(these are auto generated, so may be 80% accurate)

[00:00:00] Chris Furlong: Yo, yo yo, welcome back to the Further Your lifestyle podcast, conversations on lifestyle passions and hassles. My name's Chris Furlong. I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you and today episode 54, which is just once again, it's, I'm just totally grateful for the progress that I've been able to make, but not from my own doing, but from having.

[00:00:22] Chris Furlong: Listening and showing up and being part of this community. And I want to say a big, big, thank you to you. Uh, if you've listened to one 10, all the episodes, no matter how many it is, it means the absolute world to me this week, actually what's been resonating with me the most is I actually just finished listening to, or slash reading the book called the unfair advantage.

[00:00:42] Chris Furlong: How you already have what it takes to succeed. And that's by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba. And I have to say this, this book brings some really fresh perspective and some realistic ideals when it comes to. You know where we are in our journey, no matter where you are, I think it's going to be relevant. And even if you're at the start in the middle or way, way far ahead in your journey to whatever, you're defining it as a success, this book really does open up some fresh perspectives and give some great insights and maybe how you can change the game.

[00:01:12] Chris Furlong: And leverage your unfair advantage in short, really the book really touches on why you cannot compare to others. What we see on the outside is not the reality behind the scenes. Uh, we all have circumstances which set us apart from others. We can learn to leverage these advantages, and there's also a framework to help fight.

[00:01:31] Chris Furlong: Unfair advantage and that's called the miles framework. So let's dive into it. Let's discuss the unfair advantage. Now this isn't a book review. It's, it's mostly just some fresh takeaways in which I wanted to share back to you. It's coming fresh, fresh off the boat in the sense that I've been able to kind of.

[00:01:46] Chris Furlong: Listen to this over the last couple of weeks. And now I want to really just take the intent and maybe help inspire you to have an inward look at yourself and see, maybe you didn't even realize this, but right under your nose that you have what it takes to, to enable yourself to actually move forward.

[00:02:02] Chris Furlong: And to actually turn the odds into your favor. And sometimes we just need to hear it from someone else. Or sometimes we just need some fresh perspective and maybe this interpretation of what I've taken away from the book will enable you. Otherwise, I would greatly encourage you to go check out the book.

[00:02:16] Chris Furlong: So what does this all mean? The unfair advantage. Well, essentially. Two components to life and success that is kind of defined in this book and that is fair play and the unfair advantage. And to the best way to describe these is essentially fair play is we all have 24 hours per day. You can't control that 24 hours of time.

[00:02:34] Chris Furlong: It is set, you know, no one has 25 hours. No one has only 10 hours. We have the same amount of time. It's the same with life as well, nothing changes. And no one can change that. The unfair advantage. Is how we leverage those 24 hours, meaning what you can control in those 24 hours is the greatest advantage anyone can have.

[00:02:54] Chris Furlong: And of course it depends on what you're doing as well. Right. And we're going to touch on that shortly, but as a podcast. So I guess I can influence the number of episodes I record in a day. I can, um, influence the number of guests that I interview. I can influence the number of recordings that I make, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:03:10] Chris Furlong: I could do one. I could do 10. I could do. As this number increases, this enables me to potentially to become a better podcaster, having more episodes and being able to grow my podcast. Another example, I guess, would be maybe you're a rising basketball player. You can determine whether to shoot hoops and practice one hours a day, two hours a day, three hours a day, three times a day or more.

[00:03:33] Chris Furlong: However, it may be. Or you could choose just to do 30 minutes. And once again, the more you increase the practice and playtime or the experience, the higher, the chance you have in becoming a better player, thus maximizing your unfair advantage. And sometimes, you know, we'll, we're going to go through the Myles framework.

[00:03:50] Chris Furlong: There's a whole bunch of different characteristics or points that help enable you. The spin on this is maybe you have access to doing this. You know, you have the, uh, the ability to do so. Maybe you have some of the tools and equipment close by or in your hands ready to go, or simply it might be just due to the priorities and responsibilities that you have.

[00:04:08] Chris Furlong: The reality is nothing gets better with time. It rather gets better with the number or the number of times you have done a particular thing. And that is usually bound in that time that we all have. So a real life example of this, of my own unfair advantage I bring to the table. Especially when we talk about, you know, if you don't know the story, I stepped away from my nine to five gig at the start of last year, and that was in 2021.

