School for Startups Minutes

When the world feels unstable, people stop experimenting. In stable times, customers choose innovation, speed, and excitement, but uncertainty changes priorities. Reliability becomes much more important. People choose businesses they trust and stay with vendors who communicate clearly and predictably. That is why steady companies often outperform aggressive ones during uncertain times. So how do you respond? I'll tell you in just a second. Focus on consistency. Deliver what was promised, communicate proactively, and avoid dramatic changes unless absolutely necessary. This is not the time to appear chaotic or reactive. The businesses that win during uncertain times are often the ones that make customers feel calm. Stability itself becomes part of the value you provide.

The situation with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz introduces uncertainty into all aspects of business. Deals slow down. Companies postpone hiring. Customers delay purchases. We see it all around us. At first, you'll see it in timing. Decisions that used to take days now take weeks. That slowdown affects everything, and we need to talk about how to get past it. I'll give you some suggestions right after this. During uncertain times, businesses that communicate clearly and reduce confusion win. Make decisions easier for your customers. Simplify your proposals, reduce complexity, and follow up more consistently. When uncertainty arises, people naturally move toward whoever feels more stable and understandable. You need to communicate with your customers twice as much as normal and tell them what's going on with your business.

This week, we are talking about the situation in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. One of the things that we have to acknowledge is that it makes us very, very psychologically afraid. The stock market is going crazy. Commodities are spiking. Headlines create this emotional momentum. And here's the danger: we start making long-term decisions based on our short-term fear, and that never ends well. I'll tell you what to do about it right after this. Strong businesses separate headlines from fundamentals before reacting. Ask yourself, what has actually changed in my business today? Maybe nothing. Avoid emotional decisions driven by temporary volatility. Instead, focus on cash flow, customer relationships, and operational stability. Businesses that stay disciplined during emotional periods often emerge stronger afterward. Calm thinking becomes your competitive advantage.

This week, we are talking about how the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz and the blocking of oil tankers could affect your businesses here in the United States. We're not going to get political at all. We're just talking about business impact. Today, I want to talk about how supply chains will be affected by oil prices and political uncertainty. The Strait of Hormuz situation will not break our supply chains, but they will tighten. Supply chains usually do not collapse overnight. They tighten slowly. At first, most disruptions begin quietly. A shipment gets delayed. A supplier asks for more time. Costs increase slightly, then another delay appears somewhere else. Over time, these small disruptions compound. What to do now: this is the time to identify single points of failure that could disrupt you. What if one supplier that you rely on disappeared? How would you respond?

This week, I want to do something a little bit different with these segments. Instead of teaching you things that you can do to make yourself better or happier, I want to talk about what's going on in the world, but I'm not going to get political at all. I promise. I'm not going to bash anybody. I'm not doing any of that. What I am doing is helping you figure out how to survive and maybe improve your business during these times. We all know that energy prices are going up. We see it at the pump every day. There is something else we need to consider, though, when we're talking about gas prices. I'll tell you what that is right after this. Smart businesses prepare before the pressure arrives. Review how exposed your business is to transportation and fuel costs. Lock in pricing with vendors. Now, build slightly more margin into your quotes, and most importantly, know exactly which costs rise first in your business model so you're not surprised later.

About a decade ago, I was considering investing in a new company. They were in the medical and dental space, and they claimed that they already had 25,000 doctors and dentists signed up. Well, it sounded great. Everything I had seen was incredibly impressive, so I was really close to investing. And my final question was, can I go and visit some of the dentists that have signed up and talk to them? Well, they said yes immediately, and I went to visit some dentists, and everything changed. I'll tell you what changed right after this. This week, we are talking about how to spot BS in the business world. And the answer is, sometimes you have to go and see the operation for yourself. You need to go and see if their offices are as big as they should be, if they have as many employees as they said, and go and talk to their investors. In this case, the dentists were the investors, and they were in on it.

