“What do they think about me?” is a useful question. It’s best only when you consider it for a few people in your life. For example, your spouse, your best friend, a family member. As you meet more people, you can trust yourself to be respectful, civil, and collaborative. That doesn’t mean you need to […]| Herbert Lui
When your mind is preoccupied, it believes that there isn’t even time to breathe. Your body breathes anyway, though, whether you’re mindful of it or not. Specific academic estimates vary, though it’s clear that the range is somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 times per day. Breathing is the most natural thing in the world, even […]| Herbert Lui
Ty Dolla $ign released his new album a week ago, Tycoon. It was an occasion for me to reflect on my interview with him. In 2016, when we shot the interview, Ty had already gained a fair amount of momentum in his career, which he has sustained in the nine years since. Ty’s still best […]| Herbert Lui
If you want to learn to cook, you have three meals a day to try. If you want to improve your writing, you can publish on the internet anytime. Try once a day or once a week. If you want to get better at speaking, you can practice with the people around you. You can […]| Herbert Lui
In 2018, Louis Vuitton announced that the company had appointed Virgil Abloh as its new artistic director of menswear. It was a triumphant moment for Virgil, streetwear, and a new generation of designers and customers. One day, as Virgil was going to work, he was denied entry by a security guard. When Virgil recalled this […]| Herbert Lui
One useful piece of advice I came across early on in my writing career was to do interesting things. I travelled cheaply with friends. I met artists and authors. I worked with tech companies at the forefront of software, like Shopify and Figma. I moved out of the suburbs to downtown Toronto, then to Hong […]| Herbert Lui
Early in his career, Philip Glass’s commitment to becoming a composer earned him a Fulbright scholarship to study in Europe. His scholarship covered his tuition fees with Nadia Boulanger, a revered music teacher and composer. Money was a constant concern, though. As he traveled through Europe, he mostly visited churches and cemeteries because they cost […]| Herbert Lui
Life throws curveballs at you. A problem might come up in the evening that needs to wait until the next morning. An evening of sleep might be interrupted, or you might wake up earlier than you’d expected and not be able to fall asleep. Perhaps you want to get some fresh air in the morning. […]| Herbert Lui
A lot of people—particularly men—visit the doctor less than they need to. I’ve heard some friends tell me that they’re too busy, and the doctor often sends them home without much intervention. There’s a low probability of the condition getting worse, and intervention introduces complications. Doctors even have a term for this, “the tincture of […]| Herbert Lui
Money is known to be identically exchangeable. Grocery stores will accept any dollar you pay them. How you got the money is none of their business. However, earning the dollar can be, altogether, a different situation. A dollar you earn doing work you hate, is very different from a dollar you earn for something you […]| Herbert Lui
There is a sensible piece of advice that goes, write only when you have something to say. This is not useful for me. The more I write, the more I think and learn, and then the post becomes worth writing. When I write, I find something to say. If I write every day, I have […]| Herbert Lui
I have recently been staying with family. I grew up in a suburb outside of Toronto, and my family has stayed in the area, so I have a chance to see it with fresh eyes. It is surprising how much I didn’t know about the place. There are really beautiful libraries, like the Richmond Hill […]| Herbert Lui
I’ve bought and flipped through a couple of memoirs lately from popular recording artists. Tens of millions of people stream their music on Spotify every month. It’s not surprising that traditional publishers would offer them book deals. What’s surprising, at least to me, is how boring they are. One artist seemed to put little effort […]| Herbert Lui
I write every day because it’s really fun. (That’s my competitive advantage!) Here are three moments that stuck out to me this week: While I was writing this post, there was a moment when I felt as if my brain was struck by a bolt of lightning, “There was something I read about this! It’s […]| Herbert Lui
A sense of immediacy means doing something today, now. Not tomorrow, the day after, or someday. Not putting it on a to-do list or into a task management system. Not until you feel ready or confident. Today, now. Backlogs don’t exist. You can delete them. Clear your mind as well. Spontaneity is a driving force. […]| Herbert Lui
In university, I attended a business school. It was good, with a decent reputation, nothing fancy enough to name drop. I picked it because I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do after studying, and the skills seemed flexible enough to apply to all sorts of jobs. Worst case, maybe I would be able […]| Herbert Lui
If you tune into any type of media—traditional, social—you will receive the message that success will fix everything. Except it doesn’t work. Success promises to make you happy, but it can’t. You don’t need to look very far to see a successful person do something a happy person would not. The next time you crave […]| Herbert Lui
“Once you start making things, once you take that leap, you have the same status as any other artist,” Questlove writes in Creative Quest. “I’m not saying that you’re as good. I’m not saying that you’re as important. But all of a sudden it’s a difference of degree rather than a difference of kind.” If […]| Herbert Lui
If there was a recipe for making sure I don’t sleep well, a high dose of caffeine would be a key ingredient. The first hour is great—then stress, anxiety, and rumination surge, continuing through the night. The advantage is, I won’t stop working. The disadvantage is, I can’t stop or rest, even if I wanted […]| Herbert Lui
One of my friends is an entrepreneur with a wide ranging portfolio that spans real estate, franchises, ecommerce stores, and software. Some of these businesses have seen dramatic growth. Whenever we chat, he’ll describe a new business—often two or three—that he’s directly working on. I pay attention because I always learn something new. Sometimes, I […]| Herbert Lui
What’s the most important thing an executive coach can do to succeed? Choosing the right clients. More specifically, choosing to only work with leaders who demonstrate a high potential of success before the engagement. In order to do this, the coach needs to qualify potential clients very intentionally. They decline to work with anyone who […]| Herbert Lui
Raymond Carver, a writing professor and author of short stories, had friends who published their work and apologized for it not being very good. “It would have been better if I’d taken the time,” they would say. Raymond responded: I wanted to say to my friend, for heaven’s sake go do something else. There have […]| Herbert Lui
In the late 1980s, an ad agency created a marketing campaign for Nike. The commercial featured an 80-year-old man running every morning, who says, “People ask me how I keep my teeth from chattering all the time. I leave them in my locker.” Then, a slogan flashed on the screen, “Just do it.” This phrase […]| Herbert Lui
A young man discusses his latest challenge with a philosopher. Whenever he sees another young person’s story of success in a newspaper, he feels a strong sense of envy and frustration. He feels inferior, like he’s less than the other person. He’s reminded of his social standing, his modest education, and even the pimples on […]| Herbert Lui
Starting in the 1990s, Europe and the U.S. outsourced manufacturing to China for a variety of reasons (mostly because it was cheaper). MIT economist David Autor coined the term “China Shock” to describe this trend, which took place suddenly over seven years. While stuff got cheaper, and American companies’ margins got bigger, this disruption also […]| Herbert Lui
In my 20s, I watched a lot of interviews with artists so I could understand how they found success. I believed I could reverse engineer these paths, and I appreciated this genre of media so much I started making my own by interviewing recording artists and authors. While I learned more than my fair share, […]| Herbert Lui
What makes a person entrepreneurial? Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy believes the distinguishing factor is in the reasoning process. She identifies two types of reasoning: When you think with causal reasoning, you focus on what you want to do—the desired end goal, or the destination—and then work backwards from that. Business leaders, managers, and strategists tend […]| Herbert Lui