Playbook: The Founders’ Intention Behind TKS

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Everything you do should align to the person you want to be and become. Your decisions, which include how you spend your time, how you act, and what you think about, should align to a higher goal for yourself. I think your goal should be to achieve a state of joyful fulfilment. I don’t think there is a word in the English language that describes what I think you should strive for in life, but joyful fulfilment comes close. I would define this as a state of happiness, meaning, purpose, and inner harmony.

I think that to achieve this state, you should meet the following criteria:

• Be on the journey to self-actualization. Understand who you are and act according to your values, ethics, and beliefs. You should build these systems for yourself through thoughtful research and discussions. Understand that self-actualization is a journey, and the destination is unknown. Being intentional about understanding yourself, developing love for who you are, and being your best self is what matters. Once you reach inner harmony and self-actualization, nobody can take it away from you.
• Develop meaningful, positive, and authentic relationships with family and friends. Quantity is not a factor here. I’d estimate that 5-10 people is a good number.
• Make a positive impact in people’s lives. You should feel like you have helped others, especially those who were not as lucky as you. In my opinion, I think the best thing we can do for others is help them achieve their potential. I see human potential as a gift that no other living being has. There are many things stopping people from achieving their potential, like health issues, access to energy, lack of resources, cultural barriers, language, and education.
• Side note: If you’re reading this, then I believe that you have the potential to make a larger positive impact than most people. It would be a shame for someone with the potential to make a significant meaningful impact to not try to achieve that potential. You will likely also feel a sense of failure if you didn’t accomplish what you feel you’re capable of doing. Don’t give yourself the opportunity to feel regret.
• You live everyday with appreciation and gratitude for the life you have, because you understand that life itself is a gift. To be able to struggle is a gift. To feel pain and joy is a gift. You remind yourself of your gratitude for what you have, and you don’t get distracted by the false stories around you.

Here are my end goals for you:

1. Become a unicorn.
• Make a meaningful global impact.
• Be a thoughtful, wise, and good person.
2. Have a strong community.
• Develop lifelong friendships.
• Support future TKS alumni and students.

You will forge your own paths to get there. But don’t be naive, not everyone will get there.

In order to achieve anything you must:

1. Know what you want.
2. Want it really badly.
3. Feel like you can get it.

If you don’t want to make an impact, be a good person, or develop friendships, you likely won’t. Good things will come to those who want them… really want them.

Ok, so now you understand those fundamentals (i.e. my goals for you and the 3 prerequisites to achieving anything). It’s important that we align on those goals before reading any further.

Students ask me, “what does the ideal TKS student look like?”

I will separate my answer in 2 areas:

1. Outcomes
2. Traits

1. Outcomes

I think there are 3 main paths for TKS students to pursue to achieve success (aka make a significant meaningful impact on the world).

The first is by starting your own company/initiative to solve a problem. You should only do this if there is nobody solving the problem well, and you feel that starting your own company is the best way to solve it. You should also have validated that the economics make sense, since you’ll need capital to grow the company.

The second is joining a transformative company or startup with resources, smart people, and influence. You can make a huge impact working for a company like Illumina or Google X, for example. They have the money, people, vision, and influence, so if you can piggyback on that you’ll be able to make a huge change.

The third is through research/discovery. In this area, you can work towards finding a cure to diseases, understanding how the universe works, and bringing new and useful knowledge into the world. Almost every useful thing that exists today started with some form of research. We need more smart people exploring, researching, and discovering to increase the possibilities of what we can do in the future.

I think these 3 paths will give you the highest probability to make a positive impact to the world, while also being surrounded by good people you can learn from. I also think the experiences you gain in these areas will be valuable in shaping you as a person. During your journey, your goal should be to acquire unique experiences with smart people. I think this will contribute to your personal growth and happiness. You decide your path.

