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7 Life Lessons School Didn’t Teach You

2023-05-19 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Tim Armoo, Alex Hormozi, Grace Beverley, Daniel Priestley, Grace Lordan, Chris Sparks · recording, 15:25 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Work and career (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness, Productivity and time, Business and entrepreneurship) · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Aimed at students, Sponsor segment present

In seven lessons school does not teach, drawn from guests of his Deep Dive podcast, Ali argues for a bias towards action, investing in your own skills before the stock market, self-care that sometimes means working harder, a first job at a small startup, choosing a career by its daily tasks, learning skills that raise your "personal stock price", and exploiting an unfair advantage.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — What school fails to teach; seven lessons from podcast guests

  • ★★ Ali says school fails to prepare people for the real world, such as managing finances, dealing with managers and deciding what to do with their lives; he shares seven lessons from his podcast guests. — 00:00:00 · Deep Dive

00:00:32 — The Action Mindset (Tim Armoo)

  • ★★★ Tim Armoo says high-performing people have a bias towards action: they try several things, knowing many may flop, and care only about taking as many shots on goal as they can. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Ali says school teaches people to be risk averse through grading and assignments, which can lead to a lot of perfectionism and anxiety. — 00:00:32
  • ★★★ In the real world, Ali says, success is mostly about doing lots of the thing you are trying to do: in a creative field, getting many clients and much practice matters more than perfecting one piece. — 00:01:18
  • ★★ Ali says one characteristic of the most successful people he has met and interviewed is a bias towards action: they spend less time overthinking and more time doing. — 00:01:47
  • ★★★ Ali's lesson from six years of growing his YouTube channel: action is the foundation and overthinking can be sprinkled on top; he tells his Part-Time YouTuber Academy students they may overthink their niche or strategy as long as they take action. — 00:01:47 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ To anyone whom overthinking keeps from acting, Ali offers a quote he often thinks about: it is far easier to steer a moving ship than a stationary one, so start moving and change course later. — 00:02:17

00:02:40 — 4 million subscriber giveaway

  • ★★ To celebrate 4 million subscribers, Ali gives away a $2,000 Productivity Booster Kit to one winner who enters by email: an M2 13-inch MacBook Pro, AirPods Pro, a Kindle Paperwhite, a Logitech MX Master 3S mouse, the Leuchtturm notebook he uses daily and books including Atomic Habits, The 4-Hour Workweek, Make Time, Keep Going and Four Thousand Weeks. — 00:02:46 · MacBook, Kindle
  • ★★★ Alex Hormozi says investing in your own ability to make money gives a significantly higher return than any market. — 00:03:15 · S&P 500 · first in: 2023-01-31, I Asked 5 Millionaires for Their Best Financial Advice

00:03:48 — The Ignorance Debt Paydown (Alex Hormozi)

  • ★★ Alex Hormozi advises paying down ignorance as fast as you can, because once you have the knowledge you can quickly climb to much higher monthly income. — 00:04:05
  • ★★ Ali says school encourages treating school as learning time and a career as earning time, but learning is lifelong and most of it happens after school, at work or in starting a business. — 00:04:05
  • ★★ Ali says that in medicine the first two weeks of working as a doctor teach far denser and more immediately usable knowledge than six years of medical school. — 00:04:48
  • ★★★ Taking up Alex Hormozi's point, Ali says that through a career you are always paying down ignorance debt: you do not make $10 million a year because you do not know how to. (hedged) — 00:04:48
  • ★★ Ali says money put into the S&P 500 grows at five to seven per cent a year. — 00:05:17 · S&P 500
  • ★★★ Ali says $100 spent on improving your own skills, such as ten business books on how to get rich, returns far more than putting it into stock market index funds. — 00:05:17 · S&P 500
  • ★★★ In choosing jobs, Ali advises prioritising learning over earning, especially at the start of a career. — 00:05:47

00:05:58 — Skillshare sponsor read

00:07:02 — The Self-Care Formula (Grace Beverley)

