Even though my career began at a top hedge fund, where I helped teach our clients about the power of leverage in their investments…
I failed to understand it in my personal life until I heard Naval Ravikant promise:
You’ll never get wealthy until you separate earning income from providing extra effort.
Leverage is how you accomplish more with less effort.
What you work on is much more important than how hard you work.
My partner Katie and I had been running business that had some leverage but was never going to make us wealthy.
It had a bottleneck.
We enrolled clients 1 phone call at a time.
Sure, much of our business embraced automation, and our fulfillment was decently scalable since we hosted group coaching calls (rather than individual ones).
A lot was working well.
But wow.
Those sales calls took their toll.
I did NOT like seeing my calendar full of those appointments.
Let’s look at the 6 Points of Leverage1 that I consider when building my next business:
Profession
Prestige
Product
Process
People
Portfolio
Profession
The rewards for being excellent at something scale faster than you’d think.
You get far more recognition (and money) for being the best than you do for being 10th-best or even 2nd best.
It can be 10x or 100x.
Consider Michael Phelps. Do you know who came in 2nd in each of his races?
I don’t.
Phelps is now a household name and has earned a gazillion dollars in sponsorships because he was fractions of a second faster than someone else.
Bad news: it’s harder than ever to commit to one craft and become world-class at it.
Because there are so many opportunities and distractions.
Good news: becoming the top 1% in the world at something is still simple.
Continually reframe what you do to be so specific and narrowly-defined that you are the world’s best.
Get clear about who you serve, what problem you solve, and how you solve it.
❌ Don’t say “I’m a marketer”.
✅ Say “I’m the #1 Facebook marketer helping aesthetic dentists in the UK expand their practice.”
And don’t quit.
The extra mile may be a lonely and tiresome journey, but it's never crowded.
Give 3-5 years of focused attention to a skill, and you can become the best in your niche.
Few people will stick it out that long.
Focus + Patience = Outsized rewards
By the way, the concept of alignment is crucial here.
You’ll only stick with something for a long enough time if it feels aligned with your values and your natural proclivities.
Intrinsic motivation (inspiration) is a requirement.
Prestige
Prioritize learning how to write.
“Writing is the most important form of communication.”
- Jeff Bezos
(Hint: ⭐ WealthFromWords.com is coming up soon, which will teach you how to make an impact with your writing, so I recommend signing up for free there.)
Reach × Reputation + Patience = Prestige
Anyone can get attention for themselves if they’re sensationalist, shallow, or immoral.
Don’t sacrifice your reputation for a fleeting moment in the spotlight.
Step 1 was to master your Profession.
Along the way, tell stories about your results.
You don’t need to brag, but you need people to notice.
As you share your journey, if you keep at it for years even when you’re not getting positive external reinforcement, there will be a snowball effect.
You will be on people’s minds.
Bonus tip: Make friends with people who are well-connected, influential, or challenge your thinking.
People are your cheat code for success. We really are the average of the five people we hang out with. I learned that last year. My friend Victor invests in real estate. Simply listening to him speak about his rental properties made me start looking for good deals in the real-estate market too.
People are your cheat code for success. We really are the average of the five people we hang out with. I learned that last year. My friend Victor invests in real estate. Simply listening to him speak about his rental properties made me start looking for good deals in the real-estate market too.
Michael Phelps is an amazing athlete. He trained for five years without missing a day. That says all about what hard work is.