This week, we are talking about spotting BS in business and learning to protect yourself from it as well. We've talked about a lot of examples this week, but today, I want to talk about giving away information. You know, in early conversations before the sale is closed, it feels natural to share details. It's a way of showing your plans, your numbers, your ideas, and it can help build the connection that will close the deal. It shows your openness to participate, and it can feel like great progress, but a lot of times, it's a mistake. I'll tell you what to do differently right after this. What if the deal falls apart, and all of a sudden your strategy is in someone else's hands? The information doesn't disappear; it just moves somewhere else, and now you've given away your leverage. Information is the key. You've got to protect it, even early on.

It seems that we're constantly getting bombarded by people trying to sell us things. Every connection on LinkedIn is trying to sell me something. Half of my emails are sales pitches or propositions of some kind, and I just don't know how to sort through all of them. This week, we're talking about how to spot BS in business, and, importantly, how to protect yourself. We've already talked about things like calling their last customers and never giving money up front. But today, I want to talk about something that's really important for you to do. I'll tell you what it is right after this. Everything that I say can be verified in under five minutes. I claim I won an award; that can be verified. I claim I am 25 years in business; that can be verified. Verification is simple, but the lesson is real. Five minutes of checking can save months of problems for you.

This week, I'm talking about how to spot BS in the business world, and, more importantly, how to protect yourself. I've already commented that if you're going to hire a consultant or something like that, a service provider, call their last three customers and make sure that all three experiences went well. If they can't provide three customers, well, that tells you a lot right there. Right after this, I'm going to tell you one other thing to look out for. I'll be right back. One of the most common pressure tactics is urgency. We need the money now. We need the deposit. The opportunity won't last. We just need something to get started. It's often framed as normal, even expected. It sounds reasonable, but it's not serious. Operators understand that trust comes first. They don't rush to collect before they provide value. If someone pushes hard for money before delivering, that's not urgency. It's a warning to you.

Frequently, we see what we suspect is BS in front of us in business, dating, and in every part of life. This week, I want to talk about how to spot BS and how to protect yourself from it. You know, in business and in life, people can claim anything; they can describe success, claim experience, and present polished stories and resumes that sound convincing. The language is smooth, confident, and rehearsed. I'll give you one way to find out if it's true right after this. If someone is making claims to you in person or in writing, validate those claims. If you're thinking of hiring a consultant, ask for three of the last customers that you can speak with. Real operators have relationships that you can verify. They're not nervous about giving you those names. The lesson is simple: don't listen to claims. Follow the truth, and truth comes when you verify.

This week, I have been talking about things that sound important but aren't. In the end, that 4:45 email that our boss sends, that we really didn't need to worry about, looking busy when you're actually just wasting time doing work that no one notices, and making a big decision that turns out not to be a big decision - these are all things we worry about, but we just shouldn't be worrying. Maybe that's the lesson. I want to throw one more thing out for you to consider. I'll do that right after this. Here's a pleasant thought. Many of the things that we do that feel like failure aren't; they are just the early mistakes that build the foundation for later success. It's easy to think something is not working simply because it's not working quickly. What feels like failure is often just the beginning of learning. The lesson is reassuring. Progress feels like success because it is.

Many decades ago, back in the 90s, when I was starting my very first business, I spent about a year writing the business plan, trying to decide on the name, arguing about what the logo should look like, and deciding how many partners we should have. We discussed so many things that were completely irrelevant, that never needed to be discussed, but they got discussed. We spent a year getting ready to start the business, and in the end, it turned out very well for us, but I learned a very important lesson. I'll share that lesson with you right after this. Think about these two paths of starting a business. In one, you spend three months deciding on a name. Meanwhile, another person starts with a simple name, launches, gets customers, and changes the name six months later, after they understand the market. Most decisions are reversible. Names can change. Strategies evolve. The lesson is very simple. Start now. Action is your best friend.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I were getting ready for a party. It was early summer, so we assumed that a lot of people would want to go outside. We did all of the things that you do at the beginning of the season. We got the pool ready, we pressure washed, we cleaned all of the furniture, and we put new flowers out. We did everything, and in the end, not a single person asked to go outside. For some reason, the party stayed in the kitchen, and no one wanted to go look at all of the work we had done. Boy, that felt horrible that day. Anyway, this week we are talking about all the little things that sound important but aren't, and I'm talking about ways to handle the situation. I'll give you some advice on when no one notices your hard work right after this. The spotlight that you feel is internal. You are the only one thinking about you. People are not paying that close of attention. Quit worrying about it.

