Give me 12 minutes, you'll get ahead of 97% of people

Summary

Vincent Chan shares his personal journey from working in a supermarket to attaining financial success in his 20s. He highlights the significance of mastering the basics, using discomfort as motivation, and embracing high accountability to drive success. By focusing on consistent efforts and adopting effective strategies, anyone can surpass the average societal benchmarks and avoid a life of regret. Chan emphasizes that success stems from focusing on essentials, leveraging discomfort for growth, recognizing the value of one's time, and continually expanding one's skillset to move from low to high accountability positions.

Highlights

• Kobe Bryant's commitment to basics is a testament to the power of consistency. 🏀
• Discomfort can drive change; use it as a catalyst for motivation. 🔥
• The Pygmalion effect plays a huge role in determining personal ceilings - aim higher! 🎯
• Work smarter, not harder: leverage AI and outsourcing to enhance efficiency. 🧠
• From low to high accountability: broaden your skillset to increase your impact and value. 🔑

Key Takeaways

• Master the basics and repeat them consistently for success; it's what goes unseen that truly counts. 🌟
• Discomfort can be a powerful motivation; use it as fuel to propel you forward. 🚀
• Break free from confirmation bias by adopting a mindset that seeks opportunities and challenges self-imposed limitations. 💡
• Identify and focus on high-value tasks, outsourcing or automating the rest to maximize your time. ⏳
• Transition from low to high accountability roles by acquiring a broad set of skills and applying them in unique ways. 🌍

Overview

Vincent Chan's inspiring story of financial transformation begins with a shift in perspective and a commitment to fundamental practices. From a supermarket job to financial success, Chan illustrates that the path is not paved with exceptional brilliance or privileged backgrounds, but rather with dedicated application of basic principles. He shares how renowned figures like Kobe Bryant never shy away from mastering the basics, underscoring that genuine success often stems from relentless consistency.

In his narration, Chan stresses using discomfort as a motivational tool. His own career shift was born out of a restlessness in a seemingly perfect job, driving him to pursue entrepreneurship. It's this discomfort that spurs individuals to abandon the complacency of comfort and venture into new, rewarding territories. The narrative serves as a reminder that avoiding the discomfort can lead to regret, emphasizing the importance of taking calculated risks.

To truly excel, Chan advises expanding one's skills, strategically managing time, and transitioning into roles with greater impact and responsibilities. By leveraging modern tools like AI to handle mundane tasks, individuals can focus on strategic endeavors. Cultivating a broad skill set not only enhances market value but also empowers one to occupy influential roles. Ultimately, Chan champions the idea that through intentional learning and strategic action, anyone can break past their constraints and advance toward remarkable achievements.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction The introduction begins with the speaker sharing a personal success story, transitioning from working in a supermarket to earning seven figures in their 20s. They emphasize that achieving success is simpler than commonly perceived and doesn't require exceptional intelligence, talent, or wealth. The key to success lies in being hyper-aware and following certain principles, starting with the 955 rule. The speaker highlights that social media often portrays a glamorous and misleading version of success, focusing on extravagant trips and luxury, whereas true success is rooted in different aspects of life.
• 01:30 - 03:30: The 95/5 Rule The chapter "The 95/5 Rule" discusses the dedication and work ethic of Kobe Bryant. It illustrates an example where Kobe, despite being one of the best basketball players in the world, emphasizes the importance of mastering the basics. He arrives for a scheduled workout hours earlier to practice basic footwork with full intensity. When asked why he focuses on such basics despite being the best, Kobe's rhetorical response highlights the essence of the 95/5 Rule.
• 03:30 - 07:00: Using Discomfort as Motivation The chapter titled 'Using Discomfort as Motivation' discusses the importance of embracing the basics to achieve success. The speaker identifies themselves as the best player in the world because they never grow bored of mastering the fundamentals. Success requires extraordinary consistency, often going unnoticed as it develops 'in the shadows' before manifesting publicly. The chapter emphasizes that while basics are crucial, they aren't necessarily easy, and persisting through their difficulty is key to progress.
• 07:00 - 09:30: The Pygmalion Effect This chapter discusses the importance of consistency and persistence in various fields such as writing and sales. It emphasizes committing to daily practices to enhance skills and achieve success, like writing every day or making numerous sales calls despite potential rejections. The chapter also cautions against overcomplicating plans, highlighting that simple, consistent actions often lead to significant improvements.
• 09:30 - 14:30: The One-Two Rule The chapter titled "The One-Two Rule" discusses the importance of simplicity in maintaining plans and using discomfort as motivation for change. The author shares a personal story of landing a seemingly perfect job on Wall Street after college. However, the chapter emphasizes that true change occurs when the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change, a concept learned from Tony Robbins.
• 14:30 - 18:30: Low Accountability vs High Accountability The chapter discusses the transition from feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment to feeling trapped in a work environment lacking accountability. Initially, everything seemed to be going well, and the individual's parents were proud. However, as time went on, the individual began to dread going to work, even resorting to walking in circles outside the office to delay entry. The tipping point occurred during a one-on-one meeting with their manager, who laid out a five-year growth plan. While the manager was enthusiastic, the individual felt suffocated by the lack of personal agency and decided to create a plan to quit.

