Dickie Bush Quotes

The number one indicator of future success: high agency.

It's a simple binary: do you believe you can influence your own outcomes or not.

High-agency: This is an inconvenience. How can I solve this?

Low-agency: This is an inconvenience. This sucks.

My simple definition of wealth:

Wealth is the ability to choose:
• How you spend your time
• Where you spend your time
• Who you spend your time with

The “number” and circumstances that enables this will be different for everyone.

But you should have an idea what it is.

How to successfully learn nothing:

• Ignore the fundamentals.
• Study the latest tips and tricks.
• Don't waste your time reading.
• Build shallow, broad knowledge.
• Listen to all the newest books that come out.
• Become a master of planning but skip execution.

Doing what everyone else does:

Guaranteed to avoid catastrophe.

Guaranteed to attain mediocrity.

Too much audience building, not enough business building.

The old way: writing once you've figured it out.

The new way: writing as you figure it out (and building an audience along the way).

You’re stuck because you set too many goals.

If you cannot name the 3 things you’re pursuing in life right now, you are unfocused.

Why?

The human brain can remember no more than 3 things quickly.

Tic-tac-toe. ABC. Stop drop & roll. Blood, sweat, and tears.

One health. One business. One lifestyle.

Then pursue ferociously.

Writing is 10x easier when you're solving a problem the market is begging you to solve.

A good mental model for getting smarter: am I asking more questions than answers I'm giving?

How to get lucky:

Consider a wide-open field with someone hurling darts at a dartboard.

Every one that lands is an opportunity seized.

But most fields have a terrible thrower aiming at a small dartboard.

The lucky people recruit 100 throwers and build a bigger dartboard.

You’re stuck because you thought the entire journey would be fun.

Newsflash:

Progress is not always fun.

There is a disgusting & treacherous amount of exceptionally boring work between you and your ultimate goals.

Tackle it one day at a time.

If you don't feel remarkably unprepared & unqualified whenever you start something new, then you wasted time.

The best writers are really just the best walkers and internet distraction avoiders

How to keep momentum: minimize startup costs.

When working on multiple projects, the goal should be to minimize startup friction.

How I handle it: every time I finish working on something, I scribble down what I just completed, my current thoughts, and the exact next steps.

Every early writer struggles with impostor syndrome.

They ask “Why me?” unsure if anyone will care what they say.

Simple fix: flip the question around.

Ask “why not me?” or “why anyone else?”

This unlocks a whole new perspective.