Ep 129 | Become Antifragile & Thrive in the Face of Adversity

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about the concept of antifragility, the concept of being antifragile. What does that mean? And why am I even thinking about it? First, why is it on my mind? Well, just recently finished a book by Dr. Benjamin Hardy, uh, 10x Is Easier Than 2x. Great book. Uh, but he talks about antifragility in that book. And I also came across some writings from Nassim Taleb from 2012, 2013. He wrote a book called Antifragile. And so this topic's been on my mind as of late, and I thought I ought to share it with my audience here today. So being antifragile, what does that mean? Being antifragile means not just surviving or learning how to survive adversity, but actually thriving because of it. So it's a, it's a mindset. It's, it's a way to rethink how we approach uncertainty and approach change in our lives and in systems. See, we're all faced, whatever business we're in, whatever life we lead, there's constant change. That's the one thing that's certain is that there's going to be change. And how we react is what differentiates us from one another. We talk about controlling the controllables, focus on what you can control. Great words, but not everyone lives by that. But when we talk around antifragility, being antifragile, It's not just surviving the things that are thrown at us, but actually thriving because of them. Let me give some specific examples. Let's first talk about a company we all know, Amazon. Amazon is a great example of a company that we'd consider antifragile. Why? For a handful of reasons. First things that come to mind for me, uh, they have as a company amazing resilience. Amazing resilience to adversity. Amazon has faced so many challenges and setbacks over the years, especially in their early years, including the dot-com bubble burst. And of course, massive skepticism for Bezos and his team from, from investors early in, early in their, in their origination. They not only survived this, but they thrived during these difficult times. They had to bootstrap it and figure out a way to create an online bookstore that morphed into something so much more, which kind of leads to part 2, or the reason number 2 I'd say they've been pretty antifragile. Their ability to learn and their ability to adapt is second to none. They have a strong culture of innovation and a strong culture of learning from failures. They are continuously adapting, which is why Amazon Web Services, AWS, is like the biggest component of their revenue. It is such a massive portion of their revenue, but it's cloud computing and it's not the sexiest thing. But they learned from their, their processes in business. They've learned from their experiences that there are other revenue streams that were not, you know, identified early on, but because of learning and adaptation They created AWS, a massive revenue stream. How about streaming services? How about AI? Talk about learning and developing. Lastly, I'd say around Amazon being antifragile, how about the market volatility they're faced with? Not only did they have to survive the COVID pandemic, the company thrived. And why? Because that opportunity for them, you know, that, that, call it what it is, adversity that they turned into an opportunity. E-commerce, their adaptability allowed them to capitalize on that, on the opportunity. So Amazon's ability to embrace uncertainty, learn from challenges, use disruption as a catalyst for growth, that's exactly what we're talking about when we talk around antifragility. Amazon's a prime example, no pun intended, of how a company can not only withstand adversity, but thrive, thrive in rapidly changing environments. How about an individual? How about Elon? Everybody knows Elon. Why is Elon considered antifragile? Well, I would say first, incredible resilience to setbacks. I mean, the guy's had numerous setbacks. We've talked about Elon before. We told his SpaceX story not too long ago on a previous episode. But SpaceX had multiple rocket failures before he finally achieved success. So much, so many failures, by the way, that he went all the way down to barely being able to afford payroll, but they survived and they've thrived. Musk has persisted. He's persevered through these challenges. In addition, one thing that Elon does that makes him antifragile is he encourages a culture of innovation and problem solving within all of his companies. And he does this by empowering his people to make decisions, to take risks. I would call this decentralization, decentralization. This sort of approach, it fosters creativity, it fosters adaptability. So Elon's ability to not only withstand adversity, but also thrive, you know, in uncertain times and setbacks and rapid change, it's exactly what we're talking about when we're talking around antifragility. Elon's leveraged challenges, he's leveraged failures. And he looks at them as opportunities. So much so that I've, I've seen him speak before where I almost feel like he's saying, man, what's the next big challenge? Because I know with that will come an even bigger opportunity. So becoming antifragile, I think, should be really the focus for all of us. How do we become antifragile? Not just in words, but in action. See, antifragility, becoming antifragile involves adopting a different mindset. Adopting a different mindset. And then of course, implementing strategies that enable you to not only withstand adversity and uncertainty, but also to thrive and grow stronger because of them. So here's some things to think about on your path to become an antifragile. First, we got to embrace volatility. We got to embrace uncertainty. I want you to think through what that means. Embracing volatility and uncertainty. Embracing. I'm going to let that word kind of hang out there because we all conceptually understand what I'm talking about. But in practice, it's a lot different. Like when things are uncertain, when things are volatile, that's when we should say, as Jocko Willink says, it's when we should say, good. I welcome, I welcome the challenge. Accept the change, accept the unpredictability. They're constants in life. So rather than fear them, view them as opportunities. Change your mindset. View them as opportunities to grow and learn. On the path to becoming antifragile, we've got to learn from failures, truly learn from failures. Again, we all conceptually understand this, but how many of us live it? Learn from failures. Treat these failures and setbacks as incredibly valuable learning experiences. When your business fails, and if you're at it long enough, you're going to have a business failure. Sure, you could be upset, but for a minute, maybe an hour, but it's those that embrace this failure, learn from it, and come back even stronger that we would deem antifragile. In addition, if you want to become antifragile, you got to experiment. You've got to iterate. You've got to be constantly trying new things. You can't be fearful around trying new things. You gotta, you gotta drive towards innovation. You gotta uncover opportunities for improvement. As you're doing that, you should be seeking feedback. We want constructive criticism. We want feedback from others. If you're antifragile, you embrace that, that constructive criticism. You don't push back. You don't shy away. You welcome it. You want these valuable insights. You want insights Period, right? They help you identify blind spots in your thinking. Last thing that comes to mind for me in terms of, of becoming or being antifragile, I want to make sure I'm anticipating. I want to learn to anticipate. I want to develop the ability to anticipate potential risks and challenges. We've been talking about it a lot recently here at No Days Off. You know, this contingency planning, these if-then statements, If this happens in my world, then I'm going to react this way. That's anticipation. That's a proactive mindset that allows for you to prepare for and respond to disruptions far more effectively. So I really, really want to encourage everybody. There's more things to become an antifragile, but those, those are the things that are top of my list. I want to, I want to really encourage everybody today to, to do a deeper dive into antifragility, what it means to be antifragile. Remember that becoming an ant— becoming antifragile is really an ongoing process. It's a development of a mindset that welcomes challenges, not just in words, but you, you really truly welcome challenges and you use them as opportunities for growth. It really though, again, requires you to adapt your strategies and your behaviors to better respond to uncertainty. Start with real small steps. And gradually build this antifragility muscle over time. So the focusing question for you: what steps can you take today to become antifragile, to start embracing all this chaos as opportunity, to start embracing failures as one step closer to success? How can you start thinking this way on the regular to where you just embrace everything as opportunity in front of you? Every trial, every tribulation, every struggle. It's a really great thing to think about. It's a really great, great way to go about living life. That's all we have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]