Saturday Success Series: Volume 51
Making life & money work for you.
Welcome back to the Saturday Success Series email!
This week we have:
Master Yourself: ‘start with why’ is BS
Master Your Money: use the 3 tier pricing model
And of course…
The Weekly Special: 35 nuggets of wisdom from 10 years of living well
The goal here is maximum value, so let’s get to it.
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Master Yourself
Simon Sinek wrote a book (Start with Why) that caught fire. It wasn’t a bad book. And the idea is okay.
‘Why’ does matter. To you. You need a good why. Without good whys we tend to falter.
But in general? ‘Start with why’ is bullshit.
Other people only really care about how you’re going to help them. Sure some great sounding why is nice, but it’s not what matters to consumers.
Think about it right now, you’re reading this right? Do you care why I wrote it? Fuck no.
You care about how you can apply this to your life. You care about what this does for you.
And I don’t blame you and if I want to sell you on reading more from me- I need to care more about how it helps you than why I’m doing it.
Master Your Money
Thinking of selling something?
Or already selling?
Then I hope you’re using the 3 tier pricing model.
I’ll use a productivity coach I’m friends with as an example.
You can purchase via 3 options:
eBook ($29)
eBook + journal & tracking sheet ($75)
eBook + journal & tracking sheet + 3 coaching calls ($249)
The middle offer is his most popular. Because most people want to hedge their bets, so they’ll take the mid range offer.
If he just gave 2 options, people would always choose the cheapest one.
If he gave 4+ options they’d make no decision at all, too complicated.
Use the 3 tier model to increase your own sales.
Weekly Special
35 nuggets of wisdom from 10 years of living well
The past 10 years have been a pretty consistent focus on personal growth for me. Hundreds of books read, hundreds of pages of ideas written and then, of course, the practical application of lessons learned.
I’ve spent the past decade becoming a better person. That kind of journey comes chock full of wisdom nuggets. Peering deep inside ourselves, standing in awe of the universe, experiencing every emotion. The past 10 years were good, bad and indifferent to me. I learned from all of it.
1. Life is better with less Facebook in it. I caught a 7 day ban recently and it inspired me to avoid it more often.
2. The more expensive stuff you have, the more stressed you are. You’re literally buying stress, not happiness.
3. Marcus Aurelius’s line: To accept it without arrogance, to let it go with indifference.
4. Cold showers really do invigorate. If you can’t do full body, then at least stick your head under the cold flow.
5. People are desperate to chase experiences. But have you ever just tried finding magic in the mundane? Every day can be wonderful, if you choose it.
6. When you find a good book, buy it and keep it on your shelf. Read it again in a couple of years. Don’t waste time with shit books. I give every book 50 pages to wow me.
7. Worry less about results and more about your effort and your process.
8. If you don’t design your day then time, and others, will steal it.
9. Peter Thiel talked about making the most of your life by focusing on things that don’t age or have declining rewards. One of the things he mentioned was living somewhere with a beautiful view. Spending time with friends and family feels like another.
10. Almost nothing is as black and white as the media would have you believe. There is so much nuance in the world. Things are so complicated. Simplify when you can, but don’t be lazy about it. The media is lazy more often than not.
11. You can be both content and grateful and still be ambitious and focused. Remember, the world isn’t black and white.
12. Quiet time is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. We live in such a noisy world. Our minds are noisy. To be still, to just relax and think. This is precious.
13. Create your own family. I didn’t think I wanted one. Now that I have one, I understand the incomparable depth it gives a life.
14. Movement makes us feel good. I mean that in the physical sense as well as taking action. Inaction breeds uncertainty and ultimately anxiety. Lack of physical movement breeds laziness and illness.
15. Work drives and maintains the spirit. Don’t think of retiring. Think of working more on things you enjoy.
16. Read. Read a lot. Read more than you think you can. Skip TV more often to read. Carry a book everywhere you go. Read.
17. Don’t worry about competing with others. There will always be someone working harder or longer. Create a plan, stick to it, tweak it as necessary.
18. I have friends who still drink, party and stay up until 3am on the weekends. I don’t drink, I don’t party and I go to bed by 11pm every night. I’m freer than they are. Happier too. I’m not a slave to FOMO. I get shit done. My time is mine.
19. Stop romanticizing the grind. Stop adoring the “no sleep” club. I work full time, go to school full time, write part time and have a family. I still get 7+ hours a night.
20. Relax more. Most of the things you get worked up over, don’t really matter. Before you flip out, ask if you’ll still be thinking of this a year from now. If the answer is no (it almost always is), then just let it go.
21. The meeting between Alexander the Great’s aide and the philosopher Diogenes: “This man has conquered the world! What have you done?” The philosopher replied without an instant’s hesitation, “I have conquered the need to conquer the world.” In our culture of MORE, it’s worth being content. That’s a kind of wealth many can’t achieve.
22. Legendary basketball coach John Wooden told his 1964 team (who were overall shorter relative to the other teams): “I don’t care how tall you are; I care how tall you play.” You focus on controlling what you can control. It pays dividends.
23. There are 4 primary emotions- happiness, sadness, fear and anger. Notice only 1 of the 4 is a positive? Our default setting is negative ¾ of the time. Serving others and practicing gratitude are two of the best ways to spend more time in that positive quadrant.
24. Life really does go by fast. I could swear I was just 22, now I’m 36. Make time for your life. Enjoy small things throughout every day. I wouldn’t trade my life with Elon Musk’s for anything. He has no time (and my girlfriend is hotter than his). All that money and yet his time is monopolized all day, every day. Laugh. Soak in the people you love, watch them, hear them, feel them.
25. Learn when to say no more (to energy drains) and when to say yes more (to experiences).
26. We teach others how to treat us. Set boundaries, accept people for who they are but do not accept shitty behavior or treatment.
27. Most people silently agree to trade future success for present pleasure. This happens every time you watch another episode instead of going to bed. Or when you brush off your side project to go to happy hour. It’s okay sometimes, life is short, but don’t make a habit of it.
28. Don’t accept apologies that aren’t accompanied by changed behavior. Most people aren’t sorry and they haven’t changed, they just want you to move on from being mad.
29. It’s a great thing to change your opinion when new information presents itself or a new experience shows you a better way. Rigidity is a tragedy.
30. Get to the point where you’re smart enough to know that you don’t know enough.
31. Sometimes you can do everything right and still not get the outcome you wanted. Sometimes you find out the outcome you wanted, wasn’t worth it anyway.
32. Being self focused instead of servant focused is a one way track to depression. You focus on self-care long enough to be good for others. Serving is a purpose.
33. Our attitude and response dictates our feelings and our overall life experience.
34. Try not reducing the bad, but increasing the good (not a ‘don’t eat donuts’, but more of a ‘do eat greens’ approach). But the reverse also works- avoiding the bad, usually leaves the good in your life.
35. Action beats consumption, every time. Consume quality shit but then create even more valuable content. Start with something small- one sentence, one set of exercise, 10 minutes coding, etc. The small almost always leads to a larger chunk of doing. Do you really need more info? Or are you just pushing action off?
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, please share with someone who could use it. See you next Saturday!
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