The 4 Principles that Drive Elite Performance · James

King
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The 4 Principles that Drive Elite Performance · James King

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Intro

James Head left a London-based commodity trading firm in 2017 and has since
advised proprietary traders and fund managers, specialist military units and
professional sports teams, as well as presenting case studies on elite performance
at various Ivy League universities.

James's book, Accelerating Excellence, is available on Amazon. If you're listening

to this episode fresh, you can pre-order or purchase it by going to
Chatwithtraders.com James.

Excellence: More than Ambition, Hard Work, Talent...

I would define excellence as the quality of being outstanding, and I often use the
phrase accelerating excellence to describe what my objective is: increasing in rate,
amount, or extent the quality of being outstanding where. And I break performance
down into three key areas: quality, completeness, and speed.

There are three important constructs to measure in performance: cost, speed, and
repeatability. The former two can be measured with time, finances, resources, effort,
willpower, and the latter can be measured with repeatability.

Performance on demand is the accomplishment of a given task measured against

time and another one. It's not talking about the synthetic or technological aspects,
it's really on the human, and we all have control of and ultimately operate the
weapon, the technology.

One of the things I wanted to ask you about your book is where do we often go
wrong when it comes to understanding what drives excellence? I think one of the
key issues is that we aren't born with the software to channel our talents.

The psychological firepower we talk about exists within us all, but people struggle to
activate it or channel it.

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 I think a big part of a leadership role is to ensure that you're investing your
resources in the areas that will generate the biggest return on investment.

I think most traders are naturally ambitious and willing to put in the hard work, but
the talent is something which maybe they develop as they go on.

There is a missing piece to the equation there, and I'm sure we'll go into some
principles about how to move forward, but is there something within our mindset
that you think is flawed in some way?

Let's look at how we look at this whole improvement process. To improve, we need
to break our problems down into their basic elements and then reassemble them
from the ground up, so we can eliminate careless reasoning, copy pasting, and
inadequate analogies.

When we can't see a straight line to the top, we don't bother to try, but it takes one
breakthrough to enable us to perceive the possibility of the next, and it compounds
with each bout of progress.

When you perceive enormous potential, the effort goes through the roof and the
results follow.

When we observe elite performance, we see Dicaprio collecting his Oscar, Elon
launched his new cyber truck or Tesla Roadster, or the Athlete on the podium, but
we don't even see excellence when the expert is finished. So we only ever see a
fraction of what excellence really entails.

When it comes to self-improvement, continuous improvement, innovation, we're

bombarded with promises of easy change. But the fundamental principles proven to
drive all elite performance are beneath the surface, and these techniques simply
don't have the power.

The mindset advice from expert performers that it's all about resilience, never quit,
be positive, no pain, no gain, just kills me. It's not rocket science, and the
fundamental principles that are generating these mindsets are where we need to
focus.

Focus on marginal gains and mindset advice, but never at the expense of the
foundational principles, which I'm going to introduce you to shortly.

1: Self-Concordance, Sweet Spot

There are four principles to optimize performance from a strategic standpoint, and
the first one is to perform from your sweet spot. This is based on self-concordance
theory, which was born out of self-determination theory.

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Your sweet spot exists at the intersection of three things: your strengths, your
interests, and your values. It's when the goals that you're pursuing align with the
qualities that make you unique that you perform from your sweet spot.

When we pursue goals that use our strengths, we experience more eureka
moments or breakthrough moments, and if you're using your strengths more so than
me, I'm never going to catch you up no matter how hard I work or how long I try.

As a trader, I see people who are born to be physical traders, Great communicators,
organized incredible attention to detail, but they're trying to make it as market
makers and it's just painful to watch. So from cognitive abilities, it's really important
to map where you excel versus the rest.

In terms of strengths, you need to reflect on where you've excelled historically,

where you've been highly responsive to training, and where you've been the
opposite of that.

You've got two types of strengths: physical and cognitive. You can do an
anthropometric assessment to see which sports you're suited to, and you can also
do a personality assessment to find out what kind of trader you are.

Myers-briggs is criticized by a lot of psychologists, but I find it useful for giving

people quick insight.

The report will show you your strengths and weaknesses and you should pursue
goals that leverage your strengths.

Your interests are the things that you're drawn to like a magnet, and they dictate the
role or the style of trading you're going to engage in. So your interests might dictate
which asset class you work in.

Strengths dictate the role, interest, domain or asset class, but values dictate the
company. Get those things right, because there is a synergistic compounding effect
between that high responsiveness to training, that ability to put the time in, and that
ability to bring the intensity.

When you pursue goals that leverage your strengths in areas that interest you,
where there's that opportunity to align with your values, you unleash the
psychological firepower that exists within you. Your sweet spot is unique to you, so
spend some time finding it.

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 The greatest poker players are those who can leverage their hands, and that's
stage one in terms of maximizing your progress. Someone who is self-funded at
home or a prop trader within a firm, and is optimized to be working independently,
will probably say things like autonomy freedom, control over their strategy, and risk
management. If you're naturally more extroverted and you learn through discussion,
you're going to be more effective working in an environment where you have the
opportunity to sample your ideas of someone.

I think Claire's clears that up. I think people should spend a good hour reflecting on
those questions, and then come back to it each week.

You know your sweet spots, and it's not panacea like you know you can, but it's the
biggest factor in progress. Don't wait to get it perfect, just get an idea of where it
might be, then go out and test it.

2: Skill Acquisition, Technical Preperation

Phase two is about technical preparation or skill acquisition. It involves optimizing

the goals we're pursuing in that respect, and then uploading skill to the technology
we've got with bursting with potential. This is where I'm gonna start dispelling the
ten thousand hours myth, because I think that it's bad science and that journalists
write books about human performance that focus on attention grabbing headlines.

The study that this statement came from was actually on one set of performers, and
the mean time to acquire expert status was actually around 11 and a half thousand
hours. So I think it's a really negative message because the reality is, it takes you
10 000 hours to excel.

It's not the time spent training that matters, it's the time spent training under the
principles of what I'd call three-dimensional training. So start with the
comprehensive foundations and focus on the three huge levers of first serve, return
serve, and second serve.

When you go to most academies, they spend about a quarter of their time training
on the things that deliver 85 percent of their results. So understand your big levers
and focus on them.

We go on to Principle two, which is essentially practice over theory. To excel as a

trader, you need to be putting that theory to practice as quick as possible, so you
need to swap that, recite, repeat, regurgitate, for like, think, do, and produce.

In order to fuse neural structures in your brain, you need to articulate your
understanding of what's going on, and take the lead in it all. If you want to excel as
a trader, don't expect to just be given the solutions.

Coaches can explain things to you, but they can't understand it for you. So you have
to do the hard work and spend the time to internalize it.

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 Principle four: We need challenge to change. Spend as much time as far into the
adaptive zone as you can to activate your genetic potential to expand your capacity.

If you're hyperventilating, stop listening to the podcast, or think about what you're
gonna have for dinner, or what you're gonna watch on TV, and start again.

If your training doesn't reflect the specific skills that are breaking down during live
performance, then it won't make you better no matter how long you do it for and
how hard you try. So identify the problem areas in your strategy or in your
performance on a daily basis.

Traders need to train in extreme conditions to deal with emotions and challenges
they're likely to experience in the real world. This is more relevant to individuals in a
fund or trading house than independent traders.

Learning is not mindlessly repeating solutions, it's the mindful search for solutions
repeated over and again. You have to be able to adapt your skill to the changing
situation, to perceive the environment, the market, to make decisions, and to make
them under restricted time frames.

