Welcome back to the 1st Law Newsletter - Friday Edition.

In this email:

• Pressure is a privilege & privilege is pressure

• Picking good books

• Quote by Voltaire

Pressure is a privilege & privilege is pressure

Feeling pressure means you have expectations. It means you are good, if not great, and you know it. The fact that you should win and that people expect you to win makes you feel this pressure. It is a good thing. It may be stressful since people are counting on you and watching you, but it’s better than the alternative—being somebody who no one expects anything from.

Similarly, growing up privileged (having opportunities/ not having want), puts pressure on you to attain some measurable level of success. The expectation has been baked into your upbringing. You had the head start, you had all the aids that you could have asked for. All you had to do was reach out and grab it. This is a difficult spot to be in, and we often see the children of very successful people struggling to measure up to their parents. For some, this pressure is too much to bear, especially as it builds through their childhood, into their teens, and adulthood.

Picking good books

Picking books is sooo important. Once I have started a good book, it is impossible to put it down or do anything else with my spare time besides read. I power through good books like nothing else.

My goal for 2024 was to read 52 books. I may get there I may not. I’m currently at 31. For 2025, I will not set the same goal. I now think having a set amount of books to read is sub-optimal because I often found myself trudging through books that weren’t that good, just because I needed completion numbers to reach my goal. These books should get abandoned when I realize they’re not great. Also, it encouraged reading fast, which is a good skill, but is not the right approach, in my opinion, when reading a great book. The goal for next year will be to find 10 books worth rereading. This year I have found 9 books worth re-reading. The list is below:

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

A Mans Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

Creative Mind and Success by Ernest Holmes

Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

I will also re-read each of these books next year, along with my goal of finding an additional 10 books to add to this list.

Quote I Want To Share

Think for yourself, question everything, and form your own opinions. Break free from the conditioning and regain your independence.

Thanks for reading!

Lucas