Codie Sanchez Profile picture
Dec 28, 2021 23 tweets 4 min read Read on X
I have a friend who is 40 and damn near a billionaire.

I asked him what his one key to investing well is... here's what he told me:
We have a habit of late nights, good wine, and tough questions about the world around us.

One night I was candid asking how he made his fortune. I was looking for things to replicate...

The simplicity of his reply surprised me.
“I train my brain to perform one task incredibly well.

One task alone... to never conform.”

Here's how he explained it:
The Funnel to Nonconformity:

+Become a funnel for ideas
+Let ideas fight based on merit, not emotion
+Find courage to act in nonconformity
= Opportunities others never see, or are too scared to act upon

An uncrowded market leads to outsized returns in life, and wealth.
#1 Don’t Believe In Anger

Anger is useful in physical fights but a killer of logic.

It’s a trick of the mind pushing you into a fight or flight. Let me tell you what you can’t do well when you’re fighting or flighting... think.

Remove your anger.
#2 The Controversy & Conformity Conundrum

There is a spectrum where controversies and conformity sit on two ends of the line. More conformity = less controversial

And yet, most of the wins in life land on the edge of controversy

Choose your controversy wisely, but choose it
#3 Reading As A Diet

Be careful what you read, it becomes the way you think.

Words are heard, then internalized, then repeated, and then habituated.

Curate what you let into your brain as you do with your body.
#4 Ideas Strongly Stated & Loosely Held

Having a strong opinion is the mark of intellect but having the ability to change it is the mark of true intelligence.

Only politicians hold one stance forever for fear of flip-flopping, we mortals do better to constantly experiment.
#5 Share Your MVP’s

Every time you produce a product or idea, more come back ten-fold.

So don’t make it perfect, make it done. Then let the market decide.
#6 Warren Buffet Doesn’t Optimize

Wake up at 5 am, meditate, work out, drink 72 ounces of chloride water and stand upside down.

Ok.

Or do none of those things and instead focus on thinking clearly, intently, and strategically before you pull any triggers.
#7 Boredom As a Superpower

The best ideas need breathing room. They’re a flower stretching for the sun. Clutter them with meetings, and watch them die.

Instead, he clears his schedule every morning with no calls prior to 10am

I do the same, paired w/ 2 no-call days a week
#8 Numbers > Narrative

Anytime something is common practice, check if it’s common sense.

Return to the very first principle there is: 1+1 = 2.

Numbers are often terrible liars.
#9 Can You Explain it to Grandma?

Take that shiny new idea in your head and go explain it to your grandma.

Can you take the complex and make it simple? If not, you don’t know enough.

Strong beliefs paired with little knowledge is a dangerous spot to operate.
#10 Every New Learning Is A Little Death

Your skin regenerates itself every 72 days completely.

Your ideas need an equal level of velocity and regeneration. Challenge the old ideas and let them be reborn into something better.
#11 The Toleration Challenge

What if your intellect is measured by how much truth you can tolerate?

Can you be told you’re wrong, and that dress makes you look fat, and you’re getting older, and he’s smarter than you, and take them all in stride?
#12 Trust the Process there are no Shortcuts.

Shortcuts and get-rich-quick schemes will get you lost.

Forget the outcome, focus on the process and watch your destination appear.
#13 Never Forget Failures

He keeps a collection of old failures on a wall for all to see.

Most people hang medals, he reminds himself of scars gotten and mistakes mishandled. It keeps you honest.
#14 The Gift of Dissent

Sycophants (yes men) will kill you faster than dissent.

Surround yourself with unruly individuals who make you stand your ground or berate you for not.
#15 Speak Truth, Even When It Hurts

You don’t really hold an idea in your head until you can say it with your lips.

Idea, Word, Action.
#16 Fluid intelligence Acceleration

Fluid intelligence is the capacity to reason, make connections, solve problems, and consider abstract concepts.