2. Traits

This playbook is backwards on purpose. I start with the end goals, then work my way down to what traits I think you should focus on developing while in TKS. The list below are the traits that I highly value in TKS students. These are the traits I feel will help you achieve success in both life and TKS. I’d also add that many of these traits will also open doors for you and give you unique experiences in the short-term and long-term. If you can adopt these traits and master them, I 100% guarantee you will be successful and happy.

• Constant Growth: You actively invest in building your knowledge, skills, mindset, and relationships. You hate the thought of being stagnant.
• Curious: You enjoy learning things for the sake of it. You don’t need a reason to learn something, you’re driven by your curiosity.
• Good Person: You are a good person. This means you are honest, kind, helpful and trustworthy. It also means you don’t cheat, steal, or talk bad of others.
• Self-Driven: You don’t need others to give you a reason why you should do something that you know will benefit you. Sometimes you’ll need advice and guidance, but you generally are driven by your own desires and are able to motivate yourself.
• Ambitious: You’re driven to leave your mark and do something big. You think 10x and don’t settle for mediocrity.
• On-The-Ball: When you have to do something, you do it. You don’t need to be reminded. You get it done on time and proactively communicate throughout.
• Figure It Out: You have an “I’ll figure it out" mindset. You embrace uncertainty and are able to be resourceful to solve problems and answer questions.
• Mindful: You are cognizant and aware of your surroundings and other people. This informs your actions and what you say.
• Thoughtful: You don’t jump to conclusions or follow others blindly, you think about things with a clear framework.
• Knowledgeable: You actively build your knowledge about yourself and the world.
• Wise: You constantly seek to understand life by learning about wise people in the past and their views on life and the world. You use this wisdom to make good decisions.
• Friendly: You are welcoming to others, engaging, and give off feel-good vibes.
• Celebrate Others: You feel happy when others succeed and you celebrate their achievements.
• Ask Good Questions: You ask good questions and frame your questions in a clear way. You understand that good answers are a result of good questions.
• Self-Confident: You don’t need validation from others, and so you don’t get distracted by what other people say or do. You are confident in your decisions, abilities, and character.
• Boss Mentality: You don’t let hesitation stop you. Once you feel the urge to do something, you do it regardless of the social stigma or feeling of anxiety or hesitation. And when you do it, you do it like a boss.
• Real: Your knowledge, skills, and character is real. You’re not fluff. You’re not fake. You don’t just learn things at a surface level and pretend you know what you’re talking about. You put in the work to become legit in the areas you want to excel in.
• Bias Towards Action: You make decisions quickly, then act on them immediately. You don’t overthink because you know that you need to act to get more data points. You spend more time doing than discussing. You don’t procrastinate.
• Activator: You think of ideas and know how to materialize them. Without you, situations would be different. You make stuff happen. You take initiative to start things.
• Appreciative: You often show gratitude and appreciate. You consistently remind yourself how fortunate you are, and you feel appreciation for the life and opportunities you have. You appreciate all who have supported and helped you, no matter how small. You aren’t entitled, and you understand that where you are today is because of others.
• Passionate: You show your passion and energy about the things that you care about. You get others inspired and motivated by your passion. You avoid apathy.
• Optimistic: You are excited for the future. You have positive thoughts and you train yourself to not spiral into negativity, since there’s no benefit. You have a good attitude and you’re not a downer.
• Helpful: You naturally seek to help others and add value when possible. You feel good when you help people and don’t expect reciprocity. You actively try to be helpful.
• Appetite For Uncertainty: You get excited by the unknown. You don’t need a lot of information to make a decision because you want to see what happens. You will do what others feel is “risky”. You see the path of certainty as boring, so you naturally will gravitate towards the less travelled path. Self-confidence is a prerequisite to this.
• Results Oriented: You are focused on outcomes and getting stuff done. You don’t overthink. You set measurable goals for yourself then make it happen.
• Great Communication: You have incredible communication skills - verbal and written. You can tap into people’s emotions with your communication and get them to understand you really well.
• Seek Guidance: You use the knowledge of smart people to learn quickly. You know it’s a waste of time trying to learn everything by yourself when you can get advice from smart people who have already succeeded and failed. You act on their advice.
• Seek Perspective: You want to understand how others think and how the world works by seeking perspective and not making assumptions only based on your experiences and viewpoints.
• Patiently Impatient: You want things to happened quickly, but you understand that things take time and maintain self-control.
• Emotional Mastery: You are not a slave to your emotions. You have built mental systems to gain awareness and control of negative feelings like anger, jealousy, and anxiety.
• Healthy: You take care of your physical and mental health. You eat well, exercise, introspect, and do other healthy activities to take care of yourself.

