Wanting greatness without being ruled by it. The Makers of Empire passage on my wall starts one conversation with Ian. Grant's version is plainer: a thousand words a day until the draft is done.
Where it comes up 11
Within this theme 130
Ideas 26
- Brain as Operating System
Tamir's main framework: the brain is an input/output computer and an 'interpretation machine' that runs every stimulus through filters built up over a lifetime. Like any OS it picks up bugs…
- Compound Curiosity
Tamir's main prescription: curiosity is the 'compound interest' of the mind. The right kind isn't scattered novelty-seeking. It's relentless, uncomfortable curiosity about where you're…
- Self-help as veneer
Tamir argues that people obsessed with self-awareness books, courses and seminars can be more inauthentic than everyone else, because each one adds another veneer and another layer of…
- Flow
Being in the zone through work tied to a purpose, which is how Tamir describes Sheela's spirituality. Sheela partly corrects him, saying she simply does what comes her way, for its own sake…
- Victimhood
Both agree that seeing yourself as a perpetual victim is 'the worst thing in this world'. Tamir grants that at an abstract level we're all victims, since none of us asked to be here, but…
- Beginner's Humility
From martial arts: accept that you are terrible because you have no experience; a year of practice makes you a year better. Combat and solo sports remove excuses and check the ego.
- Distraction as Addiction
Tamir's idea that distraction works like a drug. The more you distract yourself, the harder you hit existential dread on the comedown, while distracting yourself less brings an inner…
- Kitchen Table Novels
Murakami's first two novellas, written by hand for two hours a night at his kitchen table after closing his bar. Tamir's proof that you can make the time.
- Massive desire with complete non-attachment
Ian's formula for reconciling the drive for greatness with detachment from results: keep the burning desire, but measure fulfillment by the daily practice rather than the outcome.
- Non-attachment
Ian's 'massive amounts of desire, complete non-attachment': wanting and working for big things while not depending on the outcome; Tamir ties it to the Gita and Kipling's 'If—'.
- Work as meditation
Sheela's form of spirituality. She skipped the commune's meditations and treated her work building Bhagwan's dream as sacred. Bhagwan backed her, telling people who complained to leave her…
- Creativity vs Laziness
Grant reframes the human struggle: not good against evil but creativity against laziness, 'the ultimate destroyer', with addiction to consumption as its form.
- Hustle Culture
The grind ethos (no sleep, no days off, sell, sell) that Tamir says has infected entrepreneurship. He supports deep dedication to a craft you truly choose, but not because someone told you…
- Personal development hamster wheel
Getting stuck consuming self-help, which presumes you're broken and widens the chasm between where you are and where you want to be. The phrase is Ian's.
- Resolve as the ultimate test
Tamir holds that the ultimate test of any model of self-improvement is resolve in the real world: in sales you find out very quickly whether a book you read actually makes a difference.
- Social Media as Shopping Cart of Symbols
Social media pictured as a shopping cart that young people fill with symbols and labels to build an identity. Tamir offers the image and Logan agrees.
- Bubble economy
Japan's late-1980s economic boom, the backdrop to the shadow's critique of workers who run on stress and have no emotions.
- Expectations
Sheela's chain: expectations of others lead to disappointment, disappointment leads to depression, a 'catch-22' you avoid by being clear about your own desire and taking whatever comes as…
- Original sin framing of self-help
Ian and Tamir observe that self-help often starts from 'I'm broken, therefore I need X', which Tamir likens to Christian original sin; Ian prescribes self-compassion instead.
- Pet Rock
A novelty product: a rock in a box with fake grass and care instructions. Colin tells it as the story of a man who ignored everyone calling it stupid and became a multimillionaire by…
- Power, money, fame
Colin's three things society tells kids to aim for, instead of being a great teacher, police officer or firefighter, or simply a great human being with friends you actually spend time with.
- Verbal diarrhea people
Colin's sales slang ('VD people') for those who talk endlessly and never act. His test is the old line that you judge a tree by the fruit it bears.