When we memorize, repeat, and don't have enough variability in our training, we
become very good at solving a specific problem, but the market never presents in
those exact conditions. So we must like that thumb print.

The tennis statistic you gave right at the start there really stood out to me and I quite
liked it. If 86 percent of your results are coming from the first serve, the return serve,
and the second serve, then you know approximately you're going to want to.

A lot of successful traders are the ones that master the basics and don't make big
errors. It's not the ones that have that one moment of genius, it's often the ones that
don't make that one big up.

3: Delivering on Demand, Control Under Pressure

Principle number three: Deliver on your sweet spot and all your skill acquisition and
in trading when it counts. You can't predict when things are just gonna crash or
move or that opportunity that's there and then gone forever is going to come.

Emotional control is a skill that can be developed and maintained. You can do this
by writing down what's going through your head, what you're doing, and then
looking at your body language and your breathing pattern.

You can build an emotional control skill by building a series of steps that act as a
small win, and as soon as you become aware that you're in a sub-optimal state, a
strategy could be as simple as three two one.

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 One of the aspects of this principle you've outlined here is executing right under
pressure in the heat of the moment. This is probably something a lot of traders
struggle with.

If you do the foundational things well, if you're sincerely interested, if your goals are
aligned with your values, and if you've had adequate technical preparation,
concordance should not be a big issue.

If you feel that the challenge is taking you into a panic state, reduce your size, give
yourself more time, change your expectations, reduce them, but deconstruct the
challenge, you know, break what's a one big overwhelming thing down into a much
smaller thing.

4: Sustaining Success, Continuous Improvement

The tip of the iceberg is being positive, motivated, no pain, no gain, wake up at four
o'clock stuff, but the iceberg is also continuous improvement slash innovation. This
is really important because it's often referred to as post-summit peril.

The vast majority of death rates on Everest occur on the way down, because we
switch off mentally after summiting, and we start to take shortcuts, cut corners, and
as a consequence, more people die coming down and going up. The continuity bias
causes us to downplay the real risk we face.

The illusion of personal control is a killer at the top, and I think there is a lot of this in
the hedge fund space. We need to do something about it. When our biases start
impacting our behavior, it's not like it affects us overnight. It's like a drop of arsenic a
day, and then suddenly over a year two years whack, we just suddenly crash and
the results aren't there anymore.

I think the best mentality is to never let ourselves get to number one, and to have a
clear vision that keeps us in second place.

A clear vision is really good one, and the Great British Olympic Team rowing teams
make the boat go faster. That's a brilliant vision, and it acts as that North Star, so
the closer you get to it, the higher in the sky it looks. Step two is to understand the
problem, and this is where so many people go wrong. We jump to solutions, and
this is why reasoning by analogy is such a problem.

To be maximally responsive to change, you need to have a comprehensive

understanding of what it takes to win and what generates results for you. If the
solution isn't obvious, spend time doing this understand piece.

It's important to constantly set targets, and even if you're at the top you got to reflect
hard, raise the bar and fight to find competition at some times. Elite sports teams do
this by comparing themselves to the win percentages of other elite sports teams.

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 If it ain't broke, don't fix it, set a goal stretches us, establish a performance gap,
move into adaptive zone, switch on our psychological firepower, and then
experiment our way to success.

The learning or innovation process begins as soon as we start experimenting and

taking action according to the plan. If the experiment is successful, then wicked
celebrate for a moment, but just remember that the end of the improvement cycle is
not success, but that transitional period to the next improvement plan.

Aaron: If you see those four things, then you get a higher probability of success
over time.

Outro

Jamesa King's book, Accelerating Excellence, is available for pre-order in the next
24 hours and goes into more depth of the principles we've talked about, along with a
lot of other aspects that really do drive elite performance.

James A King's book, Accelerating Excellence, is up for pre-order on Amazon and

will be released in inside two months. If you want to find out more about James A
King, visit his website, Linkedin, and Instagram.

If you're a talented trader with a three-year track record and interested in

professionalizing your approach to trading, get in touch with Claymore Strategies at
info Project Thor.

We've previously done a podcast, so go back and listen to that. James and Aaron
are great, so thank you for coming on the podcast.

You've reached the end of this episode of Chat with Traders, but stay updated with
each great new release by subscribing to the podcast.

Original

The 4 Principles that Drive Elite Performance · James King

Intro

Markets, Speculation and Risk. This is the Chat with Traders podcast hosted by Aaron
Field. What's up, Traders? Welcome to episode 214, featuring repeat guest James King.

It was 2017 when I actually first spoke with James that was on episode 133 and it was
shortly after Head left a London-based commodity trading firm where he had worked as
Performance Director. Since then, he has continued advising to proprietary traders and
fund managers, specialist military units and professional sports teams, as well as a few
exclusive organizations, while also presenting case studies on elite performance at
various Ivy League universities. More recently, though, James has put the final touches
on his first published book titled Accelerating Excellence, in which he reveals four

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foundational principles that have been proven to drive elite performance. And it's these
four principles that serve as the focal point for our chat today as James takes time to
carefully explain each one.

I'm sure some of you will note James is a rather fast talker at points, so I might suggest
you give this a second listen as I'm sure you'll miss some gold the first time through Now
regarding James's book: If you're listening to this episode fresh, then you can pre-order or
if you're listening to this episode at a later date, then you can purchase by going to
Chatwithtraders.com James This link will redirect you straight to Accelerating Excellence
on Amazon. Alright, team on with the show

Now I'm pleased to present to you for a second time, James King I don't know if this is a
good question to start with.

Excellence: More than Ambition, Hard Work, Talent...

it might be a silly question if it is. just tell me and we can move on that as it's obviously the
the main focus of our conversation and you've read an entire book on the subject, I
thought I'd just ask you off the bat, what is excellence? I would define excellence as the
the quality of being outstanding and and I often use the phrase uh to describe what my
objective: accelerating excellence. So by accelerating I mean to increase in rate, amount,
or extent the quality of being outstanding where. And I think it's a really good question
you've asked there because so many people are obsessed with performance
enhancement, but but not many of them actually define it. I think it's really important to
understand top level. Let's define the thing we want to improve. and the word
performance is another really important one. And I, I break it down into three key areas.
So the first construct for me is quality or completeness. So for instance, um, a gymnastic
at an Olympic game scoring 10 out of 10 is a more complete performance than scoring a
nine. Um, and that's traditionally where we where we focus when we talk about
performance.

But then there's two other really important constructs to measure and the second one is
cost. So again, cost. There's there's that could come in a numerous forms. so we've got
time, finances, resources, effort, willpower. You know if we can get that gymnast to get a
perfect 10 with 3 000 hours worth of training versus 6 000 hours of training, then we've
um, theoretically reduced cost and maintained performance. And then the third construct,
which you think is again, equally important, is speed. So speed is that time From initiating
that, um, completion of a given task, to the actual accomplish, to the accomplishment of
that, and then within that speed dimension, you might also look at repeatability. So can I
Can I repeat that?

performance on demand And that's a really important one. So performance overall

defined as uh, the accomplishment of a given task whether that's making 50 million, uh,
profit as a trader or winning X gold medals as a team Gb athletic Squad measured
against uh, you know, across time and then another one. I'll even normally chuck in there
as well. Is the word human? And you know, I always talk about human performance,

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because in the context of the work I do, I'm not talking about the synthetic or
technological aspects. So for instance, uh, Ai weapon systems? Um, it's really on the
human, and where I'm working is on the psychological and biological factors that we all
have control of and ultimately operates the weapon, the technology, or even designs it in
the first place. So that was, sorry, Aaron. That's probably quite a long-winded answer
that's absolutely perfect. It does answer my question, and I think it's It's good just to clarify
before we sort of delve into things too fast.