I think all of these traits can be developed. But, I also think some people will naturally have innate strengths in certain traits. If you’ve identified areas that are harder for you and not natural, that means you’ll need to be more intentional in developing that trait. You shouldn’t expect to achieve mastery in these traits immediately. This process will take 5+ years. This is through a combination of training, experiences, and cognitive development. Be patiently impatient.

Here are more specific questions students have asked me in the past:

Q: What does the person’s output look like?

A: They pursue unique experiences and learn from them. Every week they are achieving exponential personal growth. They show progress and get results. During TKS, they complete 20+ explores, 2+ focuses, Velocity requirements, and all the challenges (with high quality). They develop strong relationships with others and have a positive vibe.

Q: Where is most of the persons time spent?

A: On things that matter. They spend their time investing in their future self, or to progress the success of others. They are aware of the things that don't matter and avoid them. After TKS, they also spend their time trying to make a positive impact on the world.

Q: And what does this person’s day to day or week look like?

A: It’s exciting. It doesn’t stay the same because they are constantly learning new things, meeting interesting people, and finding unique experiences. But, on a day to day there are consistencies. This includes investing in their health (physical and mental), developing relationships (family, friends, network), building unique knowledge, and developing valuable skills. They optimize their day and value their time.

There is no single formula for the “ideal” person. Each person is unique and should create their own path. The exciting part is figuring it out along the way. My intention is to give you guidance so you can spend your time effectively and not waste it. After all, time is your most valuable resource.

At the moment, you have not achieved mastery in those traits. That’s expected. But there are traits that I am looking for that you should have. The below are 5 traits that I look for in TKS students before joining:

1. Desire To Grow: You have strong desire to grow as a person and become the best version of yourself. You’re willing to struggle and make sacrifices to achieve personal growth.
2. Curiosity: You should come into the program wanting to learn. You should have a thirst for knowledge, specifically in emerging technologies and sciences.
3. Hardworking: You should be able to put in the work. Before you can learn to work smart, you need to work hard. You can’t achieve success in TKS without putting in the hours. Each brain date, focus objective, explore module, podcast, and conference contribute to these hours.
4. Positive Energy: You bring up the people around you. You want to make friends and add value to others. You want to meet people, share ideas, and develop friendships.
5. Openness: You are open to new ideas and knowledge. You will follow the guidance that we give you in TKS. This doesn’t mean blindly follow - you will ask questions when something is unclear. You understand that you know nothing and right now you are open to learning from others.

I would say all of those things are good traits to have. I’m not sure if those traits can be trained. It’s something I’m still trying to understand - what is the effect of Nature and Nurture on these 5 areas? I’m sure some can be trained more than others. Regardless, if you feel you have those 5 things, then you’ll enjoy being in TKS.

[Update: Sep 12, 2020]

Ps. I'm adding a new peice of advice: seek understanding. I see a lot of people in TKS either don't follow the process because they don't think it's valuable, or people blindly following the process but don't know why. Sometimes it takes experiencing something to understand the importance, but remember to keep that as an intention for yourself. TKS is not a program, it's building foundational infrastructure for the rest of your life. Everything we do in TKS is intentional and built from first principals thinking. Understand how you can build the strongest foundation for yourself, then leverage everything TKS has to offer.