Newton vs Darwin Success Principles

All right, welcome to Wabi Sabi. This is the art of imperfection, the podcast that talks about our life and how imperfect it actually is and how we're celebrating it. Jim, it is great to see you here. And we just spent three days together. My god, I don't think we've ever spent that much time together actually in our entire life, to be honest with you. That's true. That is true. Yep. For that long.

did. We did. Other than the retreat, your retreat that I came over to Portugal for other than that, there's never ever been another time that we've caught up together for that long. But it was it was really cool. It was it was great to fly across to the UK and we both had basically combined gigs, we spoke at a couple of events and gosh, wasn't it great? I know, I know we've done a couple of live events. we moved over here, but how good is it to be able to engage with people again and just speak and and be on purpose and communicate and just get involved in that? You really feel the energy of that. And I really loved it as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Hmm. Yeah, I missed the live events. I got to be honest, after spending three days and three separate events, it was interesting for me to really kind of reflect back on how long has actually been, I mean, I've done live events, but not any larger events and just getting back into community. I think it's two things. One is events and also getting back to the community of like -minded people. I've done that a couple of times over the last four years. And this is, you know, back to the chiropractic fold, which was great. And yeah, just the whole point of. Being in a community is such an important element, I think, that we all need to strive to kind of do more of. And especially with what happened to COVID, I think this is where a lot of people are just starting to get back into it. And I'm really glad we did that. And also, too, just inspiring to just remind sometimes, I think these are good reminders about what life is about. Like, what are we striving for? And just reminding of some of the core principles sometimes, which...

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

you forget sometimes when you're lost in your own little bubble or you stay within your own bubble, you don't or core things that you are supposed to be doing or are inspired to doing. And I think being and getting out of your comfort of your own home, own space is such an important element to.

Yeah, I totally agree and it was it did feel a little bit of a Plains Transit Automobiles Weekend weekend really because we were flying in we were literally in a car hiring traveling distances and but you're right it really reconnected us both back to

maybe new identity or even just rediscovering an identity.

what we love doing and that is to be out with people on stage talking, expanding, sharing a message and connecting with people. So I look forward to doing that again in the not too distant future.

Yeah, exciting times. And today's really topic is going to be talking about success. And this is what we kind of really highlighted the importance of success in everybody's lives. And this podcast really kind of goes, it's a shout out to all those people who are the attendees in some of the seminars that we were attending and who were listeners. Great. We glad to hear that there's some great listeners.

Yeah.

who came to our event or events. And really the podcast about Wabi Sabi, about this imperfection thing is really our gears towards helping you become more successful. And so I was listening to another podcast actually randomly, Morgan Housel's podcast, and he talked about this concept I thought I'd share. We're gonna completely, we'll use the concept, but in a completely different manner than what he used. He talked about an... About a president I think was like 1908 or something and I don't really I wish I can get you the original call I try to look for but I couldn't find it but he talks about this principle that how the economy in in in the US economy that it is more More, sorry less like Newtonian and more like Darwinism and what he was trying to say is that there's you know It's not an exact science and in the economy the investment world and you know, you're in it Jim and you're like, you know the finance guru within the in the podcast realm here in Wabi Sabi. But you know, I don't know if you agree with that statement, but really the whole point of it is we're saying that there are certain principles, but when it comes to economy and investing, it is really not about certain principles. You follow it and you'll get rich or you follow it and you'll be successful. It's more about Darwinism, whether you have to adapt and there's certain things that you have to adopt and evolve with time. And it really kind of goes to show how...

Yep.

I think you've applied that to success in life. I really feel like that is really relevant for what we're trying to talk about in Wabi Sabi that oftentimes that we think we just follow, you know, X, Y, Z, you know, someone's exact success principles and we'll be successful. And then you get beat yourself up and go like, Oh, how come it didn't, how come it didn't work for me? And I think that's what we want to talk about today.

you Hmm. Yeah, I think it's a great topic. And when you when you put it out there as a discussion point, I really loved it. I resonated with it straight away. And specifically, if you if you look at both of those elements, if you break it up and say, OK, Newtonian law and physics and this is, you know, taking us back to high school physics and principles. But it's actually really interesting. You know, when you I was back at school, I was looking at this and going. When are we going to use this? I really had challenges in there. And now I find I lean on it and piggyback on it so much. But particularly like from the linearity of Newtonian physics, you're looking at this is followed by this, followed by this, followed by this. And the formula which you talked about specifically, there's an element of success that comes from, look, follow these steps and they will always follow through. And you do this, then you follow this, then you do this. What happens though is that,

Yeah.

Darwinism and it really is a different type of a field. It's more along the quantum or exponential fields where you're looking at things don't necessarily follow linear order. They can be random. They can be deviations. And that's not only just business, but it's life. You know, like sometimes you plan for the, how many times you've heard someone, I'm going to go to school and I'm going to get this job. And then I'm going to this person and I'm going to get married. I'm going to have kids and life doesn't always follow that Newtonian pathway. It'll quite often come in and bump you when you don't look at it. out of your blind spots that really makes you come alive and pay attention.

Yeah, I think life is about the combination of those two things, right? I feel like there's definitely certain life principles that I feel like if you follow them through, they will get you, you know, so far, you know, I think those are, you know, that's why Newtonian is always about laws, right? If you follow the laws, if you follow the laws of gravity, you follow the laws of thermodynamics, like there's certain laws of success that, you know, that never fails, right? And however, if you just follow the laws and not... you know, change with time, I think that's gonna be a problem. And this is where the Darwinism theory is gonna come in play. And let's go back to like, there's one thing about talking about Benjamin Frank, Benjamin, no. There's a, what's the famous, the Intelligent Investor, who's the author of that book?

