Every step’s rough summary in one place

You can use the summary to remind yourself what was in the step… it seems most of you forget by the time comes to write a review.

the summaries were made by a student, and they only write about what they actually heard. The goal is not to just get through, the goal is to see/hear as much as you can… Whatever you didn’t see, didn’t hear will make no difference to you.

You have a tendency to only hear what you have already heard. Endeavor to hear more!

STEP 1 – THE BILLIONAIRE’S BRAIN & JENNIFER LOPEZ’S VOICE

Are the people you’re listening to worth a damn?

Most people in life are victims of their own making, they focus on the lottery approach (they hope and think tomorrow will be better without actually taking action) To lose 20 lbs you have to deserve to lose 20 lbs (for example by following a strict diet, exercising daily etc.) Be aware of your surroundings, become more observant. There are 3 types of people in the world:

• People who watch things happen
• People who make things happen
• People who wonder what happened

Everything (progression) starts with awareness.

• Take inventory of your body, what’s its current condition?
• Take inventory of your bank account
• Take inventory of your relationships

Money is a sign of reciprocal altruism – the most value you create and the more people you impact the more you’ll get.

Surgeons create more value then cashiers at McDonald’s.

The world is far more fair than the media portrays to you. You put in the work, you get the results (people who deserve more get more).

Bill Gates worked non-stop for 20 years (!) – he earned the success he received… he didn’t get lucky with a lottery ticket.

You’re only competing against yourself, not others.

Jennifer Lopez… not just a singer!

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STEP 2 – BLUE-FOOTED BOOBY BIRDS, ESS, & THE 500 YEAR OLD MIND

Change is the basic law of nature.

It’s not the most intellectual or the strongest that survives, its the one that is best able to adapt.

You must be able to adapt and change (this is the key to success, IQ isn’t everything).

Strength as IQ are pushed as the key to success… IQ doesn’t take adaptability into account.

Species adapt over years and years, you only have ONE life – therefore you need to be able to adapt quickly (we’re programmed to not change, it’s in our hardwiring).

We have been taught to see everything in black and white (success/failure).

Don’t see a shortcoming as a failure, it is merely an experiment on the path of success.

“I make more mistakes than anyone and I end up patenting them” – Thomas Edison

Failure moves you closer towards your goal – The Edison Mindset.

With each ‘failure’ you change things again and again until you succeed – you’re adapting your way to success.

In business adaptation is key – successful businesses will fail if they remain in black and white and do not change and adapt with the times.

Evolutionary Stable Strategies (ESS)

Cut mutually beneficial deals, instead of focusing on black and white e.g. your business partner not working the exact same hours and days as you (when you’re 50-50 partners) cut a deal – make a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Businesses, marriages, your body….cut deals (ESS) in all areas to continue to adapt and grow for the long term (look to the future).

Don’t over-adapt (unnecessary adaptation).

You will become unstable during the adaptation phase

You must show courage and exert toughness while you adapt – be it ending a bad relationship or cutting ties with a business or business partner.

You do not have time to waste in a paralyzed state (knowing the situation is wrong yet not adapting).

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STEP 3 – SAM WALTON’S NIGHT IN A BRAZILIAN JAIL, STEALING FROM MCDONALD’S & MICHAEL JORDAN’S HUMILITY

Without humility you’re not going to get very far in life, all massively successful individuals practice humility – believe it or not.

We can learn from everyone (although from a lot of people we’ll learn what NOT to do).

You must adopt the ‘Robin Hood Mentality’ and seek out that one golden piece of information everyone has and add it to your repertoire.

The humility we’re accustomed to is outward humility. This is the “Oh, I’m okay at _____ but I’m not great, you’re much better“. This is merely telling people that you’re humble (whether you actually are or not).

Secondly is the inward humility, this is the constant search for knowledge – the reading books, the tracking down mentors and the constant repetition and application of new skills and knowledge.

People who are outwardly humble are often not inwardly humble and vice versa.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan was extremely cocky on the basketball court, loudly proclaiming he was the best basketball player in the world while telling his opponents on the court he’s going to annihilate them. He did not display outward humility.

Jordan was, on the other hand extremely inwardly humble, constantly seeking knowledge, advice and criticism from the people who mattered – his coaches.

Sam Walton

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart was a learning machine. He’d spend more time in his competitors’ store trying to figure out advantages, tactics and techniques that they were using that he didn’t know of than in his own stores. He ended up in a Brazilian jail for crawling around on the floors in a competitor’s store to measure the width of their aisles!

A billionaire crawling around on the floor in a competitors store on a constant hunt for knowledge is extreme humility… he did not claim to know it all even though when it came to discount retailing he must have been damn close.

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STEP 4 – PICASSO’S RISING TIDE and THE LAW OF 33%

There’s no such thing as the perfect person (or mentor!) seek multiple mentors – masters in their chosen fields (you wouldn’t go to your business mentor for weight loss advice would you? Get a health mentor too!)

Don’t try and start from scratch – it takes too long, you’ll spend far too much time fixing mistakes and figuring out things that many that have walked before you already made.

Instead opt to “stand on the shoulders of giants” – learn through mentors both in person and through their books (Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com learned extensively from Sam Walton’s book ‘Made in America’ as Sam Walton had already passed away).

Divide your time evenly among 3 different groups of people:

• Spend 33% of your time with people below you (students)

You’ll boost your self esteem, you’ll get a chance to help others and you’ll find out just how well you understand the things you know (as teaching is the ultimate form of understanding a subject).

• Spend 33% of your time with people on the same level as you (comrades)

Help each other, work together and motivate each other – those on the same level as you will become your close friends.

• Spend 33% of your time with people above you (mentors)

Your mentors should be 10 – 20 years ahead of you and have achieved that in which you’re chasing.
Mentors aren’t always great teachers because they themselves are deep in the trenches too – therefore it’s your job to learn from observation (they may not be the best speaker so learn from their actions, their tonality, their movements… focus on everything).

You, at max, will learn % what your mentor knows to do.

Don’t be a leach, provide RECIPROCAL value

A mentor should not only be feeding you valuable knowledge and lessons without reciprocation.
Help them, give them praise and gifts as you see fit.

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STEP 5 – MY POOR FRIENDS & CAMERON DIAZ’S PARROT

By watching the behavior of those you spend time around you’ll soon begin to pick up on their habits, remember – strong observation skills are imperative for success.

Poor people are quick to voice their opinion, they’ll give unqualified opinions of their own but won’t value that of anyone else’s.

Rich people on the other hand are constantly searching for knowledge, they’ll ask YOU questions on subjects that their more qualified in because they want to gauge your opinion and learn more from you (successful people are inwardly humble!).

If you want to be successful in a certain area pick up on the patterns of those that have attained said success, we’re not just talking rich in a sense of finance.

Rich in a sense of fitness

Rich in a sense of fitness can come down to extreme cardiac endurance, a low resting heart rate, the ability to bench press 315 lbs for reps while maintaining a single digit body fat percentage.

You’ll find these individuals have far different behavior and habits to those that are overweight and struggle to get off the couch.

Perhaps they follow a fasting diet, perhaps they don’t eat carbohydrates after 5 pm. Observe and compare to your ‘poor friends’ in a sense of fitness.

Rich in a social sense

Rich in a social sense can may be those individuals that are able to win friends and influence people with ease.

You’ll find these individuals have far different behavior and habits to those that are unable to connect or communicate with strangers.

Perhaps they alter their tonality or use open body language. Observe and compare to your ‘poor friends’ in a sense of socializing.

General ‘rich friend’ habits & observations from Tai

• Rich friends are always quoting those far wiser and ahead of themselves (for example Tai himself quotes Charlie Munger & Joel Salatin extensively)
• Rich friends are great at math (finances come down to math!)
• Rich friends seek criticism over compliments.

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STEP 6 – SCULPTURE VS. THE LOTTERY & THE ANTHROPIC MEDIA BIAS

Don’t allow yourself to fall victim to the media bias

The media constantly suggests to us that success happens overnight, that Bill Gates went from zero to billionaire almost instantly.
That could not be further from the truth. The media shows us what we want to see – those in the ‘harvest’ of their life, the people that have already spent 10, 20 and even 30 years grinding it out to obtain their success.

But we never see that. The media will never tell or show you the 10 dark years that Bill Gates spent locked in his office working because that isn’t ‘sexy’, it doesn’t sell ratings.

Spend your time building your sculpture of success, chipping away at it day by day to build the long-lasting results you desire, don’t adopt the lottery ticket mentality and hope to strike it big one day without putting in the work (you’ve got more chance of getting hit by lightning, airplane debris or getting eaten by a shark than you do of winning the lottery!).

You don’t want the quick success (if it were possible)

Quick success does not last – look at those that have won the lottery or achieved a fluke of success, it doesn’t last long because they didn’t earn it or put in the work to obtain it.

Notable quotes

“A fence that goes up fast falls down fast” – The Amish

“You must embrace the 10 dark years” (Bill Gates locked himself in his office from age 20 to age 30, grinding away)

“Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out, one inch at a time, day by day. If by the end of the day you live long enough, most people get what they deserve.” – Charlie Munger

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STEP 7 – MARTIN SELIGMAN’S SALARY SLAVE AND LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Unfortunately learned helplessness, deemed ‘the monkey in the cage principle’ by Tai Lopez doesn’t just affect animals.
Learned helplessness in all too apparent in people too, given the chance learned helplessness will paralyze you in your tracks!

The monkey at the zoo is a fantastic example of learned helplessness – the monkey doesn’t try and do anything for itself, social conditioning has taught the monkey that it’ll get fed at 6 am and 4 pm every day, it doesn’t have to do a single thing.

