What It Really Takes to Get Better
How changing your environment — and stealing the right habits — can make you dangerous.
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To the Underdogs, MisFits, and Category Creators,
****This one’s different from my usual Slap (It doesn’t have jack to do about Category Design or Does It?), it’s my world and I don’t care.
Today I want to write about what it takes to get better.
I'm not talking about surface-level improvements; win at this or improve at that. I'm talking about the ability to become the type of person you know you're capable of being. I was talking with my boy Michael Wish about this last night, and it brought me back to 2005.
Back then, I was a Midshipman candidate at the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS) in Newport, RI.
I wasn't smart enough to get straight into Annapolis, but as long as I graduated prep school, I would receive an official appointment. Easy, right? Wrong. Of the 300 "Napsters" who started, only about 200 would go on to receive appointments. By the time we graduated from Annapolis, there were only 40-60 of us left in total.
In 2005, there was no guarantee I'd be one of the ones to make it all the way through.
I was struggling academically. I remember feeling like "I want to get better," and growing up in the church like I did, I did what most Southern Baptists do; I turned to the Bible. I kept telling myself I had to get right, had to get closer to God. But it wasn't working.
Then one day, I had an opportunity to switch roommates.
I ended up rooming with a guy named Wade Kreamer, who'd become one of my best friends. Wade grew up in a two-parent household with his mom and dad; I grew up in a single-parent household, raised by my mom. Wade liked country music; I liked R&B and hip-hop. Wade was a good student; I was not. But by rooming together, I got to pick up on his habits. We studied together, worked out together, and he helped me with my homework.
By the time we graduated NAPS, I increased my GPA from 2.1 to 2.8.
The minimum to graduate at the time was 2.0, and unfortunately, a lot of people didn't make it. Looking back, that experience taught me the importance of putting yourself in the right room and surrounding yourself with people and opportunities that force growth. You have to be willing to pay attention, learn, and make improvements to your habits.
We're all adults, but some of us need reminders from time to time because, in the real world, most people aren't talking and thinking about this; they're in survival mode.
They say they want to get better, but they aren't taking action because it's uncomfortable. I'm making some changes right now, and yes, I can attest that it's uncomfortable but necessary. The last few weeks I've had a chance to spend time with Tim Hsia.
He's a West Point grad, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist who runs Context VC.
Tim has agendas for every call he's on. He also sets aggressive timelines to get stuff done. I've picked up on his habits and started to implement them myself. I know this stuff probably sounds simple, but its been massively helpful for me to pick up on.
I think my answer to "how to get better" is to put yourself in the right room with the right people and pay attention to how they do things.
***P.S. It's (Always) a great day to be alive. I had a massive brain fog earlier this week, so I'm going to pat myself on the back for cranking this out.
—“IRON” Mike
The Category Whisperer
***P.S. I created an AI booking assistant named PAM. If you need my help, click the link above, enter your info, and answer the phone when PAM calls. Let me know what you think about her!
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Additional Resources:
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