. You have to develop elephant skin and tune out the noise.

At a certain level, you have to be able to rely on your own thinking and intuition. To date that, you have to be very good at listening to your inner scorecard and ignoring what’s on anyone else’s.

---

"One of the key disciplines for building a great organization is to recognize that it's never a single event. It's a cumulative process. There's no big bang, no big breakthrough, no big aha. Rather, it's like pushing a giant heavy flywheel."

Sustained progress is like a chain reaction that just runs in a loop. Jim Collins thinks of it as a flywheel and wrote an except (and exceptionally short) book on it called Turning The Flywheel.

If you haven't read it, this YouTube playlist is a great place to start.

---

Pressure bursts the pipe.

Momentum has a quality all its own and it’s extremely powerful.

Once you’ve built it, don’t let up—sustain your pace. Breakthroughs come from a lethal combination of intensity AND endurance.

---

Here’s a simple question to ask next time you find yourself feeling frustrated by your progress toward a goal:

How am I making this harder than it needs to be?

It’s a great way to gut check yourself and ensure there’s no other details you can’t simplify, focus, or edit out completely.

Making sustainable progress is hard enough. Start by not making it any harder than it needs to be.

---

Until next week,

Daniel Scrivner

p.s. Chelsea F.C.’s manager on why responsibility beats ambition

---

Share this issue of Friday 5 via text, social media, or email.