Work as the Win

Shaan Puri's philosophy on work and success, developed after spending ten years doing things opportunistically and learning what actually matters.

The fundamental shift in thinking

• Your biggest cost is opportunity cost, not taxes or expenses
• For sufficiently smart people, this is the most important variable to optimize for
• Mediocrity is the real risk - getting stuck in something "just okay" for too long
• Failure is quick and painful but preserves your time; mediocrity saps everything slowly

The "Work as the Win" rule

• Ask yourself: "Am I doing this for a result or because I like doing it?"
• No longer do things for some future payoff
• The work itself has to be the reward
• The win can't be some future hypothetical payoff of work you wouldn't have otherwise wanted to do

Why this approach works

• If you do it this way, you win-win
  • You for sure win by doing the work itself
  • You might also win double, triple, or 10x from the results
• Creates a powerful flywheel:
  • Because you enjoy it → you do it all the time
  • Because you do it all the time → you get really good at it
  • Because you get really good at it → you do get the results

The alternative (what doesn't work)

• Doing things opportunistically - "if this worked it'd be amazing"
• Most of the time things don't work
• When they don't work, it feels like a waste
• You weren't enjoying yourself to the extent you could have been
• The opportunity cost: could have been working on something where the act of doing it was the reward

What mediocrity actually costs you

• Saps your will
• Saps your time
• Saps your resources
• Saps your energy
• Saps your belief in yourself
• Takes all your time away while giving nothing back

On competition and odds

• Most people are not serious - they're not actually trying
• Things seem really hard and unlikely, but your real competition is much smaller
• Example: At a conference of 10,000 people, only ~50 actually believed they would win
• You're not competing with 10,000 people, you're competing with 50
• Your odds are much better than you think if you're actually serious

The earlier you learn this, the better

• Would have been further ahead if he'd focused on this earlier
• Would have found the things more enjoyable to him sooner
• The enjoyment creates the flywheel that leads to mastery and results
• It's the way it's supposed to work, not a luxury you earn later