EP.127 - What does it take to be an OUTLIER? | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the further your lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you, episode 127 today, and we're actually talking about the theme of outliers and how we can stand out. Now there's two folds to this. The first one is I recently finished the book um outliers by um Malcolm Gladwell and, look, I'm surprised it took me this long to read it. But if you haven't checked out that book, I would highly recommend it. It does challenge some of the the ways we think about success, right, and I know there is a lot of the understanding of around the 10,000 hour rule that you know, if you just practice a lot of time and you know, put that investment in it, that will get the success that we want to see. But it also goes through and breaks through some of the different diverse case studies you know around some of the greats that we all know, like the Beatles, for instance, or Bill Gates, and also helps us understand that there's importance of a cultural background, of how we were, you know, brought up as a kid, the timing of when we were, you know, brought up, or what opportunities we had to, or all those different things, and it really does go around and underline all these different anomalies or these different components of what makes great success. Not just the 10,000 hour rule, so there is an emphasis on, obviously, effort, dedication, but also timing as well. So, look, great book. I would encourage you to go check it out Now with that in mind.

Speaker 1: 1:25

I'm not here to do a review on outliers. I thought, based on that, there could be some really good conversation to have around. Well, what else out there could set us apart? What are the things that the internet is saying that's going to potentially help us? You know, be the 1% or 2%, or be an outlier In this case, if you want to further your lifestyle. We want to get ahead, we want to be leveraging our unfair advantages, and I found a few different ones across the internet that I want to share with you today that I think will be fun to explore and help us understand. Does this make sense? Is it relevant to us? Is it relevant to me? I'm going to go through and have a look for myself and I would love to hear your thoughts too. So, along the way, drop a comment If you're here on the YouTube, you can leave a comment. Otherwise, if you do have some feedback, you know, drop me a message later afterwards and let's continue the conversation.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So let's get into the episode. So, as you know, I love talking about unfair advantages and the best thing about unfair advantages is it helps you further your lifestyle. So the first tip that I found on the internet that people are talking about that, I think, sets them as an outlier, and this is interesting is be a top level asker. Now I can understand where this is going right, because a lot of us we're too scared to ask questions. A lot of the time we look I mean not every. I'm generalizing, but I know for me personally, it's taking me a lot of courage to build up over the years to actually go out and ask the big questions, but a lot of time if you go through high school or primary school, you're too scared to ask a question, but there's probably another 20 kids in the classroom that also want the answer to that same question, but no one's willing enough or brave enough to put the hand up. So, being a top level asker the person that wrote this was saying that most people are too scared to ask impudence. They're too scared to ask important high status or more good looking people or more good looking people for things. So in this case they're actually saying people that are out of a high status or maybe look out of our comfort zone Now. At the same time they're saying, but those who go for these questions or ask for something, they know that no doesn't cost anything and if anything, they'll be okay with no because nothing has changed.

Speaker 1: 3:34

I think this is a great mentality and, just just for the record, where I get these different tips and tricks from, and I think that's a great way to get the confidence to the articles and things like that. So if you want to go check them out for yourself, you can. But I think this does make sense because a lot of the time and look speaking to myself, but I've had people ask me it's like, oh, how do I go about doing this? It's like, well, have you actually asked what's the worst that can happen? They say no when you're in the same position you were, but now you've got more confidence. I mean, this is like sales when I want, you've got to build that resilience of rejection and then it doesn't become personal, it's just no, and then you move on. So I think this is good like asking those questions.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Something that I was encouraged about years ago, you know, is that every time you go to the shops and you buy something, ask for discount, ask for a discount, just say, hey, can I get a? Is there any discounts available? Can I get a discount? What are they going to say? Are we going to say, sure, 5%, 10%, 20%, how much are you looking for? I'm just looking to save at the moment. All I'm going to say now we can't do that, nothing's changed. But if you imagine if one in every 10, so like 10 out of 100 purchases that you made and you were able to save 10%, right, I mean you could end up saving $10 over those purchases, actually $100, because it's 10%. And if you spend 100, but anyway, you get my point Imagine the accumulation and compounding of that. So doesn't hurt to ask. I think this does makes us a bit of an outline.

