Don’t Fight Fair: The 5 Unfair Advantages in Life and Business

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I had the really cool opportunity to speak with a member of the U.

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S.

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Special Forces at a charity dinner.

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Really interesting guy.

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He's, he's, you know, a combat veteran,

been on the most amazing mission.

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Things are truly unbelievable,

I believe every word, obviously.

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And at the table somebody asked, it

was one of those questions that's so

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annoying because you know that they

rehearsed it in their head and they

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were just trying to sound, I don't know

what, sycophantic or pandering or...

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Patriotic, but they're like, is it

that makes, guys the best in the world?

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this guy turns around and he goes,

well that's easy, we don't fight fair.

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it was a jarring response to

everybody at the table, and we're

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like, dude, what do you mean?

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And he's like, we stack

the odds at every...

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Like that's what you do in warfare.

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You don't fight fair.

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So, you know, if I think there's three

guys in this house that we need to go

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clear, I'm going to bring 30 and then

I'm going to throw flash bangs in there

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first, and if I don't have to go in, I'm

just going to, carpet bomb the thing.

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Like it was such an amazing

lesson for me because.

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we're taught this mythos

of the honorable duel.

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But, when you really get down to brass

tacks, that's not the way to win.

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The way is to win is to stack the odds

in your favor every possible turn.

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and to hear him describe, some of

those examples, which were I think,

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a pretty good job of offering the

scale at which he was speaking.

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I mean, that's what they did.

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They want 100 to 1 odds every single time.

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And if they can't get them,

then they just don't fight.

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And thought that I really

appreciated the candor.

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I've been thinking about that from

an entrepreneurial perspective.

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You shouldn't fight fair either.

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You should not fight fair.

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Now, I'm not saying do things that

are dirty or unethical, right?

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Like, we're all on the same page.

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You should still be, you know,

truthful and honorable and integrous.

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But that doesn't mean that you fight fair.

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You can still stack the odds.

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So here are the five.

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Most important unfair advantages

you can give yourself.

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The first one is my favorite, I

think it's the most important.

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And if you do nothing else, I think this

is the thing that you should spend the

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most time trying to cultivate a habit in.

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Reading is the greatest advantage.

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It's make it your go to

pastime, drink books.

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You have to think of the most capable

minds in history, have documented their

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life's work and just handed it to you

on a silver platter for a literal.

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and you have to be intentional

about what you read, but, you know,

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if you think about like Ray Dalio

wrote a book called principles,

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which is on my, bookshelf somewhere.

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And it's his life's work.

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When you read principles, it's

more value per page than anything

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I've ever been exposed to.

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So here's the most successful

investor of all time.

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Distilling down everything he's ever

learned over the course of 40, 50

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years and giving it to you for 20,

and you can consume that book, I bet

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you, in about 15 hours, which is a

long time for a book, by the way.

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Most books can be read

in about 4 to 5 hours.

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And that's one example

of a hundred million.

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and, by the way, Some of the people

that I think, you know, Ray Dalio is

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a billionaire and there are multiple

billionaires that have written books.

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Peter Thiel's Zero to One.

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Phenomenal book.

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Really, really accessible concept.

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But it's decades of learning that you can

have in a couple of hours in 20 bucks.

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it's, I love the Georgia R.

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R.

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Martin quote, Readers live a thousand

lives, a non reader only lives one.

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It puts you in a position of

capitalizing, like truly standing

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on the shoulders of greats.

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And then if you want to go back,

like Marcus Aurelius wrote a book.

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Plato wrote books.

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Socrates had books written about

him, and we're not entirely sure that

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that's actually any of the stuff that

he said, or if it was just people

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trying to push their own narratives.

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But still, it's worth

exposing yourself to, right?

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Reading I think is the

ultimate unfair advantage.

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There's a gentleman named Jeff Hoffman

who I got to meet in an event He's one of

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the co founders of Priceline and he told

me this story about info sponging He said

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that he exposes himself to information

that he'd never otherwise be exposed to

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so he's at an airport And he goes and he

buys a magazine meant for Latin women.

