Spice

Every successful person in history, regardless of the era, the industry, or their personal circumstances walked this path towards success.  Either consciously and intentionally or not, they used these five steps.  The first step, which John D Rockefeller called the father of success, and the one step that cannot be missed is an extreme self-belief. Self belief is an idea we have of ourselves that defines our future state as we wish it to be, coupled with the confidence we can make this idea a reality.  The second step, the one I think is the most difficult, or elusive step, is intense curiosity turned into an obsessive passion. Obsession is what happens when an entire being excitedly, passionately, becomes immersed in another being. Whether that other being is another person, an idea, or an occupation even. That’s what we are looking for.  The third step in this path is extreme level of focus. Focus is having the discipline to direct all your attention towards your obsessive passion. Anything and everything that distracts you from this vision, from your path, must be eliminated.  The fourth step is the ability to mute the world, ignoring both the praise and the naysayers. If Focus is about attention and discipline, this fourth step is about conviction. The conviction that your grand vision for yourself will turn out to be real. The conviction that your taste, style, approach, are based on capabilities coming from deep within, that other people don’t and can’t understand. And the last step, step number five that practically every successful person I ever studied followed, is being consistent. Staying in the game longer than most, or at least long enough. Being consistent is about self-control to do whatever needs to be done, regardless of whether you feel like doing it at the moment. Emotional intensity is far less important in the long run than disciplined consistency.

Mastery, in any field, is the ability to transform a thought, an idea, into a reality. But we must remember that creation never comes from a complete void. As Mary Shelley said: “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.” And that is because: ‘creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.’ Our work, or creations, our innovations, are only possible because we are connecting, bringing new order, to the work of the greats who came before us. As Isaac Newton said: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  And the best way, actually perhaps the only way, to create, is by first copy the greats and their work. And that is because, imitation precedes creation. 

"We live in an age of infinite leverage. Your actions could be multiplied a thousand fold, because now you can influence thousands or millions of people through your decisions, or your code. In this age, the most important skills, is judgment." This very important key lesson, is by Naval Ravikant. In this episode we understand what Naval meant by that, which forms of leverage we can use today, and what and how to develop this most important skill - judgment.

Speed matters in business. It matters in business because, as the two stories we used demonstrate, a/ things are simply moving fast - especially these days with the advancements and transformations of technology, and b/ - because our competition never waits. So today, we learn how we can move faster. To move faster in business we need to learn how to make decisions faster.  And to make decisions faster, we need to follow a combination of the following steps:  Be comfortable with failure,  Segment decisions in 1 way, or 2 ways doors decision - no worries, I explain what that is in the episode, Have an extreme long term view. And,  Build your operational principles, your 'ten commandments'. I hope you enjoyed it.

This phrase, evolving through the centuries, was always describing people who failed to master a single craft, and which by whatever circumstances and forces, either willingly or not, were meddlers and fixers, who could do many things well, but not one thing great.  In this episode we break this key lesson, this warning down, and learn how to avoid it. The power of focus, of achieving mastery in a single thing, is what we are looking for here. Like Matthew told us in the Bible - No man can serve two masters. for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. I would love to know what you think about this episode, and on Spice in general - leave me a note!

Steve Jobs once said: When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is, and your life, or your job, is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. But that’s a very limited life. Life could be much broader once you discover one simple fact. And that is, that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change that, you can influence that. You can build your own things that other people can use. Today, we are going to understand which noises are limiting us from following our path, how to mute them, and how to go about building the world as we believe it should be.

This week, we brake down James Clear's key lesson, understanding how we define our identity to be aligned with our core beliefs, and with the person you want to become. As James told us: You may want better health, but if you continue to prioritize comfort over accomplishment, you’ll be drawn to relaxing rather than training. The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.

What Marcus Aurelius, the emperor of Rome is teaching us, is that what prevents action, actually advances action. The barrier that stands in your way, is what will define your way.  If the impediment to action turns out to advance our action, we want more impediments. We want to be challenged, we want to face trials, we want obstacles to appear on our path. In today's episode, we will cover three parts: First, we’ll understand what Marcus Aurelius meant when writing this line in his journal.  Second, and because this key lesson is about perception and having the right mindset - you and I will understand how we can position ourselves, and adapt our mind so we can use it.  Lastly, I think you and I will need some good examples of how this looks when applied by other masters.

In this episode we break down Richard Koch's Key lesson, and understanding how to identify opportunities for non-linear returns on our investment, work, and effort. The episode is divided into 3 parts: So first, I want you to better understand who Richard Koch is, and why I am so obsessed with his work.  Second, we’ll break down the principle behind today’s key-lesson - the 80/20 principle, or the Pareto rule.  Third, you and I will understand how we can find 80/20 opportunities in our lives A summary of the episode: You do not usually get back what you put in; you may sometimes get very much less and sometimes get very much more. Creative systems operate away from equilibrium. Cause and effect, input and output, operate in a non-linear way. At any one time, people of equal intelligence, skill and dedication can produce quite unequal results, as a result of small structural differences.  The game is to spot the few places where you are making great surpluses and to maximize them; and to identify the places where you are losing time and energy, and get out.

No matter where you live in the world you must learn how to deal with, and how to influence power. So as you and I are building our mastery - we must learn how to keep the initiative, to get others to react to our moves, to keep our opponents and those around us on the defensive. If you want to win, in any game you choose to play in life - this episode is for you. When you make other people come to you, you suddenly become the one controlling the situation. And the one who has control has power. Two things must happen to place you in this position: You yourself must learn to master your emotions, and never to be influenced by anger; meanwhile, however, you must play on people’s natural tendency to react angrily when pushed and baited.