Learning how to read people is a psychological superpower, but it’s also a skill that anyone can pick up. It’s possible to glean a ton of information about others simply by paying attention.

Ever since I started writing, I’ve been honing this skill. It’s not a hard and fast science — everyone has off days. But staying aware of a few patterns can help you find people with great character — and shape the person you may wish to be. I look for these eight subtle clues in my interactions with people to understand who they really are.

The way they treat service staff

The way…

Why do we love life quotes so much?

I think I have the answer. Life quotes have a way of piercing through the b.s. and noise surrounding us. Life quotes are the swords that cut the Gordian knots of noise and reveal the essence of life we know deep down but tend to forget.

I’m a writer, which means I love quotes. But I also understand how simultaneously insightful and useless they can be. You can do one of two things with a quote — use it as inspirational fluff to post on Instagram or use the insight to change…

I’m one of the few people who will tell you life hacks that actually work and don’t suck.

Just trust me.

Give the ideas a chance first and you’ll be surprised at how you can make dramatic leaps in your career that others simply aren’t able to make.

These hacks are all based on the idea that most professionals are way behind the times.

They’re still working from the old, stiff, milquetoast style of professionalism that already died years ago.

The good news? They’re not changing anytime soon, but you can. …

I experience this strange moment every few weeks. It just hits me out of nowhere. I look around at everything I see and I realize something profound.

We live in a world full of the products of entrepreneurs — from the mega-billion or trillion-dollar companies behind the smartphones we use to the companies that produce random parts of products everywhere in the world.

Let’s see what’s observable in front of me at my desk right now.

There’s a notebook. Someone owns this notebook company and probably makes a handsome living from this banal product.

There’s the pen that I use…

Zero. Nothing. Nada.

I remember zero. You have no audience, no traffic, no connections, no experience, no plan, no strategies, and no idea what will happen in the future.

I’m not nearly done with my writing career nor do I feel like I’ve totally arrived, but I have done enough work to feel very far away from the starting point. It’s almost hard to remember. One thing I do remember from the early days? You just feel so far away from success.

You look at the ‘big shots’ with their giant email lists, income reports, viral articles, and it’s hard…

How many times have you played the ‘woulda shoulda coulda’ game? You know it’s totally useless, but you still do it anyway because it’s better than doing the alternative. The alternative involves having to look at your life as honestly as possible and look at it the way it is right now.

We have such a hard time being present because there’s nowhere to hide when you’re present. …

Even though I’ve spent years trying to figure out the ins and outs of self-improvement, I still can’t find a specific cause for someone finally deciding to do something that changes their lives forever.

You can get close to the exact cause — you’re fed up, you’re finally ready to try something new, you’ve looked back on time and realize how much you’ve wasted and want to start now. But those are all feelings you’ve probably felt before but never acted on. What makes you finally act on them? I don’t know. But, I do know that it’s possible to…

Some smart people suffer a strange form of torture.

Their brain works well and processes information quickly, but their intellect doesn’t translate to the things that make you successful:

• Smart decision making — Which is in an entirely different universe than being smart
• Emotional regulation — Smart people often have a horrible time regulating their emotions (I’ll explain in a bit)
• Humility — Smart people tend to suffer because of their ego in various ways

Having high intellect doesn’t guarantee success at all. Think of this analogy. Intellect is like a cup. Some people have a larger cup than others…