So one of the the first questions I wanted to ask you besides that one I just did in your
book, you know, towards the beginning of it, one of the things you kind of go into is
ambition, Hard work, and talent is not necessarily the complete equation. So I'd like to ask
you like, where do we often go wrong when it comes to understanding what drives
excellence? Yeah, another great question. I mean, look, in the majority of organizations or
individuals I've worked with, it's very, very unusual. That, uh, ambition, talent, or effort is
the problem. Um, you know humans have been striving to get better faster since the
beginning of time. Whether that's like, you know, cavemen racing to like fires, or scientists
competing to create the first coveted vaccine. I think everyone has the drive to excel in in
one area or another. Um, and I think one of the key issues is that whilst we're born with
this incredible adaptable machine, the human brain and body, we aren't born with the
software to channel. um, those resources we all possess optimally or and some of us also
struggle activating those resources.

Um, So so the things we talk about with regard to confidence, motivation, resilience,
These these this psychological firepower exists within us all. And I'd say the two two
problems I see are that people struggle to activate it in the first place, or they struggle to
channel those resources in order to to return and return on on their investment of effort.

talent time. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, a lot of a big part of my role, or anyone in a
leadership role I think in any organization is that at certain points in time, individuals or
organizations are maximally responsive to certain types of training, and we want to
ensure that we're selecting and investing those resources in the areas or with the
interventions that will generate that biggest return on investment. Um, in terms of time
and effort. So so yeah, it tends not to be ambition.

Yeah, so I mean, where do we? Where do we kind of go wrong there? Because you know
it's interesting. Actually, because if I think about the traders I speak with, or you know,
maybe someone who listens to the Podcast who sends me an email sometime, you know.
I think most of those people are naturally ambitious, willing to put in the hard work. I
mean, the talent I feel like is something which maybe they develop as they go on.
Hopefully so.

Yeah, Obviously there is kind of a missing piece to the equation there. Yeah, do you think
it's Is there anything within our? Obviously we're going to go into some principles about
how to move forward. But is there something like mindset wise, which we think about
which you think is maybe flawed in some way? I know you've got a bit of an issue with,

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like the 10 000 hour rule, and you kind of spoke about a bit of an issue. Yeah, I've got
severe issues with that, but yeah, no, no, you bang on. And again, I'm really glad that
we're actually sort of setting the foundations right by actually.

look, let's look at how we look at this whole uh, improvement process. Full stop from 30
000 feet and then we can sort of zero in on on some of the tangibles that you can actually
do. But yeah, you're right. I mean, look. trading and investing particularly. You look at the
Uh, the horsepower cognitively. In terms of Iq conscientiousness, industriousness, these
are like psychological gold in terms of performance. These traits, and and the industry
attracts some of the hardest working, brightest people out there. But there's a few
problems that I see. You know I'll go through them. Um, the first one is, I think when with
improvement where a lot of people go wrong, Is they reason by analogy? So they attempt
to innovate by copying the recipes of others, falling for sales pitches, or leaning on, uh,
best practice that's approved by the majority. Um, what we should do as Elon Musk is
always preaching is reason by first principles. So we need to break our problems down
into their basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up. And this allows
us to eliminate careless reasoning, copy pasting, any inadequate analogies to emerge
with opportunities that others will miss.

and I think this is, um, the case in human performance. Now, unlike physics or maths, the
foundational principles that drive elite performance aren't aren't popularized. I mean, we,
We know why. As a human performance guy, like, we know why people excel. We know
the mechanisms, we know the principles that drive that. It's not secret. And it always
amazes me how um, how almost secret or or reserved or these principles are. And that's
one of my objectives writing the book is to like. Look, I'm going to give people the
foundational principles so they can, instead of just copy pasting, other people can start to
solve their own unique problems with their own bespoke solutions. So that's that's a way.
that's where a lot of people go wrong. I'd say the second thing I see that is cripples many
people is that we are programmed, or nature is to think in a linear fashion. So we expect
progress to be relatively constant with the effort, we invest almost a straight line from
bottom left to top right with progress versus effort, time, money investment. Um, and it's
not. It is very much an exponential process. So when you expect it to be linear and it
turns out it's not, Unsurprisingly, I think you know so many people experience frustration
and disappointment at how ineffective their effort seems to be and and inevitably many
people decide to give up.

Um, Also, you know if you can't see a straight line to the top, some of us just don't bother
to try. But the fact is that it takes one breakthrough to enable you to perceive the
possibility of the next. and you know there's a compounding effect with each bout of
progress. And you know, our inability to sometimes think exponentially in terms of our
progress is what causes so many people to stay blind to the what is essentially an
enormous amount of um, latent potential or opportunity that exists within, within, within
us. And yeah, I think that perception of potential is a big issue. When you don't perceive

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the protect, there's much potential. It never really affects the effort. Um, the quality of the
effort you put in and the quantity that obviously impacts results that then reinforces and it
becomes it can become a negative spiral.

Uh, and then vice versa is when you perceive these like enormous perceptions of
potential. Um, the the effort with regards to quality and quantity. Again, they just go
through the roof and then you know, So the results. and then again we get that upward
spiral. So that's another key one. I see a lot of people go wrong.

Uh, and then the last one. I'd make the last point I'll make. There links a bit to the sort of
reasoning by analogy, but look, the reality is when we observe elite performance, you
know we see Uh, it's it's Dicaprio on stage collecting his Oscar. It's uh, Elon launched his
new cyber truck or Tesla Roadster, or the Athlete on the podium. or or you know it's Paul
Tudor Jones. Uh, just just hit some ridiculous or insane profit target And and we just see,
we don't even see excellence when the expert is finished. So we sort of grow up with this
movie version of success. Not many of us go grow up or spend any time at all around
around elite performance. Um, through the through the journey. Uh, so we only ever see a
fraction of what excellence really entails and that's a problem. and I so often use the
iceberg metaphor there. So it's like the part of the ex of excellence that is visible is, um,
obviously smaller and less significant. And it's the bit we can't see beneath the surface
which makes the difference when it comes to enhancing your performance. And that's
where I focus all my effort.

Yeah, they're the three things that, um, I think make make things harder for people than
they need to be. So when it comes to self-improvement, continuous improvement,
innovation, like, like, we're bombarded. There's no shortage of people, uh, willing to fill fill
our knowledge gap in that area with quick fixes. Um, the personal development space for
me as I was. you know, growing up, reading, reading around this area. I mean it feels like
a charged fire hose to the face. Uh, we're bombarded with promises of easy change. like
you know, God woot. bands, Aura rings, meditation, Bulletproof Coffee Challenge You're
in a Navy Seal. Lunchtime quidditch sessions, ice baths. It's just it's endless. The amount
of we're told to do. But like Elite Performance isn't just a prescriptive to-do list of of of
things. These are these are all techniques. Um, that sit at the tip of the iceberg and
they're all potentially great habits to form, but never at the expense of the principles
beneath the surface. The you know, the fundamental principles proven to drive all elite
performance, which you know. Hopefully we'll get to talk about today. Um, they simply
don't have the power.

and then the other one there as well. And this one kills me. And it's a really. There's a
couple of popular buzzwords going around at the moment. Resilience is is a big one.
We've all been. we're all sort of given the mindset advice from expert performers who at
the top tend to advise us you know they're You know it's all about resilience. Never quit,
Be positive, no pain, no gain. And that advice, just just. it just kills me. It's about as
practical as being told to be taller. Um, you know. And while those who excel often exhibit
these mindsets like yes, we all know that it's that's not rocket science. Yes, it takes
resilience, motivation, and confidence. They're they're the products or symptoms of

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something deeper. Again, the fundamental principles that are generating these mindsets
are where we need to focus. So yeah, take Ice Biots. Yeah, like at times, paint on a happy
face. Yeah, grit your teeth here and there.

