Many people believe that to achieve massive success, they must outwork the entire world.
However, you don’t actually need to beat billions of people; you only need to outwork three specific individuals to get ahead of life, to get rich and, more importantly, to get free.
1. The “Past You”
The “Past You” is the version of yourself that prioritized comfort and safety over success. This is the person who looked at a difficult task and decided to do it “later” or stayed in bed because it was warm.
• Real-World Example: Imagine a budding entrepreneur who, for months, avoided the “hard thing” – like cold-calling potential clients or waking up at 5:00 AM to work on their business plan before their day job. To win, they must outwork that past version of themselves by doing those exact difficult tasks today that they put off yesterday.
2. The Person Who Already Has What You Want
Instead of falling into the trap of envy, you should study those who have already achieved your goals. Observe how they think, what they sacrificed to get there, and how they execute their daily tasks.
• Real-World Example: If you are a salesperson aiming to be the top earner in your firm, don’t just watch the current leader with jealousy. Study their routine and then quietly do 10% more. If they make 50 calls a day, you make 55. If they stay until 6:00 PM, you stay until 6:30 PM. Doing one more call, one more rep, or one more late night is the key to eventually surpassing them.
3. The Person Counting on You to Quit
There will always be skeptics – the people who tell you that your idea is “too risky” or that you “aren’t built for this”. You don’t need to waste your energy arguing with them or trying to prove them wrong with words.
• Real-World Example: Think of an athlete whose peers say they’ll never make the varsity team. The athlete doesn’t need to explain their talent; they simply need to keep showing up to every practice and putting in the work until their results become so undeniable that they can no longer be ignored.
The Path to Freedom
If you focus on outworking these three people long enough, you won’t just find get ahead of all those 99% people, you will achieve true freedom.
Success in this journey is like building a stone wall. You aren’t trying to build the whole wall in a day; you are simply focused on laying the next brick better than you did yesterday (outworking “Past You”), laying one more brick than the master mason next to you (outworking the person who has what you want), and continuing to lay bricks even when people say the wall will fall (outworking those counting on you to quit). Eventually, you have a fortress that no one can take away from you.
