Reality Is More Flexible Than You Think

This week I discovered a quote by Mark and Dresan and I absolutely love this quote and it got a lot of traction when I reposted it on social and this is why I want to do a solo podcast on it. So I'm going to read you the quote and then I'm going to go into why I think this idea is so important. So the quote is, the world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think. I love this idea and it's turned out to be true in my life. It's turned out to be true in many people's lives. Remember I interview and sit down with some of the most incredible entrepreneurs on the planet and this idea that reality is more flexible than you think. That's an idea that almost every single person who you would look up to and say that person is successful. That's an idea that they all believe and I think this is an idea that separates people that are stuck or that are sort of just existing versus people that truly believe that they have agency and control over their life and their outcomes. And I think that the majority of people don't think that the majority of people don't believe this quote and this idea and I think the majority of people believe that the world is fixed and they just accept circumstances as just the way things are and they assume that their life is as it is and they assume that industries can't be disrupted and they assume and believe that systems are too entrenched to change and they see barriers as permanent rather than temporary and everything in their life in their in their in their relationships in their job in their careers and the business are trying to build and I have to make the argument and the point that this mindset that the world is fixed is the single biggest limitation that's keeping you from creating the life, the business and the impact that you're capable of. Now I just read you a quote by Mark Andreessen. If you don't know who he is he's a founder of Netscape. He is a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist go look him up if you've never heard his name but if someone like that believes this there's a lesson there and it's not just some inspirational fluff it's really a fundamental truth about how reality actually works and once you understand it everything changes so remember before I keep going the idea is the world is a very malleable place if you know what you want and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think that's the idea let me give you some other proof that this idea is true so the first sort of proof is the reality distortion field so what is this so this is an idea that's pretty similar to what Mark Andreessen said but it didn't come from Mark Andreessen came from Steve Jobs so when Steve Jobs first told his team the impossible needed to be done in five weeks rather than five months and he did this repeatedly but this was something that he always tried to do he told his team that the impossible had to be done in a very limited timeframe and the team pushed back team said you know whatever product improvement whatever feature we have to ship whatever goal we have to hit it couldn't be done the timeline was unrealistic the limitations were too great jobs never budged he always said don't be afraid you can do it and somehow they did and this was his style of leadership and it happened so often that his team coined the term for it the reality distortion field they meant it as a joke they meant it as a joke as in jobs had this ability to convince people that the impossible was possible through sheer force of will but here's what they missed when they were joking around the distortion wasn't in Jobs mind it wasn't everyone else's jobs simply understood that most quote unquote impossible things are merely difficult things that no one has been stubborn enough to solve yet and what his team viewed as bending reality was actually just refusing to accept artificial limitations and the world is full of artificial limitations and is more valuable than most people realize not because of magic but because the barriers we perceive are largely constructions that are built from these outdated assumptions and no one has challenged these artificial constraints that exist only through this collective agreement or limiting beliefs about what's possible or permissible and when you push through these barriers with enough force they often dissolve way more easily than you'd expect now the beautiful thing about this is that to do this to push through these barriers permission isn't required and a lot of people wait for permission and whether you realize it or not there's something that you want to build create or pursue but you're holding back until someone gives you the green light and you're not alone because most people wait for permission their entire lives permission to start permission to lead permission to challenge the status quo they assume that success comes from following these established paths and hitting predetermined milestones get the degree build the resume pay your dues wait your turn but the people who truly reshape industries and ironically also reshape their lives don't just wait for permission they take action while others are still waiting to be called on by who by no one Sarah Blakely didn't ask the male dominated undergarment industry she could revolutionize shape where she just cut the feet off her pantyhose and created spanks Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia didn't ask hotel chains if they could turn spare bedrooms into accommodations they just put air mattresses on their floor and created Airbnb so you have to start to ask yourself what would you do differently if you stopped waiting for someone to tell you it's okay to proceed think about it really think what idea what project what career move would you immediately pursue because the most dangerous form of self deception is believing that you need someone else's approval or authorization pursue your vision the world is malleable but it's only malleable for those willing to start reshaping it without this engraved invitation now in recent