3-Useful Ideas — Never Count the Other Guy’s Money
No one likes you as much as you like yourself. And the "no regrets" mindset that makes failure irrelevant
Every Sunday I share 3-useful ideas to help you live a rich life.
This week:
Never Count The Other Guy’s Money. And 10 More Business Truths
No One Likes You As Much As You Like Yourself
The “No Regrets” Mindset That Makes Failure Irrelevant
You can find all past editions here. Also check out my Master of the Deal podcast and the M&A This Week newsletter.
Let’s dive in 👇
(1) Never Count The Other Guy’s Money. And 10 More Business Truths.
Never count the other guy’s money. If the deal works for you, it works for you. If the other guy makes more money by doing a deal with you, he will do more deals with you.
Anything which retains customers becomes huge over a long time horizon. So focus and solve for revenue retention.
Do not try and solve churn. Try and find products which people already don't churn out of. And then make it your own. Don't get into stuff that people inherently leave. People may not care about the product but still pay for it. It may be a commodity. But they will never stop using it.
On a long enough time horizon, the product of the business is the only thing that matters. Marketing just gets more people introduced to your product, accelerating growth, but it cannot make up for bad products.
The pain is the pitch.
The ultimate lead magnets should be timeless assets.
In general, more attention tends to grow businesses if they are not supply constrained. For example a plumbers phone can be ringing non-stop but he can only serve so many. He will need more plumbers.
When your distribution is the world and you are obsessed then it's hard to lose.
Document -> demonstrate -> duplicate
Do More -> Do Better -> Do New
Be useful.
These are 11 lessons I learnt listening to Alex Hormozi this week.
(2) No One Likes You As Much As You Like Yourself
“No one likes you as much as you like yourself. So if you're struggling with yourself, the outside world becomes an insurmountable challenge. Self-esteem issues can be the most limiting.
Self-esteem is the reputation you have with yourself. You're watching yourself at all times. You know what you're doing.
You have your own moral code. Everyone has a different moral code. But if you don't live up to your own moral code, the same code you hold others to, it will damage your self-esteem. So perhaps one way to build up your self-esteem is to have your own moral code and then live up to it very rigorously.
Another way to raise your self-esteem is to do things for others. If I look back at my life, some of the moments that I am most proud of is when I made a sacrifice for somebody or something that I loved. Doing things like that can build up your self-esteem really fast."
That's Naval Ravikant eloquently laying out an essential pillar of what makes up our mindset.
Eventually you will have a code which will be an amalgamation or nature and nurture. I believe people with like-minded moral codes tend to come together and those which diverge in their codes tend to conflict or grow apart.
One of my codes is to treat others as I'd like to be treated, irrespective of who they are. Another one is to always look for a fair deal, something which creates a win-win scenario.
What are the your codes? You definitely have them. It’s just that you may never have consciously thought about them and defined them.
(3) The “No Regrets” Mindset That Makes Failure Irrelevant
What if you fail?
What if what you're working towards doesn't pan out the way you'd hoped?
What if you lose your job? Money? Team? Friends?
Can you still look at it all, shrug and say
"I have no regrets!"
“I did what I felt was right. I put in the work. I consistently learned and improved. Things just didn't go my way but there was nothing missing at my end. Whats next?”
The journey ahead is unpredictable. How you deal with that uncertainty defines you.
This "No Regrets" principle ties in perfectly with "Amor Fati" - love of fate. Amor Fati - affirms reality as it is - the good and the bad. It doesn't rationalize it or make excuses or frame your suffering in a way that it goes away. It sees life as truly enough.
These two principles - "No Regrets" and "Amor Fati" make me stick my neck out more often than not. It makes me dare to do things that take me beyond my comfort zone.
There is no reason you can't do the same. Just download these mental scripts and raise your hands. If shit doesn't work out, you will have "no regrets" and you will accept reality for what it is - awesome in so many ways. As they say in Delhi "Dekhee Jayegee".
The world is always trying to tell you things. Be open and curious and willing to ideas. Education is constant.
👋 I’m Harsh. Every Sunday I share three useful ideas to help you live a rich life. Read by 7000+ founders and CXOs.
If you are a dealmaker you might also enjoy the Master of the Deal podcast and the M&A This Week newsletter.
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