ASTON INCORPORATED
Episode 18- Fight Fire with Superior Fire- Combat Tactics for Business Success: Embracing Aggression and Resilience in Entrepreneurship
Ever wondered what military strategies can teach us about thriving in the cutthroat world of business? My co-host, Dallin, and I draw from my Marine Corps School of Infantry experience to share the audacious tactic of 'fighting fire with superior fire' and its surprising relevance to facing challenges in entrepreneurship. We dissect the aggressive stance Utah's Crumble Cookies took in their legal battles and discuss when it might be time for businesses to charge forward into the fray, rather than duck and cover.
As we navigate through the episode, expect to unravel the secret sauce to setting colossal goals and the tenacious attitude needed to achieve them. You'll hear how a 'never surrender' mindset, akin to historical strategies of burning the ships, can stimulate growth and resilience. We also dissect the absolute necessity of practice and commitment to achieve mastery in any field, reflecting on personal journeys and the pivotal moments that transform dedication into expertise. Join us for this gripping conversation that promises to arm you with the strategies to turn adversity into your ally and perseverance into your path to success.
Ever wondered what military strategies can teach us about thriving in the cutthroat world of business? My co-host, Dallin, and I draw from my Marine Corps School of Infantry experience to share the audacious tactic of 'fighting fire with superior fire' and its surprising relevance to facing challenges in entrepreneurship. We dissect the aggressive stance Utah's Crumble Cookies took in their legal battles and discuss when it might be time for businesses to charge forward into the fray, rather than duck and cover.
As we navigate through the episode, expect to unravel the secret sauce to setting colossal goals and the tenacious attitude needed to achieve them. You'll hear how a 'never surrender' mindset, akin to historical strategies of burning the ships, can stimulate growth and resilience. We also dissect the absolute necessity of practice and commitment to achieve mastery in any field, reflecting on personal journeys and the pivotal moments that transform dedication into expertise. Join us for this gripping conversation that promises to arm you with the strategies to turn adversity into your ally and perseverance into your path to success.
Welcome back to the show, guys. It's Wayne Aston here, with Aston Incorporated. I'm your host and joining me in the studios Dallin Aston. Oh yeah how you doing today, dallin.
Speaker 2:Oh man, if I was doing any better, I don't know what I would do with myself.
Speaker 1:You ready for this today? Ready today? Today, guys, we're covering another big one and I want to kick this off with fight fire with superior fire. Okay, so we're gonna go, we're gonna go back to the Marine Corps School of Infantry tactics and we're gonna talk the tactics of a Marine Corps machine gunner and how that can apply to business. Okay, so I want to lead this off with this actual attack. This is an actual tactic fight fire with superior fire, specifically with regards to ambush tactics. So Imagine we're in a five-man fire team or a column and we're walking along a jungle trail and you know some, some foreign country, and we get ambushed by One or more sides. What's the natural reaction? Why don't you take a guess before we dive in? Say that again.
Speaker 2:So we're walking, you're walking home or a five-man like fire team.
Speaker 1:We're walking down a trail in a jungle and we get ambushed from the side. Yeah, let's say that they're up on a hill above Above us, because that would be the tactical advantage. Point was up, okay, and they're firing down on us at the trail. What would be the knee jerk, what reaction? What do you think you know we should do about responding to an ambush?
Speaker 2:Probably cover right return fire. I Mean I don't know what you're looking for, like what?
Speaker 1:What's the knee jerk? Like, like, with no training and, no, no perspective on it. You say cover.
Speaker 2:I'd say, well, if our we're in the jungle, yeah, getting the trees fun shot out shoot out, shoot back. Yeah, what are you looking for? That's the natural thing.
Speaker 1:So so the actual tactic is Return fire and head straight into the fire. So, okay, interesting, so we would be. We were trained to actually return heavy fire but run right into where the fire was coming from. It's an unorthodox approach. So why is that? Statistically speaking, the chance of survival is greater if we don't run and hide, but if we hit the ambush head-on with a, with a superior fire response, right in the right into, like an immediate counter up the hill, what happens is they don't want to get shot, we're throwing live lead to, and so you, you, even the plane field out in quite a ways when you don't respond to the fear response of finding cover.
Speaker 1:So running right into an ambush is the that's official Marine Corps tactic if we're at a infantry, infantry in the jungle.
