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Commodity

We all think we are special snowflakes. Unique. Valuable.

Certainly in my business I see myself and the little company in that light. We deliberately play in a small niche and we do pretty well.

Sometimes I see myself and my skills as unique in certain ways. But I’m not, really. I’m on the pretty fucking good to pretty fucking awesome spectrum (sometimes falling off the left side of the spectrum into average or awful).

Note what that self-assessment implies.

It implies that even on my best days I am not the unquestioned best in the world. And the variability in my performance confirms that. The best in the world would not fall off the chart like that. Failures would be within the normal spectrum.

So I’m a commodity.

Let’s look at Seth Godwin’s Linchpin, at page 233.

If you’re not the best in the world (the customer’s world) at your unique talent, then it’s not a unique talent, is it? Which means you have only two choices:

1. Develop the other attributes that make you a linchpin.

2. Get a lot better at your unique talent.

Andy Frisella, in one of his podcasts, hammers on this point. He says all businesses are commodity businesses. You just have to accept that fact. Within your market niche there is not a lot to distinguish one provider from another. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche. The differences are not enough to tell you one is the leader. They are only centimeters and shades apart from each other. Really. Even an enthusiast for Ferrari would not be able to argue otherwise.

His point is that you, as the business owner, must work within that constraint: you’re a commodity business. Any other perspective is ego. (That’s my addition to what I remember him saying).

Given that you are operating a commodity business, Andy says there are only two things that give you a competitive advantage: your company culture and something else that I forget. I am going to go back and re-listen to the podcasts until I find it. But it was also another squishy, nontechnical thing. His product (nutritional supplements) is a commodity. He positions himself at the top of the market, but he has worthy competitors and he acknowledges that.

Takeaway for me? Double down on culture.

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I’m not who I was yesterday

I see myself as the same person I was at age 10, age 20, 30, etc.

That’s not correct. Physically I am a completely different set of cells. Mentally, emotionally, I have completely different ideas than I did before.

So why not think of myself as follows? I’m not a unitary being traveling through time. I’m a new person every day. A new employee showing up on the job for the first time, and I download a set of skills and ideas and talents into my head when I wake up. They’re just handed to me. They are not me, these things are just stuff that happens to be there. It’s like walking into a strange kitchen and looking for a coffee cup.

Show up for duty with a new set of eyes like this, and it almost becomes mandatory to make a change. Like a new hire at a company, I can look at my life and say “Well, why the fuck are things being done that way? That’s a bag full of dumb.” And I can change it.

This is poorly explained. I got the hint of the idea at dawn today, walking. Let’s see if writing it here and thinking about it develops the idea further.

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The path forks three ways

From Seth Godin’s Linchpin, page 202:

In a world with only a few indispensable people, the linchpin has three elegant choices:

1. Hire plenty of factory workers. Scale like crazy. Take advantage of the fact that most people want a map, most people are willing to work cheaply, most people want to be the factory. You win because you extract the value of their labor, the labor they’re surrendering too cheaply.

2. Find a boss who can’t live without a linchpin. Find a boss who adequately values your scarcity and your contribution, who will reward you with freedom and respect. Do the work. Make a difference.

3. Start your own gig. Understand that an organization filled with linchpins is itself indispensable. Hire appropriately.

If you are not currently doing any of these, refuse to settle. You deserve better.

Leave aside the fact that your world, in fact, contains more than three choices. 😀 Still, Seth Godin’s list of choices is sobering.

What do I want for myself? What makes me happiest? Choice 1 makes my soul die a little when I think of it. I’ve never tried Choice 2 but I’ve always imagined that I would thrive there. Choice 3 makes me a bit scared because it’s so hard to pull off, but at the same time makes me a bit thrilled because I would be surrounded by people I admire.

Unless Choice 2 comes along, Choice 3 it is.

Surround myself with Linchpins. Do so by pushing for excellence, pushing for 100%.

Let’s do this.

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Business goals for 2022

Goal

Let’s talk about 2022 and business. I own a business. It is a service business. I intend to increase gross sales by 60% over 2021.