The fastest way to grow it? Read widely, voraciously and continuously.
As we come into the New Year, as personal sovereignty becomes more important... we have to realize, it starts with us

It is not the tactics of money making that matter

The most important thing you can do is train your brain to seek the ideas that stand on their own 2 feet.
Finally, I'll leave you with this:

“A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform.”

- Naval
If you like this I’m doing a bigger breakdown on him on our free newsletter

contrarianthinking.co

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More from @Codie_Sanchez

Jun 27
I asked a former Secret Service agent her secrets to reading people.

7 lessons from Evy Poumpouras on manipulation, lie detection, and influence: Image
Stop Talking So Much

People think they need to explain themselves, defend their position, or fill every silence.

But when you're talking, you're gathering zero intelligence—you’re just focused on yourself.

The quieter you are, the better you become at picking up cues.
Not Everyone Deserves the Same Access To You

For years, Evy watched presidents assign people to ‘concentric zones’ of trust:

- Inner circle: High trust
- Outer zone: Friendly, limited trust
- Acquaintance zone: Networking only
- Outer circle: People looking to destroy you

You can be kind to all, but don't let everyone in.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 26
I love this quote from Marc Andreessen:

“If you know what you want, and you go for it with maximum energy, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly than you would think.”

5 cheap ridiculous things we did in the early days that oddly 10’xd our biz: Image
Before starting Contrarian Thinking, my resume looked like it was written by ChatGPT after six shots of whisky:

- Walmart model
- Reporter in Latin America
- Wall Street analyst
- Private equity investor
- Laundromat owner
- YouTuber
- Fund manager Image
When you zoom in, it looks deranged.

But when you zoom out? There’s a common thread of ownership, finance, and a DEEP hatred of waiting for permission.

Which brings us to Year 1:
Read 11 tweets
Jun 19
Everyone's either excited about AI or thinks it'll steal their job.

I used to be on the fence.

Then I hired a full-time employee just to integrate AI into everything we do.

5 tools that made me 3x more productive in 6 months:
1. Whispr Flow

I don’t text anymore because of this.

All you have to do is hold Fn, speak naturally, and watch it transcribe your words perfectly like a court reporter.

It capitalizes names, adds punctuation, and even writes “fuck…” (it knows we never actually mean “duck” lol)
This makes me 200-300% faster at typing.

My employees call me "the bane of their existence" on Slack because of how much I can get done now.

If you're older and type with two fingers like my dad...

You'll never need to learn proper typing again.
Read 9 tweets
Jun 10
The fastest way to build a memorable brand is to pick a fight.

Here's a simple framework to define your enemy and build a magnetic business (The 3 Vs):
Harley-Davidson figured this concept out in the 80s.

They were getting bodied by Honda and Yamaha's smoother, faster, quieter bikes.

So Harley said screw it.

They stopped selling motorcycles and started selling middle fingers. Image
Harley leaned into everything their competitors weren't:

- Loud noise
- Leather jackets
- American steel

Were the bikes better? Not really.

But they gave people something to belong to... Image
Read 12 tweets
Jun 7
I spent 90 minutes with Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, and he made me rethink what I knew about happiness.

Here's everything you get wrong about being happy: Image
According to Arthur, the pursuit of perfect happiness is a dangerous myth.

As much as we hate them, we need negative emotions because they keep us safe and alive.

They're defense mechanisms that signal when something's wrong around us.
That said, happiness and unhappiness are NOT opposites.

Yes, they're governed by different hemispheres of your brain.

But getting rid of your triggers makes you less UNhappy, not MORE happy:
Read 12 tweets
Jun 5
I asked a former Green Beret how to raise a family in 2025.

7 lessons from Nick Freitas every father should hear about raising strong men: Image
Dads Should Be Dangerous

One of the core duties of dads is to protect.

That’s why Nick believes the world needs more fathers who are kind, but never weak.

If you can’t be violent in the service of your family, you aren’t peaceful.

You are harmless.
Women Have More Influence Over Men Than They Realize

A man will change his path, raise his standards, or chase greatness for his partner.

History is filled with men who literally went to war for their women.

And that’s a fraction of the power women have over their men:
Read 9 tweets

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