Crush It by Jaime Verd

Jaime is a great friend of mine. He is someone that I’ve been able to have great insightful conversations with and learn a lot from. After he shared that he was working on this book, I was excited!! I was rooting for him as always. He first sent me the original version that he wrote — in Spanish. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Spanish is his first language. I was able to read through parts of it but did not get the same understanding that I did when I purchased the English version. Jaime is someone who’s been in my corner since I met him, he’s always been my guy — but I’ll get to that.

The unconscious decision to settle. There is more attention than ever on our personal lives and on the things that we do within our lives. People often feel forced to accept their circumstances… why? It’s easier right? It’s easier to mute ambition and eliminate the risk of failure and convince yourself that the stagnance you’re experiencing is the success you’ve always desired.

Pg. 4, There are more opportunities than ever though there does not seem to be a corresponding number of successful and happy individuals. This could be explained by the unconscious decision to settle. Ambition has been buried in a place where its voice can no longer be heard.

I loved this part of the book and the four values that Jaime centered the book around. When he first set this goal, we actually had a conversation about it as I was looking to do something similar. Now, 2 years later, we’ve both grown dramatically and have done different things, probably things we never expected. The four values that Jaime emphasizes and expands upon are surely some of the most important principles for success.

Pg. 10, It has always fascinated me to read, and when I heard the stat that the CEOs of the most successful companies read an average of 60 books a year, I set the goal of reading twice as much: 120. Who wants to be only average? I found a way to speed up the process, listening to some of the books in Audible. I CRUSHED my goal. I realized that there were quite a few values in common between these books.

These 4 values summarize some of their essential principles:

1. Purpose over what we do

2. Perspective over the circumstances

3. Collective Success over individual success

4. Courage over fear

Amen. Redefine success and let’s once again define it in the way that God has intended.

Pg. 17, But what is our definition of success? Fame and money? It can’t be, there are people who have both and are bitter. It is time to change our way of thinking, it is time to Crush this paradigm imposed by our society.

“You don’t believe what you see, you see what you already believe.” — Brian Tracy

Pg. 25,

“It’s not what you’re looking at that matters, it’s what you see.” — Henry David Thoreau

This was the best chapter of the whole book for me, I was aligned with every single aspect of it and loved the quotes that were part of the chapter also.

Pg. 33, Chapter 3, Collective Success Over Individual Success

Isn’t it so easy? Trust but verify, trust but verify, trust but verify, but ALWAYS love first, trust first, give first. Period.

Pg. 40,

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” — Ernest Hemingway

Love this, and I know that this is more than just a quote for Jaime, it’s a mindset, a whole perspective, and a way of living. The happiest people focus on changing only on the 10% that they control and react to the 90% that is uncontrollable.

Pg. 55,

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” — Randy Pausch

Activity is misleading and as Jaime says, is much like a hamster wheel. It’s not about having a full calendar, it’s about moving towards our objectives and goals. We can work all we want, but if Jaime read 120 books focused on cooking… I don’t think he would have the same four principles that he wrote this book about.

Pg. 60, And here is the most dangerous type of procrastination: staying busy. And I say that it is the most dangerous, because it gives the illusion of progress, but it is only stationary movement. More like a hamster wheel, which goes very fast nowhere.

How many people do you know that live in fear? Are you one of them? I hope not. Act. Here’s what I like to live by:

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” — Saint Augustine

Pg. 62,

“The biggest mistake you can make in life is to fear continuously that you make one.” — Elbert Hubbard

This is what separates the people who we view as ultra-successful in this world from those that we do not view as successful. We all fail. The people who have experienced and continue an incredible level of success, don’t you think that they have failed too? Probably much more than you or I. But the differentiator is that they continue to push forward enthusiastically.

Pg. 64,

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill