Sometimes you go about your life for years not noticing an obvious pattern or strategy, and once you see it, you realize that everyone else seems to have been applying it but you. It's like you've been walking around with a huge blindspot that you didn't even notice until now.
Well, I just noticed a huge embarrassing blindspot that I have had for many years, which could be summarized as "it's important to study and learn from experts".
That statement might sound painfully obvious to you, but I am now realizing how important it is. It's one of those age-old bits of wisdom that you hear so often you don't even pay attention to it.
But now it makes sense to me why there are so many podcasts dedicated to interviewing successful entrepreneurs or celebrities. People want to know how successful people got to where they are so they can figure out how to replicate that success, or understand what they are doing wrong.
I always avoided learning this way. It felt wrong to just copy other people's methods for success. I think I may have learned this from school, where copying is generally considered cheating, and subconsciously continued to apply it later in life. What this meant was that I would focus on learning via books, tutorials, or trial and error.
I also intuitively understood that many successful people happend to be in the right place at the right time, or had some unique advantage that they exploited, or got lucky to get where they are. And you can't easily copy those aspects. Also, this is closely tied to slimy
However, there is usually a pattern with how these people operated, and a mindset they had that helped them be successful. Sometimes, you get a glimpse into how successful people think about problems and you can apply that to your situation.
For example, I was listening to a podcast about Val Katayev, who is an extremely successful entrepreneur. While they didn't really dig deep into how he accomplished what he did, there was one huge takeaway - he experiments with 10 new ideas in the same amount of time other people come up with one. Because he is fearless and fast, he weeds out the bad ideas much faster than others, and then heavily exploits the good ones. He starts with the problem people are having, finds an untapped market, and then solves it as quick as possible. That's something all entrepreneurs can learn from.
Again, you may think the "learn from experts" idea is obvious, but you probably have some other blindspot that you're not seeing yet. What is it? What is something everybody is doing that you're dismissing?
By definition, a blindspot is something you can't really see from where you are. Your eye has a literal blindspot where the nerves are in the way of photons coming in from a particular angle - you just can't see it because your brain is wired to cover it up mentally.
So how do you notice when you have one? I'm not sure. I think I discovered this one by thinking from first principles about how to get better at entrepreneurship. This caused me to revisit previous assumptions I had, and see a simple angle I had been ignoring (i.e. actually copy people). I think the idea in my head was also primed by me reading a lot of James Clear's blog, where he analyzes world-class people constantly.
But that seems a bit random/fuzzy - how do you prime yourself to be ready for this?
I think there are two main things - the first is being curious and reading a lot, so that new ideas bombard your brain from new angles. The second is spending a significant amount of time just thinking and turning over ideas in your head. I have found going on long walks to be really helpful here.
Do you have any other tips? Let me know at @dackerman.