7 Hard Truths About Life That People Don't Like to Admit

While people generally like to think they're in touch with reality, the truth is that many of us shield ourselves from certain unpleasant facts to make us happier and more productive.

Users on Quora recently discussed the question: "What is an example of something true that nobody generally wants to admit?"

From unpleasant insights about love to the truth about meritocracy, here are seven uncomfortable truths people don't like to admit:

1. Looks matter.

It's nice to believe in karmic justice where good things happen to good people, but Quora user Dania Faruqui points out that actually, good things tend to happen to good-looking people.

"We keep denying it all the time, but an attractive person has an upper hand over a not-so-attractive person most of the time. Ugly truth," Faruqui writes.

Indeed, research suggests that attractive people make more money and are seen as smarter and more trustworthy than people who aren't as alluring.

2. No one is truly altruistic.

Suraj Agarwal writes that "we are all self-centric; it's just the radius that varies," meaning that the only difference between selfish and unselfish people is how intensely they pursue their self-interest.

Ramachandra Bhakta takes this notion even further by sharing a quote from the Indian philosopher Chanakya to point out that even our most intimate relationships are created to serve our own needs: "There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

3. There is no such thing as a soulmate.

Quora user Soumadeep Mazumdar says that despite our personal delusions of grandeur, nobody is actually unique.

"No matter how ahead of the curve you think yourself to be, there will be thousands like you walking the same curve," Mazumdar writes. "You will think that you are the only one who has those odd fetishes or you are the only one awake at that particular hour of the night. But the truth is, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands who are exactly like you."

As a result, Mazumdar says that searching for your "one, true love" is a silly pursuit.

"There are millions who would satisfy your criteria of Ms. Right and Mr. Perfect. It is just coincidence that you found one of them and were acquainted to him or her and now consider them your soulmate."

4. Life is precious.

One of the most popular responses in the thread pointed out that everyone eventually dies, and it could happen at any moment.

While we all know we'll die one day, the suddenness with which death could come is something most of us try to forget.

As Quora user Mohit Sharma put it: "It's not like they don't believe it; they just ignore the fragility of life."

5. Nobody has any idea what to do.

If you are confused about what you want to do with your life, take solace in the knowledge that most, if not all, of us are also still figuring things out.

Quora user Josh Vogel writes: "It's drilled into our heads that we have to speak with certainty and confidence about things, especially if we are 'expert' in these things, but the truth is that we don't know."

Sri Teja adds that this uncertainty extends even to successful people who seem to have everything under control.

"The people you look up to are just as nervous as you are," Teja writes. "Succeeding gets a lot easier when you realize that everyone who has ever succeeded has doubted that things will work, has failed terribly, and has generally been where the rest of are: worrying and certain that they aren't good enough."

6. Success doesn't happen over night.

Quora user Samyadeep Basu writes, "Most successes happen in small steps and take a long time."

While many people search constantly for a quick fix to turn their lives around, the truth is that the hard work you put in today will most likely only begin to pay off months, if not years, down the road.

Even then, Samantha Deakin writes, our hard work doesn't necessarily guarantee future returns.

"There are so many confounding variables in the equation, that often the most successful people have been incredibly lucky in ways that you can only really see when you look back on their lives," Deakin says.

7. The world is full of suffering.

While it is certainly worth trying to make things better, no individual's work will put a real dent in the pain and suffering people experience around the world.

In a particularly depressing post, Ishan Rana writes: "Somewhere at this very point in time, someone is being tortured, hostages are being held captive, someone is being raped, girls are being punished for studying, and maybe, just maybe, the homeless guy and his little kid you pass every day hasn't had lunch for days."

Quora user Andy Lim adds that this knowledge makes it difficult for him to enjoy his life of relative ease. "I choose to not believe this fact, at least while I'm indulging my self."

From Entrepreneur

5 Habits of People With Remarkable Willpower

We all spend three to four hours each day resisting desire. So what do people with remarkable willpower do differently?

Willpower is not something you either have or you don't.

Sure, some people may be more self-disciplined than you. Some people may be better at resisting temptation than you. But that's probably not because they were born with some certain special something inside them--instead, they've found ways to store up their willpower and use it when it really matters.

They have remarkable willpower not because they have more of it, but because they've learned how to best use what they have.

Here's how you can, too:

1. Eliminate as many choices as possible. We all have a finite store of mental energy for exercising self-control.

The more choices we make during the day, the harder each one is on our brain--and the more we start to look for shortcuts. (Call it the "Oh, screw it," syndrome.)  Then we get impulsive. Then we get reckless. Then we make decisions we know we shouldn't make, but it's as if we can't help ourselves.

