Brian Johnson presents a short micro-class asserting that the common denominator of success is that successful people make a habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. He advises listeners to inventory activities they avoid and recommit to them, illustrates with a brief personal example about writing despite low motivation, and closes by describing his Philosopher's Notes program (condensed book summaries in 6-page PDFs, 20-minute MP3s, and 10-minute videos) and inviting viewers to join.
Chapters
Foreign. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on the common denominator of Success. Inspired by the little booklet speech slash essay. The new common denominator of Success. Check out the note, find it online. Here it is. So Albert Gray wanted to discover what it is that makes successful people successful. And what he found reading biographies, autobiographies, et cetera was that successful people make a habit of doing the things that failures don't like to do. Don't like to do. It's that simple. That is our common denominator of success. What does that mean? Well, it means that if we want to be more successful, we need to look at all the things that we don't do because we don't like to do them and reorient ourselves to them to those activities. And it's different for all of us. Obviously I shared a story in the note, but how? I woke up the morning, this morning when I wanted to create this super early, way earlier than normal. Wasn't feeling particularly motivated. When I sat down to do my writing, the old me would have said, oh you know what, I'm not liking this right now. I'm not feeling like it. Right? The new me who is absolutely all in on being committed to making a habit of doing the things that the old me that was less successful and less consistent didn't like to do. Now it's like what is feeling like it have to do with it? And there was actually this moment of awesome where I looked at it and I can kind of observe that little voice in my head just kind of laughed at him, high fived him and then got to work like that means nothing to me. It's Wednesday morning and I'm committed to writing a PDF that's non negotiable later. So check in on your life, do an inventory and see if you are limiting yourself and allowing your feelings to drive your behaviors more than you'd like to do. We will talk about that more in the next few micro classes and of course we talk about it in the note and everywhere else. But for now, there you go. That's the common denominator of success. Successful people make a habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.
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 yet. 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 optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up? Then imagine that guy me connecting those ideas to other great books and helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do is something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101 confidence 101 business 101 meditation 101, that sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer? I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us.
