🍀Know Your 'Unfair Advantage'? - Issue 153
Hi, I am JOE and I write on "Mindful Productivity & Cerebral Happiness". My endeavour is to share life lessons, some thoughts, quotes & links to articles/podcasts/books, I discover during the week.
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Hey friends, recently I was at ‘Kababs N Curries’ and had a meaningful conversation with an energetic young man whom I consider very capable, sensible, affectionate and superbly mannered individual. During our discussion, I apprised him of his unfair advantage, which he can convert into meaningful gains.
Among other general talks, the topic of entrepreneurship came up and this is what I said-
I am more convinced than ever of the fact that the path to success is not just self-discipline, belief and hard work. It’s certainly much more than these stated things and this something may or may not be a completely unrelated thing.
If we look around- ‘Success in the startup world is not simply awarded to the hardest workers. It is awarded to those who develop and use their Unfair Advantages. And by ‘unfair advantage’ I do not mean an unethical or illegal advantage (although I’m sure there are many of those who did indulge in this too).
What I mean is -
An unfair advantage is a competitive upper hand, which is unique to an individual’s surrounding. This unique advantage, give them a fundamental leg-up over the competition. What is even more interesting is that sometimes it’s not what they have either ‘earned’ or worked for.
A case study among many out there -
Evan Spiegel was the world’s youngest self-made billionaire who reached $1,000,000,000 by the age of just 24. The storyline looks very catchy and inspiring but rarely do people know that he had his unique ‘Unfair Advantage’.
“I am a young, white, educated male … I got really, really lucky. And life isn’t fair.’
Evan Spiegel
“Evan Spiegel grew up in a multimillion-dollar household in Los Angeles. His early years were spent at an expensive private school in LA, which curiously enough was also attended by Tinder co-founder Sean Rad, plus a host of Hollywood stars such as Kate Hudson, Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Evan’s parents were powerful lawyers, who worked on high-profile cases such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and actor Charlie Sheen’s infamous $100 million suit against Warner Brothers. His mother held the distinction of being Harvard Law’s youngest female graduate.
Evan also met titans like Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, and Scott Cook, founder of financial software giant Intuit and gained from them.
Finaly to say - How many startup enterprenure can say to VC’s that - ‘If you guys want standard terms, invest in a standard company.’ I am sure not many people can do that.
What is my take on it -
Although there is no denying that Evan started young, he had already received over a century’s worth of combined wisdom, the best education, different skin colour, place of birth, powerful contacts on a platter, best mentors, financial freedom and business lessons by the time Snapchat was conceived. This is a huge unfair advantage stacked up against a meritorious guy from a top university.
To put this in a quick perceptive - Just imagine, if Evan would have been born in South Africa/ North Korea or an African-American Black guy, do you think, despite having the best education, he would have done, what he did? The probability factor says the possibility is almost nil unless he would have had his different set of ‘unfair advantages’ ( Remember what he said -I got really, really lucky. And life isn’t fair.’).
I am certainly not saying that all of Snapchat’s success was to Evan’s privileged upbringing. Not at all. Plenty of privileged kids amount to absolutely nothing and do end up losing their identity. This is just one example, there are plenty of them out there ( from Bill Gates to Oprah Winfrey to Barrack Obama ) for you to explore and you will find a unique pattern to it.
What I mean, when I say ‘unfair advantages’ is that - All these factors stacked up one on top of the other contribute in powerful ways to one’s success.
Arguably, there is no general agreement on what intelligence actually is ?. Since intelligence can manifest across a broad range of abilities, hence it isn't easy to combine these and reach one global measurement.
I definitely see a myth of meritocracy beyond a point in this competitive world – hard work and ability alone are not sufficient enough to give you overwhelming success. Trust me, there is always some kind of unfair advantage at play in the background and it’s up to you to identify your own unfair advantage and harness it for success.
I have particularly enjoyed ‘Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s work and he said something similar in the context -
“Mild success can be explainable by skills and labour. Wild success is attributable to [statistical] variance.”___ Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I have truly come to believe that life is too random and arbitrary to balance out and give everyone an equal share. We don’t all have the same opportunities despite the meritocracy. All of us have our unique advantage, just find out your ‘Unfair Advantage’ & work on it, the sooner the better. Do pick up your own take and turn it into an overwhelming success.
Take good care & enjoy reading this week's dose of ‘Mindful Productivity & Cerebral Happiness’.
Joe
❤️ 🧠 Stuff, I invested myself during the week🧤🧤
ARTICLE - Does America Still Need Europe? Debating an “Asia First” Approach
📖📚MY ABSORPTIONS OF THE MONTH:-⬇️
The Course of Love __By Alain De Botton
The Unfair Advantage __ By Ash Ali & Hasan Kubba
Obedience to Authority( The Experiment that Challenged Human Nature) __ By Stanley Morgan
The Moral Animal __ By Robert Wright
Tribes __ By Seth Godin
The Maths of Life and Death __ By Kit Yates
The New Birth Order Book __ Dr Kevin Leman
🧠Book, I’m Currently Reading:-📖📚⬇️
Spare __ By Prince Harry - ( In Case you are wondering about the strange title, here it is in the author’s own words ) -
“ Pa allegedly said to Mummy the day of my birth: Wonderful, Now you’ve given me an Heir and a Spare - my work is done”.
🧠BOOKS ON MY RADAR FOR ABSORPTION IN MAY 2023:-📖📚⬇️
Powerful __By Patty McCord
Good Leaders Ask Great Questions__ By John C Maxwell
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