What is the one thing you need to do to succeed?
Remember, with each episode, we will provide a helpful Deep-Dive infographic where we break down the entire book on to 1 page! Check out, and download, this week’s infographic below!
Gary Keller is co-founder of Keller Williams Realty, one of the largest real estate companies in the world. Jay Papasan is an author. The two came together to write, The One Thing. This book is about focus. One task at a time. They have a controversial belief that multitasking doesn’t work. Gary and Jay break down the process of how to simplify your workload. Because doing the most work… doesn’t always lead to the best work. They believe that the best results come from the minority of what you do. Let’s dive in!
Here are our top 10 takeaways:
- Willpower is Limited
- The One Thing
- The Greats
- Success Is Sequential
- The Domino
- What You Build Today
- Multitasking Doesn’t Work
- Ask Better Questions
- Results of Your Efforts
- Maker & Manager
Tweetable Quotes:
“What is the one thing that if you focused on would move the needle the most, it would have the most effect, like positive effect on the rest of you?”  – Anthony Vicino
“Except for Jamie Fox out of there, because literally the guy does everything.”  – Dan Krueger
LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!!
Keep up with the podcast! Follow us on Apple, Stitcher, Google, and other podcast streaming platforms.
To learn more, visit us at https://invictusmultifamily.com/
**Want to learn more about investing with us?**
We’d love to learn more about you and your investment goals. Please fill out this form and let’s schedule a call: https://invictusmultifamily.com/contact/
**Let’s Connect On Social Media!**
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11681388/admin/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/invictuscapitalventures/
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2Lc0ctX
** Transcripts
The One Thing
[00:00:00] Anthony: Audi. Welcome to multifamily investing mates. Just stick to the
[00:00:18] Dan: script. How do you
[00:00:21] Anthony: hello and welcome to multifamily. Investing made simple to podcasts. It’s all about taking the complexity out of real estate investing so that you can take action today. I’m your host, Anthony Pacino of Invictus capital joined as always by Dan crushing Anthony’s spirit and soul Kroger.
That’s what I do
[00:00:36] Dan: and build you up just to tear you down. It’s
[00:00:38] Anthony: just stomping on my heart over here, and I’m bringing the energy on this. Um, Friday, I was going to, I was trying to come up with an adjective before Friday. Like I was going to say drizzly, but it’s not drizzling all over the place
[00:00:52] Dan: physically, then it’s nice.
And a tail then it’s yeah.
[00:00:55] Anthony: Yeah. Yesterday we sat down to record an awesome podcast with a [00:01:00] fantastic guest and right as we went to push record, a God literally opened the skies, threw a hailstorm at us. We’ll knock that our internet. If, if there was ever a sure sign that we should stop podcasting, that was it.
Now we’re only, it was just too good. It was
[00:01:16] Dan: good enough. Versus like this can’t be released. This is too amazing and
[00:01:20] Anthony: shut it down. So we’re so all that’s to say that Dan and I are on the fence about whether or not we should continue this podcast. Um, it might just have run its course, God is telling us to let it go.
If you think we should keep recording episodes, then go to iTunes and leave us. That’s all you got to do, let us know. And if you don’t, we’re just going to take that as a silent vote for yeah. Keep doing what you’re doing. Take a hint. Hint. I mean, I take the hand, so I want to, um, I need you to be very, very direct.
Don’t be subtle with me. I will you give me an inch? I’ll take you. I’ll take more than an inch. I’ve seen it. Yeah. Alright. Enough banter. All right. Let’s talk. Let’s talk about the book this week. It’s a [00:02:00] classic, it’s one you’ve likely heard. Um, and honestly, when I tell you the name of it, you’re probably don’t even need to dive into the book.
Um, the name is everything. And if you had just written one chapter and then like the only words in there where the title of the book, you could be like, oh,
[00:02:15] Dan: Yeah, it is kind of ironic that we’re trying to pull 10 takeaways out of this book.
[00:02:20] Anthony: There’s actually quite a bit there are,
[00:02:23] Dan: but it’s like, do we, do we go with the obvious one?
Are we just focused on the others? So,
[00:02:27] Anthony: so if you, if you’re looking at this from, uh, you, if you’re on YouTube and watching this on multifamily investing made simple the, uh, the YouTube channel. Thank you. Um, you can see I’m holding up a very nondescript book. Now I’m going to turn it on its side. It is the one thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan,
[00:02:42] Dan: fun word that a lot of people have read this.
But
[00:02:47] Anthony: it’s one of those books that you probably have read, honestly, if you’re listening to this book or this podcast is a high probability. But I think by going back through some of the takeaways, I was reminded just now, as I was prepping for this podcast, I was like, [00:03:00] oh yeah. That’s where this concept came from.
[00:03:02] Dan: I did the same thing. There were a few in here that I was like, um, there are things that I’ve referenced a ton of times on this podcast. And until we kind of went through this exercise of pulling these things together, I didn’t realize that the. Um, may have been the source. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but there’s a few concepts in here.
