The Real Price of Success

Hello and welcome to the Curiosity Chronicle, a weekly podcast where I provide actionable ideas to help you build a high performing, healthy, wealthy life. Today's podcast is brought to you by AG1 by Athletic Greens my all in one daily supplement I've been taking this stuff every single morning since 2011 for a reason. It completely changed my Life. It replaced $200 worth of supplements in One Day Daily Scoop. To find out why, go to drinkag1.comsahil and take advantage of a limited time offer. Now onto today's piece the Real Price of Success I was recently re reading Titan, the biography of infamous businessman John D. Rockefeller, when I was struck by a realization the people I read books about are very rarely the people I would ever want to trade lives with. In Rockefeller's case, his childhood was filled with painful memories of his relationship with his shady father, including one in which the elder Rockefeller would encourage his son to jump into his arms only to let him fall and then advise him to never trust anyone completely, not even me. His adult years were marked by a ruthless focus and discipline around the expansion of his standard oil empire, a 247 obsession that allowed him to amass the largest single financial fortune of any person in history. That relentless pursuit allowed him to achieve enormous things in the business domain, but one is left to wonder how much the other areas of his life suffered from this narrow lens. Read about the lives of other titans of business, politics or culture and you will find a similar theme. Extraordinary success has a price, a very steep one at that. In today's piece, I want to share my model for considering the price of what you want to achieve, how to determine the real price versus the list price, and how to determine if it's a price you are willing to pay. List Price versus Real Price In a basic sense, our lives are shaped by three 1 the things we financial success, healthy relationships, physical and mental health, etc. 2 the price of those things, the obvious and non obvious inputs required to buy or earn those outputs, and 3 the willingness to pay those prices. Whether we are willing to pay the price to buy or earn those things we want, or if we try to go bargain hunting for cheaper alternatives, most people focus on one but very rarely think about two or three. If they do think about them, it's in vague, high level terms, but failing to consider the price of the things you want is a recipe for never getting them, or even worse, getting them and realizing you shouldn't have been willing to pay that price. There is a price tag for anything you want to achieve in life, every single thing you want is an output that requires certain inputs to buy or earn. Importantly, there's a list price and a real price. The list price the actual direct price to pay for the thing you want. The effort, hard work, discipline and energy required to buy or earn that thing. The real price is the list price plus the hidden indirect price in the form of the trade offs and opportunity cost of the pursuit. The real price incorporates the price of the things you said no to by saying yes to this one thing. Using the example of John D. Rockefeller, the list price for his success was the countless years of 247 hard work and focus. But the real price also included the loving relationships lost, the mental health deterioration from the non stop schedule, and the reputation damage of some of his business practices. There's the list price you see and the real price you don't. Before you go after anything, make sure you know both. What I've Learned There are many things in life that look like a great deal based on the list price, but a ripoff based on the real price. The three questions to Ask Yourself Three core questions to ask yourself as you venture forth into new domains 1. What is the list price for the thing I want to achieve? The list price is generally clear. The inputs come in the form of hours, focus, energy, discipline and the like. There is one nuance to consider. If the list price is based on the way that things have always been done, is there a better way? In other words, what would this look like if it were easy? Our perception of the list price is generally informed by how much others have paid for that thing in the past. It's possible that there is a better, lower list price that is available if you do things more efficiently. For example, if the thing you want is a fit body, you may think the list price is an hour at the gym four to five times per week, but perhaps it's possible to do 30 minutes of intense exercise at home and achieve the same or similar thing. It's worth considering whether your view of the list price is based on dated historical precedent. 2. What is the real price for the thing I want to achieve? What am I saying no to by saying yes to this? Consider all of the trade offs, missed opportunities and sacrifices that will be required in your pursuit of the one thing. What events am I going to miss? What? What relationships will have to take a backseat? What aspects of my health will fall out of you? Be honest in answering these questions. It's the only way to enter a new pursuit with clarity on what you intend to pay and avoid the creeping price tag that slowly increases and makes it so difficult to walk away due to the sunk cost fallacy. Also note that the real price will change based on the seasons of your life. For example, the trade offs will look very different when you have young children for first when they are grown up and out of the house. That means that you may want to come back to your view on the real price with some degree of regularity. Question 3Am I willing to pay the real price? Now that you're aware of the real price of the thing you want, am I willing to pay it? If the answer is yes, great. If the answer is no, great. The goal is simply to enter with clarity to avoid getting to the other side and realizing you paid a much steeper price than you wanted to The Price We Pay for me, thinking clearly about the list price and the real price of the things I want has helped create a balanced existence. I spent most of my life thinking that I wanted to build something enormous, be extraordinarily rich or famous, and have some large buildings named after me. But while the world certainly needs some people to continue thinking like that, as I've matured, I've realized that the real price of those things is is not one that I'm willing to pay. At least not for now. It would almost certainly mean giving up these 1pm Wednesday pool days with my son, and I'm just not willing to do that in a different season of my life. Perhaps I will reconsider my view on the real price, but for now, I'm thrilled to enjoy my pool days and leave the building of something enormous to one of my amazingly ambitious readers. That's all for today's piece. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something, and I hope you'll share it with others. As always, until next time, stay curious friends.