This week, we're talking about things that sound important but are not. I've already talked about how so many work emails come in at 4:45 marked urgent, but are actually not really relevant at all. Today, I want to talk about things that make us look busy but don't create any progress. We all have forms that have to be done, meetings that you have to go to, and emails that you need to respond to, and we all know that they actually have no value, don't move the ball forward, and are a useless waste of time. How do we respond to this, and what do we do? I'll tell you my best idea right after this. If you're the boss, you need to ask your employees: do we actually get things done, or are we wasting a lot of time with our meetings? If you're an employee and your boss is wasting a lot of your time, you need to start a new business and go compete with them. Make their flaw your competitive advantage.

It's 4:45 in the afternoon, and you get an email marked urgent. You open it, dreading what it could be. It's from your boss to the entire office. A lot of people have already left and won't see it, so can it really be that urgent? You open it, and it says there is a staff meeting tomorrow at nine o'clock. This is quite an unusual pattern, and you know that if you hadn't read the email, you would have been in big trouble the next day. How do we handle situations like this? What do we do when our bosses or our spouses create urgency when there is really none? That's what I'm going to talk about today, and I'll be back with the answer right after this. One of the most stressful parts of modern life is the constant sense of urgency. Some of it is real, and some of it is not. And what we must do is pause before reacting and figure out if it's going to matter tomorrow or not.

There are certain things that are true that are uncomfortable, and we don't like talking about these things because they make us think about things that are very uncomfortable about ourselves, our family, and our business associates. This week, I've been talking about five of these life truths that we just try to ignore. I've pointed out some things that are very uncomfortable, and I hope that you will forgive me for that, but I have one more to present, and I'll do that right after this. Fear is very real. We all have things that we are afraid of, situations that we dread, projects that we don't want to do because they are scary, and that is okay. But something changes the moment you act and actually do something about your fear. You make the telephone call, you send the hard email, you put the offer out there, and suddenly the fear shrinks.

There are many life truths that we just don't like to admit or to acknowledge because they're too uncomfortable, and they lead us to places where we just don't want to go. Well, this week, I am going there and talking about some of these life truths that we need to acknowledge so that we'll be happier people and better at our jobs. I'll give you another one right after this. This is particularly true for all you businesses out there. You need to launch your new product before you think you do. Launch ugly. As a matter of fact, we are taught to present our best selves: perfect, polished, professional, everything neat, everything ready. But business does not reward perfect. It rewards done. Your first version will be rough. Your first pitch will be awkward. Your first offer will be incomplete. That's not a flaw. It's the process. Acknowledge how it works. Launch ugly, but sell something.

  There are certain things we just do not want to admit. And this week, we are talking about five of these life truths that are just not very cofortable. I've already suggested this week that one of the ideas is that you are not the spotlight of the world. Not everyone is constantly thinking about you. I'll give you another one right after this. Another life truth that we don't want to admit all the time is that perfection is just a delay tactic. When you say it's just not ready yet, you know that sounds reasonable and thoughtful, but most of the time it's hiding something else. It's hiding fear disguised as preparation. You adjust the logo again, you rewrite the home page, you tweak the offer one more time, not because it needs it, but because launching is scary, and perfection gives you a reason to wait. Quit making it perfect and go and do it now.

