Usually people can't understand our journey. It looks weird to the people outside. We looked obsessed, we look like we lost our connection to reality. But that's how obsession looks like. It looks crazy. Hell, if anything, other people calling you crazy is the best prediction of your future success. In this episode, we understand exactly that. How being crazy looks like, using three amazing stories. That of Mr. Beast, Sam Zemurray, and James Dyson. Outline 00:00 The Journey of Innovation: From Crazy to Genius 03:03 The Mission of Spice: Practicality and Inspiration 05:51 The Stories of Obsession: MrBeast, Sam Zemurai, and James Dyson 09:05 Understanding the Early Days of MrBeast 12:11 Sam Zemurai: The Ultimate Hustler's Journey 18:13 The Rise of Sam Zemurai: From Bananas to Business 23:53 James Dyson: The Relentless Pursuit of Innovation 29:49 The Challenges Faced by Dyson: A Story of Resilience 36:05 The Crazy Idea: Dyson's Bagless Vacuum Cleaner 41:52 The Turning Point: Dyson's Business Lessons 47:58 The Conclusion: Lessons from the Crazy to the Genius 58:16 The Journey of Success: Mr. Beast's Story 01:02:00 Learning from Failure: Sam Zemurray's Revolution 01:19:14 James Dyson: The Relentless Pursuit of Innovation 01:33:44 The Common Thread: Curiosity and Obsession 01:48:11 Key Takeaways: Lessons from the Journey

In this today's episode, we use Rick Rubin's key lesson of breaking conventions in art and life, drawing insights from his philosophy. We focus on understanding what convention is, how to identify it (and run the opposite way) and how we can make sure we are the ones breaking it, creating the most interesting work while doing so. Key takeaways: Rules direct us to average behaviors. The goal is not to fit in, but to amplify differences. The most interesting work will likely be the one that doesn't follow it. History will forever repeat itself in art, tech, and business. When a convention is established, it creates opportunities for disruption. Humans are expert pattern matchers, which leads to stagnation. Optimization often means stagnation when conventions are established. Every innovation risks becoming a rule. The world isn't waiting for more of the same; it needs innovation. To create exceptional work, challenge the established norms. Chapters: 00:00 Breaking Conventions in Art and Life 07:46Understanding Rick Rubin's Philosophy 13:24 The Nature of Conventions 19:01 Historical Examples of Convention Breakers 33:27 Identifying Established Conventions 57:03 Applying the Key Lesson in Life

In his truly brilliant book, Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink write this weeks key lesson: discipline equals freedom. Discipline is also the difference between being good and being exceptional.  By discipline, Jocko means intrinsic personal will - the power to consistently practice self-control and focus in the pursuit of achieving your goals despite difficulties, distractions, or temporary desires. In this episode we break this key lesson down, and understand how to apply it in our lives.

It in the nature of things, Charlie Munger once said, that life's many hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward. And so, a wise solution would be to Invert, always invert. In this episode we break this key lesson down, and understand how to apply it in our life. Because, inversion helps us to improve our understanding of a problem. By forcing us to do the work necessary, we are forced to consider different perspectives. To do that, we need to listen to Ray Dalio’s advice who told us - Smart people are the ones who ask the most thoughtful questions, as opposed to thinking they have all the answers. Great questions are a much better indicator of future success than great answers. Inversion is all about asking the right, yet non-obvious questions.

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.