World Builders,

Getting stuck sucks.

The game of life that we talk about so often around here requires that you find new angles of attacking the situation. That's the secret to unsticking yourself.

There's More Than One Way to Do Everything

No matter what your high school English teacher, your annoying uncle, your well-meaning friend, that chummy cubicle mate of yours said: the same old thing, the same old way is a shortcut to stagnation.

Every champion in every domain found a way to smash the boundaries and play the game a new way.

Thinking outside the box is for amateurs.

They destroyed the box.

In the early 1960s, high-jumper Dick Fosbury couldn't make his local track and field team to save his life. He was horrible by the standards of the high jumping world.

Then he decided to blow that world up and make his own rules.

In 1963, Fosbury threw the old technique out--known as the straddle jump--and threw his body over the bar backwards in a then-terrifying display of athletic daring.

Fosbury won the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Nobody ever did the straddle jump again.

New Methods Make Other People Uncomfortable

When you do something a new way, the people doing it the old way will want to make you stop doing it that way. They get uncomfortable. You're rocking the boat. You're drawing attention to the process.

You might succeed in a weird way and they don't like that feeling.

But, your new way is power. It's a monopoly on the new way. You're breaking ground.

Emory Tate (father of infamous Internet personality Andrew Tate) literally scared people to tears over a chess board.

He didn't play by the standard rules of competitive chess. The openings, the midgames, the closing positions known by all the masters meant nothing to him.

He found new ways to break the norms. Tate had no need for things you were "supposed" to do in certain spots.

His style left champions gasping for breath, desperate to stay the onslaught for just one more move.

Despite criticism of his swingy methods, he rose to the prestigious rank of International Master (one level below Grand Master). Nobody has done it like him before or since.

"My unmatched perspicacity, coupled with my sheer indefatigability, combine to make me a feared opponent in any realm of human endeavor." - Emory Tate, Chess IM

Remove Your Ego from the Game or Your Ego Will Remove You From the Game

Can you buy a box of "failure" at the store? Where is the "disappointment" factory?

The answers are "no" and "nowhere."

Your ego presents you with opportunities to undermine your success and the rest of your brain eagerly goes along with the scheme. Pull your ego out of the equation and give yourself room to operate without biased judgment and self-imposed roadblocks.

Famed Navy Seal operator and business consultant Jocko Willink calls this "detachment." Put another way: Your work isn't your identity.

Remove your sense of self worth from your business success (Ray Dalio has some conflicting principles on this subject, more on that at a later date), and you can make objective decisions and create abundance. "Loss" and "failure" don't register as words or concepts.

Fear is always present, doubt is easy to embrace. But, not for you, dear World Builder.

You're always finding ways to break out and change history, starting with your own.

Today.

To future worlds,

Matt Ventre

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And, you get the best games you've ever laid dice on. You win.

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