???????? № 12 – Win

What does it take to win?

Ever wondered what it takes to truly win in life? Is it luck, talent, or hard work? While all these factors play a role, there’s one thing that sets winners apart from the rest: their willingness to take risks and be different.

While the nature of the MEMOs are intrinsically observational, perhaps a more reactionary reality would be fitting as well, so let’s treat winning as a science.

In the words of Gary Kasparov, “If you don’t take risks, you don’t drink champagne”.?

1. Take More Risks.

The more risks you take, the higher your chances of success.?

Imagine life is in many ways a gamble, where nothing truly is certain.?

The idea of “playing safe” is great for security, but freedom doesn’t coexist well with security. You can only have one, not both.

Winning spends its playtime in uncharted territories.

2. Create Luck.

There is an art to putting yourself in the stream of luck.?

Many times I’ve heard “Oh, you’re so lucky to get that job / live in so many places / etc.”, but it’s always been a right-place-right-time happening that led to those outcomes.?

You don’t get lucky with a million-dollar business deal at a cheap restaurant. In order to create luck, you have to increase your chances of being present where luck is created.?

Luck also relates to the ‘Law of Attraction’, the world and all within it is conditioned consciousness objectified.?

Consciousness is the cause and the substance of the entire world – and knowledge of the law of consciousness and the method of operating this law will enable you to accomplish what you desire.

3. Differentiate.

The first step to being better than everyone is being different from everyone, and the easiest way to do it is through your personality.

In life and business, no matter how good you are, if your personality isn’t strong (both positive and negative attributes), you won’t make it. Personality is the sum of your qualities, emotions, characteristics, looks, etc. but it can be applied to everything from the way you shake someone’s hand, your honesty, altruism, dominating thoughts and magnetism.

No one can put a price on personality, except you.

4. Who you know, not what you know.

Knowing more people means information travel faster. No matter how much access one has to Chat-GPT, encyclopedias, business ideas, they will only go so far without the right people to implement them.?

Sometimes, luck is purely building a good reputation with someone, and that can even be done in a few seconds of being kind.?

Learning how to incentivize and become the “go-to person” for others will also increase the chances of others prioritizing you when you’ll need help.

Your network is your net worth.?

5. Extrapolate.

Trying to experience everything before learning from everything, and you may discover that you can’t experience everything in your lifetime.

Mistakes are good to learn from, but even better if learned from others’.?

You don’t need to burn your hand to know it hurts.

6. Accelerate.

Momentum isn’t always easy to come by, so whenever it does, accelerate.?

If you hopped on a trend and you’re good at it, keep on doing it until the wave dies out on its own.

Don’t kill momentum.

7. Increase productivity.

This goes without saying, but the better/faster you become at getting things done within a span of time, you inevitably increase your momentum, and this gives you leverage.

Faster = better.

8. Opportunity cost.

Activities carry a ROI.?

The cost of doing something isn’t just what you get paid for it – it’s also what you lose out on while doing it.

The opportunity cost of watching films or playing vidya has no ROI, unless you actively get something out it. If you’re writing a script, looking for cinematography inspiration or research game mechanics, then fine. If not, killing time is just killing you.

Avoid zero ROI.

9. Prioritize what works.

You can’t burn ants on a cloudy day.

Sometimes, it’s better double down on what works and eliminate what fails.

This can be applied to everything, from businesses to relationships.?

This also works when taking time into account.

Time is the only thing that you can’t win back.?

You don’t create luck by being around people who waste your time and are unappreciative of your sacrifice for them.

If there is nothing to be gained, then your presence is wasted.

10. Reward.

Don’t get fixated on rewards and outcomes. Detach from the result.

Don’t let a reward be your motivation. Detach from desire.

You win by regaining control and reducing your chances to be manipulated.

Mastering conflicting internal desires daily is also to be considered.

It makes sense both from a magical perspective, but psychologically too.

The reward is not the win.

—————

So how to put these principles into practice??

It all starts with defining a goal, outlining the steps needed to fulfill that goal and getting a resolution.

Whether or not you succeed in achieving that goal is arbitrary. The motivation is as simple as "I achieved the thing I set out to do or at least tried to after exhausting all reasonable steps".

Not everything will lead to success, and obviously some things won’t go as planned, there will be setbacks or even failures. But it’s important to remember that failure is not the end; it’s just a temporary setback.?

TL;DR: Define your own will of winning, the underlying motivation should be along the lines of "because I said so"

And remember, you only lose if you admit defeat.

Do as thou wilt,

-m-