MBA2389 Must Read: On the Shortness of Life by Seneca

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night not working on my business but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers, and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts, so doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform.

Ready to save on new tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits bring. Perks include Dell rewards, free shipping, premium Support and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals.

Hey oh. Welcome to the $1 RMBA Show. Powerful business lessons you can count on. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014 and today's episode is a Must Read Episode. On our Must Read Episodes I share with you a book that has influenced me, has impacted me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights, and why you should read it too. Today's must Read is On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. Seneca, full name Lucius Annius Seneca, was a prominent Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and playwright. He was born in 4 BC or BCE and died in 65 AD or CE and yet we read his work today. It's that timeless. Now, what does a book titled on the Shortness of Life have to do with you and your business? Well, for most entrepreneurs, our business takes a big part of our life. We spend most of our wakeful hours trying to make it a success. And this book explores the idea that life is long if you know how to use it. He argues that most people waste their time in trivial pursuits, emphasizing the importance of living in the present moment and cultivating wisdom. Well, what's that all about? Well, that's what I'll be talking about in today's episode. I'm going to break it down and make sure you know how to apply it to your own life, your own business, and your own time. This work is profound, found and it lasted the test of time for a reason. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. On the Shortness of Life is a book that delves into the concept of time and how we as individuals often squander our time, our most valuable asset on unimportant matters. In the book, Seneca underscores the significance of living with purpose, focusing on self improvement, getting better every day, and making the most of each moment. This book, in my opinion, offers some really good insights on how to live a more meaningful life, a more fulfilling life by prioritizing what truly matters. Listen, there's a lot of noise out there in our world, in our business world, in our life, online, social media. There's so much going on, there's so much distraction. It's so hard to focus. It's so hard to not get anxiety, not feel unsettled. This book recenters you best of all. It's a short read. It's a small book, 106 pages. You can read it in a couple of sittings. I want to begin by talking about one of the biggest ideas in this book, and it's the idea that time for everybody is different. Seneca argues that life is not actually short, but people often waste their time on trivial matters, meaning that if you spend your life doing meaningful things, useful things, enriching things, life will feel long. I know this from experience because if you've ever had a year where you've done so much, you've accomplished so much, you've done a lot, you traveled, you worked, you spoke on stages, you cut deals, you've grown your business, you got in shape, you did a whole bunch of stuff that really leveled up your life in one year. That year feels like 10 years. Let me give you another example. Have you ever been on a holiday where you did so many activities? One time Nicole and I went to Costa Rica and it was one of those vacations where we decided we're going to go all in on all the activities, do the nature walks, go jet skiing, zip lining. I mean, we did two or three activities a day that week. Maybe it wasn't even a week, was like five days, felt like a month because we did so much. So time is really relative to what you actually do with your time. Now what do you do with your time? Well, he gets into that in the book as well. The second takeaway I want to share with you is in the book, he emphasizes the importance of living in the present and making the most of each moment. I'm talking about every moment. Even if you're waiting for a bus, waiting for a plane, take a moment to appreciate the fact that you have the privilege to travel. You have the privilege to be waiting for this plane, where you're in the position right now where you can do things like this. Even me right now. Recording this podcast is good to have a moment in my mind that says, hey, this is actually pretty great. I get to share what I've learned along the way in the last 20 years of business. I have a project that allows me to be creative and I could do something useful with what I've experienced in my life. I get to be useful to others by sharing this knowledge, by prescribing meaning and really taking a moment to be grateful. It allows you to enjoy your life more. I forgot where I heard this, but I heard the thief of joy is always looking into the future and. And into the past, but never the present. Meaning a lot of us were always thinking about, what's the next thing? What are we gonna do tomorrow? We're gonna do next week, next month. What about our holiday? We have planned in six months and we're not really enjoying right now. Life is now. And if you enjoy every moment and you appreciate it, it has more meaning, it has more of an experience for you, and therefore life feels longer now. In the book, Seneca also criticizes the pursuit of wealth and fame and sees them as empty endeavors. Listen, we all have to earn money. We have to eat, we have to feed our families. We need to put a roof over our head. We want to have a comfortable lifestyle so that we can be creative and we can create great work. No question about it. But this is the reality about making money. When you are going after something and you're trying to make money just to make money, just for wealth's sake, it's very hard to create the kind of work that gets you that money. Isn't that funny? The focus can't be just making money. The focus has to be creating something of value. And when you do that, the money does come. Same thing with fame. Think about the people that you admire that might be wealthy or famous, whether they're entrepreneurs, whether they're rock stars or musicians, whether they're actors, performers, athletes. The reason why they're wealthy and famous is because they worked on their craft. It's because what they produce is remarkable. They didn't go after the money and therefore become good at their craft. They got good at what they do and what they produce, and therefore the money followed. Another huge takeaway from the book, and one of my favorites, is the idea of focusing on self improvement and personal development. This will enrich your life. I'm a big believer that if you're learning and growing, life has a whole new meaning. If you're always improving, if you're looking back at yourself and saying, man, I totally reinvented myself. I'm a totally different person than I was 10 years ago. That's a good feeling. That means that you are upgrading yourself constantly. This keeps things exciting. This keeps things amazing in your life. And you should never stop learning. You should be a lifelong learner. And don't be afraid to be a beginner at something again. For example, for the longest time, I want to learn how to play the piano. I'm an absolute beginner. I'm learning how to play the piano slowly. I'm rubbish, right? But I have to accept the fact that I have to be bad at the beginning if I want to get good. At some point, I. I have to start somewhere. And it's okay to be a beginner at something. I was a beginner at everything I'm good at right now, at some point, whether it's basketball or snowboarding or business, right? I was an absolute rookie. I made all the mistakes. I fell on my face, figuratively and physically, when it came to snowboarding. But that's actually what makes life worth living, is achievement is personal. Achievement is saying to yourself, I can become better. I can change. And through that change, you have experiences. You go on a journey, an adventure. It's fun. Getting out of your comfort zone and growing is one of the best things you could do to make your life be full and long. And, of course, enjoyable. Hey, Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month? With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this? Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? You will find them where you left them.

Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC Member nyse, SIPC.

Flowers die in three days. Matching underwear for Meundies. That's a gift that lasts. Meundies creates matching prints for couples and friends. Same adorable designs in different cuts for each of you. All made from their signature ultra modal fabric that feels incredibly soft with 90,000 five star reviews. MeUndies matching prints are the perfect gift. Valentine's Day is February 14th, so don't wait. Get exclusive deals up to 50% off@meundies.com SXM code sxm that's meundies.com sxm code sxm.

The next takeaway I want to share with you is really profound. And it had me thinking for literally hours after I read it. And it's the idea that a life well spent is one filled with virtue, wisdom, and meaningful experiences. This means how you spend your time is critical. Who do you spend your time with, the parties you go to, how you spend your weekend, how you spend your evenings, your free time, your travels, your leisure? All that matters. Are these meaningful experiences or are they just a good time, a way to spend the day? Are you excited? Are you looking forward to these experiences or are they just things you do? Listen, part of growing and changing is. Is also changing the people that are around you, changing the things you do, changing the way you spend your time. Because at the end of the day and at the end of our life, we only have a limited time. I'm 43. That means I have roughly and who knows when I'll die, But I have roughly 2,000 weekends left this next weekend. How I spend it matters because it's a limited time. Am I consciously trying to create meaningful experiences? Am I consciously thinking about what's the best way to spend this weekend that will create meaningful memories, things that I'll never forget, that I can relive into my mind? Or is it just going through the motions? I know that we live busy lives. I know that we got a lot of responsibilities and we have a lot of things to do, and we gotta do the shopping, gotta do the cleaning, we gotta take care of our families. But how can you incorporate meaningful experiences throughout those duties? If I'm going grocery shopping, why not pop in a great book in my ears and get some new ideas and have a new experience as I'm going through the aisles? If I'm folding laundry, why don't I do it in front of a documentary that's going to allow me to learn a little bit more about the country I'm about to visit so that I have a more of an enriching experience when I get there? Let's infuse meaning in every experience in this book. He also touches on a big problem. A lot of people experience. They procrastinate and delay their pursuit of a purposeful life. They know they want to do something big. They know they want to do something meaningful, but they just kind of put it off. And in this situation, time is not on your side. You need to take action. If you want to do something in life, just start doing it. And if you don't start doing it, maybe you need to question how much do you really want to do this? Maybe you actually don't care about this because obviously you're not taking any action. Maybe it's not that important to you. Maybe it's just an idea in your head and you're kind of living a dream in your mind. But if it is important to you and you do want to see it become a reality, then take any step forward. Even the smallest step. Micro step. You want to start a business? Buy the domain name this weekend, start crafting your minimal viable product. Spin up a new website. Do something to move forward. Overall, Seneca's work in this book on the shortness of life is timeless. It's wisdom you can't live without. It's actually really, really amazing that the things he's recommending to us applied in his time well over 2,000 years ago and in our time today in our modern world with all our distractions and all our gadgets and all our innovations and all our smarts, we still haven't figured out the basics. I highly, highly recommend you pick up this small but significantly important book on the shortness of life by Seneca. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, make sure you hit subscribe or follow. It's the best way to support the show. By following the show, you get our next episodes automatically, but also you tell the algorithm, hey, this show's pretty good and you can do this on whatever podcast player you like to use, whether it's Spotify or Apple Podcasts Overcast, it doesn't really matter. Just hit follow right now. Thank you in advance for doing that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I picked up this book in a random pop up bookshop that was displayed at a conference, south by Southwest. It's a paperback book published by Penguin Books. You can get this on Kindle and I'm sure there's an audio version as well. But this is one of those books that I probably would not pick up just randomly on Amazon digitally because it was in front of me and it was in physical form. I was reminded of the Stoics and their great work and I was like, okay, I'm going to pick up this book. I've heard some great things about it. Let's check it out. If you have a free hour or two this weekend at the end of your day, at any time, just pop into a bookstore and just take a browse. Give yourself a little bit of a budget, 30, 40 bucks. Pick up a couple books. Maybe pick up something that you normally don't read. For example, for me, I don't normally read fiction novels. Maybe the next time I pop into a book I pick up something different and I pick up a novel. Yeah, maybe it won't directly impact my business, but not everything has to improve my business. I can improve myself. I can have a new experience, get a new perspective. Throw yourself a curveball sometimes. It keeps you on your toes and allows you to be well rounded and well read. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Wednesday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. If you, your parent or spouse served in the military, you could join our family. Our members saved an average of $70 a month on auto insurance when they switched. Tap the banner or visit usaa.com join today to check your eligibility restrictions.

Apply.