Speaker 1:Okay, guys, so Interesting. That was really cool for me to learn that and be trained on that as a machine gunner, because it has so much practical life application. Number one it's unorthodox, and so much about what we talk about in entrepreneurship is unorthodox. It's the answer that you wouldn't think about, or it's the answer that it seems like it's suicide. Okay, and and so you have to. Now, again, you rely on data, you rely on statistics, you rely on training, you rely on commanders and and and warriors who have been in multiple conflicts, who have this is a battle-tested tactic. So you have to. You have to mentally like, adapt to the fact you know right. This is why we do this right. So now, when we talk about you know being entrepreneurs, oh my gosh, when we meet resistance, what do we do? Think of resistance in business as an ambush. I mean, think of.
Speaker 1:We got a crazy situation happening in Utah right now. Might not be the best analogy, but it's relevant. You know, we got crumble cookies, this big cookie juggernaut, and they make amazing cookies. But we have two other competitors in Utah coming up and there's this big lawsuit. Crumble cookies just sued these two other companies, these cookie companies for wild, who knows? I think, logo infringement, trademark infringement, I'm not. I'm not clear on the details, guys, but but you know, if you're the smaller guy and you're getting hit with litigation, what you know, what are the options. I don't want to go into that and try and quarterback what those cookie companies should do getting fired on by the juggernaut. But a successful entrepreneur is going to take fire and Then one of a couple things will happen You're gonna take fire and collapse and you could die and the business goes out of business when you, when you take fire.
Speaker 1:And big companies know this, guys, big real estate developers know this, they know and big lenders know this. You know I have a lot of experience with some of these big, these big private equity funds and they know that. You know they I feel like part of their underwriting of a sponsor or a developer a borrower has to do with, you know, do they have the horsepower or the wherewithal to weather a storm? And that will drive whether they bring litigation or what kind of tactic they use against me as an entrepreneur. And I can tell you from experience I have one lender we might get into names and details and talking about this particular lender, who I, who all refer to unanimously as Satan, or it's either this lender or Satan. They're the same. Interchangeably, not unanimously. I'll refer to interchangeably, very predatory company, very predatory company, and you know they're, they're not afraid of litigation, I'm not afraid of litigation.
Speaker 1:But but what happens when a big, well-funded company Decides to bring litigation out and play that nasty, that nasty game? Entrepreneurs have a decision to make and a Lot of the time the decision is driven by the amount of capital, because to fight a legal war, you you have to have a War chest, you have to have capital and and sometimes you just can't win that, sometimes you have to, you have to fight. You're forced to find a settlement or die or just let the business go out of business. Right, but sometimes, depending on the circumstances, and if you have the, if you happen to have the word chest and you happen to have the, the facts, then you have integrity. Then fighting fire with superior fires. The answer, because no one wants to go into a protracted litigation situation two years, three years in in legal warfare, and if a big fund Can't win in six months and it's gonna get protracted, they're gonna be paying their attorneys hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process as well. So so you know I want to. I don't want to get too deep into the legal strategy because that's Actually potentially a whole other episode. I just want to keep focused on the mentality of this Resisting the ambush tag this, this tactic Okay, and how we apply it. One thing I'd have everyone consider is that as entrepreneurs We've got to train ourselves to expect miracles. Okay. To me it feels miraculous if I imagine I'm on a trail and I'm carrying my m60 and I got a. You know, I got one of my guys behind me with an m16, I got another guy over here with something else and we get fired on. I try to put myself in that situation and and imagine you emotionally the reaction.
Speaker 1:Now I've never been in combat guys. I think I made that disclaimer early on. I was one of the most blessed, fortunate guys to be back to back conflict. So I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993, went to boot camp three days after graduation, turned 18 in boot camp in the gas chamber On my birthday. I got to do gas chamber training. But I was going through school of infantry down in Camp Pendleton back in 93 and 94. And this is right on the heels of that unit that I was attached to being on an active deployment in the first invasion of Iraq Desert Storm. I discharged in 2005. And six months later my unit found themselves in Afghanistan. So a decade of service, never combat deployed, and I know I'm going to have good friends listening to the show who are combat deployed or were combat deployed, and so I don't want to put myself out there as some war hero, because that's not what I'm saying. All I'm saying is we learned some really great things in all of the training over a decade, and it's applicable to being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Expecting miracles has a lot to do with this. If we're going to actually turn and run into fire, you have to believe there's a God. For me, anyways, speaking for myself, I had to really understand that God has a plan for me. He's not wanting me to die in this conflict. The only way I'm going to do it is I'm going to trust that God. I'm going to trust the training. I'm going to trust that God is going to miraculously get me through this event.