And I was like, I read this so long ago. I bet this is where this kind of stems from online. You say
[00:03:20] Anthony: this thing now, w what’s also interesting is there was there’s one in here. One of my five takeaways that I’ll share with you, um, that I disagree with. I actually disagree with it very vehemently. And so I’m excited to get to that one, but, uh, sometimes that’s what you get when you go back and review your notes on a book.
It sounds kind of like a process, right? Like coming to your own informative, formulating your own judgment and opinions. I think that’s the key, regardless of, um, what you’re doing in your life. Don’t just read to absorb the other person’s perspective. Actually take some time to don’t look at my screen.
He’s looking at my screen people. He’s looking at my notes.
[00:03:54] Dan: He’s going to steal them. I’m trying to see what time it is. Cause we don’t have our timer
[00:03:57] Anthony: going. Oh, that’s fair. I’m going to start a timer right now. So [00:04:00] otherwise
[00:04:00] Dan: we’re just going to ramble for like three hours. Okay. I would do that. Our listeners that’s typically what we do
[00:04:05] Anthony: to be frustrated, but, but what I was saying is don’t just read to consume somebody else’s opinion, take some time to unpack it and ask yourself, what do I really believe on this?
And there are authors that I love, like Nepal, Robert Kent, and Alex for mosey. And even Marcus really is like these people who 90% of what they say I agree with. But the 10% that I disagree with, that’s where most of my learning comes from. Right. So, um, I’ll share that one in a bit. It’s not going to be my first one, but how about you kick it off?
You want to kick it off? Or
[00:04:35] Dan: what do you think? Sure. Alright. Um, so yeah, if you guys haven’t read this book, it’s, I mean, the one thing I think I can explain what the book’s about, but more or less it’s about figuring out what the one thing is that that matters the most for you and what you need to be focusing and spending your time on.
So that’s kind of the, the, the, uh, uh, the logic that the book is trying to, uh, to teach you. And the first thing I pulled up here, it’s not because it’s the first, um, [00:05:00] The biggest takeaway or the. Th there was most profound or impactful for me. I just throw it on top because it’s one, that’s actually come up a few times recently.
And, um, I think this might be where, uh, like I just mentioned, this is where I formed this, where I got this idea, that’s found its way, uh, to, to kind of live in my narrative when I’m talking about things. And that is, uh, willpower is a limited resource. And um, every time I bring this up, Anthony brings up the fact that there was a study that debunks this.
Um, but with that
[00:05:27] Anthony: said, you make me sound like a. Uh, spastic child. Who’s like every time I say this, Anthony comes screaming into the room, waggling his finger and was like, no, no, no. Which is kind of what
[00:05:37] Dan: we have it on tape. So little bit, I mean, I don’t know if you wag your finger, but you’re like, well, listen here, that’s just false.
Uh, but no, I think this is, I mean, whether or not we’ve got studies approved or not. I feel this personally, I benefited from. Uh, prioritizing my most important things to the first part of the day, like doing the hard stuff first, whether it’s a workout or as a [00:06:00] work-related thing. Um, I personally respond well to that.
I even do this when I eat I’ll, you know, if I get a meal and there’s something that I’m not super psyched about, and there’s something I’m really excited to eat. I get rid of the thing. I’m not that excited about first. I’d get that out of the way. I want to focus on the thing that I actually enjoy. And I find it really beneficial to work through my day, like that get throws things done that you absolutely have to get done are the biggest, most important things.
Probably the hardest things to get those out of the way first. And then the rest of the rest of the day just keeps getting easier. Now, a logic here that’s expressed in the book. That Anthony mentioned it had been debunked by some of the studies is that, you know, willpower or the ability to make a good decision is kind of like a limited resource.
And I always thought about it like a, a life bar on a video game, like a first person shooter, and you get shot in your life bar goes down and like every time you have to make a decision, you, um, kind of lose some juice in that, in that tank. And so if you save all the hard stuff at the end of the day, you might just say F it, you know what, I’m just not going to do this.
I’m gonna watch Netflix. And. Just hang out. Um, so, you know, I took something away from this, whether it’s, um, you know, placebo factor, old wives [00:07:00] tale or something that isn’t real, whatever. Um, it seems to work for me. And I think a lot of people would benefit from, uh, prioritizing those things that are probably the hardest, but the most important getting those done first.
Um, I think, I, I think it should help everybody.
[00:07:14] Anthony: Yeah. Whether, I think regardless of whether or not this is true or debunked, it is one of those things that might not be specifically true, but is conceptually. And it’s a, it’s a concept that is still impactful, where the things that are hardest to do are the easiest ones to put off.
And if you put them off until the end of the day, regardless of if willpower is in fact a finite resource, you’re going to be more tired. You’re going to be more fatigued. And generally you’re going to have to carry along a more mental, mental load. In the period of time where you’re not doing the thing, because you’re like, I know I need to do this really hard, heavy thing, and you keep putting it off.
It’s like the bandaid is like, just pull the bandaid off. Don’t just keep pulling it slowly, get it done. And I think that’s where the real value of doing the hard thing first and tackling that early in the day, getting it off the plate and [00:08:00] just not procrastinating and whether or not like it’s because your willpower is going to be weaker later on.