But those marginal gains and mindset advice and not why Elon Musk is his performance
at the level he does, or Cristiano Ronaldo performs at the level he does, You know, don't
don't expect them to take it to the top. They're really marginal gains. One percenters. So
so so focus on them. Yeah, but never at the expense of the foundational principles that
I'm going to introduce you to shortly. Yeah, I I like that. And this is something I I picked up
from early on in the book as well is that you know excellence is no one single thing in
isolation, which you kind of spoke about there. absolutely. As you hinted at the principles,
it's probably a good time to dive into those.

1: Self-Concordance, Sweet Spot

So there's four principles, as I understand it, to optimize performance from a strategic

standpoint. let's just go through those. So I guess starting with number one, Yeah,
Absolutely. so. So having you know, studied these outliers and I, you know, identified
those individuals that are performing upper limits of human capability. Um, you know
we've broken broken down the causal factors that generate such elite performance. You
know there's this. There seems to be four key areas of focus. one probably way more
important than most, and that's where we'll start. I'd say that's like the foundation of the
Um of almost. this. This iceberg if you looked at the iceberg almost as a pyramid. the
foundational principles right at the bottom. There's the outlier. Performers tend to align
more closely with. uh, this one more than anything else. Um, and I. I would describe it as
performing from your sweet spot and scientifically would describe this as self-
concordance theory which was born out self-determination theory. I'm just going to refer
to as a sweet spot. So so what's your sweet spot? And just like a tennis racquet has a
point at which the ball is driven further and faster away.

um, with greater force than if struck at any other point. So do you? You perform from your
sweet spot when the goals that you're pursuing align with the qualities that make you
unique. Um, and and this is the essential foundation that all excellence is built from. Like
nothing comes before this. your sweet spot exists at the intersection of three things. So
your strengths, your interests, and your values. Um, so in when we're talking about
strengths, we're talking about the things that come naturally to us. So maybe that's that
you. You know you dust people in 1500 meters, some athletic ability. Or it could be a
cognitive ability like your ability to perhaps tell a tell a story with a swelling dialogue. Or
perhaps you've got laser-like attention to detail. Now, your strengths are going to dictate
the role you pursue. So so, for instance, you want to excel in trading. Well, the the
problem with that is that trading is a big. I mean, it's like saying I want to excel in sport,
right? It's like what sport and the metaphor here would be like. Look, if you've got, um, a
ridiculous hip to knee ratio and lung a Vo2 max of like 80 90 which is basically like an
absolute engine.

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Uh, and you're six foot four, then you've got the you've got. You've got some strengths
that, um, you know, are highly, uh, causally linked with Um, elite performance in rowing.
Therefore, you know, versus say, table tennis So we can optimize the goals you pursue in
terms of strengths and strengths are so important because they dictate your trajectory, so
your responsiveness to training. So when we pursue goals that use our ex, our strengths,
we use we, um, we experience more eureka moments or like those breakthrough
moments. So if I'm using my strengths more so than maybe, Um, or you're using your
strengths aaron more so than me and you're having two breakthrough moments a day
and I'm having one two three months down the line. you're going to be so far ahead of
me, I'm just never going to catch you up no matter how hard I work, or how how long I try
or or how ambitious I am. So so when it comes to using your strengths, it really is a case
of of the best get better. And and of course the reality is that we can and should try
anything we wish to try. but real excellence will elude us unless we determine early on.

Uh, those things we have pre-existing strengths for for and then leverage them in our goal
pursuits. And that's really important.

As a trader I see I've seen in the past. You know people are born to be uh, physical
traders, Great communicators, organized incredible attention to detail. Um, but they're
trying to make it as market makers and it's just painful to watch because they don't have
that sort of pattern recognition perhaps. So from cognitive abilities, it's really important to
map where you you excel versus the rest. uh, in in those areas and then think, well,
actually, where, Where's that? What style of trading would that be a real asset in? just like
an athlete would, Does that make sense? It does make sense. I guess if we could just
maybe delve into that part a little more thinking about this. If there's someone listening to
the podcast right now and let's say they've been trading two years, they're still fairly new
to the game. You know what would that? What would their discovery process of
identifying their sweet spot look like? Like, could you give someone in that position a
couple pointers to you know, identify their strengths, their interests, their values.

Yeah, so the strengths in terms of strengths. the first question to ask is is a reflection one
a reflective one. Look, where historically have you excelled versus the rest? Uh, you
know, throughout throughout your life? Um, that's an important question to reflect on. The
second one would be where have you, Where have you been highly responsive to
training and also where haven't you been And what's the opposite of that? Um, that'll
point you in certain areas and then you. Your aim is to look for you, look to look for for
where themes emerge and marry them up.

The other thing I would recommend: You've got two types of strengths, right? If you're an
athlete, you've obviously got the physical aspect and if you're a trader, you've obviously
got the cognitive aspect on working in the knowledge working space. Um, But then we all
have the personality aspect. So just like an athlete can go and do a what we call like an
anthropometric assessment to see which sports they're suited to. You can go online and
do. I've got links in the book and I can forward some to Aaron for readers at the end of
like uh, free cognitive testing sites where you can just go on complete a test battery and it
will say look, you know versus normal desk just based on the normal distribution curve.

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Here's where you fall and it will point you in areas so that's a good feedback tool and then
and then the other aspect. we all share is this personality aspect. Where again I would I
would encourage people to just again. There's free online tools.

Myers-briggs I like it. It's Uh gets criticized by a lot of psychologists. However, I find it very
useful for giving people quick insight that they can leverage and put to work quick. Again,
you're gonna get a bunch of questions 40 50 questions and to what extent do you agree
with the following question? It will spit you out. You'll fall into one of 16 personality types
and it will.

Uh. The report will show you your strengths and weaknesses and you really need to
make sure you're pursuing goals that leverage your strengths and mitigate your your
weaknesses. So where your strengths are and asset and your weaknesses just don't
matter. That's the aim when it comes to strengths.

Moving on to the second component of of your sweet spot. When we talk about your
interests, your interest, that's that's a bit more simple and it should be a reflective one
because the interests are things which that you're drawn to like like a magnet and the
essence there is. You don't need to motivate a child to play and that's where interests
come in this sweet spot. So strengths have given us that nice responsiveness to training
and our interest will dictate our ability to engage and put the time in Um that you know to
disguise the repetition that is required to excel. Um, And they you know when you're
pursuing goals that align with your interest, they enable you to become the gym rat.
You're first in last out. and you and and you don't? You're not even thinking about it. So in
terms of trading again, this is where your strengths might influence the role or the style of
trading you're going to engage in. So you're going to be a swing trader, a market trader,
directional trader, a broker. Perhaps you're going to work in research. Perhaps you're
going to be a physical trader, but your interest might dictate which asset class you work
in. Whether that's Fx, commodities, um, Biofuels. I mean, I don't know. There's yeah, you
know, equities depending on what your interests are drawn to.

