The Art of Strategic Thinking (How to Become Wildly Successful at Anything You Do) — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00Everyone is racing to be successful
- 0:01right now, and as you'd guess, 99.99%
- 0:04of them will not, in fact, become
- 0:06successful. Because they're all obsessed
- 0:08with the wrong thing. They're obsessed
- 0:10with the Claude code skills that they're
- 0:12collecting from Instagram posts that
- 0:14tell you to comment a keyword in order
- 0:16for them to DM you, so you can follow
- 0:18them, so that they can send you the link
- 0:21to the skill that you're going to try
- 0:22once and never use again. They're
- 0:24obsessed with the YouTube videos that
- 0:26teach them how to build a profitable
- 0:28business in five actionable steps, and I
- 0:30still don't understand why people are so
- 0:32obsessed with actionable steps and
- 0:35bullet point summaries, because that's
- 0:36not going to help you in the slightest
- 0:38if you don't have understanding or
- 0:40context or experience. They're obsessed
- 0:43with tactics. You know, the same
- 0:45knowledge that everyone else has access
- 0:46to. Do you not realize that all the
- 0:49information you could ever need to make
- 0:50a hundred million dollars is readily
- 0:52available to you online, in books, or
- 0:55just inside of an AI chat if you talk to
- 0:57it long enough. Have you ever stopped
- 0:59and wondered why everyone in the world
- 1:01isn't making millions of dollars right
- 1:03now? Have you ever considered that the
- 1:04actionable advice you crave so much
- 1:06won't get you anywhere unless you know
- 1:08how the pieces you're picking up fit
- 1:10into the entire puzzle. So, why is this?
- 1:12Why are so many people trying to
- 1:15desperately aim for success, but get
- 1:17nowhere close to achieving it? One is
- 1:19because they're exchanging one form of
- 1:21cheap dopamine for another more
- 1:23insidious form. I would argue that
- 1:25endless tactic collection by endlessly
- 1:28consuming YouTube videos around business
- 1:30and self-improvement is worse than just
- 1:33doom scrolling brain rot videos because
- 1:36you're getting a sense of fake progress.
- 1:39At least with the doom scrolling videos,
- 1:40you just feel bad about yourself. But
- 1:42with the self-improvement and business,
- 1:43and even this video, you feel bad about
- 1:45yourself, but you also get this false
- 1:47certainty that you're making progress
- 1:49just by watching the video. The second
- 1:51reason is because they don't have a
- 1:53strategy that allows them to use the
- 1:56tactics they're collecting to their
- 1:57highest degree. Tactic collection or
- 1:59tactics in general which is just
- 2:01execution. Strategy is positioning,
- 2:04tactics is execution. If you don't have
- 2:06a strategy that one exposes you to the
- 2:09right tactics that you didn't even know
- 2:11about in the first place or didn't
- 2:13register as an opportunity, then you're
- 2:14just going to be thrown around like a
- 2:16puppet by internet marketers because
- 2:18they know how to capture your attention
- 2:19and persuade you that something is
- 2:21valuable even if it may not fit your
- 2:23specific situation and your specific
- 2:25mind. Now, if you're this type of person
- 2:27who just collects tactics, I'm not
- 2:28trying to belittle you. I do the same
- 2:31thing quite often right now and I did it
- 2:33a lot more in the past. I got stuck in
- 2:35tutorial hell. I took all the courses. I
- 2:37tried and failed at seven different
- 2:39business models. Facebook ads, SEO, drop
- 2:42shipping, web design, digital art and a
- 2:44few more and I wouldn't even consider
- 2:45them businesses. I would consider them
- 2:47hobbies because I would learn the high
- 2:49value skill and that felt good. I would
- 2:52start the LLC and that felt good. I
- 2:55would build the website and try to write
- 2:57the copy for it so that it's persuasive
- 2:59and that felt good. But when it came to
- 3:01actually getting a customer, getting
- 3:04someone to pay me, I was nowhere to be
- 3:06found. And the missing piece was a
- 3:08strategy, but not just a strategy, the
- 3:11ability to think strategically because
- 3:14how else are you going to create a
- 3:15strategy? And that's an incredibly
- 3:16difficult thing to learn, but that's
- 3:18what we're here to talk about. That's
- 3:19the secret behind Steve Jobs, Alexander
- 3:23the Great, military strategists in
- 3:25general. Most great and successful
- 3:27people that we look up to have the
- 3:29ability to think strategically. They may
- 3:32not say that that is their superpower or
- 3:34their secret because they may be
- 3:35unconsciously competent, but that is
- 3:38exactly it. It all comes down to
- 3:39strategy and that's what I'm going to
- 3:41show you not only how to learn, but how
- 3:43to do in this video. We're going to
- 3:44create a life strategy and you're going
- 3:47to learn the principles that you can
- 3:48take and apply to anything that you do.
- 3:50Be it business, sports, relationships,
- 3:53anything. We're also going to talk about
- 3:55the nine traits of a master strategist,
- 3:57and especially how a lack of strategy
- 4:00means a lack of control over the outcome
- 4:03of your life. As we begin, the only
- 4:05thing I ask of you is that you actually
- 4:07listen and attempt to implement what I
- 4:10say. You take notes, you actually do
- 4:12something aside from just watching the
- 4:14video and then letting it leave your
- 4:16mind 30 minutes later. So, section
- 4:18number one, strategy is getting yourself
- 4:20into a superior position while at the
- 4:22same time making sure your opponent is
- 4:24in a worse one. And this section is all
- 4:26about understanding the quote, "Tactics
- 4:29flow from a superior position." from
- 4:31Bobby Fischer, who is a chess
- 4:32grandmaster. Now, let's walk through a
- 4:34simple chess match. I'll try not to bore
- 4:36you here. We'll make it quick just so we
- 4:37can get to the point, but player one in
- 4:39the chess match spends the first part of
- 4:41the game doing things that look boring.
- 4:43They aren't attacking, they aren't
- 4:44capturing any pieces, and from the
- 4:46outside it looks like they're not doing
- 4:47anything. They're just moving their
- 4:49pieces to certain squares on the board.
- 4:51And in a game like chess, you're playing
- 4:53on a grid, but not all of the squares on
- 4:56that grid are created equal. It's the
- 4:58same with life. A piece in the center of
- 5:00a board can reach many more places than
- 5:03a piece stuck behind a corner. Now, in
- 5:05the game, player one slides a rook onto
- 5:07an open lane where nothing blocks it.
- 5:09They place a bishop on a path that
- 5:11points straight at the enemy king. They
- 5:13place a knight on a square near the
- 5:15middle of the board. And meanwhile,
- 5:17player two has pieces just getting in
- 5:19each other's way. Their most powerful
- 5:20pieces are trapped behind their own
- 5:22pawns. Their king is stuck in the middle
- 5:24of the board because they never found a
- 5:26safe moment to tuck it away in a corner.