Give me 12 minutes, you'll get ahead of 97% of people Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so I went from working in a supermarket to having seven figures in my 20s and I realized it's actually pretty simple to get ahead of most people in the next 7 months it's not about being smart talented or born rich all it takes is being hyper aware in implementing these five rules starting with the 955 rule so most of what we think success looks like is the social media version of it right it's the seeing the fancy trips the luxurious events or the all the pizaz but the truth is the success that you want is found into things that you've
• 00:30 - 01:00 been avoiding and a great example of this is with Kobe Bryant so one day at the Olympic Village Kobe he had a scheduled workout with his Gym trainer later on the day but he showed up at the gym at 4:00 a.m. to do an intense warm-up before the actual training meaning for the next 45 minutes Kobi practiced the most basic footwork the most basic drills with 110% effort and later on when someone approached him and asked him hey you're the best player in the world why are you doing such basic drills and Kobe replied why do you think
• 01:00 - 01:30 I'm the best player in the world because I never get bored with the basics you see the point is most things that are worth having require you to be extremely consistent for an extraordinary period of time 95% of success happens in the shadows and the 5% that you see is in the spotlight if you want to be able to get ahead or change your life the key is to identify the basics and do them for a long period of time but just because they're considered Basics doesn't mean that it's easy the basics are hard
• 01:30 - 02:00 because they are usually boring and not fun but at the same time that doesn't make them any less important so if you're a writer commit to writing every single day you'll write faster and you'll be better if you're in sales commit to calling 50 people a day even if you fac 49 rejections you still made one extra sale and don't over complicate any of this right I I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times that I created the most elaborate most complex action plan that I thought was going to improve everything by 102 X only to
• 02:00 - 02:30 never actually end up looking at it after a month the more complicated your plan is the harder it is for you to stick with the next rule is to use your discomfort as motivation and this is something that I learned from Tony Robbins and it's that people do not change until they realize that the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change for example right after college I landed what seemed what I thought was the perfect opportunity I had a cushy job on Wall Street with great benefits and a great salary and my
• 02:30 - 03:00 parents were super proud and I felt like I was doing everything right but then 6 months in around 6 months in I found myself walking in a circle outside of my office building trying to delay the moment that I actually had to walk into work and the breaking point came when I had a oneone with my manager and he was mapping out my growth trajectory for the next 5 years what I was going to achieve blah blah blah and while he was smiling the entire time I felt like I was just suffocating after that I decided to map out my plan to qu quit in St my own
• 03:00 - 03:30 business and on the day that actually put in my two-e notice my boss offered me about a 30% raise to stay and I just politely said no and within the first seven months right of starting my own business those were some of the hardest months of my life right I barely got any sleep I made silly mistakes that cost me a lot of money but even then I kept on going because even on my worst days right the fear of failing at my startup or my business was nowhere near as heavy as the fear of looking back at 40 years
• 03:30 - 04:00 and wondering what if the point is if you think the price of success is too high wait till later on when you get the bill for regret in my case I could have stayed at my kushy job right it was comfortable but I didn't want to be on my deathbed when I'm 93 and a half looking back at my life and have this regret that I wish I did something different instead I want to be able to look back at my life and be proud of what I created so if you want to get ahead in life and avoid a life of regret I want you to think about where you'll a
• 04:00 - 04:30 year from now if you just kept on putting what you need to do off you'll be in the same exact spot with the same amount of money the same daily routine making the same excuses While others other people are making progress to where they want to be and if that makes you feel uncomfortable that's a good thing I want you to use that discomfort as fuel because the reality is time will pass either way but the question is where will you be when it does next is you need to be hyper aware of the pig million effect which in simple terms
• 04:30 - 05:00 basically says people perform up to their expectations like I have a Founder friend who told me the reason that she didn't start her business until she was 48 was because she came from a tiny Minnesota town of like 2 3,000 people and I still remember she would spend years right looking at successful people from big cities telling herself that that could never be me here and making excuses about how you needed to be in New York or in California in order to make it but then at a networking event I
• 05:00 - 05:30 think she was in in Chicago right she met someone who built a seven figure software business who came from an even smaller town than hers and that's when she realized that she's the one who's been holding herself back the moment she stopped looking for proof that she couldn't succeed in Minnesota and started looking for proof that she could everything changed I think it was just in 2024 or 2023 her jewelry business just crossed $1 million in sales the point is whether you think you can or can't you're right our brains are really
• 05:30 - 06:00 good at finding information that fits our narratives and beliefs that we tell ourselves and really good at ignoring information that goes against it for example if you are convinced that someone is out to get you right you're going to act differently around them instead of being open and warm and kind you might be cold and maybe even a little bit hostile and do you think that when that person experiences that treatment from you are they more likely to be friendly or equally as cold you see your initial belief about that
