Dancing Alone
What Makes A Winner?
What trait makes a winner?
Not in business— but in life.
Intelligence?
Quickness?
Hard work?
Kindness?
It’s none of the above.
Have you ever been to a party where music is playing but everyone is just standing around with drinks in hand?
Until…
One brave soul walks into the room, looks around, and without a second thought immediately starts dancing— horrendously.
Everyone laughs— but as that one person dances alone in the middle of the room, people slowly join in the fun.
Within minutes everyone is dancing and having a good time.
The person that walks into a room and dances alone without hesitation…
That person is a winner.
The defining trait of winners is the willingness to look like an idiot to try something new.
The pursuit of trying something new— even though you know you’ll be bad at it, is the trait that separates the winners from everyone else.
Winning is— interesting.
Most people would think winning is when someone chooses the “right” choices over time until their wins compound.
You’d be somewhat right— playing safe will make you a small winner.
But if you look at statistics— the biggest winners are defined by one or two decisions being right out of millions.
You try many startups before one hits.
You date many people before you marry a partner.
Life is dominated by power law.
When your life is defined by a handful of decisions— expose yourself to as many as possible.
Over 99.99% of decisions you make will fail to produce anything meaningful.
It’s the ability to be unbothered and passionately make new attempts in new arenas after millions of failures that will set you apart.
So go learn poker, ask that girl out, travel somewhere new, or get punched in the face.
Your life is determined by a handful of right decisions.
Everything else is a rounding error.