The monkey knows it’s in an enclosure, it’s probably tried to get out a couple of times in the past.

But it’s come to acceptance with these terms, it’s adopted what Martin Seligman deems ‘learned helplessness’.

Even if the cage was opened, the monkey wouldn’t try and escape, it’s been conditioned to believe any and all attempts are futile.

It’s in a cage in its mind.

Learned helplessness isn’t only apparent at your local zoo.
People fall into the same mentality.
A series of failures lead to adopting the monkey in the cage mentality.

Perhaps you’ve tried to lose weight a few times and got stuck after dropping 5 lbs on multiple occasions.
Without even considering that you may have miscalculated your calories or not trained hard enough you throw in the towel, you give up and adopt the ‘no matter what I do the result will be the same’.

A coach offers to help you with your training and diet.

You dismiss it because you’re convinced that nothing you do will allow you to lose that additional weight.

A classic case of learned helplessness.

Perhaps you’ve taken on a new sales role at a prestigious real estate company.

You’ve called a number of prospects, none of which are in a position to buy.

You become discouraged and stop following up leads, you’ve convinced yourself that regardless of how persuasive your opener is and how good the property on offer is no one is going to buy a house or apartment from you.

You’ve been given a series of red hot leads by your boss but you don’t even follow up on them, you’ve convinced yourself the result will be no difference.

You tell everyone you’re a hopeless salesman and give up.

Once again, you’re the monkey in the cage. You don’t even try.

Failure Is Everywhere, Don’t Fall Victim To Learned Helplessness

Going back to the weight loss example, when it comes to any fitness or business endeavor there’s also going to be plateaus – there’s going to be ups and downs.
You’ll progress and you’ll regress at times, that’s the nature of the beast.

Seth Godin refers to the progress made to the breakthrough and have success in any field as ‘the dip’ you must first endure the dip, a period of time comprised of a hell of a lot of effort with minimal progress being seen.

It’s all in the mind.

Grind through.

Forge your path forward and make any pivots and small changes based on your results (or lack thereof).

The people that fall victim to learned helplessness are the people that don’t understand that it’s never a smooth road, it’s never an easy sail to your desired result.

Put in the work, make changes and don’t adopt the monkey in the cage mentality.

The cage is always in your mind.

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STEP 8 – THE INTEGRATED GOOD LIFE & THE FOUR PILLARS OF EAUDAIMONIA

Don’t compartmentalize your life, integrate it

Instead of breaking down our lives into individual sections e.g. work, fitness, social & happiness it’s far more productive and efficient to begin to integrate and overlap these areas together to create the life of your dreams.
Many individuals who compartmentalize their life have the “I hate Mondays” and “Thank god it’s Friday!” mentality.

If you integrate your life correctly you’ll never be concerned about what day it is. Tai mentions he often measures his success and happiness based upon how long it’s been since he last checked a calendar (when you don’t know or care what day/date it is you know you’re on the right track as you’re enjoying every day).

Eudaemonia comes through integration

The 4 pillars of Eudaemonia include:

• Health (physical)
• Wealth (financial)
• Love (romantic & family)
• Happiness (fulfillment)

The good life comes through the integration of love and health, of happiness and wealth (and any other combination of the four pillars!).

Edge Biological Theory

This theory from nature is a fantastic example of integration.
Where two ecosystems merge you’ll often find the most life (think of a pond and a forest).
Animals thrive on the border of multiple ecosystems just like we thrive on the border of multiple pillars via integration.

Travel is stressful, simplify your journeys

Traffic is stressful, period.
Whether you’re listening to your favorite music in the car, playing an audiobook or talking to a friend the act of having to drive in traffic causes tension and stress.
Reduce your travel and commute as much as possible to assist with integrating your life.

Tai suggests if possible to live within 2 miles of your office, gym, grocery store and any other frequently visited/integrated destinations.

Example of integrations

Walking on a treadmill desk

Walking on a treadmill desk while either working or learning is a simple method to integrate your physical health along with your wealth.

Working out with friends

CrossFit for example is a great example of integration, the community aspect with the fitness aspect to combine social and health.

Volunteer work

Volunteer work provides fulfillment (the happiness pillar) while also allowing you to build relationships and socialize with others whom have a similar frame of mind, build skills.

Learn while you earn

Listen to an audiobook while working.

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STEP 9 – WARREN BUFFETT’S BOOK-A-DAY DIET & MAKING WAR WITH A MULTITUDE OF COUNSELORS

Successful people read (a lot!)

Buffet and Gates were asked what superpower…. they both said that they would have the ability to read super fast.
In the book Screw it, lets do it by Richard Branson – he explains how important books are and how he came over his dyslexia.
Alexander the Great had books sent to him thousands of miles away to him while traveling or in battle.

Learn by others’ mistakes, not your own

Whatever your goal is, don’t learn by your own mistakes, learn from other people mistakes. Learning from others is the ultimate shortcut to achieving your goal.

Simulation is both safer and faster.

Overt trial and error it takes time and energy and fatal.

Books are the easiest way to simulate the outcomes and gain the hard experience from others.

Simulate successes, mistakes, and the future by reading books. It could be anything from Michael Jordan to Warren Buffet or Elon Musk. You will cut the learning curve exponentially.

The people who operate alone are usually poor in all aspects of life. You won’t be able to be a jack of all trades and specialist in everything without simulation

“Make War with a multitude of counselors” – means that you choose your battles in your life with the smartest people on your side. With their wisdom, you will be in good company.

‘Survival machines — humans — that can simulate the future are 1 jump ahead of us survival machines who can only learn over the basis of trial and error, the trouble with over trial is that it takes time and energy, the trouble with over error is that is often fatal. Simulation is both, safer and faster.‘

It’s a heck of a lot easier to learn from other people’s mistakes. We all make mistakes, but it’s easier to learn from other people’s mistakes.

Read selectively

You don’t have to read every page of every book you ever pick up, there are millions of books out there and our lifetime is finite… we don’t have enough time to read them all, so don’t attempt to.

Seek the golden nugget (the Robin Hood mindset for books!)

There’s a cognitive bias on books, the average book only has 1 or 2 pieces of gold, most books have stories and anecdotes to prove their point and you have to get to the point following the Pareto Principle of 80/20… 80 percent of the book you read gives you only 20 percent of the knowledge, and 20 percent of the pages have 80 percent of the knowledge.

Tai’s method of reading a book is as follows:

The 3 pass method

1st Pass – Previewing the book (5 min) – He reads the Front, Back, the inside jacket, about the author, table of contents
2nd Pass – Browse through the chapters (30 min) – Try to find one chapter that looks interesting to read.
3rd Pass – Read One or Two Chapters ( 1 hour) – Read the entire chapter.

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STEP 10 – STOIC VS. Epicurean ARNOLD’S 1,000 REPS, Apache COLD SHOWERS, AND THE Spartan WHIPPING POST

Today we’re all too soft, achieving greatness comes down to persevering and grinding it out, as we’ve already discussed there’s no quick fix for success – you must sew before you harvest… this may be Bill Gates spending the 10 dark years in his office from age 20 to age 30 building Microsoft or it may be Thomas Edison’s thousand attempts to perfect his invention of the light bulb.

Philosophy refers us to two different ideologies.

Stoicism and Epicurean.

Stoic

Enduring and sacrificing today for a better tomorrow (the ancient investor mentality).
Stoics purposefully submit themselves to unpleasant acts and situations, building their grit and character in the process.

The Spartans are the #1 example of stoic life.

• Spartan children were given just enough food to survive and grow, while still leaving them feeling slightly hungry and unsatisfied.
• Spartans were encouraged to fight and push their bodies to its limit in daily training.
• Spartans were not afraid to sacrifice themselves in battle, they went all in and accepted their fate instead of retreating and giving the enemy the satisfaction.

Epicurean

Epicureanism runs rampant today, this is essentially the YOLO mentality.

As they said in ancient times, “Live for now – eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die”.

This is a very short-sighted mentality that won’t get you far.
The Epicurean doesn’t expend effort in building anything notable as this takes TIME.
The Epicurean doesn’t invest their money as this is a LONG TERM approach to building wealth.

The #1 takeaway from this lesson is you must toughen yourself up and be willing to endure adversity both physically and mentally if you want to grow.

Always enjoying yourself and living in the now with the “YOLO” mentality will leave you with an empty paddock come time to harvest.

As Will Durant said, “A nation is born stoic and dies Epicurean”

What does this mean?

Big companies, family estates and the like were created and forged by stoics – willing to sacrifice and endure adversity to build greatness, this is often passed down to or inherited by those that are unappreciative, those that did not and do not put in the work themselves… the epicureans.

Our world is far too convenient and easy for us, we’re forgoing the toughness we used to have.

Notable Quotes

“A nation is born stoic and dies Epicurean”

“Adversity makes men and prosperity makes monsters”

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STEP 11 – THE WHISPERS OF 10,000 GENERATIONS, DUNBAR’S 150, & EVOLUTIONARY MISMATCH

The instincts hardwired in our brain to this day were passed on from centuries ago, this is evolutionary mismatch.

The vast majority of health issues we encounter in the modern world are due to just this – our instincts from thousands upon thousands of years ago.

Food

For example, in ancient times food was scarce – especially sweet sugary foods (think honey) so when this food was found it was all consumed, as no one knew how long it would be until you ran into a supply of honey again.
In the modern world, food, particularly foods high in salt, sugar or fat are available everywhere – yet our hardwired 10,000 year old brain has no adapted.

