Brian Johnson explains antifragility, the idea that some things get stronger under stress, not just bounce back. He contrasts fragile (breaks), resilient (recovers), and antifragile (improves) using the wind and fire metaphor. The mantra: obstacles make you stronger.
Questions this episode answers
Activate Your Heroic Potential
Brian Johnson
October 20, 2023
November 14 (year implied 2023)
November 10–12 in Austin
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Arete 1 degree micro chapter from my new book, Activate youe Heroic Potential. 451 of my all time favorite ideas in seven objectives. We are now looking at a few of my favorites in Objective 2, forging antifragile confidence. Here we go. Antifragility. Are you fragile, resilient, or antifragile? Now that we've established rule number one of the ultimate game, it's time to define some key terms. We'll start with one of my all time favorite words, antifragile. I picked this word up from Nassim Taleb. He wrote a whole book on the subject appropriately called Antifragile, in which he walks us through the fact that there's a big difference between being fragile and being being resilient and being antifragile. Although Talib focuses primarily on macroeconomic, technological and cultural systems, we're going to focus on you and your life. Here's the short story. You can be fragile and break easily. You can be resilient and withstand more stress before breaking down and then bouncing back a little quicker than most. Or you can be the opposite of fragile. What would happen if the more you got kicked around, the stronger you got? Seriously, what would that be called? You'd be antifragile. And frankly, if there's one thing I hope you get from this book, it's this idea. Those obstacles, when you view them from the right perspective, they can and should make you stronger. Period. Taleb gives us a great metaphor to bring the point home. Imagine the wind. It's a strong wind. Now, that strong wind will extinguish a candle, but it will fuel a fire. The question is, when you face the inevitable emphasis on inevitable winds of life, are you showing up like a candle and getting blown out by the first breeze? Or are you showing up with a heroic fire such that those winds fuel your fire? Helping you rub your hands together with a smile as you laugh with the heroic gods and thank them for the challenges they've blessed you with is one of my primary intentions with this book. Which is why the heroic mantra isn't Omn Om. It's OMS O M M S as in obstacles. Make me stronger. Chant it with me now. Ohms. And if you feel so inspired, chant it to yourself every single time you face an obstacle in your life today. I hope you enjoyed that. Arete plus one degree from my new book, Arete Activate your heroic potential. The book will be shipped on November 14, right before Black Friday, in time to make it the perfect holiday gift perhaps. I wanted to let you know that we have some special giveaways if you think you might like to pre order the book, and even more goodies if you think you might want to give the book away this holiday season. Here's the deal. Pre order one copy and get a free advanced reader copy of the ebook today. Pre order three copies and get a free advanced copy of the ebook and the audiobook and a limited edition Arete Coin that we'll send to you. Pre order 10 copies of the book. Bless you and get all of that plus an autographed advanced hardcover reader copy sent to you immediately inside the fancy Arete VIP box, which is packed with other goodies including this Arete T shirt, a Heroic t shirt and 10 free annual heroic memberships for your gift recipients. You'd be able to give them a book and a year's worth of Heroic for free. If you pre order 25 copies, you'll get all that plus a free ticket to our launch event party in Austin November 10th through 12th and you'll get a personal voice memo thank you and a high five from me if you're feeling inspired to order over 50 copies of the book. We've been blessed to have a lot of CEOs and corporations do that. We'll give you a huge discount. Just let us know all of this. You can learn more about at Heroic U.S. book Heroic U.S. book of course you can order the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Independent bookstores will be everywhere you can buy a book, Hudson's Airport stores, et cetera. And let us know of course when you've done that and purchased a copy or three or ten or more if you feel inspired to do so at Heroic Us Book. I appreciate you and I hope you love the book. I'm super excited about it, super proud of it, and I hope it helps you and your families transform your lives.
