Solis Scoop – What success is, Life is short, Secret of life
It all begins with an idea.
No. 35 – January 10, 2024
Quotes of the Month
Do you know what success is? Success is when your children want to be with you when they’re adults. How many people have all the material stuff, and their kids don’t come home for the holidays. Come on. – Paul Orfalea
The mind must be given relaxation — it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. – Seneca
Life is short. Do not forget about the important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them. – Marcus Aurelius
There are no shortcuts, no hacks, no overnight successes. – Guy Raz
Stop trying to be spectacular. Start being consistent. – Shane Parrish
Trusting oneself does not always come naturally. If learned when young, the practice sticks. Today, there is no one who can intimidate me because of title or skill or fame. I do what's right for me. – Estee Lauder
I would look for the best practices and I would discard the rest. Look at effective individuals and try to figure out why they’re effective. – Warren Buffett
Fix the lifestyle you want. Then work backward from there. – Cal Newport
It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that — no one HAS to do something he doesn't want to do for the rest of his life. – Hunter S. Thompson
You don't have to be good at everything, you just need to double down on what you're naturally suited for. – James Clear
This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. – Alan Watts
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. – Albert Einstein
So much of success in business comes from keeping your head in a good place. – Brad Jacobs
The first thing is that you like what you are doing, that you are passionate about your work. I insist on this idea because it is very important. It has to be something that you would almost pay to do. – Amancio Ortega
And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. – John Steinbeck
Time is our most irreplaceable asset— we cannot buy more of it. We can only strive to waste as little of it as possible. – Ryan Holiday
The number of people who stand ready to consume one’s time, to no purpose, is almost countless. – Booker T. Washington
I didn’t see why it has to be either. If you have a job in the daytime, you write at night. It’s all a question of how much you want to do it. – Margaret Atwood
When you have great ingredients, you can have great cuisine. – Emeril Lagasse
If you are doing something primarily for money and without a real emotional commitment, it will translate into something that lacks a soul and that has no connection to you. – Robert Greene
The fundamental algorithm of life: repeat what works. – Charlie Munger
I never feared about my skills because I put in the work. Work ethic eliminates fear. So you if you do the work, what are you fearing? You know what you’re capable of and what you’re not. – Michael Jordan
Work hard in silence. Let success be your noise. – Frank Ocean
I have never seen ordinary effort lead to extraordinary results. – Alexandr Wang
Try to think about your obsessions. You never want to compete with somebody who’s obsessed. Kobe Bryant. He would say, “What’s your 4:00 AM?” He’s at the gym at 4:00 AM shooting baskets. Are you at the gym at 4:00 AM? – Adam Karr
It is important to admit your mistakes, and to do so before you are charged with them. Many clients are surrounded by buck-passers who make a fine art of blaming the agency for their own failures. I seize the earliest opportunity to assume the blame. – David Ogilvy
There is no such thing as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence – and in the end, you make it look like a quantum leap. – James Dyson
Death is one prophecy that never fails. – Edmund Wilson
Music of the Month
Troy Andrews, known by his stage name Trombone Shorty, is a musician and trombone player out of New Orleans fusing rock, pop, jazz, funk, and hip hop. All of his albums and playlists are fantastic including What It Takes. Andrews's music always put me in a positive mental state.
Articles of the Month
"To connect to the grid, these energy parks will have to contend with energy-market regulations and grid-reliability rules that have yet to evolve to support this kind of combination of power supply and demand at such a large scale" in Google plans to build gigawatts of clean power and data centers together heightens issues electricity buyers are facing.
“Companies are pursuing every available energy resource — which each come with a different timeline — as they race to build AI computing infrastructure” in Meta's all-of-the-above strategy shows why powering AI is so complex shows data center users scramble for electricity resources.
“Higher efficiency will enable greater computational power without reducing energy requirements, which is likely to keep energy demand high and continue to challenge grid resilience” from Navigating The 'New Normal' Of Energy double-clicks on the reality of the energy demands over the short-term.
“I believe 2025 is going to be a pivotal year, when many projects initiated in 2024 will begin breaking ground. Given a three- to four-year deployment timeline for data centers, those loads will really begin coming online in 2027 and 2028” from Data center growth ‘dwarfs’ anything we’ve seen in computing history shows the insane electricity demand ahead.
“Companies involved in agriculture, hydropower and tourism tended to buy insurance against rarer types of disruptive weather event, such as cyclones. Those policies will only pay out if it can be proved that their finances had been materially affected.” Weather Derivatives Are Booming in an Unpredictable Climate
“Researchers have estimated that a single ChatGPT query requires almost 10 times as much electricity to process as a traditional Google search.” AI Wants More Data. More Chips. More Real Estate. More Power. More Water. More Everything
Books of the Month
The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids by Ryan Holiday provides parenting medications in short form for every day of the year. The book draws on lessons from historical figures like Theodore Roosevelt, Bruce Springsteen, Queen Elizabeth II, and Marcus Aurelius” weaving stories from these figures in a daily devotional format for parents. I read this book in 2023 and got just as much out of this book the second time I read the book in 2024.
Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby explores the competitor and adrenaline junky that is the basketball GOAT Michael Jordan. Lazenby’s biography of Jordan starts the book by going back to Jordan’s ancestors in North Carolina bringing you along for a ride through his life. The story starts with Jordan as a baseball little leaguer followed by the infamous story of Jordan being cut from the high school basketball team. Jordan goes to UNC to play for legendary basketball coach Dean Smith. He’s then drafted by the Chicago Bulls where he goes on to win six NBA championships. In between the champions, Jordan retires, attempts to play pro baseball, comes back from retirement, retires after this sixth championship, unretires to play for the Washington Wizards, and then becomes the owner of the Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats. You read about his the highs of his life from winning NBA champions and relationship with Nike to the murder of his father, his divorce, and struggles with his brothers and sisters. Additional Jordan books to check out include Driven from Within and Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made.
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday “offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.” I finished my second spin through The Daily Stoic (I read the book in 2017). I realized this book is one that I will read every year because of how valuable the book is in calming my mind.
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick is the “second book of his acclaimed American Revolution series” where Philbrick focuses on the relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. Washington was forced to retreat from New York in the fall of 1776. Arnold came to his rescue after Washington’s retreat by blocking the British navy advancing south from Lake Champlain. Arnold continued to fight for the Americans until his financial commitments to his wife’s family plus his inability to advance his career came to a head. At this point, Arnold agreed to fight for the British by surrendering Fort Ticonderoga. What is fascinating about this book is how incredible of a fighter Arnold was for the Americans only to be remembered as an infamous traitor. Also check out the podcasts Nathaniel Philbrick, “Valiant Ambition” and Valiant Ambition in the American Revolution for a deeper dive into the book.
Podcasts of the Month
Last month, I found several interesting renewable energy podcasts, including A Venture Capitalist’s Take on Climate Tech, Ben Huffman | Shepperd Mullin, What Does the Data Say About Tax Credit Transferability, and Why Should Utilities Go Big On VPPs.
Blog Post Title Two
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Three
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.