[00:04:32] Chris Furlong: And it was a well-paying job. It was a great job, but I want it to be able to take a chance on myself. And when I thought about that, you know, the priority was to start this podcast, but also I needed to be able to work for myself, to pay some bills, you know, make some money on the side and help, I guess, live life.

[00:04:47] Chris Furlong: And I'm going to start to refer to the miles framework. Uh, from the book and help basically use this as a way to help you understand what this whole book is about and leveraging that miles framework, and maybe through my own lens and how it's been applicable to myself. You can start to see how maybe it's going to be applicable for yourself.

[00:05:04] Chris Furlong: So miles, what is the miles framework? Well, that is money intelligence, location in luck, education, and expertise and status. So coming back to my story around, you know, stepping away and taking a chance on my. The first one from the miles framework is money. So I had been working for about seven, eight years full time.

[00:05:22] Chris Furlong: We have a six figure salary. So it was quite, quite lucrative building investments, building assets and building, I guess, a stable savings foundation. Um, and that, that was going to enable me. When I was going to take this chance on me, um, to have something in place already, worst case, I didn't have to worry about money because I already had some savings.

[00:05:41] Chris Furlong: I had some emergency funds. I had some assets, I had some investments. Um, I had the funds in place to know that, you know, worst case I have a backup. If I don't make any income. It gives me that advantage to know that I can continue to progress and pursue these passions without the stress of money. And I didn't have such responsibilities around, you know, providing for a family or their needs and, you know, having to pay for an education or someone else's education and all those kinds of additional responsibilities.

[00:06:08] Chris Furlong: Um, That was part of my circumstance. I didn't have to worry about that. So there was a less expense there. So that was an unfair advantage that I have because not everyone would be in that situation to be able to leverage that. So it was definitely something under my belt that I had. The second one is intelligence and insight.

[00:06:24] Chris Furlong: And for me, when, when creating this podcast, I knew I wanted to create a side business to enable some additional income. I didn't want to have to rely on my savings, but at the same time, I wanted to be able to document that. Um, for me leaving the nine to five and, you know, pursuing these passions and, you know, maybe give some inspiration how others can do that too.

[00:06:42] Chris Furlong: So naturally the quickest thing for me was to share document. Um, was my reselling journey and to make some dollars on the site now, in terms of intelligence and insight in this area, there was some few quick wins here for me because I had always done thrifting and op shopping and somewhat of a reselling, I guess, as a side hobby on a small scale.

[00:07:03] Chris Furlong: And I had done enough. I guess increase my chance or increase my chances, enabling to jump into it and then start to scale it. Um, but I wasn't really talking about it. My chore, I wasn't really documenting or sharing that. And secondly was being a YouTube. You know, being a YouTuber, I knew that it was so many different community niches and there was, you know, places you could go to chat to other people with like-minded ideas.

[00:07:24] Chris Furlong: And I found the reselling community and because they were YouTube as I was a YouTube, we could kind of connect. Um, and that made it quite easy to actually inject and get myself into their community. But then I was able to just consume their content and soak it all up. And I guess it enabled me to learn quicker taking, you know, from their mistakes and things like that.

[00:07:42] Chris Furlong: So I didn't have to make the same mistakes. And then the third. That comes into play with intelligence and insight was my previous job was a project manager and basically on a day-to-day basis, I was managing numbers dollars, um, risks, issues, governance systems, and people, um, within multimillion dollar projects.

[00:08:02] Chris Furlong: So I guess in some sense, that's like running a small business of sorts, right? So first jumping into the reselling world, I had the ability to leverage these skills to enable, I guess, meeting. A better insight of how numbers need to be, how to operate a business, how to keep them clean, how to understand them and understand the basics.

[00:08:21] Chris Furlong: That kind of steps me ahead of someone with no business background jumping into this game or going into reselling to, to make a living from it. Right. Leveraging. This enables me to make my life a little bit easier when coming to this at avoids profit leakage. And it means I can actually act on things a little quicker, um, having a better insight of the data, such a reselling, you know, previously when I was doing it as a hobby and also understanding the business side of things as well.