In fact, we can't help ourselves: We've run out of the mental energy we need to make smart choices.

That's why the fewer choices we have to make, the smarter choices we can make when we do need to make a decision.

Say you want to drink more water and less soda. Easy. Keep three water bottles on your desk at all times. Then you won't need to go to the refrigerator and need to make a choice.

Or say you struggle to keep from constantly checking your email. Easy. Turn off all your alerts. Or shut down your email and open it only once an hour. Or take your mail program off your desktop and keep it on a laptop across the room. Make it hard to check--then you're more likely not to.

Or say you want to make smarter financial choices. Easy. Keep your credit card in a drawer; then you can't make an impulse buy. Or require two sign-offs for all purchases over a certain amount; then you will have to run those decisions by someone else (which probably means you'll think twice and won't even bother).

Choices are the enemy of willpower. So are ease and convenience. Think of decisions that require willpower, and then take willpower totally out of the equation.

2. Make choices tonight that set up tomorrow. It's also easier to make smart choices when a decision isn't right in front of you. So pick easy decisions that will drain your store of willpower tomorrow, and make them tonight. Choose what you'll wear. (Leo Widrich of Buffer found a way to make this decision incredibly easy.) Decide what you'll have for breakfast. (Ditto for Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget.)

Decide what you'll have for lunch--and go ahead and prepare it.

Take as many decisions off the board tonight as you can; that will allow you to conserve your mental energy for the decisions that really matter tomorrow. And while you're at it, decide what you will do first when you get to work. Then commit to...

3. Do the hardest thing you need to do first.

You have the greatest amount of mental energy early in the morning. Science says so: In a landmark study performed by the National Academy of Sciences, parole board judges were most likely to give a favorable ruling early in the morning; just before lunch, the odds of a favorable ruling dropped to almost zero.

Should judges' decisions have been affected by factors other than legal? Of course not--but they were. They got mentally tired. They experienced decision fatigue. The best time to make tough decisions is early in the day. The best time to do the most important things you need to do is early in the day. Decide what those things are, and plan to tackle them first thing.

Oh, I know what you're thinking. What about the rest of the day?

4. Refuel frequently. Although the judges studied started strong, a graph of their decision making looks like a roller coaster: up and down and up and down. Why? They took breaks--and they ate. Just after lunch, their likelihood of making favorable rulings spiked upward. The same was true after midmorning and midafternoon breaks.

It turns out glucose is a vital part of willpower. Though your brain does not stop working when glucose is low, it does stop doing some things and start doing others: It responds more strongly to immediate rewards and pays less attention to long-term outcomes.

Eat healthful meals. Eat healthful snacks. Not only will you feel better, you'll make better decisions--and will be able to exercise more willpower in making those decisions.

And speaking of long-term outcomes...

5. Create reminders of long-term goals. You want to build a bigger company, but when you're mentally tired, it's easy to rationalize doing less than your best. You want to lose weight, but when you're mentally tired, it's easy to rationalize that you'll start tomorrow. You want to better engage with your employees, but when you're mentally tired, it's easy to rationalize that you really need to work on that proposal instead.

Mental fatigue makes you take the easy way out--even though the easy way takes you the wrong way.

So create tangible reminders that pull you back from the impulse brink. A friend has a copy of his bank note taped to his computer monitor as a constant reminder of an obligation he must meet. Another keeps a photo of himself when he weighed 50 pounds more on his refrigerator as a constant reminder of the person he never wants to be again. Another fills his desk with family photos, both because he loves looking at them and to remind himself of the people he is ultimately working for.

Think of moments when you are most likely to give in to impulses that take you farther away from your long-term goals. Then use tangible reminders of those long-term goals to interrupt the impulse and keep you on track.

Or better yet, rework your environment so you eliminate your ability to be impulsive--then you don't have to exercise any willpower at all.

If you can't say no to checking your social-media accounts every few minutes, turn them off and put them away for a couple of hours at a time so you don't have to say no.

From Inc. Magazine

4 Tests to Tell If You're Ready to Be an Entrepreneur

There are plenty of reasons for not starting a company. Odds are good that starting a company will not make you rich or famous. Only 1 in 10,000 funded startups become worth more than $1 billion, venture capitalist Mike Maples Jr. told me in a recent interview.