Yeah, Benjamin Graham. Yep.

Benjamin Graham, okay, thank you. I knew his first name was Benjamin. So Benjamin Graham, like everybody says, oh, that was the classic, the Bible. Everybody should read that book. But what most people don't realize is that he had many iterations of that book. He changed the philosophy of that book six or seven times, even more than that from my understanding. And people put it as the key elements of how you should invest. But the key element is what you need to understand. He changed it every iteration. Every addition was changed. He basically tossed out old theories and added new theories. I think that's Darwinism, right? He's just basically looking at what works and working now. But the challenge is that he passed away like, you know, I think it was the 1970s, I think he passed away. So therefore the book, what the book you read now with the most updated version is like 40 years old or close to 50 years old. And so what we, and it's kind of touted as the, you know, the way to do investing. And I think it,

Yep.

goes to show this whole point is that, yes, probably certain principles in that book are like laws, they're like the Newtonian physics. But if you just apply those laws into today's world, I think you're gonna go wrong in certain aspects simply because it hasn't been updated because he's passed away since that time.

Hmm. Yeah. So can I, can I piggyback onto that one and, and, and just add some things to that Lawrence, because you're right. The, the, the, that, that book, you mentioned Benjamin Graham's book is a classic in the finance industry, particularly in what's called value investing. And that was the book I've read it. A lot of people have read it. Uh, Warren Buffett basically hangs his hat on, on that book and as a lot of asset managers do so.

Uh huh.

That's the principle of value investing where they look to buy pretty much a company, a dollar's worth of company for 80 cents. And it's always looking for value. And it's based on principles you spot on. You know, now it always fascinates me when I, I'm gonna get off on tangent and talk about Warren Buffett because Warren Buffett is in his nineties now. He's refuses to get involved with new technology.

Hmm Yep.

And yet he's still the richest investor in the world. He's got the compounding that's worked. So these principles have worked for him over time. And the big advantage that Warren Buffett has used is he's basically compounded his wealth over a period of time, has used these linear laws that says compound interest, everything basically is the rule of 72, which everything basically doubles along this principle. So he's used that exceptionally well. If you're a new person investing to me, the Darwinism of AI, the Darwinism of this new technology has come through. I think you can apply value investing as a filter. However, you also need to be aware that industries that were there initially, they can also get basically wiped out overnight with the new technology. So I think to me, I think this is why I was really excited about this topic is you can use these as a reference and a map.

Yeah

But you also have to have an awareness about what else is going on. And I think society is moving and that may not fit it totally.

Yeah, and I remember you know one of the things I talked about in one of my talks at the end I described about how each of us really have a really different starting point right some of us have a really good starting point and some of us didn't have a great starting point and Obviously, you know, that's like playing cards, you know when you play cards, you know If we're playing poker and you know, you dealt with a certain hand like that's the hand that hand represents your starting point and some of us are dealt with a pair of aces but some of you like you my gym and you have a you know a two and a three and know, that's the hand you're dealt with. Now, the thing is, is that, yeah, sure, it matters whether we know where your hands dealt with. But if whether you win the game or not isn't by that firsthand, sure, it makes a difference. It obviously a higher probability of me winning a pair of bases and versus you having a two and a three, but doesn't mean I'm going to win the hand. It's just the probability that I'm going to win the hand, which means it really comes down to how I played the game now. Right. And I think that that's what.

Hmm.

we were talking about is that the Darwinism aspect of things, I think is really about how are you, how are you playing the game? Right? And that is everything and 100 % in your control. Right? And that's the key is like, how are you going to play the game? How are you going to show up? How are you going to let the environment affect you? You know, are you going to show that you have a two and a three? Am I going to show that all the players that Oh my God, I'm winning this hand, so that they can fold and I never win as big as I could. Like, there's so many things that are going on. in a game of cards that is actually really similar to real life. And that's the key element. It's like, what are we doing in our life? How can we lean on success principles, but understand and take the time to be aware of your environment and understand that how, what is going on in your world at this moment in time and how that's changing. Cause if I looked at my life compared to my parents' life, and you know, if you compare it to my kid's life, man, like it is so different. We're...

Hmm.

There, you know, we are raising kids in a very social media world, which was never the same as how I grew up and just very different than what my father's generation was. And that's just in three generations. So you can imagine of what, um, what are some of the challenges that you have to continually work on and have to face every decade or so, because things are moving so fast and so rapidly. And then you mentioned about AI and technology. Who knows what's happening, happening. There's so many things that have happened over.

Mmm.

in just the last few years and it happens all the time. Like nothing, that's the thing with Newtonian things is that things are always gonna happen, right? Darwinism is how do you adapt?

Yep. Yep. Lawrence, have you come across that state, that quote from it's, I think it's the U S patent office that says, you know, basically everything that's ever been invented, everything that will ever be invented is over. And it's like in the 1900s, right? That to me is, is, is one of the funniest comments that, that I, that I have read ever about innovation, but it highlights the, the, the silo that some people get into where they basically go, this is what's in front of me.

Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah.

This is all I have to worry about. And perhaps back in those times, there was a period where you had security of, this is what I do, I just keep doing this. But at this time and age, things are changing so rapidly. I remember I read in the last few weeks, last few days I should say, Peter Diamandis, who we were talking about over the weekend, who says that any problem that society face can be rectified on the right technology with enough money.

Hmm.

