Modern Wisdom
#655 - Polina Pompliano - The 10 Habits Of The World’s Most Successful People
Mon Jul 17 2023Description
This episode explores the habits and mindsets of successful people, the iterative process of creativity, the importance of discipline, taking ownership and developing a positive inner voice, improving relationships and the power of storytelling, different leadership styles and risk-taking skills, evaluating risks and building competence, building confidence and clear thinking, content consumption and discovering hidden genius, discovering hidden genius and embracing change. The episode emphasizes the importance of personal growth, self-reflection, and embracing change to unlock hidden potential.
Insights
Deconstructing the habits and mindsets of successful people
Paulina Pompiano provides insights into the habits and mindsets of history's highest performers. Topics covered include channeling creativity, building mental toughness, taking responsibility for actions, effective leadership, and improving risk-taking abilities.
The essence of the podcast and the importance of discipline
The podcast has remained consistent since 2018, focusing on the importance of discipline in creativity and productivity. Constraints can breed creativity, and iconic companies like Uber and Airbnb started in times of constraint, teaching financial discipline and alternative approaches.
Taking ownership and developing a positive inner voice
Taking ownership for actions is important, but there's a fine line between self-criticism and self-flagellation. It's crucial to ask what can be done to improve. Negative inner monologues can be overcome through meditation and exposure to positive influences.
Improving relationships and the power of storytelling
Healthy relationships are built on fond memories, attention to bids for attention, and trust. Effective storytelling involves conflict, intent, challenges, and solutions. Stories trigger emotion, empathy, and memory.
Leadership styles and risk-taking skills
Effective leaders empower employees through bottom-up leadership. Risk-taking skills can be developed to drive success.
Evaluating risks and building competence
Proper evaluation of risks is essential. Competence breeds confidence in handling impossible situations.
Building confidence and clear thinking
Confidence comes from competence. Constant improvement, rational thinking, and separating personal beliefs from societal norms contribute to clear thinking.
Content consumption and discovering hidden genius
Optimizing content consumption helps shape worldview. Being mindful of content impact, evaluating activities, and finding nudges for personal growth are important. Hidden genius refers to unique qualities that make someone exceptional.
Discovering hidden genius and embracing change
Everyone has hidden genius that can be discovered. Identity is not limited to one thing. Embracing change and embodying the desired version of oneself are crucial for personal growth.
Chapters
- Deconstructing the habits and mindsets of successful people
- True original creators and the iterative process of creativity
- The essence of the podcast and the importance of discipline
- Taking ownership and developing a positive inner voice
- Improving relationships and the power of storytelling
- Leadership styles and risk-taking skills
- Evaluating risks and building competence
- Building confidence and clear thinking
- Content consumption and discovering hidden genius
- Discovering hidden genius and embracing change
Deconstructing the habits and mindsets of successful people
00:00 - 07:19
- Paulina Pompiano is a writer, entrepreneur, and author known for her insights into the habits of history's highest performers.
- Topics covered in this episode include channeling creativity and inspiration, building mental toughness, taking responsibility for actions, writing and storytelling techniques, effective leadership, and improving risk-taking abilities.
- Paulina's sub-stack covers famous and successful people from history, offering a broad perspective that contrasts with modern media portrayals.
True original creators and the iterative process of creativity
06:51 - 13:56
- True original creators have a unique point of view, audacious goals, and are willing to fail spectacularly.
- Ed Catmore at Pixar believes that ideas that can be summarized in 30 seconds or less are not original.
- Pixar goes through an iterative process to make films better, even though they still think it's not the best.
- Creativity is a living animal and no creative person ever thinks their creation is perfect.
- Too much satisfaction can lead to complacency and losing the edge that drove creativity.
- Creativity is a skill, not something external like a muse.
- Constraint and forcing oneself to start over can help maintain creativity and innovation.
- Rules and structure can augment creativity by knowing what rules to break or invent.
- Following conventions helps learn which ones can be broken or disregarded.
- Overnight success in creative fields takes time and learning different aspects of the craft.
The essence of the podcast and the importance of discipline
13:34 - 20:48
- The essence of the podcast has remained the same since 2018, even though the format and video have changed.
- Creativity requires discipline and structure to be productive.
- Constraints can breed creativity and focus on the most important aspects.
- Iconic companies like Uber and Airbnb started in times of constraint, which taught them financial discipline and alternative ways of doing things.
- Mentally resilient people personify pain as a transformative place.
- Visualizing pain as a place can lead to personal transformation.