Then we go on to values. Um, so values will dictate the intensity you bring. You know you,
you, you bleed, sweat and cry to achieve your goals. Because doing so fulfills your values
so that the things that in the context of your career are most important to you. And that's a
simple question you need to reflect on is is that what in the context of your career Now as
a trader, what's most important to you and based on what comes up there will dictate
perhaps where you work. So again, strengths will dictate the role, interest, perhaps the
domain or the asset class. But your values will dictate the um, the the company. So are
your values aligned with a company like a Glencore or Goldman Sachs or a small
startup? Or maybe working independently? And you need to get those things right,
because there's that synergistic compounding effect Again, between that high
responsiveness to training, that ability to put the time in, and then that, um, that third
component, that ability to bring the bring the intensity.

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And and when you get in that sweet spot, and you're pursuing goals that leverage your
strengths in areas that interest you, where there's that opportunity to align with your
values. What happens psychologically is we unleash, um, what we call our predatory
predatory circuitry in our brain. So this is this is. this is psychological firepower that you
know we all know again. Uh, it's not that people lack resilience, confidence, or motivation.
A lot of people are just pursuing goals that fail to ignite these things that exist within them
in the first place, and consequently they stay dormant. So again, that's that's the key thing
that makes this uh, Sweet Spot piece so important. Um, and your sweet spot will be as
unique to you as your fingerprints. Uh, yeah, and it's your job to do that research. Spend
some time there if you really want to excel and and find out who you are and then make
sure you go out there and be it. So this requires shifting from the the this you can be
anything you want to be to the more accurate you can be a hell of a lot more of who you
already are.

And I love the poker analogy here that you know the greatest poker players aren't the
ones with the best hands, but the ones who can leverage their hands. They have been
dealt best and and that's that's that. That's stage one that comes before everything else.
That's going to be your biggest lever in terms of maximizing your progress. So that's
principle one and I appreciate. I've taken some time to go into that, but it's so important so
I don't feel guilty. I was just going to ask you on the the point about values. there. You
know, someone who's an independent trader? uh, maybe self-funded at home, or maybe
even a prop trader within a firm? What would you expect someone in that position to say
their values? Obviously, you know, Like you said, everyone's values are going to be
different. but just generally speaking, someone who's optimized to be working
independently will probably say things like you know what? Autonomy freedom? Um, you
know, control over my um, control over my strategy, my risk management. Those things
might be important. Um, it could be a bit of strength stuff going on as well. It could be like
look, I'm really introverted and I like I don't like interruption. I don't like loud trait like
trading flaws. Um, you know the nightmare situation there is Actually, if you're naturally
maybe a bit more extroverted and you actually learn, I'm a person who learns through
discussion conversation. So knowing that I know that all working in isolation on my own
um, as I experienced writing this damn book is not optimal for me. It's painful, especially
during this horrendous lockdown we've had in the Uk. I I'm much more effective when I'm
in an environment where I have the opportunity to sample my ideas of someone. So
therefore, you know that that's that's going to shape the environment or the organization. I
might opt to work working, working, or with, Um, does. Does that make sense?

Yeah, 100 percent. That's that's really good. Actually, I think that Claire's clears that up. I
I, I just, I swear to God like the amount of money and time we spend looking for quick
wins. If people can reflect, you know, spend a good hour, maybe reflecting on those
questions, engaging in those test batteries, and and then just coming back to it each
week.

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You know your sweet spots. This, You know it's not. It's not panacea like you know you
can. It's not an indefinite route to ultimate virtue, but it's the the biggest. um, the biggest
factor. I think that biggest multiplier for progress. and and and it's hard to get perfect. And
and the message here that I want to make clear is that look, don't don't wait to get it
perfect. Just have an idea of where it is or an area to optimize one of those dimensions. If
if something jumps up and you're like, actually, that's definitely a key point, just go with
that. And and your sweet spot sort of, um, zeros you in as you go. So as you sort of
again, take that one step and you move sort of a bit closer in towards your sweet spot,
you'll start to see another opportunity. and then we can start to leverage that
compounding effect. You sort of galvanize your instinct, your your definition improves, and
you get more feedback. So don't worry about getting it perfect. Just get an idea of of
where it might be, then go out and test it. That's my advice in terms of Sweet Spot
Excellent.

2: Skill Acquisition, Technical Preperation

Should we jump onto phase two, we should. Let's go into that. I believe it has something
to do with technical preparation or maybe skill acquisition. So yeah, let's hear that. Yeah,
So so Sweet spot, right? We're working with the hardware. We're working out what is our
hardware. These are the things that are relatively consistent about us. our strengths,
interest values. So once we've optimized the goals we're pursuing in that respect, we
theoretically got this technology with it with bursting with potential. The challenge now is
to upload skill. so think of it as like if you're If you're you know The Sweet Spot's a bit like
finding the most functional technology or the latest and greatest smartphone. Will the the
skill acquisition or technical preparation phase is about right? What apps do I need and
how do I get the most high performing functional software onto that so that I can start to
perform and be effective? So this is where I'm gonna start dispel that ten thousand hours
myth that I detest because it was just really bad bad science like I love. Some of these
books written by journalists are just. you know they're they're amazing and I think they're
really good gateway into human performance. But one of the flaws is that when you have
journalists writing books about human performance, they inevitably are going to be
focusing on like attention grabbing headlines versus you know, the the, the reality or the
true picture.

Um, and this is a classic example of that. So the study that that statement sort of came
from was popularized was actually on one set of performers. um, one individual. I think
they're only about 12 or 14 of them. So one of them actually their time to acquire expert
status was 2 700 hours, another one was like 27 and a half thousand hours. The mean
time was actually around 11 and a half thousand hours. So the 10 000 hours things a lot
of in that respect because what we would do in human performance is go to the individual
that did that in 2700 hours and be like what the hell is going on There Was it just
genetics? Was it the guy was in his sweet spot? Or was it there were certain mechanisms
with the training that they were exposed to that others were and and that's what we've
done. and that's how they should look at that. So I think it's a really negative message

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because the reality is, it takes you 10 000 hours to excel. You've you've got a really
methodology, and you're definitely not performing in your sweet spot. And you're definitely
aligned with the principles I'm about to talk to you about in terms of your training.

So it's not the time spent training that matters, it's the time spent training under the
principles of what I'd call three-dimensional training. That's the most important predictor of
your development, treachery, trajectory. So maybe if it's all right with you, I'm just going to
crack through those and people. What would be useful, I think is as I go through them if
people sort of, uh, reflected on, like, to what extent am I aligned with said principle Of
course. Yeah. So Principle One: Start with the comprehensive foundations and you know
to be successful, you don't have to do extraordinary things. You have to do ordinary
things extraordinarily well. So for example, I'm going to use a sporting example here
because I just I think it hits the point and that's that. In Tennis over, I think it's over. 85 of
points are won through the first serve, return serve, and second serve. So if that's the
case, then you'd better make damn sure that your training in terms of resources and effort
is focused on those three huge levers.

But the irony is well, when you go to most academies and I know this happened um, I
think at the Lta when they did this assessment, they're like we spend about a quarter of
our time training on the on the things that deliver 85 percent of our results. So again, it
links to Pareto's Law and I think people listening to this podcast will know what that is. But
the message is like what what does it take to win? Understand where the your big levers
are in terms of creating a winning trading strategy and make sure you're focusing there
and you're not focusing on marginal gains bits and pieces. So that's number one. Once
you've got that right, we're gonna.

