7 Semi-Controversial Rules For Success - Shaan Puri | Modern Wisdom 683

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Hark Work is Massively Overrated

Why does Shaan like having controversial opinions?

A: You always look cool when you have some.

B: He learned that most of the things we believe to be true are just stories we're told, i.e., religion, education, etc.

He asked himself, "What are things that almost nobody disagrees with, and are those really true?”

He realized, “Growing up, I was told hard work is what’s most important; hard work is the key to success.” He heard about hard work from time to time.

Eventually, Shaan came to the conclusion that what you do is far more important than how hard you work on that thing.

He believed the hardest working people are:

• People who works at restaurant.

• Farmers.

• Janitors.

• Cleaning lady and so on.

So if hard work is the key to success, why didn’t these people get rich???? These are some of the hardest-working people…

Answer: Hard work will let you win the game that you’re playing, but it doesn’t help if you choose the wrong game.

What you decide to do with your time, talent and work ethic is far more important.

Keep in mind that he’s not saying hard work is useless, but choosing what you should be working hard for.

Shaan's Key Success Factors:

1. What you work on.

2. Who you are around with or work with.

3. —blank—

4. Hard work.

Most Underrated Skills in the World Right Now?

Enthusiasm, most people don’t even consider this a skill.

That’s how underrated it is.

Quick Story:

Shaan joined a company, they have about 20 employees and he was the youngest. He looked around and saw engineers, designer and other talented individuals.

This made him feel inferior, and he believed he didn't have any proficient skills like they did.

So he asked himself, “What am I good at? Why am I here?” while having imposter syndrome.

Shaan finally realized that he had an abundance of enthusiasm. He was very excited about what they’re doing.

Sounds cheap and useless right?

Yes, until you’re around people who lack enthusiasm, it brings excitement and levels people up, and it's like fuel for your energy, which is essential for productivity in the workplace.

So how do we develop this skill?

Whatever you’re doing, try to have “Honey, I’m Home!” energy. Shaan said it really well, so let me just put the timestamp: 23:00.

Optimism Gets Rewarded

There’s a saying in Silicon Valley, it goes — In Silicon Valley, the cynics gets to be right and the optimists gets to be rich.

Yes, the cynics are right; 9/10, they're right. But what's the purpose of being right if it doesn't serve you or hinders your ability to grow?

What if we add a little optimism for flavor?

Always being an optimist may not always be the way to go, but it does increase your chances of success and can improve your mental well-being.

And being an optimist might just be the key that opens the door to the 1/10 that leads to success.

Default Optimism rather than Default Pessimism

As you’ve just heard, it’s evident that Silicon Valley has discovered the power of optimism and its capabilities.

They make their brain default to optimism.

How did they do this?

They rewired their brain to imagine it as a game where optimism is rewarded.

Secret to Emotional Stability

Have you ever had a bad mood because you lost 10 games in a row or some other trivial thing? If you’re like me, you’ll be mad as f@!#.

We're usually very sensitive and short-tempered when we are upset. Which could lead to unwanted events.

It could also be due to stress, but in general, this is not good for our wellbeing or even for our family, friends, etc.

So, how did successful people handle themselves?

There's a quote that beautifully captures how successful individuals handle themselves:

I believe you have seen this quote somewhere or in shorts, reels, or tiktok.

Shaan loved this quote—he's certain that in any moment he’s going to feel something, so why not feel like the best?

Most people make their emotional home, their neutral feeling nothing; they start at 0.

• If good things happen, I’ll feel good.

• If bad things happen, I’ll feel worse.

Conversely, remarkable people's emotional home is not 0, it’s closer to 10. Their feelings are untouchable, unstoppable and unshakable. They enjoy this feeling, so they just start there.

Triangle of Belief — or —The Brain Wants You To Be Right.

The power of doubts.

Have you ever started a project only to question its viability the next week?

Big YES for me, and I assure you that I took minimal work because of my doubts. Which leads to little to no result, thereby reinforcing my doubt.

That means I’m right, “Hooooray!!!!”

But wait, just like the Silicon Valley story, are having doubts taking me closer to my goals?

Mostly no, and we’re soaking in negativity, which isn't beneficial and contagious.

What if switch from doubts to belief?

The Power of belief.

For instance, if you have a strong conviction about your projects, it will lead to massive actions, potentially resulting in significant improvements or big results, which will further strengthen your convictions.

3 Principles of Story Telling (3rd one’s the best)

Could you tell me what you learned in 7th grade? I think not.

What about the plot of The Lion King? I bet you could :)

That’s the power of story telling and also music.

How can we harness this power? What do we need to do??

Shaan unlocked this by listening to Aaron Sorkin. He took his masterclass, and after 30 minutes, he noticed a recurring principle—“Stories revolve around intention and obstacles.

Let's explore this principle in movies:

• Hero wants peace = Intention.

• There are criminals everywhere = Obstacle.

This is great but can be made more interesting by sprinkling some stakes.

Stakes are what make a story compelling.

The Lion King movie stake:

• Scar's tyranny has led to the degradation of the Pride Lands, causing drought and famine.

• Simba needs to embrace his true identity as the rightful king and fulfill his responsibilities, or he will continue to live in exile.

As you can see, this makes the story more intriguing.

No Stories, just Vibes

All this time, I though podcasting was asking your guest questions and listening to them. Oh Boy, I was wrong.

Even Chris Williamson gets it wrong, in his own words: “I thought the job of a podcaster was to be a blinkist to your guests. To ruthlessly index what’s in their heads.”

But what’s really important is vibe, aka meandering.

Joe Rogan is the epitome of meandering. If you say “eagle” to him, the next 15 minutes will be about birds. Then the next will be a theory about government birds.

