Cheating is Fundamental: Learning from the Best
As I've gotten older, I've found that, though I may not be an expert at any one skill, I am pretty good at finding out who is. And as it turns out, the more difficult the undertaking, the more willing the experts are to share their secrets—for free! The high degree of difficulty in these endeavors is why they typically don't care if their methods are stolen. And keeping with my commitment of mentioning Elon Musk in every blog post, this is probably why he doesn't bother with patents.
For example, in high school, I remember cheating off Lilly Bonaham, which helped me pass my English class. Cheating off the hard work of others may not be the ideal way to pass a test, but there are ways to "cheat" that can actually change your life for the better.
When I was out of shape, I looked for something that smart people did to get in shape. Not fit people—smart people. Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit, seemed smart to me. He wasn't fit in his appearance, but he's definitely intelligent. He also attracted other smart people like Robb Wolf and Kelly Starrett, to name a few. In the early days, those guys weren't bestselling authors and guests on Joe Rogan; they owned CrossFit gyms. To this day, I still learn from both of them. I read their books, listen to their podcasts, and read the books they tell others to read. In fact, one line from Robb's first book had quite a large impact on me, and though I don’t remember the exact words, it was something like, "If you don't exercise, you aren't lazy; you're broken." I believe this to be true on such a deep level that I consider it one of my "first principles" of fitness. And just this week, I referenced Kelly Starrett's first book The Supple Leopard to help a client at my gym.
John Danaher has a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University. John isn't known as a philosopher; he's known as one of, if not the best, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructors in the world. Most people know Lex Fridman as a podcaster, but he's also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and computer scientist with three degrees, including a PhD from Drexel University.
CrossFit and jiu-jitsu aren’t for everyone, and there are plenty of other options. But I don't know of many PhDs dedicating their lives to guiding people through the lifelong journey that is Orangetheory. This isn't to belittle anyone who finds joy in their Orangetheory workouts, only to point out that the smartest people in the world of health and fitness aren't drawn to it, nor do they find value in teaching it to others. If the smartest people in the world aren’t doing a thing, maybe there's something to that.
The best and the brightest aren't hard to find either. They're usually the most visible and transparent. They not only want you to cheat; they're out there telling you how. And they do it for free. And those who are willing to cheat are the ones who will most likely succeed.
Here's the cool part: you don't even have to be "good at it."
Very few people are as talented (at BJJ) as Gordon Ryan. But the worst black belt in your local jiu-jitsu class has the physical ability to defend themselves against any person they ever encounter for the rest of their life.
The 65-year-old woman who has been doing CrossFit for 10 years and may or may not be able to do a pull-up, regularly completes workouts that would land the average American in the ER.
And the failed startup founder who spent 10 years building something from the ground up may not be rich on paper but now has a pedigree more sought after by Silicon Valley venture capitalists than any college degree or previous job title. And even if you're only 10% as good as Elon you'd still end up with a couple billion bucks anyway (in theory).
You can cheat all you want, but there are certain things that can't be hacked. Copying off Lilly helped me pass my class; it didn't make me proficient at English.
The cheating is therefore in the learning itself. You can't decide to become a successful investor by reading Poor Charlie's Almanack if you don’t spend every day of your life learning and reading like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. You can’t get a black belt without spending two years getting choked out as a white belt. And you don’t get to be a billionaire entrepreneur without spending years working on something nobody understands, without recognition or immediate financial reward. And working hard on something knowing that you don’t know what you’ll need to know—or when you’ll need to know it—is not only risky but almost always ends in public failure. But there are a lot of really smart people who do it anyway.
These people are smart, but they aren't know-it-alls. They're learn-it-alls.
When undertaking certain things, expectations about the difficulties and what happens as a result are key. When you start jiu-jitsu, you should know you’re going to get choked. The key is realizing you'll get choked a lot more often than you expect. When you start CrossFit, you do it because you want to get in shape, but you will never "feel" as though you are. When starting a startup, you have to be prepared for the worst. Then, when that happens and you get through it, you must know that something unexpected and worse will happen again.
So that pretty much sums it up. Cheating works! Whatever is important to you, figure out who the smart people are, do what they're doing, read what they read, learn what they're teaching, read what they tell others to read, and learn from who they learn from. Keep doing it for a long time. Call them, email them, become friends with them. Technology has made cheating easier than ever. You can even cheat at finding ways to cheat!
So in closing, if you’re not that “smart,” find out who is and just start doing what they’re doing. Their cheat sheets are widely available and usually found in the form of books.
