10 surprising mindset shifts to put you in the top 1% in any field
Getting to the top 1% in any field is hard.
But hard work is not the major reason you can’t get into the top 1%. Your mindset is.
If you don’t work on how you think, getting to the top 1% is virtually impossible. But once you get these 10 mindset shifts, you can get to the top 1% in any field.
1. Expose yourself to more radical ideas
To do better, you must know better. So if you will achieve success, you need to be different in your thinking. You need to expose yourself to more radical ideas.
Read things that don’t conform to your view of the world. Watch videos of people with differing ideas. You don’t have to believe them, but it helps expand your consciousness. And with a wide range of ideas in your head, you can cross-pollinate ideas and make new things out of old things.
2. Hang out with strange people
You are the average of the people you hang out with. So seek out strange people. Not strange people like junkies doing drugs, but people who live life differently from you do. In real life or online.
Your aim will be to understand their perspective. By hanging out with them, and seeing life from their perspective, you have a more resilient mind.
3. Have a proper perspective of success and failure
Most people have the wrong perspective on failure or success. They think failure is a path to success. So they are willing to fail before they encounter success. But once they have a little success, they hang on to it and take fewer risks so they don’t fail again.
But no, failure is a part of life. You can always fail, even after achieving some success. So understand that failure is not a path to sucess, it is part of living, and make peace with that.
4. Play the long-term game
The top 1% know when they fail, that there is always tommorow to try again. They don’t get stuck because something didn’t work for a day, a month or even a year.
Don’t just work for today. Do work that will have an impact in years to come. The long-term game gives room for the magic of compounding interest.
5. Work like you play and play like you work
To be in the top 1%, you need to see work as play. You don’t live for the weekend. You are obsessed. That is what took Mr Beast from unknown to the biggest Youtube sensation in 7 years after a medicore start.
6. Be a maniac with execution
You don’t get to be in the top 1% by wishing. You get it by doing. The top 1% understand that ideas are a dime a dozen, so they are more interested in executing. Paired with the right perspective of failure and success. They can keep working on projects with zeal for years before it takes off.
7. Always ask why
Don’t follow the usual method of doing stuff. Always ask why. Most times things are done in a particular way because that is how it has always been done. So never assume, ask why, and if the answer doesn’t make sense, try to do it differently.
8. Focus on first principles
First principles are the foundation of how things work. By focusing on first principles, Elon Musk was able to cut the price of a rocket for SpaceX by almost 90%.
The first principle cuts away the assumption of how things work that has been built over the years and focuses on how things work.
For example, how does a business work? By selling a product at a price that is lower than the value people get from it. Simple. Once you look at it this way, you peel back layers of trying to add all the bells and whistles and focus on the basics.
9. Don’t be afraid to piss people off
We are social creatures. So it is normal if we want everyone to be happy with us. But sometimes, you have to be the odd one out.
And being the odd one out will piss people off. When you don’t fit in, people will hate you. First, it will be people you know, then strangers on the internet. They will say mean things about you. However, in reality, they are just annoyed that you have something they don’t have. The ability to live life on your own terms.
10. Develop a thick skin
The final mindset shift is to develop a thick skin. You can’t survive at the top if you react to everything you hear about yourself. People will verbally abuse you. You have to take it in stride. It is the price to pay to be higher than others.
Conclusion
Becoming the top 1% in your field is not easy. But with these 10 mindset shifts, you can make the journey easier.