• 06:00 - 06:30 person whether it was true or not created this tense and and cold relationship that you were hoping to avoid which then proves your original suspicion and this is called confirmation bias and this applies to everything every aspect of life how you think about the world how you think about wealth and more importantly how you think about yourself so if you believe that the world is full of opportunity and potential for success your brain will work just as hard to prove that right so start using your thoughts to focus on things that move
• 06:30 - 07:00 you forward instead of things that are that hold you back next is the one two rule or one in and two out like for example when I started taking personal finance seriously right for some reason I was very very stubborn right I I tried to save as much as I could and I thought that as long as I did everything myself that was the smartest way to save money like I I'd sit for days watching tutorials on how to build a website or design a logo or or even file my own taxes because I had convinced myself that the time I spent was worth it
• 07:00 - 07:30 because I was saving money but then one day while being annoyed at how ugly my website or my logo looked I don't remember which one that I spent weeks designing I had an epiphany right I was saving money at the expense at the cost of my most valuable resource time in the book The Almanac the author says that everyone should set an hourly rate meaning you should calculate what an hour of your time is actually worth and refuse to do task that can be outsourced
• 07:30 - 08:00 for less than your hourly rate now traditionally Outsourcing meant hiring someone or hiring people but today you can use AI for example instead of hiring an assistant to go through my inbox and respond to emails I can use chbt to write my emails for me the point is getting ahead in life isn't always about working harder right sometimes it's about working on the right things so instead of wasting your time on tasks that aren't worth it start spending it on things that can actually move the needle so how do you do this right first
• 08:00 - 08:30 is you need to calculate your hourly rate let's say you earn about $100,000 a year right you want to divide that by the number of hours you approximately working a year let's just say 2,000 which is roughly about 40 hours a week meaning your hourly rate is $50 then you want to evaluate all the tests that you spend time on for example if you spend 5 hours making PowerPoint slides that is going to cost you $250 now ask yourself Can you hire someone or use AI to do this thing for less than that amount if yes then
• 08:30 - 09:00 Outsource it or use Ai and instead reinvest those 5 hours that you were going to spend anyway and instead spend it on more valuable activities like developing your business strategy or working on more impactful projects and just an example of some AI tools that I really like I like using Tanya for my notes uh my task and transcribing my meetings I like using grammarly to fix my grammar um and then also Claude in order to help me come up with some ideas there are a ton of different AI tools
• 09:00 - 09:30 available for free just spend a couple of hours researching and how you can Implement that to replace task that you want to Outsource the next way to get ahead is to move from a position of low accountability to high accountability and back when I worked on Wall Street I remember chatting with some like temp intern people right who were doing basic data entry work and I learned that most of the most of the guys there absolutely hated their job right they vented about how they barely got paid and how their job was Mindless and at the time I
• 09:30 - 10:00 didn't really think much about it um because everyone vents about their job but in retrospect I realized that they were right the unfortunate reality is is you'll never get ahead or be super successful or super wealthy by doing data entry or any of those entry-level jobs because most entry-level jobs are low accountability positions it's task that most people can do and that's why it's entry-level so while your employer might value your work the stakes are pretty low they don't need you need you
• 10:00 - 10:30 meaning if you're not available to work they can easily find someone else to do the job on the other hand a high accountability position is when you are able to provide something that will have an actual impact on the person who is relying on you and that impact right it has to be something that that person cannot do themselves and something that other very few people can do the point is employers value people who can solve complex problems which often requires you to have a a broad set of skills and a a study found that hybrid roles
• 10:30 - 11:00 meaning those that required skills from different domains multiple domains are expected to grow more than twice the rate of the General job market and these hybrid roles pay more too uh for example right marketing managers who know SQL earn 41% more than marketing managers who don't so if you want to move from low accountability to high accountability it starts with applying the t-shaped skills model and it's actually pretty easy to understand so just imagine the letter T right the
• 11:00 - 11:30 vertical bar of the T represents your entry level skills it's the thing that you started with and you are really good at like for example data entry if you just have this vertical bar then you're at a dead end there's not that much room to grow you're just in an Excel file all day and that's where the horizontal bar comes in and which represents your knowledge your skills across multiple areas or domains it's things that you can do to make the data entry skills more valuable maybe you want to take a tab course and you learn how to
• 11:30 - 12:00 visualize the data in a way to tell compelling stories or you take a digital marketing course and now you collect data but you also can analyze it to drive marketing strategies just like in Tekken or Street Fighter right the broader your skills are the more unique combos you can do to your opponents and the more likely you are to win which leads me to something that you've got to start accepting it's that even though you might be trying your hardest to get ahead and do better sometimes it might feel like you're not doing enough and and that might be because you think
• 12:00 - 12:30 everyone is doing better than you but that's wrong click here to find out why you're not actually behind and why you think everyone has more money than you