Brian Johnson's short podcast episode ('+1: #350 Wealth thru Profound Service') presents the idea that true wealth arises from 'profound service.' He frames this through a three-circle nexus (passion mindset, craftsman mindset, servant mindset) adapted from Jim Collins and Cal Newport: love what you do, commit to mastering your craft, and focus on serving others in ways they value and will pay for. The episode closes with a practical prompt to sketch the three circles and optimize each by 1% daily, followed by a brief promotion of Johnson's Optimize membership (Philosopher's Notes and Optimal Living 101).
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. When I worked with Steve Chandler, one of the themes of our work together was creating wealth through profound service. I just love that phrase of his, wealth through profound service. Steve wrote a great book called Wealth Warrior, and he's the one who inspired me to look up the ancient meaning of the word astonish. It's from the Latin ex for out plus tonare, to thunder. It literally means to leave someone thunderstruck, or as I like to say, to strike with lightning. Steve says that most people have the wrong standard. They're thinking about customer satisfaction. But he says how uninspiring is the idea of merely satisfying someone. Much better, he says, to astonish. I, of course agree. Now, all that's nice, but how do we do that? Well, I think the essence of it is found at the nexus point of those three circles we talk about in the one called how's your hedgehog? In which we talk about Jim Collins's perspective on how great businesses and lives are created. In short, Collins tells us we need to find the nexus point of what we truly love to do, what we can be great at, and what the world needs. And if it's a business, we're talking about what the market is willing to pay for. And as I was Preparing for Abundance 101, I was thinking about those ideas and also thinking about Cal Newport's great book so Good they can't Ignore you, in which he tells us about the perils of following your passion mindset at the exclusion of your craftsman mindset. Longer chat, but I don't think it's either or which led me to sketch out the three Venn circles for the one millionth time. But this time I wrote passion mindset, craftsman mindset plus servant mindset. I think that if we want to actualize our potential in creativity, enjoyment, and wealth, we need to truly love what we do. My standard, you love it so much you'd pay to do it. That's a passion mindset. Of course, as professionals, we need to do what needs to get done, whether we feel like it or not. So I'm not saying it's all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns, but we've got to start with the love. And if we want to actualize our potential in creativity, enjoyment, and wealth, we need to be all in committed to mastering our craft. And doing great work. Enter the Craftsman mindset Finally, it's not enough to love it and strive to be great at it. We need to find a way to share our passion and craft with the world. And we need to do the often hard work of figuring out how to truly create value by giving people what they really want and are willing to pay for. Enter the Servant mindset. So three mindsets Passion plus Craftsman plus Servant Find the nexus of those three mindsets. Optimize the bliss out of each. That is how we astonish. And over the long run, that's how we create wealth through profound service. Today's plus one Sketch your three circles. Take a quick inventory. How are you doing? What's awesome, what needs work, and most importantly, what can you do today to optimize 1% passion plus craftsman plus servant plus 1 plus 1 plus 1.
Isn'T it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up. But if you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on how to optimize your life and pull out the big ideas that can really change your life. You know those sections you underline and asterisks and mark all up? Then imagine that guy me, connecting those awesome ideas to other great books and helping you actually apply the wisdom to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes where I've distilled hundreds of great books into 20 minute super practical summaries. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in hour long Optimal Living 101 classes on everything from productivity, purpose and confidence to nutrition, goal setting and conquering procrastination. Helping you optimize every facet of your life so you can actualize your potential. You've got a personal trainer. I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus Modern science plus Practical tools. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. If you're feeling it, we'd love to have you join us.