quote contains a critical qualifier that most people miss he didn't say that the world bends for anyone with a wish or a hope and this is the issue that I have with you know all the law of attraction woo woo bullshit it's because people assume that when they hear these words or you know they focus on the right mindset they just think about it enough shit's gonna happen shit doesn't happen if you think about it enough there's a key part of that quote so he says the world reconfigures for those who pursue what they want with maximum energy and drive and passion this isn't about magical thinking it's about applied force reality has inertia it resist change but that resistance isn't infinite it's just enough to filter out the uncommitted and this filtering mechanism is actually a feature it's not a bug it ensures that the world only reconfigures around those who care enough to push through the initial resistance when Jan Kuhn was building WhatsApp he was rejected by Facebook for a job five years later Facebook acquired his company for 19 billion dollars the difference wasn't luck it was persistence applied to a clear vision so the world will test your commitment before it yields it asks how badly do you want this what are you willing to sacrifice how long can you persist when results aren't immediate and your answers to those questions determine whether reality will reconfigure around you or will reality just seemingly remain stubbornly fixed so I want you to look at what you're working on right now look at all your current projects your current job your current relationship your current life your current business where are you applying this casual effort and expecting significant results where have you backed off at the first sign of resistance because if you're honest with yourself you're gonna know exactly where that is and you're gonna say ah that's why this idea isn't applying to my life and it's not about judgment don't ever think it's about judgment it's about absolute clarity it's about clarity that the path that you're on right now is giving you exactly the results that your current energy level deserves that's a hard truth that's a real hard truth but that's listen truth aren't fun but they will set you free right now there's a paradox in this idea as well there's something a little bit counterintuitive about how reality bends resistance isn't evidence that you are going in the wrong direction and you've heard this before but resistance is usually confirmation that you're pushing on something worth changing think about it if you're attempting if what you're attempting would make no meaningful difference the world wouldn't bother to resist systems only defend themselves against genuine threats to the status quo and that resistance can show up in a variety different ways it can be that it's hard to get customers to accept your idea it could be that you know people are giving you a hard time for being too loud on social media whatever it is if you are disrupting the status quo you will get resistance and the pushback that you're experiencing actually might be the strongest validation that you're on to something significant and one of my favorite stories that sort of confirms is about Richard Branson so I was researching his early days when he was building Virgin Atlantic so every established airline and industry expert told him that he would fail regulations in the airline industry are designed to keep newcomers out and existing players actively worked to block his entry so this wasn't just bad luck it was the system protecting itself now if Richard Branson interpreted this resistance as a sign he was on the wrong path Virgin Atlantic would have never existed so obviously we know that's not how the story ends so you have to ask yourself what resistance are you facing right now that you have misinterpreted as a sign to retreat rather than advance the obstacles in your path often aren't warnings they are filters they are separating those who want change from those who demand it from those who will not back down regardless of the amount of resistance they face you've heard the quote by Ryan Holiday the obstacle is the way that is the absolute truth and if you don't believe if you don't believe everything I'm talking about if you don't believe the market reason quote if you don't believe the distortion reality feel the Steve Jobs you know what it's not going to impact me but it's going to hurt you there is a hidden cost to believing in a fixed reality most people in this world even some of the people listening to this are never going to experience how malleable the world can be because they've internalized a fixed view of reality and this is a mental model that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy so when you believe change is extremely difficult this belief reduces your effort and your expectations that reduced effort leads to minimal results minimal results confirm your original belief and then the cycle reinforces itself the highest price that you're ever going to pay for seeing the world as fixed isn't the opportunities you miss it's the person that you will never become and when you believe fundamental changes nearly impossible you naturally dial back your ambitions you quote unquote be realistic you set quote unquote achievable goals you focus on incremental improvements rather than this transformative vision and this approach guarantees that you will never discover what's actually possible and the alternative it isn't delusion it is calculated audacity the willingness to test assumptions about what can be changed rather than accepting them as fixed truths now I have to give you a formula because it's great to talk about these ideas but I want you to really understand how to apply them in your life because you're going to ask if the world is truly malleable can it really bend to my will is there a formula for bending it to what I want to achieve to my vision and based on studying those who have basically reshaped reality there is a pattern there is a pattern that works so I'm going to give you five