There are signs on my walls and desk.
Most of them are now covert.
Hieroglyphs.
A hidden language to anyone who doesn’t know the signs.
And then there are far more overt signs.
Ones that you can never avoid reading.
Each page is just one letter.
Helvetica, 600 font, yellow bold with black highlighting like the “F” you see on this page.
They are taped together all Gucci-like around the base of my desk—
M
O
R
F
O
C
U
S
Yes, without “E,” for efficiency.
Do you know that Mars is only 9 months away?
That’s how little space there is between here and there.
Learning this blew my mind on the whole space travel thing.
It seems foolish now, but before my brain had thought of distant space travel like cryo chambers, light-years of sleep, robot pilots, and so on.
But only 9 months at regular human speed?
What’s the big deal?
Obviously, the whole thing is a big deal.
Just escaping gravity of this planet is a BIG deal.
In every way, every thing about colonizing Mars is a “difficult problem,” as Elon Musk might say.
Yet, still, listen to Musk talk about it, even just a few clips on this page, and it seems no big deal.
Watching Elon you can be convinced that so long as he keeps working at it he’ll reach Mars.
Whether it happens soon enough is the real question?
That’s why you see them building rockets around the clock.
Musk knows he now has this solved so they’re iterating as quickly as possible.
We all limit ourselves.
Cap our potential.
It’s safe.
Comfortable.
We all get that with little risk there is little reward.
Yet, still, we often take too little risk to achieve what you TRULY want.
I used to be this way.
It’s one thing training this program on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos did for me.
It helped me put all my cards on the table.
To risk it ALL, rather than looking back having not.
You must be measured in your risk taking, of course.
But also you must stop your dreams being murdered by your false perception of risk.
And here’s the thing.
Just one small change in how you perceive risk can make ALL the difference.
e.g. Is it more risky to build rockets that blow up?
Or to remain a single-planet species waiting for an eventual extinction-level event?
Hmm.
Here’s 28 quotes from Principle 6. Take [Unreasonable] Risk from this trillion dollar program on rocketing to the top like Musk and Bezos.
1. “If you want to have more invention, you need to do more experiments, per week, per month, per year, per decade. It’s that simple. You cannot invent without experimenting. And here’s the other thing about experiments. Lots of them fail. If you know it’s going to work in advance, it is not an experiment. ” — Jeff Bezos
2. “Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared.” — Elon Musk
3. “I had one of the most difficult choices I have ever faced in life was in 2008. And I think I had maybe $30 or $40 million left in 2008, I had two choices. I could put it all into one company and then the other company would definitely die or split it between the two companies. But if I split it up between two companies, they both might die.” — Elon Musk
He gifted a classic book that sits on the shelf next to me.
It’s a reminder of what matters most right now.
Also, it’s how I see him.
Hardcore, highest standards, disciplined, focused, getting things done.
Decades ago he helped train me in some of these things and the book reminds me that you can always train more.
The title?
Published in 1905 it might as well be written today.
Arguably this topic matters even more now as it did back then because your brain is the same, and you’ve got WAY more distraction.
Ultimately, this book is about THE most important life skill that I’ve written about plenty.
It’s the concept I wrote about here as the definition of insanity.
Here we went deep in this monster article on how simple this can be but why most people will never do it.
You see it here on Mike Tyson’s unstoppable programming.
It’s what my book for Building Your Limitless Mind is about and my System for Ultimate Days too.
I decoded it behind the winning methods of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
You see it over and over with top business athletes like Ray Dalio and Warren Buffett.
And top sports athletes like Muhammed Ali and Tom Brady.
It’s not JUST this thing we call will-power.
But the WILL AND SKILL to think how you want, feel how you want, and take the actions you choose.
Close friends had Wu-Tang Clan perform at their wedding.
50 Cent and Busta Rhymes too.
Hahahahaha, ridiculous.
You can’t make this stuff up.
They crushed it and then we had a magical time hanging out all night in the suite.
You might know Wu-Tang has a track called “Above the Clouds.”
I’ll always remember the energy of Inspectah Deck standing next to me pumping the opening verse—
I-Self-Lord-And-Master shall bring disaster to evil factors
Demonic chapters shall be captured by Kings
Through the storms of days after
Unto the Earth from the Sun through triple darkness to blast ya
With a force that can’t be compared
To any firepower, for it’s mind power shared.
A client joked that the definition of insanity is repeating that quote falsely attributed to Einstein expecting to get a laugh.
Hahahaha.
