The Two Keys to Success

And how to use them simultaneously to win at anything.

I love games.

I know that sounds silly, but it’s true. I love games and I’ve always loved games. Board games, video games, card games… games.

You could probably guess this next part, but I’m also extremely competitve.

While this combination has bit me before in the past, it’s also a beautiful pairing that has led me to success in various mediums within my life, because when you think about it…

Life is One Big Game.

Not only that, but it’s a game filled with other games.

What do I mean by this?

Life is about collecting and managing resources in such a way to have more than those around you.

You can try to avoid playing it all you want, but to some extent, you’re always in the game. Life is a zero sum game, and if you don’t play, you don’t eat. You lose.

I’m not trying to say money buys happiness or anything like that, but it does buy you time and comfort — two very difficult things to come by. You need to play the game.

If you’re going to play, you might as well be good at it.

But enough about what the game is, you’re probably wondering…

What are the keys?

How do I use them?

What can I apply them to?

How do you know about them?

Unfortunately, before I can answer the first three questions, I need to answer the fourth. If you don’t know my source, you’ll have no reason to trust me.

But, before we continue, I’d like to invite you to follow me on Medium. Every follow is greatly appreciated as helps me spread applicable and actionable messages like this one to a wider audience.

Now, as I was saying…

How I Found the Keys

My Medium account has gone through several phases, and while I plan to centralize it going forward, if you look back to my earliest posts, you’ll see it revolved heavily around the stock market.

This is the most pure sub-game within the game of life. With every trade placed, you either win or lose, and the person on the other side of the trade is either beating you or losing to you. It’s straight to the point, and highly competitive. Massive companies and firms all match up with some of the brightest minds to play this game. I’m proud to say that I’ve gotten quite good at it, with my last measured accuracy sitting at around 70%. If you want live examples of how I make these judgments, ask me here.

Why I’m Writing This Instead of Playing That Game

Obviously such a bold claim poses the question, “If you’re so good at the stock market, why aren’t you rich? Why are you spending time writing on Medium and building an account?”

Unfortunately, my starting bankroll was far to small to make a meaningful impact, and before I was able to build it to something substantial, I had to change jobs and am no longer to trade during open market hours. So, here I sit with all this knowledge and, for the time, unable to benefit off of it.

That said, I learned how to win, and learned the keys to doing so.

What Are the Keys?

The keys are two simple concepts: plan and test.

Yes, it really is that simple, but the simplicity is what stops people from doing it. Taking the time to go through the monotony is how you get the upper hand over the competition in whatever sub-game of life you’re currently competing in.

Take the time to go through the monotony.

I can ‘t stress this enough. This is what will set you apart and will enable you to wield these keys with true power.

How Do I Use Them?

Plan

Know what you expect and what you’ll do when things go awry. Make it explicit. Otherwise, you’ll lose out to your own emotion.

If you have any background in the stock market, you’ll know how easy it is to hold onto a winning position too long just to watch it fall through into a loss. Similarly, it’s just as easy to hold onto a losing position as you wait for it to “turnaround,” when in reality, it just continues to tumble. Explicit entry and exit criteria alongside predefined risk management are mandatory to win in this game.

This extends to everything. All games and sub-games require a plan.

Planning necessitates that you:

• Have a SMART goal. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive. The goal you plan out needs to explicit in action and intent, have a numerical score to track, have an end that can be objectively met, be within the realm of your personal ability, and have a timeline in mind. If you’re trying to grow on Medium, your SMART goal could be “to make my first $20 within 30 days of writing.” This has a numerical target for success and a well-defined deadline. Either you’ve met your goal or you haven’t.
• Have an alternative in case of failure. You’re not going to reach all your goals, and that’s okay. Failure is part of trying and trying comes before success. Nobody wins every time. You cannot be afraid of failure. That said, you definitely shouldn’t be unprepared for it. Goals are of no use if you quit when you don’t meet them. Have a plan in mind for if it doesn’t come to fruition. To return to the medium example, your alternative could be “if I don’t meet my goal, or if it’s out of reach, I will try to target a new niche.” This doesn’t need to be specific or well-defined, just a means for renavigation if things get off course (and they will).
• Recognize when to cut your losses. Your goal should already be measurable, so this should be easy. If you’re not seeing the progress you need to meet your goal within your deadline, there’s no harm in counting it as a loss ahead of time. If your current strategy isn’t working, then it isn’t working. If you’re goal is to make $20 within 30 days, and you’ve made $1.50 20 days in, you’re probably not going to hit $20 unless you drastically change course.
• Write it down. Seriously, write it down. Either with pen and paper or in your notes app. If you’re blogging about your progress, write it there. Put whatever is in your head to text. This does two things: 1) it makes it real; you can’t run away from it because now it’s here, and 2) it makes it concrete; emotions kill plans but they can’t change text. Write your plan down. You’ll be more likely to stick to it and less likely to change things on the fly.