Speaker 1:And a lot of the time when I talk about the apocalypse events of a business owner or an entrepreneur, it feels like bullets raining down. It feels like everyone wants to sue me, everyone wants to give me death threats. There's a lot of black darkness that can come in a business failure and it's a lot like being ambushed, and so I'd have everyone consider listening that expecting miracles is one of the magic superpowers you can develop, and to me it's required. If I'm not expecting miracles, like when I get up every day, I know what my day looks like because I reviewed my calendar or my schedule for the day the night before. I like to go to bed reviewing the calendar the day before Starting to know what the day could look like based on my calendar.
Speaker 1:But I'm also very careful when I get up in the morning and I'm doing my meditation, I'm having gratitude and I'm spending that first hour or so of my morning in gratitude with God and just communing with God that I'm open to anything. I'm open to actual miracles. I'm open to the fact that he would manifest miracles through me today that are not even on the calendar or not even in my awareness. Sometimes that could be really big things I've been working on for a year, two years, six months. Sometimes it could be something out of the blue. So I'd have you all consider just an open mind in your daily kind of get up and get things moving that it's critical to have the open mind and expect a miracle. Yeah, okay, I think it's a major major. We're all shorting ourselves dramatically if we don't believe that a miracle's possible today, if we think a miracle's possible next year after we've done all this stuff.
Speaker 2:That's not a miracle, right Okay.
Speaker 1:And this kind of brings me into a whole nother thing around setting targets and considering if what I'm doing is big enough. If I don't believe in miracles, then I have a propensity to set targets that I know I can hit and I have a little, I have, certainty around hitting targets. And what I'd have you consider is that it's important in this process and this programming of your own self, your programming, your soul and your heart and your mind, to expect miracles, that we're setting targets and we're having expectations that God will manifest miracles with me. I expect that, so it becomes part of my day and then, when it happens, I'm prepared for it and I can see it and I can recognize it and it's much easier for me to find gratitude in it as it happens.
Speaker 2:Any thoughts on that, dallin, I'm dropping a lot here on you rapid fire right now. Yeah, one thing you said if I don't expect miracles, this is kind of what I got out of it.
Speaker 2:If you don't expect miracles, then you're gonna set comfortable targets, yeah, and as we all know, there's no comfort in a growth zone and no growth in a comfort zone, right. And so when I hear that I'm going, that's an interesting perspective because it's like you know, you obviously want to go in and you know there's all the gurus who will say, wake up at 4 am and just hustle and grind and work for the next five years that you can have, you know, set yourself up for the rest of your life, like all that stuff. But at the end of the day, what we're really talking about is expecting that. You know, as you get uncomfortable, miracles will happen. That's really all we're saying, right, it's like it's not necessarily telling you to wake up at 4 am, yeah. It's not necessarily telling you to do this, that or the other.
Speaker 2:It's saying expecting those miracles will change your perspective. And that's what it's saying to me right now. You're not saying any specific. When I wake up at 4 am, I'm eating this and I'm eating this and I'm doing this. It's not necessarily a hey, go replicate my morning routine. That's not what you're saying. What you're saying is right.
Speaker 1:Am I correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, today I'm not talking about the specifics of my morning routine, right now I'm talking broad strokes of the mentality Right, we're talking the mentality that goes into growth and expansion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right Right.
Speaker 2:And we could get into. I think there is value in having a morning routine and having these different things and having this discipline, but that's not what we're talking about here and what you're saying. To me it transcends just a. I wake up and I'm saying yeah, I expect miracles.
Speaker 2:No, it's like a no, it's like a mindset, it's a way of living right, it's engraving on your heart. It's like I know that, as I run into the fire, that I am going to be okay because I'm relying on expect, believing that miracles are gonna happen, believing that God is I'm doing what he wants me to do. Yep, almost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and a part, an extension of that, and tying this all back to this Marine Corps tactic, this ambush tactic, is never surrender. Okay, we're cultivating and programming our minds to to expect miracles. At the same time, we're also programming ourselves to never surrender. We talked about this a few episodes back. How many times, if I get knocked down, I'm gonna get back up? Well, never surrender is crucial, guys, in the game of entrepreneurship and in the game of real estate.
