Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - To Be Great Is to Be Different

Episode Date: May 23, 2020

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain If success is a product of seizing life's opportunity, that might prompt one to wonder:  Well, where exactly is this opportunity to be found? In today's episode I make the case that opportunity exists in life's fringes, outside the bell curve.  It is in the places most people won't go and the actions most people won't take.  For Kobe it was early morning practice while people slept in, that over time accumulated to become a lifetime of advantage.  For Buffett it's moving in when most people are running out.  You name an accomplished individual, and I'll point to their willingness to move away from the herd and seek out hidden opportunity.  There is a golden rule that states, if you want what the 5% have, you need to be willing to do what only the 5% are willing to do.  That starts with seeing "different"  not as an obstacle, but as the path.  

Welcome to Your World Within Daily. I'm Eddie Panero. In this episode, we're going to talk about the idea of moving in when other people are moving out. Talk about a quote from Warren Buffett and how it's, sure, an investment strategy, but perhaps the most important life philosophy. How are you guys doing on this beautiful Saturday morning? I have an incredible message this morning. As I was waiting for the coffee to brew, I thought of a quote that we all know, and actually a concept that we all know, we're all familiar with, but I started to wonder, hey, maybe this is beyond the realm of investing, as Warren Buffett describes it. Maybe there's more to this, and that's what I want to talk about. And I'll start with a quote. I'll start with the quote. Warren Buffett says, be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful, right? He's a big advocate of when people are acting emotional, when people are pulling their money out, that's a good time to invest. It's sort of going against the hurt, against the grain.

And I started to think, well, you know, maybe that's what life is about. I started to think about the big podcast, right? The people that have the big guests on and, you know, the CEOs, the actors, the people that we put on a pedestal and, you know, we commend them for their accolades. What are those conversations more or less? it's listening to them talk about the things they did that most people don't. It's where they found their advantages, where they placed their energy in a way that is abnormal, right? They live on the fringes.

And I think more or less I could sit here and make a valid argument that being great is about living on the fringes. It's about being on the outside of the bell curve. You know, Mark Twain has a quote that he says, whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. Same concept. Not because people are, you know, bad, but because collectively, you know,

folks care about specific things, right? Self-preservation, survival, safety. And they're emotional, right? We are emotional beings. And so to live outside that is to see life from an angle that may propel you in a way beyond just the everyday safety. I remember Kobe Bryant talking about, this is an interview, man, I watched maybe two years ago. And more or less, he's talking about how he lived on the fringes, how he would look for advantages that most people did. and he had it calculated, you know, down to a science to the point where he knew most people sleep in. Most people, particularly in the NBA with the amount of money, they have the social circles, whatever.

I'm not familiar with that world, but they go to clubs, they do certain things. And he knew that if he got up an extra two hours early and he took X amount of shots over a period of 10 years that would equate to, you know, just a substantial advantage. and that's what life is about. That's where greatness is manufactured in those little crevices. Again, the fringes. I think most people, and I'm saying this, understand there's some subjectivity to this, right? Because this is my experience. This is something that, you know, I'm proud of the fact that I've sort of clawed my way out of this thinking.

But it's the first thing I revert back to, right? I'm always consciously telling myself to, you know, move beyond it. The idea that life provides parameters and we play nicely inside them, right? There are people that know, people that make the rules, people that have it figured out, and we exist within that realm under that umbrella. And the reality is it's just not so, right? People are just people, and no one has all the end. answers. In fact, I would say that's been one of the most eye-opening things I've experienced.

You know, over this past year, the people I've done work with, the people I interact with on a day-to-day basis, like, I talk to people now daily that have tens of millions of dollars, that have millions of followers on social media. The vast majority of them are unremarkable. It's the truth. It's the truth. We tend to idolize to put people on a pedestal for having particular things, they are unremarkable. They had the courage to try things that most didn't, right? And they found advantages. They sought out, let's say in existence that was on the outside of the bellcrow, that was on the fringe of life. Life is about finding opportunity. And in the aggregate, in the masses, the herd mentality, there is very little of that. There is

safety, you can blend in, you can live nicely. But on the outside, the externality, that's where you find the innovators. As Steve Jobs would say, the people that think differently that shape the way we see the world around us. They create the mold, the parameters, right? The evolution of insanity. They're crazy. They're crazy. Oh, wait, they succeeded. How did you do that? It's outside the bell curve, existing in this microcosm of insanity. So I'm going to wrap it up with that concept one more time. When most people run in, you run out. When most people run out, you run in. Where is your advantage? For Kobe, it was the morning. It was that, you know, that two hours, those 500 shots seven days a week times 20 years to put him here and everyone else here.

What is that for you? How can you think different from the herd? That's where the good stuff lives. So I hope you guys have an amazing Saturday. If you enjoy this, subscribe, rate, leave a review that helps me get it out to the world. And that, as you know, is my mission. So thank you for that. And I'll catch you guys tomorrow.

Have a nice Saturday.