- 5:28Player two was only reacting to player
- 5:30one's moves. So, player one moves their
- 5:32knight to a square where it can attack
- 5:34player two's king and queen at the same
- 5:37time. And in chess, this is called a
- 5:39fork. So, your opponent can only save
- 5:41one. Those are two very powerful pieces,
- 5:44the king and the queen. So, losing
- 5:46either one is not good. So, of course,
- 5:48player two has to move his king so he
- 5:51doesn't lose the game, but that leads to
- 5:53player one being able to take their
- 5:54queen, which is the most powerful piece
- 5:56on the board, and it's essentially game
- 5:58over at this point. But, the thing here
- 6:00is the lesson is that any player who got
- 6:03to that exact arrangement of pieces
- 6:05could have played that game-winning
- 6:07move. The reason player one got there is
- 6:09because they spent the entire game
- 6:11building up to it. So, if you were to
- 6:13remove any of those boring steps from
- 6:15the start, the fork, or the game-winning
- 6:17tactic wouldn't exist. The knight would
- 6:19have gotten blocked, and the king would
- 6:21have escaped as a defending piece
- 6:23arrived. So, the real lesson is strategy
- 6:26is getting yourself into a superior
- 6:28position while at the same time making
- 6:30sure your opponent is in a worse one.
- 6:32Strategy is the work of making your
- 6:34position better and your opponent's
- 6:36position worse move by move until the
- 6:38gap between the two is so large that
- 6:41tactics start appearing on their own.
- 6:43Now, the interesting thing here is that
- 6:45in the game of life, you are both the
- 6:47opponent and the player. Every decision
- 6:49you make changes your own position, and
- 6:52most people are just completely blind to
- 6:54where they are. If the average person's
- 6:56life were a chess match, they probably
- 6:58have gotten into a game-winning move
- 7:00before, but they didn't even realize it.
- 7:02They weren't able to act on that
- 7:03opportunity because it was just
- 7:05unconscious to them. They didn't have
- 7:07the cognitive flexibility or
- 7:08architecture, which we're going to talk
- 7:10about in the next video, to actually
- 7:11know when they can execute on a specific
- 7:14tactic to get a big reward. That's why
- 7:17strategy has to come first because if
- 7:19you want to actually succeed at building
- 7:21the side business or the creator
- 7:23business like we talk about here, or
- 7:25just building an aesthetic physique, or
- 7:27becoming healthy, or simply getting what
- 7:29you want out of life, you can't be like
- 7:32most people because most people spend
- 7:35zero time strategizing. They don't
- 7:37engage in intentional strategic
- 7:40thinking. Like, think about your own
- 7:42life, right? I do this all the time. We
- 7:44all do, but when you're just going about
- 7:45your life, are you actually thinking or
- 7:47are you just reacting to thoughts and
- 7:49emotions? Are you understanding what's
- 7:51going on in your head or are you just
- 7:53letting it play out? Both have their
- 7:54benefits, right? They're different modes
- 7:56of thinking. There's creativity and
- 7:57there's productivity. Creativity
- 7:59benefits from a more open focus, letting
- 8:01your mind be kind of chaotic and then
- 8:03picking picking certain ideas or pieces
- 8:06and synthesizing them together. And then
- 8:07productivity is more strategic, more
- 8:10focused, more hierarchical. But most
- 8:12people don't engage in productivity in
- 8:14that way. They engage in a very narrow
- 8:17state of stressful focus based on
- 8:19urgency or scarcity because they have to
- 8:22to survive. And that is not a good place
- 8:24to be in. And lastly, if you observe
- 8:27society, you will see that plain tactic
- 8:29level thinking is very disastrous. And
- 8:32that leads into section number two,
- 8:34which is that the average person lives
- 8:36in a mindless cycle of struggles they
- 8:38can't escape. So, thank goodness you
- 8:40aren't actually on a battlefield because
- 8:43you'd probably be dead. Most people
- 8:45commit highly predictable strategic
- 8:47mistakes that if they were in a truly
- 8:49violent setting, they would lose and
- 8:51winners would be studying what they did
- 8:53so that they could do the exact
- 8:54opposite. Getting married too early or
- 8:57late, not developing mastery in
- 8:59anything, trusting that AI can do
- 9:00everything for you. And I'm saying this
- 9:02as someone who is not anti-AI completely
- 9:05because everything is a religion
- 9:06nowadays and we don't have to treat
- 9:08anti-AI or the flavor of the day drama
- 9:11that's going on that's been happening
- 9:13every 3 months. It's just a different
- 9:15thing that people get obsessed with and
- 9:17cry about and play victim with and
- 9:20virtue signal on social media. You don't
- 9:21have to engage in that and you can see
- 9:24the signs of lower levels of thinking in
- 9:26those people and you can avoid them.
- 9:28Again, we're going to talk about that in
- 9:29the next video. But other examples,
- 9:31chasing money over meaning,
- 9:32irresponsibly going into debt, staying
- 9:34in a bad relationship, not investing in
- 9:36education, climbing a corporate ladder
- 9:38that leads to nowhere. The list just
- 9:40goes on. The average person does not try
- 9:43to solve their problems or their
- 9:45struggles. They get stuck in a routine
- 9:47where they live the same day over and
- 9:49over again because that's what the
- 9:51conditioning process led to in their
- 9:53lives. When they were born, their
- 9:55parents and teachers injected values and
- 9:57beliefs into their head that put them on
- 9:59the default path heading toward the goal
- 10:01that society wanted for them, which is
- 10:03go to school, get a job, retire at 65.
- 10:05the industrial paradigm, and most people
- 10:07never question that. And by the time
- 10:09they turn 20, it had become so
- 10:11conditioned in their mind that it's just
- 10:13habitual. It's just unconscious. It's
- 10:14just what they do. It doesn't cross
- 10:16their minds to snap out of it, engage in
- 10:18strategic thinking, and change the
- 10:20direction of their life so that they can
- 10:23eventually reach a more advantageous
- 10:25position where their problems aren't so
- 10:27painful. They still have problems.
- 10:29Everyone still has problems, but they're
- 10:31of a lesser magnitude. They're more fun
- 10:33and creative problems to solve. You
- 10:35start to see life as a puzzle rather
- 10:37than a death sentence. So, what I'm
- 10:39saying is that everyone has a strategy,
- 10:41but for most people, it's not one that
- 10:44they created. It's one that they were
- 10:45assigned. Their strategy is, again, go
- 10:47to school, get a job, retire at 65, be a
- 10:49good student, make a decent amount of
- 10:52money even though it's not that much, be
- 10:54humble, don't stick your nose out. Your
- 10:56dreams aren't worth pursuing because
- 10:58they're risky, which doesn't make sense
- 11:00because risk is the only way to get
- 11:02reward. It all just doesn't make sense
- 11:04when you actually think about it,
- 11:05especially going into the new paradigm,
- 11:08which is AI, information, all of that
- 11:10stuff. It requires a completely
- 11:12different strategy whether or not you
- 11:14agree that culture and society should be
- 11:16heading in this direction of AI and
- 11:18information. That doesn't mean that it's
- 11:20not happening. People are so mad that,
- 11:22oh, jobs are going to be replaced even
- 11:24though I don't know if that's going to
- 11:25be the case, but that's what people are
- 11:26saying. No matter what it is, you need
- 11:28to create a a strategy so that you can
- 11:31thrive in the future rather than being
- 11:34stuck in the one that you were assigned
- 11:37that was only somewhat beneficial to the
- 11:40old way of life, the American dream. So,
- 11:42how do you actually start to get out of
- 11:44this mindless and honestly meaningless
- 11:47way of living? And you may not be
- 11:48completely in it, but this still applies
- 11:50to you to start to create your own
- 11:52strategy. Well, you think of it as if
- 11:54you're on an actual battlefield because
- 11:56in many ways you are. You're living
- 11:58under this guise of modern comfort and
- 12:01convenience where everything is just
- 12:03easy and you're allowed to just coast
- 12:05through life and do the bare minimum in
- 12:07order to survive, but if you were on a
- 12:09battlefield, think of the general. His
- 12:11own life was on the line. That forced
- 12:14strategic depth. He had to be strategic
- 12:18in order to win or else he would die.