We go on to Principle two, which is essentially practice over theory. So again, like

knowing a lot about pianos doesn't mean you can play one. it's what you can do, not what
you know that sets you apart. So to try and make your training or learning especially if
you're you are a theoretical person and you enjoy reading. If you want to excel as a
trader, then you know you need to be putting that theory to practice as quick as possible.
Um, so you need to swap that, recite, repeat, regurgitate, and you see this a lot of like
trading flaws where it's just memorize or recite. repeat a a certain strategy and we need
to swap that for like, think, do, and produce. So again, using a different example, if we go
to Like Chess Now, instead of having the chess player memorizing opening moves, play
them simplified simulations in problem areas you know, pausing to engage. uh, have you
know discuss what's going on? forcing thinking, forcing the the performer to perceive the
market or the chessboard in this context.

Um, and then how you know articulate your understanding of what's going on and that's
what's going to fuse those neural structures in your brain. that ultimately skills built built
up on Um, and it'll you'll start sparking and lock in that that learning. Then then we sort of
move on to principle three, and that's it. That, and this is a really important one. Like it's
on you, it's your future, your responsibility. Therefore, you take the lead in it all and
imagine if people are working independently, they're probably already quite good at this.
But but if you're in an organization you want to excel as a trader, then don't expect to just

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be given the solutions. You need to go out there and find them. When you're fed the
answers um, and given solutions, there's fewer broke through breakthrough moments that
that fire and wire um, our mental structures which is how our skills are stored in our brain.

Um, coaches trainers on on courses, so on, so forth. They can explain it to you, but they
can't understand it for you. So you have to do that hard work. You have to spend that
time. You know you're squishing your eyebrows, squishing together, your blood
pressure's going up, you're squinting your eyes, trying to sort of work out and internalize
what's going on. Um, when you when you summon your own solutions, the practice
changes you. Um, yeah, and ultimately, advanced skills can't be taught. They must just
be discovered by you.

Principle four, We need challenge to change. So look, when you increase your demands
beyond your current abilities, we create, um, what we call a performance gap And it's
exposure to this gap. that's the stimulus to adapt to our level. So we call this like, the
adaptive zone and you need to spend as much time as far into that adaptive zone as you
can. That's the spark that's going to activate your genetic potential to essentially expand
your capacity and have you adapt to a superior level.

Obviously, if you're going to the point where you're hyperventilating, then you're in the
panic zone and you've gone a bit too fast. So come back. But if you're you know if you're
you're training or you're listening to a lecturer. if you're listening to this podcast. even. but
you're thinking about what you're gonna have for dinner or what you're gonna watch on
Tv tonight like it's not making you better. So just end it. Um, that's a key point.

Principle Five: If it doesn't happen on the pitch, then it doesn't happen in practice. So
again, unless your training reflects the specific skills that are breaking down during live
performance, then it just won't make you better no matter how long you do it for and and
how hard you try. So you must identify the problem areas in your strategy or in your
performance on a daily basis, depending on what style of trading you're engaged in and
then you gotta focus your areas there. Um, some people like to. They get excited about
certain areas. Like the classic one in sport is a soccer player likes to go in the garden,
practice tricks. It's like the problem is, tricks don't win your matches. So again, it's that
linking it back to all. What? What's winning in matches? And then where are my obstacles
there? Where are my skills breaking down in the market? Uh, and there's so many
amazing metrics platforms you can use in trading to get that that the athletes or other
people in the knowledge working well don't have access to. So that's a really important
one. Um, nearly there. Mate Principle Six: Uh, yeah, create uncertainty. So in most fields,
elite performance is full of potential minefields. Uh, you know. And the question here is.

and I see. This is again, perhaps more relevant to individuals in, um, a fund or trading
house. But like, is it reasonable for you to expect your traders to handle um, huge market,
moves in, or or positions running against them in a competitive environment. If they never
experienced them in training, you know, of course it's not. So we need to prepare and
train in extreme conditions. The force failure in safe, controlled environments so that we
teach ourselves or the people where we're responsible for coaching to deal with those

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emotions and challenges and failure that you know guarantee you're guaranteed to
experience reality and Jesus Christ in trading more than most areas. Um, And the product
to that is that you're obviously less intimidated when you encounter them in the real world.
So so that's another really important one. I understand that's harder to structure if you're
an independent trader, but it's certainly not in terms of perhaps running through a um,
what you call it a Um, I don't know if you are running through certain scenarios, or you're
historically looking back at events. Uh, if you're engaged in event trading. For for
example, go hard, go extreme and create pressure.

Last principle before I take a breath is variability and this is a key point. Learning is not
mindlessly repeating solutions. it's the mindful search for solutions repeated over and
again. So the aim is get it right and move on. Uh, adapt the problem as soon as you've
found a solution, change the problem and this forces you to adjust your skill to the
changing Uh situation. Uh forces you to perceive the environment, the market. It forces
you to to make decisions, engage in pattern recognition, look for opportunities, decide,
you know again, make decisions under and under restricted time frames and and honing
these um, vital components of your skills and perception and decision making aspects is
is so important. And I think a good example for this is um I I when I have my my uh old
iphone when I was setting it up. you know the thumb recognition. You know when you put
your thumb on it you've got to like It swirls around on the screen and it's like well if you try
to marry if you just did it once and you had to marry up your um your thumbprint exactly
every time to open your screen like you just wouldn't be able to deploy that technique. In
reality it wouldn't work and it's the same way.

When we just memorize, repeat and we don't have enough variability in our training. we
have a very specific solution for a very specific problem and the reality is the market
never presents in those exact conditions. So we must like that thumb print. What your
iphone had you do was sort of adjust your thumbprint, take it off, put it back and it would
sort of these red swirls on the screen and and what that was was your phone was almost
mapping your thumb as a skill. Um, therefore, whatever angle it comes at you. Um,
whether that's a trade in the market or your thumb on that uh, phone, you're able to
unlock it and and engage to to create a result. There's a obviously a lot of really awesome
tips in there.

Uh, One of the things which really stood out to me and I quite liked was the tennis statistic
you gave right at the start there. Yeah, can you just repeat that? Do you have that handy?
Yeah. So so this is approximately this is approximation, but I think it's it's roughly that in
Tennis Over. I think it's over 85 percent. At least 80 percent of points are won through the
first serve, the return serve, and the second serve. And the message is that if 86 of the
results are coming from those things, then you know approximately you're going to want
to. You want to, You don't want to like. If I'm going in and I'm assessing someone's skill
acquisition program, one of the things I'm going to look at is like okay, well are you
spending your time and resources on those things that when you when your results

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exactly yeah. So is it your entry? Is it your exit? Is it your trade craft? Like what?
Depending on your start of uh, trading, there'll be certain parts of your trade flow process
that are break that have a disproportionate effect on the ability.

You know, if You maybe perhaps for you it might be if you get your entry right then it's just
no worries from then. So then god make sure you get that right. For other people, it might
be about take profits. It will vary obviously depending on strategy.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of like this idea that it's like we find something which kind of
works and we have some success. And and I I think it's like almost a natural human
tendency to then want to find something else. Yes, instead of just doubling down and
trying to see how you can do that, that thing that you've discovered how you can do that
even better whatever you're into. I I mean I've seen it in trading so much of this like it's
very, very rare that a trader's success is built on on one or two extraordinary things. I
swear to God the majority of successful traders, whether that's like, you know hedge fund
world or like, um, a derivatives trading world, Most most people that excel at the top that
I've met or worked with are the people that master the basics and don't make big errors.
It's the errors that kill you and you you're into football or like rugby. Again, the best team.
The teams that win tend to win world cups or six nations. It's not the ones that have that
one moment of genius, it's it's often the one that doesn't make that one big up.

Um, with regard to the the foundational, uh, principles of that craft. Yeah, so let's step
forward again.