This is why when we have ice cream, chocolate, chips or any other unhealthy, calorically dense food in the house it doesn’t last.
Regardless of how strong your willpower is your hardwired 10,000 year old brain is programmed to eat it!

Sleep

We’re programmed to sleep when it’s dark and rise when it’s light, the vast majority of sleep issues are caused due to the suppression of melanin due to light.
Using your phone, computer, watching TV or using any form of technology emits blue light – suppressing melanin production.

Put down your electronics an hour or two before going to bed or use blue blocker glasses.

Conquering your 10,000 year old hardwired brain

We can’t beat the hard wiring of our brain, as the saying goes “Nature laughs last”.

The best thing we can do (and that you’re doing now) is understanding the cause.
That’s half the battle won! Once you know you’re pre-programmed to demolish all sugary food in sight due to the previous scarcity of it you’ll know not to buy or store any of the corresponding foods in your house.

Don’t allow your instincts and gut feeling to always take over, as we know when it comes to food your instincts are not working in your favor…
However, when you feel as if you’re about to get hit by a car or you need to move out of the way quickly we don’t have time to stop and think where and how we’re going to move – we need to let our hardwiring take over and get us to safety.

With the knowledge of your 10,000 year old mind you can get a lot done, it can work for you to an extent… but if you don’t understand your hard wiring and you let it take control you’re in for destruction.

Recommendations

• Set up an automatic savings plan into a high interest savings account or index fund – this way you’ll be ensuring your money is invested before you’re able to spend it.
  This is part of adopting the stoic investor mentality, as we’re hardwired to think in the short term (Epicurean).
• Don’t have junk food in the house, if it’s not there you can’t eat it!

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STEP 12 – MIKE’S STACK OF RESUMES, MY 96 YEAR-OLD GRANDMA, & YOUR Eulerian DESTINY

You must be able to describe what you’re doing with your life in 12 – 20 words.

For example, Tai Lopez’s sentence is “Spreading good ideas using mass media”

Joel Salatin’s was “Give the world the gift of good food”

Keep it simple, Warren Buffett may say “I’m going to value invest money”

The 5% rule

You must be in the top 5% of your chosen field, if you’re in the top 5% you won’t cut it… the world is too competitive.

People aren’t good at a lot of things – you’re likely good at one or two things. For example, Michael Jordan tried his luck at baseball and couldn’t make it past the minor leagues

Don’t fall for American Idol syndrome

Know, focus and build upon what you’re good at, don’t spend time trying to bring up your weaknesses.

If you’re going on American Idol and you’ve been dancing for years and have had strangers compliment on your dancing abilities don’t go on the show and audition as a singer just because you think you’re good at it – build upon your strength (dancing).

As Tai says you must be in the top 5% to make it. if you’re in the top 5% of dancers you’re going to make it big, if you’re in the top 10% of singers you may be able to make the cut on a local scale (e.g. your town) but when it comes to the global scale the world is too damn competitive.

Finding your Eulerian destiny:

• What did you grow up around?
• What have you had strangers feedback/compliments on?
• What have you been doing for the past 10 years? (the 10,000 years or 10 dark years)
• What can you talk about effortlessly to your friends and family? (e.g. sports, gardening, politics)

Find where the above four points meet in the middle, this will give you a great idea of your Eulerian destiny.

Recommendations

Complete the Myer-Briggs type indicator and know your strengths and weaknesses

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STEP 13 – THE AMISH VACATION, TAP DANCING TO WORK, & AVOIDING WHAT YOU LOVE

Don’t fall into the vacation mentality

You must be like the Amish and create a life that you do not need a vacation from.
Integrate enjoyment, health and social aspects into your job and daily life so you’re not hanging out for your few weeks of vacation once a year.

Although the Amish live a very simplified life they have 1/5th of the rate of depression we have today.

Have downtime, not vacations

You don’t have to work 24/7 for 365 days a year, we all need downtime.

Vacations are separate, a get away from your life (if you have to go on vacation you probably shouldn’t come back!)

Downtime is integrated into your life, for example the Amish don’t work as hard on the weekends as they spend more time with their families.
In Thailand the relentless work ethic of the Thai people in their Muay Thai training camps is put on hold on Sunday as a day of rest without exception.

Chase what you like, not what you lust after

Doing what you love for a career is a big mistake, as lust wears off – you should pursue what you LIKE.

This is also known as American Idol syndrome – we try and pursue what we love because we think we’re good at it… when we should often pursue what we’re compatible with while also liking it.

For example, Michael Jordan lusted after baseball, however he wasn’t best suited to baseball and opted to pursue a career in basketball (as he had the height etc. to assist). The rest is history…

Successful people aren’t necessarily ‘lucky’

It’s often a case of WHO happened rather than WHAT happened.
For example, Tai met Joel Salatin.

Tap dance to work principle

• You must be waking up genuinely excited for how you’re going to spend your day.
• If you’re waking up excited about your life consider re-aligning your actions with what you like, not what you love
• Refer back to finding your Eulerian destiny
• As Jeff Bezos says you can innovate your way out of most problems

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STEP 14 – THE SHAOLIN MONK & TOUCHING AN ELECTRIC FENCE

Everything is your fault

As the Shaolin Monk told Tai it is always your fault.

• If you get mugged it’s your fault.
• If you can’t afford rent it’s your fault.
• If you encounter a multitude of health problems, once again it is your fault and your fault only.

The message stressed in this step is to prepare yourself for events or circumstances you may be put in.

The Shaolin Monk was of the mentality that

• if you got mugged it was your own fault because you didn’t know how to defend yourself and fight off the attacker. Had you spent the last few years mastering the art of Kung Fu you would not have been mugged.
• If you can’t afford rent it’s your fault because you’re either wasting your money on luxury instead of placing a roof over your own head or you’re not hustling enough to bring in money.
• Health problems such as diabetes and obesity are your fault because of the decisions you’ve made in terms of diet and exercise.
  Prepare by eating clean and getting off the couch.

Prepare for the rainy days, because the rainy days will com

As John Wooden the famous basketball coach said, you must prepare for the dark clouds…
If you don’t prepare for the dark clouds (the anticipation of future events) you’re in for a rough time.

It’s either in your head or it’s in your heel

Should the dark clouds reveal themselves and you’ve prepared then it’s in your head – you’ve simulated the scenario before and you know exactly what to do.

If you’ve failed to prepare then it’s going to hurt, it’s in your heel.

Your skills are your tool kit

The bigger your tool kit the more versatile and adaptable you will be, the more often you’ll have it in your head as opposed to in your heel.
Rich people have a far larger tool kit comprised of both soft skills and hard skills (how to win and influence people etc.) than those who are poor.

You must have a healthy balance of both optimism and pessimism…

• You must be optimistic in the long term
• You must be pessimistic in the short term

Like animals on a farm, surrounded by an electric fence you too must know your boundaries, too often we overestimate certain abilities (American Idol syndrome) but we also at times underestimate our abilities!

Understand your boundaries and prepare for the dark clouds in all pillars of your life including:

• Social
• Physical
• Interpersonal

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STEP 15 – Descartes & SOLVING PROBLEMS WITH A CALCULATOR

The only thing certain in this world is mathematics

We think that there are many certainties in this world, buy there are many things that are possibly incorrect.

The smartest people are unsure. numbers, calculations are the only certainties.

Don’t make blind decisions, each and every decision must be in line with your goals.
For example, if you’re an athlete then you’re going to be making a very poor decision if you’re choosing junk food over a quality lean meal.

Calculate the pros and cons of your decisions, that’s how billionaire’s operate.

For example:

Pros of starting your own business

• Unlimited revenue potential
• No one to answer to
• Ability to create the future of your desires

Cons of starting your own business

• Increased stress
• Unstable & uncertainty of business
• Working around the clock

Weigh up the above, perhaps you’ve got a high tolerance to stress, have lots of additional time to devote and want to increase your income exponentially, in which case starting your own business does seem to be the wiser decision (however, someone who cannot deal with stress and has a family or a large quantity of bills requires the certainty of a secure job.

Recommendations

• Pros and cons list
• Familiarize yourself with the certainty bias
• Practise math

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STEP 16 – Rousseau, THE RENAISSANCE MAN, & IRON SHARPENING IRON

Simulation is the key to success

Don’t jump straight into the cockpit of the jet and fly away, you’re most likely going to crash.
Spend as much time as necessary in simulation.

A great example of simulation is the preparation a UFC fighter goes through before they enter the octagon to face their opponent in a scheduled bout.
They don’t just jump into the octagon and pray that they’ll be able to land a good strike or takedown…

They simulate for months beforehand by:

• Watching tape (footage)
• Sparring
• Getting in opponents to simulate the style and moves of their opponent
• Getting in opponents that are a similar height and weight as their opponent

You must become a renaissance person

A renaissance man or polymath is multi-talented.

Today people look up to those that are good at one thing e.g. musicians, in times gone by the renaissance person was looked up to.

Read and learn skills in all areas of life such as:

• Learn another language
• Learn to play a musical instrument
• Read more books on a variety of topics (health, science, math)

The many benefits of increasing your knowledge and broadening out include:

• Becoming a more interesting person in conversation
• Knowing both sides to an argument to truly differentiate pros and cons
• Iron sharpens iron as a friend sharpens a friend

It’s all about the ingredients

The more ingredients in your kitchen the better the meal you produce.
A top tier chef will be outperformed by an amateur if they have a sufficient amount of materials.

Subject matter knowledge is a material, the more unique materials (music, art, science, health) you add the greater a chef (renaissance person) you become.

Don’t be a jack of all trades

As the saying goes, a jack of all trades is a master of none.

