I had the really cool opportunity to speak with a member of the U. S. Special Forces at a charity dinner. Really interesting guy. He's, he's, you know, a combat veteran, been on the most amazing mission. Things are truly unbelievable, I believe every word, obviously. And at the table somebody asked, it was one of those questions that's so annoying because you know that they rehearsed it in their head and they were just trying to sound, I don't know what, sycophantic or pandering or... Patriotic, but they're like, is it that makes, guys the best in the world? this guy turns around and he goes, well that's easy, we don't fight fair. it was a jarring response to everybody at the table, and we're like, dude, what do you mean? And he's like, we stack the odds at every... Like that's what you do in warfare. You don't fight fair. So, you know, if I think there's three guys in this house that we need to go clear, I'm going to bring 30 and then I'm going to throw flash bangs in there first, and if I don't have to go in, I'm just going to, carpet bomb the thing. Like it was such an amazing lesson for me because. we're taught this mythos of the honorable duel. But, when you really get down to brass tacks, that's not the way to win. The way is to win is to stack the odds in your favor every possible turn. and to hear him describe, some of those examples, which were I think, a pretty good job of offering the scale at which he was speaking. I mean, that's what they did. They want 100 to 1 odds every single time. And if they can't get them, then they just don't fight. And thought that I really appreciated the candor. I've been thinking about that from an entrepreneurial perspective. You shouldn't fight fair either. You should not fight fair. Now, I'm not saying do things that are dirty or unethical, right? Like, we're all on the same page. You should still be, you know, truthful and honorable and integrous. But that doesn't mean that you fight fair. You can still stack the odds. So here are the five. Most important unfair advantages you can give yourself. The first one is my favorite, I think it's the most important. And if you do nothing else, I think this is the thing that you should spend the most time trying to cultivate a habit in. Reading is the greatest advantage. It's make it your go to pastime, drink books. You have to think of the most capable minds in history, have documented their life's work and just handed it to you on a silver platter for a literal. and you have to be intentional about what you read, but, you know, if you think about like Ray Dalio wrote a book called principles, which is on my, bookshelf somewhere. And it's his life's work. When you read principles, it's more value per page than anything I've ever been exposed to. So here's the most successful investor of all time. Distilling down everything he's ever learned over the course of 40, 50 years and giving it to you for 20, and you can consume that book, I bet you, in about 15 hours, which is a long time for a book, by the way. Most books can be read in about 4 to 5 hours. And that's one example of a hundred million. and, by the way, Some of the people that I think, you know, Ray Dalio is a billionaire and there are multiple billionaires that have written books. Peter Thiel's Zero to One. Phenomenal book. Really, really accessible concept. But it's decades of learning that you can have in a couple of hours in 20 bucks. it's, I love the Georgia R. R. Martin quote, Readers live a thousand lives, a non reader only lives one. It puts you in a position of capitalizing, like truly standing on the shoulders of greats. And then if you want to go back, like Marcus Aurelius wrote a book. Plato wrote books. Socrates had books written about him, and we're not entirely sure that that's actually any of the stuff that he said, or if it was just people trying to push their own narratives. But still, it's worth exposing yourself to, right? Reading I think is the ultimate unfair advantage. There's a gentleman named Jeff Hoffman who I got to meet in an event He's one of the co founders of Priceline and he told me this story about info sponging He said that he exposes himself to information that he'd never otherwise be exposed to so he's at an airport And he goes and he buys a magazine meant for Latin women. So Latina magazine and the gal behind the counter didn't even want to sell it to him. She's like, sir, do you, like, do you know what this is? And, you know, he grabbed the wrong thing. He's like, no, no, just continue please. And reads the magazine and ends up being his next, nine figure idea. Came from that magazine because there's information he wouldn't expose it to otherwise. so don't just read what you're interested in Follow your interest and make sure never to compromise your love of reading by the way That's one of the rules that I've found for myself recently is if an author doesn't capture and carry my attention I put the book down I used to force myself to read through things and I'm just too old for that now like, you know I make it the author's responsibility to make sure that they carry me through and by the way, that doesn't mean that It's the author's fault. Like, maybe they're just above me. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've tried to start Tolstoy's War and Peace. I just can't do it. And I know for a fact, based off of all the people that I love and respect, how valuable that book could be to me. I'm not there yet. I'm just not smart enough or patient enough. So I put it down and I walk away because I don't want to, I don't want to turn reading into a chore. So that's unfair advantage number one. Unfair advantage number two is waking up early. The most common trait among successful people is waking up early, generally three hours before the work day begins. This is a study of self made millionaires by an organization called rich habits. What's interesting about those early hours is. An hour in the morning is worth two, three, or four hours midday. And if you've ever gotten up early, you know that. And here's the thing, I'm not an early bird coming to you coming saying like, oh, why isn't this easy for you? Like, I am a nocturnal night owl. If life had no consequences, I would spend the rest of my days On the patio of a coffee shop with a pack of Newport cigarettes, a pot of coffee, a stack of books, and a notebook, and I would stay there right until the sun crests. I love the night. I love everything about it. But I also love smoking, and neither of those