‘Fail Small, Not Big’: Man Curates The Very Best Life Advice From 20 Million People

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‘Fail Small, Not Big’: Man Curates The Very Best Life Advice From 20 Million People

Head to somewhere such as the idyllic coastal town of Byron Bay, Australia and you’ll mingle with people who see themselves as the second-coming of Gandhi. Either being able to speak from experience, from classes they’ve taken or books they’ve read, these people are full of words of wisdom and advice that – if you can get past the in-some-cases-pretentious-tinge – actually have merit.

But, not all of us do live in Byron Bay, yet we’re still perfect candidates to be inspired with some inspirational teachings and advice that could improve our lives just that teensy little bit. Enter: the following. One man last year took it upon himself to compile a bit of a bible of the best advice and life tips from around the world, and some really do stop and make you think.

That man? Chris Hladczuk. Chris took to Twitter to announce he had “crowdsourced the best [advice] from 20 million people on Reddit” – if you take a look at Chris’ Twitter feed, it’s immediately clear he’s a fan of inspirational teachings in general.

While it might be fair to say some induce a “and how will that improve my life?” response, others carry far greater merit. One of our favourites says, “If someone insults you during a meeting, pretend like you didn’t hear them the first time. Politely ask them to repeat themselves.”

“They’ll either repeat the insult and look rude or realise their mistake and apologise.”

Only an incredibly small minority of the population have a bad bone in them. The rest of us are simply triggered by factors such as stress, so when someone makes what initially seems to be a stupid comment in a meeting, we can act out without thinking. This piece of advice, therefore, should resonate with almost everyone, and we’re able to already imagine the response we would get if we were to ask our manager, or whoever made the insult, to repeat themselves.

Other pieces of advice to fall into Chris’ top 10 include “airplane mode hack” and looking at the day as a game of sport.

Airplane Mode Hack: “If you’re stuck on an annoying call, put your phone on airplane mode instead of hanging up. The other person sees ‘call failed’ instead of ‘call ended’.”

As for looking at the day as a sport’s game, this one comes from American author, Gretchen Rubin: “Instead of feeling that you lost the day after a bad morning, Reframe each day as 4 quarters: Morning, midday, afternoon, evening.”

“If you blow one quarter, just get back on track for the next one. Fail small, not big.”

Ok, so we perhaps wouldn’t put Chris, or these pieces of advice on a pedestal with the teachings of Simon Sinek or Ester Sorel, for example. But in terms of being easy to understand and broad enough to be applicable to a great number of people, they’re pretty damn good.

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