Skill

To get there, I need to add people (that is the iron law of service businesses) and I need to achieve operational excellence.

Operational excellence is the skill that Mike says you have to develop when taking on a New Project.

The goal (more revenue) achieved is the byproduct of the skill (operational excellence) I will develop in 2022. That’s the same as the skill he worked on (cardio) to achieve his resting heart rate goal.

Let’s apply the lessons from Mike Cernovich’s Twitter wisdom to see how to get operational excellence.

Knowledge: get a coach

Mike says:

Once I decide on the project, there’s two ways to go.

1. Hire a coach. This is the best way. This is what 99% should do.

Maybe I am in the 1%. But I doubt it. Humility demands that I accept that I’m in the “need help” category. And even the 1% get coaches. There is no “do it yourself” option here.

I will get a coach for the “excellence” objective. Operational excellence is a philosophy backed up by diligent application of learned skills. I need to learn the skills.

I already know who I will hire. I have to contact him and get that done.

Boring AF

Operational excellence requires repeated attention to detail. Effort beyond “good enough.” The objective is to play at the 100% level.

How am I going to do that? By cultivating the mindset to transcend boring.

What does that mean? Well, since May 1, 2021 I have worked out twice a day, every day without fail. I know how to put in the work. I know how to run without stopping. And for me the urge to stop is purely a boredom, self-talk problem at this stage. Physically, I can go and go and go.

I will learn to deal with Boring AF in operational excellence the same way that I learned to run like that. I learned to run without stopping by running without stopping, even when my brain said it would be ok to stop.

(Note: at the moment I am walking twice a day because I ran with old shoes too long and hurt my feet. Now I have new running shoes and I figure another week or so of walking will get me back to running condition. There is a lesson there—in being cheap, inattentive to details, and having suboptimal tools for the job).

Related: the second workout of the day will become a lifting workout. But first I need to take care of a suspected hernia. I have calls into two doctors’ offices for remediation.

Strike while the iron is hot

At the moment I have a standing item on my Power List: a small daily time slot devoted to Excellence.

That keeps the iron hot and keeps me focused on wielding the hammer to keep striking the glowing iron.

This will be changed based on whatever the coach tells me to do.

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Make a big change in your life

How do you install a major change in your life? This post gives primary source quotes from two people who have demonstrated mastery.

In future posts I will talk about application of these principles. And by that I mean I will talk about me applying these principles to my life in 2022.

I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’m a nobody, a nothing special, an Everyman. I’m going to tell you what I’m thinking and what I’m doing, and you can decide what to do for you. If the shoe fits . . . .

Seth Godin, in Linchpin:

Leo Babauta’s brilliant little book Zen Habits helps you think your way through this problem. His program is simple: Attempt to create only one significant work a year. Break that into smaller projects, and every day, find three tasks to accomplish that will help you complete a project. And do only that during your working hours. I’m talking about an hour a day to complete a mammoth work of art, whatever sort of art you have in mind. That hour a day might not be fun, but it’s probably a lot more productive than the ten hours you spend right now.

Linchpin, pp. 135-136.

Mike Cernovich has a long thread on Twitter about this topic. It is an immensely practical way to actually get it done.

Twitter thread here: https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1465390003983245312 — at least until Twitter terminates Mike’s account for WrongThink. Which is why I pasted everything here.

Each year I start a New Project (yes, caps, as it’s a priority).

It’s a form of New Year’s Resolutions.

By the end of the year, I want have finished something totally new.

Could be writing a book, making a movie, or learning a new skill.

The methodology is stretching but within your confines.

For example making a movie is harder than writing a book, but the core skills are similar.

Draft a story, make it move.

Stretching = visual storytelling vs. written word.

In 2021 I wanted to focus on my cardiovascular health.

That fits within framework, as

1. I hate cardio.

2. I’ve done athletic stuff my whole life.

Stretching within existing parameters is how you expand yourself.

Once the project is decided on, then how to do it?

What if you thought of yourself as a “home improvement project.”

That’s always been how I see this stuff.

If you’re building a home, you focus on different projects.