Speaker 1:Okay, it happens more often than not that when we encounter turbulence or resistance or fire or whatever you wanna call it, the propensity is to pivot away and find something new, or to give up all together. And, and so you talk about a lot of. There's so many cliches here and we're gonna, we're gonna maybe, maybe air on the side of splitting hairs. But you've heard the, you've heard of, you've heard of the cliche burn all of the ships, yeah, okay. And you've heard of these great legends of Greek warriors, you know, invading, invading a territory, and they would, you know, come into a certain new territory and they would burn the ships in the harbor because that would seal off any retreat potential.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, and they would be there to either die or succeed, right, and you hear about that at Sea of Cortez. You hear about that with Cortez leading an army into the Aztec. You know interior, and that's actually what they did. You know, burn the ship.
Speaker 1:I'd have you consider that we have to cultivate this attitude around business, Like if we're setting our mind to do something, then there has to be a no surrender attitude.
Speaker 1:And a lot of the times we can really we can shoot ourselves in the foot when we put timing expectations around things. So one of the things I can't control is time, and so when I put expectations around the timing of how fast this project's supposed to happen, or how fast we ought to be able to raise that capital, or how fast we ought to get that product to market, whatever it is, timing can be one of those dicey. It's a tightrope. We've got to set deadlines, we've got to push ourselves and the company to hit deadlines. You know, I love hearing about Steve Jobs and his engineers when he's developing the iPhone. I love hearing about them coming to him and saying, hey, you know, this glass that you want to use on these phones is like this, is this next level glass, and I mean we're building up our manufacturing processes to be able to fulfill this, but you know we need two more weeks.
Speaker 1:And he's like well, if you can get it done in two weeks, you can have it done on the deadline in two days. And he gently like took them off of that, that wanting to pivot and wanting to extend and he and they rallied and they made it happen.
Speaker 1:So there's just some strength in the resilience of the mind when we embrace this never surrender attitude and we're ready to kind of. You know, arnold Schwarzenegger talks about not having plan. You know plans B and C. There's one plan and it's execute the plan right. What is this bringing up for you?
Speaker 2:It. You know it makes me think a lot of different thoughts, but I'm thinking about my life and what this looks like. You know, I mean I have what I, you know, a year ago, my vision for what I wanted my life to look like is different than it is now. Oh yeah, and so I'm thinking a lot about this. I'm like, okay, you know, a year ago I had this vision, I had this this is the path. But as I continued on that path and met resistance and met different things, that path morphed into something bigger. As I became more of the person that could create what I was creating, my perspective changed, that or the other changed, and then things opened up to me and things became clear and it's like, oh, I didn't think of that before. And it becomes different. And I think an aspect of this is being so strategic and calculated and also, at the same time, willing to adapt you know cause Flexible yeah.
Speaker 2:Cause, if, and as you're talking, this thought just keeps coming back to me. It's like, man, you know, if I were to have just continued on the path that I set out on and maybe that's the wrong way of saying it but if I would have just not been flexible to change two or three years ago, I would not be where I am right now. Absolutely there is no doubt in my mind. I would be completely different, spot right, and I can't say if that would have been a successful or a failure, like I just I don't know. But looking back, I'm sitting here going this, what I am currently doing and what I will be doing in the future is bigger than what I could even dream of back when I was doing the guitar hackscom. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Like doing these little things here, rise marketing. These little things you know, getting on this path, it's like, okay. Well, what does never surrender mean? I don't believe that. It means you are super strict to one thing. Exactly, it means I am never surrendering to this idea of my personal growth, and that's what the podcast is about, right? Yeah, that's right, it's like my personal growth, my service and my dedication to God, to people, to value creation.
Speaker 2:It's not necessarily to one aspect of this because, those things change markets change, business plans change, customer values change, like all this stuff changes, and if you're not gonna be committed to that, not committed to the fact that things change, then you are ultimately gonna fail and fall behind and then you're gonna die in the ambush right. And so that's kind of where my thought goes. It's like, yeah, if you're going on this path, then yeah, burn the ships, but don't be an idiot, I get what I'm trying to say Don't be, you know, like, for example, for me.