- Visualization
Picturing a desired future, used in manifesting and by athletes before they compete. Tamir describes it as a healthy kind of living in the future, illustrated by his own image of a house by…
- Bella figura
Colin's Italian expression ('bellagura'), which he describes as a happy, good life built around family, friends and food. It shows that modest ambitions, like a great family or a great…
- Hedonic goal-chasing
The 'I'll be happy when...' trap Tamir names at the outset: if happiness waits on the next goal you'll be miserable your whole life; Ian sees men arrive at 40-50 feeling empty this way.
- Integration of immigrants
Colin thinks European countries such as the UK and Sweden did the right thing letting migrants in but failed to integrate them, which led to clashing values. He thinks immigrants who arrive…
Books 9
- If—
Rudyard Kipling's poem, which Tamir quotes in four episodes, most often its lines on meeting Triumph and Disaster and treating those two impostors just the same.
- Bhagavad Gita
Hindu scripture, traditionally attributed to Vyasa. Tamir often cites Krishna's teaching that you have a right to your work but not to its fruits.
- Pinball, 1973
Murakami's second novella, the follow-up to Hear the Wind Sing, and the source of the title of the first episode with Ian Coll.
- Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill's 1937 self-help classic, a formative book for Tamir in his early 20s that he read six or seven times.
- Makers of Empire
Prose-poem about dreamers as 'the architects of greatness' whose visions outlast crumbling empires; Tamir reads it aloud and it frames the episode's question of reconciling greatness with…
- The Master Key System
Charles F. Haanel's 1912 New Thought correspondence course turned book, the first of Tamir's formative self-help 'trinity'.
- Dhammapada
Buddhist scripture Tamir cites (paraphrasing its opening) as saying you suffer because you desire; Ian counters that resistance, not desire, creates suffering.
- Hear the Wind Sing
Murakami's first novel, one of the 'kitchen table' novellas he wrote by hand at night after running his bar.
- Atomic Habits
James Clear's book on habit formation.
People 16
- Colin Gerrard
UK-born entrepreneur who built companies and led sales teams around the world (Belgium, the UK, sourcing in China). He also directed the award-winning short film 'Eli', made the earlier…
- Seneca
Roman Stoic philosopher and author of the Consolation to Helvia, whom Tamir quotes in three episodes.
- Bill Gates
Colin uses him twice. First, he didn't invent DOS but bought it and built Windows from it, which shows that the work behind an idea matters more than the idea. Second, his goal was never to…
- Isaac Newton
Physicist and mathematician who invented calculus.
- Napoleon Hill
Self-help author of Think and Grow Rich and Outwitting the Devil, both formative books for Tamir in his early 20s.
- Dan Peña
Controversial Mexican-American businessman whose style of motivation is telling people how full of crap they are. Tamir quotes his line that self-help is the biggest scam of all time…
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essayist and philosopher whom Tamir sees as a precursor to the self-help writers of the early 20th century.
- Tony Robbins
Motivational speaker and self-help author.
- UK TikTok mobility coach
Unnamed man on TikTok in the UK who helps children with cerebral palsy or brain injuries take a couple of steps. He uses swearing, no-kid-gloves encouragement, and makes them feel that two…
- Albert Einstein
Physicist, creator of general relativity.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Colin invokes 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger', adding that not everything does, but being bullied made him stronger.
- James Clear
Self-help author of Atomic Habits.
- Charles F. Haanel
Early-20th-century New Thought writer, author of The Master Key System, whom Tamir credits as one of the founders of modern self-help.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
The voice of hustle culture as Tamir presents him, boasting he took no days off between 20 and 30; Tamir questions trading away one's youthful 20s.
- James Allen
English philosopher and self-help author of As a Man Thinketh, one of Tamir's formative non-fiction books.
- Woody Allen
Colin quotes his line that 80% of success is just showing up. Tamir adds that being physically present doesn't mean you've actually shown up.
Quotes 10
I'm going to tell you two things, boy. Don't ever grow old. And don't wait for anything 'cause it's not coming.
For a while I would be obsessed with self-help books and this and that. And I realized the more self-help books I read, the less of a personality I had.
Apple pushes a new operating system every year. When was the last time I pushed out a new operating system for myself?
Maybe that's it: it's not a battle between good and evil, it's a battle between creativity and laziness.
Massive amounts of desire, complete non-attachment. I think that's the only way.
