Growth requires giving something up — and most professionals never learn that language.
Investment In Loss Mindset
Arguably more than anything, your mindset determines your growth and your ability to change - at least this is my experience. Have you ever had a moment where you read something and suddenly you see the entire world in a different way?
That’s a mindset shift.
One of those moments that had the biggest impact on me came in 2009. I was a struggling trader. I made more money than I probably would have in any other job at the age of 27, but I was stressed out beyond believe, and who am I kidding - I wasn’t a superstar.
I was determined that I would succeed or I would die sitting in my chair - literally that was my self talk. Very unhealthy. I would wake up in the middle of the night with panic attacks and wasn’t sure if I’d ever wake up again if I went back to sleep. My mindset was, I could never quit and my health didn’t matter.
And then I read one chapter . . . of one book.
That book was The Art of Learning. The chapter was titled Investment in Loss.
My world changed. I quit my job the very next day with no real plan. But I was armed with a new confidence and permission that I could pivot, adapt and change as long as I viewed all of my actions as investments.
What Is Investment In Loss?
Investment in loss simply means that we often need to take a step back in order to make a giant leap forward, and that step backward is an investment.
We may take a loss in the near term, but we trust and expect that our investment will produce growth for us.
This concept is key to learning anything. Why?
Because to do anything new or different, we have to give up something. We give up our time on nights and weekends to search for a new job. We give up that same time income when we quit our jobs to find a new path.
And elite athletes invest in loss when they make transitions in their careers to get to the next level. Two famous examples:
Tiger Woods to two years, threw away his old swing, worked with a coach to build a new swing that could take him to the next level.
Michael Jordan, had to become more of a jump shooter later in his career instead of dunking everything. He three-peated again after this transition.
Up until the moment I discovered Investment in Loss, I always looked at the world linearly, and thought my progress always had to be incremental. I had to stick to a path, and it didn’t matter the pain I took personally.
Here’s a video I did on the subject:
Embracing this concept set me on a path where I did not fear change, I made change a strength. I went on to break my career multiple times and adapt to changes, but anticipating them and “investing” in the skills I needed to get to the next level.
Examples:
Quitting my trading career to get into entrepreneurship
Painfully learning how to write to sell
Spending $10,000 to design and produce Quotebook before I knew I’d sell any
Spending nights nurturing Rejoin Media as a side hustle to get it to full time
Leaving a cushy corporate consulting gig for unknown entrepreneurship
At each pivot, I viewed the actions I needed to take an an investment and then worked to mitigate the risks of that investment.
Now I don’t fear change. I think change is my superpower.
Light that fire,
Mike