Speaker 1: 5:01

The next one is presuppose greatness. This person has said here's how 99% of the planet views excess. I have this thing I'd like to accomplish, and so I will set cool targets so I can work my way towards getting what I want. They go on to say but the kings of the world know that's interesting. The kings of the world know that goals are not places to get to, they are places to come from. They act as the part of the moment they get out of bed. They act like they already have, although, yeah, look, there is the saying that live the life you want. Right, Don't try and work towards the life you want, but live the life you want, and I think that comes with it. I mean, you can't wake up and all of a sudden be living a millionaire life because you're not technically a millionaire. I mean, you can have things of a millionaire, but I think you'll find it. You have to be careful of that because you don't want to be unauthentic, you don't want to misrepresent who you are and what you are. But I think owning what you want and living to it and bringing yourself up to that position, opposed to trying to work towards it, I think that can help, but that, yeah, we need to be careful with this one. But I think it will be the thing that separates people from others, like because that confidence level that puts us at a whole different playing world or playing ground. So, definitely, totally agree with this one Simplify daily.

Speaker 1: 6:28

A super effective way to make life 10 times harder for yourself is adding unnecessary layers of complexity. 100% I agree with this. I do find people self-sabotage so much and we put so much fluff in our lives that we don't need. So the challenge here is set yourself apart by bringing attention to simplicity as a daily habit and ruthlessly cut the fat every day Cut, cut, cut and some more. So, look, I think there's levels of things in our lives which we start to realize. Is this relevant?

Speaker 1: 6:58

And I can't remember the breakdown of it, but back in project management days, we used to go through the process of it and when we're, you know, stop, start and continue. That's what it is. So let's say you've got I mean, I've got a lot of stuff, but materials behind me, right? If I look at these and say, okay, if I need to cull, stuff is like, you know, can I stop having this? Do I need to start using it? Actually, probably. This isn't probably a good example. The good example is like how I use this in the last 90 days or the last 30 days, kind of thing. Right, and the answer is no, right. It's like do I still need it Right. That's probably more the mentality to look at it from.

Speaker 1: 7:38

But you know, culling we can do, stop, start, continue. So what can we get rid of? What do we need to? You know, continue to do and what do we need to start doing? Right. So, get rid of something and start doing something else. Or what, what makes sense to continue to do? There's also the perspective of, like, you know, can we delegate something? Can we get rid of something? Can we have someone else do it for us? But I think we do need to start to simplify, because it takes a long time to work through those things. And then there's the mental attachment. Like I know that all these things that attached me from a memory or a moment or an achievement, you know, and that's how I'm able to resonate with that. But really do I need that? Probably not. So I think there's definitely a lot there that we can all take. Let me know in the comments below if you're someone of this style, if you're a minimalist as well. I think that you know that's kind of essentially what they're talking about.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Next, one that someone has said is prioritize uncomfortable conversations, people who stay stuck, avoid saying what yeah, saying what needs to be said. Your inability to communicate keeps you imprisoned in the land of bottom feeders. That's pretty brutal, and if you want to gain an unfair advantage, you must be willing to say awkward things. Yeah, I think you know we need. We do need to learn to speak up, call things out, say it as it is, and I am trying to work on not being taking things so personal. You know, just because someone doesn't like something I do, doesn't mean it's personal. I shouldn't get defensive. You know there's a lot of people that don't like a lot of things. Just because they don't like it doesn't mean they're having an attack at me.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Right, decide that through your recruitment and pelos enjoyingısada b physics. But at the same time, it's like you to someone else like. So, if someone says something, speak up, talk about, have the conversation. Don't be scared of it. It's hard to do, though it really is hard, but once you do it, once it becomes a little bit easy, it's like anything. But it's that that, that fear of all people say. But I think this is a carry over skill that we can apply to so many different things in our lives and that will set us apart from others in a room or in a crowd or in an opportunity location.