- 12:20You need pressure. You need tactical
- 12:23stress. You need to put yourself in a
- 12:24position where you must craft a strategy
- 12:27or you lose. Or else you're just going
- 12:29to lose either way. Move into an
- 12:31apartment you can't afford. Book the
- 12:32plane ticket to somewhere you've never
- 12:34been. Invest in the business software,
- 12:36the course, or coaching even if you
- 12:38think it's a scam because at least your
- 12:39finances will be put on the line and you
- 12:41can't live in a shroud of false comfort
- 12:43anymore. So, you get it. You need a
- 12:45strategy and you need to develop the
- 12:46skill of strategic thinking because
- 12:48without those every single decision you
- 12:50make in life becomes arbitrary. It
- 12:52doesn't matter. It is quite literally
- 12:53meaningless because it's not aimed in a
- 12:55specific direction. That doesn't feel
- 12:57good to think about that every single
- 13:00thing that you do every single day
- 13:01without a strategy does not get you
- 13:04anywhere. I'm being hyperbolic, but
- 13:05that's for a reason to actually get you
- 13:07to take this seriously. And if the
- 13:09outcome of your life is the accumulation
- 13:11of the decisions you make, then this is
- 13:13arguably one of the most important
- 13:15things you could ever do. That leads to
- 13:17section number three, how to build a
- 13:19superior life position by going so deep
- 13:22you see patterns in everything you do.
- 13:24Now, in the Book of Five Rings by
- 13:25Miyamoto Musashi, there are nine
- 13:27precepts or principles every strategist
- 13:29should follow. One is don't think
- 13:31dishonestly. Two, training is the way
- 13:34itself. Three, get acquainted with every
- 13:36art. Four, know the ways of all
- 13:38professions. Five, understand gain and
- 13:41loss in worldly dealings. Six, develop
- 13:43intuitive judgment about everything.
- 13:45Seven, perceive what can't be seen.
- 13:48Eight, attend even to small things.
- 13:50Nine, do nothing useless. A strategist
- 13:54in Musashi's mind is someone who goes so
- 13:56deep into one discipline that they
- 13:58discover something universal at the
- 13:59bottom of it. You notice patterns that
- 14:01aren't specific to business or
- 14:03relationships or swordsmanship or chess.
- 14:05They are constants and once you see
- 14:07those patterns and notice them across
- 14:09domains, you become far more effective
- 14:11within all domains because you are never
- 14:13really starting from scratch. You have
- 14:14an understanding of reality as a whole
- 14:16on your side. We'll go into how to
- 14:18uncover these like universal patterns,
- 14:20so to say, but the first time I became
- 14:22aware of this is when I started in
- 14:25business because for most of my life I
- 14:27had been into fitness and in the gym and
- 14:30studying nutrition and all of this stuff
- 14:32just in my free time. And when I started
- 14:34building the business and actually
- 14:35seeing some success with it, I'm like,
- 14:37"This is progressive overload." Right?
- 14:40If you know what progressive overload
- 14:41is, where it's like slowly increasing
- 14:43the weight over time. You're not trying
- 14:45to jump up in huge leaps and bounds of
- 14:47weight. You increase by 2.5 lb or 5 lb.
- 14:51And the nutrition you eat has to fuel
- 14:52the recovery to facilitate that and you
- 14:55use that as a metric for how much you're
- 14:56growing. Because if you can focus on
- 14:58that, that is a great proxy for muscle
- 15:00growth, for understanding how much
- 15:02muscle you're actually building and
- 15:03whether or not you're building muscle is
- 15:05if you're consistently getting stronger
- 15:07over time. So, all of the variables have
- 15:09to come together in order to build
- 15:11muscle, which is the end result. But in
- 15:13business, making money, the same exact
- 15:15thing happens. You need all of the
- 15:17variables to come together and you're
- 15:18not aiming for a a viral explosion of
- 15:21sales like many of the startups are.
- 15:23You're aiming for the slow, consistent
- 15:25growth, and year after year you look
- 15:28back and you're like, holy crap, this
- 15:30has been an exponential line. Now, the
- 15:33nine precepts or principles that we went
- 15:35over define what this strategist or
- 15:37master strategist looks like on the
- 15:39outside. So, the modern idea of a
- 15:41generalist is usually someone who knows
- 15:44a little about a lot. They're a jack of
- 15:45all trades, but what Musashi is
- 15:47describing here is a bit different.
- 15:48There's the generalist, there's the
- 15:50specialist, and then there's the master
- 15:53or the strategist. And this also maps
- 15:54quite well to the stages of ego
- 15:56development in spiral dynamics. The
- 15:58strategist stage is quite achievable and
- 16:01comes with the following qualities. The
- 16:02first is systems thinking. So,
- 16:04strategists see competing systems and
- 16:06perspectives simultaneously while
- 16:08achievers, who are the self-helpers or
- 16:10the businessmen, operate within a single
- 16:12system of success and achievement.
- 16:14They're also comfortable with paradox,
- 16:16so they can hold contradictions like
- 16:18being both pro and anti-AI, rather than
- 16:21resolving them into clear or false
- 16:23answers. They focus on process over
- 16:26outcome, so they care about how things
- 16:28happen and the principles at play, not
- 16:29just the results. They're aware of
- 16:31constraints, so they see how their
- 16:33assumptions and frameworks shape what
- 16:34they perceive. They have a sense of
- 16:36meta-awareness, so strategists can
- 16:38observe their own meaning-making and not
- 16:40just deploy expertise or navigate social
- 16:42dynamics, and they have principled
- 16:44flexibility. They have strong values but
- 16:46adapt methods fluidly versus rigid rules
- 16:49or social conformity. The most important
- 16:51trait there, in my opinion, is the
- 16:53ability to hold paradox or to hold
- 16:56multiple frameworks or perspectives.
- 16:58What that means is not engaging in black
- 17:00and white thinking, which is the lowest
- 17:02form of intelligence. And this is one
- 17:03massive trap of social media. Every time
- 17:05you log on, that's all you see, and you
- 17:08react to it, and you get addicted to it
- 17:10without even knowing it, and you slowly
- 17:12degrade your mental capacity to hold
- 17:15paradox. So, as a side note, the
- 17:17solution to that is to become a curator.
