Thread by @fintechjunkie

Six questions you should ask yourself about yourself if you want to accomplish great things in life. 🧵👇

2/25: Question 1: Can you make a promise to yourself and keep it?

Doing difficult things takes time and rarely is the path to success smooth and easy. A truism in life is that quitting is a learned skill so you should ask yourself how sacrosanct a promise is once you make it.

3/25: Much of this comes down to what people call “grit”. Most dictionary definitions of “grit” fall flat (i.e. – Courage, Conscientiousness, Perseverance, Resilience, and Passion) so I’ll pose a much cleaner definition.

4/25: My definition of grit consists of two major components.

Vision: A vision of a future state that one desperately wants to become real.

Control: An unwavering belief that one can take actions that will result in the vision materializing

Vision + Control = Grit

5/25: This description of “grit” boils a complex trait into a simple form.

A perfect example: World class athletes have grit because they want to win championships (Vision) and believe that practice plus diet plus exercise will affect the outcome (Control).

6/25: To accomplish great things in life you have to have grit and be willing to put in sustained and relentless effort. Shortcuts don’t exist. Adversity is part of the journey. And a simple “mirror test” is whether you have a history of breaking promises to yourself.

7/25: Question 2: Can you articulate the “why” behind your decisions?

An underrated life skill is “Clarity of thinking”.

If a complex question is presented to you multiple times on different days, would you deliver the same answer and be able to explain the “why” behind it?

8/25: Clarity of thinking has to be present if you want to sharpen your decision-making skills over time. Outcomes can be evaluated through the lens of what you thought were facts and what you thought would happen when a decision was originally made.

9/25: Clarity of thinking also allows you to publicly admit when you’ve made a bad decision. You can explain the “why” behind your original decision and the “what” that caused the decision to be a bad one. It allows you to change your mind when new facts emerge.

10/25: Question 3: Can you allow someone do their job knowing it’s not the way you’d do their job?

Different isn’t always wrong. There are many things in life that someone else’s way is actually better than your way. Internalizing this is the key to unlocking leverage.

11/25: Bad managers tell employees what to do all the time. Good managers explain why employees need to follow their plans. Great managers involve employees in critical decisions.

True leaders define goals and surround themselves by people capable of hitting targets.

12/25: When you get too involved in the details of how people do their jobs, your business becomes a cloning factory. You’re trying to turn each and every employee into you. This is pure and unadulterated madness but it happens all the time.

13/25: A great leader can properly assess the individualities of each team member and create an environment that allows them to grow into a better version of themselves. Leaders create leverage by expanding the skills of the team over time.

14/25: Question 4: Can you communicate bad news in a way that’s transparent and motivational?

Being able to tell the truth even when it's hard to do is an underrated and overlooked skill. Being able to use bad news to motivate the people around you is valuable beyond belief.

15/25: Insecure people are worried that bad news will blow back on them in the form of punishment or abandonment. They’re naturally suspicious and afraid, so when something goes wrong they attempt to obscure the truth or blame others quickly.

16/25: Secure people know that they’re trusted by the people around them and that adversity is just a word. They have full belief that there’s no problem too big for their team to handle. They’ve assembled a “ride-or-die-team” that will charge any hill with a single word.

17/25: With transparency comes unity. There’s no rumor mill spreading “news” about what someone thinks or overheard. Speculation and whispering among team members disappear. Team members can focus on doing their jobs because they know they’re in the flow of news.

18/25: And when adversity arises, a trusting and motivated team will immediately jump into action. Watching an entire team working to solve a challenging problem together is a thing of beauty. Playing the blame game is the opposite and feels like a swift kick to the head.

19/25: Question 5: Can you “grow in public” by encouraging and internalizing feedback about your own performance?

There are people who love to give feedback to everyone they see all the time about everything they do. We know what it’s like being around these people. Miserable.

20/25: Some of the most talented people in life not only do a good job of knowing when it’s appropriate and how to best deliver feedback to others, but they also encourage people around them to provide feedback about their own performance.

21/25: Feedback can fuel personal growth, but for many people their status creates a barrier that blocks feedback from coming their way. Secure and self-aware people go out of their way to create a safe environment that naturally generates feedback.

22/25: Feedback provides a sense of engagement and unity of purpose. Knowing that nobody is above feedback helps everyone internalize that the mission is more important than any single person’s identity. Intention and results matter. Status and ego don’t.

23/25: Question 6: Can you step into a servant’s role when needed?

Removing ego is critical in performing for others. It’s very difficult for alpha-type personalities to internalize that helping others succeed is a powerful way to get big things done.

24/25: Procuring resources and breaking down barriers for your team are servant’s functions. When you help others succeed by prioritizing their needs over your own you’ll build an army of supporters. And an army is louder and has more power than any individual. Hear them roar!

25/25: TL;DR: These six questions aren’t meant to be a complete checklist of “greatness”, but they are a common set of skills that many great people possess. Honest answers require a healthy amount of self-awareness and a deep stare into the mirror of life.