Or if it’s just, it’s a better, it’s a better strategy for. Successfully navigating your life in pursuit of greatness? Um, I think conceptually it’s, it remains, I mean, it’s true. So I like that one. What do you got? All right. My number one is, and this is, this is tied into the whole concept of the book, which is the one thing.
There are so many things in your life that you could focus on. The question that you have to ask yourself is in whatever arena you are considering, whether this is work, business, uh, relationships, your fitness, what is the one thing that if you focused on would move the needle the most, it would have the most effect, like positive effect on the rest of you.
And you got to figure out what that thing is and then prioritize it. And so for me, I come back to the idea that you can only have one priority priority. The definition of it, um, is like the one thing you don’t, you hear people say, [00:09:00] oh, I have multiple priorities. Or, uh, I have to prioritize these things.
And it’s like, no, there’s one priority. And. You got to figure out what that one thing is and then tackle it and then move on to the next. And that’s the whole impetus of this book. Now here’s a framework that I found really helpful for navigating this because the challenge of saying, okay, well that’s the priority is well, there’s a lot of things that might be also very, very important.
And you’re like, how do I decide that this is actually more important than that thing? How do I actually prioritize it? So the framework is called ice. I C E it stands for impact confidence, ease. And what, what you do is you take all your to-dos, your tasks and you lift them out on one side of a spreadsheet, and then you create three columns, one for impact, one for confidence, one for ease.
And then for each one of those tasks, you rank order it on a scale of one to 10, and you say, okay, this task, which is, let’s say the task is I want to write a. Well, how much impact would writing a book have we know from past experience, [00:10:00] it’s very impactful. So we could put that at like a nine or a 10. Very, very impactful confidence.
Okay. Well, how confident are we that we can do that? Well, we’ve done it before. So we can also say that it’s a high confidence or how confident are we that by writing this book, it will have the effect we think it will. Well, we’ve also had experience with that. So we can say it’s like a nine or 10, but when we get to ease, we can ask ourselves, well, how easy is it to do that?
Writing a book’s not easy. It’d be like a, to super, super, not easy. So now we have a score like, you know, if we ranked at nine, nine to now, it’s a score of 20 on a scale of 30. And as you go through all your tasks, you can look and say, okay, this one is a 28, this one’s a 27. I’m going to do the 28 first. So you’ve, you’ve created a, uh, an objective way of measuring the importance of the tasks in front of you.
And now you can move forward accordingly.
[00:10:49] Dan: I was like quantifying things and using math to make decisions because it removes the emotion and like the draw to the thing that like, you might enjoy the most, but it’s also like super easy and not [00:11:00] gonna move the needle. Like, I think we’re all guilty that we go through our to-do list and we find out find the fun thing first.
It’s usually not the big mover and shaker. No, it’s good to good, actionable tip. Um, my next one is the, the greats all focus on one. Except for Jamie Fox out of there, because literally I got does everything. I don’t have to notice. What’s he do? He’s an actor. He’s an actor. He’s a singer. He’s a stand-up comedian as a performer.
He’s amazing at everything. He’s a performer.
[00:11:28] Anthony: Don’t downplay it. That’s the one thing. There’s one thing. He’s a performer. That’s
[00:11:31] Dan: nine things, dancing, singing, standup comedy acting. Those are several different depressive skills that you’re missing the entire point of this. Uh, most people, if you look at most actors, they focus on acting.
If you look at most athletes, they pick a sport. You don’t think Michael Jordan, he tried baseball. Didn’t go too. Well. Most of these people, most everybody who’s like wicked awesome at something had picked that one thing that they wanted to put their whole lives into and. Which is I think an important takeaway.
There’s a few exceptions out [00:12:00] there. Um, there’s some freaks in nature, Elon Musk, for example, he can jump from, uh, you know, learning how to engineer rockets to building a car company. Right? Most people can’t do that. He’s an outlier. Uh, generally speaking, most people need to pick a
[00:12:12] Anthony: focus, right. Even with that, if you, if you zoom out like, and I, and I know it sounds like I’m downplaying Jamie Fox.
When I say he’s a performer, but even Elon Musk, like why he’s still doing all these things within the framework of his one thing, which. He’s trying to better civilization or human, like increased our longevity increase like our, I think it’s
[00:12:34] Dan: just really rare that you could be a really good singer and a really good stand-up comedian and a really good actor and be really good at all those things.
I mean, typically to get as good as he is at any one of those things, you’ve got to devote your entire life. So,
[00:12:46] Anthony: I mean,
[00:12:48] Dan: We don’t talk about will Smith right now. Oh, that’s right. He’s been Kansas Smith blacklisted. Um, no, but I think the point is like, typically if you want to get exceptionally good, you’re going to have to pick a thing to focus on.[00:13:00]
Unless you’re one of these people who can get, get really good at a bunch of different things. But a lot of this book is kind of pointing to the fact that if you want to really Excel, you’ve got to be kind of like, you know, a Steve jobs or bill gates. You’ve just got to put your life into one endeavor and maybe zoom out.
