The Theory of Constraints

Just a friendly reminder that there is no green light for life.

The things you want to achieve, the places you want to go, and the people you want to meet - there's nothing holding you back from them. You don't need the perfect equipment, mindset, or moment. Get after it. Start. Try. Move.

When you're on your deathbed, you're not going to wish you had fewer stories.

You can just do things.

If I could spread one message to everyone I've ever met, it would be this: spend more time thinking deeply about what you want out of life.

What does rich mean to you? What does success mean to you? What does a good life mean to you? What net worth is enough? How do you define a good family? What values do you live by? Who do you want your life partner to be? What kind of parent do you want to be? How do you want to spend your days? How do you want to show up for your friends and family?

If awareness is the first step towards change, then reflection is the first step towards taking agency over your life.

The risk of going first is rejection.
The risk of opening up is embarrassment.
The risk of betting on yourself is failure.

But what's the alternative? You play it safe? Then what? Is that really what you want? A mediocre, watered down version of the life you were supposed to live?

Nah. I'd rather risk than regret.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld on the secret to life:

“The secret of life is to waste time in ways that you like.”

Kevin Hart on the power of persistence:

“Scooter Braun told me that if they were giving $1 million to anyone who could hit a fastball from the best pitcher in baseball, millions of people would line up. They would strike out and say, “Damn, it’s over.”

“Not many people would miss the line and stand back in line again. He said, ‘I’m going to keep getting in line.’ The line will get smaller because so many people drop out.”

A couple of weeks ago I was at dinner with a friend in New York, and he asked me what the biggest lesson was from sitting in the “L3 rooms.”

“L3” was our internal name for the Level 3 workshops, the most expensive product we offered. Ten business owners would each pay $135,000 to spend a day in a room with Alex Hormozi. I worked at Acquisition.com for about a year and got to sit in more than 20 of them (I wrote about how I got in the room here).

The biggest thing I learned was what Alex calls the “theory of constraints.”

At any given time, ONE thing constrains your business. Anything you work on that isn't that constraint is a distraction. Picture water moving through a hose. You can make the opening at the end wider, but if something's blocking the water higher up, it doesn't matter how wide that opening is…. there's a constraint.

Before my last job, I ran a ghostwriting agency. I grew it to multi-six figures, but then growth stalled. I figured my problem was that I wasn’t good enough at writing, so I spent months getting sharper as a writer.

But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was I was the only person doing the work, so I hit a ceiling of my own hours. Getting better at writing couldn't solve the fact that I didn't have enough time in the week to handle more clients. What I needed was to hire, onboard, and train writers so the work didn't all run through me.

The theory of constraints works on your career and life too.

Say you want to go from individual contributor to manager. The constraint probably isn't how good you are at your craft. It's how good you are at working with people, leading a team, having executive presence, and holding your own in meetings.

So rather than spending late nights improving at your craft, it might make more sense studying public speaking or leadership.

Same with your fitness. Say you're disciplined in the gym but not so disciplined with your diet. It doesn't matter how hard you train if your diet's poor. The solution isn’t to work out 2x a day, it’s probably to fix your diet.

So a question to ask yourself…

What's the ONE thing holding you back right now, that when solved will solve the majority of your problems?

The magic you're looking for is in the uncomfortable things you're avoiding.

Until next week,

Author of You Can Just Do Things

Ps. Had a blast chatting with my friend Nathan May.

We covered:
• How to work with people you admire
• Why I dropped out of college
• What I learned working at Acquisition
• Balancing ambition and loneliness

Take a listen 👇

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

You can grab your copy here.

I'm into fitness. I'm not into all the apps, gadgets, and tools it usually takes to stay on top of it.

My friend Brandon Turp built Bo AI to fix exactly that. It's a personal assistant for your life and training, all in one place.

Mine texts me my workout every morning, makes sure I hit my steps, nudges me to get off the computer and move, and syncs with all my fitness apps so everything lives in one spot.

If you want your fitness handled without the headache, give Bo AI a try out here.

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