transcripts/41-In-Closing.srt

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As a founder, your primary role is not to sign documents or to raise money or to make speeches

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at events or to have fireside chats.

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Your primary role is to contemplate, contemplate about your values and your vision.

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You are the chief contemplation officer of your startup.

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Your primary role is to become a thought leader in whatever you do and inspire others.

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In the rush of operations, you might come to believe that restless execution is the

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way to go.

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It can also make you feel very busy, very productive and very important.

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People across the startup ecosystem often confuse working hard and long hours with working

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in the right direction.

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You tend to differentiate between the two.

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Constantly being connected with the outside world might seem like an obvious trait to

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possess.

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But what you really need to do is the opposite.

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You need to cut off from the external and go inward.

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You need to spend hours and hours doing nothing but thinking deeply about your values and

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your vision.

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Assuming that you possess the energy, ability and perseverance.

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It is this act of contemplation that will provide you with the insights that are almost

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never visible on the surface.

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Those insights will polish your vision slowly and steadily.

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Contemplation allows you to master clarity of thought and communication.

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That is a must-have ability for a leader.

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You must be able to clearly lay out the path for others to follow.

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And you need to contemplate silently.

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Don't announce it to the world or discuss it on social media.

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If you merely change your designation to Chief Contemplation Officer and post it online or

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announce to the world, look, I went on my contemplation walk today.

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You are still thinking about outside rather than inside and that change will be superficial.

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It will not help you.

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You have to talk less, physically reduce your quantity of speech, online or offline.

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Talk less, think more.

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Talking and looking outside consumes a lot of energy.

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Spend less energy reading or replying to posts online.

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Ask yourself, is this reading helping me get better or is it just entertaining me?

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Use that energy instead to think deeply.

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And don't rush back to instantly announce your deep thinking to the world.

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Forget the external.

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Look inward.

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Stay inward.

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As a founder, contemplation is your core technology.

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Galileo used it.

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Mozart used it.

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Shakespeare used it.

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Alan Turing used it.

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You can use it too.

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If you need a systematic program to develop your contemplation skills, you can use the

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Core Level 1 program on adiosworld.com.

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Next, you must pursue a hobby regularly.

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Pursuing a hobby helps you do your work better.

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It helps create new neural connections that might help you see things in a different light.

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Apart from being a waste of time, it can actually help you become better at your work.

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You could add new flavors in your work by finding inspiration from other fields.

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Say music, art, poetry, theatre, sports.

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Your hobby might also help you look at something differently.

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For instance, if you're learning to paint or playing a sport, drawing analogies between

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your hobby and your work can open completely fresh perspectives from which to look at your

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work.

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Reading more about those art forms and especially about the people who have been masters of those

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fields, their approaches can open new doors of thinking altogether.

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Pursue a hobby regularly.

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Find a teacher in your town or online that usually helps maintain consistency.

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This isn't about your startup.

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This is about you, how you would like to live your next few years as you work on your

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startup.

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Would you prefer restless execution or contemplative execution?

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What you prefer to do will also determine how you feel on a regular basis and in life

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in general.

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If you're destined to succeed using restless execution, imagine what you could do with

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contemplative execution.

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If you're destined to fail using restless execution, your chances of success increase

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dramatically with contemplative execution.

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If say 90% of the startups fail, that may just sound like 90 out of 100 fail, but that

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also means that you have a 90% chance of failing.

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Think about that for a second.

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What should you do differently that others haven't done so you succeed?

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If you just continue to do what those 90% of the startups have done, aren't you ensuring

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that you would also be one of them?

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And don't think this startup is the one, that's it.

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It might not be.

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And for all you know, it shouldn't be.

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You will see it is a small component and you will eventually build something much more

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important.

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Focus on the process of improving yourself.

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Trust the process.

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It works.

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There are many, many ways to create something large, but there is only one way to create

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something truly inspiring.

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And that is contemplation.

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Think about someone in the startup world who did something truly inspiring.

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Do you think they spent a lot of time contemplating or a lot of time trying to connect with as

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many people online and attending as many startup events as possible?

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Contemplation on the right values.

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Contemplation on a non-financial vision.

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That is your primary role as a founder.

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Your justice to that role and you shall receive psychological and financial insurance

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for the rest of your life.

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The words values, vision and contemplation occur about 180 times in this course, while

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the word valuation occurs about 25 times.

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If you can follow the same proportion while running your startup, no one in this world

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can stop you from succeeding.

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So dissolve everything that is around you.

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Forget about others and how they view you and what they think of you.

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Focus only on yourself and do the right thing.

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So go for it.

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Use contemplation on your values and your vision as your neutrons and split that atom.

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All the best.