I am not sure how scientific that number is, but let's assume that it's close enough to indicate that starting a company is not a sure road to riches. Another reason for not starting a company is not enjoying the experience of working for a boss. Sure, there are plenty of entrepreneurs who like to determine how they spend their time and who realize that they can hold their destiny in their own hands. But the simple reality is that entrepreneurs launching their own companies take on a new -- and often a more complex set of bosses.

One of my business-school classmates has told me that he reports to his employees. If you don't want to spend time working on their behalf, starting a company will not free you from having a boss.

Bear in mind that you'll also report to your customers, investors and suppliers, too. If those two reasons for starting a company are out the window, why do it then? 

Here are four reasons:

1. You've found a problem and are willing to work on its solution 80 to 100 hours a week for years. 

If you passionately believe that you have found such an important problem, you may have a great reason to start a company. Just realize that following your passion to solve that problem may require neglecting your family and health. It might even mean burning through all your cash. But given the long odds against success, your being willing to work under those conditions almost justifies starting a new company.

2. Many customers see this problem as a huge pain and no other firm is offering a solution.

I recently heard about an entrepreneur who believed passionately in his venture. He burned through millions of his own cash over 15 years while developing a solution to his problem. Nonetheless, last month he shut down the business -- even though his solution was excellent.

The problem was that his solution concerened a problem that some customers thought was not a huge pain. In other words, consumers were willing to get by with less elegant solutions that they already had. This is a costly lesson. Make sure you don't make the same mistake.

3. Your vision is so compelling that you're able to build a top-notch team.

Even the smartest people in the world can't build a significant company without the help of other people. If your vision for a company is compelling enough to get you to work flat out for years to realize it, you'll only succeed if you can convince talented people to join you in that quest.

Your vision must be more than just average -- since you won't be able to pay people as much as, say, Google. Your vision will have to offer them enough emotional currency so they will trade off the big salary to work for you.

4. You believe so strongly in your vision that you'd be willing to hire your replacement and walk away to realize it.

It's often true that founders lack the skills needed to turn a great product idea into a big business. Few people like Amazon's Jeff Bezos start with a business plan and end up the leader of an $82 billion company. If you're so passionate about realizing a vision that you would be willing to walk away from your startup if you couldn't do the things required to grow it from, say, $10 million to $100 million in revenue that, then you pass a final test of readiness. 

And should you be willing to walk away from being king and hand over the throne to a leader better suited to the company's next growth stage, then you may end up being rich after all.

From Entrepreneur

The Best Jobs For Every Personality Type

Does your job fit your personality?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test, which measures preferences like introversion and extroversion, has been part of business culture for decades. Today about 80% of the Fortune 500 and 89 of Fortune 100 companies use it to analyze the personalities of employees, in an effort to get them in the right roles and help them succeed.

To determine five of the best jobs for each of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types, we consulted one of the most popular personality guides, "Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type," which is now in its fifth edition and has sold over a million copies, according to its publisher, Hachette Book Group.

We also talked to one of its authors, Paul Tieger. As the CEO of SpeedReading People LLC, Tieger has spent 30 years advising companies and people on how personality types can help teams work together.

While the list below is in no way definitive — and personality preferences can be flexible over time — it may serve as a helpful guide for understanding yourself and what sort of personalities gravitate toward certain jobs.

There are several tests you can take to determine which personality type you fit into. Tieger provides a free assessment here. Figure out which type suits you best, and then check out the chart below.

From Business Insider

Want to Change the World? Maybe Try Being an Intrapraneur.

A growing number of young people are eschewing university studies in favor of pursuing a career as an entrepreneur. It’s hard to argue with the decision to avoid crushing student loan debt in pursuit of an education that often leaves graduates with poor employment prospects and little career direction.  

Aspiring entrepreneurs point to the likes of Steven Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who managed to amass fortunes after dropping out of college. Unfortunately, for every Jobs, Gates or Zuckerberg, there are hundreds of thousands of failed entrepreneurs living in their parents’ basements.

The difference between success and failure is more than just luck. While many universities do a poor job in preparing individuals to be entrepreneurs, prospective new business owners need to learn how to be successful somewhere. And the place to best place to learn may be inside a traditional workplace, by becoming an intrapreneur.

An intrapreneur is an individual who works for another but one who treats his or her job as if he or she were running a company within a company.

One industry where an intrapreneurial spirit is especially valuable is the rapidly growing field of environmental, health and safety and sustainability consultancies. A good consultant in this field need to be able to manage clients, work independently, make sound business decisions and have strong personal and business ethics and vision.