different ideas that I've seen across every single person who has reshaped reality to various degrees first idea absolute clarity vague intentions produce vague results the world doesn't reconfigure around fuzzy thinking those who successfully bend reality can articulate exactly what they want with precision not just the outcome but the reasoning the values and the non-negotiables this clarity acts as a focusing mechanism for their energy rather than dispersing force across all these different ideas and targets to shine the object syndrome they concentrate it on specific points of leverage the second idea unwavering conviction the world initially pushes back against anybody trying to change it this separates the casually interested from the truly committed those who successfully reshape reality maintain their conviction regardless of setback skepticism or the absence of immediate results and it's not blind stubbornness this is belief grounded in insight it's seeing the possibilities that others miss because you examined the problem more deeply so even when others say it's not going to work you know eventually third idea is disproportionate action the degree to which reality bends correlates directly with the amount of force applied so those who reshape their world don't just work hard they work with an intensity that makes others uncomfortable they take action at a pace and scale that seems excessive to everybody outside just these casual observers really just think your nuts and this doesn't mean burnout or hustle culture it means focused effort on what actually matters not spreading yourself thin across a hundred small tasks the fourth idea is strategic positioning reality doesn't bend equally in all directions it has weak spots places where less force can create bigger change what does this mean those who successfully reshape their own world develop a sense for these opportunities they position themselves where new trends unmet needs and their unique skills overlap this allows them and lets them create an impact far beyond their direct effort sometimes this could be called leverage sometimes this could be called ikigai but remember the goal is to work smarter not harder so trends unmet needs and their unique skills that's where you should put your maximum energy and force and the fifth idea is contagious energy no one bends reality entirely alone even the most determined individuals they have limits so those who successfully reshape their world they inspire others to join them their clarity their conviction their action they attract allies they attract resources they attract opportunities and this turns personal force into this massive team momentum so knowing that this is what you have to do I need you to make a decision that will change everything in your life because the world has always been valuable to those who are willing to test its flexibility from the right brothers proving flight was possible to Catherine Johnson calculating the mathematics that put humans on the moon from Steve Jobs creating the smartphone to Greta Thunberg mobilizing millions for climate action the people who reshape reality aren't fundamentally different from you they have simply made a different decision about what's possible and what's worth pursuing with maximum energy and this decision is available to you right now so you can choose to see barriers as fixed or flexible you can choose to accept conditions or to challenge them you can choose to work within existing frameworks or to create new ones your perception of what's changeable directly determines what you can change so the greatest revolution isn't external it's internal it's the moment that you realize that many of the limitations that you've accepted exist only because everyone agrees they exist so where should you apply this understanding that the world is more flexible than it appears I want you to start with the constraints that you've internalized as fixed so for entrepreneurs this could mean the market is too crowded for new entrants I don't have the right background or connections this problem is too complex to solve quickly this is just how the industry works these are limiting beliefs these are constraints each of these beliefs deserves scrutiny not blind rejection but careful examination is this truly an immovable reality or is it simply a collective assumption that no one has sufficiently challenged and then ask yourself what would I pursue if I truly believed in Dreson's observations that the world would reconfigure around my energy and my vision not as a hypothetical exercise but as a genuine question about what matters enough to warrant your maximum drive and passion and the answer might scare you and it should anything worth applying your full force towards should feel a little bit intimidating but remember the world is far more valuable than most people will ever discover the barriers that seem solid they usually when pushed against with enough determination so what are your next steps the ones that really matter theory without action is just entertainment so this is what I need you to do right now identify one immovable I put that in quotes a movable constraint in your business or your life that you've been accepting without question just one tomorrow take a very specific action that assumes that this constraint is flexible it doesn't have to be dramatic just a meaningful step that would make no sense if the limitation was truly fixed maybe it's reaching out to somebody unreachable maybe it's setting a deadline that seems impossible maybe it's proposing a solution that other people would call unrealistic this single action it's not going to reshape your entire reality but it will start training the most important muscle you have your ability to test rather than accept the boundaries that others take for granted as Mark and Dreson reminds us reality will reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think the only question is whether you're going to test this truth or continue living as if the world is fixed the choice is yours and it changes everything