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To the obsessed,

Happy Saturday. I'm writing from Upstate NY- we're here celebrating my Mom's birthday. Skiing today. I'm pumped. Check out the writing setup at the cabin:

Lately, I've been biking everywhere in NYC. Everywhere. That fight-or-flight is the best thing ever. I'm convinced most of our problems are because we don't get enough of it.

That 'stress' makes stress disappear.

And that intensity, bleeds into everything you do.

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​Click here to read past editions.

1. On starting something new:

When you’re starting, be useful.
When you’re scaling, be unique.

Being useful gets them to care about you. Being unique gets them to care about 'only' you.

2. On finding the game you want to play:

"One question I like to ask people is, “If you were hiring an analyst, what criteria are you looking for in the analyst?” And this guy said, “What I’m looking for is a trace of fear in myself that this guy is coming for me, that he will replace me.”

And I think what he’s capturing is that level of intensity, that obsessiveness that you see in a minority, probably, in any field because of just how – they’ve found the game they want to play, and they bring an intensity and an obsessiveness to it that, over time, they’re just working so much harder. It’s like Wayne Gretzky finding hockey at age five. He’s obsessed. And he’s just going over and over and over again." - Graham Duncan, Tim Ferriss Show (incredible episode) (s/o David Senra for sharing)

3. On chasing the thrill:

"The time I love the best, when it comes to work, is when we're like 'We can't pull this off, can we? Ah fuck let's go try it.' That adrenaline, that's my version of James Bond. I need that thrill. - Sam Parr, My First Million​

4. On taking the leap:

"This is the realest thing that I've ever run into my life. The experience I had was so true, that I'm okay with jumping off of the cliff and seeing if everyone else agrees with me." - John Fio, Danny Miranda Podcast (on discovering idea for Gravity Blanket)

His Kickstarter made $1M in a day, and $5M in the first month. Listen to the pod to hear the insane story.

5. On tiny preparation leading to big results.

"People under appreciate how much smarter you can seem with 20min of preparation." - Alex Hormozi​

I went on some podcasts recently. Before them, I'd study my recent best tweets/writing, to try to load them in my brain. It worked. And the pods were so much better for it.

6. On speaking with conviction:

"I think people are looking for someone to stand up, and say it how it is, and speak with conviction, and say 'look, if you want to fix your life, do X, Y, Z.' People are looking for that role model." - Greg O'Gallagher, Money Buys Happiness​

7. On creating anytime, anywhere:

"no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire."
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Charles Bukowski- air and light and time and space (s/o Connor Gross for sharing)

8. On two types of creativity:

"2 types:
​
1. Systems, notion dashboards, pkm galore. Second brain types. Creativity is assembled. A la @fortelabs
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2. Action sports, adventure, relentless living. Obsession types. Creativity is byproduct of lifestyle. A la @zachpogrob

I started in camp 1, slowly moving to 2." - Juan Gomez​

Love how you put this Juan. I also started in Camp 1. Now, I try to create relentlessly, train hard, turn off, and capture ideas along the away. Hopefully, some of those ideas are worth sharing.

I talk more about this 'creative living' here.

9. On testing relentlessly:

"Figure out the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to validate your ideas." - Marc Randolph​

10. On what to do if you're stuck:

Zach @zachpogrob All you need to do: • One thing • Every day • Better every day • For five years (1825 days) You’ll wake up in 2028, before you know it. And when you do, you’ll be glad that you started. Or, you’ll regret that you didn’t. February 15th 2023 37 Retweets 283 Likes

This is what I've done with writing online.
The hard part isn't doing it every day.
The hard part is getting better every day.

One more thing...

​Be careful studying lottery tickets.​

PS- If you have any ideas, podcasts, or quotes you think belong in Ten Bullets, feel free to share them with me. (reply here, or DM me)

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I’d love to know what you thought of this newsletter.

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Reply to this email, or tweet me at @zachpogrob on Twitter.
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Stay obsessed,

Zach

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