Speaker 2:I have a job. I have, but it directly correlates to what I'm doing, because the experience I'm gaining there is invaluable to what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:It's all part of the expansion plan, the big plan of the highest version of you.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and it's not a nine to five. It doesn't suck much and I'm not saying maybe you don't have it.
Speaker 1:It could be and it could still support your highest and best version of you being a nine to five, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think it's wise and I don't think it's like this whole thing when we're talking about burning the ships. I don't believe that just saying oh, I have an idea and then quitting your job and selling your, I do not believe that is the answer. I do not believe that's the path. I believe that it requires an extra level of commitment, like saying, hey, you know, maybe I'm in this position right now. You have to take an honest acknowledgement and honest look at where you're at currently, where you want to go and how do you bridge from point A to point B and then never quit on that. Right, it's like, okay, if you currently have a job you hate, well, where do you want to be and what can you do now that can get you to there?
Speaker 2:It might not be quitting your job today. It might be. It might be Right. And if you're, you know, maybe you started a business and now you're a slave to your business. Well, where do you want to be? Maybe you hate that, where do you want to be? Okay, well, how do you get there? It might not be just dissolving your business. It might be.
Speaker 2:Right, I guess what I'm trying to say is like it's this calculated commitment towards that growth, and I don't always think it's exactly black and white. I guess what I'm trying to say is different, for everyone.
Speaker 1:That's true, that right. There is a major expectation, a major definition for any entrepreneur considering getting into this game. It's never black and white. The conditions are never perfect. It almost never will end up the way you envision it, so you've got to be cultivating. There's this whole battery of philosophy, there's a whole. There's myriad moving parts and points of view to incorporate. All I'm saying is the sum of all of this.
Speaker 1:Programming are critical points of programming If it weren't for every second of every minute of every day, I wouldn't be exactly who I am, sitting exactly right here with you in this moment, in this amazing studio, this amazing place, if it weren't for all of that, now in hindsight, looking back, would I have planned that?
Speaker 2:Oh my God no, no right, there's just no chance I wouldn't have had the courage, I would not have the courage to go through it If you would have known what you were about to embark on.
Speaker 1:I love that thought.
Speaker 2:It's like if you would have known, you probably wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 1:And that's part of why I believe God has such a unique way of manifesting miracles through us and with us, because he only lets us see enough that the current version of our self can accept. And it has to be uncomfortable, like I'm not talking about notice, I didn't say God only lets us see what we're comfortable with. He only lets us see enough of what we can accept, and it could be excruciatingly difficult.
Speaker 1:Challenging might seem impossible, should seem impossible if we really believe in manifesting miracles, but that's part of the daily, that's part of the daily right is waking up and having a mind and energy that's committed to this. So there's this flexibility, there's this I'm never quitting. There's this if I meet resistance, I'm going to become bigger, faster. I'm going to learn, I'm going to question, I'm going to ask better questions. Who do I have to become to do that? What do I have to learn to overcome this? And then there's this resolve that I'm committed to do whatever it takes to go do that. And you're constantly pivoting on this path.
Speaker 2:So what does it take, what does it look like for someone, for us, to obtain these attributes of expecting miracles? Because anyone can say, like we can just say right now oh yeah, this is what you need to do. You need to expect miracles, right, but what's the way, what's the path that we can practice and acquire this view, this outlook, right? How can I practice expecting miracles?
Speaker 1:How can I?
Speaker 2:practice setting uncomfortable targets. How can I practice? And maybe that's, I guess, maybe that's a way right, but how can I practice running into the ambush, Like you?
Speaker 1:know what I mean. The shitty thing about the answer to that question is is not what you want to hear? How do you practice cultivating? Well, it means you have to get shot at. It means you have to. It means you have to have some failure. It means you've got to encounter some serious discomfort.
Speaker 2:So that's exactly what I was looking for, because I want it to be very clear that the only way to really acquire these skills or in Claff talks about it and pitch anything and flip the script in his books. It's like you can't get good just reading a book. You can understand the principle, but until you get in and you actually are doing this, then it's not going to become part of you.