So really interesting perspective, but his prediction based on the rate of change and uptake, he says, we will see the first trillion dollar company with only three employees within the next few years, within the next five years. That's his prediction. And had you made that prediction two years ago, I would have went, gee, that's a big statement. But now I look at this and go, why is that not possible? And if you have an awareness of the changing landscape,

Hmm. Yeah.

whatever industry you're in, because, you know, I think all everybody is looking at how things are changing. You know, even at the airport, you go, you know, coming back from where we were flying, I'm sitting, you know, I'm sitting waiting for my plane and you've got these automatic cleaning machines that just go along the floor and clean the floor. They don't only pick up rubbish, they clean the floor, they polish it, they wipe it. That's taken through for people's jobs, you know, and while that's improving,

Mm.

efficiencies, then there's certain jobs that are going, there'll be others that are created. And I don't think that, no, I just gonna say, I don't think you could actually stay stagnant in any industry you are thinking that you've got, you have diplomatic immunity that your industry will not be affected.

Yeah. Yeah, I think everybody has to think that way. Everybody has to really look at how you got to go through life thinking about disruption in a sense, in a sense of once in a while, you should really think about what if you were to disrupt your life? What if yours disrupt your business? No one wants to think about that, right? Because we're all afraid of this, you know, the scarcity mentality of what happens to my job. And that's exactly we're seeing this playing out right now. A lot of people are worried about how AI is going to, you know, eliminate jobs and how bad that's going to be for society. But Technology has always been eliminating jobs, right? Like how many jobs has it already eliminated? We think that AI is getting new brand. Yes, it's a brand new technology, but so is all the other technologies previously before that, right? I mean, think about cars replaced horse buggy, right? And, you know, faster cars were, and what about all the car industries on how people, you know, cars used to be formed by hand, right? And now all this technology about robots build building cars, like it happens, but there are. I think if I just listen to a stat, something someone said today, and I know I can't quote it where exactly it came from. Yes, technology will always eliminate jobs, but we have more jobs available in the world now than we have ever had in any lifetime. So it's just that the problem is that you, you, we get stuck on losing the job that you're used to, which then forces the human being to, you have to, Darwinism, adapt to the new world.

Yep.

which is what's challenging for most people. People just want to kind of just continue doing what they're doing. But yeah, the ones who are gonna be left behind are the people who try to resist, who are trying to resist this whole change, right? I think I remember, is it Star Trek when it said resistance is futile, right? I can't remember what was it, the Borgs? I think it was the Borgs. Man, I'm dating myself now we're talking about Star Trek Next Generation. But it's just going back to those type of things is to recognize that these things are gonna happen. I'm not saying we all like it, but it's also inevitable, right? These things are gonna happen. I think every industry needs to look at itself and go, how on earth are we gonna be disrupted? You need to ask that question. I think it's important for us to look at where can we disrupt ourselves? How can we eliminate ourselves? Because it's coming. whether you like it or not, you can't just sit down and hope for it doesn't happen. Like you got to do something about it now and go, what can I do now that can protect me for my livelihood, maybe within the space or an outside space so that in five to 10 years time that that may industry may no longer exist.

Yeah. And you know, Lawrence, there's a famous saying that says there's three types of people, right? There's, there's people that make things happen. There's people that watch things happen. And then people who, after the fact, things have changed, look around and go, what happened? Right. And this is really what you're highlighting. And I think over a couple of, um, topics that we've spoken about, this is really the intersection of a lot of those, because what we're, what we're saying is that you want to be investing either in your time, talent and treasures. ahead of the curve before things are changing and you're forced out of an industry purely because you weren't aware or reluctant to upskill. And I think that they basically say that, you know, in investing, no one ever rings the bell to tell you that we're at the top of the market. And by the same token, no one's going to ring the bell to say, okay, this is the day that what you have previously done doesn't hold on for more. But if you're adaptable, if you're aware if you're acting in advance of things, you will start to take variations and changes and you may adapt and pivot your model. So that doesn't mean your industry will be wiped out, but your delivery system or your value proposition may need to change how you deliver information, how you go about doing what you do may need to change because of societal expectations also as well.

It's kind of weird, isn't it? Like as humans, we tend to like new innovations. We tend to like new things and we like the variety of how all of these new aspect might be a new menu, a new hotel or a new fashion statement or new cars. We like those things. We like the change, but we never actually see how those new things are eliminating certain jobs or eliminating certain. aspect of that that's no longer available. But yet we don't want to do that with whatever our thing is, right?

I was going to say that's exactly right. I was going to say is that I like change as long as I don't have to change. And I'm, I can implement that. But if that change involves you suddenly it's like, Whoa, hold on a second. I don't, I didn't, I didn't buy into this scenario. This is now this is affecting me. I'm not just the, the user and the, and the, um, basically the consumer of this. I'm now the product that has to change. And I don't like that that much.

Yeah, hold on, exactly. Yeah, yeah, and it's so hard and we see it in our profession, by the way. Like I see this for, you know, for the last 10, 15 years I've seen it where, you know, we've had, and this is in any industry in any profession where, you know, they, when they're younger, they skyrocket from nothing to some sort of success. And they, once they reach a pinnacle of success, they kind of think that they reached it. So therefore they kind of like, okay, well, you're on top of the mountain now and you can sit pretty. And they just continue doing the same thing. you know, because they've already got to the top of the mountain. And then realizing, and not realizing, sorry, the environment and landscapes change, which means that that mountain's no longer sexy, or this mountain's no longer the biggest mountain anymore, there's another mountain that you need to climb. But they're like, no, no, no, guys, where are you going? Like, why is everybody leaving? This mountain is really good. That's because you're sitting on the top of the mountain. You think that everything, this mountain is the perfect one. But you know, everybody's climbing a different mountain now, and you're complaining why that's unfair, how life was never like that before.

