— Why does the mind love to postpone the start of some activity until there’s one-hundred-percent certainty in its success? And how do you know it’s a trap?
— There are two reasons.
- On the one hand, there is rational postponement: an inner sense tells you that starting now isn’t worth it, and that’s genuinely correct.
- On the other hand — postponement that’s irrational: out of fear, out of insecurity, out of the desire to calculate everything (which is impossible), out of pride or fear of judgment.
The task of a modern person is to find balance. Often a person postpones not because they’re “too smart,” but because there’s a reasonable inner feeling that “it’s not time.” I’m not talking about rationalizations like: “I won’t invest because the market is bad.” That’s different. I’m talking about inner states and fears. You need to learn to distinguish: am I not launching the idea because it’s doomed to fail, or because I’m being held back by fear from the past? After all, if I do start, there’s a high chance it will work.
— But many scientists aren’t poor. They’re smart, they work in science.
— But many scientists aren’t smart. That’s important: when we say “smart,” we need to understand what this definition is built on. You elevate some one dimension: the number of books read? IQ test results? Academic titles? What is your understanding of intelligence based on?
— How do you distinguish procrastination from rational postponement?
— Let’s deal with the notion of the mind.
Example. A woman hasn’t been able to have a child for 20 years. She has read all the books, completed dozens of courses and programs, met with coaches and therapists, gone to thousands of sessions, traveled to ashrams, meditated, studied authors from all over the world, and earned four diplomas on the topic. She knows everything. But there are no children. Is this a smart person in the field of childbirth?
The very word “smart” is vague — largely materialistic and egocentric. For some reason it’s customary to think that only scientists are smart. But I believe there are plenty of foolish people among them — just as among businesspeople, sales managers, or any other profession. And conversely, among the most ordinary people there are many who are truly smart.
So what do we mean by intellect? The person who has read 800,000 books, or the one who built relationships with 10,000 people? The one who raised two children with true values, or the one who teaches how to raise kids but has never tried it?
Returning to the example. A person wants to have a child, but there’s no child. It’s similar to: I want to launch a business, but I don’t. I want to quit my job, but I don’t. I want to get divorced, but I don’t. I want to go on vacation, but I don’t. These are all life projects, incredible tasks.
And here’s another example. An eighteen-year-old girl meets a guy, and they have a child. Then another, and another. They didn’t read a single book, didn’t study anything — and yet there are children. It’s phenomenal.
It also happens that a smart person has studied everything, but there’s still no child. And then by chance a child appears. The same in business. A person is super smart, well-read, has diplomas — but circumstances don’t line up, and the business never launches. The fact is that billions of people have dreamed of projects but never began them.
A person considers themselves smart in a field where they don’t understand cause-and-effect relationships. If they are truly intelligent, they understand why they didn’t do something at one moment and did it at another.
A person can be smart, but if their business doesn’t work, then specifically in business they’re foolish. I know such people. They grasp certain things, but in sales, marketing, partnerships, economics — zero.
If the result depends on the mind, then a smart person should show results. And if there’s no result — you should ask yourself two questions:
- Am I truly smart in this field?
- Do I understand the cause-and-effect relationships: why at one moment I don’t act, and at another I start?
For example, over the last year and a half I recorded more than a hundred videos, seventy of them on this topic. But before, I didn’t record them. Why? Even though my mind was the same. There are understandable causes and effects here, and they’re clear. There’s no mystery.
— How does the perfectionist’s syndrome differ from healthy caution?
When we talk about perfectionism, intellect, caution, and spontaneous ideas, it’s important to realize: the end result very often is not directly connected to caution, nor to perfectionism, nor to spontaneity.
I know a huge number of examples of success with money — big money — where people acted absolutely inadequately from the standpoint of prudence, like a bet in a casino. There are people who have won in a casino by betting not on red or black, but on a specific number. This is an inadequate way to make money.
There are also those who built a business in absolutely risky and absurd conditions, going against the entire market — and still earned huge sums. At the same time, many acted very competently, meticulously, acquired the right financial assets — and still lost money. Or, for example, a person died before they could dispose of it, and it turned out the funds were improperly arranged and got stuck in limbo.
The main link between perfectionism and caution is understanding how the result is actually connected to these qualities. This awareness gives a very strong forward movement.
— How do you avoid sliding into reckless risk by removing preliminary analysis of the situation? How do you find balance between risk and analysis? And how do you avoid the extreme of endless action without thinking?
— I don’t see any particular problem here. There are two extremes: not analyzing at all and just acting — or thinking and analyzing endlessly. Balance lies in the fact that there are tasks that must be done without planning and excessive assessment, and there are tasks that absolutely require strict planning.
In business, even a mid-sized one (where more than a hundred people work), there are always tasks that need to be calculated carefully: tax law, the structure of legal entities, capital organization, accounting and tax reporting. All of this must be under strict control. But at the same time there are tasks where you need to act chaotically and quickly, without knowing the end result. For example, in sales you sometimes just need to call thousands of people, and sometimes — to find precisely those five without whom the business won’t move. It all depends on the situation, and it’s important to remember that systems vary.
The reason for inaction when action is necessary lies in the absence of strength. A person says: “I’m smart, I just don’t act, tell me how to start.” But the problem isn’t knowledge — it’s the absence of strength. If there were strength, the person would simply act.
I had a period when I didn’t set money aside even though I lived well. I thought: “Why save if I feel great and everything is going fine?” But one acquaintance said: “The reasons differ. First — there truly was blessing in your life; everything went calmly. And second — you simply didn’t have the strength to save.” These are different things and shouldn’t be confused. Otherwise, you can create the illusion that you don’t need to save. I understand: during that period I simply didn’t have the strength to do it.
Therefore, when the question “to do or not to do” arises, you must first understand the reason. That’s number one. Why do you want to do the task? In most cases, a person doesn’t do it or does it incorrectly precisely because they confuse the reason.
For example, why am I shooting videos? To make money? To be known by more people? To prove to loved ones that I can? To show others that I’m cool? To make new acquaintances and partnerships? To show these videos to my grandchildren someday? It’s very important to answer this question honestly.
A person often says: “I would have started a YouTube channel long ago, but I don’t for various reasons.” But the true reason is why they want to start it. I, for example, have not changed my goal even once in a year and a half. This is a huge point of support for me. The team and acquaintances tried to impose other goals on me, but I stick to mine.
Here’s an example: one team member went to an expensive YouTube training where they say: “Any channel must have a sales goal.” But that’s strange to me. Why “must”? Cristiano Ronaldo, as I recall, has more than a billion subscribers, but I don’t see him selling directly. There are huge social accounts without sales. I don’t want to build my actions on a false point of support.
I have a channel “ToTheMoon” where tech news and insights from Silicon Valley are published — nothing is sold there either. And that’s very important: such an honest position stabilizes and helps make decisions about next steps.
The second important point is to understand why you act or don’t act. Often we start something only because someone helped us, the right time came, or we found ourselves in the right country. For example, I started running a YouTube channel after moving to the U.S. In Russia I had more opportunities to film, but I didn’t do it. And here, where it’s much harder to find interviews, organize editing, and everything else, I began. Why here specifically? This reveals an important phenomenon.
And one more key point: money is not connected with intellect. With hard work — yes, with monotonous work — yes, with luck — yes. But the mind does not correlate with money. If you take a large sample of people, the dependence will be extremely weak. I’m not talking about the banal comparison of “10,000 educated people versus 10,000 illiterate people.” I’m talking precisely about the fact that intellect as such and money are not directly connected.