So it’s not like building computers and just say, maybe it’s building business. Or being a performer. Um, so that’ll make Anthony happy, but bottom line, you’re going to need to focus if you want to do really well, because we try to do a million different things. You’re probably going to do them all. Okay.
Um, but if you focus on something, you’re going to get really good at it. And historically I use cheesecake factory for this example, like they’ve got this encyclopedia of a menu and it’s all okay. And one of these days, cheesecake factory is just going to send me a letter. And so I’m going to shut the hell up, but they’re not that great.
Like if you want a really good burger, you go to a burger spot. That’s all they do and they’ve nailed it. So I think there’s a lot to be said about picking one thing to focus on. And this is like the whole impetus of the book and just really driving on it, not getting distracted, not getting shiny object syndrome and trying all these different things.
And we’ve been talking about this a lot in [00:14:00] our business about, you know, you know, looking at the development angle, right. Um, at a certain point, that makes sense. But you’ve got to get your, your, your, your main thing to a certain point where it’s like a self. Propelling machine and you could walk away. It keeps going and focus on something new or you’re the new guy again.
But this one is impactful for me. It’s the whole book. I mean, the whole book is on picking one thing. So, uh, just looking at the whole focus thing is, is comforting because sometimes you feel like you’re, you’re missing out by all the other opportunities that are out there, all those new and interesting things that people are doing.
Um, sometimes you can almost feel guilty or like you’re behind the curve. If you’re focusing on your thing and there’s something new that everyone else is apparently excelling at. So this one.
[00:14:40] Anthony: I, I agree. I, I, I look at it even still with Jamie and Ilan. I say like, they still do have a focus. They have a one thing that they’re moving towards.
It’s all kind of in alignment, but even if you. If you zoom out, what ends up happening, I think is before people achieve greatness or even like high degree of competence in a thing, [00:15:00] they start to get distracted because they get to that murky middle where things like they’re no longer progressing as quickly as they once were and making gains.
And now they’re plateauing a bit. And this happens, like, I think Seth Godin talked about this, um, what’d he call it the gap and a lot of people quit in the gap because it’s, it’s, it’s hard, it’s lonely things. Aren’t moving as quickly. And, um, that’s when you start getting the shiny object syndrome and you start moving to the next thing and the next thing, rather than sticking with it until that hits the next inflection point.
And I think your life can be defined by doing a lot of different things, but if you want to be successful and great at any of those, you have to stick with it long enough for that thing to really achieve escape velocity. And once it has, then you can go in and turn to the next. And
[00:15:44] Dan: yeah, people underestimate how long it takes to get like really good at something.
Yeah. Like, I don’t know if anyone’s read outliers, but great thing I took out of that book. It’s just not what we’re talking about, but like how much stage time, like the Beatles had before they did ed Sullivan. Like they weren’t just like amazing together overnight. They [00:16:00] spend, um, I forgot the number of hours.
It’s been so long since I read that, but they spent, I want to say five years playing like maybe 10 to 12 hours. In a strip club in Hamburg. Yep. And so they had like a crude, so many hours by the time they got at Sullivan, like that’s why they were good. But when they first started playing together, they weren’t good together.
[00:16:17] Anthony: The, uh, I, I tweeted about this the other day where the gap between good and great is surprisingly large, but the gap between good and good enough is surprisingly small. And most of us can clear that gap and just focus on fundamentals consistently applied over time will help you go from good to good.
’cause, he don’t need to be great. You don’t need to be the Beatles to like, unless that’s your goal, then good luck. But for most of us, our goals are a little bit more modest. We’re trying to live a successful life and even halfway to the Beatles would be
[00:16:47] Dan: profoundly good at any person on earth. Yeah. I mean,
[00:16:50] Anthony: yeah.
All right. So here’s, here’s my number two. This is actually the one that I disagree with it is that success is sequential and this makes sense. And I don’t disagree [00:17:00] with that whole. But it’s this idea that we have to create this to do list and check things off. And before we can move from this box to the next, we have to do this and this and this, and this is the way, like we’ve been programmed since we were kids, like we go to kindergarten, then you go to first grade and then second grade.
And you’re like on this conveyor belt. But if you look at like true genius and you look at like truly exceptional, um, success stories, success is actually. Occurring simultaneously, they’re doing a lot of things and moving a lot of things simultaneously. And it’s not this it’s not as linear as most people think it’s going to be.
And this is not an original thought. This is something that I got from, uh, I don’t remember who it was. Maybe Felix, Dennis, who was a magazine magnet. Uh, mobile magazine mold who started Maxim magazine and all these others. Um, but I think he was talking about the fact that, uh, how to get rich. He had another one called like something about the road, but he’s really smart.
Really, really brilliant guy has a great way [00:18:00] of wording things, but he talks about how, you know, to be successful. Like when you, when you decide you’re going to go do a thing, don’t create the checklist and say, we’ve got to go do this, this, this, and this. So you guys, you need to just run it. Full steam and be doing a whole lot of things simultaneously.