- 17:20You need to carefully protect your mind
- 17:22and curate your own sources of
- 17:24information and where you're getting
- 17:26information from. This is why we built
- 17:28the reader and idea capture inside of
- 17:30Eden. You can save a link to anything,
- 17:33like this YouTube video, and then open
- 17:34it in a reader so you can highlight it
- 17:37and keep your curated information in one
- 17:39place organized on boards. And for
- 17:41people who are creators, who actually
- 17:43use social media for research, we have
- 17:45feed which shows you the top performing
- 17:47posts so then you can save those to
- 17:49boards, reverse engineer them, study
- 17:51them, and then use them as inspiration
- 17:53to synthesize into your own writing or
- 17:55work or YouTube scripts or newsletters
- 17:57or social posts. So, if you want to
- 17:59start building your garden for ideas,
- 18:01you can start with Eden, the idea
- 18:03capture portion, and reading is free via
- 18:05the link in the description. Strategists
- 18:07see their own constructions as choices,
- 18:10their identity, their values, their
- 18:12worldview. The master or strategist
- 18:13receives the benefits of both the
- 18:15generalist and the specialist, both the
- 18:18ability to be good at many things so
- 18:20they don't narrow their mind to one area
- 18:21of study limiting their potential and
- 18:23the ability to excel significantly at
- 18:25one thing so they can get outsized
- 18:27results, preferably in a meaningful
- 18:29domain. So, that is our goal, to become
- 18:32someone who can embody these precepts or
- 18:34principles of the strategist. And closer
- 18:36to the end, I'll actually give you a
- 18:38shortcut or as close to a shortcut as
- 18:41you can get to just studying these
- 18:43universal principles directly so that
- 18:45you can notice them in your life. And
- 18:47for this section, I think the most
- 18:48actionable point is the ninth precept,
- 18:51which is to do nothing useless. Make
- 18:55that your operating principle for the
- 18:57next year and you will do incredible
- 18:59things. If you were to simply audit your
- 19:01thoughts and behavior for usefulness,
- 19:03you would rapidly turn your life around.
- 19:05As I said, scrolling on social media,
- 19:06getting sucked into the dogmatic black
- 19:08and white thinking is useless. The
- 19:11mindless way of life is a useless way of
- 19:13life. So, the questions now are what do
- 19:16you actually master? What is your form
- 19:18of training? How do you begin to
- 19:19understand gain and loss? How do you
- 19:21begin to embody the principles of a
- 19:23master strategist? And most importantly,
- 19:25in my eyes, how do you do something
- 19:27useful? That leads to section four,
- 19:29which is how to think so strategically
- 19:32you finally take back control of your
- 19:33life. So, thankfully, we can study what
- 19:36makes a good strategy or what strategic
- 19:39thinking looks like. And then we can
- 19:41reverse engineer it, take the
- 19:42principles, and start to apply them to
- 19:44our life. And these principles have been
- 19:46refined and iterated on over centuries
- 19:48of military and war and sports and
- 19:51business. You have a massive amount of
- 19:53historical wins and losses that you can
- 19:55look at. And the beautiful thing is that
- 19:57all of these apply to your own personal
- 19:59life and success. I've personally
- 20:01compiled seven of them here. So, if you
- 20:03sit down and actually do this and follow
- 20:05through with this, your life will
- 20:07change. That doesn't mean that your
- 20:09strategy is going to be a winning
- 20:10strategy. You can still lose, but it
- 20:13sure helps you in not being trampled
- 20:15over by your opponent, which is often
- 20:17yourself. So, principle one of strategic
- 20:19thinking is vision. And I love this
- 20:21quote from the account orange book on X,
- 20:24"No one ever suddenly gets lucky. If the
- 20:25stars suddenly align for you, you
- 20:28actually align them, consciously or not,
- 20:30by choosing where to live, who to learn
- 20:32from, who to marry, who to befriend,
- 20:34what lifestyle to maintain, what risk to
- 20:36take, and what vision to believe in."
- 20:38Now, if you don't have a vision,
- 20:41you're lost. You do not have intention
- 20:43behind your actions because you don't
- 20:45know what your actions are leading to.
- 20:47You're holding 10 darts in your hand,
- 20:49and those represent the 10 bold
- 20:51decisions that will determine the
- 20:52outcome of your life, but you don't even
- 20:53have a dartboard to aim at. In other
- 20:55words, you don't even have a chance to
- 20:57hit the board. You don't know where the
- 20:59board is. But of course, there is a
- 21:01benefit to actually being lost. I'm not
- 21:03saying that you should never feel lost
- 21:05in your life. Because when you're lost,
- 21:07you have a decision to make. You either
- 21:09let entropy drag you into oblivion,
- 21:11which is that your life gets slowly
- 21:13worse and worse over time without you
- 21:15really noticing it until it's so bad
- 21:17it's like your room getting messy. You
- 21:19don't clean your room one day and then
- 21:21shirts appear over here and then you
- 21:22don't clean it the next then you start
- 21:24to notice dust is gathering and
- 21:25eventually day after day it becomes a
- 21:27pigsty and it's normal to you. That's
- 21:30the dangerous part is that it doesn't
- 21:32just rapidly get dirty. It happens
- 21:34slowly over time in a way where you
- 21:36don't even notice it and then it's so
- 21:38much harder to get out and that's what's
- 21:40happening when you feel lost. You have
- 21:43to make the decision to figure it out,
- 21:45experiment with new things until you
- 21:47find that one thing that's worth going
- 21:49all in on. The void is where success is
- 21:51born. Now a vision is the ultimate
- 21:54outcome that you're aiming for in life.
- 21:56It is not a vague wish. It must be as
- 21:58specific as it can possibly be. It must
- 22:00be compelling enough to motivate and
- 22:02guide every action because until you're
- 22:04clear about what you want, you can't
- 22:06have a strategy at all. Once you are
- 22:08clear, you can reverse engineer every
- 22:09step and iterate as you go. So if you
- 22:11want to become someone who is
- 22:12emotionally resilient or deeply
- 22:14self-aware and financially independent
- 22:16by 35, that's very specific. That allows
- 22:19you to evaluate every daily decision
- 22:21against it. Scrolling social media for 2
- 22:23hours probably doesn't move you toward
- 22:25that and without vision you wouldn't
- 22:26even register that as a problem in your
- 22:28life. As another example, if you want to
- 22:30build a 50,000 follower audience or
- 22:32newsletter in the personal development
- 22:34space that generates enough revenue to
- 22:36quit your job in 18 months. Again, that
- 22:38is very specific. That is doable. You
- 22:40can actively see whether or not your
- 22:42actions are leading toward that and then
- 22:44you can course correct when they're not
- 22:46or you can educate so that you know what
- 22:48to do and you know what tactics to apply
- 22:50and you know whether or not the tactics
- 22:52apply to you so you don't get sucked
- 22:54down the distraction rabbit hole on
- 22:56social media of people trying to tell
- 22:57you their business model is better.
- 22:59Every piece of content that you write,
- 23:01every platform choice and where you
- 23:02choose to grow on social media. Every
- 23:04monetization decision can be evaluated
- 23:07against the intent. And now, since
- 23:09everyone's talking about building a
- 23:10personal brand these days, and I'm with
- 23:12them, I do think it is the future in
- 23:14many ways, especially as a value
- 23:15creator, not necessarily an influencer
- 23:17that contributes to brain rot and
- 23:19ruining people's minds, but someone who
- 23:20explores their curiosity and shares what
- 23:22they learn and provide some form of
- 23:24value, I do believe that that is a very
- 23:26good path to go down for people that
- 23:28want to go down it. Now, I actually
- 23:29created something pretty cool. The link
- 23:31is in the description, but all you do is
- 23:33you fill out five questions, and this is
- 23:35completely free. I built it kind of just
- 23:37for fun. But, you fill out five
- 23:38questions, and then it researches what's
- 23:40working in the market, and then at the
- 23:42end it spits out a personal brand
- 23:44strategy for you that you resonate with,
- 23:46and it builds a board inside of Eden
- 23:48with a swipe file of posts that you can
- 23:50use as inspiration to create your first
- 23:52post because they're based on what works
- 23:54and what's performing in the market. So,
- 23:56it's pretty cool. Try it out. And if
- 23:58you're listening to the Spotify version
- 23:59of this video, just go to
- 24:00eden.so/brand-strategy.
