Step 2: Blue Footed Booby Birds, ESS, and the 500 Year Old Mind

The Big Idea: Change is the basic law of nature in life, so be an adaptability machine.   Read, learn, and expect occasional setbacks towards success. 

  • Change is the basic law of nature.
  • The species that survives is the one that is best able to adapt to change. — Darwin
  • Similarly, the most successful individuals and companies are the most adaptable (not the strongest or smartest.)
  • People tend to stay in dysfunctional relationships or jobs way too long.  We must respond more quickly.
  • If your IQ is above 130, you could sell the rest. –Warren Buffett
  • The 500 year old mind (cognitive bias) sees things in black and white, and therefore resistant to change.
  • I’ve never met a man who was less afraid to fail.  –a friend of Sam Walton
  • According to the Everything Store, Jeff Bezos was also unfazed by failure.  He persevered and moved on.
  • Thomas Edison viewed failures as a normal path to success.
  • Colonel Sanders started dozens of businesses (of mixed success) before Kentucky Fried Chicken, failed many times but adapted and persevered.
  • Change is the only constant.
  • Certain diets work with some people’s genetics but not others, so try lots of diets for yourself.
  • So many of the most successful businesses were built on a pivot.
  • Always be experimenting to test your hypotheses.  Your first idea and your first plan will inevitably be wrong.
  • ESS = Evolutionarily Stable Strategy.
  • When things change, find a new equilibrium.  Find a new Evolutionary Stable Strategy.  Be adaptable.
  • Don’t fall prey to the certainty bias.  When things change, what was true before may now be false.  This includes relationships and partnerships.
  • If you want results different from the masses, you can’t think like the masses (popular advice in magazines, mass blogs).

Tai Lopez is an entrepreneur, investor, and blogger who runs an awesome online book club. 67 Steps is a lecture series teaching how to be successful in health, wealth, love, and happiness.  I’m a big fan.

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