Open Loops #129

👋 Welcome to the 129th issue of Open Loops, a weekly newsletter exploring ideas at the intersection of building and being.

My name is Reza and each week, I sift through 100+ books, articles, podcasts, and (way too many) tweets to uncover timeless, actionable insights to help you think clearly, live intentionally, and build momentum.

The people who get the most done don’t agonize over decisions. It’s not because they have better judgment. They’ve just structured their lives so being wrong isn’t expensive.

When mistakes are cheap, you can move fast and fix what doesn’t work. When mistakes are expensive, you overthink everything and still choose wrong.

This is why startups can run circles around big companies. It’s not because they’re smarter, but because being wrong isn’t expensive.

The understanding of self-love that makes the most sense to me is much more internal.

It is the way you relate to yourself with compassion, honesty, and openness. It is meeting every part of yourself with unconditional acceptance, from the parts that you find easy to love, to the rough and imperfect parts that you try to hide from.

I discovered that the appreciation you seek from others will not hold the same rejuvenating power as the appreciation, attention, and kindness you can give yourself.

Create your think day

Pick one day each month (or quarter) to step back from all of your day-to-day professional demands.

• Seclude yourself (mentally or physically)
• Shut off all of your notifications on your devices
• Put up an out-of-office response
• The goal is to spend the entire day reading, learning, journaling, and THINKING.

Life will give you whatever experience is the most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

This newsletter is my creative outlet. When I’m not writing it, or working out, I help founders and their early teams bring clarity and structure to the chaos of building early-stage brands. If you’re a founder navigating GTM, you can lean more here.