Speaker 2:I think that's super important. That's why I asked the question, because you know it's like well, how do you acquire these attributes? How do you acquire the skills? You put yourself in scenarios where you're forced to acquire them and then you actively say oh man, I'm experiencing this, I can. Now, I have the opportunity to choose if I'm going to or not.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, making the decision prior is probably it's. You know that's the way to do it. So you're saying, hey, look, I'm gonna go into it, but it's saying it and doing it are complete different things right so you're gonna say it and then, when you get to, that that's the way to practice. From what I'm hearing, you say, like that's the way to practice. It's like you have to be in that situation and then actively say I already decided I was gonna do this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So in that, that's your, that's your opportunity to become more.
Speaker 1:That's right. Everyone wants to be a gangster until it's time to do gangster shit.
Speaker 2:And then when it hits, the rubber meets the road no one wants to be a gangster anymore.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, we could die doing this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're absolutely right. I have a hundred things going through my head. I'm currently reading a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and I'm only a couple chapters in, but I love what he's what he's getting into with Outliers, because he's talking about the 10,000 hour theory and he's talking about he's unpacking what you're talking about. What does it take for someone to go from two years old or so to a professional athlete or a world-class violinist or pianist? He talks about Mozart and, you know, being the greatest composer of all time. Well, most, most people just assume that Mozart was born with all this natural skill and this gift and he did have a gift.
Speaker 1:However, you know, he points out that Mozart's dad helped compose a lot of his early works, and when he was a child he would put things in front of him, whoa and and.
Speaker 1:Mozart wasn't composing this stuff as a young man. In fact, he didn't make his, he didn't make his most well-known work until he was like 26 years old and he, and so he, and there's, there's this whole, there's this whole chain reaction kind of ladder to studying Mozart's life from a child to the greatest composer that's ever been known and what that took. And you and and you should check that book out, outliers, because it's fantastic, because you understand that influences and programming, and beyond influences and programming, beyond the environment choices, and you know what we do on a daily. How many hours do we actually commit to this? Professional athletes putting in you know, three to eight hours a day, and how fast can we get to the 10,000 hours? And then only once you hit the 10,000 hours under your belt can you consider yourself proficient enough to do your best work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting thing, guys, and so you know, think about as an entrepreneur. If you're getting ready to go into some business venture and you think that this needs to happen next year, man, you're, you, can. You can be successful next year at some level, but it's unrealistic for you to say I'm gonna go from now to Bill Gates next year.
Speaker 1:There's a progression and so we set ourselves in for the race with no finish line. Mentally, we lock ourselves in. That's what? When I say never surrender, that's what I'm saying. We're locking ourselves in mentally and emotionally to run a race, it's whatever it takes. This is why we talk about the ruthless commitment to expansion.
Speaker 1:It is a ruthless commitment, because we are gonna get bloodied along the way, we're gonna get knocked down, there's gonna be these challenges, but it's whatever it takes mode Right and it's flexible, like and so you know, now I feel like we're we're almost reaching some redundancy here on the episode, but this is the point I'm trying to drive home. It's the combination of all of these things and recognizing that I mean I think I I didn't get into 10,000 hours until I was maybe 40, to be as specialized in real estate development as I am. I'm 47 this week, but I didn't hit 10,000 hours till maybe 40, 42, and I can feel a difference Interesting. I can feel a difference that I'm in my stride and that I'm in my prime.
Speaker 1:Because, when challenges come there's no hesitation behind how to respond to that right. And it kind of feels nice to have the reps in and have the 10,000 hours under your belt and really know that you're motoring on that right path right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. That's you know, and I like what you say about the time. You know it's like we can't control time. But I would also add to that it's like we can control what we do with our time Absolutely. And it goes back to what you just said here. It's like you just hit your 10,000 hour, man. You know, everyone has different paths, everyone has their own unique scenarios and journeys, and it's like you have an opportunity to choose what you're gonna do with that time. Well, you can't control it. You can choose what you're gonna do and you can choose how quickly. Well, I mean, you have like, if we're saying actually 10,000 hours, it takes 10,000 hours, but you can choose to make that 10,000 hours happen over this amount of time or your entire life.
Speaker 2:That's right. So you see, what I'm trying to say is like you control what you do with it. That's right. You can maximize that and you know I just really like that and that's kind of been. My biggest takeaway from this is, like man, I have the opportunity to choose.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know and take control of that so, and then put myself in scenarios that I'm going to have to expand, that I'm going to have to.