Speaker 1: 9:38

The next one is very interesting Be aggressively counter cultural. Be proactive in asking what the majority suggest is best. This is extremely useful information for you. Now do the exact opposite. I feel like this is like Elon Musk, but I'm trying to think of an example. So if someone says to do something one way and then you do the complete opposite, look, it's counter intuitive, but at the same time, I think there's elements to it which makes complete sense. So, if you walk into a room and everyone is doing everything exactly the same, maybe you know. Obviously there's certain ways you can do things, which is going to always be the best way to do it, just because it's most effective and efficient, but it's like.

Speaker 1: 10:21

It's like when you go to yeah, it's like when you go to a line and everyone's just standing there waiting right. No one's ass is this the line? No one's ass is like do we need to pay? No one's, you know. And then, all of a sudden, some person will come along and walk up the front and you know he'll, he'll cut in and say hey, what are you doing? He's like oh well, you know, they said they'll close and they said just go in right. So you just walk in. So I think you know it's like a sheep following a sheep to its slaughter. They just follow each other and then end up getting slaughtered. So, just because people are doing things, understand the situation, understand what you're looking at and then leverage that because you can do the exact opposite and actually it might get you ahead. It could have can offend people, but if you're not doing anything wrong, then it makes sense.

Speaker 1: 11:04

The next one is choose bigger problems. You don't get fewer problems when you rise up the hierarchy. They just get seemingly larger. Whatever you decide to do with your life, you will face challenges, so you might as well have bigger problems. Why? Because the size of a problem reflects the size of the game you're playing. This is interesting. I mean I can understand it. Like, as as as you grow, as you do life, as things become, you know what you encompass. As such, you start to realize that the things that was worrying you three months ago they're no longer a problem, or they are a problem, but they're just so little to you that you know you can handle it. You can figure that out later. You've got bigger fish to fry or they're managing themselves and I think, look, I can understand how this works. It scares me to want to admit that maybe it's right, but you know, if you jump into the deep end, you're going to learn to swim pretty, pretty quick. Bigger problems are great. So I think this is good. So, like for me.

Speaker 1: 12:10

For instance, a good example is a couple of weeks back. You know, I announced at the time of this video, which is around 30th of July, of me recording it, but the video comes out in a couple of weeks, this episode. So back in the middle of July, I announced to everyone that I've got another storage unit. I've got a lot of business. I went out and got lots of clothing. I'm now outsourcing the clothing. I've got someone working for me, all these things. So I've put myself in a position of growth opportunity to push myself to a whole new level. I've got big problems to solve, new problems to solve problems I didn't have a month ago. So I can resonate with this. But I think there is a level of component where you can't go too much, like you can't bite off more than you chew because you will massively hit capacity and you can't actually do any more than you're doing. So that needs to be taken into account. But bigger problems can enable you to have bigger growth.

Speaker 1: 12:59

The next one is create mystery. Those who attract large followings and make a massive impact to the world are rarely predictable. They incorporate the art of mystery into their public brand and persona. They never give it all away and surprise everyone at every turn. No one can guess what they'll do next. I can understand this. I know there's people that I follow in, people that I like to watch content creators, and they don't follow a schedule. They just drop something. So you jump on it because you're like, oh, what is this? Whereas me I'm a content, I mean, I'm a routine junkie, so I do everything at the same time. So people are expecting it. So I can understand how this benefits, because I am the consumer and I know the impact that has on me. Yet I don't apply that same psychological approach to others. Interesting, very interesting.