[00:08:46] Chris Furlong: So that gives me a huge competitive advantage or in this case, an unfair advantage when it comes to intelligence and insight. And of course this is going to be different for everyone. A good example would be, you know, someone like. A huge understanding of, you know, Jean brands or brands of jeans. And, you know, I don't really have much insight of that, but someone that does, they're going to go in and they're going to be able to quickly find the items that are going to be worth the most money.

[00:09:08] Chris Furlong: Once again, this comes with their own knowledge, their own experience, their own insights. So number three of the miles framework is location and luck now, location. I still live at home. So this is a huge, unfair. Compared to other people leveraging. This means I have low cost overheads. Um, I have no mortgage.

[00:09:25] Chris Furlong: I don't have to, you know, have this, you know, concern of worrying about having to pay rent and all those. And I have the ability to work with freedom and you know, more space of sorts. And that means I'm able to grow my podcast and my business from home with little overhead, which that location just makes it so much more lucrative for me.

[00:09:44] Chris Furlong: Now, of course, sometimes location is also where you're situated in terms of a close to a city. Are you close to people that have the same. Game plan. Are you close to an op shop or a close to a place where you can source items or your place to, are you close to a place where you can record or have a studio for your podcast?

[00:10:01] Chris Furlong: So all these different things come into play when we're talking about location and then the other Al of this is luck and. When it comes to luck, this, this only comes through taking action, doing more things, meeting more people, connecting, sharing your journey and creating information and giving. These are all things that I guess, as elements contribute to opportunities being made available.

[00:10:23] Chris Furlong: And I found that because I've been doing a lot more. Putting myself out there chatting with more people, building a community, sharing my journey. Um, it's been really great to be able to get some really cool guests on the podcast and also get some opportunity in some of the reselling bowl clubs that have been able to purchase.

[00:10:39] Chris Furlong: And that is once again from putting myself out there. It's not that I'm just a lucky duck before. I didn't do anything and people are just rocking up and giving me everything as, because I've put in the work, I've got my face out there, I've got my name out there. And then people have come to me from that and that's created the opportunity.

[00:10:55] Chris Furlong: So that's how luck has come into play. The next point is education expertise, and this is part of the miles framework once. So, like I mentioned about insight and intelligence, my background is actually predominantly it. So I did a bachelor of information technology, but then I started to really further my, I guess my focus into project management, giving me somewhat IX expertise in managing business and numbers as mentioned before, and from a podcast side of.

[00:11:20] Chris Furlong: Being in that tech space. And it, I knew the environment of podcasts. I knew, you know, what I wanted and what was required to make that happen, whether it was some of the tech gear and not super, super expensive stuff, just enough to make sure that I can get started and get it happening. That enables me to execute very, very quickly, uh, through software and through application and through tools.

[00:11:39] Chris Furlong: And at the same time, I've been listening to podcasts for the last, you know, seven, eight years and following many other people in this space. And once again, Because I've got somewhat of an education of understanding how, how these things work, being a bit more tech savvy. It enabled me to jump into it very quickly.

[00:11:55] Chris Furlong: Also being a YouTuber. It's very similar to the podcast. I'm used to talking to the camera. I'm used to having these kind of types of conversations. It became a bit more natural and I didn't have to worry about learning from zero. So once again, education and expertise leveraging that unfair advantage.

[00:12:10] Chris Furlong: And we all have these. We all have these. Don't forget that. Now the next one of the miles from. And the last one is status. You know, there is that cliche statement around. It's not about what you know, but who, you know, and sometimes that's what it is, you know, it can be in terms of the people in your network, um, that you can leverage in, in terms of helping you grow or the people wanting to help you.

[00:12:31] Chris Furlong: And I guess for me, that this has been true. Yeah. Built up a lot of friendships and relationships. And, you know, there's probably plenty of people that have way bigger, you know, networks and myself. But because of this, I was able to get some pretty cool guests on the podcast who have large followings have, you know, a large groups of friends and, and things like that.

[00:12:49] Chris Furlong: And also leveraging the reselling community and things. Yeah. Which enabled once again to have a bigger growth or a bigger, I guess, awareness circle when doing the podcast. And most of all, I think the key one that people like forget about is when it comes to status is the inner stuff and working on your self-esteem and your confidence, and that sometimes is what represents your status to other people.