You must become a master in your chosen, aligned field and then support this mastery with your other areas of knowledge.

• Fitness & nutrition
• Web design
• Calligraphy
• Photography
• Gardening
• etc.

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STEP 17 – ELON MUSK’S 14-HOUR WORKDAY VS. THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK

The mentality of the 4 hour workweek is BS.

You should be aligning yourself with a career or endeavor you enjoy, you should be tap dancing to work every day.

Embrace the grind

You’ve got to love the grind because the grind is life.
If you’re not enjoying the grind you won’t be enjoying life.

Thomas Edison said he was glad that the 8 hour day didn’t exist when he was working because had he succumbed to working only 8 hours a day he wouldn’t have achieved much.

Today people are trying to get away with only working 4 hours a week!

Work efficiently, but don’t try and work for such a minimalist amount of time.

Just grind it out

Elon Musk, the first man to build not one but THREE companies valued at over a billion dollars each believes in working 14 hour days.
He knows if he wants to be successful and maintain a lead over his competition he needs to be putting in more hours than they are.

Think about it.

While Elon’s competition are working 7 hours a day he’s working 14 hours a day.
What takes Elon 6 months to achieve will take his competition an entire year!

SpaceX, Tesla and Solar City would NOT be where they are today had Elon followed a 4 hour work week style approach to business.

You can’t outsource everything

A big part of the 4 hour work week mentality is outsourcing as much as possible.

Certain tasks like graphic design and marketing can be outsourced, but don’t be so quick to outsource the core of your operation.
Picasso didn’t outsource his painting, Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t outsource his bench press.

Do it right, do it yourself and embrace the grind while you do it… because it’s life.

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STEP 18 – MAN-ON-THE-MOON CONTRAST KEEPING EASY THINGS EASY

Feeling overwhelmed by a job or goal you’ve to get done? Using the contrast bias can make it more manageable!

Tai refers to his use of the contrast bias as ‘man on the moon principle’, and it is just that – if man went to the moon which was a task that took thousands of PhD’s, years of research and simulation not to mention an estimated trillion dollar then the thing you’re setting out to do is damn easy in comparison.

• Think making a million bucks is impossible?

Man went to the moon. It’s possible.

• Think running a 4 minute mile is impossible?

Man went to the moon. It’s possible.

$1,000,000 a year is still a big goal though, so by breaking this goal down further again we’re able to see it as achievable.

$1,000,000 a year is $3,000 a day.

$3,000 a day, assuming you work 10 hours a day is $300 an hour.

Aiming to earn $300 an hour is far more realistic and achievable to our minds in comparison to making a million dollars a year.

If you allow your mind to become overwhelmed and defeated from the beginning then you’ve already lost.

Don’t overcomplicate things

Don’t waste time on trivial tasks, instead use this time to achieve your big goals

• Don’t research 101 product reviews when purchasing small items
• Don’t write lengthy emails when you can make a quick phone call
• Don’t spend too long deciding what to eat, keep it simple
• Don’t give yourself 101 clothing options when going out, keep it simple

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STEP 19 – AMAZON.COM & THE $32,000 BRAIN BUDGET

Take an audit of your financial life

Before any improvements can be made you need to take an honest look at where your money is going.
Look at your bank statements, your credit card bills…

• What percentage of money are you currently spending on luxury?
• What percentage of your money are you spending on bettering yourself?
• What percentage of your money are you saving for a rainy day?

Imagine your life is a soup, snippets of knowledge are the ingredients

Knowledge acquired from books, mentors and seminars are all proverbial ingredients in the soup of life – the more ingredients you have in your kitchen the better your soup will be when served.

Lack of knowledge = minimal ingredients.

Regardless of how talented a chef you are, with 2 ingredients your soup isn’t going to be any good… however the average person who spends time and money acquiring new ingredients (via reading books, attending seminars and hiring mentors etc.) can create an award winning dish.

Money can kill you, or it can save your life

Money can improve your life or it can destroy your life, this is up to you and your decision on how you spend it.

Money spent on skills and knowledge is money well spent (this will pay dividends!). = investment
Money spent on objects that will rust, rot and depreciate (e.g. luxury cars and expensive clothes) is a poor long term decision.

Use the law of 33% when it comes to your finances

• Put 33% of your income into savings
• Put 33% of your income into your learning & education (books & seminars)
• Put 33% of your income into your enjoyment

Spend wisely

• Buy used books instead of new
• Don’t buy a new car (Warren Buffett bought a hail damaged car to save $30,000)
• Don’t overspend on clothes (paying for big brand labels)
• Get information online (Wikipedia)
• Go to the library and borrow books

“Don’t invest in things that rust, rot or depreciate… invest in things that will be worth more later or cause YOU to be worth more later”.

“Don’t be penny wise and dollar foolish“.

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STEP 20 – RICHARD BRANSON’S HURRICANE & THE IMAGINARY WORLD OF KANYE WEST

The definition of an entrepreneur is a man who remakes the world in their own image.

Envision your ideal life

What does your ideal life look like? What do you love to do in your spare time that you’re not getting paid for?

For example, perhaps like Richard Branson (before he founded Virgin Airlines) you’re a keen traveller.
Perhaps you’re a fitness fanatic and love taking part in obstacle course races like the Spartan Race.

Instead of being so rigid and working the 9 – 5 and only pursue your hobbies in your spare time (remember, this is Picasso’s Dichotomy) you can integrate your hobbies into your life.

Richard Branson chartered a private jet off an island during unfavorable weather and pulled a profit, prompting him to found Virgin Airlines due to his love for travel and the opportunity he identified in the market.

Reverse-engineer your ideal life and make it happen

Tai Lopez loved reading books however this took away time from his other (financially beneficial) ventures.
Tai reverse engineered and made his book reading hobby into his ideal life.

A book club, a website, social engagement with customers…

Envision your world, reverse engineer how you can pull it off then get out there and make it happen like Richard Branson & Tai Lopez did.

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STEP 21 – ANTICIPATE AND TYPE PEOPLE WITH THE P.A.S.E. SYSTEM

The P.A.S.E system is a simplified personality test, similiar to the Myer-Briggs type indicator that can be used to identify the dominant traits of individuals.

• Practical – Aren’t very flexible. They are very planned. They like numbers, money, things on schedule. Slower to act.
• Action – Spontaneous, Enlightened, high energy, self-starters, hardly ever finishers. Not very patient. Aggressive.
• Social – Go with the flow with things, relaxed, hippie like, they like being around people, a little flaky, spontaneous, don’t stand up for themselves often.
• Emotional – Decipher people, intuitive, analyze people, driven by fear and are often offended by others easily. Afraid to change.

By knowing the P.A.S.E results of both yourself and others you can adjust the way you speak and the words you use when talking to individuals based upon their ‘power’ words. For example, if you’re predominantly an A (action based) individual words such as ‘Let’s go!’, ‘Let’s make it happen!’ and ‘Go, go, go!’ will get you motivated to start an endeavor while these words will fall on deaf ears if used predominantly on a social based personality type.

Identify the personality type and tailor your dialogue and wording to suit.

Casanova, best known for his pursuits with women was able to talk and interact with everyone from women to kings because he knew by identifying the personality traits of the individual he was talking to he could become the social chameleon by bringing out that side of his own personality too… as the saying goes “birds of a feather, flock together”.

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STEP 22 – THE SEVEN-FOLD PATH TO THE OBVIOUS SIGNS

Our 500 year old mind is locked into the ‘black and white mentality’.

Be a truth seeker:

• Find a problem (be it with your health, wealth or happiness)
• Take action to fix it

The majority of people talk about things which makes them feel as if they’ve already done something about it (which results in them never taking action!).

Don’t be a zombie chasing a mirage, remember the serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Take some time to assess the obvious signs in your life:

• Do you look healthy naked? (or are you holding excess amounts of body fat?)
• Is your bank balance an indication of where you should be? (are you struggling to save?)
• Are you a social person? If so do you have many friends to go out with on a Saturday night?

Before you take action or deem your current situation inadequate you must define your end game.

If you’re an introvert and you’re building your business and physique with laser-like focus you may not be pursuing an increased social life.

As Charlie Munger said “Avoid extreme ideologies, they’re almost always wrong”.

Humans take action to increase pleasure and steer clear of discomfort.

Follow the 7 step method:

• Ask a question
• Research the answer
• Create a hypothesis
• Test it
• Observe what is observable
• Step back & assess
• Make war with a multitude of councillors (get the opinion of smart/qualified individuals)

Be persistent! Leadership and tenacity are the two most predominant traits of self-made millionaires

• 80% of individuals quit after 1 failure
• 90% of individuals quit after 2 failures
• 97% of individuals quit after 3 failures

“Every man’s argument sounds great until you hear the other side.”

Recommendations

• Read the serenity prayer, print it out to remind yourself if need be

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STEP 23 – LANDING YOUR PLANE ON THE GREAT WALL

Principle: Make your plane go where you want it to go

Life will deal tremendous blows to you in the form of death of loved ones, loss of finances and entropy over time.

Prepare yourself, be ready to run the proverbial marathon that life may throw at you at any time!

You must have force of will and faith (feel success before you grasp it).

Preparation and expectation are key to overcoming adversity – when you’re expecting things they are not as dramatic.

When problems arise such as a concrete wall blocking your path you must innovate your way out, there’s always multiple ways such as:

• Over the wall
• Under the wall
• Through the wall
• Around the wall

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STEP 24 – GANDHI’S FUNERAL, STEPHEN COVEY’S WARS, & FLURRIES OF ACTIVITY

It’s normal to endure some low levels of depression in life, it’s a sign your life is insufficient and you need to assess and fix some areas.