This week, I'm introducing five life truths that are just very uncomfortable. These are not things we like to talk about or acknowledge, but we need to in order to be happier people and better business people. These are things that we need to talk about and acknowledge. I'll give you an example right after this, There is something called the spotlight effect. It is the belief that people notice us far more than they actually do. In reality, everyone else is standing around in their own imaginary spotlight, worrying about themselves, wondering what you are thinking about them, which means that no one is really watching anyone at all. But the illusion is very powerful. It stops people from making sales calls. It prevents people from posting online. It makes it hard to ask other people out on dates. It makes it harder to launch a business. Forget about it. The spotlight is not real.

This week, I'm going to introduce five life truths that are just not very comfortable, but are, as I said, true. We must learn to deal with these before we can be happy as people and successful as business people. So this week, I'll introduce the five, and I'll start right after this. First unfortunate life truth: no one is thinking about you. We spend an incredible amount of time worrying about what other people think about us. What will they say about my idea? Will they think I'm qualified? Will they like what I'm wearing? And so we wait, we try to do better, and we hold back just a little bit longer, because in our minds, there is an audience. People are watching, judging, keeping score. But here is the truth: no one is watching. Your neighbor is not thinking about your business idea. Your friends are not analyzing your website. Strangers are not critiquing your first attempt.

This week, we have been talking about how to build competitive advantages for your business. Sometimes we call them unfair advantages, because that's the way the outside sees it. But do remember, these are always legal and moral. As long as you are within the law, there's nothing against building some sort of advantage that makes your business more competitive. We want to do that as much as possible, and so far this week, we've given a lot of advice on how to do that. I have one more piece of advice to share. I'll do that right after this. Commit to being in the game longer. Success does not happen from a moment. It comes from long-term duration. Time compounds, and your reputation will grow, your skills will improve, and all of the things that matter are things that happen over a longer period than people expect. So the biggest unfair advantage of all is to do this: decide not to quit.

You remember that restaurant in your hometown that's been there forever, and it's got a great reputation, and everyone knows it, and everyone just loves it. It's part of the community. They have created an unfair advantage for themselves. Of course, it's not unfair. It's unfair for all the other restaurants that don't get the same amount of love and attention, but they built that for themselves over time, over 30 or 40 years. How did they do it? I'll give you one way they did it right after this. Give yourself the unfair advantage of incredible follow-up. Follow-up is simply staying in touch with customers, and it's what professionals do, because sales happen after multiple touches, and following up is the way to get in front of them multiple times. Send a polite message just checking in, done consistently. This builds trust, and that's where people buy from you.

Unfair advantages occur when you can position your business in such a way that your competitors are blocked or prevented from entering a space, or maybe it's just more difficult for them. But these are not unfair. They're perfectly legal, perfectly moral. The word unfair, though, is seen from the perspective of your losing competitor. So whenever you can set these up, it's a good thing if you want to do it. This week, we're talking about how to do just that. I'll give you today's advice right after this. One advantage you can give yourself is to be easier to buy from. We have all seen the good sites and the bad sites. We know the difference. And so, as you start to build your business on any kind of web platform, make sure that it's exactly like the best site you've ever seen. Copy their process and make yours the exact same.

We are talking about unfair advantages. Now, these are not unfair. It's just that they seem unfair to the people who don't have them. For example, you can position your business in such a way that it locks other people out. At my very first business that I ran in my 20s, we had locations at Stanford, MIT, Georgetown, UCLA, and a whole bunch of other places. And because of that, competitors in the same space couldn't go to Stanford and MIT, and therefore we had a big advantage. I'll share today's example right after this. One big advantage you can give your company is speed. Answer quickly. If you get a message, answer within a minute or two. If you get a text or an email, respond within five minutes. If you have that policy, it's amazing how much your business will increase. Customers love it when businesses are attentive. Be that one.

