Transcript excerpt from a conversation between Codie Sanchez and Josh Trent about contrarian thinking. Codie cites Christopher Hitchens’ Letters to Young Contrarians and Steve Jobs’ ‘Think Different’/1984 ad as influences, arguing that learning to think for oneself and seeking contrast (going against the crowd) increases chances of wealth and happiness. The piece emphasizes questioning assumptions, self-scrutiny, and deliberately choosing paths others avoid.
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And so I think if you could spend most of your life figuring out the, you're probably much more likely to be richer, wealthier, and happier.
One thing I love, too, it's funny how the universe works. Yesterday, Carrie asked me, what's the definition of contrary? And I was like, oh, interesting. So we looked it up. Your entire business is contrarian, contrarian thinking, contrarian investment. And really to be in. Look at the grain in this, to go against the grain, to be in contrast, to be contrary to normal opinion or normal sway. That usually is where most people have fun. They get success, they do fun things, they travel the world, but they have to get there by really going into areas that most people are afraid to go into, either because of a mental story they've been telling themselves or some kind of fear in their family lineage. Like, when did you first come across this, like, branding and the etymology and the essence of being a contrarian?
Yeah, I read a book when I was young, A Letter to Young Contrarians. And it's by Christopher Hitchens. And Christopher Hitchens was a very famous activist. He was at one point a communist. He was at one point a socialist then. And he ended as a capitalist and was an aggressive atheist before finding God. And so he has pretty incredible readings over the course of his life. But this Letters to Young Contrarians is all about how do you learn to think for yourself as a human? Which to me is one of the most underrated abilities ever. In fact, if you were to go out to a group of a hundred people and ask them, do you think that you think. Well, the answer with most people would be like, of course. Of course, yes. And that's why we're crazy on Twitter and we're crazy on Facebook and we're crazy on Instagram because we don't actually question our ability to frame our own individual thoughts, which is a huge mistake. The smartest, richest, happiest people I know question everything, including themselves. And they question maybe most themselves. And so I read Christopher Hitchens when I was really, really young, and that made a profound impact on me. And then I went down this rabbit hole of who are the contrarians of our time? Because I find them the most interesting. People think about Steve Jobs, think different. Right. The Orwellian 1984 campaign he ran at Apple, I think is one of the best ads of all time. And it's, you know, this. This runner, if you recall, with her.
Huge hammer, TV smashing, throws it down.
To the Big Brother.
People were just like, what is this?
Right? And it was because he was able to see where most of the world was black, and if he put a speck of white on it, that would be what stood out. And so I think if you could spend most of your life figuring out the contrast, you're probably much more likely to be richer, wealthier, and happier, because humans, I don't really think, for the most part, like following the crowd, we just end up doing it.
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