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So Latina magazine and the

gal behind the counter didn't

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even want to sell it to him.

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She's like, sir, do you, like,

do you know what this is?

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And, you know, he grabbed the wrong thing.

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He's like, no, no, just continue please.

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And reads the magazine and ends up

being his next, nine figure idea.

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Came from that magazine because

there's information he wouldn't

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expose it to otherwise.

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so don't just read what you're interested

in Follow your interest and make sure

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never to compromise your love of reading

by the way That's one of the rules that

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I've found for myself recently is if

an author doesn't capture and carry my

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attention I put the book down I used

to force myself to read through things

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and I'm just too old for that now

like, you know I make it the author's

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responsibility to make sure that they

carry me through and by the way, that

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doesn't mean that It's the author's fault.

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Like, maybe they're just above me.

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I cannot begin to tell you

how many times I've tried to

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start Tolstoy's War and Peace.

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I just can't do it.

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And I know for a fact, based off of

all the people that I love and respect,

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how valuable that book could be to me.

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I'm not there yet.

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I'm just not smart

enough or patient enough.

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So I put it down and I walk away

because I don't want to, I don't

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want to turn reading into a chore.

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So that's unfair advantage number one.

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Unfair advantage number

two is waking up early.

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The most common trait among successful

people is waking up early, generally

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three hours before the work day begins.

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This is a study of self made millionaires

by an organization called rich habits.

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What's interesting about

those early hours is.

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An hour in the morning is worth

two, three, or four hours midday.

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And if you've ever gotten

up early, you know that.

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And here's the thing, I'm not an

early bird coming to you coming saying

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like, oh, why isn't this easy for you?

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Like, I am a nocturnal night owl.

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If life had no consequences, I would

spend the rest of my days On the patio

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of a coffee shop with a pack of Newport

cigarettes, a pot of coffee, a stack

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of books, and a notebook, and I would

stay there right until the sun crests.

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I love the night.

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I love everything about it.

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But I also love smoking, and neither

of those things are good for me,

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so I had to give them both up.

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Waking up early in the morning has been

one of the most impactful things that's...

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That I've ever done.

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The key, incidentally, is learn a

little bit about circadian rhythms.

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Do, 20 minutes of research,

watch a YouTube video, and you'll

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find out that you have to wake

up at the same time every day.

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Because if you're trying to wake up early

Monday through Friday, and then sleeping

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on Saturdays and Sundays, you're, you're

just working against yourself, and you're

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never actually building that habit.

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So wake up at the same time every

day, Do your habits, work on your

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most important thing, and then if

you need to, one day a week, go back

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to sleep, and then play catch up.

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But getting up shifts your schedule.

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It, it keeps you from staying up

late, which is where all your bad

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decisions are made, by the way.

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You get to get up before anybody else,

you have a head start on the world,

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there, there's nobody drawing down on

your time, and all the studies that

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have ever been done show that you're

more productive, you're more awake,

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you're more alert, you're more...

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You're more capable, you're

more creative in the morning.

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AM time is worth its weight in gold.

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So, wake up in the morning,

unfair advantage number two.

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Unfair advantage number three,

coaching and mentorship.

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And I don't have a coaching

program to sell you, by the way.

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There's very little in life that I

would have if it wasn't for the people

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that have guided me along the way.

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And you know, coaching and mentorship,

they're the same thing in my mind.

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you pay for one and you don't the other.

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So, if you can find a

mentor, find a mentor.

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If you can't.

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Go hire a coach and lean into them

hard and find a coach that's done

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the thing that you want to do.

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I wouldn't get a fat personal trainer.

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I wouldn't get a poor financial planner.

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And that's not to say I'm not

trying to fat shame anybody

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or poor shame anybody, but...

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You're not where I want to be.

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And that sounds obvious, but where

people go astray and where I've

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gone astray in the past is I started

working with a coach who was helping

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me with, let's, you know, let's say

mindset, entrepreneurial mindset.