- 24:05Now, the thing here is that vision is
- 24:06very difficult to create just by
- 24:09thinking about it or imagining it. It's
- 24:11very difficult to think about what you
- 24:13want and actually know whether or not
- 24:15that's what you want. So, instead, it's
- 24:17easier to start with inverting it,
- 24:20right? An anti-vision or creating a
- 24:21post-mortem for your life. And a
- 24:23post-mortem is essentially writing out
- 24:25every single thing that went wrong so
- 24:27that you can avoid it. So, that's step
- 24:29one. That's what I want you to do. I
- 24:30want you to stop, take out your notes,
- 24:32take out a piece of paper, and just
- 24:34quickly write this down, and you can
- 24:35iterate it and add to it over time.
- 24:37First, write your anti-vision, just one
- 24:39paragraph. Think of exactly what you
- 24:41don't want the outcome of your life to
- 24:43be. The second thing is a post-mortem.
- 24:45So, reverse engineer why that
- 24:47anti-vision would have happened in the
- 24:48first place, and what mistakes were
- 24:50made, and how to avoid them. And from
- 24:52there, it's much easier now to think
- 24:56about what your starting vision could
- 24:57be, your MVV or your minimum viable
- 25:00vision, because it does evolve over time
- 25:02as situations change. So, you just need
- 25:04one paragraph, one idea of what your
- 25:07vision is right now, so that you have
- 25:09something to improve because you can't
- 25:11improve what doesn't exist. So,
- 25:14principle number two is research, and
- 25:16we'll start with a quote from Devin
- 25:17Erickson. Worry less about which career
- 25:20skills AI will take over and more about
- 25:22whether you are training to be and
- 25:24training your kids to be high-agency,
- 25:26perceptive, self-motivated people who
- 25:29can navigate an unknowable future with
- 25:31an adaptable mind. So, in a war, a
- 25:33general sends out spies, studies the
- 25:35terrain, and learns the enemy's habits
- 25:37and tendencies because you need intel
- 25:39before you act. The question is, when
- 25:42was the last time you studied yourself?
- 25:44When was the last time you audited your
- 25:46habits and what kind of life they were
- 25:47compounding into? When was the last time
- 25:49you paid attention to how your mind
- 25:51reacts to silly little things that end
- 25:52up clogging your head space for hours on
- 25:54end, removing you from your path. Most
- 25:57people have zero intel on how to start a
- 25:59business, how to build a career, what
- 26:01healthy relationships look like, how to
- 26:03stay lean and healthy, or what the
- 26:05mastery process looks like. They get a
- 26:07little spurt of motivation, like for a
- 26:09New Year's resolution, go about it
- 26:11blindly, and obviously fail because they
- 26:13didn't engage in research and
- 26:14self-education. That's not a habit for
- 26:16them. So, before you begin improving
- 26:18your life with something like a
- 26:20spirituality practice or anything else,
- 26:22you want to study multiple traditions,
- 26:24read the research on different
- 26:26techniques, talk to people who've done
- 26:27it for years, follow a range of social
- 26:29accounts in that domain, and understand
- 26:31your own psychological patterns and what
- 26:33tends to trigger you. You don't just
- 26:35grab the first meditation app that shows
- 26:37up on an Instagram ad or the first
- 26:39tactic that someone tells you for
- 26:40clearing your mind and being happy all
- 26:42the time that you saw as a tweet or a
- 26:44YouTube video. The same thing goes for
- 26:46social media. If you're treating this as
- 26:49something that you actually want to do
- 26:51well at, you need a strategy. You need
- 26:53to study what other people in the market
- 26:55are doing. You need to understand what
- 26:57works, and you need to let that inform
- 26:59your strategy. You need to use a
- 27:01research tool like Eden or the other
- 27:03ones, and scroll the discover feed and
- 27:05see what's working, and scroll social
- 27:07media and save posts so that you have
- 27:09them ready when it's time to write. You
- 27:11curate lists of creators, and you study
- 27:14them. You don't just blindly scroll
- 27:15social media. And once you have enough
- 27:17research, you begin to strategize how
- 27:20can you wedge yourself into the market
- 27:22by doing what works, but by doing also
- 27:24what is unique. This is the downfall of
- 27:26starving artists because all they want
- 27:28to do is practice their little art, but
- 27:30they're they won't merge it with
- 27:32business. They won't integrate the two.
- 27:34They think that by simply going about it
- 27:36in a business way just strips all the
- 27:37humanity and soul from it, when that's
- 27:39not anywhere close to the case. You're
- 27:41just not thinking. Again, you're
- 27:43thinking in black and white. You're
- 27:44letting other people's beliefs and
- 27:47polarizing opinions infect your mind,
- 27:49and you're not questioning them. You're
- 27:50not coming up with your own opinion on
- 27:52the matter because obviously, if your
- 27:54goal is to actually see success, and
- 27:56then you go and do something completely
- 27:58different because your beliefs are
- 28:00tainted, then that's not ideal. So, if
- 28:02you just want to write as art, then go
- 28:06ahead and do it. But don't expect anyone
- 28:08to give you your attention just because
- 28:10you spent a lot of time writing because
- 28:12time does not equate to value. It is
- 28:14okay. It is perfectly okay to treat
- 28:16writing or art as a hobby. But if you're
- 28:19trying to do this as a form of
- 28:20meaningful work,
- 28:22then it is a business. Now, principle
- 28:24number three is preparation. And this is
- 28:27where you identify your resources, the
- 28:29resources that you specifically have,
- 28:31and your gaps. Because you wouldn't just
- 28:33drop into a battlefield without food or
- 28:36logistics or weapons or support. And so,
- 28:39once you know what resources you have or
- 28:41the ones that you don't, you can start
- 28:43building reserves so so eventually you
- 28:46can execute on your strategy. The
- 28:48resources that most people need to look
- 28:49for are money, time, knowledge, skills,
- 28:53the location you live, connections, and
- 28:55relationships. All of those things are
- 28:57valid resources. Just because you don't
- 28:59have money doesn't mean that you can't
- 29:01create a strategy to say start a
- 29:03business because you can still develop
- 29:05skill. You can develop knowledge. And if
- 29:07you're young, you have plenty of time on
- 29:09your hands, right? The ones who are past
- 29:12the age of 20, 25, 30, when they're very
- 29:15ingrained in their habits and they have
- 29:17bills to pay and all these
- 29:18responsibilities, they don't have much
- 29:20time or money on their hands. So, if you
- 29:22lack those resources and they're very
- 29:24difficult to get, what other resources
- 29:26can you go after? Where can you leverage
- 29:29yourself? As an example, before
- 29:31attempting some kind of major life
- 29:33change like quitting a job or ending a
- 29:34relationship or starting a new project
- 29:36or venture, you'd probably want to build
- 29:38your financial runway, decrease your
- 29:40expenses, develop the emotional
- 29:42regulation skills you'll need, and line
- 29:43up support systems. You don't just rush
- 29:45into battle. In other words, you need to
- 29:47hedge against risk because every goal
- 29:50comes with risk. And as you go deeper
- 29:52and deeper into the hierarchy of goals
- 29:54you're trying to achieve, the risk only
- 29:56gets greater and greater. You may start
- 29:58a business as a one-person business like
- 30:00we talk about with something like an
- 30:01information product or a simple AI
- 30:03product, but then what's next? Are you
- 30:05going to build a team? Are you going to
- 30:06expand? Are you going to go into
- 30:08e-commerce? What else are you going to
- 30:09do? Or are you going to stick and make
- 30:10it a lifestyle business, which is
- 30:12perfectly valid, but if you want a
- 30:14greater return, if you want more money,
- 30:16or potentially more freedom, or just
- 30:19whatever you want in life, what is your
- 30:21vision? Then you're going to have to
- 30:23build the resources so that the risk of
- 30:26doing so doesn't absolutely destroy you.