3: Delivering on Demand, Control Under Pressure

Uh, Principle number three? So three? Yeah, I'll be quicker with this one. People are
busy. So theoretically, right now in our journey, we've done this right. We've got this
individual personal potential and then we've have their technical preparations second to
none. You know they've been lined with all those principles we've just been talking about
like they're ready to deploy their technical ability right now. The next thing that can
become a cropper here is our ability to access our technical ability when it counts. Now,
essentially, at this stage, it's time to deliver on your sweet spot and all your skill
acquisition and in trading. Like most elite performance environments, you need to do that
on demand and under pressure. You You know you can't predict when things are just
gonna crash or move or that opportunity that's there and then gone forever is going to
come. You just got to be able to deliver everything you've got in the tank in that moment
so that 10 years of work can come down to 10 seconds. So we're not focusing on getting
better anymore, but just delivering on what we've got.

Um, and one of the things that outliers do is flick the switch, regulate their emotion and
fight the urge to panic. So the good news here is that you can control your emotions
because you create your emotions. Uh, your emotions are built by you, not built into you.
And in essence you can develop performance routines that act as these switches. We
can, uh, we, we can flick. And the simple formula there is really that. Your thoughts plus
your actions equals an emotional state. So if you can manipulate your thoughts and the

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actions you engage in, you can, um, you. you can dictate the emotion you experience.
Now obviously when it's time to deliver on demand under pressure, I would describe that
as uh, well, in sports psychology you would call it a blue head state, a flow state So you
want to feel confident, you want your brain flooded with the super six so that like an
andonized serotonin oxytocin, you know the brain just giving you all those good
chemicals that that create this like chemical symphony of indestructibility. And and that's
where you access absolutely everything you've got in a tank. And that's when you sort of
get lost in the moment.

Uh, and and just it's it's that, to be honest, is almost what elite performance is all about.
like trying to get into that state. So I guess the message here is that emotional control is a
skill. and like any skill, you must invest in methodology, time and energy to develop and
maintain it. And I go into a lot of depth about this in the book because it is. It is a more
complicated subject, but in essence, it's also not rocket science. It's you manipulate those
thoughts. You manipulate those actions. Thoughts plus actions equals emotion. So if
you're in a in an emotional state that sub-optimal for your decision-making in a trading
environment, then just write that formula down and go through what's going through my
head there. What am I thinking? What am I doing? And and this is where you look at
things like your body language, your breathing pattern. um, and there's certain sports that
master this. Um, but yeah, you and then you can by learning about those, how you work
here. in terms of, well, look, where are those moments where you do keep it together and
you're great. Well, what are the thoughts and actions going on there? And then how can
you create that routine?

Um, so that you've got this steps series of steps that act as a Each one acts as like a
small win. And the great thing about routines, it just they leave no time for you to get
caught up in the moment because as soon as you become aware that you're in a sub-
optimal state, a strategy could be as simple as three two one Like, you know, a distraction
countdown. I'd call that it could be slam the table state change, stand up, check my
posture so shoulders back, chin high, eyes up. take a few deep breaths and then go back
to the problem. It could be as simple as that it could be. Go for a walk, You could just be
ring a friend like. You can make these as deliberate or vague as as you like. again based
on your personality and what works for you. But the key thing is you can control it and you
have the option to. And that's what outliers performers do. and a lot of them Not
consciously. But the good news is you can consciously intervene and take control of that
and build that skill. We just tend not to focus our effort on building that emotional control
skill like we might, uh, a technical skill.

So one of the aspects of this principle you've outlined here uh, is executing right under
pressure in the heat of the moment. This is probably something a lot of Tr. A lot of traders.
uh, I guess maybe newer traders struggle with more than experienced traders, but maybe
still to a certain extent. You know when they they see something, build a robot. If you can,
they see something. They sort of know they should act on it. Uh, but hesitate and kind of
miss that opportunity. Yeah, you know they struggle to execute is really what it comes
down to.

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Yes, how would what are some tips you give to someone? Obviously it's something you
could work on over time. But like, where would you start? Absolutely. So I would start at
the foundation of our of our pyramid or iceberg with concordance, because again, there's
a reason this comes third and that that reason is that if you are performing, um, goals that
leveraging your strengths, you're sincerely interested and they're aligning with your
values and you've had you've had the adequate technical preparation. It's very unlikely
that this is going to be a big issue, and this is almost. We're getting towards the marginal
end, marginal gains. But we're all. We're not quite at the surface of the iceberg yet, but
we're getting closer. So if you do those two things well, if your trainings designed to
expose you to those situations, you should be inoculated to them.

The most simple way to deal with this is like, look, if you perceive that if the challenge is
taking you into that panic state or I'd maybe call as like a redhead and you and you you're
feeling decided to feel frustrated or anxious, frustrated or anxious or even angry, the best
thing to do is just break the problem down just literally. Whether that's reducing your size,
giving yourself more time, changing your expectations, reducing them, but deconstruct
the challenge, you know, break, break what's a one big overwhelming thing down into a
much smaller thing. If it's because you've got seven positions on, just have one or two. If
it's because you've just started applying the same strategy, but within a different, uh,
asset class or derivative that you don't understand as well, then reduce your size. I think
position size is really important there. That would be my top one. Does that help?
paranoia? Is there anything anything more specific I could add there? No, I think that's
fairly specific I guess. Uh, the next part is the tip of the iceberg.

4: Sustaining Success, Continuous Improvement

So principle number four? Well, I'm not going to get at the tip of the iceberg because the
tip of the iceberg is just all that. Be positive. Be motivated, no pain, no gain, wake up at
four o'clock stuff. So we already know that you guys are you know, whoop bands, All that
stuff which is again, is great, but only never at the expense of what I'm talking about here.
So the last one before we hit the iceberg is again. You could just describe this as
continuous improvement slash innovation. And and this one for me is really important.
Like the reality again. So we think of our journey with we're pursuing the right goals.
We're technically, we've been technically prepared to deliver. We're psychologically
prepared to access our technical ability on demand, under pressure. We do those three
things right. We would have had some success. Like no danger that the issue then
becomes. We've worked so hard to achieve success. Let's make sure we sustain it once
we finally have it, like no one wants to be the one hit wonder. But so many are. And and
that's because we have these inherent biases that once we almost get to the top of the
mountain, um set in and they can be destructive for us. And and in, you know, it's often
referred to as what we call like post-summit peril.

So uh, again, when it comes to death rates on Everest, the vast majority occur on the way
down. And the point there is that by the time we summit, we're exhausted, the temptation
is there to just bask in our glory, taking the view at the top. and the risk is we switch off
mentally. We start to take shortcuts, cut corners, and as a consequence in climbing, more

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people die coming down and going up. And there's two biases in particular that make this
difficult for us. The first one is what we call like continuity bias. So this causes us to
assume that the future will resemble the present. and the effect of this is that we
downplay the real risk we face. Um, when threats, What threats exist when they might
strike, and how significant they can be. And and uh, Jesus Christ, we've had a few of
those in the last few years. Whether that's like you know, did the U.s predict Trump? Did
the Eu? predict Brexit? Did any of us predict covid oil below zero? Yeah. And the reason
we didn't is is because of this continuity bias.

