Vishen Lakhiani presents the concept of “brules” (bullshit rules) — culturally or socially inherited beliefs that limit potential. He explains how brules differ from useful rules, gives examples (e.g., “money is bad,” “success equals hard work”), and shares a personal anecdote: after his son’s birth Mindvalley struggled financially (May 2008), but after rejecting the brule that hard work must equal success he restructured his life and the company had its biggest revenue month one year later (May 2009). He closes with a five-question checklist to identify whether a rule is a brule and urges listeners to discard limiting rules (except physics).
Questions this video answers
May 2008
May 2009
21 days with family and 6 days in the office
(1) Is it based on trust and hope in humanity? (2) Does it violate the Golden Rule? (3) Does it serve your happiness? (4) Was it taken on because of culture or religion? (5) Was it chosen by rational choice or imitation/social conditioning?
Chapters
All of us have beliefs about the world. Beliefs that create our models of reality. And what we believe are our models of reality tend to be true. Reality is what you believe it to be. And so as you grow up, you start adopting rules for living. Rules that define what you believe and what you know for sure. Problem is, some of these rules make sense, but others are merely rules. Rules are bullshit rules that we adopt to simplify our understanding of the world. We take them on when we're growing up, when we are kids, but we stubbornly hold onto them even as we grow older, even when we they no longer serve you. Examples of rules would be things such as the pursuit of money is inherently bad, success equals hard, hard, hard work or love is painful. All of these rules are things that we often take on not due to rational choice, but true imitation and social conditioning and programming that gets put in you from fathers, mothers, teachers, preachers, people whom you were influenced by as a child. But these rules can be insidious and they can really prevent us from, from attaining our full potential. I know because when I was starting out as an entrepreneur in year five, I had a rule that said that to be really, really successful, to be really wealthy, you have to work hard. So I was working 60, 70, 80 hour weeks. And then something happened. I became a father. And when my son was born, I decided I wanted to cut back on work a little so that I could spend more time with Hayden and just, you know, be a dad. But then that rule kicked in. If I wasn't working ridiculously long hours, I was not going to be successful. And so as I started spending more time being a father, more time with my son, and less time at work, I noticed that my business started stagnating. And so it hit a stage that one year after my son was born, May 2008, I was in a situation where Mindvalley, my company, was actually losing money every month and we were on the verge of having to lay off employees unless anything changed. This put me in a period of depression, self analysis. I studied, I attended events, I traveled around the world to try to figure out why my business was failing on me. And when I understood that I was operating along the parameters of a brule, everything changed. When I realized that hard work did not equal success, that that was simply a limitation I placed on myself and I could be ridiculously successful while working decent hours, everything changed one year later, May 2009. In that month, I spent 21 days in Beaches around the world with family and just six days in the office. But in that same month, our company had its biggest ever revenue month. You see, when you discard a brule, you free yourself up to live a whole new model of reality. And this is why brules can be really, really dangerous. So what are the brules that you are telling yourself? What? What are your brules on relationships? Your brules on health, Your brules on living, Your brules on happiness? Your brules about your career or your education? So how do you tell if your rule is an actual rule or merely a brule? Five things to look at. Number one, is it based on trust and hope in humanity? Number two, does it violate the Golden Rule? Does it make you treat human beings in a way you wouldn't want to be treated? Number three, does it actually serve your happiness? Number four, is it something that you merely took on because of culture or religion? And number five, is it something that you decided was true based on rational choice or merely by imitating everyone else around you or social conditioning? The problem with brules is that they act as limitators on your true potential, really hold you back. They prevent you from success. They prevent you from real happiness. They prevent you from fully expressing yourself and kicking butt in the world. And this is why it's so important to recognize a brule and to stop telling yourself the lies you've been repeating to yourself for decades. Outside the rules of physics, all other rules are simply illusions that you've chosen to believe. Smash the ones that no longer serve you.