[00:13:13] Chris Furlong: And this is a great way that you can offset. I guess if you don't have a high status of network with people of influence and you know, I've got some really great friends and people that have been able to help get me to places which maybe I couldn't have gotten by myself, but at the same time, Leveraging my own confidence.

[00:13:28] Chris Furlong: And self-esteem to just get out and give this a go, we all have this, this is fair play. We all have a level of confidence in the self-esteem, but working through that, working on, making it better and, you know, making it stronger and making yourself more comfortable with it definitely gives you that unfair advantage.

[00:13:45] Chris Furlong: Uh, so I think once again, that kind of comes back only through time and experience and, you know, being willing to get out there and give it a go. So that is the unfair advantage in an example form, and yes, it's a lot about me and what I've been doing. I wanted to share that to help you give some understanding of what these examples could be now in the book, it actually goes through some really, really great examples from some of the big people that we all know of, you know, like the Richard Bransons and things like that.

[00:14:10] Chris Furlong: But also it goes through some people maybe you didn't know, and it talks about how they've been able to leverage it talks about their own stories, the authors of this book, and. Before we even wrap up, I still have a bit more things that I want to go through, and it really comes down to some questions that I want to ask you.

[00:14:25] Chris Furlong: And that is well, one, what is your unfair advantage? And let, let's go through some, you know, some, some thoughts and some statements here. Maybe you want to start a YouTube channel, but struggle with the tech, but maybe you have a partner who is a video. You know, that that would give you an unfair advantage.

[00:14:40] Chris Furlong: Someone that knows all these skills that has been doing it for awhile, they're able to set you up for success quite quickly, or maybe you're training to be a tennis player. And you're good friends with one of the Ozzie top players or your, your parents are, and they're able to connect you and get you some really cool coaching, engaging.

[00:14:56] Chris Furlong: Uh, kind of ahead of other people in terms of be coached by someone that's, you know, already at that greatness level, maybe you have a business idea and you have friends and family who are willing to invest time and money into it. You know, it could be just, they want to put $10,000 into your business and help you grow and scale quicker.

[00:15:12] Chris Furlong: Whereas most people would have to do that from zero up. So once again, that's an unfair advantage and maybe the other one is maybe you want a job of your dreams. Uncle works at a company and, you know, they can help provide a reference or some insight of maybe the best way to get into that company. So these are all examples.

[00:15:29] Chris Furlong: And once again, it's, you know, it comes down to skills and things like that. And I think a lot of the time we probably take a lot of this stuff. Um, we don't realize it. And there's so many, so many different things that you can bring to, to, to the table when it comes to an unfair advantage. And there's so many that only you can actually bring to life and make happen.

[00:15:49] Chris Furlong: No one else is going to be able to do that for. I might be able to, or someone might be able to look in and say, Hey, you're really good at this and give you some, I guess, inspiration or some encouragement, but you're the one that has to act on it. Now, the other thing here is, and this is key is not to be so stuck on looking and seeing how others progress and their success.

[00:16:08] Chris Furlong: In air quotes as such, because they all have a story they all have. There's always more than what meets the eye and what we see. And they too will have an unfair advantage, which they've been able to leverage and get them to where they are today. Whether they intentionally know that or not, we all have one.

[00:16:24] Chris Furlong: And I think you need to figure out what you have. And that will help change the perspective and help change the conversation and will also enable you to tap into these things and to start to move forward quickly. And it's, it's, it's not about beating the game as such. It's, it's, it's more about understanding that you have these tools and mediums at your disposal and you have access to them to enable you to move forward.

[00:16:48] Chris Furlong: So it would make sense to, to leverage that and to, um, see what you can do with it. As others, we all wish that we had them in our own, I guess, depository of skills needs traits and all that jazz, but we don't. And you do, you do, it's more about, you need to find what they are. And I'm, I mentioned this just before.

[00:17:07] Chris Furlong: Sometimes the unfair advantage is actually the things that we take for granted and things that come natural to us that others wish they could do, you know, You know, ma maybe you, you really good at doing calligraphy writing or maybe you're an amazing artist or you can sketch things really, really easy for some people, you know, they look at it and think, oh, this isn't good, but people from the outside and looking at like, this is incredible.

