Success

The Greatest Hidden Secret of The Mind

“Have you read Think and Grow Rich?” he asked.

“That’s a reason I’m still pissed at my parents and teachers,” he said.

Laughing out loud I asked what he meant.

“When I discovered that book,” he told me “it changed my life so much that I was frustrated nobody had told me to read it sooner.”

“It’s not their fault,” I responded to this fellow I had met at a book signing, “the secret of the mind is hidden from most of us.”

No-One “Needs” Personal Development

But we all should want it.

I didn’t “need” to read Think and Grow Rich, any self-help books, any blog, or listen to any so-called experts to elevate my life from working in factories to Goldman Sachs.

“Success” was easy for me, merely a matter of working 80+ hour workweeks in high school and university.

I’m blessed with a good memory for ROTE learning and the will to work 7 days a week forever.

But that’s hardly a worthy secret of success.

Sure, this approach got me to Goldman Sachs, yet only a few years later asking myself “What am I doing with my life?” I wanted far better answers.

The paradigms for success that our society promotes—e.g. hard work, sacrifice—are down-right painful and mostly miserable!

When anyone who explores development quickly finds better ways.

The Hidden Power Of The Mind

“Indeed thoughts are things,” is how Napoleon Hill opens his book.

The best-selling self-help book in history with over 100 million copies sold is cited, quoted, and ripped off by many so-called experts.

Although it’s implied in the title, the book isn’t about making money.

But about creating a rich life through unlocking the secret of the mind.

This hidden secret of the mind might be the greatest secret of this game of life…

And those of us who are “pro gamers” spend our lives hunting the keys.

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Take This To The Next Level

What’s more human than progress?

No matter how far we’ve come, there’s something inside that keeps us striving to the next level.

What is this for you?

What does it take for you reach it?

What do you need when you get there?

A Hard Thing…

About reaching the next level is that, by definition, it requires something beyond this level.

Whether it’s taking your career/business to another level, getting in better shape, getting more skilled, or any other goal requires something beyond where we are now.

In gaming, leveling up requires navigating your current level, collecting keys, earning points, overcoming an ordeal, whatever it is demands you collect what you need before ascending.

This test determines if you’re qualified to pass, and also ensures you have what you need to succeed at a higher level.

When a hike turns into technical climb it’s too late to turn around and go get your rope.

To pass to the next level you must be ready when you arrive.

Acting As-If, We Fail

In our careers it’s natural to think we get promoted when we’re successful, but in fact we get promoted to test if we can succeed at a higher level.

An NFL player doesn’t succeed by playing college ball.

We can be fooled into chicken and egg thinking that when we make it to the next level we’ll step up our game, but by definition we step up to be here.

This isn’t only having the capabilities we need to succeed, but also the self-image.

As was perhaps best put by Maxwell Maltz some 70 years ago, we only achieve goals that are consistent with who we perceive ourselves to be.

And to reach the next level we must not only become this person, we must be them now.

Acting as if, we fail.

Daniel Craig does a nice job acting as a cold killer, but you’d hardly want him covering your six in a gunfight.

To reach that next level, we can’t fake it till we make it, we must make it now to take it there.

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Losers Keep Doing What You’re Doing

The next best feedback you can ever give someone is, Keep doing what you’re doing.

Even if they’re doing a terrible job, you’ll avoid conflict and also ensure they won’t get so good that they outshine you.

Although some people pretend to want honest feedback, you know nobody wants to hear the truth, let alone improve, so just get their tail wagging with a pat on the head and keep doing what you’re doing.

Just like in school, a couple check marks and not getting held back each year is all any human ever wants, why encourage anyone to get better?

Improving Leads To Failure

Improving is for people who can’t work hard enough to keep doing what they’re doing.

Like Rafael Nadal, of course it’s true that people who keep getting better tend to win more, but they also only keep getting promoted to the point where other people fail.

The Peter Principle demands that you must be good enough to keep getting promoted, but not so good that you actually excel.

As one of my favorite book titles states, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, and keep doing what you’re doing is the surest way to avoid succeeding to ultimately fail.