In business and in life, you want to get as many advantages as you can. If you have a good strategic advantage over your opponent, you will win more, be more successful, and probably have more money. And so we all try to achieve these advantages in every aspect of our lives. Today, this week, I want to talk about how to get some of these advantages. Some call them unfair. I call them your due reward. I'll tell you how to do it right after this. One big unfair advantage is speed. If you can copy the market faster than other people, you will succeed. We have to be honest: original ideas are risky and slow, but when you copy, you're doing something that's already working, and so the risk disappears. The marketplace has already voted. What you want to do is find out what's happening in the big city and bring it to your city as fast as you can.

I want a good life, and I want a good life for you. So this week, we have gone through some of the components, listed them, and given some advice. I'm going to wrap that conversation up today, but before that, I want to review briefly. You need to work on positive, happy relationships in your life. You need to have something that's important, something that you do that's meaningful. You need to realize that enough is enough. You don't need absolutely everything. And you need to control one part of your day, even if it's just 10 minutes in the morning. You need to have some control over your life. I'm going to add one more component to this list of the things you need to do to have a meaningful, good life. I'll do that right after this. The final component is accepting imperfection. Not everything is going to be perfect, and that's okay. Not everything is going to be a 10, and that is okay. We need to realize that a seven or eight is a good day, too.

Do you have everything in the world that you want? I mean absolutely everything. If so, where do you put it? Oh, you got a bigger house so that you could have more stuff. A good life means that we eventually have enough, realize that, and quit accumulating stuff. This week, I've been talking about what the components of having a good life are, and we have realized some really important things. I'm going to share another one of those with you right after this. A good life means that you control some of your time, maybe not all of it, but some of it. We go through life, and we have disasters and emails and all sorts of boss issues that we have to deal with, and the kids are difficult, and at the end of the day, we're just happy to have a few minutes to ourselves. That is so true. We need to work very hard to have more time where you decide what is going to happen. Maybe it's early in the morning.

Do we have a good life? Do you have a good life? When you think about yourself and what you have done in the last 20, 30, 80 years, do you feel like it's a good life? That is so important for us to think about and to make sure that we are creating the circumstances so that when we are at the end of our lives, we say yes to that question. So we need to think about it and actually spend some time making sure we're doing the right things. So this week, I'm going through some of the components that make you say yes and get you excited, and I'll share another one of those right after this. A good life has enough, but not everything. We Americans are always trying to get more: more cars, bigger houses, more jewelry, more of everything, and all we are doing is creating more complexity and more things to worry about. We need to realize that we have enough and quit competing with everyone.

We all want a good life. We want a good life for ourselves, our family, and our friends. The problem, though, is that we don't go to the next level and actually define what a good life means. So this week, that is what I am going to do. I'm going to talk about a good life and the components that make it up. I already talked about the fact that relationships are incredibly important to having a good life. I'll add another piece to that right after. One component of having a good life is to include something that matters to you, something that is important. You get out of bed in the morning to do this. You might not even do it to get paid. You might just do it because it is what you love, the way you love spending time. It doesn't have to be perfect or make the world a better place. All it should do is give you satisfaction and make your life more worthwhile.

I think, universally, everyone wants the same thing: a good life, right? We all wish that for ourselves and for our friends and family. We say, "I want to have a good life. I want to be happy." But we never go to the next level and define what that actually means, to say these are the components of a good life and how to work on each one. So that's what I'm going to do this week. I'm going to define the five components of having a good life and try to give you one or two pieces of advice on how to make it happen. I'll get started right after. *]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id= "request-WEB:e359c25b-ee5c-445d-b7c6-1a028b2244b9-2" data-testid= "conversation-turn-6" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn= "assistant"> When we talk about a good life, one of the most important components is strong relationships with your spouse, your family, your friends, and your deity. There's nothing more important than building lifelong relationships that you can rely on when times are hard.  