things are good for me, so I had to give them both up. Waking up early in the morning has been one of the most impactful things that's... That I've ever done. The key, incidentally, is learn a little bit about circadian rhythms. Do, 20 minutes of research, watch a YouTube video, and you'll find out that you have to wake up at the same time every day. Because if you're trying to wake up early Monday through Friday, and then sleeping on Saturdays and Sundays, you're, you're just working against yourself, and you're never actually building that habit. So wake up at the same time every day, Do your habits, work on your most important thing, and then if you need to, one day a week, go back to sleep, and then play catch up. But getting up shifts your schedule. It, it keeps you from staying up late, which is where all your bad decisions are made, by the way. You get to get up before anybody else, you have a head start on the world, there, there's nobody drawing down on your time, and all the studies that have ever been done show that you're more productive, you're more awake, you're more alert, you're more... You're more capable, you're more creative in the morning. AM time is worth its weight in gold. So, wake up in the morning, unfair advantage number two. Unfair advantage number three, coaching and mentorship. And I don't have a coaching program to sell you, by the way. There's very little in life that I would have if it wasn't for the people that have guided me along the way. And you know, coaching and mentorship, they're the same thing in my mind. you pay for one and you don't the other. So, if you can find a mentor, find a mentor. If you can't. Go hire a coach and lean into them hard and find a coach that's done the thing that you want to do. I wouldn't get a fat personal trainer. I wouldn't get a poor financial planner. And that's not to say I'm not trying to fat shame anybody or poor shame anybody, but... You're not where I want to be. And that sounds obvious, but where people go astray and where I've gone astray in the past is I started working with a coach who was helping me with, let's, you know, let's say mindset, entrepreneurial mindset. And then that bled into relationships and, you know, I'm working with this person and I realize you have a horrible marriage, like I want, I don't want what you have, so I'm not taking any of your relationship advice. You, you do great from an entrepreneurial perspective, but you have the exact wrong paradigm. You wouldn't hire a Sherpa who's never been up the mountain. Find the guide who's been where you want to go, and then pay them to get there. And mentors, by the way, are more accessible than you think. There are massively successful people. Every successful person I've ever met, with maybe two exceptions, wants other people to be successful. Is actually dying to share what they know. But you have to... You can't just show up and be like, mentor me. I'm yours, right? Like they need to know that you're going to put in the time and you're going to make it easy on them. And you're going to be receptive. Cause they're not going to waste their time. Successful people don't waste their time. Obviously. Number four is masterminds. I do have a mastermind to sell you. By the way, you can go to driven mastermind. com. Jim Rohn has a famous quote, You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. This has been as true in my life as anything else, and I see it constantly playing out in the lives of others. Sometimes to their disadvantage. know, sometimes I see buddies, and they're stuck in ruts, and they don't realize, like, you're not stuck in a rut, you hang out with the ruts. And if you weren't hanging out with those people, and I'm not, I'm not trying to sound like an elitist, you have to hang out with the people you want to be like. You wanna be successful? Hang out with successful people. If there are things that you don't like about yourself, look at your circle. Are you negative? do you drink too much? you smoke too much? Do you stay out late? Bet money. The four people, four other people that you hang out with, your five person social group, probably does all of those things. So if you want the fast track to improving your circle, go join a mastermind. You don't have to join mine. Join one though. There's so many good ones. Shout out to Joe Polish, by the way. Genius network one of the best he started the modern day mastermind If you're looking for an amazing mastermind check out Joe Polish's genius network Giovanni Marcinko has the Archangel mastermind he's up in Toronto Steve Sims and Henry Sims are starting a mastermind They've got their their speakeasy events No, now I'm afraid I'm going to forget friends. Justin Donald has a mastermind for investing. John Vroman has a mastermind for, for dads, front row dads. Y'all there are so many unbelievably powerful groups of people that you can just pay to play. And here's the thing, masterminds can be a little overwhelming and intimidating. They should be. If you're not overwhelmed and you're not intimidated, you're in the wrong damn mastermind. You want to be the dumbest poorest human in your circle and everybody's going to drag you up. Which is great. Unfair advantage number five exercise and nutrition and I know you saw this one coming by the way Like it was just a countdown to I bet she's going to talk about Nutrition. But it's a, it's a cliche for a reason. It's obvious for a reason. If you're not properly energized, you're always going to be a step behind. You don't need to do Ironmans and Triathlons, right? But you need to make sure that you have the energy necessary in order to execute on your goals. Or on the tasks that will bring you closer to your goals. So smoothie and go for a jog. It's unbelievable the impact those types of things make. And what I'd love to know from you, those are my five unfair advantages. Don't fight fair. You know, take it from the Navy SEAL. Don't fight fair. How do you stack the odds in your favor? What are your unfair advantages? What are the things that only you know? You know, I heard meditation from one person recently. Ray Dalio talks about that too, which really, really shocked me. I just never thought that that would be like, hardcore... Hedge fund guys like, oh yeah, transcendental meditation. But I want to know yours. What are your unfair advantages? What are the things that set you far ahead of other people? And I want to know yours so I can integrate them. Hit me up in the comments and I'll see you tomorrow.