Getting better at what you care about most, and not trying to be the same as everyone else
Living a life of fulfillment and excellence.
Achieve personalized success by harnessing your individuality in the pursuit of fulfillment to achieve excellence
1) Know your micro-motives
Our schools and jobs were never designed to help you figure out what whets your appetite
These institutions believe in universal motives, but one size doesn’t fit all
a) Become aware when you’re judging someone/something
b) Identify feelings, vivid reactions, when you’re judging someone/something
c) Ask why you are experiencing those feelings
The game of judgment isn’t about other people/things at all. It’s about you. It’s all about the details. The specifics.
Example: you may want to be around around people and be alone
Don’t follow your passion
Engineer your passion
Be the same as everyone else, only better - that’s not choosing, it’s picking
Picking is like using a menu at a restaurant
Choosing is going to the grocery market and cooking dinner
Choosing is an active process
Picking is a passive process
The true power of choice is to find and select opportunities that activate the greatest number of your own micro-motives
Luck isn’t a dark horse strategy
Dark horses are ok with the worst-case scenario too
What separates dark horses is how they evaluate risk
Standardization mindset says risk is determined by odds
Dark horse mindset says risk is determined by fit
Because if something is a good fit, the opportunity is low risk. If a poor fit, the opportunity is a high risk
She took a job as a receptionist at a studio
The odds say an average person successfully going from receptionist at a studio to musical engineer are low. But Susan said there was a good fit between her motives, so it wasn’t a high risk
A small difference in fit can lead to a large difference in fulfillment and excellence
Standardization says there is one best way
The truth is there are alternatives
Knowing your strategies is a new way of thinking about the nature of your strengths
Your micro-motives are part of your core identity, these are resistant to change
When we want something, we feel it
You know with confidence whether you want to go skydiving or eat a plate of eel sushi or watch the latest Marvel movie
Inaccessible, contextual, and dynamic. Fuzzy
Everything you label as a strength is a artificial construct or ability
Abilities like programming or performing ballet are done through effort or learning
How naturally gifted are you at riding a hippopotamus?
The only way to know is to try
You discern your strengths through action, not introspection
Say you have trouble reading text
That’s a shortcoming if you want to be a literary critic
If you want to be an astronomer, it might be an unexpected strength
If you have trouble reading, your brain is better detecting images like black holes
Empathy is an asset for a nurse, and a shortcoming for a drone pilot
Being tall is good for an NBA player, and bad for a coal miner
Improve with practice, deteriorate through neglect
Your approach should be different when choosing a strategy than when choosing an opportunity
It’s all about trial and error not staying the course or choosing the one best way
You should expect failure
It’s necessary to develop excellence with strategies
It unearths your fuzzy strengths
When you learn to know your micro-motives:
You engineer your own passion
Which endows you with energy and authenticity
When you learn to know your choices
You engineer your own purpose
Which provides you with meaning and direction
When you know your strategies
You engineer your own achievement
Which gives you a deep sense of pride and self-worth
Unlearn things
Destinations are catastrophic for fulfillment
Standardized time (120 credit hours, MBA, certain degree) is to benefit institutions, not you
Fixed dates makes it easier to assess people
This makes you believe that getting better is simply a matter of time
Time doesn’t matter
The correct answer is it depends because time is relative
Don’t ask how long it takes to master something?
Instead ask if this the right strategy for me to master something?
Ignoring a destination is not the same as ignoring goals
A goal emerges out of your individuality
An active choice you have made.
A destination is someone else’s idea of an objective that you acceded to. It’s always contingent
For example, getting into Harvard Law is a destination
A goal is winning your next debate club match, reading more philosophy books, and trying to get an internship
It’s possible you will end up at Harvard Law. The self-knowledge you gain from these goals will open up new opportunities for you
It’s like climbing to the highest peak
First, you start climbing in the direction of the steepest slope
Next, you pause and look around to gain a new vantage point to see if that’s the right path to the peak
It’s not fast. You repeat this until you reach the peak
Talent isn’t rare, there is a talent quota
This makes us believe very few have the potential for excellence
Standardization mindset selects talent
Dark horse mindset is about developing talent
A lottery system would be the only way to meet a quota and objectively evaluate candidates
Use a jagged profile to show that everyone has talent
Quotas lead to a negative-sum game (you win, I lose, if I win, you lose)
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others
Standardization qutoacracy, you don’t need talent or hard work to climb the ladder, you need the right family or a fat wallet
Redefine equal opportunity as equal fit
A dark horse mindset says your goal is not to become the best in the nation, but to become the best version of yourself
Equal fit is about guaranteeing individual choice
Ask if an institutions provide both personalization and individual choice?
Choice without personalization is picking (food menu)
Summit Public Schools example: have a dedicated mentor who meets with them one-on-one every week
Summit uses a lottery system to accept students, everyone has an equal chance
Southern New Hampshire University started College for America
It eliminated grades and credit hours, replaced with competency-based evaluations
Every student has a mentor helping them make the best educational choice
No formal instructors, only academic coaches and reviewers
Greater freedom of choice comes greater personal accountability