3 First Principals to live by

The highest form of existence is to have no desire to be understood, admired, pitied, or known.

Today marks 2 years exactly. Today, the ADHDers win. I thought it would take 5+ years to become bigger than my favorite podcast, but it took about 22 months. I launched The Koerner Office as a 10 episode test 2 years ago today. Here are my download numbers: 2024: 715,025 - 60%

Marc Andreessen on going for it: “I am continually amazed at the number of people who are presented with an opportunity and pass. There's your basic dividing line between the people who shoot up in their careers like a rocket ship, and those who don't - right there. I am

David Goggins' level of intensity and energy. Richard Feynman's level of unconventional technical brilliance. Napoleon's level of risk tolerance and strategic brilliance. That's @elonmusk.

The endgame of competence is simple: you become so skilled, so resourceful, and so strategically embedded that whether it’s a company, a relationship, or a project, the rational move for everyone involved is to keep you, reward you, and bet on you, because losing you would cost

Marc Andreessen on why it’s critically important to expose yourself to risk: “Put yourself in situations where you will succeed or fail by your own decisions and actions, and where that success or failure will be highly visible. Why? If you're going to be a high achiever,

My notes from Larry Gagosian (Billionaire Art Dealer) turned into maxims: 1. The best way to raise the price of something is to say that you would never sell it. 2. The competitive drive of self-made billionaires does not go into remission once they've made a fortune. 3.

We’re living through a golden age of high-signal podcasts and essays. For many people, the marginal hour is better spent learning from the best operators & investors than sitting in another meeting.

A habit that shaped my career: I always send a follow-up email within 24 hours of a meeting. Sometimes within 2 hours. In a world where everyone is looking for an edge, speed is the easiest one to acquire.

Keep sharpening. Opportunities respect preparation.

Choose transformation over comfort. Curiosity over certainty. Action over analysis. The cost of being wrong is almost always less than the cost of doing nothing. Build, evolve, repeat.

Launching March 24. 42 Days.

There is no place to rest your head.

Be private. Be lowkey. Be humble.

“Where your fear is, there your task is.” — Carl Jung

Intelligence and talent are not normally distributed. Leverage magnifies the distinctions. The capable ones make everyone better off, but themselves most of all. It’s not that the rich are getting richer, it’s that the “smart, leveraged, and high agency” are getting richer.

I went to an event last month to meet a founder who sold his company for $1.2 billion - built almost entirely on partnerships: Relentless, borderline-crazy tactics. He would camp out in the lobby of companies he wanted to partner with and hand out t-shirts to employees walking

your life is the rolling 52 week average of your mood

People who don’t organize into tribes get wiped out by people who do.

Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” really knew what they were talking about 😔