  • ★★★ Grace Beverley says self-care cannot always be marketed as doing nothing: sometimes self-care is meeting a deadline or working harder, out of respect for your future self and your goals; people telling her self-care means relaxing were one of the main triggers for her book. — 00:07:16
  • ★★ Taking Grace Beverley's point, Ali says self-care often looks like productivity: the best self-care may be starting a side hustle or getting better at your job rather than binge-watching Netflix for three hours. — 00:08:03 · Netflix

00:08:25 — The Best First Career (Daniel Priestley)

  • ★★★ Daniel Priestley highly recommends to anyone joining someone else's startup as a first job; young people end up on the big-corporate path because only big corporates exhibit at careers fairs. — 00:08:32 · first in: 2023-01-31, I Asked 5 Millionaires for Their Best Financial Advice
  • ★★ Daniel Priestley spent two years in someone else's startup, from age 19 to 21, and got to sit in on meetings such as negotiating joint ventures. — 00:09:02
  • ★★ Ali says schools, universities and career counsellors steer people to big corporations, generally the only employers that can afford university talks and careers-fair brochures. — 00:09:02
  • ★★★ In a big corporation, Ali says, you are a small cog and your learning is confined to your role, while in a startup of fewer than ten employees you learn the whole business: revenue, profits, goals, management, hiring and accounting. — 00:09:31
  • ★★★ Ali says working at a small startup rather than a big corporation greatly levels up your ability to learn, even if you do not aspire to run your own business; a small plumbing company teaches more business than a big consulting firm. — 00:10:00
  • ★★ Ali says the best time to work for a small business is straight out of school or university, since a big corporation's golden handcuffs make a later pay cut hard, while the corporation can still be joined later. — 00:10:29

00:10:49 — The Ideal Future Job (Grace Lordan)

  • ★★★ Grace Lordan says people get attached to a job label or a lifestyle; her Think Big approach asks what tasks a job such as doctor or trader involves day to day and whether you would enjoy them. — 00:11:21 · first in: 2023-01-12, How to Find a Career You Genuinely Love
  • ★★★ Citing behavioural science, Ali says a fulfilling career depends more on the actions you take day to day than on the job title, so career planning should be task-centric rather than title-centric, which school almost never teaches. — 00:11:50

00:12:04 — The Personal Stock Price Boost (Tim Armoo)

  • ★★★ Tim Armoo advises cultivating skills that lead to money, such as marketing, sales and copywriting, so that you are of use to the economy and people pay you. — 00:12:04

  • ★★★ Ali says what school teaches is not correlated with career or financial success; to make money, learn the skills that raise your "personal stock price", your ability to add value to the economy, and so your salary or business profits. — 00:12:29

    “increase your own personal stock price”

  • ★★ Ali says school teaches maths and calculus but very little about reading a financial balance sheet or using Microsoft Excel, a hugely valuable skill for the economy. — 00:12:58

00:13:47 — The Unfair Advantage (Chris Sparks)

  • ★★★ Chris Sparks says much of success comes from playing the right game, where you have some advantage, even if the advantage is only that you enjoy it more and so find it easier to dedicate yourself. — 00:13:57
  • ★★★ Ali loves the idea of exploiting your competitive or unfair advantages, which he thinks is one of the biggest differences between more and less successful entrepreneurs and creators. — 00:13:57 · unfair advantage
  • ★★ Ali says school's national curriculum pushes everyone to similar things, while real value comes from being really good at one specific thing, as Roger Federer adds value without being an all-rounder. — 00:14:40
  • ★★★ A business need not be everything to everyone like Amazon or Walmart, Ali says: be very good at one specific, even super-niche, service or product, because exploiting an unfair advantage beats shoring up your weak areas. — 00:14:40 · Amazon, unfair advantage

