What Makes People Successful?

2020-04-26 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Hasan Kubba · recording, 12:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book, Aimed at students

In the first Book Club episode Ali summarises The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba, with clips of his interview with Hasan: success combines fair play and unfair advantages, found with the MILES framework; Ali argues luck and confidence are fair advantages and closes on the reality growth mindset.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hook and the first Book Club episode: The Unfair Advantage and its thesis that life is unfair

★★ This video is the first episode of Book Club, Ali's new series summarising key insights from books, starting with The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba. — 00:00:29 · Book Club
★★ The Unfair Advantage starts from the thesis that life is fundamentally unfair: successful people rarely got there by hard work alone, as luck, circumstances and privilege played a strong role. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — The success equation: fair play plus unfair advantages

★★★ Reading The Unfair Advantage, Ali came up with an equation: success, however it is defined, is some combination of fair play and unfair advantages. — 00:00:58
★★ Ali defines an unfair advantage as one that really helps but that others cannot easily replicate, such as rich parents investing half a million dollars in a founder's startup from day one; hard work anyone could copy is fair play. — 00:01:28
★★ A main idea of The Unfair Advantage, given in its subtitle, is that unfair advantages are not only for the rich and famous: everyone has their own. — 00:01:57

00:02:26 — The MILES framework: money, intelligence, location and luck, education, status

★★ Hasan Kubba says Ash Ali first came up with the MILES framework (money, intelligence and insight, location and luck, education and expertise, status), which they set on a foundation of mindset. — 00:02:26
★★ For money, Ali cites Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, who became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at 24 after growing up in a multimillion-dollar Los Angeles house with private schools and well-connected lawyer parents. — 00:02:55
★★ Evan Spiegel clearly had to put in the work and the ideas, Ali says, but his example shows how money, prestige and power can be a big unfair advantage. — 00:02:55
★★ For intelligence and insight, Ali cites the Collison brothers: they co-founded Stripe, a multi-billion-dollar payments company, before either turned 22; Patrick invented a programming language at 16 and John got the highest-ever leaving certificate score. — 00:03:24
★★ For location and luck, Ali quotes Ray Kroc of McDonald's on being in the right place at the right time, and says location matters: businesses cluster, as in Silicon Valley, and the right place unlocks opportunities, connections and markets. — 00:04:02
★★★ Ali would probably argue that luck is not really an unfair advantage and put it under fair play instead: some lucky breaks are sheer dumb luck, but much luck can be manufactured. — 00:04:02
★★★ Ali says we can often manufacture our own luck by exposing ourselves to more things: take more action, meet more people, go to events, blog about your startup, publish things and get feedback, and more luck comes your way. — 00:04:37
★★ Ali says a degree from a famous university is probably an unfair advantage depending on the goal, for example for a Cambridge medical student starting a YouTube channel aimed at medical students. (hedged) — 00:05:06 · University of Cambridge
★★★ Of the three benefits of a good education named in The Unfair Advantage (knowledge, network and signalling), Ali says most of his and his friends' medical knowledge came from books and the internet, not from their degrees. — 00:05:35
★★★ Increasingly, especially in startups, Ali says, people care less about where you went to university than about your side projects and skills: an unfair advantage now comes more from expertise, which you can build yourself by learning in your own time. — 00:06:05
★ Elon Musk's status is so high, Ali says, that any new company he starts is guaranteed to succeed in some way, or at least everyone will hear about it. (overstated) — 00:06:34
★★★ Ali agrees that developing confidence and self-esteem matters, but finds it contrived for The Unfair Advantage to file this inner status under status: anyone could gain confidence and self-esteem with effort, so he sees it as a fair advantage. — 00:07:16
★★ The MILES framework's categories help people work out their own unfair advantages, Ali says, and it is not only for those wanting to start a business. — 00:07:16

00:07:46 — Hasan Kubba on why to know your unfair advantages and turning disadvantages into advantages

★★★ Hasan Kubba: On any career path, Hasan Kubba advises knowing what you are naturally good at: in career and business, double down on your strengths rather than fix your weaknesses; in personal life, work on your weaknesses. — 00:07:46
★★★ Hasan Kubba says everybody has unfair advantages, and what seems a disadvantage can be turned into an advantage. — 00:08:15
★★ Hasan Kubba says he started out in business with hardly any money, having frugally saved some of his student loan and maintenance grant. — 00:08:15
★★★ Hasan Kubba: Having little money makes founders more creative, Hasan Kubba says: well-funded founders who pitch him plan growth through Google and Facebook ads, which burns money and is hard to sustain before customers are known to like the product. — 00:08:44 · Google, Facebook
★★ Hasan Kubba: Less money and status can give you a fire in your belly to succeed, Hasan Kubba says: well-off students he knew at university just played World of Warcraft with no motivation to get a job, so being born rich is not necessarily good. — 00:09:13 · World of Warcraft
★★ Hasan Kubba: A great location such as London or the San Francisco Bay Area has a downside, Hasan Kubba says: rents are higher and everybody is fighting over the same talent. — 00:09:13 · London