[00:17:28] Chris Furlong: I wish I could do that. And those kinds of things you don't realize, maybe what you have just sitting right in front of you in terms of, um, being able to apply it as an unfair advantage. And once again, you know, I don't want to make this sound like it's dirty and that, you know, you're trying to. You know, taking advantage of other people.

[00:17:45] Chris Furlong: It's not about that. It's about taking what you have the skills and, you know, the things that you've been able to create and learn over years of experience and education or your own upbringing and leverage that because it only makes sense to you because you have that, that is you. That is part of you.

[00:17:59] Chris Furlong: So make the most of, so I really want to encourage you. You need to have a deep look internally and see if, if you can make a list of these things, what are you. What are some of the things that come natural. And as we went through the miles framework, what are some of these areas that, you know, you can play back into your own life?

[00:18:15] Chris Furlong: And the miles framework was money, intelligence, location slash luck, education slash expertise, and then status. So go through and see how these can be leveraged. How these have any relevance to you in terms of, do you have something in those categories that you can leverage as an unfair advantage, have a deep look, go through and list them out.

[00:18:36] Chris Furlong: And applying them to some of your goals and ambitions and build up a list of these things, um, that you bring to the table. Right? As I mentioned via this miles framework, and this will enable you to launch forward with some ease. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it will give you some, I guess, that ability to make it seem a little bit easier and maybe you're still having doubts.

[00:18:55] Chris Furlong: Maybe you think there isn't something there. Well, let's chat about it. You know, you can reach out to Instagram at further your lifestyle or hit us up on Twitter at, for the, your life or drop us an email. Uh, via hello ad for the, your lifestyle.com. Um, and let's, let's continue the conversation. You know, sometimes we just need to have a conversation to understand that we have some untapped potential that we have something here sitting right in front of us to leap forward and help us get to where we're wanting to go.

[00:19:22] Chris Furlong: Go read the book, go buy the book, um, go check it out. And maybe that will help you as well. I listened to it and I found that a lot more, I guess, relevant for how I like to learn. But maybe you want to read it, go check it out. I really encourage you because once you start to realize what your unfair advantages are and start to tap into those, it will enable you to grow a little bit.

[00:19:41] Chris Furlong: Yeah. And enable you to scale quicker. And this isn't about making money. This isn't about being the best. This is about ensuring that you're getting, I guess, the best bang for buck of your time. Right? And if you've got dolls, ambitions, and dreams and passions and all that, putting this with the. It just makes sense, right?

[00:19:59] Chris Furlong: Because you're, you're going to be pursuing that anyway. You may as leverage what you have at your disposal right. In front of you and accept it and go with it. Right. Um, cause there's no point looking at other people, wishing you had that when you don't, because they're probably looking in wishing they had what you had.

[00:20:16] Chris Furlong: Right. And I think once you realize that, understand whether it's a confidence thing, whether it's a money thing, whether it's just, you know, access to people or location, whatever it is. I find that unfair advantage and make the most of it. It's been an absolute pleasure having a conversation with you.

[00:20:31] Chris Furlong: I've enjoyed this. It's a really good book, right? I'm very passionate about this and I want to see you succeed and I want to help you succeed. So, as I mentioned, you can reach out, we can continue the conversation. Otherwise, if you enjoyed this podcast, if there's something here that resonated with you, the best thing that you can do for me is share it, send it to someone that you think it might resonate with.

[00:20:50] Chris Furlong: Share it to someone that maybe they need to hear this. It would mean the absolute world to me, I have a goal to grow this, this podcast, right. And reaching out to you to have your support. Um, you know, listening is, is one thing, but if you want to take it that step further, it would be greatly appreciated.

[00:21:05] Chris Furlong: Anyway, it's been an absolute pleasure having the conversation with you and you have a wonderful day. Cheers. Now, if you didn't know, we do have the podcast merge and this is with a key focus. And Enamel pins. Now, if you haven't checked these out, make sure you do because the intent of these are really just to be a small token and a reminder for you to charge on, to push on and to further your lifestyle, whether it is a gift for someone else to encourage them, or maybe to inspire them, or maybe it's a way to motivate yourself, or you can simply just make a purchase to simply support the podcast, which would be greatly appreciated.

[00:21:38] Chris Furlong: We do also have some sweaters and some long Tees. So make sure you check it out, link in the description and in the show. Really to appreciate it. Cheers.