Yep.

you know, and this is the way to, it's because you climb one mountain, you don't want to have to go freaking all the way back down to climb another mountain because you're at the top of the mountain and you're, and that's exactly what happens. And then you can see that in every industry, every economy, they don't want to lose their position, right? Like, you know, the US, the Western society is like that too. Like we're at the top of the mountain, like why would we want to leave this mountain? And we will fight everything against from us being no longer in control, you know, but.

That's right.

there's emerging markets, there's emerging countries. And you know, when we go, no, no, no, we can't let that happen. But reality is that they want to strive, they want to strive to be on the top of the mountain too. But that if they're at the top of the mountain, that means we're not on the top of the mountain anymore. And then we don't want that. So we'll fight against that. And that's exactly what happens in every industry. And we see it so often, especially some of the, you know, more elder statesmen in our profession or any profession, they start looking back and like how, you know, this is just wrong or social media is wrong. And you know, you shouldn't do that.

Well, the good old days. The good old days.

Yeah, the good old days exactly, you know, and they they kind of live from their highest, highest week or month, saying or year and said that was the those are the years and thinking like, I don't know, understand why I can't get back there is because you never evolved, you stayed exactly the same, you you got busy doing whatever you're comfortable with, but not realizing that world is changing around.

Yeah. You know, there's a couple of things I wanted to mention Lawrence. And one of them was, you know, on the weekend, we both referenced a book and I thought I was, I was doing you the greatest favor in the world, but say, Hey, you should read this book. Lawrence, your daughter's actually looking at going and doing, you know, this program. Yeah. Read it and you go read it. I've met the guy I've shown to say, so the book, the story you shared was unreasonable hospital. I won't spoil it, but I'd love you to talk about exactly this point.

Hehehehe

about what the people did once they got voted number one restaurant in the world.

Hmm. Yeah. So if you actually go on Netflix and anybody who has got a Netflix account, go search up. Um, I think the series is called seven days out and seven days out is really about, I think there was probably about five or six different episodes and each one was completely different. I think one was the, uh, Paris fashion week and one was on, uh, the Kentucky Derby and what they're doing in this, this, each episode is really about filming the process seven days out from that particular event. So fashion week will be seven days before. What are all the, people, what are they doing? What are they, you know, what are all the stresses? What's going on? And this particular one was actually 11 is on 11 Madison park. 11 Madison park is owned by a guy named Will Godera. Will Godera was, he worked his way through the company. He's not even a chef. He had to hire this new chef. And somehow they went from, I think their first, I'll give you the idea was basically when they got voted to be, sorry, they got nominated to be coming to this one event to be at the top 50 restaurants in the world, right?

It's funny.

And they're like, okay, well, we can probably get to like number 30, maybe 20, we'll have a chance, you know, an outside chance of getting to the top 20. And then they just go at it, right? Cause they got to name 50 restaurant and they count down from 50 to one. And then it goes number 50, Levinson Madison Park. And it was like, oh, and the camera panned to them. Yeah, they're exactly. And they were just not expecting, cause they were thinking like it's going to be at least 30 or 20. And yet they were the last. Oh.

My night's over. My night's over.

They were the last place winner of the winners of the entire world, right? To be in the top 50 is a great prize. But this is the point. So they went from like, okay, then from that night, as much as it was disappointing, and this is the perfect example of what Wabi Sabi is about. Because you can, you cannot, two things could have happened here. Be disappointed with number top 50 in the world, right? And then just go, oh, this sucks. This is a rubbish award. Or what they did, what they really did was they kind of took a napkin and going, how do we be better? How do we become number one? we will be the number one restaurant in the world. And they worked at it and it worked at it and it worked at it. And spoiler alert, they become the number one restaurant in the world at some point. I'm not sure how many years later, but this whole show is really about, after winning, they tore the whole thing down. They gutted the whole entire restaurant to rebuild it. Who does that? Who does that? When you're at the top of the mountain is what we describe. So thank you for bringing this up. We're at the top of the mountain and they go, no, we're gonna start over. from everything, new menus, and a new place. And they go through this whole process. And it's absolutely incredible for someone to do that. That is the perfect example of how they're constantly trying to improve no matter where you are in the mountain.

Yeah. Yep. And to me, like that example, like it's, it's fascinating. And what, what I really resonated with when I, when I read through, read the book was to go from 50 to one, you had to challenge all your assumptions. You had to challenge all your beliefs about how things have to be done and should be done. And you just innovated and you had to be prepared to throw stuff out and not just do the same thing that the industry has always done, which is the linear path. It was like,

Hmm.

How can we be noteworthy? How can we be spectacular? How can we introduce something that hasn't happened before? And my understanding, it had to have been several years, Lawrence, because I think I read, I remember that they said, you can't go up a level in it as a Michelin rating from year to year. You can only go up one, you can't go up two or three levels. You can only go one a year. So you're in at least four or five years. And in that four or five years, they drilled it. They challenged their assumptions. They innovated, they tried stuff. No, that doesn't work. They threw it out.

Mm -hmm.

