Step 35 - Ignoring The Ninety-Nine & The One-Tenth Rule

This lesson teaches us two simple rules to achieve masterly results, by controlling the sources of information from which we learn from.

Rule 1: "Ignoring the 99"

A secret to life is ignoring 99 of 100 people. But when we find the one right person, to do everything they say.

Growing up, we have adapted the behavior of listening to many people for advice and then filtering out what we believe is right.

But the Rule of Ignoring the 99 states, that we should search and find for the one individual who has the expertise and then do what they say. Then test it, observe and listen again. If their advice stand the test of time, do everything they say.

Remember that no person has all the answers to every thing, therefore the rule does not state to take literally just one person as a mentor. Instead it introduces the idea to adopt the right ratio: For every 100 people, there will be only one worthy listening too.

The same ratio applies to the Health, Wealth, Love and Happiness. It applies also to books and YouTube videos.

Once you have found the right person or the right book, read it again over and over, because a persons capacity, energy, memory and time is limited and can't be spend on an unlimited amount of books, advisers or mentors.

There is no person to give you all the answers. It is not recommended literally one person to be a mentor, but that the ratio should get more aligned with the 1/100. The same applies to books. For every book you accept, there has to be 99 which you ignore. And read the same book over and over again.

We have to become elitist in regard to the information we let inside, because in this life we have to play the game with the right odds.

Sometimes the one person who we don't listen to, might be right, but we have to play the game of odds, when deciding whom we let inside our brain.

Often times owners are listening to employees they shouldn't be listening to, because employees are still learning there themselves. They are not that skilled, yet they are influencing the decision of the owners. We have to be elitist, not in a condescending way, but in a pragmatic way. Sometimes experts can be wrong, but whom do we entrust to make brain surgery? Our buddy or a qualified surgeon? Therefore we have to become elitist in such situations. People have to earn our trust, when we come listening to them.

We don't have all the time in the world and we don't have time to listen to people who are going to lead us astray.

Rule 2: "10% Rule"

We do always only 10% as good as the person we are listening too. If we are following a person, we will never do as good as the person, but only 10% as good as them.

This is another reason why we have to be picky to whom we are listening to, because if we follow the best of the best, we will have better results, than if we follow our neighbor.

Go straight to the top. Listen to Stephen Hawking for physics. Michael Jordan for basket. Michael Schumacher for racing. Warren Buffet and Sam Walton for Business. Klitschko and Muhammed Ali for Boxing. Neil Strauss, Mystery and James Marshal for Dating.

This lesson is not about putting in one million hours or grinding it out. It is a philosophical change, which gives results more effortlessly and even over night.

We always move into a direction. But to move into the right direction, we have to better control the sources of information who come in, because humans are not very good at ignoring senses. Our ears have no choice.

Start cutting out bad influences. Go into your book shelf and start burning bad books or even worse give them someone else to suffer with them. It even applies to friends unfortunately. Humans talk about other humans 80% of the time. If there is a person who does this all the time, cut this person out.

But here is where this lesson becomes interesting.

Not only do we have to cut out the bad one, but we also we also have to cut out the average.

Cut off average advisers, mentors and business partners, the average YouTube video, friends and dating partners. The enemy of greatness in our life, is just settling for good.

Obviously we shouldn't cut out everything in our life, because not everything is for achieving greatness for example family. But some sources of information, can be cut out without hesitation.

There is no absolute, there is just a direction we have to go.

Side notes

Side note 1: The accumulation of knowledge is not as important as the application of knowledge.

Side note 2: YouTube video Tai liked Stephen Hawking – Nature of Reality

Questions

1. When it comes to health, whom are you listening to that should be ignored?

   My father knows and talks a lot about health, nutrition and diets. He knows more than the average, but I intuitively never really listened to him, because children often don't listen to their parents.

2. When it comes to wealth, whom are you listening to that should be ignored?

   Some friends make good money and I am listening to them.

3. When it comes to love and relationships, whom are you listening to that should be ignored?

   Mother in Law gives a lot of sometimes unwelcome relationship advice, but I have stopped listening to her a while ago, because she is good but not a master in it.

4. When it comes to happiness, whom are you listening to that should be ignored?

   Happiness is for me about spirituality, which isn't priority at the moment, therefore I don't listen to anyone.

5. When it comes to health who are you going to start listening to?

   Since I want to box, I'll buy some books about boxing. Maybe Muhammed Ali (whom I dislike his cockiness) or Klitschko (whom I also dislike for his style.)

6. When it comes to wealth who are you going to start listening to?

   To Tai Lopez. Also Sam Walton’s book is next. And the next mentor I have to find, has to be a good one.

7. When it comes to love who are you going to start listening to?

   The seduction community has a lot of knowledge about attraction and dating. James Marshal seems like a good pick, though he doesn't talk about relationships, his advice is nonetheless solid in regard to women.

8. When it comes to happiness who are you going to start listening to?

   Some Dalai Lama, Srila Prabhupada, maybe Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius.