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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
M.J. DeMarco
Read between
January 3 - July 14, 2022
Nothing great or lasting comes from “one try.”
Stop Dreaming for Luck, Start Manipulating Probability
The only thing that truly exists is probability. The fact is, if you can influence probability, you can influence outcomes and the appearance of luck.
Every choice you make hacks probability, either positively or negatively.
When you make the right choices, day after day, probability continually improves.
but controlling what you CAN.
Make choices that give you the mathematical edge.
Pursue opportunities with high EV outcomes,S56 so effort pays asymmetrically,S21 eliminate zero probabilities,
Every choice you make hacks probability, either for better or for worse. Luck is emotional and abstract; probability is concrete and logical.
Better choices give you better probabilities, and hence, induces luck.
telegraphing
The sales price—the relative- and perceived-value at which the consumer will need to buy. Is this price realistic based on the value received? Or is it an arbitrary price designed to make you a profit, but few sales?
The net profit, per unit. (Sales price - manufacturing cost)
Is your effort worth the potential profit?
A great business idea isn’t a great idea if the numbers cannot induce leverage and asymmetric returns.
Chip Wilson,
Fads, or short-lived trends, are poor business opportunities unless you are the innovator or the instigator of such fads.
Identify the Path to Your First Customer and Light the Roadmap for Action
As soon as you identify your relative-value objectives and their value-skews,S32 the roadmap appears. It is your GPS. And just like any roadmap highlighting how to get from mediocrity to Unscription, it will have many permutations of streets, roads, and freeways. If you’re not paying attention to the problem at hand, it’s easy
Instead of mindlessly reading books for the sake of reading them, read them to solve your front-facing problems.
the book isn’t a business builder, make it a character builder.
problemologistP30 who seeks to solve a macro-problem, only one problem matters...
behemoths.
Money Talks, Opinions Walk
Money is a verifiable vote.
“Yes, you’ve convinced me of value so here is my hard-earned money.”
Cash-validation turns presumptions, speculations, and hypotheses into truth.
If you offer the world something valuable, the world doesn’t ask about your past transgressions. Relative-value
A life demerit is anything that you perceive as detrimental to your self-worth as a person or an entrepreneur. It’s that negative voice in your head promoting the negative narrative so your dead dream can stay dead.
If you offer relative-value, the world generally ignores your past transgressions and personal faults, or life demerits. Seekers of value don’t know (or ask) about your life-demerits—if you have what the market wants, money will flow.
redemptive,
minestrone
The Environmental Hacking Strategy
Change the Weather to Make Progress Easier
excessive junk food consumption.
Every failure is preceded by an environment that doesn’t encourage change, but a continuation of the status quo.
lymphedemas.
courier;
Even after losing 200+ pounds and getting the help he needed, this poor guy above ended up suffering a heart attack and dying on the show. Tragic but not unexpected. But hey, at least his mother didn’t make him angry, and she was helpful enough to bring him two loaves of bread, six perogies, and three bags of Skittles.
If you want any chance at success, from weight loss to Unscription, your environment must be engineered to help. Not hinder. It’s called environmental hacking.
manipulate your environment so that you move probability toward success.S59
Marketminds react holistically on the basis of perceived-value, not necessarily to true- or relative-value.
Humanize Your Corporation with a Personality and a Purpose
gaud
The more your corporation is “branded” like a human personality, the more the marketmind will view your business favorably.
Your brand personality should affirm or strengthen your customer’s identity, creating an additional value-skew. People naturally want to do business with people, not faceless corporations.
Aiming for a “Good” Likely Ends in a Mediocre
solicitations
platitude
aphorism.
