Month: June 2017

How To Be Persistent Jerry Weintraub

Jerry Weintraub: How to Be Persistent in the Face of Failure

Nik

Jerry Weintraub was one of the most influential talent agents and film producers in the history of Hollywood.

You can thank him for any concert you’ve attended in a large arena, a concept he came up with in the 70s. He managed tours for Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond.

But what can the late producer of the original Karate Kid and Ocean’s 11 teach you? What if you’re not in the show biz?

Well, no matter if you’re a writer, manager or art merchant, we all need one thing. Something without which, we’ll never reach our goals:

Persistence.

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Timeless Header

On The Art of Being Timeless

Nik

I’ve kept this line in my mind for a long time:

“Things of quality have no fear of time.” ~Unknown

Yesterday, I had a late dinner with one of my best friends, Matt. Matt is an architect and Munich is full of history, so when we met at Königsplatz at 9:30 PM, as usual, he had plenty stories to tell.

“King’s Square,” as you would translate it, is a huge, open space, housing several museums, one of which is the Glyptothek.

Timeless Glyptothek

Commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Roman and Greek sculptures, this building is a piece of art in and of itself. Like so many others in Munich, it casually rests in its place, timeless. For 200 years, many have stood awestruck before it, long before Matt and me and long after we’re gone, many a soul will.

Matt and my conversations are always very philosophical in nature and as the evening continued, so did its theme: what makes something timeless?

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The Most Depressing One-Liner Cover

The Most Depressing One-Liner

Nik

I’ve only ever heard this phrase in German, but here’s a translation:

“There is no worse way of missing someone than to sit next to them, knowing they’ll never be with you.”

From 10th grade all the way to high school graduation, for over 3 years, I sat next to a girl in class I loved, feeling exactly like that. Let’s call her Jamie.

I didn’t know Jamie very well before, even though we had been in the same class for years, but somehow, we ended up sitting next to each other that year. Before I knew it, we were best friends. Classic.

She was beautiful. Still is. I didn’t know how to talk to girls. Still don’t.

But she had a boyfriend for ages. And then another one. For ages. So all these years, we sat next to each other, and all I felt I could do was to watch her relationships pass by, waiting for a train that might never arrive.

We were always side by side. On the bus during field trips. In class. In the car. Outside the club on the curb. On our couch at home. On her bed when she cried over her first breakup. And her second.

Three months before we graduated, I’d finally had enough. On Christmas 2010, along with her gift, I gave Jamie a letter, explaining everything. She was single then. But she never responded. Sort of…ignored the issue away. Classy.

Except that I was pissed. Maybe I needed that. Made moving on easier.

I still think about her. Sometimes, she pops up in my mind and I think to myself:

“Hey Jamie…what if?”

And then I remember that life is still beautiful. That being able to even feel this pain is a gift. That I was lucky to sit next to someone so awesome for so long.

But I also always remember that feeling of sitting next to her, knowing “this is never going to work.”

I’ve had that feeling many times since then. But it never felt quite the same way.

PS: Here’s the original phrase in German: “Die schlimmste Art, jemanden zu vermissen, ist die, an seiner Seite zu stehen und zu wissen, dass er nie zu einem gehören wird.”

The Future of Work Header

The Future of Work: Hard Work, Working Hard & Being Creative

Nik

On June 1st, Jason Fried shook up the entire Medium community:

“Hard work is picking lettuce 8 hours a day in 90 degree heat. […] Rule of thumb: If it’s hard you’ll have trouble finding people who want to do it. There’s no shortage of people who want to be programmers, designers, strategists, social media consultants, entrepreneurs, investors, etc… But try finding people to work the farm. Hard work is doing the work other people don’t want to do.”

My first thought: “Do I claim to be doing hard work?” Read More

How To Learn Faster Header

How To Learn Faster In 4 Simple, But Not Easy Steps

Nik

I’m 100% done with my economics class for this semester, even though only 1o out of 24 lecture recordings have been uploaded so far. Each month, over a million people view my answers on Quora, though I started writing daily on there only on January 1st, 2017. I’m building an app with two friends on the side, yet I don’t know how to write code in Swift.

The list goes on. I’m always dabbling in at least 3–5 projects, all with varying degrees of experience and success. The one thing I refuse to let myself be guilty of is not learning fast enough so each of them won’t at least have a shot at working out.

This week, I thought about my learning process and asked myself what I could share with you about how to learn faster. I found four steps. Read More