9 Skills for a 1% Life We Weren’t Taught In School
The Hyperfocused Entrepreneur
June 11, 2023
Read time: 6 minutes
School screwed me up…
They taught me how to memorize meaningless facts in a world where everybody has access to Google in their pocket.
They taught me how to show up, sit still, and face the front in a world where every workplace I’ve ever seen is filled with constant interruptions and distractions.
They taught me how to conform in a world that disproportionately rewards the unique individuals willing to carve their own path through the world.
Simply put…
If your goal (like mine) is to live a 1% life… then the modern school system taught you all the wrong lessons.
We’re gonna set things straight this week and unpack 9 skills we weren’t taught in school that’ll put you on the path to creating a life that others can only dream of.
Let’s get it.
1. How to Focus
Growing up with ADHD I was told I had the inability to focus. That there was something wrong in my brain that simply made it impossible.
And because everybody in my life (parents, teachers, and other trusted adults) all proclaimed this to be true with absolute certainty, I believed them.
Basing your beliefs, and therefore actions, off inaccurate information is a surefire way to meet frustration, disappointment, and failure.
One of the big turning points in my life occurred because I started questioning this belief that I had about myself.
And what’s interesting is, I didn’t question the belief because I thought it was perhaps wrong…
I did it because I had no choice.
See, there are only two types of beliefs in this life…
Limiting Beliefs and Empowering Beliefs.
For myself, buying into the belief that I couldn’t focus was a Limiting Belief. At a certain point I came to realize that this belief (though it might be true) wasn’t serving me.
So I did something pretty wild in retrospect.
I decided to live in a fantasy world.
A world where my ADHD wasn’t a limitation, but actually a superpower.
And wouldn’t ya know it, something kind of unbelievable started happening…
My reality began to change.
Slowly, but surely, on my delusional quest to unlock my hyperfocused brain I discovered something profound about this world:
Any belief held with sufficient conviction will inevitably become true.
Perhaps this isn’t strictly true… but it’s something I choose to believe.
As a result, I’ve managed to craft a life that many would look at and say:
That’s impossible.
And yet here we are.
I share this with you because the first major hurdle I had to unlock on my journey was to Learn How to Focus.
Here are some thoughts on how to do exactly that:
How to unlock Hyperfocus:
(the 10 rules I used to turn ADHD into a superpower) pic.twitter.com/ZwhbqGu4DA
— Anthony Vicino (@AnthonyVicino) May 5, 2023
2. How to be Bored
When was the last time you were well and truly bored…
No phone, no computer, no talking with a friend, no reading a book, no Netflix, no video games, no music, no nothing…
Just you out in the world with absolutely nothing to do.
Something interesting happens when boredom sets in and you can’t easily reach for the nearest distraction…
The brain starts looking for creative ways to stimulate itself.
You start daydreaming shapes in the clouds, or scrawling in the dirt with a twig, or wondering what drunk person dreamed up the rules of baseball.
I believe boredom is the antidote to many of modern life’s issues.
• foggy thinking
• overwhelm
• distraction
• isolation
If you’re struggling with any of these, it’s probably because you’re overstimulated and only engaging with the world in a shallow way.
To go deeper, make space for boredom.
3. How to Make Money
This should come as no surprise.
School teaches people how to be good employees.
Here’s how to show up, do the assigned work, be a good stooge, clock out, and then mentally shut down until it’s time to repeat the process tomorrow.
The very first lesson school ever taught me was how to look forward to the weekend.
But because you hang around these parts, you know that trading your time for money is no way to build wealth.
Here’s the way that worked for me:
Here's how I'd go from zero to $1M net worth in under 3 years if I were starting all over again:
— Anthony Vicino (@AnthonyVicino) December 17, 2022
4. How to Assess Risk
Risk cannot be avoided. It can only be managed.
The ones that do not understand this are living the riskiest lives of all.
In my experience, the people taking the biggest risks (without even realizing it) are the ones who’ve opted to get that comfy corporate job and trade their time for money
Not only is this a terrible way to build wealth, it’s also incredibly risky because you’ve tied your future to the whims of upper-management.
I got a DM from a follower recently who shared a heartbreaking story about how her husband (an architect) got laid off right before making partner.
Suddenly their primary income stream vanished in the blink of an eye and everything he’d been building over the past decade was gone.
This is not nearly as rare an experience as most people think.
Problem is, most people have just never sat down to crunch the numbers to determine how truly risky their lives are…
And perhaps the greatest risk of all is one that can’t be quantified on a spreadsheet.
It’s the risk of living a life of unfulfilled potential.
The result?
Regret.
I don’t know about you, but for me…
The risk of mediocrity is greater than the risk of failure.
5. How to Create Wealth
Most people live paycheck to paycheck…
(even the ones making a ton of money)
That’s because they don’t understand how to build meaningful wealth.
Here’s a framework that’s served me well:
6. How to Make a Decision
Clarity of thought leads to improved judgment, which produces better decisions, and ultimately, better results.
Most of us were never taught how to make a good decision.
As a result, we rely on emotions.
The problem with emotions is that they make dots appear to connect that do not in fact have anything to do with one another.
In a world of infinite leverage, good Judgment becomes THE most important skill.
That’s all great and good, but the question then becomes…
Well, how do we actually improve our Decision Making abilities?
Start here:
7. How to Maximize Your Energy
I used to say that Focus is your most important asset (not TIME).
The reason I believed this to be so is because Time does not actually have a basis in objective reality.
It’s simply a construct of the human consciousness.
As a result, our ability to Focus determines how we ultimately use this ephemeral concept known as Time.
Well, turns out I was wrong…
Focus is NOT your most important asset.
But neither is Time.
My mistake came from not getting to the true First Principle underlying Focus, which is that our ability to Focus is simply the result of our biological machine’s ability to produce and deploy Energy.
No Energy, No Focus.
Alright, so now that we realize the importance of Energy, here are 6 tiny habits to 10x your energy:
1. Workout daily
2. Eat better food
3. Drink more water
4. Get higher quality sleep
5. Limit your caffeine intake
6. Get sunlight within 30 minutes of waking
8. How to Develop Gratitude
If you’re like me, you spend most of your time focused on the gap between where you are and where you’re trying to go.
The Paradigm Shift:
Reflect more on the gap between where you are and where you began.
There’s a lifetime of gratitude to be found in that chasm.
9. How to Fail Your Way to Success
Success and Failure are two sides of the same coin… but in the beginning, that coin is rigged.
It’s weighted to land on Failure 90% of the time.
But it’s a magical coin.
With each flip the balance shifts .01% towards success.
So just keep flipping.
Success becomes inevitable.
Until next week…
Stay Hyperfocused, My Friend
AV
From The Podcast This Week:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1a8CuW42Eg0GzpYj4iDP4G?si=9a1bb349f5bb4759
Want to go even deeper?
1. Ever felt like Sisyphus, pushing that boulder of focus uphill? ADHD, distractions, procrastination- all fighting to knock you back. 💥
Welcome to the Hyperfocus Dojo! 👊 It’s your secret ninja training ground to master your brain, win this war and live your dream life.
The Hyperfocused Masterclass: the exact system I used to overcome ADHD, write a bunch of books, build some successful businesses, and acquire a whole lot of real estate.
2. If you’re in relentless pursuit of doing less, but better, than check out my podcast, Amplified Impact, for a quick-hitting daily dose of motivation and inspiration.
