M&Ms: The One Thing for Goals

The one thing that might help you succeed with your goals this year.

Hey Team,

Happy New Year!

It's goal-setting season, so I thought I'd give you a tip that changed my life when it comes to goals.

I've got a good amount of experience in both setting personal goals and helping other people set goals. I used to set goals for my teams back when I managed lots of people. Some would get done, and some wouldn't. When I thought about the difference between the goals that got done and the ones that didn't, I was surprised that most of the time, it came down to one thing.

Why?

Software engineers, the types of folks I used to manage, have a natural love of accurate cognition and get a lot of joy out of exercising it (and probably you do, too). So when I could really connect the meaningful reasons, the "Why," to get a goal done with them, it would almost always get done. But when something was off, they didn't understand the business or didn't believe the reasons I gave them, they would almost always fail to hit the goal, or if it got done, it got done in a half-assed way.

But Charlie Munger says all modern humans have evolved to be this way now: to respect accurate cognition, to respect the "Why." Charlie even has a term for it: "Reason-Respecting Tendency." To illustrate this, Charlie likes to tell the story of Carl Braun, who had an immensely successful company designing oil refineries:

"Carl had a very simple rule in his large Teutonic company: You had to tell Who was to do What, Where, When, and Why. And if you wrote a communication leaving out your explanation of why the addressee was to do what was ordered, Braun was likely to fire you because Braun well knew that ideas got through best when reasons for the ideas were meticulously laid out."

When I got into this journey of entrepreneurship in 2021, I had all sorts of Goals for myself. But a few months in, things got so bad for me that I went to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack. When I got there, they told me I was fine, likely just a terrible panic attack. But what gives? I was doing the work. I was chasing my goals. I thought I had my reasons, my "Why," but it turns out I didn't.

But before I tell you how I found my “Why,” first, I want to tell you another story. A story that illustrates the importance of having real "Whys" that Arnold Schwarzenegger tells in his new book "Be Useful":

"When I go to the gym these days, I will sometimes see a person wandering around, bouncing randomly from machine to machine like a Ping-Pong ball, and it’s clear they have no plan at all for their workout. I’ll go up to this person, and we’ll have a conversation. I’ve done this many times, and it always goes the same way. 

'What’s your goal coming into the gym?' I’ll ask them. 

'To get in shape,' is what they’ll usually say. 

'Yes, great, fantastic, but get in shape for what?' I will say. 

It’s an important question because not all forms of 'in shape' are created equal. Being in bodybuilder shape isn’t going to help you if you’re a rock climber. If anything, it’s going to hurt you having to carry around all that extra mass. In the same way, being in shape like a long-distance runner is useless if you’re a wrestler, where you need both raw strength and explosive quickness. 

They’ll pause, and then they’ll stammer, searching for an answer that they think I want to hear. But I stay silent, I don’t let them off the hook. Eventually, most of them give me an honest answer. 

'My doctor said I need to lose twenty pounds and get my blood pressure under control.' 'I just want to look good at the beach.' 'I have young kids and want to be able to chase them around and wrestle with them.' 

These are all great answers. I can work with each of them. Zooming in like that gives their vision some specific direction, which will help them focus on the exercises that are best for achieving that goal."

Arnold illustrates that you need real concrete "Whys" and sometimes you've got to dig a little deeper to find them.

I was reminded again early in my entrepreneurial journey: without great reasons, it doesn't matter how SMART your goals are. (Don’t get me wrong, SMART is a pretty good framework for setting goals; it says they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) And it doesn't matter how great your systems are. The "Reason Respecting Mind" demands its reasons, and the reasons better be good. The better the reasons, the harder that mind will work to achieve those goals. And the more frequently you remind that mind of the reasons, the more focused it gets on the goals.

In 2021, my first year in entrepreneurship, I chased my goals hard and nearly hospitalized myself but accomplished nothing meaningful. My "Reason Respecting Mind" turned on its B.S. detector and didn't believe my own aspirational grandiose reasons.

But then, in 2022, I hit my financial goal of making $100k on my own in internet money. And this year, in 2023, I hit my goal to double that to $200k.

But I am convinced I hit my goals because I found my reasons in the pits of my despair. I found real reasons why I wanted to do this and why I wanted to remain an entrepreneur:

• I want to be a free man. 

• I want to walk my kids to school and pick them up.

• I don't want to be told which office to report to, and which city to visit on behalf of my employer. 

• I'd rather my kids see me struggle chasing my dreams than rarely see me but get all the trappings of a high salary from dad. I want to set an example I can be proud of when I am on my deathbed.

• I have a finite amount of time on this earth, and I don't want 50+ hours of my time to be filled up with useless big company meetings. In a big company, whether there is enough work or not, the hours will be filled.

• I want to work hard so I can own a portion of the fruits I produce. And not in some Big Company way, where ownership means if it goes wrong, you have to stay up really late to fix everything. And if it goes great, you might get a few percentage points raise.

I found other reasons why I want to do this, too, but I don't want to bore you. And you'll need to find your own reasons for whatever you want to do.

So, with any goals you have for yourself this year, take a little time and think through your "Whys." I mean, really think through them because it’s tough to lie to your subconscious. Convincing your “Reason Respecting Mind” might be the most important thing you do to help make your goals a reality this year.

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This Week’s Small Promo:

My business partner, Daniel Vassallo (a former Engineer who worked on AWS), is giving away his best-selling E-Book “The Good Parts of AWS” for free.

This is still going as of today, so grab a copy for free.

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Three Things: Fast Forward, How Much Success, Starting Small

Find your reasons and go after it in 2024!

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I loved this clip of Tony Hawk, the pro skater who had 4 video games made about him.

Tony met with an Activision exec & thought he might finally make a million dollars in one year. And then the exec handed him a check for $4 million for that year and told him that things are about to get way bigger than you or we ever thought.

It's hard to predict in business what some products will do. It sounds to me like both Activision and Tony were surprised.

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When you get your thoughts down and out there, they sometimes turn into something bigger.

I saw first hand when I joined Small Bets, it was a single two-week course by Daniel. It evolved into a community and is now becoming a sort of university for the creator economy and getting started with online business. All of that happened one small bet at a time.

A reminder to get your stuff out there in 2024, never know where it will go.

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Three Laughs: Dads, Dads, and Taxes

Dad life, a very funny music video that captures a few things about being a dad.

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I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2024!

—Louie

P.S. You can reply directly to this email; it will get to me, and I will read it.