And it’s in that like, um, simultaneous generation where true genius occurs. And, and I think I tend to agree with that more because the projects where I’ve sat down and tried to plot them from the beginning and say, this is the to-do list. And then like have this linear growth. It never ends up happening because you end up getting stuck at a step in the process that is not as fun or engaging.
It’s not moving. And instead of just dropping it and moving and keeping the energy and a momentum going by going over to one of the other steps, that would be more fun and you can make more progress there. People just keep butting their heads against the one thing, and then they don’t, they don’t ever move on to the rest of the project and the project just dies and fizzles.
[00:18:53] Dan: Yeah. And I think. I like your, your disagreement with this, because it kind of reinforces some of my behavior, which could be a [00:19:00] bit more scattered at times. Like the way I read books, I usually read like a good portion of it and get a lot out of it. And then I will get, you know, quote unquote distracted, uh, by something else.
Uh, but I personally am like pulling information from these like somewhat recent. Uh, books to kind of try to tie it all together. So I like to read things that are kind of somewhat related to each other, to be pulling bits and pieces and different concepts and try to connect the dots. Um, some people might be frustrated by that and think that, oh, no, you need to read this book, start to finish and then move on to the next one.
But that’s just not really what I do. So I feel good here and that, but I also feel like it’s, um, um, I don’t think it’s really possible if you’re doing a brand new thing to really. Like you could have your best guess of what the sequence of things is, but you probably don’t even really know what the actual true sequences until after you’ve already gone through it and tried all these different things in different orders and figured it out.
Once you have done something, you could probably look back and build a sequence, but going into it, like you’ve got a good idea, but you’ve gotta be ready to pivot. Right? Yep. I agree. Perfect [00:20:00] sense. Uh, my next takeaway was the domino effect or the domino example that was used in the book. Um, Like this, um, example of the book for those of you on YouTube, you got to appreciate what happened for those of you just listening.
And you’re like, why was there an awkward pause and
[00:20:16] Anthony: just picked up the book, which it looks
[00:20:17] Dan: like it looks like. Um, anyways, there was an example in the book about a study done. I can’t remember where it was. Um, but someone university somewhere it’s been a while since I read this, uh, did a study that, uh, did the math to figure out like what would happen, um, when you take a domino and.
How big is the next domino? How big can that be? Where the first domino can knock it over, but they found out where did that very poorly. What they found out was that you could put a domino next to another domino that’s 1.5 times higher, and that smaller domino could knock it over. And so if you extrapolate that out, uh, by the time you get to just like the 30th domino.
Up to April the tower height, which is actually pretty amazing. The whole point of this example was to illustrate how little incremental changes or little incremental [00:21:00] things can have really big impacts long-term, which I think is a very important concept because sometimes people will, poo-poos some of the really simple, basic things that are needed to be successful.
And at the end of the day, some of those things can have the biggest impact. It might just be really little things, little habits, little daily rituals. Um, I mean, a lot of our core values might even fall into this category. They’re very small little things like showing up in the right thing, saying, uh, doing what you say you’re going to do.
Um, like all these things are, you know, small they’re little interactions, little tweaks, and how you, uh, interact with people or how you behave or how you just carry yourself. Um, but you extrapolate that out over a long period of time. And if you’re consistent with these types of things, um, they’re going to yield really good results.
So I mean, this logic, I think, could be applied to just about any kind of project or endeavor.
[00:21:47] Anthony: I don’t know, at its core, I think about compounding interest and how we have a really hard time conceptualizing it. And this is why people have a, they struggled to invest over a long time period because they fail to understand how powerful compounding [00:22:00] interest really is.
And that’s w I don’t know if, if the example is. True at 30 iterations that is now at the Eiffel tower from a tiny little domino, but it’s probably like pretty damn close. It was surprising. Isn’t it? But it’s crazy because I remember what it was the way I always, um, here’s an example. The the king and the peasant with the rice on the chess board.
And the example is on the chess board, I just flipped right to, oh, nice. There’s there’s 64 squares on a chess board. And the story goes at this peasant did something that this king loved and he’s like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How can I repay you? And the king said, ah, I can do, uh, I can give you, uh, 2 million grains of rice or something like that.
Independent said, well, actually, all I ask is that we put a single grain of rice. On one, um, square of a chess board. And then for every square next to it, we just, we double it. We just double what’s what’s currently there. And so on the first square it’s one that goes to two and then two goes to four and then four goes to eight and eight goes to 16 [00:23:00] and so on and so forth.
And there’s only 64 squares. And by the time you hit like the 30th square, your midway there, you’re only at like a thousand grains of rice. So you’re like, there’s no way we’re ever going to get to, to. So when you’re doing the cost benefit analysis of like, which one’s worth more, 2 million grains of rice in hand, or the compounding interest of just doubling over and over and over 64 times.
It’s so counterintuitive, you would go at the 2 million generally, most people do, but once you do the math on it, the doubling grains of rice actually equals like 5 million or something like that. Ridiculous.