The sign of a well-lived life is the funeral test… how many people will attend your funeral? How many lives have you impacted and touched? How many people would genuinely be sad come your passing?

Nelson Mandela’s funeral is a prime example of a life well lived.

Parkinson’s Law states when we’re given X number of tasks and X amount of time to achieve them we’ll stretch out the activities to cover the time (this is the salary slaves’ flurries of activity).

Be a war winner – get to the end state goal, don’t just run around busy with flurries of activity that are not getting you closer to your goal.

“Think with the end in mind”

“Win wars, not battles”

You have 4 battles in your life

• The health battle
• The wealth battle
• The love battle
• The happiness battle

True happiness comes from the process of building momentum and winning battles, not from the end-state itself.

e.g. you’ll be happier when you’re 35 years old and grinding away on the path to success as opposed to when you’re 50 and have ticked off the vast majority of your goals.

The biggest tragedy in life is being good at the wrong thing… awareness of your strengths is key.

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STEP 25 – JOEL SALATIN ON NATURE LAUGHING LAST, THE RESPECT OF SEASONS, AND THE TERRIBLE TWOS

Nature will always laugh last…

We will encounter 3 main sources of pain in life:

• Our own decay (entropy)
• Forces of nature (bacteria, natural disasters)
• Other humans (love & relationships, betrayal)

You must realize that you are part of a world much bigger than your own – you are not the center of the universe.

If you want to set yourself up for success then choose one thing (the right thing) and stick with it – as JR Simplot said “hold onto your taw”

Warren Buffett & Bill Gates grinded away for decades, holding onto their one thing for years and years until they tasted success.

The rule of 72 states that it takes around 12 years to double your success.

Just like the weather we humans encounter seasons in our own lives:

Fall

• The harvesting period
• Often short in comparison to other seasons
• Enjoy it!

Spring

• Planting season
• Try and test continuously

Winter

• It’s dark, but it too shall pass
• Read more, sleep more, replenish, eat
• This is a great time for the acquisition of new knowledge

Summer

• The time for action
• Put in all the work now
• Sleep less, get more done while the season permits it

You cannot skip seasons, embrace the good and the bad of each season (e.g. the darkness of winter and the lack of sleep in summer).

The grass is always greener on the other side when it comes to the seasons, but remember each season only lasts for so long.

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STEP 26 – BELTS, SUSPENDERS, FAILING TO FAIL, THE SIX SIGMA HEARTBEAT, & HOW TO NOT CRASH YOUR F-22

Mistakes are costly, they cost money, lives and time.

You don’t have to make a lot of mistakes! Learn from the mistakes of those that have walked before you (read books!).

The belts and suspenders mindset means always have a backup, a contingency plan.

Never allow a SPOF (single point of failure).

Here’s a few examples of creating redundancy and eliminating a single point of failure:

• Hiring multiple contractors
• Carrying a spare tyre/battery
• Having multiple sources of income

When you outsource or delegate (e.g. to an accountant) don’t expect everything to be going perfectly – ensure you still keep your finger on the proverbial pulse and continue to check up on progress.

Write things down, regardless of how good your memory is things WILL fall through the cracks (and as Murphy’s law states they’ll always be the important things).

Both your energy and your time are finite, remember this.

Use the military F22 approach and plan for 3 scenarios to ensure you’re ready regardless of the outcome (this will also reduce your anxiety and stress levels)

• Scenario A – best case
• Scenario B – most likely
• Scenario C – worst case

Life comes down to ideas, plans and execution – ideas are easy, plans are slightly harder but executing is always the hardest.

You must be an executor.

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STEP 27 – THE FRONTMAN & THE TWO WAYS TO PICK YOUR TRENCH MATE

All great accomplishments and tasks take a team of people.

When selecting individuals for your team take into account:

• Integrity
• Loyalty
• Complimentary
• References

Don’t seek out those with the exact same strengths and weaknesses as yourself… you need people that are the opposite to fill in the weak points (that at the same time won’t be competing with you on your strengths).

Get acquainted over time, there are many people that are great at interviews (many hedge funds and top tier positions require several individuals and meetings over the course of a year to get a good understanding of the potential candidate).

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STEP 28 – LAO-TZU’S AND JOHN WOODEN’S TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY

You must do things before they become difficult in all areas of your life:

• Get a six pack and build muscle before you’re overweight and struggling to get off the couch
• Save money while your income is high, not while you’re between jobs
• Buy car insurance before you’ve been in a accident
• Backup your data before your hard drive fails

“Do what is difficult when it’s easy” – Lao Tsu

“Jump in and take action and you’re half way there” – The Amish

Spend time preparing for tomorrow today…

• Decide what you’re going to wear
• Back your back
• Prepare your meals

Your pain threshold will be lowered over time as you get yourself into the habit of doing things now (this also reduces your stick-ability factor).

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STEP 29 – STEPHEN HAWKING, ENTROPY, & REMEMBERING THE FUTURE

We must understand that time will never reverse.

Entropy, the gradual decline into disorder (things becoming more chaotic as time passes) will affect us all.

As Stephen Hawking says, there are 3 types of time:

• Psychological time – the time you spend at work, with friends etc.
• Cosmological time – the universe
• Thermodynamic time – energy etc.

As Seneca said in ‘On The Shortness Of Life…

“Life is long, if you know how to use it.”

Fight off entropy by investing in yourself.

Focus your energy and time improving your life in all aspects (health, wealth).

Failure to take action and better yourself will leave you a victim to entropy – with decaying wealth and decaying health.

We are not guaranteed tomorrow so don’t always plan so far into the future – live immediately! (expectancy is the enemy).

Transcend time by becoming interested in psychology & knowledge.

Read books and learn from the ancient greats to become timeless.

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STEP 30 – PETER DRUCKER, THE CLUTTERED ATTIC AND THE INVENTION OF RULES

Different levels of knowledge

• Known knowns (things we know that we know)
• Known unknowns (things we know that we don’t know)
• Unknown unknowns (things we’re oblivious to)

Warren Buffett recommends we get rid of one big idea every year in order to clear ignorance from our brains.

For example:

• Sport is a waste of time
• Art serves no purpose

These are both incorrect, ignorance beliefs that we forge in our minds.

The mind is like an attic, it gets full over time and can only hold so much so we must intermittently clean it up (and what better way to clean up then to get rid of useless, ignorance ideas and thoughts).

Ask yourself why three times when interpreting or trying to understand your disabling ignorance and made up rules.

• Why am I a vegetarian?

Because eating animals is bad

• Why is eating animals bad?

Because it’s in-humane

• Why is it in-humane? etc.

This process allows us to either get to the bottom of our logical beliefs or to identify and discard our disabling ignorance.

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STEP 31 – DELEGATING TO SHALINI & SAM WALTON’S OVER-THE-SHOULDER STYLE

You must be able to manage people, not just things.

the 2IC at McDonalds gets paid more because they are managing people e.g. the fry cooks and the cashiers.
The fry cooks and the cashiers get paid less because they are only managing things (e.g. the cash register or the grill).

Want to build success and wealth?

• Learn to manage people first
• Learn to manage wealth second

Management MUST be active – you cannot expect to delegate a task and receive anything other than a disaster without checking up and at least a small degree of insight and knowledge yourself.

For example, when you take your broken car to the mechanic you wouldn’t just tell them to ‘fix whatever is broken’ because you’d likely get ripped off! Have knowledge and insight – e.g. “I think the fan belt is slipping, please confirm this and give me a call with a quote to repair it before you proceed with doing any work.”

You cannot delegate what you don’t know, be it mechanics or computer programming (no one has your best interest at heart as much as you do).

You must at some point in your life become a ‘jack of all trades’ and know a bit about all of the important things you’re outsourcing in life (taxes, car repairs, plumbing, web design).

Have an ‘over the shoulder’ approach to managing… don’t micro-manage everything a person does but at the same time don’t turn a blind eye.

“Trust… but verify”

Proper management allows you to leverage both your own time and energy.

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STEP 32 – SLOT MACHINE PROBABILITY & CHASING THE MIRAGE?

A strong conviction based on your own beliefs, made up rules or your gut feeling can be your downfall.

You must go with the odds, the numbers don’t lie (emotions and cognitive biases can easily intervene with your decision making, so test the numbers!)

The desert is FULL of the bones of those that chased the mirage, the elusive big pay day, the high risk, high reward option that realistically never pays off…

Pick the certain 1 in 10 odds over the elusive 1 in 50 odds every single time, don’t chance it.

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STEP 33 – TEACHING PIGS TO FLY & PUSHING ON STRINGS

The application of knowledge is key, not the acquisition.
It’s easy to learn things, it’s much harder (and less common) to go out and actually apply them.

A pig is someone that doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know.

An innocently innocent person is someone that doesn’t know but wants to know (thirst for knowledge).

Just like you cannot teach a real pig to fly, you cannot push on a string (strings can only be pulled!).

You can’t teach someone that isn’t ready to learn so don’t bother… sometimes you need to wait and let them come to you.

“There’s a fine line between impatient and too patient…”

Refer once again to the serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

A proverbial pig can be seduced via reward (on your terms) or via pain & discomfort.

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STEP 34 – BILL GATES & THE TEN DARK YEARS

The mass media (television, radio. magazines) constantly shows and tell us about those individuals that have reached the ‘fall’ season of their life, aka. the harvest.

For example, the success of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates & Michael Jordan is constantly being pushed, yet there’s never any mention of their grind and endurance in the other seasons. We’re not told about the 10 dark years that Bill Gates spent locked in a cubicle from age 20 to age 30 building Microsoft, during which time he didn’t take a single day off, not one!

