Last Friday’s episode of “The Kale Letter” was one of our most downloaded to date.
Nearly 10,000 people read the letter, which is astonishing to me.
The letter was about the 7 best life & business hacks that I stole directly from entrepreneurs who are much smarter than I am. Here it is for those who haven’t read it yet -> LINK
I wanted to expound on that concept today by talking about just ONE life hack/business hack that really makes all of the difference.
It’s the simple art of going ALL IN.
Understanding this has 100% changed my life for the better, and I think it can help you too.
First, a key framework to understand this all, here’s what I’ve observed about 99% of humans (remember from the letter on Friday, only 1% of humans control more than 99% of the World’s wealth).
99% of people never go “all in” on anything. They simply don’t know how.
99% of people THINK they are going all in, when in reality they aren’t even close.
Those two facts have been obvious to me my entire life, both in school, basketball, and business.
Take basketball for instance.
Many of you know I played Division 1 at Northwestern, Drake, and Duquesne.
When I was in high-school, I legitimately had friends and opponents who couldn’t understand why they weren’t better than me.
They thought they were all in!
“But Kale! I go to the gym everyday and shoot just like you do!”
I would just smile…
And invite them to come workout with me sometime.
Let’s just say that most of them never made it past the warm-up.
Their “All-In” wasn’t even equivalent to the first 10 minutes of my daily workout.
Of course they had no chance of guarding me in an actual game.
In college, I realized that even I hadn’t been going “all-in”.
It sounds weird, but there were different levels of “sweat”.
Like obviously, if you are playing D1 ball, your practices are going to make you sweat like a stuck pig.
However, the practices where I dominated?
Where I got every rebound, hit every shot, and dunked on people?
I could literally feel the sweat coming off my body was different.
It was almost as if I’d pushed myself so far “All In” that it operated differently. Smoother. Every complex motion, just a snap reaction of pre-programmed perfection.
Why am I going into detail like this when most of you have never even dribbled a basketball?
BECAUSE IT APPLIES TO EVERYTHING.
Today, I’d like to propose an idea for you to try…..
A) Focus ALL your attention on only ONE thing at once.
And I really mean only one.
Not one + whatever notification comes up on your phone.
Not one + the 12 other thoughts in the back of your mind…
Do you think elite athletes have time to think about their dinner after the game as they are guarding LeBron James?
Of course not.
B) Understand that this applies EVERYWHERE.
Don’t be having dinner with your wife and still thinking about your business meeting from earlier.
ALL of your attention should be on her.
Don’t be watching a movie and playing candy crush on your phone.
All of your attention should be on the movie.
The cinematography, the camera angles, the storyline, the twists and turns of the plot.
I’m serious. This level of focus probably sounds strange.
It’s strange, because no one does it.
C) Take the focus FURTHER.
Like with my basketball analogy, there are LEVELS to this.
You may think you are all in.
You may think you are performing at peak capacity.
But you probably aren’t.
And that’s okay.
Find a way to be MORE all-in.
The perfect example I have is one that I don’t see a lot in businesses run by UNSUCCESSFUL people, and one that I see a TON in businesses run by SUCCESSFUL people.
It’s the CONSTANT, NEVER ENDING, AGGRESSIVE, act of FOLLOWING UP.
Successful people don’t sit on their hands.
They don’t let things slide.
If someone doesn’t email them back in the time frame they promised?
They follow up.
If something isn’t done when it is supposed to be done?
They are climbing down that person’s throat and asking what’s going on.
I so VERY clearly remember this story from Elon Musk’s biography…
I remember because it offended me.
Elon was hosting a Christmas party at Space X…
Family all invited, all of the traditional office party stuff going on…
But someone had missed a deadline…
A whole team in fact…
And low and behold…
Musk had them all in his office and was laying down the HAMMER.
Screaming.
Cursing.
I think even throwing a few things.
All within earshot of their spouses and loved ones.
He literally couldn’t care less.
Now I’m not saying that was the right thing to do, but the morale of the story is that Elon Musk is the richest person in the World.
And he DID NOT get there by being passive…
And by “letting things slide”.
He got there by being a son of a gun…
By going places no one else would even dare to tip-toe.
And going there with excessive boldness and aggression.
I hope this letter made sense, it was a concept kind of on the tip of my tongue but that is hard to articulate.
I think it can be summarized very well by Elon’s tweet here…
Now THAT is “ALL IN”.
In a World where pretty much EVERYONE is afraid to go all-in on ANYTHING…
— “Can’t make a statement that’s too bold… it’ll offend people…”
— “I can’t have that conversation with an employee, they’ll quit…”
— “I can’t pursue that business type, it’s too competitive…”
In a World where everyone is making excuses and not diving in headfirst…
Those that DO will be rewarded, and be rewarded richly.
I hope this helped you.
If if did, forward it to someone please.
Love ya.
Kale
The simple art of going ALL IN.