9 Feb 2026 · 2 min
A violinist plays on a rooftop out of pure habit. A fly keeps smashing into glass when the door is open. The speaker says you need to kill the traditions and routines that no longer work, or you'll never reach what you want in 2026.
Chapters
What's the thing that you keep doing, even though you know it no longer works, doesn't serve you in a 2026 environment, but you do it. Just because. My mom was a Mouseketeer, she would play records all the time. One of the records we listened to was Fiddler on the Roof. And if you remember the opening scene, the dad sitting on the rooftop playing the violin, and he's talking sort of to the camera, to the world, saying, I don't know why I stand on this roof and I play the violin. It's just tradition. And he says, I don't know why I wear this little sash around my waist. I don't know. It's just tradition. I don't know why I do things in my business, work. I don't know. It's just tradition. If you read this book, this extraordinary little book that just triggered this thought, the opening of the book talks about a guy sitting in Toronto, looking at something, watching this poor little fly torture itself, trying to beat its head through the glass window pane. Well, you and I both know it's never going to happen. But over there, just a couple feet away, there's a door wide open where that fly could literally just turn right and fly right out, out to freedom. But no, it's going to stake its entire life beating its head against a window pane that it's never going to get out of. My friend, my question for you. How many times do you hear me say your goals are going to require a different version of you? That means you've got to look at the things that you do that no longer apply, that no longer work, that with a little bit of AI or a little bit of stuff, software, you could do it faster, you could do it better, and free yourself of banging your head against that glass window pane. Why do you do the things you're doing? Because you've always done it. You're that guy playing the violin sitting on top of the roof. It's time for us to redefine the rules of how you want things to be. I know it's a big message in a mindset. Monday. Everything around us is redefining itself, and it's time for you to do the same. Start with the things you know you do that no longer apply, and cut them out. Which makes freedom and time for you to do the things that give you more joy and that give your business more success. Happy Monday.