[00:23:31] Dan: Yes. It seems that example usually like, um, a penny for an investment, but I found the, the domino thing is actually number 23, the hits, the appetite 31 is Mount Everest and 57 is the moon.
[00:23:43] Anthony: 57 is the moon. 57
[00:23:46] Dan: is the moon. Are you even listening? Yeah. Okay. All right. Moving on. I’m upset. Let’s
[00:23:52] Anthony: here we go. Number three, my number three. So this is actually number six. Uh, what you build today will either empower or [00:24:00] restrict you tomorrow. I like that that concept. What you build today will either empower or restrict you tomorrow.
So when it comes to business or your relationships, whatever, you’re, what are you doing right now with your time, that is either going to be a cage for the future and lock you in so that you are dependent on that thing and you can not grow it, or is this thing going to empower you to grow beyond it? And the way I thought about.
Is empowering versus limiting beliefs. Like you only have two types of beliefs, so you can either have a limiting belief about what’s capable, what’s possible or what you can do. Or you can have an empowering belief. It’s either moving you forward or it’s moving you backwards. And I think that’s a really cool framework to come at any task with his thing.
Is this going to restrict me in the future or is this going to empower me in the future? And I think when you, when you have that lens, you, you, you, you should ideally. Uh, tackle those things. I’m going to restrict you in a different way so that they become empowering [00:25:00] because that’s usually what it is.
It’s like you’re building the system incorrectly and if you just make a tweak, it can become empowering.
[00:25:05] Dan: Yeah. So just glass half full versus half empty. How do you, how do you look at this? Is this a problem or not? That’s that’s
[00:25:14] Anthony: kind of it, but not really. That’s not really what I’m getting to. I think it’s more about system design, but where I go to is saying, am I designing this system in a way that I’m going to be shackled to it?
Or this is a system that is going to serve me in the future. That’s how I approach it. Yeah.
[00:25:30] Dan: I liked that very apropos. Um, Elegant, leave it at that. Um, my next one, Hey
[00:25:36] Anthony: Mike, you likes it. You remember that? I do is I like nineties commercials, like, wait, you want the eighties? Uh,
[00:25:43] Dan: life cereal maybe. Oh yeah. I remember that.
Um, all right. Did you ever have life cereal? You know, I, I tried it. It’s not great. Oh, I like cinnamon toast crunch, honey. Bunches of oats, pretty pebbles. Shut your mouth now. Fruity pebbles, [00:26:00] cinema. So scratch bro. All the way. All right. Uh, back on task, mark marketing, multi multitasking doesn’t work. Um, this is true.
Is this true? It has been proven. Uh, with science, with science. Thank you. You’re doing it. You’re not, you’re just switching back and forth and it’s really inefficient. You’re not doing two things at once. So, um, this is something that, that I like, because it aligns really well with my personality where I just want to pick a thing and just not think about anything else.
That’s the way my brain works. I’m very happy about this one for the multitask result there. I’m sorry. It just, isn’t a dominating. It’s actually happening is your brain is, is stopping one thing, moving to the other thing and then stopping that thing and moving back to the other thing. And every time you do that, it’s just like a little warmup period.
That’s got to happen for you kind of getting your groove and it’s actually really inefficient and there was a study done. Um, That the book reference can’t remember where and when it was. But what was found was that students who are multitasking or [00:27:00] task tasks multitask, it was either students or employees can’t remember who a group of people that were, was studied to see how productive they were, either employees or students.
And the multitaskers were found to be 28% less productive than the people who just picked up. Did all of it and then moved on to another thing and didn’t try to tackle two things simultaneous.
[00:27:18] Anthony: Th the other part of that too, is they, weren’t just less productive. The quality of their work was miserable.
They did, they did store work. And, um, in, in the psychological circles, we, we don’t call it multitasking. We call it multi switching because that’s what’s happening. Like your brain is very good at switching very rapidly between things, but your brain is not able to parallel process. It can’t do it. It can’t hold two thoughts simultaneously.
You can’t actually do two tasks at the same time, but again, a computer can, but I don’t think
[00:27:48] Dan: they can. I think computers just switch back and forth really fast.
[00:27:51] Anthony: Um, no, I think a computer can parallel process because they can put it on actual, separate tracks. Like quantum computer can do it like to the nth degree, but the human brain [00:28:00] cannot, but we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are because the switching occurs so quickly, but there’s a term called cognitive residue, which when you’re, when you’re.
When you’re trying to switch between tasks, there is still a part of your mind still circling on that previous task. And it takes a while for that to phase out and for you to become fully immersed in the task at hand and then re ramp back up. And that can take, it was about 15 to 20 minutes. So if you’re doing something and then you just say, I’m going to quickly look at my phone.
I’m just going to check it real quick. You’re going to carry that mental, that cognitive residue for 15 minutes. And you’re not actually going to be able to get back up to your full capacity for that amount of time. It’s a fascinating literature on it. And there are people and we all know them and you might be listening and you might be one of these people who swears by their ability to multitask.
