In one of the most insightful 5 minute speeches by one of my favorite authors Tim Ferriss, he talks about bringing some of the concepts of stoicism to bear in your productivity mindset and process.

In particular, he shares an ancient technique for using “negative visualization” to accomplish great or uncommon things. In this speech made at Google I/O ignite, he speaks on “The Practicality of Pessimism: Stoicism as a Productivity system”.

If you’re a student of personal productivity systems, you’ll also want to check out Dan Kennedy’s “The Positive Power of Negative Preparation”.

Just for your brain-tickling pleasure, I’ve gone ahead and outlined some of the quotes used on the slides:

• “Define your fears instead of your goals” – Tim Ferriss
• “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened” – Mark Twain
• “Named must be your fear before banish it you can” – Master Yoda, Star Wars
• “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action” – Benjamin Disraeli
• “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid” – Epictetus
• “Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer” – Niccolo Machiavelli
• “Everytime we choose safety, we reinforce fear” – Cheri Huber
• “The simple willingness to improvise is more vital, in the long run, than research” – Rolf Potts
• “Don’t Avoid what you fear — define it” – Tim Ferriss
• “You’ll find that many of the fears you have are based on under-valuing things that are easily attainable” – Tim Ferriss

I hope you’ve found this resource useful and would like to subscribe to this blog for more inspiring and enlightening speakers like this. If you’re an entrepreneur, the greatest part of the success of your small business will be mental. It takes courage to invest a few thousand dollars of your profits on a direct mail campaign, on a Pay per click campaign, etc. Wouldn’t you rather know the response rates for your marketing dollars?

Wouldn’t you rather build your business through low cost lead generation methods like strategic alliances, automated referral systems, etc?

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