That you see that kind of mindset, you see that kind of intensity in innovative companies who start with, I guess, a resistance. They start with a process of going survival of the fittest. What will survive is the vision, not necessarily ideas. We can't be so hung up on the idea because it gives us significance or historically it was important. We have to challenge. Basically our base beliefs and so many are you know, limiting IT companies for example start a Have got a huge company and then off to the side They've got a division that is the innovation division with the view specifically that that innovation may one day Basically make obsolete their core business because they understand the laws of Darwinism and that is that nothing is static Everything adapts and moves and if you are static you are getting left behind

Yeah, I mean, you would think that the number one restaurant or to become the number one restaurant is about creating better foods. But like, you know, the patent office example, it's like, there's a certain point where doing good food is not good enough. Like you have to, you have to innovate. And if you look at another restaurant that became number one at some point was Noma, you know, they were taking, Noma is like they're renowned for utilizing the vegetation and the, you know, the local, you know, herbs and creating these exceptional dishes. Now, you can either go, okay, well that got Noma number one, so that's what we need to do. No, like that's not innovating, you're just doing copycat. So that's what we see a lot. It's like, one thing works, we're gonna copycat it. What you have to think about is like, how do we become different? And how 11 Medicine Park got there was like, no, the food is the minimum standard. Like having great food is the minimum standard. You have to do more than that. And that's how they lent into hospitality and the exceptional hospitality of what they call the unreasonable hospitality. And that's the key core element of this is unreasonable, which means that people are thinking not just great hospitality, not excellent opportunity, it's unreasonable. You wouldn't have fathomed that that's even possible. And that's how they did it. And that's how they became number one, because they utilized the whole restaurant industry, not just the food, right? Because that's the minimum standard. You go to a restaurant, you're expected to have great food. A great story, by the way, like, I'm not sure it was a great story, but you know, I had important documents that I had to get sent from Australia to me here in Portugal. And... And I asked my friend, do you mind sending it? And he's used Australian Post, right? Australia Post is in the name, they're supposed to post things. And he put it in the mail like three weeks ago and I hadn't received it. And I thought maybe it's just the Portuguese mail system that's a little bit slow. And I said, do you mind just going into Australia Post and find out exactly where this package is? And what does the employee say? Oh, it just left today. And they didn't even say sorry or felt that that was wrong. And I'm like,

Yeah.

Come on, like this is ridiculous. It is literally your job. The only job you have as Australia Post, well, you know, the main job you have, one job, is you're supposed to deliver the mail. And if you can't, like three weeks to have this thing sit there for that long is just absolutely wrong, especially when we're talking about innovations and technology. It's just, it should not happen in today's age. So what I love to kind of get into here before we end here is like, let's get into like, what are some of the Newtonian, principles around success in life. What do you think are some of the key Natonian principles or laws of success that will never fail? And then we can talk about some of the Darwinism aspect of it.

Yep, good point. Well, look, a lot of the capacity constraints that traditionally people have come up against, come up against age, gender, and in terms of hard work, I think there are three key metrics that I see that show up a lot in the Newtonian pathway, where, for example, when someone, let's say women traditionally had what was considered the glass ceiling. and they could only get to a certain point if they had an opportunity at all. And so now what we're finding is that as a Newtonian law is obsolete because women are innovating, women are in control of what they're doing. They can be entrepreneurs anywhere like anybody else. So that law has been smashed and it's basically who's delivering the greatest value and whose idea is the one that's most scalable and monetized. So that's part of it. There was, in my opinion, also there was a big hang up on age, whether I'm too young or too old, you know, there was always a stigma around that, you know, and what we're realizing, you've got your, you know, teenage tech billionaires who have actually reviewed the nice of the world. So that as a concept is gone too. And I think that they're ones that are being challenged. And the last one, particularly, and particularly as your theme. And although not your thing, you'll talk specifically about our theme on one of our presentations was creating a freedom business. So fundamentally the traditional model and it's, and it's noble and it works up until the point where it doesn't work, but traditionally hard work and running yourself into the ground, which is the model that I used historically worked really well up until the point where it didn't serve me anymore has been a model. I think that's, that's had to adapt because people are seeking more than just. grindstone work, they're looking for more fulfillment. And I think that the Darwinism model has evolved as a result of the unfulfilled elements of people's lives and worlds.

Okay, great. So I think that for me, some of the the the thing if we if we look at it from a perspective of certain Newtonian laws that I think is doesn't change, right, you talked about some of the things that are being questioned. Let's look at I think there's some of the things that doesn't change in from a from a law of success is that you things don't just happen to you, like you actually have to work at it. And I think that's one.

Mm -hmm.

But you did highlight the fact that you're working harder is a part of success, but at the same time, working hard all your life may derail you from your outcome of actually what you're trying to achieve. So what you're trying to achieve in your 20s may be different than what you're trying to achieve in your 40s and 50s. So therefore the hard work may not create the same outcome as you wished when you were in your 20s. I think that's what you were kind of saying too, like that shifts, right?

The default would be for me, now that I can look back, I can look at it and say, okay, I didn't focus enough on the multipliers and also the delegation early enough. So I guess I was, whether it was through just not knowing or unwillingness to scale at that level at that time, it was really a case of going, I'd rather work at 130 % of my capacity rather than. 10x or 20x purely because of I didn't know, I didn't know the product. So that's what I mean by, and so I didn't delegate often enough to get rid of the 80%, sorry, yeah, 80 % of the tasks that could have been done more efficiently by somebody else. I did them eventually and it made the difference. That was the difference that made a difference, but I didn't do it early enough.