This week, we have been talking about the idea that optimizing our lives to the maximum degree might not be such a good idea. This optimization culture quickly teaches us that there's always a better version of everything: a better routine, a better system, a better diet, a better version of you. That sounds awesome at first, but over time, it creates a moving target that you will never reach. There is one more suggestion I want to make on what you should do. I'll do that right after this. At some point, you need to say, "Enough." It becomes one of the strongest and most important decisions that you can make: enough work, enough progress, enough dieting, enough improvement. The lesson is grounding. Satisfaction does not come from endless optimization. It begins when you decide that you have already done enough and enjoy the rest.

Tim Ferriss, the man who wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, just recently revealed that he thinks we may have gone too far as a society in optimizing everything in our lives. Some people are wearing sensors on both wrists. But something interesting is starting to happen now. After years of adding tools and systems and routines and tracking, many people are starting to do something in the opposite direction. I'll tell you what it is in just a second. Some people are embracing simplicity. They are deleting apps, reducing commitments, and simplifying their schedules, because simplicity reduces your mental load. Every time you add something, it requires more attention. Every tool you adopt creates another decision. Over time, complexity becomes exhausting. The lesson is practical. Sometimes, simplicity is all you need.

This week, we're talking about optimizing your life and whether it can go too far. For example, you can't optimize your way into one thing, and we'll tell you what it is. Optimizing is great at improving efficiency. It helps you get more done and waste less time with better systems. But it does not create—I'll tell you what it doesn't—right after this. Meaning. It does not create meaning. There are great things about better systems, but we can't do that without something at the very base of it. We can optimize our schedule, our calendar, and our workflow and make everything run smoothly, but there is still something missing, and that is meaning. It doesn't come from inefficiency or efficiency. It comes from connection, purpose, relationships, and doing something that is more important than just us.

This week, I'm pointing out that the idea of optimizing your life may have gone just a little bit too far. Today, I want to talk about biohacking and how it has already gone too far. For example, biohacking began as a very practical idea: get better sleep, improve your focus, eat better, make small changes that help your day work better. But like many ideas, it can escalate and go too far. I'll tell you what happened right after this. Optimizing your life may have gone too far with all of you biohackers and supplement takers. Have you started saying that meals are no longer meals, they are inputs? Rest is no longer rest; it's recovery optimization. The lesson is steady. Health is supposed to support our lives, not take them over.

For the last 10-20 years, we've been obsessed with optimizing everything. Optimize your website, optimize your sleep, optimize your diet, your morning routine, and we have to track it, measure it, wear something on our wrist that tells us about it, improve it. Get more apps that do more things and tell us more about what we're doing. No one embodied this more than Tim Ferriss, the man behind The 4-Hour Workweek. He has actually come out and walked it back a little bit, though. I'll tell you what he is now saying right after this. At some point, optimization crosses a line. Instead of improving your life, it becomes your life. You are no longer living; you are managing several different apps. The lesson is simple but important. Tools are supposed to support you, not consume you and become your entire life.

This week, I've been trying to present a happy message that counters what we see in the world today. It is very scary right now, with our 401Ks going up and down. The stock market is crazy, the price of oil, inflation, we all know the problems that we are facing, but I've tried to share the message that good things are happening as well. For example, AI is going to give you an opportunity to level up. Learn it now, and your salary will go up quite a bit because of that. So many positive things. I want to share another one with you in just a second. All of the news media make more money when there is bad news. In fact, bad news is the business model. So we have to remember that people who win are the ones who see opportunity out there when other people see fear.

This week, we are looking at the world from a little bit further away. Instead of getting up close and personal in the micro analysis, we're doing a macro, 40,000-foot analysis, trying to show you that the world is actually getting better despite all of the bad things we see. Despite the wars and inflation and the stock market going up and down, good things are happening. I'll give you an example right after this. One of the big advantages that we have as small business owners, or just as individuals, is that we have more speed. Big companies are slow. They have committees and approvals and layers of management. Whereas we entrepreneurs can progress with one decision, click open, we can move that fast, and that's why we entrepreneurs have an incredible speed advantage in today's world. Use it. Think about it.