In short, he or she needs all the things it takes to be a good entrepreneur. But the nature of the work -- travelling to remote areas conducting environmental-impact studies, conducting health and safety audits in many, geographically diverse, industrial settings or meeting with top business leaders to discuss plans for sustaining their business far into the future -- can make it tough for a young entrepreneur to succeed. But intrapreneurs, on the other hand, can enjoy the advantages offered by an existing company's global footprint, while retaining many of the perks of being an entrepreneur.

There are some strong advantages to being an intrapreneur before striking it out on your own. Intrapreneurs do the following:

1. They earn while they learn. Every employer is capable of teaching you important lessons about what to do and what not to do. Learning how to market, sell, govern and run a business while earning a salary not only allows you to gain valuable business skills but also allow you to save up much needed capital.

2. They tend to be top performers and excel in the corporate environment. Because intrapreneurs are successful at their jobs, they tend to be promoted quickly and are allowed to bid on other jobs within the company to keep them happy. Companies want to retain intrapreneurs and will often invest more to develop and hone their business skills.

3. They face far less risk. When you are an entrepreneur, even a seemingly small failure can cause catastrophic fallout that tarnishes the brand and may even destroy the company. Intrapreneurs have the opportunity to fail inside an environment that is more forgiving. An intrapreneur who makes a bad decision may get fired but seldom risks long-term career consequences.

The keys to being a successful intrapreneur include having the following qualities:

1. Patience. Intrapreneurship is not a shortcut to success. Just as an MBA takes six years (or more) to earn, gaining real-life work experience takes time.   

2. Ambition. A successful intrapreneur has to crave success and see every assignment as a step toward an ultimate goal.

3. Humility. Just as you wouldn’t walk into a college course and inform the professor he or she doesn’t know what he or she is talking about, a good intrapreneur expects to start at the bottom.

4. Political skills. Everyone you meet in the workplace -- whether you like them or not -- is potentially a key contact when you launch your company. The person you meet in the mailroom today may well be in the boardroom tomorrow. When it comes to connecting with people, everyone matters.  

Many young idealistic professionals are drawn to the environmental, safety and sustainability profession because they see it as a way to change the world. That’s tough to do as an entrepreneur but its far easier as part of a team of intrapreneurs. 

From Entrepreneur

How to Make More Money: 6 Ways to Think Like a Millionaire

Everybody wants to become a millionaire and get rich. Some people just don’t know where to start. You can get rich in your own way and you can start today.

These tips will get you started on visualizing the road ahead of you and enable you to set goals to make more money than you ever dreamed you would.

Here are 6 different exercises for you to visualize how to become a millionaire and achieve financial independence.

1) How to Make More Money: Start By Writing Down Your Ideas

Buy a spiral notebook. Carry it with you if you possibly can, and write down every idea that comes to you throughout the day. Review this idea log on a regular basis.

Sometimes, one idea that you have while you are driving along, sitting, reading, watching television, or in a conversation may be the insight that will lead to the start of your fortune.

If your goal is to make more money, write down all of your ideas as to how you will achieve this goal.

The rule is, “Catch the idea and write it down.” If you don’t write it down quickly, you will very often lose it.

2) Goal Setting: Relax and Reflect on Your Financial Goals

Take regular time-outs to relax and reflect on your goals and the obstacles that are holding you back from achieving them. During these times of relaxation, ideas will often pop into your mind that can save you hours, days, and sometimes years of hard work.

3) Gaining Financial Independence Using The Magic Wand Technique

Practice the exercise of fantasizing on a regular basis. Sometimes this is called the “magic wand technique.” Imagine that you have a magic wand and you can wave it over your current situation or problem.

Imagine that as a result of waving this magic wand, all the obstacles are removed from between you and your financial goals.

4) Project Forward and Think Back on Your Financial Goals

Imagine that your goal is to build a successful business in a particular field. Project forward three to five years and imagine that you now have a successful business in that field.

What would it look like? How big would it be? What kind of people would you be working with? What kind of reputation would you have in the marketplace? What would be your level of sales and profitability? How would you be running this business?

And especially, what could you start doing right now to make this future dream a reality.

5) How to Become a Millionaire By Practicing “Mind-Storming” on Every Problem

Perhaps the most powerful method of stimulating creative thinking is called “mind-storming,” or the 20-idea method. More people have become wealthy, including myself, using this idea more than any other method of creative thinking ever discovered.

In fact, this technique alone could enable you to gain financial independence.