We don’t see Michael Jordan’s failure, frustration and doubt during his rise up… all we see are the 16 Ferrari’s in his driveway.

As Malcolm Gladwell said in the book ‘Outliers’ it takes 10,000 hours of focused work to become great at your chosen craft.
Tai prefers the term ’10 dark years’ as the rushing of work to try and reach the 10,000 hour mark will not result in the mastery of a set time period (10 years).

Even though now you and I both know the grind is necessary and that the billionaires and icons such as Bill Gates didn’t achieve success overnight we’re still conditioned by the media that we can expect the quick success. That’s not the case.

We must stop placing unrealistic time frames on large goals & accomplishments – 2 weeks to shredded abs or a 100k a month business in 3 weeks are marketing ploys invented to lure in suckers. Don’t be the sucker.

A great quote from Greg Plitt that ties in with this Step is “There’s no such thing as a quick fix to a long term problem“.

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STEP 35 – IGNORING THE NINETY-NINE, & THE ONE-TENTH RULE

The One-Tenths Of Greatness

The one-tenth rule states that you can only replicate about one-tenth of the success of your mentor.

For example, if your business coach is making $100,000 a month online you’re likely only going to be able to replicate one-tenth of that, in which case you may be able to make $10,000 a month online.

As you can see this is why it’s extremely important to go straight to the top.

Forget the average or above average mentors, if you want great success you need to seek out those obtaining extraordinary results.

For example, if you’re learning basketball from a college basketball player you can expect to raise your skill level to one-tenth of theirs, but if you learn from Michael Jordan directly and obtain a skill level one-tenths of his… well then you’re going to be far better than almost every basketball player out there!

The 99%

99% of people out there are not worth listening to, as harsh as it sounds they do not have your best interests in mind, nor do they have the knowledge or skill to mentor you to achieve the level of success you’re after.

But on the flip side…

When you find the 1% you must listen and learn intently.

There’s No One Person

Life is made up of the four pillars, there is no one perfect mentor – the perfect business mentor likely isn’t going to be the perfect health mentor for you. Acquire multiple mentors to ensure you’re covering all pillars to obtain the good life.

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STEP 36 – THE SUCKER IN THE ROOM & THE LOLLAPALOOZA EFFECT

The nature of life is competitive, this isn’t necessarily negative… it’s just how it is.

You are the only person that truly has your best interest in mind. You must remember this as now you’re aware of cognitive bias and can use them to your advantage you must remember that at the same time others are trying to make your fall victim to cognitive biases, whether this be to help them or for their financial gain.

“if I don’t love me who will?”

“if you don’t know who the sucker in the room is you are the sucker.”

Charlie Munger coined the lolapolooza effect – this is the combination of multiple biases combining into a force too strong for the majority of us to resist, regardless of how strong our willpower may be.

An auction is the perfect example of the lolapolooza effect, as it incorporates the following biases:

• Scarcity bias (there’s only one item and a limited amount of time to bid/buy it)
• Social proof bias (there’s other people there interested in purchasing and bidding on the same items as you)
• Authority bias (the auctioneer is physically positioned higher than you and is seen as an authority)
• Reward bias (the ‘feel good’ moment and dopamine release upon ‘winning’ regardless of whether this comes as a result of paying above market value)

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STEP 37 – WHY RESTAURANTS FAIL

The 3 classic factors of production include:

• Land (or in modern times, your social network)
• Labor (your team)
• Capital (the cash you have or the investors funds you have access to)

A successful business MUST have a balance of the 3 classic factors.

Take a look at local and international businesses that have failed, examine them and you will soon see why they failed – there will be an identifiable imbalance in the factors of production (quite often it’s a lack of capital!).

As Sun Tzu says in the Art of War, you must know your terrain to gain the positional advantage.

When examining a business niche before entering take a look at the competition and how you stack up in terms of the 3 classic factors of production:

• Do you know more people than your competition?
• Are you or your team more skilled than theirs?
• Do you have more available capital or investment funds than your competition?

If you don’t have a compelling advantage in at least one of these three points that’s not a deal-breaker, it’s simply time to delve deeper into a more specific niche (don’t compete directly).

The more you learn the more you earn, labor isn’t only about the man-power you have, it’s about working smart.

Do not spend excessive amounts of time attempting to build upon weakness, instead focus on patching your weaknesses and building your strengths.

Don’t succumb to the Epicurean style of living “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” instead opt to live in the now while simultaneously investing in the future.

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STEP 38 – THROWING IDIOTS TO THE CROCODILES

The world is made up of two types of people – allies & competition.

“Mother nature does not see all people equally.”

You’re constantly in competition, whether you see it or not… for example:

• Sports
• Business
• Natural disasters
• Viruses

Charlie Munger says you ideally want to compete with a bunch of idiots when it comes to business.

Competing against geniuses is hard, as we discussed before you must have a competitive advantage in at least one of the three factors of production (land, labor, capital).

Mexico grows oranges, they’ve got the right climate… it’s their competitive advantage.
They don’t try and grow apples in Mexico because it’s too hard, why bother when others already have the competitive advantage to do so?

Imagine your business is a castle… your competitive advantage is your moat.

Your moat must be a big advantage in terms of either land, labor or capital to stop your competition stealing your business model & customers.

You must have stable people for allies – they don’t have to be super successful themselves, they just need to be stable (not insecure back-biters etc.)

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STEP 39 – ALIENATING THE 82% WITH YOUR MESSY MESSAGE

We think we have unlimited choices when it comes to our career, we don’t have many in all actuality (do what you’re good at!).

If you can engage/convert 18% of prospects you’ll be very successful.

e.g.

18% of people that browse buy from you.

18% of visitors request additional information.

Hell, McDonald’s is a fast food giant and they’ve only just got 10% of the market share

“Think globally and act locally” < focus on a small nichee and solve a realistic problem.

Don’t be afraid of alienating those outside of your 18% target, you can’t please everyone.

“Make your mess your message”

Life is an aggregation of disappointment, don’t give up you must believe in the inevitability of your success like Michael Jordan did.

Every bit of adversity, every challenge you encounter is your mess… turn this into your message.

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STEP 40 – PRACTICAL PESSIMISM, PARIS HILTON’S GRANDFATHER, & CONTEMPLATING THE DOWNSIDE

Read biographies before you go to bed, they’ll help eliminate the media bias and will give you courage (unlike mass media).

“When the tide comes in you’ll see who’s swimming naked”

You must have long term (end game) optimism as faith is a necessity for success.

Don’t fall victim to American Idol Syndrome – thinking you’re good at something you’re not (get feedback from strangers to nip this in the bud)

Fear is functional – while you remain optimistic in the long term you must be pessimistic in the day to day operations.

All emotions have functional uses – fear, anxiety, confidence… harness these for good.

Contemplate the downside like the F-22 fighter pilots… what could go wrong? Develop multiple plans based on these.

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STEP 41 – SAM CHUPP & MAKING, WATCHING, WONDERING

Money can’t buy life, it’s only 25% of the equation (1 of the 4 pillars of the good life).

There’s 3 types of people in this world:

• People that make things happen
• People that watch things happen
• People that wonder what happened

Raise your awareness level so you’re not wondering.

Know what all the buttons on your computer do, you’re using it daily so you must know about it. Know about your car, know about all the things you frequently use.

Curiosity is the catalyst for success – Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates… all the visionaries in the world started off with an unmatched level of curiosity.

Be impressive… know things.

Ask why three times to get to the crux of any issue.

Don’t put things off ’till tomorrow.. you’re the youngest you’ll ever be right now.

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STEP 42 – DONUTS, A $250,000 CHECK, AND GENERAL Eisenhower

Prioritize things that are important to you, for me that’s health and fitness (and as a result of this I wake up at 4 am to hit the gym!)

As the old saying goes “First things first”

Your brain has finite willpower – get the hard stuff ticked off your to-do list first… don’t do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

This is also known as a technique called “eating the frog” (getting the uncomfortable and hard thing out the way before proceeding with your day).

Keep track of what you need to do – use a daily to-do list or planner if need be.

Don’t stay committed to things that are no longer a priority (this is a cognitive bias, ).

The only laws that are certain are the laws of nature & physics… there’s no rule saying you must read a book from start to finish, do what suits you and works best.

There are many imaginary/limiting rules out there created by our own mind and society… break them if need be.

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STEP 43 – 20% WEIRD FACTOR, THE CABBAGE MIND, & THE TREACHERY OF SCOUNDRELS

The majority of happiness comes from human interaction.

Most people can get away with a 20% weird factor (be it due to the way they dress or mannerisms etc.) but above 20% is trouble.
Insecure/weird people are often back stabbers… proceed with caution.

You can be a nudist or you can be a Buddhist but you cannot be a nudist Buddhist.

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STEP 44 – SIX PACK OF THE MIND

You must control your mind before you control your body (e.g. you must build a mental six pack before a physical six pack).

Think about the things that are most important to you – spend time thinking about these things instead of what you’re going to wear or any other trivial things.

Too many people are penny wise and dollar foolish, they’ll pinch pennies and buy milk when it’s on special but then they go and blow hundreds of dollars on designer clothes.

Opt to be dollar wise and penny foolish… invest your money and spend wisely but don’t be afraid to pay for convenience when necessary (e.g. going to the closest petrol station).

“Go deep but not as wide” when it comes to relationships (double down and value your best friends above your acquaintances).

Don’t be afraid to put all of your eggs into one proverbial basket so long as you keep close watch on the basket.