00:09:42 — Growth mindset and the reality growth mindset; closing

★★ Carol Dweck (quoted): In Carol Dweck's research, children given a slightly too hard challenge who understood that their abilities could grow through hard work had what she calls a growth mindset; for those with a fixed mindset it was catastrophic, as their core intelligence had been tested. — 00:10:12
★★★ Ali has preached the growth mindset to friends and family for years: our abilities are not fixed, we can grow, and everything is a learning experience. — 00:10:12
★★ Because of the growth mindset, Ali says, he has no qualms about putting his hand up to ask a question in class or a lecture, or about looking like an idiot, since it is all a work in progress. — 00:10:49
★★ One issue with the growth mindset, Ali says, is that it can be taken too literally. — 00:10:49
★★★ The Unfair Advantage proposes the reality growth mindset, an evolution of the growth mindset that balances self-awareness and self-belief: feet rooted on the ground with your head in the clouds. — 00:11:15

“the reality growth mindset is about having your feet rooted on the ground with your head in the clouds”
★★★ Hasan Kubba's balanced outlook on successful people: we are all cut from the same cloth, so what others achieve you can achieve, but not everybody has the same opportunities and talents, so learn from them without killing yourself trying or pedestalising them. — 00:11:15
★★★ Ali says that fixating on the privileges we lack blinds us to the unfair advantages we do have, and that wherever we are in life we have so much to be grateful for. — 00:11:50

In the description and comments

★ Ali Abdaal (channel): The channel describes Book Club as a series that takes an in-depth look at one book every fortnight. — video description · Book Club
★ Ali Abdaal (channel): The channel says the next Book Club book will be Atomic Habits. — creator comment · Book Club, Atomic Habits

Threads in this video

refine · Is success a matter of luck or hard work? — Reading The Unfair Advantage, Ali came up with an equation: success, however it is defined, is some combination of fair play and unfair advantages. (00:00:58)
refine · Is university worth it? — Of the three benefits of a good education named in The Unfair Advantage (knowledge, network and signalling), Ali says most of his and his friends' medical knowledge came from books and the internet, not from their degrees. (00:05:35)
restate · How do you stand out in job applications? — Increasingly, especially in startups, Ali says, people care less about where you went to university than about your side projects and skills: an unfair advantage now comes more from expertise, which you can build yourself by learning in your own time. (00:06:05)
refine · How do you become more confident? — Ali agrees that developing confidence and self-esteem matters, but finds it contrived for The Unfair Advantage to file this inner status under status: anyone could gain confidence and self-esteem with effort, so he sees it as a fair advantage. (00:07:16)
restate · How do you become more confident? — Because of the growth mindset, Ali says, he has no qualms about putting his hand up to ask a question in class or a lecture, or about looking like an idiot, since it is all a work in progress. (00:10:49)
restate · How do you deal with rejection and failure? — Ali has preached the growth mindset to friends and family for years: our abilities are not fixed, we can grow, and everything is a learning experience. (00:10:12)
restate · How do you choose a career? — On any career path, Hasan Kubba advises knowing what you are naturally good at: in career and business, double down on your strengths rather than fix your weaknesses; in personal life, work on your weaknesses. (00:07:46)
restate · How do you handle criticism and comparing yourself with others? — Hasan Kubba's balanced outlook on successful people: we are all cut from the same cloth, so what others achieve you can achieve, but not everybody has the same opportunities and talents, so learn from them without killing yourself trying or pedestalising them. (00:11:15)
refine · How do you handle criticism and comparing yourself with others? — Ali says that fixating on the privileges we lack blinds us to the unfair advantages we do have, and that wherever we are in life we have so much to be grateful for. (00:11:50)
kept · Ali promises to include clips from his interview with Hasan in future YouTube videos (2020) — Ali includes clips from his interview with Hasan Kubba about The Unfair Advantage in the first Book Club video. (00:01:57)
launched · Book Club, Ali's series of book-summary videos (2020) — This video is the first episode of Book Club, Ali's new series summarising key insights from books, starting with The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba. (00:00:29)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali promises to include clips from his interview with Hasan in future YouTube videos (2020) — kept
Book Club, Ali's series of book-summary videos (2020) — last documented in 2020; last: milestone, 2020-10-27

Mentioned

Central: Ash Ali · growth mindset · Hasan Kubba · MILES framework · reality growth mindset · The Unfair Advantage · unfair advantage

Also: People: Carol Dweck · Elon Musk · Evan Spiegel · John Collison · Patrick Collison · Ray Kroc

Projects: Book Club

Organizations: Facebook · Google · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · McDonald's · Snapchat · Stripe · University of Cambridge

Concepts: lifelong learning · luck surface area · privilege

Places: London · Los Angeles · San Francisco Bay Area · Silicon Valley

Products: World of Warcraft

Only in the description or credits: Atomic Habits

Also centred on growth mindset: Live Stream - Tuesday Evening Hangout · The confidence to speak up in class - A podcast experiment

Also centred on Hasan Kubba: Interviewing a Writer // Day in the Life VLOG

Also centred on The Unfair Advantage: Interviewing a Writer // Day in the Life VLOG

Also centred on unfair advantage: My BIGGEST Rejections in Life · How Much Money I Earn as a Doctor + YouTuber

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