A lot of times as humans we get to a point where we must shed a skin or we will continue to suffer.
You don't need more podcasts, you don't need more books, you don't need more strategy. What you need is compassion for yourself.
Become clear of one's own desire, and bear in mind: when you have expectations of others, you will be disappointed, 'cause they will never be fulfilled. And the moment you are disappointed, you will get depressed. So avoid this catch-22.
There's no such thing as being good at yoga, because no matter how flexible they are, there's always a deeper layer that they can get into.
Some new product comes along and you go, I thought of that 10 years ago. Yeah, but what did you do about it?
Insights 30
- Get to know someone before you motivate them
Generic motivation can backfire badly, because what fires up one person breaks another. To find someone's authentic self and motivate them, you first have to know their story.
- Resistance, not desire, creates suffering
Ian disagrees that desire causes suffering: you can hold massive desire as long as you're not dependent on reaching it; the suffering comes from resisting what is.
- Actions speak louder than words
Your authenticity as a human being lies in what you do, not what you say. Colin thinks this old truth matters more now than at any time in history.
- Being terrible is the price of entry
In any discipline the beginner must accept being bad; after a year of practice you see beginners and realize how far you've come.
- Distraction's crash is existential dread
Like any addiction, the dread on the comedown is as deep as the distraction was high. Distracting yourself less brings a more unified sense of who you are and your place in the world.
- Modest ambitions are still ambitions
Ambition doesn't have to mean becoming a billionaire. Wanting a great family, a good meal on the weekend, or to build homes people will live in for ever is just as real a goal.
- Self-help can widen the gap it means to close
Even a book telling you it's okay not to be enough creates a new struggle to feel okay; self-help is a tool, but stuck in it you keep measuring the chasm between where you are and where you…
- Self-help has no performance indicator
Self-help tells you you're getting better while giving you nothing measurable to track. Believing you're improving is not the same as improving, and resolve in the real world, such as sales…
- Self-improvement hierarchies breed sophisticated fakes
The higher you climb any belief system's checklist hierarchy, the more you need to keep up appearances, so those at the top are often the most out of touch with who they are. It works like…
- The Gita reconciles conflicting desires
The Bhagavad Gita is special because it reconciles the desire to win with the desire not to harm, through acting fully while being detached from the fruits of action.
- Tough love beats fake love
Honest, unvarnished encouragement does more than gentle pretense. It can make someone feel that taking two steps is incredible, and sometimes the smallest achievements are the greatest.
- Work for a beloved's dream can be meditation
Spirituality doesn't have to look like sitting or dancing meditation. Sheela found jumping up and down boring, but working toward the dream of the man she loved was sacred to her, and…
- A bugged mind needs outside code
A mind can't fully debug itself from inside its own faulty logic. It needs new input, new ideas or a new environment, the way software needs a patch pushed to it.
- A faulty OS is only scary by choice
Admitting you've been running faulty mental software is only frightening if you frame it that way. You can treat it as routine maintenance, like a yearly OS release.
- Act for joy, not for blessings
Where Tamir sees purpose-driven flow, Sheela describes something simpler: she does what comes her way without deliberating yes or no, helps others because it gives her pleasure, and seeks…
- Make your goal the idea, not the money
Try with all your might not to make your goal monetary. Gates aimed to be the number one software guy with the best idea, and being authentic about the idea is what made him a billionaire.
- Match the challenge to your level
A crossword made for a five-year-old gives no satisfaction. Literature, like exercise, has to be pitched at your current comprehension and the effort you're willing to give.
- Nothing is coming; go get it
Nothing you're waiting for is coming on its own. The right mindset is to go and get what you want, not to expect something you haven't earned.
- Our drives come from childhood compensations
Many life paths, like needing the Ferrari and then needing it wrapped in neon, are driven by childhood motivations and a search for compensation and validation, and they all rest on how we…
- Reading about action is not action
Reading a book can feel like the equivalent of acting on chapter one's advice; things are often as simple as doing the thing, which is why we overcomplicate them.
