The Canvas Strategy — What Ben Franklin and Bill Belichick Have in Common (#165)

Love these “thinking” Friday episodes :). Not so much info but lot’s of food for thought! Thank you Tim!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode?

Canvas strategy is about

“Helping yourself by helping others”

“Find canvases for other people to paint on”

“Clear the path for people above you and you will create a path for yourself”

“When we’re just starting out, we can be sure of a few fundamental realities:

1) You are not nearly as good or as important as you think you are

2) You have an attitude that needs to be re-adjusted

3) Most of what you think you know or most of what you’ve learned in books or in school is out of date or wrong”

“Greatness comes from humble beginnings.

It comes from groundwork.

It means you are the least important person in the room, until you change that with results”

Reminded me of the principle laid out in a book “Be Nobody” by Lama Marut.

“We’re all desperately trying to be somebody. Maybe, we’ve got it all wrong”

Interesting artical.

Great concept. But framing the social dysfunction associated with subordination as primarily a jealousy problem seems wrong. The ancient slice-of-life parable reminded me of how Tim sometimes talks about the clarity gained through ‘simulating poverty’. Maybe a sort of “Relatability Reboot” self-help product could address these pain points. Or maybe one should go through a process like that without quantifying it, in the process, as that might ultimately impede the personal experience and inflate one’s sense of understanding for generalized experiences.

Excellent!

Humility is a prerequisite to awareness. If you’re projecting biases and preconception because you ‘know it all,’ you’re not working on reality as it is, you’re working on a fantasy. An engineering parallel from control theory: you can’t control a system without accurate, real-time measurements. Those learning to meditate can see presence, clear observation, and calm acceptance as fundamental to peace of mind and effectiveness.

The canvas strategy ties together so much I’ve been reading in an intensive effort to a: fix my attitude and b: become actually effective. I’ve been so grateful for the book recommendations in this podcast, listening to your guests is a masterclass in self improvement. This excerpt has many parallels with the Magic of Thinking Big, Think and Grow Rich, 48 laws of power, Tony Robbins talking about service, etc, etc. This sounds like a great coalescence of ideas, updated and generalized. I’ll give this one a read too.

I wish I had these ideas years ago, but I take comfort that it’s an endless journey.

Hi Tim – I listened to the podcast. Do you have any concrete examples of how you used this? Because it seems a bit like conventional wisdom already…like the “help your boss get a gold star” type of advice. I couldn’t get what is different about this….

Thanks!

As a middle school- high school professor I have been doing that for years, in the sense of helping students become succesful, feel smart, appreciated and daring. It was more about showing them the fact that they were amazing people with great potential,but pushing them to becoming act (in the philosophical sense), to turn into reality what they envisioned they could do or could perform. 18 years later, those same former students are now professionals, businessmen and even a few are into politics. Some have reached out (of their own accord), to offer help, connections, advice. If we could create a more sincerely helpful, amicable, synergic approach we could help each other constantly grow and develop, instead of behaving as egotistical self-centered idiots. Thanks for sharing a great article!

Thanks so much for sharing…what a great listen. Cheers

“As with most scientific findings, I am sure there were others on earth at the time working on the same problems as he. As for his political contributions, I challenge the notion that someone else could not have provided political guidance in his stead.

Ben Franklin is a LOSER. Get over him.”

– Lots of people COULD do, were capable of having the same impact as Franklin but unfortunately we do not know about those individuals, care to explain why?

“But it is tricky to suggest that ego is the “enemy.” What about self-love?”

Ego: a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. What does it have to do with self-love and love for others/service to others and the world?

Nick, seems like you should be doing the podcast and writing books instead of Tim and Ryan, hmmm why don’t you? 🙂

After listening to this podcast, which applied to my current situation way more than I predicted, I had to read your other free material to get up to speed.

A full workday later……

I just finished reading your free 50 pages of the 4 hour work week. But actually it was only 49 pages… what gives?

I guess I’m going to have to buy the book.

Looking forward to it.

THRILL SEEKER. My comments aren’t article related but more in general RE your content / technology. With all the accolades you’ve received, traffic and phenomenal quality of your guest speakers … its fair to say that you offer a treasure trove of information – virtual gold mine, the best there is. And its only going to GROW, faster. It would be great if you could take a page out of the Ted Talks site and offer some similar technology features for your listeners — a way to manage all the content with favorites, thumbnails, categories etc., and even better if you went to video option for podcasts. INVEST in yourself. you know, for Us!! ;-))

Will listen to this later, but had to interject about Belicek : “without threatening or alienating anyone”? Pats fans will find this statement ridiculous. He’s one of the most hard ass coaches in NFL history (and we like him that way). Maybe a better example is called for (or maybe I should listen to the entire podcast before I take things out of context). While I have the haters’ attention: Free Brady! See you at the next Super Bowl.

Thanks Tim, great stuff as usual. One thing I’d be curious to have you expand on is why more people don’t think independently/for themselves, instead following the path of least resistance. What are the main barriers you see based on your experience/interviews? Any resources you’d point us to? Your pod cast is so helpful and I’m curious to better understand why more people don’t take advantage of learning opportunities like this. Thanks for what you do.

Profound. Thank you for promoting Ryan again.

Kevin

Hi Tim.

Good podcast.

I get it and philosophically am very partial to the thinking around the canvass thinking.

That said, in a world of the 1% or less, increasing inequality, (distorted ideas of) meritocracy, I feel and see many people, rich people, arguably “leaders” of sort, who are abusive and of themselves truly have little regard for others.

How do you re think the canvass philosophy in this context?

Regards, San

For many lifelong learners, Ben Franklin seems to be held in particular admiration for his tremendous curiosity and genius contributions to science, politics, philosophy and more.

However, what often frustrates me about our society’s celebration of, and fascination with, Franklin is that we usually gloss over the fact that he was a slave owner.

We now live in a world of political correctness so, I imagine, many might roll their eyes at my frustration—after all, it is true that nearly everyone in Franklin’s time who contributed positively to our country also participated in one of our country’s deepest tragedies. Moreover, there are worse offenders in American history to be sure, since Franklin did eventually free his slaves. But let’s be honest here, this man was not Moses. Franklin freed his slaves only after a lifetime of benefitting at their expense.

I do not believe it takes a genius to understand basic humanity. There might not have been many life-long abolitionists in the 1700s, but such people did exist and Franklin was exposed to them. After all, Quakers founded Pennsylvania.

So does the fact that Franklin owned slaves discredit everything else he accomplished or contributed to society? No. From his work on electricity to the postal system, facts are facts—he had impressive insights.

Here’s where I take issue: American pop-culture rarely acknowledges that our founding “fathers” are deeply problematic characters to idolize. These people were human, but they were not humanitarians.

There are so many examples of other historic Americans whose wisdom we could celebrate. No person, living or deceased, is or was perfect. But let’s analyze folks who did not partake in crimes against humanity.

Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that Tim or any of us need to tiptoe around topics. Political correctness should be left for politicians.

I love the FHWW books and his podcast and have learned a tremendous amount from the information and guests on Tim’s show. This podcast is the only show I regularly listen to. From a fellow lifelong learner to the rest of my community, I just want to submit this food for thought. After all, community is all about participating and contributing meaningfully. I hope I have done so here.

(Also on the topic of Franklin, and ego, I would also like to submit that Franklin quit his apprenticeship after he was mistreated. There is a distinction between selflessness and servitude. Like Adam Grant states, there’s a reason “otherish” givers are more likely to succeed vs. “altruistic” ones.)