Threads in this video

  • restate · Should you plan things out first or just start? — Tim Armoo says high-performing people have a bias towards action: they try several things, knowing many may flop, and care only about taking as many shots on goal as they can. (00:00:32)
  • restate · Should you plan things out first or just start? — Ali's lesson from six years of growing his YouTube channel: action is the foundation and overthinking can be sprinkled on top; he tells his Part-Time YouTuber Academy students they may overthink their niche or strategy as long as they take action. (00:01:47)
  • refine · Should you plan things out first or just start? — To anyone whom overthinking keeps from acting, Ali offers a quote he often thinks about: it is far easier to steer a moving ship than a stationary one, so start moving and change course later. (00:02:17)
  • refine · How do you get past perfectionism and the fear of starting? — In the real world, Ali says, success is mostly about doing lots of the thing you are trying to do: in a creative field, getting many clients and much practice matters more than perfecting one piece. (00:01:18)
  • restate · How should you start investing? — Alex Hormozi says investing in your own ability to make money gives a significantly higher return than any market. (00:03:15)
  • restate · How should you start investing? — Ali says $100 spent on improving your own skills, such as ten business books on how to get rich, returns far more than putting it into stock market index funds. (00:05:17)
  • refine · How do you choose a career? — In choosing jobs, Ali advises prioritising learning over earning, especially at the start of a career. (00:05:47)
  • restate · How do you choose a career? — Citing behavioural science, Ali says a fulfilling career depends more on the actions you take day to day than on the job title, so career planning should be task-centric rather than title-centric, which school almost never teaches. (00:11:50)
  • restate · What does self-care really mean? — Grace Beverley says self-care cannot always be marketed as doing nothing: sometimes self-care is meeting a deadline or working harder, out of respect for your future self and your goals; people telling her self-care means relaxing were one of the main triggers for her book. (00:07:16)
  • refine · How do you learn how to start and run a business? — Ali says working at a small startup rather than a big corporation greatly levels up your ability to learn, even if you do not aspire to run your own business; a small plumbing company teaches more business than a big consulting firm. (00:10:00)
  • restate · Which skills should you learn now? — Tim Armoo advises cultivating skills that lead to money, such as marketing, sales and copywriting, so that you are of use to the economy and people pay you. (00:12:04)
  • restate · Which skills should you learn now? — Ali says what school teaches is not correlated with career or financial success; to make money, learn the skills that raise your "personal stock price", your ability to add value to the economy, and so your salary or business profits. (00:12:29)
  • restate · How do you find what you are good at? — Chris Sparks says much of success comes from playing the right game, where you have some advantage, even if the advantage is only that you enjoy it more and so find it easier to dedicate yourself. (00:13:57)
  • refine · How do you find what you are good at? — Ali loves the idea of exploiting your competitive or unfair advantages, which he thinks is one of the biggest differences between more and less successful entrepreneurs and creators. (00:13:57)
  • refine · What kind of business should you start first? — A business need not be everything to everyone like Amazon or Walmart, Ali says: be very good at one specific, even super-niche, service or product, because exploiting an unfair advantage beats shoring up your weak areas. (00:14:40)
  • restate · How do you learn how to start and run a business? — Daniel Priestley highly recommends to anyone joining someone else's startup as a first job; young people end up on the big-corporate path because only big corporates exhibit at careers fairs. (00:08:32)

Mentioned

Central: Alex Hormozi · Chris Sparks · Daniel Priestley · Grace Lordan · ignorance debt · unfair advantage

Also: People: Grace Beverley · Roger Federer · Tim Armoo

Projects: Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Works: Think Big

Organizations: Amazon · London School of Economics · Netflix

Concepts: index fund · lifelong learning

Products: Microsoft Excel · S&P 500

Only in the description or credits: Deep Dive

Also centred on Alex Hormozi: I Asked 15 Experts For Life Advice. Here's What I Learned. · $100m CEO Alex Hormozi's advice for entrepreneurs #shorts · Which business would Alex Hormozi start today? #shorts · I Asked 5 Millionaires for Their Best Financial Advice

Also centred on Daniel Priestley: I Asked 15 Experts For Life Advice. Here's What I Learned. · A Multi-Millionaire's Advice on Starting a Business #shorts · I Asked 5 Millionaires for Their Best Financial Advice · 5 Steps to Start Your First Business

Also centred on Grace Lordan: How to Find a Career You Genuinely Love

Also centred on ignorance debt: 9 Business Lessons - How I Made $1.6m in 30 Days · What Does My Mum Think of Me? 4M Subscriber Q&A

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