That’s the quote, isn’t it?
Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
If that’s insanity, welcome to the mad house.
I struggle to talk about the state of the world.
It’s like we’ve been locked in our homes for years and now we’re in another war, and most people seem to talk about it like this is “normal.”
Constantly in wars, conflict, tyranny, famine, poverty, scarcity, inequality, violence, bouncing from one crisis to another?
Is this how it’s meant to be?
Some people suggest that it is.
Our social programming is that over time we expect the world to get better, more sane, more equal, more free, more rich, more happy, etc.
The fact that we’re constantly in crisis is brushed off as the trials and tribulations of an evolving species.
But perhaps the definition of insanity is failing to see that our world is EXACTLY how it’s engineered to be.
I’m wary of writing this.
There’s nothing I despise more than violence and I seek to be a pacifist.
But I keep getting asked about guns and I feel it’s important to share some of my perspective.
Yes, it is a more lawless time and you might feel you want to protect yourself and your family better.
Sadly, I know many people in California who I was once afraid to even tell that I shoot, who now feel unsafe and are arming themselves.
It is absolutely true that a firearm can be an excellent way to protect you and your family.
But there’s a few things I always point out to people that I feel is important to share.
All I know about firearms I’ve learned from years of training with Navy SEALs, as I wrote about here.
Back when I first started shooting I had no idea what I was getting into.
Like perhaps many people I thought of rigidly standing on a line, looking down the sights and trying your best to accurately put a hole in a paper target.
This is of course a crucial part of training to shoot safely and accurately.
But it’s the least relevant part of protecting yourself and your family with a firearm.
It’s like standing rigidly at the free throw line in basketball sinking hoops.
The real craft of basketball is everything that you do on the court, and the same is true with gunfighting.
Life is like looking out the window.
From inside you can see what’s going on out there.
But you don’t live ‘out there.’
The eyes merely show you what’s outside of you.
You live inside.
A client said to me this week.
In all truth, I learn as much from clients as they learn from me.
We’re all lucky that way; a ‘collective of hidden knowledge’ one says.
His point is that life is a mental game.
It’s like the phrase you learn as a kid—
Sticks and stones can break your bones but names can never hurt me.
What’s happening out there only becomes YOUR life when you let it inside.
There’s many layers to what I do.
And more and more I’ll be sharing with you these truths.
I know that many people don’t want to hear some truths.
That used to hold me back.
It’s safer for me to STFU and avoid the tragedy.
But these days the stakes are WAY too high.
More of what?
Basically, everything.
But perhaps more than everything we need more people who know how to get things done, getting IMPORTANT things done.
In Trump I saw a disruptive, transformational leader who knows how to win.
Whether you like him or not—I never have—over decades in business he’s a proven winner.
And the book I wrote was how he stood up and thrashed 16 proven Republican, um, not-winners.
You know that getting better is a key to success.
It may be THE key to extraordinary success.
Certainly continuously improving is key to every facet of winning and life.
The theory of evolution that got us from crawling to walking works this way.
Every winning athlete is nonstop getting better.
Extraordinary competitors in careers and business win the same way.
For you personally?
In your career or business?
Do you see getting better is key to your winning?
How clear are you on what it means to be getting better?
And what about this question we’re heading into—
Are you improving RAPIDLY enough?
“Chinese brain control warfare work revealed.”
This was a “revealing” headline from a couple weeks ago.
It can get you to think that brain control warfare is new when it might be the oldest form.
“Psyops” or psychological operations are central to winning every war, and even influencing civilian populations in peacetime.
You don’t often hear about these programs but even the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported an unsanctioned psyop the Canadian military ran to influence the public during Covid. (Here’s Vice explaining why it was in the public interest)
Controlling minds wins peace and war.
You might know that Sun Tzu wrote perhaps the definitive book on warfare, The Art of War.
Written around the 5th century BC it’s still lauded, Chinese leaders still use it as a playbook, and even with special forces here I’ve talked A LOT about some of the most important principles.
One is—All warfare is based on deception.
As Sun Tzu wrote, “Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive.”
Another dominant principle is, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
This is the ultimate goal of psyops, as this book Mindwar details.
I don’t really think we’re headed into the Roaring 22s.
To me there are more red lights out there than green.
Another variant.
Continued lockdowns.
Dysfunctional social narratives.
Reckless money printing and delusional crowds.
Gutted economies, businesses, lives.
More warmongering.
Lucky I’m color blind.
