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• Never Miss a Day – In the summer, going into Paul's freshman year of high school, he was at a lacrosse camp at Loyola University… At the end of the morning session, an all-time coaching legend, Tony Seaman spoke to the group. He told them he could guarantee that they could earn a college scholarship. All they had to do? "Take 100 shots per day. Here's the catch. You can never miss a day. No excuses." What are your 100 shots a day?
• Goal Setting – Most people don’t set goals because the act alone is both a major and personal step in the direction of commitment, and it invites hope, fear, and the possibility of regret.
  • Focus on what you can control – John Wooden was 5’10. Below average for a basketball player. He was really good at “understanding the things at which he had no control and things over which I had some control.”
  • Let Go of Outcomes – Archery master Awa Kenzo told his students to pay no attention to the target. Success and failure come from the same place, so that’s where the archer should point all of their attention: not on the outcome, but the effort.
• Therapy– Dr. Lindsey Hoskins once said that when we hurt someone we love, it’s because we fear disconnection from that someone. We hope that by lashing out, they’ll show us love, and as a result, we’ll feel safer in the relationship.”
• The Difference Between Self-Promotion and Passion - "I’m not going to convince you to like what I do. I’m going to show you how much I love what I do.”
• You won't achieve ambitious goals if you don’t set ambitious goals.
• The legendary Michael Ovitz shotgun pitch to Coca-Cola. He and his team outworked the competition, flew in a day early, practiced in the actual room the pitch would take place, bought new suits, and over-delivered during the pitch meeting. Their competitors took the meeting for granted, flew in the morning of, and didn't perform. Michael and his team won the $300m contract and earned the business for years to come.
• A true champion is intensely focused on the things they can control.
• Being coachable is rare—it’s being curious, eager, self-aware, and ambitious.
• Discover and harness your unique learning style. What might appear as an inability or perceived disadvantage could be your greatest asset in mastering your chosen field. For example, Paul grew up with a learning difference called Auditory Processing Disorder.
• The only way to learn from failures is to feel it, study them, make adjustments, a new commitment, and put it behind you.
• The Voice No One Else Hears – Performance psychologist Jim Loehr has worked with some of the top athletes in the world. He has them wear a microphone during a competition, and he asks them to honestly articulate what the voice in their head says and thinks. Whatever the circumstances, Loehr said he asks, “Is this how I would speak to someone I deeply care about? Or, if I were speaking to someone I deeply cared about, what would I say?”
  • "I've been here before."
  • "I've taken 35,000 shots."
  • Rebound... Bounce back.
• Paul loves the "up and down" statistic in golf. It refers to a golfer recovering from a bad shot and still making a par on the hole. In life, it's all about how you choose to respond.
• Paul’s Brother, Mike - “One of my favorite chapters in this book is about planting “little acorns.” (p.174) Had it not been for the biggest acorn in the family, who left his job to build the PLL with me... well, I’d just be a retired athlete, continuing the pursuit of my next professional life. Thank you for everything, Mike.”

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• The 5 Journal Prompts - What am I grateful for? Where am I winning? What will I let go of today? What does my ideal day look like? What needs to be said at the end?
• Avoid the old person flaw – Sometimes you meet an old person and they spend hours in conversation living in the past. Don’t ever believe that your best days are behind you. Have a “never peak” mindset with an upward trajectory… Always.
• Go see people in person - In Italy they say, “We are not friends until we’ve eaten together.”
• Release the energy vampires – “We feel guilt when we no longer want to associate with old friends and colleagues who haven’t changed. The price, and marker, of growth.” - Naval Ravikant
• Stop salting your food before you taste it.
• Happiness is an inside job.
• See Solitude as the new status symbol.
• A sweaty workout is never a silly idea.
• Ask Yourself the 10,000 Dinner Question: That’s how many dinners you can expect to share with your chosen mate. Does that thought thrill you, or give you the shivers? If the latter, you may not have found the one.
• Be a Perfect Moment Maker: Focus on making magical memories with those we care about so we feel rich when we’re old.
• Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same.
• “Your "I CAN" is more important than your IQ.”
• “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”
• “You can’t make someone feel good about themselves until you feel good about yourself.”
• “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. it will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.”
• Start a mastermind alliance… For years, every Friday at 6am, Robin met with his mastermind partner at a coffee shop where they’d chat for 2 hours.
• “Success occurs in the privacy of the soul.” - Rick Rubin – Success is about YOUR definition, not whatever society says it should be. It’s about understanding your purpose, your values, and the critical behaviors to match those values. The cool part about it, is you get to define it. That isn’t easy work, but it’s worth it.
• Ski instructors aren’t rich, “but we have a rich life.”

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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Episode #579: David Perell - Setting The Standard, Cultivating Your Taste, Pursuing Excellence, Becoming a Sloganeer, Always Working/Never Working, & Lessons From a Mysterious Billionaire

Notes:

• Set the standard – “It’s your job to have the highest quality standards of anybody you work with. Every day, you’ll face pressure to lower them. Don’t do it. If you can set a high standard and simply maintain it, you’ll do very well for yourself.”
• Have a high-quality bar. Do three things:
  • Define it: Clearly state the standards. (read The 11 Laws of Showrunning)
  • Maintain it: This is hard to do.
  • Raise it: Keep pushing.
• You need to define what quality looks like. Set the true north.
• David worked with a coach to establish his core values. And he was going to narrow it down to five and the coach said, “Nope, it’s just one. It’s the one that everything in your life orbits around... It’s The Pursuit of Excellence.
• The biggest piece of low-hanging fruit for leaders is getting funnier:
  • Nobody trains themselves to get funnier though. It’s strangely taboo. That’s why it’s such an opportunity.
  • "Laughter is the sound of comprehension." Say something memorable. Humor is memorable.
• A good way to think... Deconstruct something funny. David spends a lot of time understanding why Theo Von is so funny.
• The key to excellent storytelling: a moment of change. Conflict and suspense carry stories.
• Robert Caro writing the LBJ books... "What would I see if I was there." He moved to where LBJ lived to see what it was like to be there.
• How to cultivate taste:
  • Make a list of things you love/hate.
  • Look for things you love (but aren't supposed to), and things you hate (but are supposed to love).
  • Make things. Don't be a passive consumer. Be a connoisseur. Be discerning about what you consume.
  • Amor Tolles - History is bad for knowing what's good now.
    • Consume old things.
  • Museums - Pay attention to what elicits a reaction. Why is it a 10? Why is it a 1? What do you love? What do you hate? Why?
• Archegos is David's favorite Greek word, and it gets to the heart of good leadership.
  • Four meanings: Author, founder, pioneer, leader
  • America’s founding fathers are the canonical example
• Lessons from a mysterious billionaire mentor:
  • David asks very specific questions, listens, and takes lots of notes.
  • When meeting with a mentor, show up with energy and specific questions. They are tired of hearing the boring generic questions. Be specific.
  • The mentor talks 98% of the time and David just types what he says. He now has 18,000 words worth of notes. Some lessons:
    • CEOs are Sloganeers: CEOs shouldn’t write strategy memos. They should drive slogans.
      • Three lines. Three words each. (Bezos: Focus on the Customer)
    • CEOs should tell the same stories over and over again, refining their pitch like a comedian.
      • Gauging reactions
      • Asking questions
      • Listening to push-back
      • Seeing what makes people’s eyes light up
        • Your message is only landing once people start making fun of you.
• Good goal in life: Always working, never working
  • Story from Patrick O'Shaughnessy. He was asked how much time he spent preparing. Initially, he said, "not much." Then he thought for a while, and said, "I'm preparing all the time. My whole life is preparing to ask these questions."