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Rigging the Game, by Dan Nicholson
āMost people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.ā -Virginia Satir
Matt Karamazov
November 08, 2023 ā¢ Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
YOUTUBEĀ šĀ THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGEĀ šĀ PATREON
š Hey, good evening!
Iāve taken some pretty wild risks in my life (my mother reads this newsletter, so I wonāt go into any further detail than that), but the biggest risk that we all run is not getting what we want out of life.
That would literally be the worst possible outcome.
Imagine: Going through your whole life, NOT getting what you want.
Wanting something and not being able to have it/achieve it.
I Ask You: How is that a good quality of life?
Stoic philosophers would recommend reducing your desires (potentially great advice, actually, if Iām being honest), but Dan Nicholson, author of the criminally underrated business book, Rigging the Game, teaches people how to reduce their anxiety and their uncertainty.
He shares how to do this in all areas of life, but heās particularly brilliant at effecting this kind of magic in the area of business.
Even simply understanding his FourĀ Commandments of Financial Certainty could change everything for you.
I know that Iāll certainly be revisiting my notes on this one many times.
Below, I share a short summary of Rigging the Game, as well as my best book notes, along with some additional recommended reading.
There are lots of incredible insights to be found in this book, so letās get into it!
If youāre looking for a book that will teach you how to guard against financial uncertainty and help you move closer to the vision you have for your business and your life, look no further thanā¦
As always, my book notes and summary of this book are available on my Patreon, as well as my personal notes from more than 1,200+ other books. Updated monthly.
The support Iāve received on Patreon over the years has been nothing less than incredible and I just want to quickly mention two of my biggest supporters by name:
Jeremy Steingraber and Will Ramadan (KnowleDJ)!
Sometimes, when Iāve been working 12- to 16-hour days for long stretches to build my business and grow my impact, and/or putting in long, tough hours at the gym, I think about the people who have supported me the longest and who are countingĀ on me to make it.
They make my days brighter, and the weights lighter.
I didnāt try to make that rhyme, but here we are!
Anyway, there are plenty of other cool rewards available too, but the main thing is that you get more than 1,200+ summaries and thousands of pages of book notes for just $1! Also organized by year and by book.
Theyāre updated monthly with all the new books Iāve been reading and taking notes on, although, to be honest, Iām still a bit behind on my notes and am working hard to catch up.
You can always just preview my notes here on this page though.
Now, letās get back to todayās book!
Although this was one of the better business books Iāve read in 2024, its fate is to remain severely underrated due to the lack of easy answers it offers.
Itāll never be popular, simply because itās too grounded in reality, too connected to the actual, day-to-day truth of building a great business. Not many people want to read business books like that, but they absolutely should.Ā
Rigging the Game doesnāt waste many words, either. Itās not particularly long, but I spent more time reading this one than other books of similar size because the material itself demands greater space for clear, critical thought.
I also found it incredibly helpful in thinking differently about my business and the vision I have for it, so if you run a business yourself, I highly recommend it.
I especially liked the discussion concerning ācloser over more,ā meaning that we so often think that we need more of something - time, money, other resources - when in reality, a more helpful way of approaching building a business is to ask how our strategic decisions get us closer to how we want our business to look and operate.Ā
You might need to hire more employees, but not if doing so takes you further away from the personal involvement youād like to have with certain aspects of the day-to-day operation. You might just need better systems, or even a day or two to clarify what you actually want from your business.Ā
Infinite tradeoffs are another big theme in the book (and everyoneās lives, if theyāre paying attention), which is really just a way of saying that every single decision we make has opportunity costs.
By doing one thing, we close off a multitude of other possibilities that used to be open to us, and itās not always obvious what our next move should be. Again, closer over more was something I found especially helpful in this regard.
The whole approach of the book was refreshing, in that itās more about taking a few steps back, so you can make big strides forward. The author offers simple frameworks (but not simpler than they have to be) that business owners can use to construct a business - and a life - that serves them, rather than the other way around.
āHow can you expect to be extraordinary while conforming to the strategies of the average?ā
āThereās no single blueprint to run a successful business. The problem is that most of us donāt take time to define what success looks like to us in the first place.ā
āThe biggest risk is that I donāt get what I want out of life.ā
āNotice that itās multiplicative instead of additive, meaning that uncertainty and powerlessness amplify each other exponentially; a tiny increase in uncertainty and a tiny increase in the feeling of powerlessness will compound into massive amounts of anxiety.ā
āEffort doesnāt necessarily cause you to be successful. Success and effort are merely related.ā
āIn order to stop playing against ourselves or getting in our own way, your espoused values and values in action must be aligned. When they are, we will always play by our own rules.ā
The Four Commandments of Financial Certainty:
Closer Over More: Every action we take needs to get us closer to what actually matters to us.
Preference versus Binary: We must be able to discern when there is and is not a right or wrong.
Every Decision Has Infinite Trade-Offs: We must be aware that when we make one decision, we remove an infinite number of other possibilities.
Business Decisions Should Have Asymmetric Upside: We must understand that resources are scarce. All bets must have significant upside with little to no downside.
āEvery action we take needs to get us closer to what actually matters.ā
The Four Frames:
Parenting Frame: How can I prevent something bad from happening?
Commissioner Frame: Would I be willing to play by these rules in perpetuity?
Investor Frame: Given what I know now, would I choose to opt into this particular situation?
Professional Skeptic Frame: Why? Can you prove it?
āRemember: Anxiety = Uncertainty x Powerlessness. So to reduce anxiety, we must increase certainty and reduce powerlessness.ā
āAny step in the process that is less than 100 percent reduces the overall reliability of the plan.ā
āIf an avenue forward means you stand to save costs, disseminate valuable and permanent information or resources, bring conscious attention to something vital to prevent mistakes or miscommunication and make you money, thatās likely a high-leverage path for you to take.ā
āUnless weāve mapped out what weāre trying to reach, when we want to reach it, how much money weāll need to support it and how that amount differs from what weāve got right now, there are too many open variables to be able to solve for āmore,ā whatever that may be. As we have seen throughout this book, focusing on more of a thing can get us farther away from what we actually want.ā
āNo one wins a race they donāt want to be in.ā
Currently, I donāt have a complete breakdown of Rigging the GameĀ published on the Stairway to Wisdom (my library of expert book breakdowns), but below Iāve listed some similar breakdowns that you may enjoy instead.
When you become a member of the Stairway to Wisdom, youāll gain access to more than 100+ book breakdowns like these ones here, as well as a premium weekly newsletter that will help you build the kind of life for yourself that youāll love living.
By wanting to become rich, you are also saying that you want to accept the challenge to be better at making money than 99 percent of the people on this planet. Just by attempting this, you are going to have to accept the fact that you must not just be good, you must be incredible. Are you ready?
37-Minute Read | 9,800 Words
Discerning the "vital few" from the "trivial many" is going to be one of the most in-demand skills in the economy of the future, and those who can do this well are going to reap the majority of the rewards, while the rest of us are drowning in distraction.
39-Minute Read | 10,200 Words
In this book, you'll get a world-class business education for about $200,000 less than going to business school. You'll learn the universal principles behind every successful business, then use these ideas to make more money, get more done, and have more fun in your life and work.
44-Minute Read | 11,700 Words
Thatās it! I hope you found these book recommendations helpful, and Iāll be back with even more books for you very soon!
Mere āinformationā is everywhere today, but whatās going to separate you (and give you the life you desire) is consistent, meaningful action, backed up with the most powerful ideas from the greatest books ever written.
Thatās what I aim to provide you with.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your day!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you apply the wisdom found in the greatest books ever written to your life:
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