Money Diary #99

Morning: Dad wakes me up around 6:45 since he wants to get Mom some meds. Get up, brush my teeth, and drink a cup of tea & eat a couple of crackers. Get dressed and head out to the nearby CVS. They don't have it, so we visit another CVS and a Target. Dad wants to check another CVS, so we head there and decide to get it from Target on the way back. Head to Sprouts to grab 4 mangoes, bananas, and some meds for Mom. Visit Target on the way back and get more meds for her. As we're heading out, I can smell the nearby Chick-Fil-A (even while wearing a mask!) and I joke with Dad on how CfA always knows how to reach its customers. When we get back home, everyone drinks a cup of tea, and I go shower. Watch some French Open with Dad, and read for a while. Here is what I learn:

• "Wealth comes in different forms": "I don’t have dollar signs in my eyes but an hourglass with sand slipping through."

• A good career skill to have: "Listen and try to find any potential disconnect between 2 or more very smart people who just need multiple perspectives to fully grasp/align on things."

• How to maintain independence: "The only way to maintain independence is if your appetite for stuff – including status – can be satiated."

• What they don't teach in med school: "A doctor once told me the biggest thing they don’t teach in medical school is the difference between medicine and being a doctor – medicine is a biological science, while being a doctor is often a social skill of managing expectations, understanding the insurance system, communicating effectively, and so on."

• Like hanging out with an old friend: "I loved the Anne of Green Gables series. I re-read them every few years. It's like hanging out with an old friend."

• Good advice: "Don't change jobs just because you are unhappy with something else in your life."

• More career advice: "Tell people what they want to hear and you can be wrong indefinitely without penalty. Being nice to people is the easiest career competitive advantage."

• "Things change": "You have to prepare for something worse than you what you hope for."

• A good reminder: "What others do for leisure is your bartender friend's livelihood."

• "Position yourself to be successful": "My advice is to not focus on money, keep your head down, work hard, go way above and beyond, and align yourself with the people who can be decision makers in your career. CHRO, CEO, GC and who you think is up next for those jobs. Do whatever you can for them. Always be available. Be pleasant. Don’t be the type of person who always says no. Focus on “how.” Play the long game. Believe in yourself but position yourself to be successful. It’s more important than how smart you are or how good a lawyer you are."

• Savoring infrequent feelings, storing them, & how to remind myself of them: "I feel like a boss after killing everything today! I savor this infrequent feeling and channel it toward the next big steps for my research. This is the best time to think about risky ideas, store them in my head, and revisit them for validity when I'm perhaps feeling less confident." 

• The end goal: "You have such a simple and fulfilling approach to life that I really admire and I absolutely love the dynamic of your relationships from romantic to work."

• Truth: "I dial into a call with the lawyers on a deal we're currently working on, which drags on for awhile. I like the team on this deal, though — especially the female associate. It's true what they say — liking the people you work with literally makes all the difference."

Afternoon: Lunch is rice, potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. Do a coconut oil pull and watch golf. Fall asleep for a couple of hours until I hear my dad trying to wake me up, lol. SO texts that he's in the fancy city's Costco and if I want anything. I tell him to check if they carry Tatcha over there, but unfortunately, they don't. Veg for the afternoon, drink tea with Coconut Thins & potato chips for a snack, and watch TV while reading multiple Money Diaries. My favorite kind of afternoon :-)

Evening: Mom reminds me I need to wake up early tomorrow, so I decide to veg on the couch & start the work projects tomorrow. Watch baseball while continuing to read Money Diaries, dinner is rice with egg stew & lamb stew, and do a coconut oil pull. Brush my teeth, and bed around 10:30.