Ray Dalio’s words from Principles have been echoing in my mind lately:
“You can have virtually anything you want, but you cannot have everything.”
Today marks the 1 year anniversary since I publicly announced The CEO Library, the project I founded together with my friend and mentor Bobby Voicu. At the same time we started working on it, I launched Friday Read, my personal newsletter. In the past year, I divided my attention and tried to grow them both, fooling myself into believing that I’m capable. It became increasingly clear to me that I’m not. Read more…
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Every time someone tells me they’re considering giving up meat, I ask them: why? Why would you do that? Is it because you haven’t been feeling well after consuming it? Is it because of your blood test results? Do you feel morally wrong for eating animals? Or is it just because it’s a trend in your bubble? Without defining the main reason why you’re doing this, I don’t think you should stop eating meat.
This is an unexpected reaction, since I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 7 years and never felt so good before in my life. People expect me to encourage them when they mention they want to stop consuming meat and, instead, I make them question themselves. Read more…
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As you probably already know, six months ago I decided to close my personal Facebook account. It was December 2017, right before Christmas – a day that also marked my 10-year anniversary on the social network. What started as a one-week experiment turned into the best decision I’ve made for my mental health, so I never went back to reactivate the account.
It so happens that DoR, my favorite Romanian magazine, challenged me to write a few words on the subject – which I gladly accepted. My thoughts were published in #32, their latest issue (you can find them at page 24). Read more…
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As you probably know by now, every week I’m sending a huge newsletter to 1,000 subscribers, where I write about all sorts of big ideas and thoughts related to personal development, plus extra resources that I recommend to go even deeper – articles, books, podcasts and the likes.
While at first it may seem as if I’m talking about them with the confidence of someone who’s some sort of expert that masters them and decided to help others in the process, the reality is exactly the opposite. Read more…
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Back home, in Bucharest, I follow the same routine: my days are split into two big parts, one dedicated to work, and one for fun.
I work from the minute I wake up – that usually happens between 6 and 7 AM, perhaps later during winters, but never using an alarm clock. After working hard until late afternoon, I have the rest of the day blocked for the fun activities.
Work is also further divided into two separate chunks of time: thinking – early in the morning (that’s the creative part, where I need to focus) and communicating – at noon (team management, emails, meetings, and so on).
By ‘fun activities” I’m referring to long conversations with close friends and/or sports training – I have running (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and spinning classes (Monday and Thursday evenings).
My guess is that this works for me for several reasons: Read more…
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Some awesome people are subscribed to my Friday Read newsletter, including stand-up comedian Cristi Popesco.
Last month, Cristi invited me to be a guest on his podcast/show/vlog, where we talked about my daily routine, productivity tips, habits, why and how I quit Facebook, my experience within the music industry and working with rappers, earthquake alerts, my obsessive attention to laundry doing details, and many other completely random stuff.
Unfortunately for my international readers, this one’s Romanian only.
Play it here: Read more…
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You know how in the pre-flight safety briefing you’re instructed to always put your oxygen mask on first, in case the plane crashes? And only afterwards to take care of your child and put their mask on? Have you ever wondered why? That’s because if you’re left without oxygen, you might not be physically capable to help your kid. You’re no use to anyone if you don’t help yourself first.
By now you’re probably confused, wondering why the hell am I writing this in English instead of my native language, Romanian, as I usually do. Well, I have some big changes to announce: from now on, I’ll communicate only in English. It’s part of the process of helping myself, something as vital as oxygen in order to stay safe on the long run. Read more…
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La final de decembrie obișnuiam să fac o lungă listă de rezoluții pentru noul an. Obiective vag formulate, de genul “Voi învăța mandarina”, “Mă voi apuca de sală”, “Mă voi organiza mai bine”.
Sunt doar niște exemple random, nu mi-am propus nimic din astea cu adevărat. De fapt, nici măcar nu-mi mai amintesc lucrurile de pe listele mele reale, fiindcă uitam de ele în maxim o lună (și probabil că le mai reciteam peste un an, când mă apuca cheful de listă nouă).
În loc să îmi stabilesc niște obiective realiste, cu pași concreți pe care aș putea să-i urmez, visam cai verzi pe pereți. Și evident că nu-mi ieșea nimic. Read more…
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Sau un fel de “ce am învățat până la 30 de ani“. Le pun în scris în speranța că greșelile pe care le-am făcut în acest an să ajute și pe altcineva. Învățați din ele, nu faceți ca mine. 
Lecțiile din 2017: Read more…
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