I’m telling you, you are not as good at it. As you think you are truly, you are lying to yourself unless you’re a
[00:28:56] Dan: robot. Are you a robot people? Oh, you are, oh, we’ll give [00:29:00] you a pass. But if you’re a human with a
[00:29:01] Anthony: brain. Listening to this, not happening, not doing it. All right. My number, my number four, which is our number eight is if you want better answers, you got to ask better questions.
That’s nice familiar in this. I was thinking about this the other day, actually around, um, artificial intelligence and machine learning. And we’re getting so much more sophisticated with our, with what we are able to program computers to do for us. But at the end of the day, the, the computers benefit, the machine learning artificial intelligence is only capable of giving us what we are able to ask of it.
Right. If I can’t ask it good questions, then I’m not going to get good answers. The output will be irrelevant. It’s all coming back to the input and that’s something that you can’t program a computer. They can’t ask the good questions that are really going to get it to the core of the issue. So one that gives me some faith that humans, we still have some utility, but to re re regardless of whether or not you’re [00:30:00] working with a machine, an artificial intelligence, like even in your own day day-to-day life, if you want better answers, you have to ask better questions.
It’s going to dictate, like, what’s the path that you go down to solve it. And quite often, Um, we’re answering the wrong questions entirely with our time, which I find really funny when it comes to building businesses. Even here, it’s like, oh, we’ve been asking the wrong question. We we’ve been, we’ve been wasting time and energy.
And through the lens of this book, the one thing it’s about asking, okay, the big question is what is the one thing that’s going to move me forward? The most?
[00:30:34] Dan: I like it, it ties in nicely with a Bluetooth. Was the road less. Um, they talked a lot about asking better question. Um, there were a lot of great, uh, examples in that book from, um, uh, business examples that illustrate the concept of how that can go poorly.
Um, but it’s yeah, it’s, it’s tough one, I think, uh, I think that the, um, was it Keith Cunningham who wrote that? Yeah, I think his process of [00:31:00] building in time for thinking to flush those questions out, um, is a good one. So asking better questions. I think that’s. Um, it’s how you find yourself staying away from fixing a symptom as opposed to a root cause of an issue.
Because usually the wrong question is from not going deep enough, you see the symptom you try to solve for that, but you don’t ask enough questions to figure out what the actual root is of the problem you’re trying to solve for, but good stuff. Deeper people go deeper. Yes. Take the. You got the time. Yeah, no rush.
Uh, 80% of your results are going to come from 20% of your efforts. Um, predo principle, 20, 80, 20 rule. Um, it wasn’t necessarily a takeaway from this book. Um, I had heard about this idea long before I read this book, but it’s, it’s an important one and I think it’s a good process to incorporate in. And that’s, I think probably what I took from this book was, was applying.
Actually, let me explain first, what is 80, 80, 20 principle saying that a lot of what you’re doing is just kind of a waste of time [00:32:00] and there’s probably a smaller section of, of your activities, no matter what it is, according to this 20% that is actually moving the needle. And so it’s, it’s in everyone’s best interest, whether it is in life or in business to kind of audit what it is that you’re doing all the time and figure out, um, where all the results are coming from.
And what you find is there’s a majority of the stuff that you’re doing, you could probably just acts off or delegate or. Um, and I’d like the piece in this book that talks to. Taking this approach to your, to do list every single day and going through and finding, okay, what are like the 20% of these things that really matter that are really gonna move the needle.
Um, and it might even be just one or two things out of a list of 15 or 20 things you put on yourself for the day. And it really helps you focus in on. Not just big picture. What’s the one thing. But like today, out of all the things I have on my plate, what are like the couple that really, really really matter.
Um, like I talked about my first, um, my first one with which was prioritizing those, those hardest, biggest things. Like this is probably a good thing to do first thing in the morning and see, figure out, [00:33:00] okay, what are those things that need to get done? Probably the hardest that I might not want to do, but are the 20%.
So I love the idea of kind of the daily audit on a micro level to make sure you’re focusing on that day to day. And then from a really high level, like zooming out and you know, you’re going to have to collect some data for this. You’re going to have to measure things. You’re going to have to track things.
But what you’ll find when you actually have some data is, uh, that this is true. It’s not always gonna be a clean 80 20, but what you’ll find is there’s a few things. That are having a big impact. And I think this’ll be really obvious anyone who’s in sales or anything like that, any kind of sales data, it’s usually pretty easy to see this.
[00:33:37] Anthony: Yeah, I agree. I think the vast majority of what we spend our time on is wasted, not wasted in the sense that you’re not doing anything but wasted in the sense that it wasn’t the thing that was really truly important at the end of the day, when it comes to sales or business, it’s like, what are your money-making activities?
What are the things that are actually making you money? And what are the things that are actually. Filling up your calendar.
[00:33:56] Dan: I mean, look at our podcast, we’re in this room for three hours and I’d say we [00:34:00] pull maybe 30 minutes out of content, which means we are dicking around for a
[00:34:05] Anthony: lot. Yeah. Yeah. But I would also say that’s part of the creative process.