- 30:28So, if you don't have many resources,
- 30:30then it probably wouldn't make sense to
- 30:32start crypto trading or start stock
- 30:35trading or day trading because you're
- 30:36just going to lose all your money.
- 30:38You're gambling at that point, and
- 30:39that's not a strategy. You are much
- 30:41better off starting smaller so that you
- 30:44can acquire resources. That is the
- 30:46beginning of your strategy is how do I
- 30:48do something that allows me to get the
- 30:51resources I need to do what I eventually
- 30:54want to do. So, the way that I went
- 30:56about that is social media. I knew that
- 30:58it was free to access. I didn't need any
- 31:00money to start the business. I didn't
- 31:01need any money to create an info
- 31:03product. I didn't need any money to
- 31:04write a book and then that allowed me to
- 31:06acquire the resource of money so that I
- 31:08could invest into a bigger business that
- 31:10I wanted to build, which is Eden, the
- 31:11software business. And eventually, soon,
- 31:14Saunder, the nootropic business. So, if
- 31:15you have these high and mighty dreams of
- 31:18doing something massive, right, which I
- 31:20think is a very worthwhile thing to do
- 31:22and to think about, but it's not
- 31:23feasible for you right now, what are you
- 31:25doing about it? Just because you can't
- 31:27start the business you want to start now
- 31:29doesn't mean you can't start another
- 31:31form of a business that allows you to
- 31:33start that business. Otherwise, you're
- 31:34never going to be able to start the one
- 31:35you want to start. Now, speaking
- 31:37specifically to young people, you have
- 31:40so much time on your hands. You are in
- 31:42one of the greatest positions you can
- 31:44possibly be right now at this point in
- 31:46your life. And if you have these high
- 31:48and mighty dreams, in my opinion, the
- 31:50best thing you can do is just hedge
- 31:51against risk as much as you can so that
- 31:53you can take risk and have nothing to
- 31:55lose. What that means
- 31:57is selling everything you own. Living in
- 31:59a depression apartment, as Devon calls
- 32:01it, aka an apartment that costs nothing.
- 32:04You just have no standard of living for
- 32:06your young years and you cut all your
- 32:09expenses so that everything you have can
- 32:11go into the thing that you're building
- 32:13because you have the resource of time,
- 32:14but you don't have the resource of
- 32:15money. So, you need to pull all of your
- 32:18reserves in and put it toward generating
- 32:21the resource of money. Now, principle
- 32:22number four of strategic thinking is
- 32:25focus, specifically concentration of
- 32:27force. So, a quote from Greg McKeown
- 32:29from the book Essentialism, is there a
- 32:32point at which doing more does not
- 32:34produce more? Is there a point at which
- 32:36doing less, but thinking more, will
- 32:38actually produce better outcomes? So,
- 32:40focus, or concentration of force, is the
- 32:42military principle of focusing all of
- 32:44your resources at the decisive point,
- 32:47rather than spreading thin. The best
- 32:49example of this is France in 1940, where
- 32:51the French had more tanks and troops
- 32:53than the Germans, and they had far more
- 32:55raw resources, but they distributed
- 32:57their armor, or tanks, evenly across the
- 32:59entire front, so every sector had a few
- 33:01tanks. The Germans took every panzer
- 33:03they had and drove them through a single
- 33:05point, which the French thought was
- 33:07impassable, so they barely defended it.
- 33:09Focus is about where you put what you
- 33:12have, and in life, you only have so much
- 33:14of it at any given time. Most people try
- 33:16to change their life and place 10% of
- 33:18their attention into diet, sleep,
- 33:20exercise, meditation, relationships,
- 33:22their side hustle, and more, when they
- 33:23would get better at all of them faster
- 33:27if they focused on the single bottleneck
- 33:29holding them back the most. I don't
- 33:31think people understand that enough,
- 33:33that focus does not decrease your
- 33:37progress in all areas. It increases them
- 33:39in all areas. By focusing on one thing,
- 33:42you increase every other area. And for
- 33:45most people, the single bottleneck is
- 33:48money, because money buys anything. So,
- 33:50if you focused solely on solving your
- 33:52financial struggle first, then that
- 33:54frees up more resources to put towards
- 33:57other areas of your life, like diet. You
- 33:59can afford higher quality food. When you
- 34:01have more money, you're in a less
- 34:03stressful state. You can think more
- 34:05creatively. It benefits your creative
- 34:06work and spirituality. And with those
- 34:08three things, a clearer mind, and a
- 34:10better diet, and more energy, and
- 34:12potentially more time to go and
- 34:13exercise, that benefits your
- 34:15relationships. And the same applies to
- 34:17business. On something like social
- 34:18media, there is more to growth than just
- 34:20content, so cross-posting to all
- 34:22platforms takes away time you could be
- 34:24spending building connections with
- 34:26people that will help you grow. You'd
- 34:27gain more followers by focusing on one
- 34:29platform first, which can then be used
- 34:31as leverage to grow on the other
- 34:33platforms faster than you would have in
- 34:35the same amount of time spreading your
- 34:37force across all platforms. One tangible
- 34:39example of that is that I chose Twitter
- 34:42or X as my first platform and I solely
- 34:44focused on that. I built connections on
- 34:45that platform and I still know and talk
- 34:48to those connections today. But, when I
- 34:50had somewhat of a large following on
- 34:52Twitter, when I decided I wanted to
- 34:54deploy my strategy on Instagram and grow
- 34:57there, I found people with a large
- 34:59following on Instagram and said, "Hey, I
- 35:01have a large following on X. Do you want
- 35:03to help each other grow by sharing each
- 35:06other's content on either platform?" And
- 35:08that alone allowed me to grow on
- 35:10Instagram so much faster than anyone
- 35:12else just starting from scratch. This is
- 35:14something we teach in week four of the
- 35:16Creator Bootcamp. Now, principle number
- 35:17five of strategic thinking is just
- 35:20execute or execution. And from Alex
- 35:22Hormozi, strategy is how you choose to
- 35:25allocate your limited resources against
- 35:27unlimited options. Proper execution of
- 35:29strategy is the continuous act of
- 35:31jumping between macro vision and micro
- 35:34daily action, ensuring that the
- 35:35decisions you make have aim and
- 35:38intention. This is the core of what
- 35:40strategy is, doing the opposite of what
- 35:4299% of people do, because most people do
- 35:45not think outside of their conditioning,
- 35:47assigned goals, or repetitive routines.