- Sacrifice for your craft, not theirs
Being great at something does require intense sacrifice, but only make it for a craft you truly want, not because someone told you to grind. Have an honest conversation with yourself about…
- The itch Amazon can't scratch
Even a purely functional purchase leaves us faintly disappointed, because without admitting it we want it to be more than it is. The itch has a completely different cause, and the letdown…
- The rest of the world never heard of your guru
People caught inside a self-help group forget that the whole world outside is succeeding without ever hearing of their technique, book or leader, using the simple things a parent, boss or…
- The work behind the idea makes it
Everyone has great ideas, and Gates didn't even invent DOS. What separates success from 'I thought of that ten years ago' is the work you put behind the idea.
- Victimhood gets you nowhere
Technically we're all victims, since none of us asked to be born, but taking that position gets you nowhere. Hardship such as bullying shapes you if you eventually grow out of being the…
- A dying plant may need new soil
A plant dying in one bed can flourish when moved to another. Sometimes the fault isn't in us but in our surroundings and influences, so we should pay close attention to our environment.
- Expectations of others breed depression
Expecting things from others guarantees disappointment, because those expectations are never fulfilled, and disappointment slides into depression. Sheela's way out is to get clear on your…
- Imperfection is the human condition
If you're looking for growth, it isn't because you're broken but because being human means nothing is ever perfect, so there's always more to interpret and the model can always improve.
- Practice beats journey
'Practice' is a better word than 'journey' because it implies guardrails: watching Netflix all day can be called a journey, but not a practice.
- Success is common sense
Success comes down to two words, common sense. It gets drowned out by the voices of people who hurt you or by authority figures, not by any lack of books.
Practices 13
- 75 Hard
75-day program: two 45-minute workouts daily (one outdoors), roughly 4 liters of water, 10 pages of a personal-growth book, a strict diet, no alcohol, and a daily progress photo. Ian is on…
- Ask 'What's in it for you?'
In interviews Colin told candidates exactly what he was after, then asked what they were after, to judge whether they were too ambitious or not ambitious enough. Asking yourself the same…
- Keep visuals of your why on the wall
During the grind of his early startup, Tamir put up visuals such as 'Makers of Empire' to remind himself why he was doing what he was doing.
- Make the time, even late at night
Like Murakami writing two hours a night at the kitchen table after work, carve out time despite money, circumstances and space.
- Take a beginner's class
Join a martial arts or other class where you have no skills, to learn humility and see incremental progress.
- To-stop-doing list
Keep a good-and-bad list. On one side list the things to work on, such as procrastinating or leaving friends' texts unanswered for weeks, which Colin calls disrespectful. On the other, a…
- Train reading like a muscle
If you want to get back into reading, don't start with War and Peace. Start with a short story or novella you can finish in an afternoon or two. Reading is a muscle: students whose eyes…
- Dinner without business
To find out what makes an employee tick, take them to dinner and don't talk business at all. Ask about their life, and only at the very end ask about their goals for the year.
- Finish the first draft ruthlessly
Be ruthless with yourself and allow no excuses to give up until the first draft is done. You won't win the marathon, but you can finish it.
- Write a thousand words a day
If you have a concrete idea for a novel, write every day. A thousand words is manageable; the first days are rusty, but after a week or ten days it grows to 1,500 and you'll reach the end.
- Change your environment to flourish
Like moving a dying plant into new soil, change your surroundings and influences when they keep you from growing.
- Get clear on your desire, drop expectations
Sheela's answer when asked for a practice to become more like her: get clear about your own desire, stop expecting things from others, and take whatever comes your way as it is and go…
- Push a yearly personal OS update
Treat the new year like Apple's annual release: make a point of reviewing and upgrading your interpretations, beliefs and filters instead of running old software.
Stories 19
- Satisfied Customer excerpt from Troll
Tamir reads an undated page-15 excerpt from Troll by a user called 'Satisfied Customer'. It is a stream of a young person's online mind: irony pulled over the eyes, Mario speedruns, vanilla…
- Grandfather's two pieces of advice
Colin's father died when he was two, and his grandfather looked after him until he was about nine. On a walk shortly before he died, his grandfather stopped and told him: don't ever grow…
- Murakami wrote at the kitchen table
Tamir recounts that Murakami, at 30, ran a bar and after getting home late at night would sit at his kitchen table for two hours writing by hand, producing Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball…
- Bullied without a dad
Colin was bullied mercilessly as a child, picked on, beaten up, and mocked even for not having a father. That pushed him into boxing. He says it made him stronger, not weaker.