Speaker 1:That's a really critical point to it, dallin, because in Outliers Malcolm Gladwell is talking about like the National Canadian Hockey Leagues, and he's talking about how, from very young ages, like five, six years old, down to the month of the year they were born, most of the professionals were born in like January, february. And what's interesting about the data when you research that is, all that meant was the kids that were born earlier in the year got interesting More reps earlier.
Speaker 1:And were bigger when it came time for the season of everyone of that same age, and so they had some advantages of repetition, advantages of size, advantages of extra practices. But then what happened is is they moved through the leagues. Kids would get into these elite, you know teams where they would have, instead of 20 games a year, 70 games a year. So the number of reps accelerated depending on different choices and that ladder and how it progressed.
Speaker 2:Small choices, too Small minute, minute, little thing.
Speaker 1:All the little details contribute to those choices.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I think that that probably is very kind of a valuable little nugget for anyone that's listening is like man, it doesn't have to be huge things that you're embarking on every day. Totally, in fact, it's the opposite. It's a compilation of a ton of small things. It's a compilation of each and every one of these small little tweaks, these small little changes, these small little things that are making you better. It's the 1% every day that'll gradually build and become what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2:Right, I think that's also kind of a little bit more of a bite sizeable. You know, when you're listening to this, I feel like it could be easy to you know, even me sitting here, it's like, geez, that's a lot Right. But when you put it in that perspective, it's like, well, no, because I can do something today. Yeah, and I'm sitting in this minute in this very hour.
Speaker 1:We talked about that maybe 10 episodes ago. You know, trust the process like setting targets. And like setting a target a year out versus setting my daily process. And then trusting it, like set it in motion and then trust it and then develop consistency inside of it, and then and now, guess what You're manifesting miracles a decade from now, because of commitments and choices that were made.
Speaker 2:The groundwork you're laying right now.
Speaker 1:That's right yeah.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, and you know it also. It's cool because you know, instead of saying, well, I'm not having these opportunities of growth right now, instead of asking, instead of saying that we've said this before, ask the better question well, how can I be?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, an interesting side note before we wrap this episode is when I pray to God. A long time ago, I made a decision that I don't. I'm not actively asking and begging him to do anything for me. I'm 100% focused on giving gratitude for him that everything that got done today, and in just focusing on gratitude and I'll feel gratitude for things in the future, feeling what it will feel like when this is done, and I'm expressing gratitude to God for that. And so, again, that's part of the mental programming, because I know God isn't gonna come and just save me and you know, bless me with this, you know billion dollars and whatever it is.
Speaker 1:And, I think, a lot of people a lot of the listeners out there guys like I respect prayer. That's a sacred thing, and I'm just suggesting that a heavier emphasis on gratitude versus asking God to do things for you and do miracles for you is not the most effective approach in my experience, but when I have gratitude, acknowledging that he did he showed me a miracle today and then figuring out and looking at small things as miracles, yeah. That's critical to the programming and the compounding of the whole thing, right.
Speaker 2:And I just to add on that you know, when you're talking about prayer like that, it's like man. If all you're focused on is just asking for this, that and the other, then it almost seems like well, you know what are you treating that relationship as? It's like you know, is it just, you're just taking and taking you're just wanting it.
Speaker 2:It's like it becomes a different approach entirely when you're coming from a source of gratitude Absolutely and it's like look, I'm you know. Not only does it affect that relationship, it affects you Absolutely, because then it conditions and that's probably one of the biggest things we're talking about in this scenario it's like you, if you can develop yourself as a grateful person and notice the gratitude we talked about this before but you start noticing the silver linings, you start actually manifesting the miracles because you are conditioning yourself to be someone that can. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 1:And then it appreciates them, and then you know that you're on the Jedi path. When you're taking heavy fire, you're getting sued. It feels like the whole sky is falling and yet you somehow I somehow am focused on the gratitude of the miracles of the day. Okay, that's Jedi level programming when you can get to that point right, instead of falling into the pitfalls of victimness and martyred. Well, that's it, guys. Let's wrap this episode, dallin. Thank you for your contribution today. Man, this was a fun one. Hopefully the listeners got as much value out of it as I did. Sharing it and sharing it with you. Hopefully you all chime in again, share the podcast, guys. We appreciate you all sending our love and light and we'll catch you on the next one.