Hmm. Yeah, I think another one we've already kind of talked about, we won't have to spend too much time on this is just the continual growth. Like I think in order for us to be successful, you have to continue to want to grow personally, like without personal growth over time. I don't think you can be as successful over a longevity of your life without doing that. I think some focus on personal growth with an important element of success. I think there's also, I don't know, I feel that most, if you ask most entrepreneurs or most business people, you know, if you were lucky or not, I would say 90%, if not more, would say that they're lucky. Now, I'm not saying that the core principle here is that luck is involved in success, but it's not the one thing that got them there, right? And so I think that that's where I want to, there is a law that you have to be in the right place at the right time for maybe, you know, for certain things to happen, but you also have to do the preparation to prepare yourself to allow yourself to be in a position for that luck to occur. that allows you the chance to kind of get there. And I think that there's that that part I think is almost like not unwritten law, but I feel like that's part of success.

Yeah, it definitely, definitely happens. I was, I was reading, I'm reading Tony Robbins new book on investing, you know, when he, in, in, in, he chronicles, um, the, the most successful financial, um, titans in the world, you know, hedge fund managers, et cetera, et cetera. And one of the guys that I was reading about, uh, is the largest asset manager in, in, in Asia, in Korea. And this guy says, you know, they say, what do you attribute your luck to? And he said, look, I had an MBA, I worked at Goldman Sachs, I invested in it. He goes, but the luck part, I happened to be asked to relocate to being the only Asian, I was asked to head up the Asian division in Korea. And I was positioned there just before the Asian financial crisis. So I had the skillset, luck came into it was because by nature of my ethnicity, I was given an opportunity. And also I got. put into a place where things change. So that's that, you know, like no one gave you your MBA, you had to get it yourself. You had to have the skill set. The other part of it where circumstances presented themselves and you took the opportunity that was presented to you that, you know, he attributes that. And I can see that that that's quite relevant.

Yes. Yeah, and I think that probably leads into the Darwinism, right? Because it really goes to show that sometimes, like you have to take, the Darwinism aspect is that you actually have to, if you allow law, newtonian physics law to apply here, then you basically have no control over your life. But the Darwinism aspect, what we're talking about in Life and Success, is that you actually have to apply it. You actually have to make the necessary change or willingness to make the change when the opportunity arises, right? If the door opens and you don't step in, like, you can't complain whether or not you didn't get that opportunity. I remember this as a kid. It still sticks in my memory. I think I was probably around nine years old and I was a very shy kid and my parents, we happened to, I don't know where we were, maybe we were at a fair or someplace or maybe it was just like random street and there was a fire truck and the fireman says to me, he goes, do you want to come in? Do you want to lift? Do you want to have a, like take a look at the fire truck? And I was so scared that I said no. And the weird part about it, I still, I remember that, and it's like 40 years ago, right? For me to think back and go like, that's one, I know it's not a big regret, but it's definitely a regret that sits in my head, that going, why didn't I take that opportunity? Now, it's not the fire truck, obviously I could go in a fire truck and probably just ask and do all this stuff, but it's not the point. The point is, it really stuck with me to go. Why didn't I take that shot? What was I really afraid of at that moment in time? And, but however, that moment really kind of stuck in my head, which then forced me to remember that moment and allow me to take opportunities when they do arise in the future as an adult to recognize going, these opportunities don't come that often. And if I don't take this, will I regret it? And so, so then you go, well, if I took that opportunity when I was nine, Would I be as successful or not because maybe I wouldn't have taken a shot at other things or maybe it happened for a reason that because I didn't take that, it stung me for long enough in my head that basically forced me to take certain action like move to Portugal or move to Australia or do all these things because that still sits in my head that I don't want to live a life with regret. Who knows?

And you know, yeah, I was thinking of sitting in what you're talking about. My mind just, mine just splits out to so many ways that it could go, right. But I think what came to mind when you were talking about that is the paradox between certainty and uncertainty, right? And so that fundamentally, what you talked about is the willingness to take a risk, to lean out, to get out of your comfort zone. I think Newtonian laws are predictable laws, you know, like, You know, you drop an apple as Newton had it and it came to him and it drops at 9 .8 seconds. And it will always do that at the speed of gravity. You know, so it's a reproducible law. It will always be the same. And I guess when you extrapolate that, you look at it and say, because things have done this way, this is how they'll always be done and whatever. And Darwinism challenges that as a concept because it basically says things can change, things can evolve. And you know, you look at the bumblebee.

Yes.

And you go, technically you shouldn't be able to get off the ground or the stuff that we've talked about Elon Musk before and go, dude, how do you challenge the biggest organization? How do you get what you're doing? That to me is an extreme form of Darwinism where it's like, I haven't accepted, you know, like one of Elon Musk's is the only laws that he follows are the rules of gravity. Everything else is a suggestion, you know, and to me that is like,

Hmm.

All right, that's an extreme, but that is Darwinism because it's actually going, I'm going to work with what I can't bend and what I can bend. I'm going to try and innovate. I'm going to challenge that to me is a particular way of approaching life that is not normal, that is not linear, but then get stuff done that nobody else could have even imagined would have happened.

Well, you know, how many of us really live, go through life with tons of assumptions that we have in our heads that we never really challenge. We just take it for granted. And I think that those assumptions are stopping a lot of us, including myself, from achieving greater success. And I know that because I definitely see it in myself and some of the flaws, assumptions I have. But I also see, I obviously see it more in others because you know, that's who I coach and to start to recognize that it's funny when I suggest like, well, why not this? Like if you want, let's pull a number. Like if someone says I want to make a hundred thousand dollars a year, I'm like, okay, why not? Why not 200 or why not 500? And you can see their head automatically or whatever the words that come out of them whilst in that mouth next is usually because of certain assumptions they made about life or business or how, what their worth is or whatever it is. And.