I am arguing this week that the world is better than we all think and feel, and that there's never been more opportunity. There are great things happening at the macro level, and I know it's hard to accept because the micro level, the war, the taxes, the inflation, my job being cut, all of that is so scary, but I'll tell you, if at the macro level, good things are happening. And I'll tell you one of those right after this. So here's the good news: the gatekeepers are gone. You do not need to ask for permission anymore. If you want to do a podcast, write a book, create a movie, or get a job, all of those can be done without asking anyone's permission. So the lesson is very profound. Start today. Success today starts the minute you raise your hand and start doing it yourself. The gatekeepers aren't going to stop you.

This week, I want to talk about some things that will make you happy and feel a little more content. You know, every day right now, it feels like the world is falling apart. We have wars, elections, markets going up and down. Your 401K is like a basketball. You turn on the news, and you only hear bad stuff. There's something that they don't tell you, though, and this week I'm going to focus on that. I'll be right back with my first example. What they don't tell us is that most of the systems actually work. Our life is more stable than ever before. Supply chains are better, medicine is better, and information is better and instant, but the machine keeps working. Crisis gets attention. Stability does not. If you build your business or your life based on headlines, you will fail and panic. If you build your life and business on a long-term trend, you will win. The opportunity has never been greater.

These are scary times right now. We have elections coming up, and the other guys are already stealing it. We have a war going on that I don't think any of us really want. The market is going up and down like NCAA basketball, and my team is not winning, and it's a scary time. And then they throw AI at us. I want to share another way to look at it right after this. So let me tell you what's going to happen with AI. Every major technology shift has not eliminated work; it does, though, shift who gets paid the most. The people who learn the tool early now become the new winners. AI is not replacing entrepreneurs. It is replacing entrepreneurs who refuse to adapt. The question is not whether AI will take your job. The question is whether you will be able to use it before your competitor does.

I've been trying to point out that, at the macro level, the 30,000-foot level, things in the world are actually getting better. It's very hard to understand that and to feel it all. The news is bad. We're at war. Gasoline prices are going up. They say it's a hard time to be optimistic, but I've been trying to point out some ways that the world is getting better. I'll give you one more great example right after this. For most of human history, reading and writing have been very rare skills. Education was limited to small groups, but over the last century, education systems around the world have improved dramatically. Today, global literacy rates are higher than at any point in history. Billions more people can read, learn, and participate in economic and civic life. The lesson is encouraging. Access to knowledge increases opportunities and makes the world better.

There is no doubt that these are difficult times to live in. We have the war in Iran, gas prices going crazy, and a possible recession. There is a lot to worry about. We all love to worry about the environment, and rightfully so. We have to keep our air and water clean, but we are always hearing that it's getting worse. I'll give you the reality in just a second. Air quality regulations, cleaner engines, and improved energy sources have reduced pollution in most major cities around the world. While the challenges remain, measurable improvements are occurring. The lesson is very hopeful. When societies identify problems clearly, we have the ability to develop amazing solutions. The data is very clear. We are living in the cleanest environmental time in the last 1,000 years. The world is getting better.

News coverage understandably focuses on all of the bad: the conflict, the crime, the instability. When we see this constantly, day after day, it can feel as if the world is becoming a more dangerous place every year. But research gives us a different story. I'll tell you what it is right after this. Across centuries, the overall rate of violence has declined significantly. War deaths as a percentage of the global population are lower than they have ever been. The lesson is surprising. Human society, despite setbacks like we are seeing now, has gradually become more stable and cooperative. And in the 1970s, crime was much worse than it is now. You have to be old enough to remember that. I am. It may be hard to believe, but we are living in one of the least violent times in human history.

These are difficult times all around. We are at war again. There are sleeper cells. They tell us they are going to attack in the middle of the night. Gas prices are soaring. We could be in another recession. It's just a hard time, isn't it? So I thought that this week, I would take a step back, look at things from a 30,000-foot level, and give us a sense of the macro. It's actually pretty encouraging. I'll share why in just a second. In the last three decades, extreme poverty has gone down by as much as 90%. Over the last several decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved out of extreme poverty and into a life where they are actually having the bare necessities. It's not a life of luxury, but at least they have the bare necessities. The lesson is hopeful. Human progress often happens gradually, but the results do accumulate over time, and the world is getting better.

