Change Your Status Quo for Greatness
Greatness is an interesting word. I believe we’re all capable of our own definition of greatness, not society’s expectation or definition of greatness, but mine.
It made me think: What is my version of greatness?
If I’ve lived my life, and I look back, what are the things I will have regretted not trying or not doing?
What are the things I am spending time on today that are in conflict with my definition of, vision of, and aspiration toward, greatness?
What are the things you are spending your time on today that are in conflict with your definition of greatness?
Greatness to me means that I leave the world better than I found it. Greatness to me means that I become a better version of myself every single day, and that I am able not only to provide for my family and loved ones, but that I am able to reach a plane of success where I can do what matters.
What is your definition of greatness for yourself? What is your vision of your life over a 50-year period? Not tomorrow, not this very minute, but if you take a step back and really close your eyes and imagine what it is you are capable of and what you want to become over a FIFTY-YEAR period… What is that?
As I sat in my office at the largest hedge fund in the world, with all sorts of creature comforts around me, and people even more successful than I running around, I thought to myself: Will this path take me to greatness?
I didn’t have the answers to any of this. But in that moment, I had a lot to think about.
Fortunately for me, Bridgewater Associates, at that time, and even today, was a culture and a place that encouraged this type of introspection. We were encouraged to think about and define our core values, our strengths, and our weaknesses -- not at a superficial, corporate level, but at a deep, human level. I was reminded of something our leader, Ray Dalio, said at every other meeting: “You can have anything you want. But you cannot have everything. So you better pick.”
I sat in my office on a relatively quiet afternoon and started to map out my strengths. I mapped out my weaknesses. I wrote out my beliefs about myself and my worldview. And I started to come to a conclusion that I felt deeply inside but had not been able to articulate previously. I was climbing the wrong mountain. I was on the wrong trajectory. The mountain I was climbing might be someone else’s version of greatness, but it wasn’t mine. I was good at it, but it wasn’t what fueled my soul -- and if I were to be on my deathbed, and I were to meet the “person I could have become,” I would be meeting someone very different.
I was lucky.
I was lucky to be in a company that encouraged this type of self-reflection. I was in a company that offered me the tools necessary to even think about life in this type of abstract and proactive way. Conversely, my immigrant and middle-class upbringing taught a different way of thinking: Be thankful and grateful for what you have. Keep your head down and do the work. Earn your keep and do the best you can.
And yet, on the other hand, here I was in a company that encouraged me to think bigger, to think conceptually, not just in how we operated the business, but in how we operate our lives.
We’re not all that lucky. Part of why I wrote this book and even created Unstoppable was so that I can get others to realize that they can all find just 15 minutes on an idle Sunday afternoon to think about their lives in a proactive way. I wanted to provide people with the framework I developed over a decade of the most productive and successful years of my life so more people on this planet can unlock success and achieve their biggest goals. And most importantly, I wanted to get in front of people and INSPIRE them to take 15 minutes to think more proactively about their lives. It worked for me, and it can work for you.
Here’s the question, though. Do you want it?
Sitting for even 15 minutes and envisioning what you can become can be a scary thing to do. Because it can deeply challenge your current situation in your life. It can potentially challenge major life decisions you’ve made in the past. It can make you think about long-held beliefs and force you to rethink whether they are TRUE.
On one hand, doing this type of work, even for 15 minutes, can get you to look reality in the face and really assess where you are. On the other hand, it is SO much easier to just escape and go back to what we’re doing: binge-watch Netflix, or open up a beer and hang out with our buddies. That is SO much easier. And I did that for years upon years. Until. Until I said: Enough is enough.
In the subsequent chapters of this book, I’m going to get into the actionable steps you can take in order to start to pause and reflect on your life, and start to really think about what you want. You can have anything, I truly believed that and still do today. But as Ray said: You cannot have everything, so you better pick.
At age 28, nearly two years after I started to really realize that I needed to change the trajectory of my life, I took the plunge. I quit my six-figure job. I got rid of my fancy BMW. And I took the plunge to start my own business again -- something that I felt was core to the trajectory I wanted and needed in my life. Why two years? Because we all have rent, bills, obligations, family, and responsibilities.
When I came to my realization, I took a hard look at reality, and then I said, OK, the trajectory I am on, my status quo, will not get me to the best version of myself and the dream I have for my life. And so I sat down and plotted. I created a vision of who I want to become, and I spent the next two years carefully navigating my life’s trajectory closer and closer to the path that I knew would get me to a point where on my deathbed, I’d be looking at myself in the mirror instead of meeting a stranger.
Achieving a proactive life doesn’t mean you make crazy rash changes. It also doesn’t mean that you succumb to your limitations and surrender, saying, “That’s impossible for me.” It means that one week at a time, one year at a time, you move your life to align with the vision you have for yourself. At age 28, I started my business. At age 31, I became financially independent. At age 36, I sold my business, then helped sell the business that bought mine, and then moved even closer to the life’s path that I had defined for myself at age 25. I did this by focusing full-time on Unstoppable and projects that I deeply cared about. I dreamt. I believed. I executed with Discipline. And I triumphed. Not overnight. Not without setbacks and roadblocks and failures along the way. But little by little, one Unstoppable Sunday at a time.
What does the status quo of your life look like? If you change nothing, if you keep going down your current path, if you do that for decades? What will your life be? When you meet the BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF will you be staring at a mirror image of yourself at your deathbed, or will you be meeting a stranger?
You have a choice to make. As we get into the next few chapters, where I give you the actionable steps to follow, this Unstoppable Life framework, will you do the work or will you have another beer?
Look, I’m not saying that what you’re doing right now is wrong. For me, parts of my life BEFORE I made these major changes were great, and parts were off. But I always felt uncertain about my life and I felt a pit in my stomach every Sunday, wondering “Where am I even going?!” Following the steps help you get clarity on where you are, where you are going, and what you need to do next, and help you to take a more proactive approach to life, so that you don’t have to wonder.
So what will your choice be? Assess and evaluate the status quo? Or watch Netflix? You pick.