Speaker 1: 13:49

What do you think about this? Next one is and there's two more commit to becoming elite. In one thing. This seems like heresy in a world with endless options. It's also why so many people stuck in miserable. They can't decide, they get bored too quickly and they never get great of any one thing to enjoy its fruits, chase something and hammer away at it with an unreasonable and obsessive drive of a baboon on crack. Look, I get this. It's like the 10,000 hour rule, but at the same time it's like what are you known for? What are you good at? It doesn't mean that you're not good at other things, but I think when we can be the outlier of something, when we can be the go to person for something, when we can be the oh, that guy does this, that guy or that girl, that's what enables you to be an outlier, a separator, one that is, yeah, like you're a go-to for right. You know, think about who does what do the? What do people in your family come to you for? Like, what do you? What are they coming to you? Oh, he's the tech guy, or he knows how to fix this, or he knows how to carry that, or he knows how to. What are you known for right, in your friends, in your peers, in your groups? That's probably that area of strength that you have, which you could probably tap into even more.

Speaker 1: 15:07

The last one is biased to what's working. It may seem obvious, but barely anyone does this. It's crazy. Be ruthless, aware of the things that work in your life and find a way to maximize those things. If an article you wrote did exceptionally well, find a way to emulate more of that magic in future posts. Yeah, that makes sense. If your talents are being realized through public interviews and you suck at writing, do more interviews, but put down the pen, yeah. When you operate through the paradigm of triple down on what works, okay, yeah. So yeah, focusing on what works for you, what you do well at, and then your next steps will become super obvious and that's how you win.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So, basically, what it's saying is like, if you look over your life, what are the things that are going well for you, but what are the things that you're doing that aren't necessarily making any progress for you, are not going well for you, like dead weight. You wanna focus on the things that are positive, like going forwards. It's like the 80-20 rule. Right, there's probably 80,. This could be the other way. There might be 20% of your staff. That's getting you 80% ahead. Right, that 20% is what you should be doing, 100% of where, at the same time, it might be maybe you're doing 80% of something, but it's only getting you 20% ahead. So it's probably not really what you should be doing, and that's true.

Speaker 1: 16:20

I think, jeez, this could make a whole good episode by itself. We do things because they bring joy, but if you want massive success or to win, then if you only do things that only get good results, then that should enable that maximum compounding of movement or growth or win. This is interesting. I gotta do a bit of self-assessment on that. It's very interesting. The 80-20 rule is a really good way to look at this what's working, what's not, and I haven't done one of those for a while in my business or even life, something I would encourage you to do. Okay, well, that's the different tips and tricks that people are suggesting. Quick summary I suggest I would encourage you to go read the book Outliers Very well, worth it, great book, quite cheap, an easy read, easy listen. You'll get through it pretty quick. And then come back and have a look at these different tips that people are saying and how can you apply them to your life.

Speaker 1: 17:18

I think there's some great conversations here. I think there's some things here which clearly it's got me thinking, it's got me challenged, and the whole point of this is to challenge you, right? So if there's something here. That has challenged you. Chuck a message down in the comments below If you're here on the YouTube. Otherwise, reach out. Let's continue the conversation.

Speaker 1: 17:35

I think that's the important piece is yeah, I can have this conversation with you, but if you don't do anything about it, if you don't talk about it, if you don't have the conversation, it's just gonna go out one ear and maybe you forget it. Are you taking notes? Are you doing anything about this? That's my challenge to you. If you wanna further your lifestyle, you've got to actually be out there furthering your lifestyle. That's the way it works. Appreciate being here. If you wanna continue the conversation, I do have a SpeakPipe where you can jump over and leave like a voicemail memo. That's speakpipecom. Slash further your lifestyle Otherwise. Otherwise, I would appreciate if you can share this video or any other episode of the podcast. Chuck it to your friends, your family or someone in your network that you think this would resonate with. Or if you just enjoyed a good episode, share it on your socials. Let the world see it right. I would really really appreciate that in advance. Thank you for being here. You have a wonderful day. Cheers, allegations precipitate into every possible natural bonito.