You might know this quote I’ve shared before from Albert Schweitzer—
“An optimist sees a green light everywhere… while the pessimist sees only the red light… but the truly wise person is color blind.”
I am medically color blind, although I’d never claim wise.
I’m more like a racecar driver looking for green lights because I’m built to drive.
I’ve always been that idiot sitting at the lights looking left to right ready to roar off the line.
And then just keep driving, fast.
How you doing?
How are you feeling about the new year?
Would you say you’re fired up or is there another energy you’re “projecting” into the year?
Obviously now is a time when fired up isn’t the dominant feeling for most people.
But it’s crucial to see you can at least choose.
I politely walked away after he said that.
It was a holiday party when this older fellow started talking to me about the miserable things that happened this year.
Most the time I help people out of their miserable minds but in this case I chose to protect my own.
It can take tremendous effort to avoid being overcome by the stench of manure when you’re visiting a farm, and the same is true with people bathing in miserable energy.
Walking over to a buddy just 10 feet away was like stepping inside a greenhouse.
It was sunny and warm, he’s happy, excited, talking about how hard the year was but how much he, his team, and his family made the most of it, and are fired up for next year.
Apparently 50% of people rank this year as their worst ever.
What about the other 50%?
It really is a tale of two worlds right now, isn’t it?
While many people are struggling from the effects of the virus and lockdowns, some people are absolutely crushing it.
It reminds you that things are never all good or all bad.
Keep in mind…
On Christmas Eve 2008 Elon Musk’s businesses were nearly bankrupt.
Personally he still had some $30 million and of course a bevy of rich friends who could help him out.
But that was the small part of Elon’s problem.
The big problem was that his two babies, Tesla and SpaceX, these two world-changing missions that Elon had committed his life to, would imminently be taken off life support.
That’s the way Elon talks about his businesses—personally.
He describes them like babies and was forced to ask questions like, “Which one am I going to let starve to death?”
You hear this question plenty and different opinions on it.
But I bet you haven’t heard the TRUTH I’m sharing with you here.
On this day of the premiere of The Matrix Resurrections I’m revealing to you the most important truth that I’ve discovered over nearly 22 years researching this topic.
When you fully grok this knowledge, everything in your life transforms, FAST.
Because until you REALLY get this you’ll never be free.
You’ll never be free to think and feel how you want, nor take the actions you decide, at will.
How many people are?
How many people think and feel how they want just by choosing it?
How many people can get themselves to do the things they want, especially when they DON’T “want” to do them?
Said differently, are you in control of your mind and actions?
Or are you being controlled?
That’s a quote from Elon Musk.
It’s a pretty agreeable idea, isn’t it?
Few of us would deliberately seek to take the set of actions that are most likely to make the future worse.
Yet that doesn’t mean we’re always taking the best set of actions that will make the future better, does it?
Elon Musk seeks to.
And it’s what he says next that’s just as important.
This clip is from Principle 9. EXTREME bias for action that I decoded from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos—
You see this theme everywhere in Jeff and Elon’s businesses.
Whereas many people and companies get stuck overthinking things, Jeff and Elon are constantly seeking to remove the friction, and drive the set of actions that keeps them RAPIDLY moving forward.
In this clip from Elon you see the above quote and 2 more clips with the same structure such as this one—
“It’s important for us to take the set of actions that are most likely to continue consciousness into the future.” (one of my dominant drivers too)
As I talk about after Elon, you consistently see this theme from him.
He’s going after difficult goals that he DOESN’T know how to achieve.
So he’s constantly seeking the best set of actions that are most likely to create the better future he wants.
How comfortable are you with failure?
Would you say it’s something that you embrace or intentionally pursue?
Have you failed much?
Or perhaps a way Jeff Bezos might ask is—
Are you failing ENOUGH to succeed?
You know the phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again?”
It’s a powerful way of thinking about failure because it emphasizes persistence like this quote from Elon Musk—
The first launch I was picking up bits of rocket near the launch site, which was a bit sad, but we learned with each successive flight. And we were able to eventually with the fourth flight in 2008 reach orbit, and that was also with the last bit of money that we had.
This notion to “try and try again” is exemplified by the common example of Thomas Edison’s 10,000 experiments to invent the light bulb.
It’s a “resourceful” way of thinking about failure but what I saw from Jeff Bezos was FAR MORE valuable to me.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4…
Oops, that’s where we got stalled on the launchpad with this program on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Now we’re at 3, 2…
We’re still not yet at 1.
And we won’t yet be sharing this program more broadly.
But I do want to share it with you.