You can’t do it “all at once.”

Thus in 2021 I said, “I want to get my resting heart rate into the 50’s.”

Some might not consider this lofty, I don’t care at all what others think is “worthy” of a project, this is how I approach life, and why I get more done than the average bear.

Key to your own self-improvement projects is tuning people out.

Most people are a disaster. But they’ll tell you why you can’t do something, or why it doesn’t matter.

But when I look around, yeah, not really impressed.

You have to focus on yourself, ignore others.

Once I decide on the project, there’s two ways to go.

1. Hire a coach. This is the best way. This is what 99% should do.

2. Do your own research. I prefer doing it this way. It’s inefficient, but God blessed / cursed me with autistic like curiosity.

In my 20’s, when running (and also weighing 163 pounds very fit), my lowest resting heart rate was 52. There’s a genetic component to this stuff, of course, be realistic.

I said, “Can I get my resting HR into the high 50’s?”

I’m 44.

Ok let’s see how to do this.

If you’re doing home improvement, you need to buy tools.

If you’re doing self-improvement, same vibe.

I got a Whoop, there are other fitness trackers (some might even be better), but that’s the one I got.

Get the tools.

Then the knowledge.

So I got the whoop (tools) and did my homework (knowledge).

Loaded up audiobooks and podcasts.

My sole focus was learning this stuff. What is HRV? How can you lower RHR?

I learned that, for heart health, Zone 2 was the way to go.

For a lot of reasons. (I’ll post useful resources later in the thread.)

Got on a stationary biked and pedalled.

BORING AF

Once you begin self-improvement, you encounter challenges.

For me, I hated doing Zone 2 cardio.

(Zone 2 is a heart rate range, or a power range if on a bike. Again – sources posted later.)

Time to reframe.

Zone 2 cardio is boring because you’re not really going hard, and you need to put time in, you don’t feel like you’re actually doing anything. Especially if you’ve done sports, used to HIIT, etc.

Boring = great opportunity to focus on breath work and audiobooks.

I said to myself, “This is great. You now have 5-10 hours a week to catch up on podcasts and audiobooks. How fortunate you are.”

(Yes, literally, that’s my guided self-talk.)

Kept pedalling away like a little cardio queen.

I also told myself, “You are rebuilding yourself at a cellular level, this will take time.”

I’m not a patient person at all, so these little mindset tricks help me a lot.

Continual positive reinforcing self-talk.

Back to Zone 2.

As you get older, mitochondrial dysfunction is what kills you.

You lose mitochondria, they become less efficient at burning fat and glucose.

Good article here: https://www.howardluksmd.com/zone-2-hr-training-live-longer-less-injury/

I listened to this podcast on Zone 2, found it extremely persuasive, and then committed to the plan.

peterattiamd.com/inigosanmillan/

I do a lot of reading and listening on subjects related to my project as well.

You really need to reinforce the message constantly.

Especially when you’re doing something new.

It’s both knowledge and positive reinforcement.

Once you start a new self project, as with home remodels, you’re going to run into stuff.

You don’t just completely change part of yourself with ease.

You have to learn how to troubleshoot, and moreover, lean into the challenges.

Accept them as a given, move forward,

For me the biggest challenges were boredom, feeling like what I was doing wasn’t working.

Which means reframe.

“What a great opportunity to learn patience.”

To live on a longer timeline.

What can I get done in 1 year, or 3-5 years?

What does that look like?

Most of what you want to do is a mind game. Tricks your head plays on you. “This won’t work, you’ll look stupid, you’re wasting your time.”

Or when you’re grinding, “Why bother doing this?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

So you learn tactics on how to trick the inner Trickster.

Every negative thought from the Trickster (in every major religion this is seen as spiritual entity) has an answer.

“Why do this?” / Why not? What else am I going to do – watch sports all day?

“This doesn’t matter.” / That’s for God to decide, here on Earth I’m staying busy.

I even decided to name the pattern of negative thoughts that lead to self-defeat.

The Trickster is at it again!

It’s like my foil now.

Oh what is the Trickster up to now?

Made it fun to wrestle with an entity.

