Saturday Success: reducing friction, Richard Branson & how to learn anything
Making life & money work for you.
Welcome back to the Saturday Success Series email!
This week we have:
Master Yourself: Reduce friction for success
Master Your Money: Richard Branson on material things
The Weekly Special: How to Learn Anything
The goal here is maximum value, so let’s get to it.
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Master Yourself
You want to wake up early but you tend to hit snooze. That’s a friction point.
You want to work out but you can never find your sneakers. Friction point.
Your wife has to ask for your help around the house. Friction point.
You want to eat healthy but chips are sitting at the front of your cabinet. Friction point.
You argue over money with your partner. Friction point.
Your website takes too long to load. Friction point.
Your buying process requires too much info. Friction point.
You want to deep work but you get distracted. Friction point.
So what can you reduce today? Friction.
Eliminate friction points wherever and whenever possible.
For your customers, for yourself and your habits, for your relationships, for everything.
The first step is to identify your friction points.
Once you clearly label them, it becomes easier to find a solution.
You hit snooze? Put your phone/alarm across the room.
You can’t find your sneakers? Put them next to your bed the night before.
Your wife has to ask for your help? Make a list of chores that need doing each week. Then do them.
You want to eat healthy? Put fruit on the counter.
You argue over money? Work on budgets and cash flow sheets together.
Your website takes too long to load? Compress your content.
Your buying process requires too much info? Gather only the necessary basics up front.
You want to deep work? Block out time and Airplane Mode your phone in another room.
Master Your Money
“Material things are delightful, but they’re not important.” - Richard Branson
Think about what’s really important.
Your family. Your health. Air. Water. Peace and quiet.
We build wealth and we things for who? Our families.
At the end of the day if I get to eat dinner with my kids and watch a TV show with my girlfriend, it’s a good day.
Weekly Special
How to Learn Anything
The good news? There are only four key steps to the Feynman Technique.
More good news? You can repeat them over and over to learn about anything you want.
Even more good news?? I’m going to give you an example from when I was first learning about the stock market.
1. Choose a concept you want to learn about
I wanted to learn more about stock market investing.
So, I grabbed multiple books on the topic. I Googled stock market investing. I watched videos. I pored over Investopedia.
I already knew a good bit about psychology so I kept tying ideas together. Fear and greed as drivers, for example. Sunk cost fallacy. Confirmation bias. Incentives. Etc.
2. Explain it to a 12 year old
This just means get to the point where you can explain it simply.
If you can’t explain something simply, you probably don’t know it well enough yet.
For me I tried to discuss investing a lot. With people who knew more and those who knew less.
How do I explain my investing plan?
I buy mostly ETFs (exchange traded funds) which are basically bundles of stocks within a theme.
Example- ICLN is the ticker for a group of stocks in the clean energy sector. You buy a share of ICLN which actually allows you to buy portions of about 40 clean energy companies within a single share.
3. Reflect, Refine, and Simplify
Here’s where I’d review gaps in my understanding or knowledge.
Okay, so I explained ETFs well enough, but options and covered calls are still a mystery.
Back to the drawing board- what the hell is an option? Hi Investopedia, it’s me again, back for more learning.
4. Organize and Review
Here I gather everything I know in one place and look it over.
I realize at this point I don’t like options, they’re not for me. I’ll stick to the basics of investing. I return to step 2 and explain why to said child.
I also realize I want to learn more about real estate investing. Back to step 1!
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, please share with someone who could use it. See you next Saturday!
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Here’s a picture of my sweet angel baby, Mildred (Millie) being a stalker. Have a great upcoming week!