- 35:49But, how do you actually execute
- 35:51effectively? This is where everything
- 35:53starts to come together. First, you
- 35:55practice holding your vision in the back
- 35:57of your mind. Write it down somewhere
- 35:59and look at it every morning. It must
- 36:00become a part of who you are through
- 36:03repeat exposure. Second, take note of
- 36:06what you learn from studying your
- 36:07opponents or yourself. Meditate on it,
- 36:09contemplate it, let it marinate in your
- 36:11mind so that it can start to make
- 36:12connections. Third, identify the primary
- 36:15resource that you can leverage. For
- 36:17young people, it's time and freedom,
- 36:18most likely. For some, it's capital. For
- 36:21others, it's an internet audience. For
- 36:23more, it's a weird set of interests and
- 36:24knowledge. And yes, for many, it's AI,
- 36:27but not from the low-level sense. AI
- 36:29gives high agency people the ability to
- 36:31do so much more, and it gives low agency
- 36:33people a reason to play victim and
- 36:35complain. But, the trap for the high
- 36:37agency person is that now they have
- 36:38unlimited options. They can do anything.
- 36:40So, concentration of force, strategic
- 36:42thinking is even more important than
- 36:44ever, because you can do anything with
- 36:46AI, but that doesn't mean you're going
- 36:47to get anywhere. And fourth, choose your
- 36:50concentration of force play. Where is
- 36:52the single highest leverage point? The
- 36:54one that would unlock progress in more
- 36:56than one domain, the thing that makes
- 36:58everything else easier. And from there,
- 37:00we have a soft plan, but it needs to be
- 37:02crystal clear. We have to reverse
- 37:04engineer our vision down into a
- 37:06hierarchy of goals that allows us to
- 37:09gain perspective and clarity on our
- 37:11daily actions. They can't be so far away
- 37:13from each other. You have to see how
- 37:15your daily actions slowly contribute to
- 37:18your vision, because in many cases,
- 37:20they're not going to directly contribute
- 37:21to it. You're going to take a daily
- 37:22action, and you're not going to be able
- 37:24to see how it actually is creating your
- 37:26vision. That's why you have to break it
- 37:28down and see the entire system. So, take
- 37:30your vision, and then work backward to
- 37:33one your goals, 90-day objectives,
- 37:35weekly priorities, and daily habits.
- 37:37Every step should trace back to the
- 37:39intent or vision. If it doesn't, set it
- 37:41aside. That is your sign to take the
- 37:43piece of paper that you took out earlier
- 37:45and to write this down with everything
- 37:46else. Now, principle number six is adapt
- 37:49or adaptability. And a quote from Mihaly
- 37:51Csikszentmihalyi, "It is not possible to
- 37:53experience a feeling of control unless
- 37:55one is willing to give up the safety of
- 37:57protective routines. Only when a
- 37:59doubtful outcome is at stake, and one is
- 38:01able to influence that outcome, can a
- 38:03person really know whether she is in
- 38:05control." What that means is that a
- 38:07rigid strategy or routine is a losing
- 38:09strategy or routine, especially in
- 38:11today's world where the rate of change
- 38:13is extreme, right? During the industrial
- 38:15age and up until now, not too much
- 38:18change. That's why it's so deeply
- 38:19ingrained to go to school, get a job,
- 38:21retire at 65 because the societal system
- 38:23was built up according to that paradigm
- 38:25with the goal. But now with AI and
- 38:27disruption and all of this stuff,
- 38:29everything is changing every 3 to 6
- 38:32months and the rate of change will only
- 38:34increase and it's going to filter out so
- 38:36many people who get stuck with a rigid
- 38:38strategy and aren't able to adapt. So,
- 38:40in my eyes, the future belongs to the
- 38:42true strategist at this higher level of
- 38:44thinking that we'll dive into more in
- 38:46the next video. Because masters can
- 38:48adapt on the fly because they have the
- 38:50universal principles that they can apply
- 38:52to all domains. They don't necessarily
- 38:54need to relearn everything. They don't
- 38:56need to upskill or reskill or re-educate
- 38:59because they can do that extremely fast
- 39:01on their own. So, your job is to respond
- 39:04to what's actually happening then and
- 39:05there on the battlefield, not your
- 39:07mental fabrications of worst-case
- 39:09scenarios or your fantasies that are not
- 39:11yet real. So, if you committed to a
- 39:13morning routine as an example, but your
- 39:15job schedule changed, you don't just
- 39:17abandon the routine. That's what most
- 39:19people do. Don't do what most people do.
- 39:21The vision and intent of your strategy
- 39:24doesn't change, which is becoming, let's
- 39:26say, more disciplined and grounded.
- 39:27That's why you created a morning
- 39:28routine. But the tactics do. If a
- 39:31particular meditation or business
- 39:33strategy stops working after 6 months,
- 39:35then you need to change. You need to
- 39:37experiment and try something new. You
- 39:38need to be in the constant state of
- 39:40experimentation. And that's just the
- 39:42principle that systems fall apart over
- 39:44time. You should expect that. Think of
- 39:46the Notion system that you built out 6
- 39:48months ago and don't use now. Or the
- 39:50Claude skill you downloaded and don't
- 39:51use anymore. You have to be skilled
- 39:53enough to know when something isn't
- 39:55working. The same is true with social
- 39:57media. I have people come to me all the
- 39:58time and it's like, "Dan, I posted this
- 40:00and it was supposed to work according to
- 40:01all of these things that I learned, but
- 40:03it didn't work. What do I do?" You
- 40:04adapt. You experiment. You keep trying.
- 40:06This isn't a job. You don't just study
- 40:08and train a repeatable set of tasks. You
- 40:11have to have the entrepreneurial mind,
- 40:13the creative mind. You have to be in
- 40:14this constant state of taking in what's
- 40:17going on and interpreting it and then
- 40:19outputting it and then slowly getting
- 40:21better at that entire process over time.
- 40:23Now, the way you actually practice this
- 40:24is review, reflection, and prediction.
- 40:27You need to schedule this weekly. You
- 40:29need to review your week, see if you're
- 40:31on track, reflect on your progress, and
- 40:33predict where you're heading. And this
- 40:35doesn't need to be in any fancy template
- 40:37or thing that you download. This is like
- 40:39just keep a piece of paper
- 40:41by your computer. I have this little
- 40:42tiny notebook where I just jot things
- 40:44down because I understand that if I try
- 40:47to keep up with a note-taking system, I
- 40:49don't keep up with it. That's not how
- 40:50your mind works. It kind of has to be
- 40:53messy. You have to embrace just putting
- 40:55an idea down and letting it get lost.
- 40:57And if it's important, you will remember
- 40:59it. That's the library feature of Eon.
- 41:00You just drop ideas in and we auto-tag,
- 41:03auto-categorize everything for you. But
- 41:05you don't even need that. You can use
- 41:07Apple Notes. You can use the notebook.
- 41:08You can use anything. Just get in the
- 41:10habit of writing things down. Now, the
- 41:12final principle number seven, the
- 41:13principle of all principles of strategic
- 41:16thinking is the study of principles.
- 41:19Now, with this section, I encourage you
- 41:21to adopt the belief that everything is a
- 41:24skill. Everything is a field of study
- 41:27that you can stack experience in and get
- 41:29better at. Money, mindset, beliefs,
- 41:32relationships, business, social media.