Yeah.

I'm not saying it's wrong, but then have we ever questioned those assumptions? And I think, you know, if you're going to evaluate life, and this is something that I'm working through myself, which is what are the assumptions that I hold, that I hold strongly in my belief? And do I spend any time questioning it? And what, you know, what Elon says there, it's like, have I actually sat back and go, is that true or is that not true? None of us really question it, right? Because I don't know, someone told us that that's supposed to be it. But if you think about the greatest innovations in the world,

Yeah. Thank you. Bye. Mm. Yep.

are usually someone, it's not like some genius idea sometimes. We think it's genius mostly because no one's thought about it. But most of the time it's just an idea that bucked against an assumption that we all made and therefore we just never came up with that suggestion, right? And so therefore, because we made a certain assumptions that allowed us to stop diving into creating any more new innovations.

Yeah, you know, there's a there's book called The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. I'm sure if you read that. But there's the what the vision and I can't remember the guy's surname is the author. He talks about it calls them rules. The county calls them rules, which are bullshit rules. And they're the ones that we buy into fundamentally that then determine what we think is possible, how things should be done, etc, etc. And

No, I haven't. Lekani? No.

A lot of these rules will dictate what we allow ourselves to explore, to work into, to even consider as possible. And it applies everywhere. It applies in health, it applies in relationships, it applies in how you are society -ly, people expect you to do things. And I think that the overlay of the two of those, like you only have to look back at the time of Galileo who postulated that... you know, the things that the rotation of the sun and move didn't happen the way that consensus set up until that time. Now he wasn't patted on the back and said, yeah, man, that's a really great idea. We love that. He was crucified metaphorically speaking, and he was challenged and he was ridiculed. And, and so if you have, I guess, a Newtonian or linear approach to doing life, you're going to really be challenged when. you're asked and expected and it's suggested of you to step outside your comfort zone. It will freak you out because there you're going to delve into uncertainty and that is going to be destabilizing for a period of time because the certainty of it is what gives you know, sorry, the linearity of things. What gives you certainty?

Mm. Yeah. Yeah, and it's - Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is with certainty is that we, we enjoy certainty. We need certainty to live through life. Otherwise if we don't, without certainty, if we don't have certainty that the sun's coming out tomorrow, right? Then that's going to scare us. That's going like, that's not good, right? That's going to, that's going to create a lot of panic. And so there's certainties in life that we kind of expect, but there's no guarantee, right? But we kind of expect that that's how we're going to, the challenge of course is that we, you know, like on that front is that we expect that we're going to live forever. because we can't fathom when the day when we're not, because it's day to day, it's just kind of living by living. And this is how we kind of get ourselves in trouble. It's because we're not willing to make any changes because it was like, ah, we got a long life to live. And I've thought that, I got a long life to live. I'm 20 years old. I'm like, yeah, I got a long life to live. Now I'm close to 50. I'm like, I got a long life to live. I'm only, I feel like I'm only halfway there, but I started to realize, I'm like, yeah, but this is not going to last forever, right? Like, like I, my body is not, you know, coping as well as it, you know, used to. And,

Yeah.

you know, all those things are happening. And I think this is where you, what you're talking about change. And if you don't, if you fall in linear pattern and not learn to adapt and mold, it could shake you up really badly. And I think this is why I think it's so important for all of us to make small changes. Meaning you have to put yourself in challenging experiments every day, or at least, you know, every, every so often, every week, every month.

Bye.

to test those boundaries on small things so that when big things do come, you're not gonna just buckle and collapse because it never happened. This is my biggest fear for the kids, right? Like I try to put my kids in a situations where it's slightly uncomfortable, right? And not to just like make it, oh, it's okay. You know, it's okay that someone, you know, said this to you or, and just make everything okay because the longer they wait,

Hmm. Hmm.

to get challenged or longer they wait in their life to kind of deal with hardship. Man, can you imagine the first breakup they're gonna have? I remember my first breakup. It was freaking torturous, right? How painful was that? You know, listening to like Sinead O 'Connor songs to like make you feel depressed, like man, right? Yeah, exactly.

Hmm. There's nothing compared to you, man. If you're playing that on repeat, that would, yeah, that, I was just, it's a great song, don't get me wrong, but I've suddenly, tell us for a minute, I'm like, man, if that's your breakup song and you're playing that, that you'd be feeling pretty down, I would imagine.

But it's like, that's what I mean, right? So like, but we all have to go through it, right? Can you, but can you imagine like, just say someone, they go out, they never have, they never have a breakup. And the girl, you, the first girl or first boy you kind of go out with is the same person you are. You never had any fights, never. And then like the first major, major, major fight is like when you're in your forties. Like, can you imagine like how I would tear you? Cause you know nothing but that, right? That's hard. And I remember, and I know this is not, I don't know how to say it, but like I remember my grandfather, he passed away when I was 10 years old. I think, yeah, 10 years old. I was in grade five. And then my aunt passed away when I was probably a year or two years later. I was 12. And then my other grandfather passed away probably when I was about 14. And I remember it was pretty hard because my grandfather passed away. He lived in our house. And I remember him passing away and I remember bawling my eyes out. I was 10 years old. But as I got older, I realized, and this is not a good or bad thing, but I remember my wife or anybody who didn't experience death at a young age, you know, through the teenage years. And the first experience of death of losing someone close to them was like in their twenties or in their thirties. That's really hard, right? Cause you know, you got, just imagine you've gone through your whole entire life, not experiencing death at all. And in the first thing is like, you're already an adult. You've already assimilated. You've already part of society and you don't know any different where I was a kid. So I kind of like trying to figure it out. I'm not saying it was like great, but I also kind of recognize death. I saw it enough times, uh, that not that it made me immune to death. It doesn't mean I don't get sad, but just, I think it, it made me deal with death differently as an adult than I noticed against someone who never experienced death.