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And then that bled into relationships

and, you know, I'm working with

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this person and I realize you have

a horrible marriage, like I want, I

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don't want what you have, so I'm not

taking any of your relationship advice.

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You, you do great from an

entrepreneurial perspective, but

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you have the exact wrong paradigm.

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You wouldn't hire a Sherpa who's

never been up the mountain.

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Find the guide who's been where you want

to go, and then pay them to get there.

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And mentors, by the way, are

more accessible than you think.

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There are massively successful people.

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Every successful person I've ever

met, with maybe two exceptions,

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wants other people to be successful.

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Is actually dying to share what they know.

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But you have to...

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You can't just show up

and be like, mentor me.

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I'm yours, right?

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Like they need to know that you're

going to put in the time and you're

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going to make it easy on them.

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And you're going to be receptive.

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Cause they're not going

to waste their time.

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Successful people don't waste their time.

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Obviously.

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Number four is masterminds.

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I do have a mastermind to sell you.

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By the way, you can go

to driven mastermind.

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com.

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Jim Rohn has a famous quote, You're

the average of the five people

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you spend the most time with.

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This has been as true in my life as

anything else, and I see it constantly

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playing out in the lives of others.

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Sometimes to their disadvantage.

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know, sometimes I see buddies, and

they're stuck in ruts, and they don't

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realize, like, you're not stuck in

a rut, you hang out with the ruts.

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And if you weren't hanging out with those

people, and I'm not, I'm not trying to

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sound like an elitist, you have to hang

out with the people you want to be like.

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You wanna be successful?

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Hang out with successful people.

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If there are things that you don't like

about yourself, look at your circle.

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Are you negative?

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do you drink too much?

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you smoke too much?

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Do you stay out late?

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Bet money.

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The four people, four other people that

you hang out with, your five person social

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group, probably does all of those things.

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So if you want the fast track to improving

your circle, go join a mastermind.

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You don't have to join mine.

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Join one though.

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There's so many good ones.

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Shout out to Joe Polish, by the way.

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Genius network one of the best he started

the modern day mastermind If you're

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looking for an amazing mastermind check

out Joe Polish's genius network Giovanni

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Marcinko has the Archangel mastermind

he's up in Toronto Steve Sims and Henry

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Sims are starting a mastermind They've

got their their speakeasy events No, now

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I'm afraid I'm going to forget friends.

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Justin Donald has a

mastermind for investing.

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John Vroman has a mastermind

for, for dads, front row dads.

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Y'all there are so many unbelievably

powerful groups of people

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that you can just pay to play.

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And here's the thing, masterminds can be

a little overwhelming and intimidating.

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They should be.

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If you're not overwhelmed and

you're not intimidated, you're

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in the wrong damn mastermind.

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You want to be the dumbest

poorest human in your circle and

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everybody's going to drag you up.

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Which is great.

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Unfair advantage number five exercise

and nutrition and I know you saw

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this one coming by the way Like

it was just a countdown to I bet

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she's going to talk about Nutrition.

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But it's a, it's a cliche for a reason.

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It's obvious for a reason.

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If you're not properly energized,

you're always going to be a step behind.

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You don't need to do Ironmans

and Triathlons, right?

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But you need to make sure that

you have the energy necessary in

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order to execute on your goals.

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Or on the tasks that will

bring you closer to your goals.

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So smoothie and go for a jog.

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It's unbelievable the impact

those types of things make.

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And what I'd love to know from you,

those are my five unfair advantages.

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Don't fight fair.

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You know, take it from the Navy SEAL.

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Don't fight fair.

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How do you stack the odds in your favor?

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What are your unfair advantages?

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What are the things that only you know?

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You know, I heard meditation

from one person recently.

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Ray Dalio talks about that too,

which really, really shocked me.

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I just never thought that that

would be like, hardcore...

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Hedge fund guys like, oh yeah,

transcendental meditation.

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But I want to know yours.

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What are your unfair advantages?

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What are the things that set

you far ahead of other people?

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And I want to know yours

so I can integrate them.

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Hit me up in the comments

and I'll see you tomorrow.