How to Build Unbreakable Discipline as an Entrepreneur
In this motivational talk, Haritosh Srivastav argues that discipline is the single most decisive factor separating successful entrepreneurs from those who fail. He presents a three‑level framework for cultivating "unbreakable" discipline. Level 1 – Architecting Discipline – involves redefining one’s identity, making a firm resolution, and visualising goals through a vision board. Level 2 – Execution – focuses on systematic planning (daily, weekly, quarterly power lists), automating habits via calendar blocking, and aligning tasks with personal peak‑performance time zones. Level 3 – Sustaining Discipline – introduces two practical principles: the 90 % rule (accepting good‑enough work and iterating) and the “never miss twice” rule (avoiding repeated mistakes). Throughout, Srivastav stresses that confidence is earned through action, that habit formation takes time, and that perfectionism must be set aside. He concludes with a call‑to‑action, inviting viewers to book a discovery call for coaching and to reflect on their own discipline architecture.
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Over the last few years, I've met a lot of entrepreneurs, some successful and very successful, and some which have actually failed. You might want to guess what is the difference between them. It may be the product, it may be the services, it may be what they do, but it all turns out to be the only difference between a successful and a unsuccessful entrepreneur and a failed entrepreneur is the discipline. So in this video, I am going to decode what is discipline and what are the different levels of discipline you can apply in your journey and how you can take it forward. So first of all, let's decode what is discipline. If you look at the word discipline, that means that you are following something religiously, right? But the irony is that most of us want to be disciplined, but When it comes to practicing, we are not. And this is where the successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs don't just say they are disciplined, they actually follow. And they follow a 3-layer architecture, a 3-level system that helps them. So whether you are somebody who's more or less disciplined, or somebody who's trying to be disciplined, or somebody who is already an expert in terms of following the discipline. I'm sure all of you are going to get some nugget, something to take forward from there. So are you ready? Let's start. So discipline comes in 3 levels. Level 1 is called architecting your discipline. I was in a corporate, I was doing the same thing over and over again, but I was not getting the kick. I had this feeling from inside that I want to do something different. But what was stopping me was my discipline. What was stopping me was that I did not have the right habits, right discipline, which can propel me towards the path that I wanted to take. And this is where the step 1 helped me. So what is the step 1? Level 1 is architecting your discipline. Again, if you break this down, this starts with the shift in identity, right? Lot of people are actually operated. They are running on this ever-moving treadmill. Have you been on that treadmill? You just wake up, you, you get ready, go to office, do the work, come back, and then sleep. You don't have any control. You feel like you are in a matrix, that you are stuck. You are not able to move past that. That's where you need to shift the identity if you want to go forward. So what you need to do is first of all, take the resolution. Just make the decision that what is it that I'm going to do? And once you do that, you become the architect, the discipline architect. You're going to decide what is it that I need to build my business, to grow my business, to sustain my business. You might want to pick a few basic habits. For example, You want to wake up a little bit early, or you want to work on your mind and fitness, or you want to work on getting really deep into one of the skills. This identity decision is going to change everything for you. So the first step is defining your identity. Number 2, now this step, translate your mental model into something that you can see visually. This is called creating your vision board. Over the last few years, I have had many versions of vision board where every year, typically at the start of the year or maybe the end of a year before the next year start, I start asking my questions, uh, questions to myself. What are some of the things that I want to achieve in the coming year? And these goals could be monetary goals. These goals could be something that I want to do with the family, something that I want to try with the business, or maybe something that I want to get away from. For example, I had a vision board in 2023 where I wanted to come back to India in 2024, and it did happen. So the second step after you decide your identity is to put it into a vision, create a vision board. Take out some 5, 6, 8 goals and create beautiful pictures, visualization, and put it somewhere where you can watch it every single day. This will help you plan, this will help you execute, and also realize that. So that is the second part of the first. See, remember, we are still in the first one, which is the architecting your discipline. So once you have done that, it's time to go to the next one. Let's now talk about how do you take from whatever you have done at the identity level and the vision level to get in into the execution. So the first part in the execution is the planning part where you want to create a list of tasks on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Because if you don't know what you're going to do, then you do whatever is thrown at you, right? If you resonate with that, type yes in the chat or yes in the comments, right? So you need to create your own power list. Once you create your power list, this is where the execution comes into the picture, where you make the discipline automatic. If you have not read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, I definitely recommend that you go and get a copy of that because this is where James Clear has been phenomenal in telling you, breaking down what are the ways to remove bad habits, to add new habits, lot of concepts. I'm not getting deeper into that. Maybe we'll create a separate video about that. But what you need to do is you want to make your discipline automatic. So maybe blocking your calendar. Would be the one activity where you say, okay, every morning between 6:30 to 7:30, I'm going to go to gym, or maybe I'm going to read 10 pages of the book. Whatever is the habits that is going to directly or indirectly affect your business has to