Understand opportunity cost… you can do anything but you can’t do everything (going to the movies costs both your money and your time which could be spend on a variety of other things).

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STEP 45 – BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY & THE TYRANNY OF THE 1ST & 15TH

1st and the 15th of each month are typically dates that bills and rent are paid.

“Every person wants to rise above the crowd”… few actually take action to do so, you’re already ahead!

Own the land you’re on, it’s an appreciating asset and will greatly reduce the number of bills you have.

In the past the way of thinking in business was conquering, factories, big corporations etc. today we’ve moved into the age of the entrepreneur investor.

These are the new rule of money, the 9 – 5 is no longer the standard (or at least it’s beginning to die out!).

You must be willing to sacrifice today and forego the instant gratification, be willing to drive an old and run down car today so in the future you can drive 3 super-cars.

You must be willing to read a book or write a paper while everyone else is gossiping or watching a movie.

Stress isn’t necessarily bad, it can be used as a driver to propel you toward your goals.

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STEP 46 – ALLAN NATION’S 1,000 SHEEP AND NOT DOING IT SMALL

You must be running an operation that can be scaled in order to have impact.

Figure out your methodology and do it from the beginning before ramping up!

If you were on a farm you wouldn’t want to start with 500 sheep, you wouldn’t know what you were doing, you would want to start with 5 sheep but build the system already as if you had 500 – that way when you’re ready it’s a matter of continuing as normal with your systems.

Practise on 5, but make it practical for 500!

It’s all about systems!

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STEP 47 – THE 5% TWEAK, NOTHING JANKY, & WHEN GOOD ENOUGH IS PERFECT

Perfectionists vs. Momentum Builders

There’s neither a right or wrong, they’re merely two different types of people (I’m a momentum builder).

Building momentum is hard, making a 5% adjustment and just get started

The first million is the hardest.

The first few pounds of body fat are the hardest.

Focus on your 3 foot world (the things directly around you) like a Navy SEAL and things will begin to come together for you.

Don’t do anything janky

Janky meaning rushed or unfinished, e.g. don’t hang a picture crooked on the wall or only half screw in the bolts for your new computer desk.

Get things done fast but get them done in a complete fashion so you don’t have to go back and fix it up later.

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STEP 48 – MICHAEL JORDAN SWAGGER & AMERICAN IDOL SYNDROME

Michael Jordan was extremely cocky and confident but his coaches continue to say he was the most teachable person they’d ever seen (he listened to the 1% and ignored the 99%).

You must tune out the noise that is the 99% if you want to become successful.
Learn from the 1% – the subject matter experts. Knowledge from them will build your confidence.

Don’t fall victim to American Idol syndrome and become delusional, thinking you’re good at the wrong thing.
You can’t fool people (there’s no A list actor or singer that isn’t extremely good!)

You must do things that no one else is doing while maintaining faith that it’ll pay off in the long run (end game optimism).

Do the work then reward yourself and enjoy your accomplishments – “Pat yourself on the back on Friday, not Monday”

There’s a line between confidence and arrogance, don’t cross it as this is known as tall poppy syndrome (people don’t like this and will cut you down).

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STEP 49 – WHY JAY Z AND WARREN BUFFET LIKE BASEBALL

Warren Buffet believes the only way to learn is by mistakes, but no one said they have to be your own mistakes!

Make less mistakes than your competition (if they’re making 100 mistakes you can only afford to make 20 mistakes).

Don’t be like a baseball player attempting to wildly swing for a home run on every ball.

The bases of progression:

1st base – stopping the negative momentum

2nd base – momentum beginning to turn to positive

3rd base – you’re making progress, others are beginning to notice

home run – you hit your goal!

Once you’ve got through it all you can swing again, utilizing your new-fond momentum in order to get a home run!

Keep your mistake factor as low as possible – learn from books, from other people and simulate as much as possible as we all know mistakes can be costly (financially, lives etc.)

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STEP 50 – MASTERING THE WRONG THINGS & BLUE EYE SHADOW NUMB-NUTS

Don’t be so quick to delegate things you don’t understand.

Become a master – master your mind, your body and your environment.

Understand inversion

Instead of thinking about how to ne successful think about how not to be successful

e.g. instead of thinking about how to lose weight think about how to not lose weight

• You wont lose weight by eating junk food
• You wont lose weight by eating large portions
• You wont lose weight with a exercise-free lifestyle

Master the right thing but don’t be so stubborn about the path you take to get there.

Be stubborn about the end goal, not the means of achieving it (this is falling victim to another cognitive bias).

Look for people with blue eye shadow when you’re looking for help – these are the people with scars and bags under their eyes… the experienced veterans.

Seek the right balance of doing it yourself vs. outsourcing.

Don’t give vendors second chances… only family deserves a second chance.

“Hire fast, fire fast”

“Only masters are remembered” e.g. Alexander the Great, Picasso, Bill Gates…

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STEP 51 – CHATTING WITH WITTGENSTEIN’S LION

Ideas form EVERYTHING – everything great starts in the mind (the idea of electricity, technology etc.)

If a lion could speak we wouldn’t understand him – although the vast majority of communication is non-verbal.
For example, I can’t understand or speak Chinese but I can pick up on tonality, body language, expression, volume etc.

80% of communicate is non-verbal.

“Being understood is the foundation of persuasion”

You cannot afford to be egocentric.

Getting what you want in life comes down to effective communication.

You must become a master of the soft skills of communication:

• Tonality
• Body language
• Volume
• Adjusting tone
• Smiling
• Timing

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STEP 52 – PARETO EFFICIENCIES & THE BUSINESS TRIPLE ENTENTE

A Pareto efficiency is a win/win situation.

“Don’t go to war unless you have to”

Everything you do should focus on the win/win.

There are 3 levels of business in existence:

Level 1 business

• One party wins at the expense of others
• There’s often an uproar against these businesses
• Examples include fast food and thieves

Level 2 business

• Not too good and not too bad
• Neutral thoughts on business
• Examples are coffee shops and discount retail stores
• A “good” business to own

Level 3 business

• Win/win businesses!
• Customers LOVE to give you money
• Oprah and best-selling authors are examples of level 3 business

Avoid the win/lose business scenarios.

Always have a safety net in your business and your life, be conservative with your estimates and calculations.

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STEP 53 – THE SECOND RULE IS NEVER FORGET THE FIRST RULE

You must set out to create and then capture value.

You cannot expect to be successful if you merely create but do not capture, that’s the equivalent of a world class artist doing a painting then never revealing it to the world.

The 2 step process to success is therefore:

• Create value
• Capture

 

The more value you create the higher the potential for demand – there’s not a lot of demand for people juggling chain saws on fire because they do not provide much in the way of value.

Ensure what YOU are doing is creating value (this is called veracity testing).

The world responds to seed (you taking action and putting in the work) not need (your selfish desires and demands).

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STEP 54 – CHESS-LIKE ASSIDUITY & ARMCHAIR MEDITATION

You must be able to sit in a chair and think.

Don’t fall into the trap of working IN (day to day) your business instead of ON (growth) your business.

You must have the correct mix of being balanced in your thinking – focus on the moment but do not forget where you want to be in the future.

Chess-like day dreaming involves thinking ahead and thinking deeply.

Think in ‘moves’ as if you were playing a game of chess.

Choose an issue in your life – ask yourself a deep question, answer it, go deep on the answer etc.

Focus on each move and one problem at a time.

We’re all able to diagnose problems correctly… that’s easy.

BUT

We can’t find a solution because we’re too deep into the problem itself this is why multi-level (move based) problem solving is necessary.

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STEP 55 – THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE & THE TARDY TREE SLOTH

Learn to invert your thinking.

As Sherlock Holmes said “remove all that can’t be true and you’ll find what is true“

For example, if you want to be successful in business look at how NOT to be successful in business & do the opposite.

Think about it…

How could you get unhealthy fast?

• Eating junk food
• Eating too much
• Minimal exercise

How could you lose money and be poor fast?

• Spend more than you save
• Make poor investments
• Not value money

How could you find yourself in a terrible relationship?

• Ignoring the obvious signs
• Not looking at how compatible you are
• Rushing into a relationship for the sake of it
• Not listening to the advice of others

Sloth & unreliability according to Charlie Munger is the #1 way to ensure you’ll be unsuccessful.

You MUST know yourself.

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STEP 56 – FLOATING ACROSS THE PACIFIC ON A RAFT AND WHY SITTING BULL LIKED TO BE SHOT AT

Don’t float in the wrong direction like the average person

• The average person is getting fatter
• The average person saves $2 out of every $100

You must be brave and courageous in life, know when to hold them and when to fold them (courage doesn’t mean going all out and making irrational decisions!)

In order to gain courage make sure you’re reading biographies of the greats (Arnold Schwarzenegger etc.) before you go to bed.

Take cold showers to toughen up!

Subject yourself to uncomfortable situations like the ancient Spartans and stoics – the average millionaire has more courage than the general population.

Listen to the wise words of the courageous Chief Tecumseh:

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and
Demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life,
Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and
Its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and
Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and
For the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks,
The fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing,
For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts
Are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes
They weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again
In a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

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STEP 57 – UNSTUMPABILITY & SHERLOCK HOLMES SLEUTHING

Be unstumpable – aka. a subject matter expert.

You must strive to know everything in your field, a heart surgeon doesn’t fix broken bones but you’d still expect them to know how many bones are in the human body.

Be sure that you’re able to answer the hardest 3 – 5 questions about your subject/industry.