- There is a fine line between self-criticism and self-accountability, with some people already over-indexing for accountability.
Taking ownership and developing a positive inner voice
20:19 - 27:19
- Taking ownership for a bad podcast episode is important, but there's a line between self-criticism and self-flagellation.
- Amelia Boone calls it the merry-go-round of self-flagellation, where you focus on what went wrong and feel bad about feeling bad.
- Take responsibility for your actions, but also ask yourself what you can do about it.
- Sometimes even when you make all the right decisions, the outcome may not match your expectations.
- Victimhood mentality comes from within; only you can make yourself feel like a victim.
- There's a fine line between extreme ownership and internal victimhood; society tends to lean towards one extreme or the other.
- Listening to yourself is acknowledging pain and negative thoughts, while talking to yourself is actively choosing positive thoughts as a coach would.
- Negative inner monologues can be overcome through meditation and exposure to positive influences.
- Observing people and detecting patterns can help reverse engineer success in certain areas of life.
- Positive affirmations and rational optimism can help shape your inner voice into a more positive one.
Improving relationships and the power of storytelling
26:52 - 34:28
- Adjusting and nudging the inner voice can lead to a significant increase in quality of life.
- The texture of your own mind is the source code of your existence, and it can be changed.
- Healthy relationships can be predicted by how couples fondly remember their beginnings and how they answer each other's bids for attention.
- Love is a skill that can be learned, and small ordinary moments are more important than grand gestures.
- Trust compounds over time through consistency, and it is crucial for building strong relationships.
- To tell better stories, focus on conflict and intent.
- Aaron Sorkin's films play with perspective and lack an ultimate source of truth.
- A protagonist's intent should be compelling and preferably something they need.
- When telling a story, present the challenges and obstacles standing in the way, along with how you will solve them.
- Language tricks like using 'but', 'accept', or 'and then' can enhance storytelling.
- Being a vibe architect and eliciting stories is more important than just indexing key points.
- Stories trigger emotion, empathy, and memory, making points more memorable.
- 'Does it grow corn?' - Stories should have practical value or usefulness.
- Effective leaders approach leadership from a bottoms-up perspective, empowering employees' ideas.
Leadership styles and risk-taking skills
40:53 - 47:49
- Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, believes in bottom-up leadership and empowering employees to drive the company.
- Spotify's successful feature, Discover Weekly, was created by a team without the CEO's initial enthusiasm.
- Servant leadership is similar to bottom-up leadership, where the CEO serves the employees.
- Mark Bertolini, former CEO of Aetna, believes that true leadership is when the company can run itself without the CEO's presence.
- Ben Francis, CEO of Gymshark, prioritizes what's best for the business over personal ego.
- Designing systems and automations should focus on creating the right system rather than just achieving a specific outcome.
- James Clear emphasizes identity-based habits and becoming a runner as a way of life instead of focusing on one marathon.
- Commitment and consistency are key indicators of being committed to a goal or identity.
- Nick Saban, college football coach at Alabama, encourages players to focus on their individual roles within a larger system rather than looking at the scoreboard.
- Taking risks can be improved by developing risk-taking skills.
Evaluating risks and building competence
47:22 - 54:18
- Nick Saban emphasizes focusing on individual tasks within a larger system
- Taking risks requires evaluating and calculating risk properly
- Jim Koch took a risk by leaving his high-paying job to start a brewery
- Decisions can be categorized as scary or dangerous, and it's important to choose the scary option
- Reversible decisions should be made quickly, while irreversible decisions should be made deliberately and slowly
- Chris Hadfield remained calm and gave himself options when faced with challenges in space
- Competence breeds confidence in handling impossible situations
Building confidence and clear thinking
53:58 - 1:01:00
- Competence breeds confidence even in seemingly impossible situations.
- As you become more competent, fear of uncertainty becomes silly.
- Asking for confidence without competence is wishful fantasy.
- Imposter syndrome can persist even when disproven daily.
- Successful people constantly strive to improve and master their craft.
- Confidence is hollow without the skills to back it up.
- Earning respect as a podcast host requires practice and experience.
- Constantly improving and refining skills is like painting a masterpiece.
- Being ready for a large audience requires developing thick skin.
- Clarifying thinking helps become a more rational thinker.
- Understanding why people join cults involves belief systems and tribal identity.
- Becoming a scout instead of a soldier in beliefs leads to better accuracy in understanding reality.
- Separating personal beliefs from societal norms or trauma responses is crucial for clear thinking.
- Building a mental firewall helps prevent others' beliefs from seeping into your own mind.