My 15-year-old and I were in the car listening to the radio, and he asked, "Dad, is it always this bad? Is the world always like this?" No, it's not, and we have to keep that in mind. These are difficult times, absolutely no doubt. The war, the gasoline prices, the insecurity, and the lack of knowing what's going to happen, it's a challenging time. However, there is some good news, and I'll share it with you just after this. Historically, food production has struggled to keep up with demand. However, modern agriculture is becoming much more efficient, and we have enough food to feed everyone. We don't have the greatest distribution system, and that's actually a bigger problem, but we have improved seeds, precision farming, data analysis, and better water management, and farmers can now produce more food using fewer resources.

Human attention naturally gravitates toward problems in modern life. We have a constant focus on problems and how they overshadow all of the positive experiences in our life. We do this to our own detriment. You must learn to get mentally stronger by focusing on the right things and having the right response and the right attitude. I will give my last tip of the week right after this. When we focus on how to become mentally stronger, we must also practice gratitude. Gratitude restores balance regularly. Recognizing what is working well changes how the mind interprets daily events. If you are happy for the good things and do not focus on the bad things, your mental strength will increase. Noticing and appreciating the good that already exists is the key to happiness and mental strength.

This week, we are talking about becoming mentally stronger, the idea of neuroplasticity, neuro brain plasticity, plastic. Yes, our brains can change, become stronger over time. It is an amazing part of the brain, something that science is just now coming to terms with. I want to talk about how we can use this to become mentally stronger in our daily lives. I'll give you an example and a tip right after this. We can become mentally stronger from learning from our setbacks. That's right. Setbacks happen to all of us. It is unpleasant, but we have to learn how to deal with it. View a setback as data, information on how you are leading your life. Mentally strong individuals treat setbacks as a way of learning to improve. They examine what happened and adjust their approach in the future. Learn from your setbacks.

Bad things happen to all of us. Sometimes events happen that we cannot control. Plans change. Mistakes occur. Unexpected challenges pop up. Our boss yells at us for absolutely no reason. All of these events may be unavoidable. However, you can control your response. I want to give you a trick in just a second that will make you better at controlling your reactions. I will be back in just a second with that tip. You can get mentally stronger by controlling your reactions. Mental strength appears in the pause between the event and your reaction. Please take a moment to think before responding. Your outcome will be much better when reactions become thoughtful instead of emotional and automatic. You will have a much better, happier outcome without as much fighting. Control your emotions with a quick breath, and stop and think.

This week, I want to talk about how to become mentally stronger. Our mental strength is not dramatic. It is something that grows over time through repeated small habits. Our small daily habits are what end up controlling what we think about and how we act. In just a second, I will give you one example of how to become mentally stronger by accepting certain things right after this. You become mentally stronger when you accept that discomfort is part of life. We do not like having difficult conversations with our boss or with our spouse. We certainly do not like doing our taxes or other things that make us tense. Mental strength develops when you face that uncertainty directly. Each time you move forward with a new difficult situation, you become more confident. Courage grows not from eliminating fear, but from acting on it.

One of my favorite words in the entire world is neuroplasticity, neuro meaning brain and plasticity meaning plastic. The idea that our brain can change and can learn over the period of our lifetime is such a cool idea. So this week, I want to talk about how we can get mentally stronger through some of our habits. I will start with an example right after this. One of the best ways to become mentally stronger is to control your focus. That's right, not think about certain things. Many people get overwhelmed because their problems seem so big, but perhaps the problem is that their attention is divided among too many things. Mental strength depends on focus, so you should choose what you think about. The lesson is very practical. When you focus on what you can influence, you are much happier.