become an automatic part of your system. So unless there is a change or there is something which is not in the right order, it's not gonna affect, right? So first thing is you create your list. Second is make it automatic. Find out your slots. Find out— again, another thing is knowing yourself. All of us have different time zone within a day where at some point of time we are very good at expressing, we are very good at creating videos, we are very good at telling our stories. At different times, you are very good at analyzing. We love to do the maths at that time. We love to do the analysis. At some point, we love to just sit back and relax. So you need to find out by being self-aware what is the different time zones that you have. You have the to-do lists, you have the discipline or habits, you need to merge them. That, okay, if I need to build my personal brand, I need to create a lot of videos, this is my morning time. I'm gonna attach that to that, and this is where it becomes super productive. By the way, this video we are recording in the morning time because I feel that in the morning my energy is little higher, right? So that's an example for you. At afternoons, I love going through data and understanding. So that's where we are going to analyze these video performances and my business numbers and all. So this is where you find your time and make it automatic. So once you start doing it for a couple of times, it becomes automatic. And the third part of this is building confidence. I always say that confidence is not something most of us— and when I say most of us, 99% of us— are born with. You earn your confidence by taking action. So I'm going to tell you also one brutal truth, that when you're going in this journey of becoming disciplined, The first few steps are going to be harder, very, very hard. And this is where I want you to remember, Haritosh Srivastav, that discipline takes time. So you don't need to be in a hurry that I'm gonna become disciplined overnight. It is not going to happen. So this is where you need to be realistic and you need to slowly build upon one habit, one discipline over another. So are you gonna do that? Type, I am committed to be disciplined in the comment section. And in the next part, I'm going to explain how do you take it to the next level. You build your identity, you started execution. Now comes the third part, which is all about sustaining this discipline, which is where it becomes your protocol. It becomes the way you live. How you're going to do that? I'm going to give you some principles that are going to help you in this. Number 1 is step away from perfectionism. If there is one thing that has stopped so many people from going and growing is the perfectionism. Because as you start growing, sometimes this, this bug of perfectionism bit you where you want everything to be 100% correct. But you know what? This is real world. Things don't always turn out to be perfect, and that is why you are going to follow this 90% rule. What is 90% rule? That if you find something which is 90% good enough, you go for it, you learn from it, and you make it better next time. But you don't stop if you have reached to the 90%. So let me give you an example. Let's say you had a target of reading 10 pages. Now you see the time is pressing, you need to go for work. You have an option, you can read 9 pages or you don't read at all. Now most of the people will not read at all and spend their time watching reels on phone. But this is where the disciplined person will come into the picture, where he will choose or she will choose to read 9 pages instead of 10 or 15 pages and continue with that. This is a perfect example of 90% rule. So you might want to follow this 90% rule where you are not chasing perfection, you are chasing growth, you are chasing correction. The second rule, which is going to help you is, you may find it a little bit contrary to the previous one, but if you look largely, it's not. And that is never miss twice rule. And what do I mean by that is, uh, when I started my corporate journey, I used to make a small few mistakes. And I remember one day when I was in my office, I was doing something and my manager Jinto came and I had made the same mistake one more time. And Jinto came very close to me and in a very polite way said, Haritosh Srivastav, I'm okay for you to make new mistakes, but I'm not okay for you to make the same mistake twice. That's when you're not learning. And since then, I've tried to follow that as much as possible. And since you are watching this video so far, I know you are committed to grow your discipline. So this is where I want you to follow that never miss twice rule, which is if you miss something, if you make a mistake, if you had a problem, you don't want to repeat it in the same way. You want to learn, you want to grow from that. Maybe you couldn't record a video once, then you want to make sure that you are recording the video second time. You don't want to miss it twice because as humans, our mind is designed in a way that it identifies pattern. So the moment you start doing more than 2 times anything, it feels like this is the default mode. This is the this is the pattern and I need to follow that, right? I hope you are understanding what I'm saying. Have you ever missed waking up on time 2 days in a row and then you find really hard to wake up on time third day? This is where our brain is taking over. So what do you want to do is, yes, it's, it's life. Things may go haywire here and there. It is okay to miss once, but you don't want to miss it twice. You don't want to make consecutive mistakes, right? So that's the way you want to sustain your discipline system, right? So we started with identity, we started, then go, went to execution, and the third is the sustenance. Now before I end this video, I have a very important question for you. If you're watching this video, I'm sure that there is something that you want to learn. There's something that you want to build in your life. There's something that you want to really go for. But the question is, what is stopping you? And the more important question is, what is your plan? So if you're somebody who's looking for a coach or somebody who can be just your accountability partner, who's going to ask you at, at times comfortable and uncomfortable question, there is a link in the description where you can book a discovery call with me, and I would love to help you going on this journey of being a super disciplined achiever. So go ahead, book your calendar, and yes, you can also write based on this video, what were your major learnings and how are you going to architect your discipline, right? Thank you, and story power to you.
