The Benefits of Having Nothing to Lose (with Chris Williamson) Pt.1 Apr. ‘23 Ep 552

In this insightful discussion, the speakers, including Alex (Speaker A) and the host (Speaker B), delve into the psychological and strategic aspects of entrepreneurship and personal growth. Alex shares his perspective on reframing challenges, noting that acknowledging the difficulty of a task can paradoxically alleviate the stress associated with it, thus empowering individuals to persist. He emphasizes the advantages of starting from a position with nothing to lose, encouraging risk-taking and rapid action as there's no downside. The concept of "Churchillian drift" is humorously touched upon, illustrating the misattribution of quotes to prominent figures like Churchill. Speaker B discusses the importance of environment in shaping behavior, drawing on Alex's insights about habit formation and the impact of environmental cues. Alex further elaborates on the idea that businesses fail from indigestion of opportunities rather than starvation, highlighting the necessity of saying no to seemingly attractive distractions. They also explore the importance of tracking progress and setting up rewarding systems to maintain motivation. The conversation concludes with a powerful message on personal accountability, suggesting that accepting responsibility for one's circumstances, regardless of their origin, is a pivotal step toward success and empowerment.

• Recognizing the reality of difficult situations can alleviate the emotional burden.
• Accepting that feeling bad is part of challenging experiences can lead to emotional release.
• Embracing the "new world" of hardship can be empowering and allow individuals to move forward.

"You wanted this thing. You expected to be hard. Reality now matches conditions. Sorry. Expectations now match conditions. This is what hard feels like. And then all of a sudden, it's like they got permission to feel shitty. And by getting permission to feel shitty, they stop feeling a shitty because they're like, this is just my new world."

The quote explains that acknowledging the expected difficulty of a situation can help individuals cope better because they understand their feelings are appropriate for the context. This acceptance can paradoxically lead to feeling less overwhelmed by the situation.

• In business, every position has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
• Small businesses can leverage their nimbleness and personalized attention as advantages against larger competitors.
• The perception of having nothing to lose can enable individuals to take more risks and be more agile in their business endeavors.
• Recognizing the advantages of one's position can lead to increased action and success.

"Both sides have advantages. And so what happens is people are in this small position where they're more nimble, they can give more personalized attention to people, et cetera, and they see it as a pure disadvantage."

Alex discusses the concept that every business, regardless of size, has unique strengths. Smaller businesses can compete by emphasizing their ability to provide personalized service, while larger businesses can tout their experience and proven systems.

• Different strategies are employed when accumulating wealth versus preserving it.
• Taking risks with small amounts of money can lead to wealth, while taking smaller risks with larger amounts helps maintain it.
• The concept of "churchillian drift" describes the misattribution of quotes to famous individuals.

"Jack Butcher says you get rich by taking lots of risk with small amounts of money, and you stay rich by taking small amounts of risk with lots of money."

Chris Williamson highlights a quote about the different approaches to risk in the stages of wealth accumulation and preservation, agreeing with the sentiment that risk-taking behavior should change as one's financial situation evolves.

• Fear of failure is often rooted in concerns about others' opinions rather than objective losses.
• Identifying specific sources of fear can diminish its power and free individuals from self-imposed limitations.
• Shame and fear thrive in secrecy but diminish when confronted and brought to light.

"It's stories they tell themselves about what other people are going to think about them when those people aren't even thinking about them to begin with."

Alex emphasizes that the fear of failure is usually based on imagined scenarios and concerns about judgment from others, which often holds less weight in reality than one might believe.

• The fear of losing status can inhibit action, but recognizing that status is often a perception can encourage risk-taking.
• Objectively having nothing to lose should lower the threshold for taking action.
• Confronting specific fears can lead to breakthroughs and the realization that potential judgment from others is not worth sacrificing one's potential.

"If you eliminate downside, it should decrease your action threshold, meaning you should be able to do more things faster rather than do fewer things because you don't have a great life or things going for you."

Alex argues that understanding one's real versus perceived risks can encourage more decisive and swift action, especially when there is little to lose in practical terms.

• When starting a new venture, the limited audience means failures are less visible.
• Viewing content creation as practice rather than a performance can reduce pressure.
• Tracking growth in various ways can create a sense of progress and motivate continued effort.
• Reframing audience size in tangible terms (like imagining a room full of people) can validate efforts and make early stages feel worthwhile.

"The advantage of running a shit business that doesn't reach many people is that not many people saw your shit business."

Chris Williamson points out that the lack of visibility when starting a new venture can actually be an advantage, as it allows for experimentation and learning without significant negative consequences.

• Treating content creation and business growth as a game can detach personal worth from the outcome.
• Tracking both absolute and relative growth can provide multiple ways to perceive progress.
• Projecting future growth based on current trends can create excitement and drive.
• Recognizing unexpected positive events as bonuses can keep motivation high without relying on them.

"I track lots of stuff, and the more ways you track, the more ways you can win."