Test

This is where you need to be a scientist. Form a hypothesis, test it out, fail, and repeat over and over and over until something sticks. This is where things can get very mentally and emotionally draining, and this is where you can really set yourself apart.

Back to my stock market people, I recently heard of someone who bought calls every morning on $IWM and was making a big profit. I couldn’t believe it and I thought it was too good to be true, but they even had screenshots.

So, I tested it.

First, I collected data for every day in August. I collected various points of data from the day before to see if there was any way to reliably predict the move at open. I converted the data to quantitative inputs and tested for correlations, and there was something there.

I couldn’t believe it! What an easy path to wealth. I’ve found a means to free money!

But I was smarter than the average bear. I knew that one month of data was not that much, and if there was truly such a strong correlation, it would surely be taken advantage of by thousands of others by now.

So, I tested it.

I ran the numbers back all the way to the beginning of the year. By the end of it, I found that, while some correlations did exist, they were far too small to make any meaningful profit on. If you think this is all a fake story for views, see for yourself:

This was both exhaustive and time consuming, but if I didn’t do it, I would’ve lost a ton of money every day that I tried to make a bad strategy work out.

The point I’m trying to make here is that you need to:

• Come up with an idea. Find something in your industry that makes sense to you. It is now your mission to see if it is.
• Test the idea. Go to work either hypothetically, through backtesting existing data, or by trying things out. See if it works.
• Analyze the results. If your idea was right, congrats, you’re on track to win your game. If not, go back to your hypothesis and try again.

What Can I Apply Them To?

Anything.

Yes, literally anything.

That’s what makes these two keys so powerful. When used in conjunction with each other, you will become an unstoppable force and will be destined to win.

Do you want to start a business? Plan and test.

Do you want to climb the corporate ladder? Plan and test.

Do you want a successful blog? Plan and test.

And yes, do you want to win at the stock market? Plan and test.

How I’m Using These Keys in Medium

If you’ve been following my progress here, you’ll know I had a strategy that led me to fall flat on my face. I’m not quitting. I’m not giving up. I just need to re-strategize. I’m going to plan and test.

My Goal

My goal has not changed: By the end of October, I want to have made at least $5 on Medium so that I can pay for my membership, so that from there, I can focus on building a bigger cash flow for semi-passive income.

My past strategy failed. I’ve learned that SEO-targeted articles do not perform once the paywall is enabled, so I’ll have to test other techniques, but I feel that I’m still within a timeline where $5 is achievable.

If I fail at making $5 but I’ve found a strategy with steady growth, I’ll continue to try in November. If I still have made no dent in progress, I’ll cancel my membership and call it a loss.

The Test

I’m going to try an write with more intent on at least a daily basis. These posts/articles/stories/whatever you want to call them will be more like this one, where I express things I’ve learned in my life through both applicable and introspective lenses. These will all have the paywall enabled.

If I have extra time to write, then I’ll make additional SEO articles with the paywall disabled in the hopes to convert this traffic to followers.

From what I understand, Medium does not like these articles as much, so I hope to get organic internal traffic through the former and passive search engine traffic through the latter.

What did you think?

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. It is by far most effort I’ve put into an article on this account. If it does well, I’ll happily make more like it.

Did you enjoy what you read? How will you apply it in your life? Please let me know as I’d love to hear if I made any positive impact on your life!

If you found that this was a worth-while read, I’d greatly appreciate your follow. This way, you can get more content like this, and I can get closer to reaching my goal.

Peace. ✌