Are you an asshole?

I don't usually watch TV shows or movies but I made an exception to watch Super Pumped. It's the story of Uber and Travis Kalanick.

I knew the story but I wanted to watch the intricacies of Travis' character. I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt was playing him and knew it would be great.

The main takeway

There are many meta lessons on what it takes to get to the top. Uber was not his first company, there were many failures that came before that.

One of the mistakes those of us early in the game make is that we think our current vehicle is the final vehicle. But it's likely not. Most massively successful entrepreneurs hit it big with their 3rd or 4th companies, not their first.

From that experience, Travis learned how to persist and how not to take no for an answer. The difference between those who win and those who don't is not intelligence or skills. It's mindset and character traits.

You have to become a different person to succeed at the highest of levels.

One scene especially stands out and shows this trait. It's when his parents have an accident, his mother is dead, his father is in critical condition... and he's busy talking business with Huffington.

His brother, who is a police officer, says "Whatever he used to be. He's gone. Those aren't human beings."

From normal person's perspective this makes sense. You obviously need to be sad and mourning what happened to your parents. But that is not what a champion would do. Champions act in accordance with the mission regardless of how they feel.

This scene shows the level of obsession that's needed to succeed at the highest of levels.

Self improvement is bullshit

$20 Billion worth of value is not created without lots of sacrifice. Sometimes that means sacrificing yourself. It's only fair Kalanick did it.

Men need to self-imolate to achieve the mission. You do not remain "you". You just become a vehicle for the mission to succeed. Mission first.

Everything in your life has to revolve around achieving the goal.

Self improvement is a bullshit concept. Self destruction is where the real game is played.

You need to destroy aspects of yourself (and your environment) that are not aligned with the mission so that the default, most likely outcome becomes success. Remove enough things so you succeed by default.

I have discovered that this is the only way to do it. There is no secret routine, productivity hack or morning ritual you can add to become successsful. The only thing that needs to be done is removal.

I've watched interviews of world champ athletes and world champ entrepreneurs. It’s the same thing. All they do is their art, their craft, their work. They can't do other normal people things because they are obsessed. They do not care about living a balanced life.

All they care about is the mission (becoming world champion) and know that accomplishing the mission will take care of everything else. Or it won't. It does not matter. Only the mission matters.

"Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it."
- Jim Rohn

Ruthlessly eliminate habits, people, actions from your life so only things that are congruent with the mission are left. This way you succeed by default.

To achieve what only the 0.1% achieve, you have to sacrifice what the 99.9% don't sacrifice.

Not everybody is cut for this

My blog is more notes to myself than dictats on how you should live your life. This is not for everybody.

And that's okay. You do not have to do all that is needed to win. You can still be reasonably successful. This only applies to those that are chasing the top 0.001%.

If you simply want to make $10M and chill, that's fine. You can indeed continue to drink every weekend, go out with girls, have fun and live a balanced life.

But if you want to become world-champ, there has to be a season of your life where you give everything else up to focus on the mission.

This is the only way to become undeniable.

I'll leave you with this:

Are you an asshole enough to inflict change upon the world?