For example when it comes to the fitness/health industry this may be along the lines of:

• Does calorie counting actually work?
• Are there any benefits to following a fasting diet?
• Why should I do HIIT (interval training) instead of steady state cardio
• What is protein synthesis?

I would expect a fitness author, a personal trainer and a nutritionist to know the answer to all of these questions.

In order to become more aware (and unstumpable) you must be curious.

Every great person started off with curiosity.

Be like Sherlock Holmes and investigate/sleuth everything – what do the buttons on your phone do? How many lights are on your cars dashboard?

Before seeking a relationship or investor invert the situation and ask yourself:

“Would I invest in me?”

“Would I marry me?”

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STEP 58 – DEATH BY FAINT PRAISE AND CHARLIE MUNGER’S GRANDFATHER

We all only get a few opportunities in life – when you see a big opportunity in life you MUST seize it as chances are there aren’t many more coming your way.

Do not be patiently impatient (PI).

Opt to be impatiently patient (IP).

Faint praise will be your downfall – if you’re being told you’re “good” then you’re in for trouble as good is the enemy of great.
You don’t get remembered for good work, you get remembered if you’re the best.

Faint praise won’t get you a pay rise, faint praise won’t get you a promotion, faint praise won’t get you remembered when the history books are written.

As Seneca said in On The Shortness of Life “be frugal with your time, not your money”

In order to seize and conquer the few colossal opportunities you do encounter you can’t just be good, you must be great.

Be great BEFORE you are met with opportunity, be ready at all times.

For example, if Arnold Schwarzenegger was skinny when he met Joe Weider he wouldn’t have gotten in competing, acting and the like – there’s no time to say “give me 10 years to build muscle” – you must already have the muscle!

As the old saying goes “be so good they can’t ignore you”

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STEP 59 – THE DILIGENT CELEBRITY & MEETING THE KING

Exercise diligence and skill over time.

“See you a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” Proverbs 22:29

Your tool belt must be comprised of an event amount of hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are tangible skills such as:

• Programming
• Engineering
• HTML web design

Soft skills are the intangible skills such as:

• Speaking
• Persuasion
• Likability
• Timing

You should seek out ‘local celebrity status’ this is the earned respect of your peers – this could be your football team, your family or your neighbors depending on the scenario.

You cannot be like a computer programmer and have no intangible skills (and only know programming) at the same time if you’re great with soft skills you must link these with several hard tangible skills.

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STEP 60 – THE DUTCH BIG GULP

When it comes to drinking beer there’s two types of drinkers… these are the sippers that take their time to savor the drink, the opposite is the gulper.
The gulper has trained themselves over time to consume a large amount of liquid in a short amount of time, bypassing the natural tendency of our throat.

You must be impatiently patient when it comes to knowledge and accomplishment like the gulper.

You cannot afford to be patiently impatient like the sipper, thinking you have a lifetime to accomplish your goals because we do not know how many days we have left.

Don’t act as if you were immortal and have time to sip away at knowledge and accomplishment.

Seneca said it best in ‘On the Shortness of Life’:

“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire”

There’s no guarantee you’re going to outlive a healthy 95 year old just because you’re 25 (we’re not guaranteed a set number of days or years left to live).

Don’t become too soon old and too late smart.

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STEP 61 – THE $495,000 HONDA ACCORD

“You can do anything but you can’t do everything”

EVERYTHING has a cost, regardless of whether there’s a monetary cost there will always be a time and energy cost.
Your time and energy are far more precious than your money, as you can make more money – we all can… but as Stephen Hawking has discovered we can and never will be able to generate more time or go back in time.

It may cost $10 to go to the movies but that is far from the actual cost of attending the movies.

Say you’re a hedge fund manager that makes $1 M a day…. spending 2 hours at the movies just cost you the $10 cost of the movie ticket and 2 hours of your time worth $83,3332.00.

That’s not even the total opportunity cost as we haven’t taken into account projected value… perhaps this hedge fund manager makes 10x return on each hour spent working over the course of 10 years… the long term cost of that movie was 8.3 M!

Become a mater of opportunity cost by looking to the future.

“It’s not what you spend it’s the value you’ll get”

This is why sometimes its worth buying the most expensive option, in the case of hardware tools it pays to get quality that’ll last and do a better job.

Don’t spend large amounts of money on things that RRD (rust, rot or depreciate).

Spend your funds on investing in yourself and assets that will appreciate over time.

You must deploy your cash into investments as wealth is created by spending money (if you leave your cash under a mattress it’ll slowly but surely get eaten away by inflation).

Knowledge that adjusts our instincts is the type of knowledge you want.

Everything is quantifiable:

• Your waist size
• The balance of your bank account
• The number of friends you have

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STEP 62 – $20 BILLION GIFT FROM STRANGERS & BUILDING FORGIVENESS INTO THE LAND

Sadness comes in the form of regression. (this is due to the contrast bias)

Keep a little bit of fear in your life, it is essential if you wish to guard the success you’ve already obtained (don’t become too comfortable and rest on your loins!)

Build a life with a wide margin of safety (for example, have multiple income streams, have 2 baby sitters available… it’s all about redundancy of systems)

Build good will in other people – help them, give them gifts etc. as this is known as ‘building forgiveness’.

Nelson Mandella spent 27 years in jail, however he had built a ton of good will and forgiveness in others prior to going to jail, upon his release everyone helped him spread his message!

We all generally life long enough to experience a form of ‘hell on earth’ when we do so it’s imperative we have built up that forgiveness to help us through.

Build forgiveness with your body by going to the gym.

Build forgiveness with your bank account by saving and investing instead of squandering your income.

Build forgiveness with your joints by stretching and performing yoga on a regular basis.

“Do what’s hard when it’s easy”

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STEP 63 – ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S AGGRESSION AND THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR AGE

Tomorrow is never promised – ensure you’ve got a goal set for today.

When you’re rising up you cannot afford to take a day off, do a bit of practise towards your craft every single day.

Don’t be too patient, your birth certificate age doesn’t guarantee how long your life will be.

Start as if you were going to die tomorrow but pursue big things as if you were going to live forever.

Begin impatiently but understand that the end goal takes time (in all things health, wealth, love and happiness).

Fear is conquered by adopting the abundance mindset, but remember we are not abundant in time.

You must have the courage to overcome the fear of death or it will take you.

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STEP 64 – FORGETTING WHO’S IN THE ROOM

It’s not what you say or feel… it’s what you do.

What you think may change what you do

BUT

What you do will change what you think

“Sometimes you don’t have anything to add” – know when you’re in a room full of the 33% of better above you and listen intently.

Pay attention to who is in the room with you, for example your response would be different if your broke your leg depending on who is there with you…

If you were with a room full of babies you’d have to help yourself (33% below you).

If you were with a room full of friends they would assist you (33% on your level).

If you were with a room full of medical doctors you’d shut up and listen and let them help you (33% above you).

Don’t fall victim to the ‘everything is a nail when you have a hammer’ mentality, change based on who you are with.

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STEP 65 – THE PIERIAN SPRING & FROM WHENCE COMETH THE PRIDE

It takes in excess of 14,000 hours to become an expert at something so limit your convictions… you’re not an expert just yet!

Read more, constantly be on a quest for new knowledge.

Be about results, not the method used to get them.

You must earn your chaps and get your scars before you’re a know it all – don’t become delusional before then.

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STEP 66 – ELVIS PRESLEY & THE PERSISTENT WIDOW

Show up every single day, as to get what you want you must be persistent.
Sticking to things is the name of the game.

Don’t fall victim to the media bias (it didn’t take Bill Gates a day or two to attain his success… he locked himself in a cubical for 10 dark years without taking a day off!)

You must have adequate knowledge and adequate potential along with the dedication to take courageous action consistently – this is the recipe for success.

As Bruce Lee said “I fear not the man who has practiced 10000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10000 times.”

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STEP 67 – ANNIHILATING THE AMYGDALA & MPFC MASTERY

Get things done, don’t strive for the absolute level of perfection because you’ll never get anything done! The only time you need utter perfection is if you’re in the airline business.

Negative comments to some degree are a given (you can’t please everyone as we all see things in different ways – what some will perceive as good others will perceive as bad).

Social pressure triggers fear but you cannot please all the people all the time.

Don’t be afraid to spend a lot of your income on knowledge and gaining wisdom, no one has ever reached their death bed and exclaimed “Oh I wish I didn’t spend so much money on books!”

Your brain is ultimately re-wired via exposure therapy – get out there and put yourself in those uncomfortable situations and they’ll soon become normal (the re-wiring is taking place!)

Money can be earned… time and energy cannot be earned or re-run.. they’re ultimately finite.

Don’t wish for an easy life, don’t wish for everything to be given to you as ultimately happiness is found in the struggle.

“The hard is what makes it great” this is memory happiness.

Read These Books

Throughout the 67 steps Tai mentions a large number of books, however the books listed below are discussed the most and from my experience (reading and owning them) have provided the most value.

• Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger

• Made in America by Sam Walton

• The Everything Store by Jeff Bezos

• On The Shortness of Life by Seneca

• Screw it, let’s do it by Richard Branson

• A billion the hard way by J R Simplot

Are Tai Lopez’s 67 Steps A Scam?

Nope.

I recommended purchasing Tai Lopez’s 67 Steps, loading them onto your phone or a USB and listening to one per day.
While you’re commuting, while you’re performing your morning cardio, while you’re laying in bed at night…

There’s a hell of a lot of knowledge here and my notes barely scratch the surface, I recommend listening to one step per day, taking your own notes in a journal and implementing and taking action based on what you learn.

Don’t just listen, make sure you’re absorbing and implementing as that’s the key.