If You’re In Your Head, You’re Dead

Have you ever tried think your way to happiness — like going through happy moments?

I did, and it felt good, but sadly, you can’t think your way to happiness in most cases, especially the satisfaction that you get from success.

It’s like trying to talk your way through cooking. Talking about the recipes doesn’t put food on the table—taking action does.

Thinking and taking action are two different things.

Shaan even used to believed that, “If you think a certain thing, you will feel a certain way, which will lead you to do a certain thing”.

But Shaan realized it’s reversible like math equation. And it actually works better according to him.

The Reverse Power

If you do a thing, you will feel differently, which will cause you to think differently.

I can confirm this is true. If you have ever tried to walk in the morning around 4 to 5 A.M., you’ll tell yourself:

• I’m going to be very tired if I do this, and I have to work at 8 P.M.

• There’s no way to walk in this condition—I’m too tired.

• I didn’t get enough sleep last night.

But it turns out, when Shaan short circuit that thinking and just get up and walk, he feel more energized than ever—his mood went up to the horizon and my emotions are more stable.

But it turns out, when Shaan short-circuits that thinking and just gets up and walks, he feels more energized than ever—his mood went up to the horizon, and his emotions are more stable.

So if you want to feel differently, you have two choices:

1. Think something differently

2. Do something differently

The latter works better according to Shaan.

With the appearance of psychedelics, there’s a way to change the mind within the mind. Isolating the mind to cycle on itself.

I’m not opposed to this, but if you can achieve this for free while simultaneously improving your well-being, I don’t have a reason not to.

Minimalism

Shaan actually had a realization about “Minimalism” while Chris Williamson is talking.

He believes it's becoming "vogue" to have a minimalist lifestyle. It's scattered in different areas except for one, "mental.”

We are distracted mentally—there’s too much consumption of mental models and frameworks, which is actually counterproductive for us.

There’s a huge disproportion between information and action. Without implementing what we know, we can’t get that deep sense of understanding.

How can we solve this problem?

Just like Bruce Lee’s quote, Shaan concludes that it’s better to stick to and understand a few principles.

And the way Shaan finds the right principles is by choosing principles that resonate and that could change over time.

Just as there are different seasons in your life, there are different principles that will speak to you at different times.

Is This Relevant For Me?

Chris Williamson stated — individuals who reach the pinnacle of their profession have this thing called “Phase blocking”.

They would block down days, months, years, or even decades. This gives them clarity and prevents them from being mentally distracted. Allowing them to be focused and ruthlessly efficient in their actions.

Examples:

• Jeff Bezos questioned every single decision while he was at Amazon, asking, "Does this improve the customer experience?"

• Elon Musk consistently asked, "Does this get us closer to Mars?”

Aspiring To Be A Billionaire Is A Stupid Goal

As a kid, Shaan has a desire to become a billionaire, believing they have all the things he wished for.

But as he got older, he realized it’s pointless. They worked their whole life just to give it away.

So it seems that accumulating cash beyond a certain point doesn’t matter.

So Shaan is against abundance?

No, because people who are against this just hate individuals who win in general. Shaan admires and respects their hard work.

Particularly, individuals who pick the right game to play, who choose a game or design a game of their own liking.

I’m certain you’ve heard people who gather an abundance of money use it on worthless things, especially rappers.

Shaan believed there’s a certain checkpoint where it matters—above that, we can say it’s futile.

So if abundance of money isn’t important, what is?

Abundance of TIME.

Even Shaan said when he was 21, he wanted what those 40-year-old billionaires had.

But now that he’s 35 (at this point in time), all he wants is what 21-year-olds have:

1. Time

2. Energy

3. Freedom

Shaan’s way of finding out what to do with his life is by asking a simple question, “Who is having the most fun in their career?”

He’d knew a lot of successful people, but apparently, they are not having fun. And the scariest part is, when you ask , “Are you having fun?”, they said YES.

But if you observe them closely, they’re not.

If you ask yourself:

1. Who’s winning the money game?

2. Who’s winning the audience game?

I'm certain you can name 10 of them each.

But what if you ask yourself “Who’s having the most dominating fun in life?”.

It’ll be a lot harder than the last two questions.

The Life-Changing Benefits of Hiring an Assistant or Power of Delegation

Are you following the crowd or average people?

We, as humans, have a tendency to do what is considered reasonable. By "reasonable," I mean something that appears convenient or is commonly practiced by groups of people.

And there's nothing wrong with this, as we often learn from our parents and peers.

However, we're not babies anymore. We should ask ourselves, "Will following the crowd bring me closer to my goal?" The answer will most likely be NO.

Sampling Billionaire Lifestyles

Have you ever seen the extravagant possessions of a wealthy person, such as a self-closing toilet or a pool that can encircle their house?

Seems pointless right? or is it?

Be honest, do you genuinely think it’s pointless, or are you saying this out of bitterness?

Shaan used to have the same issue. Whenever he encountered people with such luxuries, he would, out of bitterness, say, "Oh, that's stupid; I wouldn't want that.”

Making up stories to make himself better.

His friend notices he’s talking very differently in these situations. Calling him out by saying, “Like Black Belt to another trying to master their minds—you're acting differently; it seems like it’s bothering you for not having these things.”

He continues to give him advice., "Instead of lying to yourself, what if you pretend it's like a trip to Costco, where you get to walk around and sample various lifestyles to figure out which suits you?”

The advice completely flipped his mindset, allowing him to make better decisions when encountering such situations and making him feel privileged.

🎉You’ve made it to the end🎉

If you like this summary, feel free to check out the full video because I cut out some interesting things.

The video I summarized is by Chris Williamson. You can check the full video on their YouTube channel.

For this particular video, Click here or the thumbnail.