- Million-dollar number one single
Colin overheard two men at Soho House in Los Angeles: 'Give me a million bucks, I'll give you a number one single.' He thinks they're right and that the music industry is about money, which…
- Motivating people by knowing them
Colin says daily 'sell, sell, sell' meetings are the worst thing you can do, because you don't know what motivates each person. Some of his staff did brilliantly after he screamed at them…
- Sheela doesn't meditate, leave her alone
Sheela was bored by the meditation exercises and found her work more fun than 'jumping up and down'. Commune members complained to Bhagwan that Sheela didn't meditate, and he told them to…
- The salesman who didn't want to be manager
In one of Colin's offices in Belgium, during a struggling telecoms campaign, one salesman was the only one hitting numbers. Colin pulled him aside and praised him lavishly as his next…
- Eight years of aikido in Budapest
Grant trained aikido for eight years in Budapest, plus other arts. Even a forward roll is clumsy at 24; a basic boxing jab turns out complicated. Seeing beginners after a year, and advanced…
- The noble builder
A builder friend of Colin's in the UK thinks building a house is a great thing, because it will be someone's forever home and a family will live in it. Colin respects him enormously and…
- Blindfolded Rubik's Cube kid
Noticing a Rubik's Cube in Tamir's studio, Colin recalls a kid in London who solves the cube blindfolded after studying it for about 30 seconds. Colin didn't ask about his background, only…
- Dreaming of a house by the water
Tamir describes his own picture of the future: a house by the water within walking distance of the beach, opening the curtains each morning to sunlight on his face. He uses it to show that…
- Five self-help books experiment
A salesman who was doing badly kept telling Colin that Tony Robbins had changed his life. So Colin bought five random self-help books, Robbins's among them, and had his staff read and swap…
- Tamir's bare startup studio
In his startup's early days Tamir lived in a bachelor studio with no bathroom (shared with three units), no full kitchen, no art or family photos, just IKEA desks and a mattress on the…
- Tamir's ever-positive 77-year-old father
Tamir sees Sheela's optimism in his father, about to turn 78, who had a very difficult childhood and life but was always positive and having fun, never depressed or dwelling on the past…
- "You love to make excuses"
A manager called Colin in and said, 'You know what I like about you, Colin? You love to make excuses.' Colin knew it was a deliberate provocation and fell for it anyway. Being told he can't…
- Planning 75 Hard around a cross-country flight
Ian plans to keep 75 Hard going on a Squamish-to-Halifax trip via Montreal: an airport hotel, a 5:30am outdoor walk, a 45-minute session in the airport, and packed healthy sandwiches. Early…
- Tamir's 75 Hard and lat injury
Tamir did 75 Hard the previous year, doing both workouts in the evening when flying to New York and New Jersey; by the end it was so habitual it felt weird not to do it. He stopped only…
- The fake rocket scientist
At a motivational event the speaker claimed he had once been a rocket scientist, and the crowd was in awe. Colin looked him up and found he was 'so full of crap'. His lesson: the people…
Films, music and art 4
- Central Intelligence
2016 comedy with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. Colin recalls the bar scene where Johnson faces down bullies with 'I don't like bullies', a line he has always loved because he was bullied…
- Back to the Future
In the Troll excerpt, the narrator buys a Marty McFly figurine without ever having seen the film. Master Chief and Spider-Man figures are bought in the same breath.
- Birth, School, Work, Death
Colin quotes the British phrase 'birth, school, work, death' for the old pre-arranged life, and adds that in between you're supposed to have fun with your mates and family.
- Windows 95
Old operating system that serves as the episode's central metaphor for an outdated mind: 'You can't be in 2026 running Windows 95.' Old mental software is slow and gives bad results.
Organizations and movements 3
- Microsoft
Software company, maker of Windows.
- Amazon
The setting of the Troll excerpt's most relatable line, the sadness two minutes after a package arrives. Tamir and Logan treat it as the face of consumption used to fill an inner hole.
- Indigo
Canadian bookstore chain.