Um, so that can be a killer at the top. And then the next one that compounds is the
illusion of personal control. and where so many people go wrong. And and I think it's sad
to say, but I think there is a lot of this, in particular in the hedge fund space. There's this:
We downplay the role of randomness in our success, and we end up thinking that you
know we've achieved success and it's all down to our pure genius and we sort of ignore
that 50 percent tailwind we had because the market was just perfect then. and and the
problem is that. Again, just like the continuity bias, it makes us complacent, and when
we're complacent, we're vulnerable, like we're there for the taking. Um, so we need to do
something about that. Uh, I guess a key point there as well is also that with these biases,
the damage is slow and silent. Like you get to the top, everything's going well. and then
when these biases set in and they start impacting our behavior, it's not like it affects us
overnight. It's again, sort of that exponential progress where that or that exponential
breakthrough that takes us to the top can sort of spit us out the bottom just as
exponentially. It's like a drop of arsenic a day and then suddenly over a year two years
whack, we just suddenly crash and the results aren't there anymore. And then we panic
and bring in a an improvement consultant or or start waking up early or working harder for
longer or just sack someone. The reality is that those problems were symptomatic of stuff
that happened years ago.

Um, so what we do about it. I think the best mentality here is there's four sort of things or
principles we can we can align with or or especially our mindset. at least anyway, align
our mindset with the first one is that although we must strive to be number one, never let
ourselves get there. So and I think what good organizations do or individuals, they have a
sort of a clear vision that even when they're at the top, will keep them in second place.

Um, and the vision? sort of. My favorite one here is probably Gb Rowing. So the Great
British Olympic Team rowing teams make the boat go faster. I mean, that acted as a
brilliant vision. It's not something you can achieve. Um, it's you can always make the boat
go faster. So that's that's sort of how a vision might keep you in second place. It acts as
that North Star, so the closer you get to it, the higher in the sky it looks and that's is that.
Well, you know when we're in second place, we've got that hunger that drive that
adversity and and it stimulates that that pressure we need to to drive continued progress.
So I think a clear vision is a really good one. Um, that's like personally, I like for me, you
know it's my job is to accelerate excellence. You know that's not something I can achieve.
There's always ways to optimize how I do that. Step two I would say is to and this is
where so many people go wrong. I think we again it's another bias we have, but it's we

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like to jump to solutions and this is why the reason to reasoning by analogy such a
problem. we have a problem and then we see the advert oh wow, like Bulletproof Coffee
will solve all my problems. So then we jump to that and we're always looking for that silver
bullet that will wish away our problems instead.

What's really important is to develop a comprehensive understanding of that, what it takes

to win and then constantly evaluate where where you are in relation to that. and before
you start engaging in techniques and you know development interventions which you
know any organization in the world, there's always a million and one things you could do
to make it better. The key is again to be maximally responsive to change and pick the
right thing. And this is why that firmly under uh, firm understanding of where you are now,
um in terms of what it takes to win and what generates results for you is so important
because the rule then becomes well. Look, If if what we need to do to innovate and stay
ahead of the rest isn't obvious, then the rule there is that we don't understand the problem
well enough and it's way better to say I don't know and spend time doing this understand
piece than it is to just jump to solutions. We need to understand the the problems and and
what holds us back so well that the solutions fall in our laps. So that's the second thing.

And then thirdly, it's like setting a target. We need to constantly set targets that the end of
the improvement cycle isn't goal achievement. The end of the improvement cycle should
be setting the next goal because we set that next goal. Um, and even if you're at the top
you got you know you are. Reflect hard, raise the bar and and that might mean fighting to
find competition at some times. And you've seen in elite sport how teams like the All
Blacks or the British Olympic team um, particularly maybe the the cycling team that's
dominated. You know they're not comparing themselves to other cycling teams or the All
Blacks aren't necessarily comparing themselves to other rugby teams, they're comparing
themselves to other to the win percentages of other elite sports teams in different sports
all together. so they're no longer like with the best rugby team in the world. We're like,
where are we in the terms of our win rate as a sports team? Um, and I think that's another
good mindset to have, so we need to swap out that.

if it ain't broke, don't fix it for if it ain't broke here with a sledgehammer set a goal
stretches us. Um, that will uncover obstacles, establishing that performance gap we
talked about in the in. The skill acquisition moves us into adaptive zone, Um, again
switches on our psychological firepower and we can drive drive innovation that way. And
then finally, the final step. There is like we gotta run experiments, just experimentation.
So once we've got our target, we need to sort of start experimenting our way to success.
So there's a lot of certainty. We can set our vision with certainty. We can understand our
problem with a lot of certainty. We can set a target with a lot of certainty. But when it
comes to that experimentation phase, suddenly it's like we're working in the realms of
uncertainty. We're we're working in the dark.

Um, and this means that you know essentially we need to to make a plan. And again. The
rule is, as the saying goes, a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. And
the reason is that as soon as we start experimenting and taking action according to the
plan, the learning or innovation process, whatever you want to call it begins. and that

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action we take provides us with a reaction. And that means we can stop telling people
about our plans and start showing them our results. And and this stage will will mean
failing. And you know that's not good or bad, it's just data that helps guide the innovation
innovation so that the message there is just learn from it. If the experiment's successful,
then wicked celebrate for a moment. Um, but just remember that the the end of the
improvement cycle is um, is not success, but that transitional period to the next
improvement plan. There's no single point where learning ends and we're left with just
excellence. It's a fluid, continual process with no finish line and uh, yeah, we just need to
keep at it. And there we go.

Aaron. So if you see those four things, then you get a the probability. Uh, you know the
more more you align with the principles of discuss there, the higher your probability is
going to be of, um, success over time, right? And I mean there's of course, other areas
we could go into.

Outro

But I think just running through these four principles which you've outlined is just hugely
beneficial. So I think we'll leave it there and not overwhelm the audience with, uh, any
further information.

So to wrap this up, you do have a book coming out, which I've uh, sort of referenced a
couple times throughout our chat here. Um, when is the release date? When's that
actually coming out? So the book is, um, available for pre-order in the next 24 hours. So
by the time you're here in this podcast, yeah, If you listen to this podcast, the book is
available for for pre-order and it goes into obviously a lot more depth of the principles
we've talked about, along with a lot of other aspects that that really do drive um, elite
performance. So yeah, that you you can order that your local bookstore, Amazon, So on
so forth the title is Accelerating Excellence and my website's Jamesa King.com

Okay, and do you have a is the release date scheduled like it'll It's up for um, a pre-order
pre-order and it will be released in, uh, inside two months. Okay, so what do we march
now? So much? April? May? Yeah. so getting on the map? Okay, brilliant, Um, and just
folks listening. I'll put uh, if you just want a direct link to that book on Amazon just for your
convenience, just go chat with Traders.com James, That'll redirect you straight to
Accelerating Excellence on Amazon. Uh, James. If you know folks listening, want to find
out a bit more about yourself or follow along uh with things you're doing or just connect
with you online. Some somewhere is where's the best place to go. James A King.com is
my website. James A King on Linkedin, Instagram James A King Underscore.

Also, if there are, uh, any talented traders out there who have a three-year track record
and are interested in professionalizing their approach to trading, I'm I'm still working
closely with Claymore Strategies on Project Thor, where we're looking to identify, uh,
talented traders. Um, so if anyone has, uh, uh is interested in that, uh, feel free to get in
touch there at Um info Project Thor dot Co dot Uk.

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Okay, and I'll also throw in the mix here. Uh, we've previously done a podcast a couple
years back. Uh, episode 133? Uh, we're worth your time to go back and listen to that. And
uh, James, I appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you
Aaron! It's great chatting. Um, I I appreciate I've bombarded people with information here,
but I hope it's useful.

You've reached the end of this episode of Chat with Traders, but rest assured there are
more episodes loaded with real market insight and zero hype on the way soon. So to stay
updated with each great new release, subscribe to the podcast and itunes and we'd love
it. If you leave a rating and review, we'll catch you next time on Chat with Traders.

Sync summaries

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