And so we can’t just can’t rush. We can’t rush genius. Um, And I’m not saying this is genius. I’m just saying at some point someday, if we do this long enough, maybe eventually it’ll be genius in this will all be part of the process. This is part of our 10,000 hours. You guys are seeing it in real time.
This is us learning how to play the violin and it’s squeaky and screeching and not very good. Now my number five, number 10 on the list is very much tied to your willpower is a limited resource idea. It is be a maker in the morning and a manager in the. The idea. And I don’t remember, um, who’s the guy that runs Y Combinator or started it was it, um, Paul Graham, Paul Graham talks about the maker manager schedule.
Uh, this is a concept of that he talks about in the context of founders and startup world. And I found it it’s really helpful for me [00:35:00] too, where if you designate your morning to creating things and not filling it up with meetings and, um, managerial things or administrative duties, You can spend more time on the tasks that tend to be the most results.
Um, uh, what’s the word I’m looking for? They will drive the most results. Cause like, if you look at anything in your day, it’s probably not managing other people. That’s really dictating like, um, the quality of your output. It’s it’s you have some unique genius that you’re really good at. And so spending more time in that act of creative.
Is is the important thing that could be different for everybody. For me, it might be writing for you. It might be spreadsheets. It could be very different and how it manifests, but thinking about, okay, the morning is for making in my afternoon is for managing and taking care of the little administrative things that need to get done to move things forward.
But that should never, the making should never be at the mercy of the managing. And that’s what [00:36:00] ends up happening. I, I see with a lot of people, a lot of businesses is that they get. And they stop making and they just manage and then their business just kind of goes kind of stalls out.
[00:36:11] Dan: Yeah. I like it. I mean, um, for some people that might just be the thinking time, maybe they’re not reading, maybe they’re not creating per se, but they’re, they’re thinking about those big questions, those big things that are important.
Um, I’m a be good time for a lot of people to carve some time out for that. At least that’s where I would put it for myself. Um, I mean, it’s weekends for me, but if I were to do it on daily basis, that would be like a first thing in the morning type.
[00:36:35] Anthony: Get it done early. That way you have your mind free to move on to whatever else, your emails.
Oh, wait. Oh, wait. There’ll be there. Oh, it’s it’s this is a really funny, um, I, I, I try not to look at my emails throughout the day. I like just. Try to bucket it in the morning. And then in the afternoon, and I got a text from somebody who’s like, I sent you two emails and I didn’t get a response yet. So I just want to make sure that you saw them.
And I was like, I’m not in my emails. I’m [00:37:00] sorry. It it’s really interesting that society and the expectation is that you need to live inside your emails. And so if you’re out there and you’re like me and you don’t want to live in your email, Hey, you don’t owe anybody. You’ll get to it when you get to it.
I try to do
[00:37:13] Dan: the, um, kind of two times a day thing. I’ll try to put it on the calendar too, or I just have like, you know, 45 minutes or something blocked off for that. But I think it would be helpful. I was actually do this on my end is adding something to the signature that says like here’s when I check my emails.
Um, so that way people know, like, if it’s super important, I’ve seen this in someone else’s signature. I think it’s a great idea because they disclose here’s. When I check my emails, if it’s super important, call me. Wait until the next upcoming time per below. And it was like 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM or something.
Like, I like that. That’s a good idea. Yeah. I mean, that way people don’t think you’re just being weird, then they’re like, oh, okay. He’s just, he’s not in here yet, but if it is a big deal, um, I can just call him.
[00:37:52] Anthony: Yeah. And I won’t answer cause I don’t answer my phone. So if I’m, if I I’m trying not to be reached, you’re not going to reach me.
So that’s a, that’s the [00:38:00] one thing by Gary Keller and our boy, Jay Papasan pops on, you know, what is another fun word?
[00:38:08] Dan: There’s a lot of them pupusa but
[00:38:10] Anthony: Prusa, what is
[00:38:10] Dan: that? Pupusa the Prusa.
[00:38:12] Anthony: What is pupusa? Yeah, poo poo size. Like, I think it’s a Mexican, like dumpling type of thing. It, when I, when I lived in, when I lived in the bay area, I’d always drive by these, um, like Mexican restaurants and they’d be like, enchilada is pupusa Des and I know pupusas is actually the most fun word to spell in the.
It’s P U P U S a S P U P U S a S. It’s super fun. Anyways. I don’t know if that brought you guys any value. If it did just drop a review, let us know how you feel about pupusas, which I got the book. The one thing, if you guys remember, if you want the sophisticated investor notes, you don’t want to read the book, but you want to get the cliff notes version of everything we talk about.
Shoot me an email, anthony@invictusmultifamily.com. I will send you the Dropbox folder, where we are keeping all the sophisticated [00:39:00] investor notes that cost you nothing. You do get the benefit from our wisdom and our stupidity and, um, 200 pages. It’s like 200 pages you can get through this one quickly, but our sophisticated investor notes, there’s only one.
So let’s, that’s pretty efficient. That’s a good use of your time. The one thing you should do, so shoot me an email. Go leave a review, and we will see you back here in the next episode, whenever
[00:39:21] Dan: that is .