- 41:35Everything that you think is luck is not
- 41:36luck. It's skill. It's only luck because
- 41:39you're gambling and you don't have
- 41:40strategy. And strategy itself is a field
- 41:43of study with principles that hold
- 41:45across domains. The more you study
- 41:47strategy and its principles, the better
- 41:49you become at applying them to your own
- 41:51life situation. It is a lifelong ongoing
- 41:54practice. So, read Sun Tzu. Read about
- 41:56cognitive biases. Study how habits form.
- 41:58Learn the principles of negotiation.
- 42:00Study why content goes viral. Study how
- 42:02attention economics works. You don't
- 42:04just copy what other creators do. You
- 42:06study the principles so you can come up
- 42:08with your own moves. That is essentially
- 42:10what originality is because nothing is
- 42:12original, nothing is authentic. It
- 42:14honestly peeves me when people like
- 42:17people get in little arguments on social
- 42:18media of like, "Oh, you copied my idea
- 42:20and you copied my idea." But, you're
- 42:22just looking through the lens of
- 42:23specificity, right? Did they copy your
- 42:25niche? You guys write about the same
- 42:27topics. Did they copy how you walk? You
- 42:29guys both walk, you're both human, you
- 42:30both speak the English language. Did you
- 42:32come up with that all on your own? Did
- 42:34you come up with any of the words that
- 42:37you speak on a daily basis? Did you
- 42:39create the clothes that you wear? Have
- 42:41you actually audited the beliefs in your
- 42:43head? How original and authentic are you
- 42:45actually? Why do you treat this as some
- 42:47form of high value that you can stand on
- 42:49to virtue signal to other people? When
- 42:51you'd get much better results in life
- 42:52when you actually leaned in to what
- 42:53nature and authenticity is. Now, I'm not
- 42:55saying that plagiarism is good by any
- 42:57means, but I am saying that people take
- 42:59it way too seriously and that people are
- 43:02allowed to have similar ideas. They're
- 43:04allowed to post similar ideas under
- 43:07their brand because they resonate with
- 43:08it. But, yeah, if it's a direct rip,
- 43:10then yeah, credit the person. But, if
- 43:12it's just an inspired idea, welcome to
- 43:15how the world works. Now, beyond that, I
- 43:17believe that the best way to study true
- 43:19principles is to study reality itself,
- 43:22because strategy is the application of
- 43:25reality's principles to human goals. So,
- 43:27I want to leave you with many different
- 43:30things that you can go down a rabbit
- 43:31hole afterwards, right? I'm going to
- 43:32give you a long list and I want you to
- 43:34pick one and I want you to go and read
- 43:36that thing or buy the book or whatever
- 43:39it is, just read it. And, I'll break
- 43:40these up into categories. The first
- 43:42category is just formal systems. The
- 43:44first is cybernetics, the study of
- 43:45feedback loops, control, and
- 43:47self-regulation in any system,
- 43:49mechanical, biological, or social. So,
- 43:51go down a rabbit hole with AI or Google
- 43:53about cybernetics. Systems theory, which
- 43:55is the study of holes, interconnections,
- 43:57stocks and flows, emergence, and
- 43:59leverage points. Go and buy a book on
- 44:01systems thinking. Third is
- 44:02thermodynamics, especially the second
- 44:04law, because entropy always increases.
- 44:06Every ordered system requires energy
- 44:08input to resist decay. Your habits and
- 44:10routines will fall apart otherwise, aka
- 44:13clean your room. I'd recommend the book
- 44:15Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for that
- 44:17one, even though it's not about
- 44:18thermodynamics, it's a good read though.
- 44:19Now, in the category of philosophical
- 44:21traditions, study Taoism, which is the
- 44:23Tao or Dao, I always forget which one it
- 44:26is, as the ineffable underlying
- 44:27principle of reality. It's wu wei, which
- 44:30is action in accordance with nature, not
- 44:32forced action, yin yang, complementary
- 44:34opposites, and cultivation of effortless
- 44:36mastery. And then there's perennial
- 44:38philosophy, which is the claim that all
- 44:40major wisdom traditions share a common
- 44:42metaphysical core. There's an ultimate
- 44:44reality, the human self can participate
- 44:46in it, and the purpose of life is to
- 44:48realize this. This is like the
- 44:49antithesis of black and white dogmatic
- 44:51thinking. The next category is
- 44:53integrative meta-frameworks. The first
- 44:55is integral theory by Ken Wilber, which
- 44:57maps reality across quadrants, levels of
- 44:59development, states of consciousness,
- 45:00and types. And then there's spiral
- 45:02dynamics, which is a model of value
- 45:04systems development through tiers. It
- 45:06models how humans construct meaning at
- 45:08different stages, which for a strategist
- 45:10is studying reality because it's
- 45:12constructed by the observer. The next
- 45:13category is the esoteric or symbolic.
- 45:16So, hermetic principles or the Kybalion,
- 45:18the book. Mentalism, correspondence,
- 45:20vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and
- 45:22effect, and gender. A compact set of
- 45:24lens that have influenced a lot of new
- 45:25thought traditions. This is where as
- 45:27above, so below comes from. And then
- 45:29there's also Jungian alchemy. So, the
- 45:31psychological and spiritual process of
- 45:33transformation. It's a framework for how
- 45:35deep change actually works in a person
- 45:37or system. And then the last category is
- 45:39the strategic or mathematical. So, game
- 45:41theory, the mathematical study of
- 45:43strategic interaction, zero-sum versus
- 45:45positive-sum games, the prisoner's
- 45:47dilemma, Nash equilibrium. And then
- 45:49there's evolutionary theory. So,
- 45:51selection, adaptation, fitness
- 45:52landscapes, variation, and retention.
- 45:55And all of these are just lenses that
- 45:56point at how a different facet of
- 45:58reality works. If you were to simply
- 46:00study these domains or those things for
- 46:02the next year, your understanding of
- 46:05almost every skill or discipline or
- 46:07domain or area of learning would rise
- 46:10with it. You will naturally be better at
- 46:12everything you do in life. So, I hope
- 46:14all of that was helpful on strategic
- 46:16thinking. Again, if you want a garden
- 46:18for ideas, a place to curate your
- 46:20knowledge, to save ideas, to save social
- 46:22post quickly on mobile, to research top
- 46:24performing content if you're a creator
- 46:25or writer, and to just have a place
- 46:27where you can dump ideas without
- 46:29worrying about the organization while
- 46:31being able to find them later. This is
- 46:32essentially what I do for videos like
- 46:35these is I read a lot of stuff, I save a
- 46:37lot of stuff, I highlight a a lot of
- 46:39stuff, and then when I choose a topic, I
- 46:40just ask the AI chat to look through my
- 46:42library and it can find novel relations
- 46:45and connections between all of the ideas
- 46:47I've saved and give me potential ideas
- 46:49that I can include in videos like these.
- 46:52The quotes that I used throughout each
- 46:54section was actually done via that
- 46:56process. So, I'll leave it at that.
- 46:58Thank you for watching. Again, I hope
- 47:00you enjoyed the video. Like and
- 47:01subscribe while you're still here. It's
- 47:02just a simple button click that most
- 47:04people forget to do. So, if you could do
- 47:06that, I'd appreciate it and I'll see you
- 47:08in the next video. Bye.
About this transcript
This page contains the full transcript of The Art of Strategic Thinking (How to Become Wildly Successful at Anything You Do) by Dan Koe, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 9,446 words across 1,392 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.
What you can do with it
Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.
Free YouTube transcript tool
YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.