Alice Teh Larsson

Seth Godin inspires my post today.

Over time, I’ve collected my notes from books, conversations, and my hard-earned lessons, then shaped them into a kind of personal compass. This list is my list of working principles, tested in projects, decisions, and moments that remind me how I want to think, act, and live. And it will continue to grow.

1. Your future self is your most important stakeholder.

2. Become the person your future thanks you for.

3. Forgive your past for the mistakes it made.

4. Attitudes are skills; choose yours with care.

5. Some skills compound for decades—invest early.

6. Beauty belongs in every serious plan.

7. Systems shape tomorrow—design wisely.

8. What you normalize, you nurture.

9. Lead with the story only you can tell.

10. Legacy is a long game—play with patience.

11. Protect your peace as fiercely as your plans.

12. Don’t try to fill an unfillable hole.

13. Ignore sunk costs—they’re already gone.

14. Reassurance is fleeting; clarity is lasting.

15. Take responsibility, demand freedom, don’t seek permission.

16. Progress is personal before it’s public.

17. Intelligence is overrated—insight is the intrigue.

18. Design tools that create meaning.

19. This might not work—and that’s why it’s worth it.

20. Generous tension creates meaningful change.

21. Kindness is strength, not softness.

22. Grace is a competitive advantage.

23. Respect people while telling them the truth.

24. Politeness without clarity is cruelty in slow motion.

25. Earn trust through action, not argument.

26. People like us do things like this—with care and intention.

27. From fear to fluency: learn to read the machine’s message.

28. Some doors open only when you knock twice.

29. Culture conceals systems; see them before you serve them.

30. Generosity doesn’t mean free—it means valuable.

31. Curiosity compounds faster than capital.

32. Learn more than you apply, then apply more than you learn.

33. Ask better questions; the answers will follow.

34. Language is a living economy—trade in meaning, invest in clarity.

35. Plan like a pessimist, act like an optimist.

36. Context sets the value of meaning.

37. Stop asking what machines understand. Ask what they unlock.

38. Build a new literacy—fluent in meaning, patterns, and context.

39. The future is for those who decode the poetry in patterns.

40. Tools give raw matter. You craft meaning.

41. Solitude sharpens strategy.

42. Never confuse motion with momentum.

43. Small systems scale big dreams.

44. Don’t decorate problems—solve them.

45. Trade ego for evidence.

46. Progress prefers patience over perfection.

47. If you must choose, choose impact over approval.

48. Invest in skills that survive any economy.

49. People notice consistency more than brilliance.

50. Make beauty a business strategy.

These tested, lived, and ready-to-use principles are ones I can carry in my pocket. They’re short lines that keep me steady.

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Added after this post was first compiled:

1. What you do for a living simply allows you to be you.

2. Ask binary yes or no questions. (The question/behaviour effect)

3. Your most important beliefs should not be binary.

4. You cannot pour from empty buckets.

5. You need evidence to build your self-story.

6. Your habits are your future.

7. Choose the right habit; bring just enough discipline to establish it.

8. Counterbalance.

9. Rubber ball vs. glass balls.

10. Keep a swipe file.

11. Nothing is completely original.

12. Don’t throw any of yourself away.

13. What can I fill this container with?

14. Get in the ring.

15. Success is being excited to go to work and being excited to come home.

16. How might we?