Chad Silverstein (Day 27) speaks informally about the role of mantras in shaping one’s worldview, drawing from the Built to Lead community and personal experience. He emphasizes borrowing useful ideas, recording them, and adopting a small set of sticky mantras. Two explicit mantras cited are: “you should care, but not that much” (balance caring about others’ opinions) and “play it out till the end” (mentally simulate scenarios before deciding). He encourages listeners to find or create meaningful mantras and teach them to others.
Chapters
Day 27. The mantras. You know, it's funny when you're in the buildtooly community. I heard one of Chet's clients say this the other day at Ohio State. She said, I have you in my head all the time. It's true. And you know, the built to lead lingo, the things we say. I think there's so much truth to them that it's hard not to adopt them. You know, look, everyone's borrowing things from everybody, anybody. Anyways. No one's reinventing anything. And, you know, if you think you're inventing things for the first time, you know, good luck. Luck. There's someone who's done it before you, so it's okay to borrow, especially when it resonates with you. You know, I'd say half my worldview are things that I was learning and reading. And then I put it in my worldview because it resonated with me and I believed it. So I put it in my worldview. I do this all the time. I take out my phone, I make a little note, and then I add it to my worldview. Your mantras are going to, what you're going to use as your go tos, you know, and you just. You're looking for a couple that really stick. You want the sticky ones. And I've had a couple that I've used that for me are so powerful, and they're such good reminders, and they're so built to lead. And one is that, you know, we tend to care so much about what people think. We care so much about what people think. So much so that we change who we are because we're trying to get their approval because we're scared. And early on, Chet taught me, you know, you should care, but not that much. And I just. I love that mantra. You should care, but not that much. And I teach my kids this, and it's so powerful. You know, you tend to seek to try to get the approval of other people. And you have authority figures in your life that you are trying to either impress or they pay you, but it's okay to care what people think. You know, when people say you shouldn't care what people think, that's crap. There's no way you care what people think. You're human, you know, but don't care that much. Guru, one of the other Biltley builders, he'll say, care less. Don't be careless, but just care a little bit less. And I love that, too. That's been sticking with me lately. So care but not that much. I think that's a very powerful one. And one other one I'll share that I think is one of my favorites I got from one of the other built clients, Brett Kaufman. He used to say to me, play it out till the end. And I think there's real wisdom in that statement. And that is that if you are able to play out the scenarios of things that you're considering doing, decisions that you're going to make, and you can play out the scenarios of what could happen, play devil's advocate, what's the best case scenario, and you can see those things kind of before they happen. Be a little visionary. Don't tell yourself you're not visionary. Just put pen to paper and play out the different scenarios. You certainly could do it even if you don't feel like you're a visionary. And when your choices have consequences and you can deliberately make a decision to not do something that you were going to do, that's wisdom. That is awesome wisdom. And I think that's a really powerful trait that you can start to think through. And for me, play it out to the end is my reminder. It's my mantra. So what mantras do you play in your head? Which ones guide you? Which ones do you pull out when you need one? And if you don't have any, go searching for some. Build some into your life and make them meaningful. Make them meaningful and have some mantras.