The method is simple.  Take any problem or goal that you have and write it at the top of a sheet of paper in the form of a question. For example, if your goal is to double your income over the next 12 months, then you would write, “How can I double my income over the next 12 months?” You then discipline yourself to write at least 20 answers to that question.

You can write more than 20 answers if you like, but you must use your discipline and willpower to write at least 20 answers.

6) Save Your Money and Become a Millionaire 

At the very simplest, if you were to save $100 per month, from the time you started work at the age of 20 until the time you retired at age 65, and you invested that $100 per month in a mutual fund that yielded you an average of 10%, you would be worth approximately $1,118,000 by the time you retired.

Chances are, your discipline and your resolve to continue saving, year in and year out, would have such an effect on your character and your personality that you would end up earning far more than 10% per year.  But at $100 per month, anyone can become a millionaire.

Take Action

Focused questions stimulate your mind and provoke creativity. Decide on a goal and then ask yourself, “Why am I not at this goal already?” What is the main reason?

Written by Brian Tracy

8 Musts to Start Your Business With Little to No Capital

Entrepreneurs will often have amazing business ideas, but they put them on hold due to a lack of capital. They assume that their idea will never get far off the ground unless they have major funding behind them. 

It seems that every day there is a new startup receiving millions of dollars from venture capital firms, but what you don’t hear about is the several startup failures that burn through millions of dollars only to fizzle out and shut their doors forever.

If your idea and plan of execution aren’t well thought out from the beginning, no amount of money can turn it into a winner. Have a great idea but very little money? Don’t let that stop you! Yes, there will be ridiculously long days with little to no sleep. Yes, you are going to be stressed. But those that want it bad enough will make it.

Here are eight tips that can help you get your idea off the ground with limited funds.

1. Build your business around what you know. Instead of venturing off into uncharted territory, make sure that you build your business around your skills and knowledge. The less you have to rely on outside sources the better. When your business is built around your own personal expertise you can eliminate consultants and outside assistance. 

Also, having that knowledge is sometimes all that is needed to successfully take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

2. Tell everyone you know what you are doing. Inform your family, friends, business contacts and past colleagues about your new business. Call, send emails and make your new venture known on your social-media profiles. Your friends and family members can help you spread the word, and past business contacts can introduce your brand to their professional contacts as well. This type of grassroots marketing can help introduce your company to a much larger audience.

3. Avoid unnecessary expenses. You are going to have plenty of expenses, and there are some that just can’t be avoided. What you can avoid though is overspending. Take something as simple as business cards. You could drop $1,000 on 500 metal business cards that give off the “cool” factor, or you could spend $10 on 500 traditional business cards. Being frugal in the beginning can be the difference between success and a failed business.

4. Don’t get buried in credit card debt. There is a smart way and a suicidal way to use credit when starting a business. New computers, office furniture, phones and supplies can all quickly add up. Instead of purchasing everything at once and throwing it all on a credit card, use your company’s revenue to finance your expenses. Eliminating the stress and burden of debt will greatly increase the chances of creating a successful business. 

5. Make sure your receivables policy won’t sink you. If your business is a retail operation then this isn’t going to apply, but if you are providing services such as consulting or products to retailers you need to make sure that your payment policy is well thought out. Can you remain above water with net-15 or net-30 terms? Don’t base your receivables on what you think your customers will want. Base them on what is going to make your business operate successfully.

6. Build up sweat equity. When I first started my business I worked around the clock, handling every aspect of the business as well as the marketing and growth. All of the hard work and long days that you put in isn’t for nothing. You are building a brand and your hard work is essentially increasing the value of your business. Your sweat equity will come into play if you ever decide to sell off a piece of your company or take on a partner.

7. Take advantage of free advertising and marketing. There are several ways to generate a buzz for your business without breaking the bank. Social media is a great way to gain exposure and interact with potential customers. You can also reach out to local media and offer your expertise.

Make as many local media contacts as you can and be extremely responsive with their requests. This can lead to them to branding you as the local authority, generating plenty of free press for your business. 

8. Get ready to hustle. Hard work is an absolute necessity, but when you are starting a business with little to no capital then you must be prepared to dedicate everything you have into making the business a success. This might mean cold calling, handling customer support, dealing with billing and accounting, and every other working part of your business. You will wear many hats and it will require the majority of your time and energy if you are to make it.

Don’t let limited capital prevent you from taking a great idea and running with it. Will it be difficult and will you have some stressful situations? Of course, but that is part of entrepreneurship.

Have you started a business with sweat equity alone? If so, let us know about your experiences in the comments section below.

From Entrepreneur