Richmond Dinh argues beginners should focus on positioning over credentials. He recommends adopting a contrarian opinion and broadcasting it, since new entrepreneurs have little to lose and can differentiate fast. He critiques the traditional corporate path of expensive education, debt, and mortgages, advocating instead for starting a business to control your own economy.
Chapters
Which piece on the board is the most powerful piece? It's not the queen, it's not the king, it's not the castle, it's not the horse, it's not any of them. In actual fact, the most powerful piece on the chessboard is the one that's in the best position, because even the pawn can checkmate the king if it's in the right position. And so what does it mean when you're starting out your coaching business, when you don't have a brand, you don't have a following, you don't have credibility, you're literally at the beginning stages? Your biggest competitive advantage is to be in the right position on the board. And so positioning yourself is more important than your credibility. So when you're starting out, the best way to position yourself is to have a contrarian opinion on something that you really disagree with and just put it out there because you literally have nothing to lose. If you have a big brand and a big name, Big Liz, and you go out there and say something that's very offensive or very contrarian or very opinionated, That's actually very risky because you have more to lose. But when you're starting out, you have nothing to lose. So you put out a contrarian message. Let me give you an example. I really disagree with the blue world. What is the blue world? The blue world is the corporate world, the professional world that they're taught that you need to study hard, go to university for 5 years, get into debt for about $150K, earn this 6-figure job and pay your 401K or your superannuation. By the time you're 35, save up enough mortgage to buy that first property. When you do, you pay it off for the next 30 years and you have enough equity to buy that second property. And then you get to retirement thinking you have enough money to live, but you don't. And you've just been put in this flywheel, which is the system to make you work hard to pay your taxes so you can keep the economy going. That's the blue world, which I disagree with. That's why I don't believe that that's the way to set up yourself financially. The only way to get out of the blue world is to start your own business, create income, and control your own economy. And that's what I really disagree with. So think about what you really disagree with in the marketplace right now and just go out there and put it out there.
