In 1932, Babe Ruth called his shot. He stepped up to the plate in the world series, wagged his fat fingers at center field fences and basically said
The next pitch, big Babe Ruth smacked that ball into the stands and jogged around the bases to create an iconic moment in baseball history.
I honestly hate baseball (as a lax guy at heart).
But what I do love are "shot callers". These are people who make crazy ambitious claims in public. They write them down. They shout them from the rooftops.
But above all, they obsess over a north star or a big dream.
Shot callers create public accountability... and risk public embarrassment.
One of the world's best shot callers is a guy you may have heard of named Elon Musk.
On August 2, 2006, Elon wrote a manifesto titled "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)"
In it, he outlines how this little electric car company would take over the world with 4 simple steps:
In the next 15 years, he did it. But you already know Elon Musk is a badass entrepreneur.
What I find more useful is this concept of "calling your shot" and how we can apply it to our lives.
My hot take: Every single person needs to call their shot with a manifesto.
It could be how you're going to be the best parent in the world. Or how you're going to crack the code on human teleportation.
But you need to call your shot. And here's why...
I firmly believe that humans are wired to be miserable without the feeling of progress. You need to feel like you're growing... or you feel like you're dying. This could be as simple as upping your weight on the bench press every month.
Or growing your follower account on Twitter. Or the number of digits in your bank account.
So we need growth. But what we really need is to feel like we're growing towards something.
This is the North Star. Your North Star is your ultimate destination. And this is why you need a master plan.
It forces you to figure out where you want to go. But also forces you to ask... "why do I want this?" which is even more powerful.
Because I have a sneaky secret.
Along the journey, I promise you will want to give up.
But the only thing keeping you going is a strong WHY.
A why you did this in the first place. And a why you keep going despite a little road bump.
So you need a North Star with a strong why.
And this is exactly what Elon's manifesto did.
You know the best way to force action?
Tell all your friends that you are doing it. Or telling the whole damn world is even better.
Now, your only choice is to do it.
Or risk developing a reputation as the guy or gal who never follows through.
This public pressure... is a beautiful thing.
And is crucial to achieving what you want.
The Secret is this corniest movie ever (trailer here btw... you will laugh)
And it's based on the following:
Yes, I know this sounds a lot like voodoo bullsh*t.
But bear with me for a second.
You need a North Star. You need to tell the world. And you need to work everyday to achieve it.
And in my mind if you put the right energy out there (with the right mix of hustle), you can attract to you anything you want in this world.
I've seen it way too many times in my own life for it to be a coincidence.
Now, you may be kinda curious.
Chris, what's your manifesto?
Here it is:
See ya next week,
p.s. Aidan Yeep did a dope job on Moonshot illustration. You can check out more of his stuff here
p.p.s. Elon dropped his Master Plan Part 2 in 2016. Totally worth reading here
hey team, it's chris hladczuk back in your inbox. this idea has been rattling around in my brain for awhile so I needed to share it with you. Egoless Execution You need crazy confidence to start a company. You spend countless hours pitching people on the vision. You believe a secret about the world no one understands yet. Plenty of people say you're crazy. You must have an ego to endure constant rejection. A big enough ego to believe you're right and everyone else is wrong. A big enough ego...
Hey Team, it's your boy Chris Hladczuk back in your inbox. (if you missed it, I raised $2.5M + am assembling the avengers. If you know a savage engineer with startup experience who loves mobile, reply here! I'll pay you $5,000 if I hire them.) Okay so safe ideas are really risky. Safe ideas = consensus stuff that the random dude at the company holiday party immediately agrees with Examples: Work at Goldman Sachs for 2 years - it's "risky" to quit after 1 year Go to business school - it's...
Why would a billionaire bring a date to a furniture store? Unless it's Restoration Hardware (RH). This is the Disneyland of Furniture. Here's how the $4 billion brand exploded👇 Back in 1979, Stephen Gordon has a problem. Why can’t you buy good, affordable furniture? He started Restoration Hardware (RH) to solve it. But 44 years later, RH is way different: Today, it's a luxury home goods brand with restaurants, coffee shops, and hotels. And they do over $3 billion in sales. The secret sauce to...