Alex shares his strategy of tracking various metrics to always find a win, which helps maintain a positive outlook and motivation. This approach allows him to see progress in different forms and stay encouraged.

• Pros have an existential connection to their content and success.
• Amateurs lack the same depth of connection and investment in their performance.

The pro has put his existential connection to his content and the success of it.

This quote highlights the intensity of the professional player's dedication to their craft, which is bound up with their identity and their content's success.

• Dr. Kashi, a behavioral expert, suggests successful people don't necessarily have more willpower but find ways to reward themselves.
• Skill acquisition allows for more self-reward methods, extending one's time horizon.
• Gamification and micro games within a larger goal keep motivation high.
• Travis Mash, an Olympic lifting coach, uses detailed tracking to help lifters set personal records regularly, providing constant rewards and motivation.

And so the more ways you track, the more ways you can win.

This quote explains how detailed tracking of progress can lead to frequent opportunities for small victories, which are motivating over the long term.

• Changing one's environment can dramatically impact life quality and habits.
• Chris Williamson's move to Austin resulted in a significant increase in friendship and quality of life.
• Alex discusses how even small changes in environment, like moving a few miles away, can have a big impact.
• The example of Vietnam soldiers overcoming heroin addiction upon returning to the U.S. illustrates the power of environmental change in breaking habits.

Because what happens is you eliminate all the triggers and cues that are associated with the habit that you're trying to destroy.

This quote underscores the effectiveness of changing one's environment to remove the cues that trigger undesirable habits, leading to more successful behavioral change.

• James Smith has multiple designated workspaces for different tasks to maintain productivity and focus.
• Alex discusses how changing environments can help extinguish bad habits and also facilitate the formation of new ones.
• Alex uses the example of placing sunscreen in strategic locations to remember to apply it, avoiding his dislike of oily hands by using a dispenser.

And so just thinking through both of those things anyways, that has been really helpful for me in starting and queuing myself to do new behaviors that I want to do and then also stopping behaviors that I don't want to do.

This quote explains how thoughtful changes to one's environment can both promote new, beneficial habits and discourage unwanted ones.

• As success grows, so does the attractiveness of opportunities that can serve as distractions.
• The analogy of the "woman in the red dress" from The Matrix is used to describe how distractions can become more tempting as one becomes more successful.
• The importance of staying focused on the vision and resisting the urge to pursue every opportunity is emphasized.
• Quotes from Andy Grove, Warren Buffett, and possibly Neil Shane highlight the dangers of overextending oneself and the value of saying no to most opportunities.

The most successful people say no to almost everything.

This quote, attributed to Warren Buffett, emphasizes the importance of focus and the ability to reject opportunities that do not align with one's core goals.

• Success often comes from doing the same thing consistently over a long period without overestimating one's abilities.
• The fallacy of thinking one can handle multiple ventures simultaneously is cautioned against.
• John Maxwell's quote about underestimating the unimportance of most things and Greg McEwen's book "Essentialism" are referenced to underscore the importance of focus.

Success comes down to doing the obvious thing for an extraordinary period of time without convincing yourself you're smarter than you are.

This quote, misattributed to Churchill but conveying a powerful message, highlights the need for humility and sustained effort in achieving success.

• Differentiating between the concepts of working hard and being spread thin.
• The idea of periodizing work, akin to how a weightlifting coach structures training.
• Specialization as a necessity for growth to manage increasing distractions.

"But the working hard and being spread thin are two different dynamics."

This quote highlights the distinction between productive hard work and the negative state of being overstretched.

"I think you need to specialize more as you get bigger and bigger, because the distractions are going to be even greater."

The relevance of this quote is the emphasis on specialization to maintain focus amidst growing distractions as one's responsibilities increase.

• The debate between becoming a specialist or a generalist as a leader.
• CEOs should specialize in projects but maintain a generalist skill set.

"Specialize? How so?" "Of skill set, but not in terms of projects or in terms of projects." "Specialized in projects, generalized in skills."

These quotes discuss the balance between specializing in the type of projects a leader takes on while maintaining a broad skill set.

• Confidence is built through accumulating evidence of success, not just affirmations.
• Conquering small impulses is crucial for achieving larger goals.

"The first step to achieving a massive dream is conquering tiny impulses."

This quote conveys the idea that success in large endeavors begins with mastering control over small, daily decisions.

"You don't build confidence by shouting affirmations in the mirror, but by stacking, having an undeniable stack of proof that you are who you say you are."

The quote emphasizes the importance of tangible achievements in building self-confidence, rather than relying solely on self-affirmation.

• Exploring whether action or belief should come first.
• The concept of "imposter adaptation" where one must confront their persistent imposter syndrome.
• The importance of a balance between competence and confidence.

"The challenge of action or belief first is something that I've been playing around with so much."

This quote introduces the idea that the sequence of taking action versus having belief is a subject of exploration.

"Competence without confidence is a lack of belief, and confidence without competence is self delusion."

The quote underscores the necessity of balancing competence (skill) with confidence (belief in oneself) to avoid either self-doubt or delusion.