Instead of being frustrated or demoralized by negative thoughts, it became fun.

Oh here comes the Trickster again!

It’s like your co-worker Bob. Oh here he goes again, and you roll your eyes.

That turned negativity into a game.

Back to the plan.

What happened?

Well I almost hit my metrics early.

Then I got sick, it was a bad upper respiratory infection. Choking on my own breath.

I got a “long haul,” (yes this happens) so then everything was messed up for months.

“Setbacks” are inevitable.

That’s why I focused more on a longer timeline.

I had to look at shitty metrics for several weeks, which yeah, was frustrating.

But you can’t just quit, and what’s a few bad weeks?

Get on a longer timeline.

When you take on a New Project, you learn a lot about yourself.

Yes the cliches are true.

You see how a thought pattern appearing now had sabotaged you so many times before.

Setbacks are a great time to ask, “Has this happened before? Did this hold me back?”

Push through.

Today’s setbacks let me see huge missed opportunities from my past.

“Oh man now I totally understand why _____ didn’t work like it should have.”

The problem, as always, is yourself.

It’s hard to uproot these behaviors, because you have to challenge yourself to find them.

Back to the first post.

I wanted a low resting heart rate. That was project for 2021.

This isn’t a typical reading, but I actually hit the high 40’s a bit before bed a couple nights a week.

Hire a coach if you want to hit a fitness metric. (I did martial arts, sports, gym bro stuff my whole life, so easier for me to find my way through.)

Key is your mental approach.

No plan will work if you don’t have the mind tricks.

After I finish a big project for the year, I keep the gains.

For 2022 I’ll have another New Project.

Focus is on maintaining whatever was achieved form prior year, and then going through process again.

Bill Gates isn’t the most popular guy in these parts, one thing he said that was right:

– You’ll overestimate what you can accomplish in one year, and grossly underestimate what’s possible in 5 years.

Thst’s been true of my approach.

In 5 years, you can be a different person.

A key here isn’t to have a 5 year plan. You can’t plan out even one year these days.

Skills has to be the focus.

You can learn one new skill each year, keep those gains as you learn a new skill.

Imagine yourself with 5 new skills in 5 years.

Wow.

Who would you even be?

Say you want to “start a business.”

Can you keep books, project cash flow, manage inventory, tell a story about your product, handle downturns, pivot, lean into winners, network, manage people?

A “goal” doesn’t really mean anything.

Skills pay the bills.

Say you want to “get fit” as a “goal.”

Can you manage your time, deal with pain, keep to the plan when you don’t feel like it, know how to say No to people who distract you?

Everything in life is skills based.

Goals don’t mean anything.

I know I said this post is theory, not practice. But here is what I have done: actions following intention. I own Linchpin (Seth Godwin’s book) and Mike Cernovich’s Gorilla Mindset. I own both books in paper and Kindle format. And I read and reread them. I am on reread number three for Linchpin (not counting the Audible copy I own and have listened to) and probably have read Gorilla Mindset four or five times.

Preconception: it’s BORING AF (as Mike’s thread states) to read the same thing again and again. There are two responses. (1) Yeah, it’s boring. So what. Do it. (2) No it’s not. There is something new I learn every time.

Strike while the iron is hot. But first—keep the iron hot.

Buy the books.

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This makes me happy

“This” being write tiny stuff on my phone and publish it here.

That is all.

Well, except for the curious question: “If it makes you happy, why did you stop for a while?”

I can’t tell you the answer, except that the pattern is always there. Do something a lot that makes a positive change in your life, then stop. Wonder why things start sliding sideways.

When you have a hammer in your hand, keep pounding nails. And don’t let go of the hammer, unless you’re picking up another tool.

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It’s probably a learnable skill

If you perceive something in yourself that is preventing success, if you perceive a lack . . . you are probably wrong.

It’s not a lack of resources or a character trait that’s holding you back.

It’s probably an unwillingness to work hard to acquire a learnable skill.

Look at everything that way: it’s on you to extend yourself and build.

Stop with the victim attitude already, get off your lazy ass, and get to work.