Because I was born very intelligent, I’ve been trained from youth to accept nothing but being the very best at what I do.
As a result, I’ve developed a very obsessive personality - it’s not enough to succeed at something for me, I must know WHY I have been successful and what the key to that success is. Because it is only such knowledge that can guarantee success in the future.
I also have OCD, an anxiety disorder that manifests through obsessive thinking about potentially bad things that can happen.
This is both a gift and a curse.
A curse because it makes many aspects of life very painful, a gift because you can do things that most other people can’t.
For example, it has made me a very good chess player, because I contemplate positions and moves that most other people won’t, and hence I’ve developed a very keen ability to calculate many moves in advance.
I also remember playing World of Warcraft as a youth when it first came out. And I spent about 30 days of actual playtime, and probably 90 days researching on forums. My dream in the game was finding the best PvP (Player vs Player) class and then playing that and dominating everyone. The trouble was that there were a lot of people having opinions… rogue is best, no it’s shadow priest, whatever.
But very few people had actual knowledge, even those who statistically were very good. So I quickly learned that asking people isn’t a very efficient way to build knowledge in all those areas of life where there is disagreement between men.
When you ask, all you get in return is someone’s opinion. Not knowledge. Not the truth. And how can you base your life on hearsay?
This has translated to business.
I’d say that my personality has been the key to my success so far in business. That same obsessiveness which can be a negative in life, can be turned into a positive in business. It can make you contemplate possibilities that others miss, and leave no stone unturned in your effort to be the best.
I know that some people on this forum don’t believe it’s possible to read thousands of books. Well, I have read thousands of books. For me, it was never enough to be successful, I had to uncover the secrets of success, those things that if done, would guarantee success, assuming no outside event intervenes.
So understanding success in this way, it’s not enough to BE successful, you need to develop a comprehensive theory that explains why you became successful while so many others failed. Something that can be used to generate succes.
And that’s how the path to success begins — you need to experiment & theorize, always doubting if you’re correct. Not with “mindset” and “self-belief”, but the exact opposite: not knowing. How will you BUILD the knowledge you need to be successful? How will you rip out of the universe all the secrets you need?
The trouble is most people do just one of those two activities. Usually the most successful people in the world experiment a lot, but they do precious little theorizing. This becomes problematic when it comes to replicating success or teaching it to someone else. Without a theory, you’re never too sure why you succeeded, and hence, you’ll fall victim to that very dangerous enemy called OPINION. In this case, your own opinion, but nevertheless, an opinion, not knowledge.
So as I described here, that’s how I run my business today:
HOT! - CHAT - Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread
I theorize. I come up with new ideas and I always doubt myself. Do I really have the best way to acquire new customers? Is there some better way to acquire customers? More economical? Faster? Of course I could ask those questions on the forum. But… what would I get in return? Opinions, not knowledge.
So the only response is to stop asking, and start experimenting in response to your theories. See for yourself what is truly true and what is really false, regardless of the prejudices other people have.
This means a willingness to “fail”. A willingness to invest your time in dead ends. Most people here are terrified of dead ends or wasting their time. But dead ends are precious, they show you what doesn’t work, which upgrades your theories and perfects your knowledge. And it gives you certainty about what DOES work.
Failure truly is the stepping stone to success.
Of course this approach involves a whole lot more work on your end. You can’t take things for granted. But keep following it, and you’ll end up by building your own personal library of real knowledge — theories that are tested in reality that you can count on to build better processes over time.
And it involves a whole lot more suffering — it’s painful to always doubt yourself and never be sure. But that’s the pain required to give birth to knowledge.
I hope this gives you the inklings of a novel way to approach business, a more comprehensive way. Or if not, I hope you’ve at least found it an inquisitive read that has sparked a few new thoughts about your own business and your own journey. Thanks for reading.
As a result, I’ve developed a very obsessive personality - it’s not enough to succeed at something for me, I must know WHY I have been successful and what the key to that success is. Because it is only such knowledge that can guarantee success in the future.
I also have OCD, an anxiety disorder that manifests through obsessive thinking about potentially bad things that can happen.
This is both a gift and a curse.
A curse because it makes many aspects of life very painful, a gift because you can do things that most other people can’t.
For example, it has made me a very good chess player, because I contemplate positions and moves that most other people won’t, and hence I’ve developed a very keen ability to calculate many moves in advance.
I also remember playing World of Warcraft as a youth when it first came out. And I spent about 30 days of actual playtime, and probably 90 days researching on forums. My dream in the game was finding the best PvP (Player vs Player) class and then playing that and dominating everyone. The trouble was that there were a lot of people having opinions… rogue is best, no it’s shadow priest, whatever.
But very few people had actual knowledge, even those who statistically were very good. So I quickly learned that asking people isn’t a very efficient way to build knowledge in all those areas of life where there is disagreement between men.
When you ask, all you get in return is someone’s opinion. Not knowledge. Not the truth. And how can you base your life on hearsay?
This has translated to business.
I’d say that my personality has been the key to my success so far in business. That same obsessiveness which can be a negative in life, can be turned into a positive in business. It can make you contemplate possibilities that others miss, and leave no stone unturned in your effort to be the best.
I know that some people on this forum don’t believe it’s possible to read thousands of books. Well, I have read thousands of books. For me, it was never enough to be successful, I had to uncover the secrets of success, those things that if done, would guarantee success, assuming no outside event intervenes.
So understanding success in this way, it’s not enough to BE successful, you need to develop a comprehensive theory that explains why you became successful while so many others failed. Something that can be used to generate succes.
And that’s how the path to success begins — you need to experiment & theorize, always doubting if you’re correct. Not with “mindset” and “self-belief”, but the exact opposite: not knowing. How will you BUILD the knowledge you need to be successful? How will you rip out of the universe all the secrets you need?
The trouble is most people do just one of those two activities. Usually the most successful people in the world experiment a lot, but they do precious little theorizing. This becomes problematic when it comes to replicating success or teaching it to someone else. Without a theory, you’re never too sure why you succeeded, and hence, you’ll fall victim to that very dangerous enemy called OPINION. In this case, your own opinion, but nevertheless, an opinion, not knowledge.
So as I described here, that’s how I run my business today:
HOT! - CHAT - Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread
I theorize. I come up with new ideas and I always doubt myself. Do I really have the best way to acquire new customers? Is there some better way to acquire customers? More economical? Faster? Of course I could ask those questions on the forum. But… what would I get in return? Opinions, not knowledge.
So the only response is to stop asking, and start experimenting in response to your theories. See for yourself what is truly true and what is really false, regardless of the prejudices other people have.
This means a willingness to “fail”. A willingness to invest your time in dead ends. Most people here are terrified of dead ends or wasting their time. But dead ends are precious, they show you what doesn’t work, which upgrades your theories and perfects your knowledge. And it gives you certainty about what DOES work.
Failure truly is the stepping stone to success.
Of course this approach involves a whole lot more work on your end. You can’t take things for granted. But keep following it, and you’ll end up by building your own personal library of real knowledge — theories that are tested in reality that you can count on to build better processes over time.
And it involves a whole lot more suffering — it’s painful to always doubt yourself and never be sure. But that’s the pain required to give birth to knowledge.
I hope this gives you the inklings of a novel way to approach business, a more comprehensive way. Or if not, I hope you’ve at least found it an inquisitive read that has sparked a few new thoughts about your own business and your own journey. Thanks for reading.
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