# Do What Everybody Else Does Not Do May 2023 In a world filled with self-help books and lectures, Mark Manson's approach to success stands out. Here's the original [Youtube video](https://youtu.be/_ZJpU43NA0c) that inspired this post. He suggests that there are three key steps to getting ahead of 99% of people. He calls it "Mark Manson's Guide To Insane Success": 1. Have a contrarian idea 2. Be correct about that idea 3. Execute on it massively While many self-help resources tend to focus on the third step, Manson underscores the significance of the first two, summing it up as "To be more successful than everybody else, you need to do what everybody else does not do." Reflecting on this statement led me to following insights: 1. To generate contrarian ideas, **you must consistently question things**. Cultivate curiosity, understand the status quo, and possess the courage to challenge it. 2. **Form your own opinions**. This is essential for being contrarian; you can't be contrarian without having an opinion. Doing so can lead to accurate and powerful ideas that others have not thought of. All too often, our thoughts are not genuinely our own, but rather influenced by others. Moreover, we often lack opinions on certain matters due to disinterest and inadequate knowledge. Simple step would be to start with "What do I think of this? what do I feel about this?" 3. The path to success is filled with failures: **courage and conviction are essential**. To embrace contrarian thinking demands courage, conviction, and the ability to spot what others have not. It involves exploring unpopular or unfamiliar ideas. To find the right contrarian idea, you must be willing to be wrong often. 1. Here's my contrarian idea on this: **failures are features**. Cunningham famously said, "The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." This highlights how a "correct" answer can emerge through iteration of answers. Ernest Hemingway's quote, "The first draft of anything is shit," also applies. Thus, failure is the default starting point, and there's no need to feel bad about it. It might feel uncomfortable, but it's a normal part of the process. 4. **Execution is important and necessary but not sufficient**: The majority of our daily activities involve execution problems. For example, trying to get a six-pack primarily requires execution: following a diet and exercise plan that leads to a sustained calorie deficit results in weight loss. However, executing this plan can be challenging due to factors like lack of knowledge, skills, willpower, dedication, or distractions and mistakes. That said, regular exercise alone doesn't make someone more successful than others.