In this Heroic Plus One episode, Brian Johnson recounts his favorite pre‑tournament ritual with his son, asking “What do you want?” The son answers: to be a good person and to become a Grandmaster. Brian then walks through the eight cardinal virtues the son lists—wisdom, discipline, love, courage, gratitude, hope, curiosity, and zest—explaining each virtue’s meaning and linking them to the ancient concept of arete (excellence/virtue) and the resulting state of eudaimonia (a good soul). The conversation shifts to concrete chess ambitions: a five‑year, age‑18 Grandmaster target and an imminent National Master goal within 4‑8 months, supported by a regimen of high‑level puzzle work, physical exercise, and coaching. Brian closes by urging viewers to identify their own ultimate “good person” goal, clarify other major life games, and commit to crushing them, framing day one as a heroic start for everyone.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In the last several Plus Ones, we spent some time together chatting about the final day of Emerson's recent Chess National Championships. Today, I want to conclude that microseries with how the weekend began. It began the same way all of our chess adventures begin, with one of my all-time favorite rituals. It goes like this. The moment we drive through the gate and leave our property, I tell him how excited I am about the tournament we're heading to and the fact that we get to spend some time together. Then I ask him, what do you want? And he says, to be a good person and to be a Grandmaster. To which I always say, good answer and good order. Then I proceed to ask him how he will hit those targets. He starts by telling me that to be a good person, he'll live with wisdom, discipline, love, courage, gratitude, hope, curiosity, and zest. And we've done it so many times that he can now rattle off those cardinal virtues and the ones science says are most highly correlated to our well-being in the order in which they appear on our virtue compass and on the back of my book, etc. Then he tells me what each of those virtues means. Wisdom, he says, is knowing how to live. Discipline is doing what needs to get done. Love is being kind and thoughtful. Courage is doing things you're afraid to do. Gratitude is appreciating the good things in your life. Hope is knowing your future will be better than your present. And having a plan to make it so. Then he says, curiosity is paying attention to what's working and what needs work. And zest is dominating the fundamentals so you have great energy. To which I always say, incredible. And what's the one-word summary of all that? And he says, arete. Then I ask what that means. And he says, excellence or virtue. And I say, exactly. And what happens when you live with arete? He says, you feel good. You experience eudaimonia. I say, exactly. What's that? And what happens when you live like that and dedicate your life to something bigger than yourself? And he says, eudaimonia means good soul. And when you do all that, you're heroic. I smile and think to myself, my goodness, I love this young man. Then we move on to how he's going to become a grandmaster. We start by setting the time horizon. The target he has set for himself is to become a grandmaster by the time he's 18, in less than 5 years. Very, very aggressive target. Then we talk about his next big near-term target, becoming a National Master, which he wants to do in the next 4 to 8 months. He's right there. Then we talk about what specifically he's going to do to have a shot at hitting that goal. Right now it's hammering a book of high-level puzzles, continuing to exercise more and do the other stuff he does with his coach to dominate. And that's today's Plus One. Spotlight on You. What do you want? May I encourage you to start by saying you want to be or continue to be a good person? That's always the ultimate game. And then once we know the ultimate game we're playing, let's get clear on the other big games we're playing. What are they for you? Perhaps a big energy target, an exciting work target, a meaningful love target. Figure it out. Get clarity. Go crush it. It is day one. We are all in. Let's go.