Head Down Hit It Hard

It’s scary to drive and you’re much better off just keeping your head down.

Maybe you could avoid that wall you’ll eventually hit, but with your head down driving hard you might even punch through concrete.

Some people say, pick your head up, set goals.

What the hell do they know? Once you’ve set goals, now you’re on the hook, you likely have to get better, and that will only lead you to fail more successfully anyways.

As I wrote here, no good loser wins that way. Who cares where you’re headed…

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I Feel So Sorry For Warren Buffett

“So, what, I buy another car, or house, or plane, then what?” He asked me.

“That’s exactly my point,” I responded.

“It’s lame isn’t it…”

Boooooring…

Still too often I hear seemingly ambitious types talking like rap stars about the G650 that they so desperately wish to own.

Of course few will ever make “yacht money,” and some who do will end up just as unfulfilled as the others.

I’m never surprised when I hear about another billionaire who’s all messed up, with their drink or trophies or insecurities or stupid money being thrown around on this or that.

When you can buy whatever you want, where’s the excitement in getting that new thing?

In the dripping in oil rich Arab countries where you’re “bored” into money you see the extreme desperation of the rich.

Prominent license plates cost more than the custom Ferraris and Lambos they’re pasted on—this sad man paid $14.3mm for his #1 license plate—because bored people “spend” their lives playing status games.

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I Was Wrong. This Isn’t Nike

I didn’t like the feeling I left from that newsletter last week.

In being so “right,” I was being so wrong.

I was disappointed that the two readers weren’t getting what they want and I failed to take responsibility.

Instead of pointing to the articles that I have put out to be helpful, I failed to see where my approach was letting them down.

Reflecting on this got me thinking radically different.

Dalio Helped

I read Ray Dalio’s book Principles last week, and it helped me dive deeper into some of these things.

His brutal honesty and good hearted intent, the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, comes across well in his writing, which got me thinking more about mine.

But most of all what I got from Ray was a continuous drumming of the importance of radical truth.

Through this lens I saw in that newsletter I was putting their lack of action onto them, when I first must put it onto me.

I Failed

If someone I know hasn’t taken the right action, then I have failed to do what I can for them.

If people are reading these newsletters for years and still not doing them, then I’m obviously failing to reach the right people or failing to deliver people what they need.

I don’t write because being a self-help expert is cool… but to share ideas that are actually helpful to people, yet I failed to see where I wasn’t helping.

The same is true with the other emailer I wrote about.

If she’s taking the time to write and tell me that my work sucks, then it does for her…

It was wrong of me to make her wrong, when I should be asking what I can do more right.

I’m Not Nike

Instead of learning the lesson and really thinking about what I must do better to serve people, I responded like a Nike slogan…

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New Year’s Resolutions Are Stupid. Set Goals.

What Do I Want

Note: To add to this article, I just recorded this video on 5 ways to turn stupid New Year’s Resolutions into powerful goals.

People keep baiting me on the topic of New Year’s resolutions.

Perhaps because I’ve called them stupid in the past, they think I have a negative view of such resolutions…

But that’s not true—I’m fired up about any catalyst that gets people to change.

It’s not New Year’s resolutions that are stupid, only how people pretend to use them!

Phony Goals

Like a political speech, people so proudly announce their New Year’s resolutions—

I hereby proclaim that starting on January 1 (but no sooner), I will stop watching cat videos on Fakebook and go to the gym at least 6 times a day.

And just like a parent applauding their 7-year-old’s school play, we‘re expected to celebrate their “achievement” in making such a resolution.

Good on you, Timmy!

Let’s hope you’re not in the 80% of people who give up on their resolutions by the second week in February…

New Year’s “Aspirations”

Nearly all resolutions fail because they were only aspirations to begin with.

Every day of the year you can make a new resolution, but repeating it to yourself and others doesn’t make it a goal.

An aspiration is to Get In Great Shape This Year. A goal is to specifically define how you are eating better and exercising consistently.

Resolutions become goals when they are backed by action, and that’s where, by definition, most resolutions are destined to fail.

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