Happy Saturday, friend!

We’re back again with another edition of Productivity + Habits + Fun

😃 Fun Fact of the Week

The Spanish national anthem has no words.

And it isn’t the only one.

These countries’ national anthems have no official words either:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Kosovo

• San Marino

🐦 Tweet of the Week

For confidence in general (before you speak), train yourself with a tip from

@AskVinh

Every time you walk through a door, adjust your posture:

• Head up

• Shoulders back

• Stand a bit taller

Doing this consistently will make sure that when you're ready to speak, you're ready to speak.

💪 Featured Productivity Tip

Teach or help others learn something.

This may seem like a bit of a reach, but stick with me.

Think back to when you were in school as a child.

If you were like me, you studied just enough to get by.

But when you found something engaging, what did you do?

You likely did these things outside of class:

• thought more about it

• looked for more connections

• asked more questions

• looked for supplemental information

• talked to someone else about it

In the act of talking to another person, you were doing this:

• reviewing what you had already learned

• refined connections

• made spontaneous connections

• accelerated mastery

In other words, you got better at the subject by teaching than you would have by learning more passively.

So what’s the productivity tip?

Shortcut your mastery by teaching others.

It will be more work upfront, but it will save you tremendous time on the backend because you’ll already have extensive experience.

Always look to add value, and value will find its way back to you.

Now tell me:

What’s something you want to teach to someone else?

🦄 How Long Does It Take For A Unicorn To Exit?

Definition: A unicorn is a startup with a $1 billion valuation or more.

There are two ways to exit:

1. Successfully: through an IPO (initial public offering) or acquisition

2. Unsuccessfully: through bankruptcy or liquidation

The median number of years to go from startup to exit is 8 years.

Click the image to go to the original article.

📈 Productivity According To Economists

From study.com, there are 4 major contributors to an economy:

1. Physical Capital (equipment used to make the thing)

2. Technology 

3. Human Capital (people and their knowledge)

4. Natural Resources

This is here more as a curiosity that anything else.

Do you think this is something I should investigate more?

🤔 Decision-making Idea

The Forer Effect: we tend to attribute aspects of our personalities to vague statements, ignoring the fact that a vague statement could equally apply to a wide range of people.

Example: “Today’s horoscope is so accurate!”

This is a warning to be present and think about what you’re seeing and hearing throughout the day.

Advertising and media use this to influence sales.

Maybe you will end up with something useful, but the only way to be sure is to interrupt that flow of information and take a critical look.

• Do I really need this?

• Am I really like this?

• What is this person/ ad trying to tell me that I am?

Take a second to think before you act. 😉 

Extra: This is also called the Barnum Effect after PT Barnum and his famous quote: “There’s a sucker born every minute!”

🧠 Quote of the Week

What I think:

We live in a physical world.

We have powerful imaginations, and unparalleled thinking abilities, but…

There’s still something so critical to our minds:

Tangibility.

When you’re unsure of whether you can do something, what’s the first thing you do?

You look for established evidence.

• “This is my first presentation at my new company. I’m nervous, but I’ve done great presentations before. I’ve got this!”

• “This is my first time driving solo. I passed the written test and the practical exam. I have the qualifications to do this!”

• “I want to paint something new, but I’m used to oil-based paint, not watercolors. That’s ok. I have experience, and I can figure it out.” ( ❤️ Bob Ross)

Imagine dedicating yourself to excellence in one area.

Imagine that you’re so good that everyone thinks of you when they hear that subject.

Imagine how confident you’ll BE.

You can get there with consistent dedication.

If you’d like to know how, reply to this email!

I’d love to speak with you and help you reach your goal.

Special Message

It’s the end of the year!

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you so much for being with me.

Your participation and support mean the world to me.

I wish you all the best as we close up 2023 and prepare to welcome 2024. 🙂 See you in a week! Enjoy the holidays!

Feel free to let me know how you’re celebrating!

If enough people participate, I can do a special follow-up so we can celebrate together after the fact!

Thank you so much for spending some of you precious time with me. 🙂

I’m always looking to improve, so hit “reply” and let me know what you think!

Have an awesome week.

Sincerely,

Steven Sanders

PS - I hope to see you on Twitter and Instagram!