Thank you.

when they're young age. Like I said, this is not a good or bad thing, right?

Yeah, well, you've got a reference and you have a harsh thing. And it's interesting, you know, I always found that kids that grow up on a farm have an understanding of the life cycles because animals and livestocks pass away and they understand the life cycles a lot better than someone who may not have had experience in there. And so I totally get what you're saying. It's being unprepared for it. You know, death is...

Hmm. All right. All right.

a random thing in some cases, sometimes you can see it happening, but when it happens, it's still a huge challenge, irrespective of what age you are. And I think it's like the role. I mean, we're looking back now through our lens of health professionals, but the role of childhood illnesses a lot of the times is to strengthen your constitution so that it prepares you for adult illnesses. And a lot of the times there's a lot of research that says, If you don't go through these adequately and your immune system doesn't adapt and get used to the idea of that's what it's designed to do, you will be ill equipped when real, you know, more severe or more sinister illnesses come about because your constitution, your immune system won't have been prepared for it. So there's an element of, you know, that was the whole thing that's been shown where we make all environments antiseptic and there's no bacteria, whatever. The, the, the, the,

Yeah. Yeah.

they're just not ready, they're not prepared to be able to do what they're designed to do. So consequently, they're ill equipped for when real danger comes about. And when you need to adapt to the environment, you are unprepared.

Yeah. That's right. And that's why daily practices of this, like working out, you know, doing hard workouts is like doing hard things, period, right? Not saying you have to do this, but like working out, taking a cold shower, you know, even changing the menu, like, oh, like going to a restaurant that you regularly have and just ordering something different. Like all of those things are little things that you can do to kind of shake things up. Sure, it might not be as good as the original or the thing that you used to, but you recognize that, oh, wait, you know what? The world didn't end because you order scrambled eggs instead of a poached egg. And this is the thing that I think I feel like we're living in this world. I remember watching this post today and someone was talking about business class seats and whether or not kids should go in business class seats. And he said, I almost left my kid in economy when they said, dad, how come I didn't get my apple juice? This screen is not as big as the one that I used to be. And how come this seat doesn't fold into a bed? And this is a four year old kid. And you're like,

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where do you go from there?

Okay, we've done something wrong here to kind of create this expectation and perception like this is how we travel. But that happens, it happens, right? We as parents want to be comfortable or whatever and then you put your kids into, and that's the thing is that when we are growing kids who are such in a privileged world, they don't even realize what hardship is, that could be a massive problem. And I'm not saying this is about kids, this is about you too. For all those of you listeners and viewers, it's about you. Like what parts of your life are you comfortable with that?

Okay. Hmm.

you need to shake things up a little bit, just a little bit, just even just for a tiny bit, for one day, maybe an hour, waiting for one minute to just know that you know what, it's uncomfortable, but you survived. You didn't die. It was just uncomfortable for that moment. I think that we need to kind of get back to some of those things.

Yeah. Yep, I think for me, closing out Lawrence, you know, this is a topic that you've opened up the lids off and we can be talking about this forever. There were some key points, I think for me that I've taken out of this as well, not only just in conversation with you, but also the filter that we look at and go, hey, I'm going to apply this in my life is, is the areas where you mentioned about the restaurant that pinged me that one, because I've got my favorites, I like them and I could probably.

Hahaha.

a little bit more flexible. We went out for a restaurant meal. That was awesome and it's great. But hand on heart, yes, I will throw myself under the bus and say, you know, the things that I like, I'll do that. So I will make it as a, an intention to challenge myself to try those different things to explore and diversify my taste buds. So I'll definitely do that and not be stuck in the certainty or the familiar. I do it in so many other areas, but it's amazing how. some things are blind spots, you don't even realize doing it. So I have a new area to expand and grow into.

Yes. It's actually, I'll make that last comment, which is I do find a lot of people do, which is they, they, they challenge themselves in certain aspects of their life, but in certain areas, they just don't do it at all. I know how many people who are like, say, a disciplined focus, fitness fanatics and health fanatics, and they're just great. They, they, they will do anything possible to improve their physicality. But when it comes to business, they won't do the work.

Mm.

Like you would think that most disciplined people in the world who can maintain their diet, maintain their physicality, show up to the gym and do the hard things. But when it comes to business, they won't do what's necessary and confront, you know, a client or go out to do, you know, a sales or do some marketing. They won't do it. And it's, it's, it fascinates me. It's just because what you just said, we kind of stay in the silo that we know that we can challenge ourselves, but we won't challenge our ourselves. So it will be great to see on our next podcast that Jim is going to tell us how.

We're going to turn it off.

bowls testicles taste in Spain.

Prairie oysters. I've got a funny story about that one. Remind me to tell you about that one next time, Lawrence. It is absolute hoot. That was a practical joke. So I'll bring that one up next time. Next time we are on.

All right guys, I hope you enjoyed that today's podcast and I hope that you take some of these principles and also the Darwinism aspect of adapt Adaptation to really imply to your life so you can continue to have greater success But also enjoy the imperfection of what life has to offer This is wabi -sabi. This is Jim and I and I hope that you enjoyed it and please tell a friend and until the next episode Have a great week. Take care

Okay.