• Opportunities often look like risks until they are successful.
• The importance of risk-adjusted return in evaluating opportunities.
• Strategies for prioritizing opportunities based on likelihood of success and skill requirements.

"Good opportunities only look like opportunities in the rear view mirror today. They look like risk."

This quote highlights the challenge of identifying true opportunities, which often appear risky before their potential is realized.

"What we found is that there are always reasons to say no to a deal. You can always find reasons to say no because there's nothing that's risk free."

The quote emphasizes that risk is inherent in all opportunities, and decision-making involves comparing risks rather than seeking risk-free options.

• Learning from investors' decision-making processes.
• The value of principles from successful investors in personal decision-making.
• The concept of having a "scoreboard" to validate decision-making skills.

"I think that the investor frame is simply people who have been scored and quantified on their ability to make decisions."

This quote suggests that investors' decision-making skills are quantifiable and therefore provide a valuable framework for making personal decisions.

"But the principles of good decision making are just quantified. And we have a scoreboard for these guys being excellent decision makers."

The quote stresses the importance of principles and measurable success in the context of investors, which can be translated to personal decision-making.

• Embracing the difficulty of building a business as a reason why many people don't succeed.
• The story of acclimating new fraternity members to a challenging environment.

"This is where most people stop, and this is why they don't win."

This quote encapsulates the idea that enduring through difficult times is what separates successful individuals from those who give up.

"It's so painful for them because it's such a contrast from what we're having them doing. Not the fun stuff."

The quote provides insight into the process of pushing individuals through challenging experiences to foster unity and resilience, which is applicable beyond the context of a fraternity.

• Alex describes the process of gaining approval from fraternity brothers through various "side quests."
• The new pledges experience a drastic shift from being celebrated to facing the harsh realities of fraternity responsibilities, such as cleaning after parties.
• A meeting is called to address the pledges' concerns, where Alex uses the opportunity to reset their expectations and help them understand the value of their efforts.

"And so that's where each of those side quests become as insane as you might imagine, right? And there was lots of hazing back in the day, which is not fun, and a lot of sleepless nights and things like that."

This quote illustrates the challenging tasks and hazing that new fraternity members are subjected to, highlighting the difficulties they face during the pledging process.

"This is what hard feels like. And then all of a sudden, it's like they got permission to feel shitty. And by getting permission to feel shitty, they stopped feeling shitty because they're like, this is just my new world."

Alex explains to the pledges that the hardships they are experiencing are part of the process they signed up for, reframing their mindset to accept and adapt to the new challenges.

• Chris Williamson shares the motivational concept of "must be nice," used by Cameron Haynes to remind himself that success requires hard work that others may not see.
• The story of Haynes carrying a rock labeled "poser" up a hill exemplifies the dedication required to achieve goals, regardless of recognition.
• Chris and Alex discuss the balance between embracing hardship and avoiding burnout.

"This is where most people stop, and this is why they don't win."

Chris emphasizes that many people give up when faced with difficulty, which is a key reason why they fail to achieve their goals.

"You can be so good at dealing with suffering that you can actually push yourself a little bit too far."

Chris warns about the potential danger of becoming too accustomed to hardship, which can lead to burnout if one does not recognize their limits and take necessary breaks.

• Alex and Chris discuss the high failure rate of podcasting and how surpassing a low threshold of episodes already puts one ahead of most podcasters.
• They reflect on the notion that success is attainable due to the low bar set by widespread lack of resilience.

"90% of podcasts don't make it past episode three. And of the 90% of the 10% that do, 90% don't make it past episode 20."

Chris uses this statistic to illustrate how a small amount of consistency can lead to success in podcasting, as many podcasters quit early on.

"It's so easy to be successful nowadays because people are weak."

Chris quotes David Goggins to drive home the point that success is more accessible due to a general lack of perseverance in the population.

• Alex discusses the importance of taking ownership of one's life and not blaming others for personal shortcomings.
• They explore the concept of reframing reality, dealing with criticism, and the difference between hard work and burnout.
• The conversation also touches on the power of being an inspiration to others by succeeding despite adverse circumstances.

"You stay in poverty until you learn the first lesson of poverty, which is two words, my fault."

Alex emphasizes the significance of personal accountability and how blaming others for one's situation can impede success.

"Power follows the blame finger. So wherever you point the blame finger is where the power follows."

Alex articulates the idea that assigning blame to external factors relinquishes personal power and control over one's life.

• They discuss strategies for handling criticism, such as acknowledging its validity and deciding how to respond constructively.
• The importance of self-evaluation and questioning one's beliefs in the face of doubt is highlighted.

"What if they're right and does it make me a piece of shit? What if it does and you end up getting down to base, which is pretty much nothing, right? All that there is actions."

Alex proposes a method of confronting criticism by considering its truth and focusing on actions rather than allowing it to define one's self-worth.

"Is it true? How do you know that it can be true?"

Chris references Byron Katie's work, which encourages individuals to question their beliefs and thoughts to gain clarity and overcome self-doubt.