Tom Allens Newsletter

Scar cream for your mind?

Tom Allen — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 00:52:16 GMT

Fire burns & leaves a scar. That is a good thing.

That pain & that scar serve as a reminder to not repeat your actions.

Rarely does the mind scar when it's most needed, that is unfortunate.

Following the darkest times our brain reaches for the delete button, trying its best to turn a blind eye like nothing ever happened.

Amnesia or “mental scar cream” for your pain or fears.

We've all experienced this at a basic level perhaps with an atomic-bomb hangover, or soul crushing flu.

“I swear I’m going to take care of my body and never take my health for granted again”

Or worse with a lost life…

“I would do anything for one more day with them…”

Let me remind you of how within these moments you would give any and everything…

to do better in the future…

to make better on the past…

It is here, from the darkest valleys, emerges the desire to climb the greatest mountains.

To plant your flag in grand promise of a better tomorrow or a “never again.”

Unfortunately that mental scar cream works its magic. Those words become empty and the desire escapes us - right in time to ‘touch the stove’ again.

With love I encourage you to never forget the fire & remember the pain that came with it.

Keep your scars in the light to revisit with strength and gratitude. If used correctly they have the ability to protect you.

Oddly holding onto your pain, can be the very best way to conquer it for good.

- Tom

Who the f**k do you think you are?

Tom Allen — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 16:00:29 GMT

The day I truly asked myself "Who am I?" is the day my life changed.

If you look at our current health, financial success, the quality of partner we have & what people we allow into our life...

Everything stems from our personal identity.

"I'm not good at sales" - Thats your identity speaking

"I'll have 4 chocolate chip cookies please" - That's your identity speaking

"I hate this relationship, but it'll work out - I hope" - That's your identity speaking

You ever hear someone say "that's so out of character for him"?

Character has two definitions...

1. the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual

2. a person in a novel, play, or movie

I find the fact these two definitions sync to be so interesting.

We are all characters of a feature film aren’t we?

So the big question is who even are you?

Better yet - how did you even arrive to this definition of self?

Have YOU decided your identity or was it bestowed upon you through random circumstance & external influences?

For most reading this, it's the latter.

Typically a person wakes up and the only identity they have to align themselves with is to just “be as similar as to whoever they were yesterday” until a new passive force comes into play slightly changing who they were yesterday.

Usually for the worse…

”You’re ugly”
”You’re not good at that”
”I’m fat”
”Don’t be loud”
”I need to drink every night”
”That’s not right”

This is usually how someones identity changes. Through negative reinforcement until life has beaten the absolute hell out of them.

Few have actually taken the time to craft a new identity for themselves. One that stems from the purity of their true desires with no relationship to limitations.

Those who do that wind up with the incredible lives.

You can be whatever you want.

Someone with perfect physical fitness, a multi millionaire business savant, a community leader, someone who attracts only the highest value partners.

A person you’re proud of.

A person that aligns with your dreams.

STOP identifying with someone who eats bad food, has money problems or "always chooses bad partners"

START defining who you want to be, how you want your life to look and operate in a way that ensures you never break character.

It will feel weird at first.

Others around you will not understand and try desperately to encourage you be your old self, even if it is not who you want to be.

Do not waiver.

-Tom

Assembling Talent > Everything Else

Tom Allen — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 17:49:35 GMT

My company was absolutely crushing it by most standards, but I was stuck there.

Tough pill to swallow…

I had an “if it needs done, just fucking do it” mentality.

This actually got me pretty far, but lead me to brick wall - hard and fast.

I reached the max capacity of what I could do “on my own” with a limited team &iIn one sudden moment a realization developed inside of me that I had done this business thing all wrong.

I realized our job as founders is not to do the work, but get to product market fit then assemble the appropriate talent to do the work. Next, establishing principles & values towards a clear vision for tomorrow (your big goal) for them to operate from.

This provides you infinite leverage and unlimited scale. Plus, you wind up creating better shit than you could have done on your own. (sorry)

The difference between a billion dollar company & one that can’t get there is the people.

While it’s true that top talent costs top dollar, every day engineers at google are leaving 7 figure careers for pay cuts at tiny startups. Why is this?

It’s because the true drives for talented people are the opportunity potential and excitement for what they are doing. Good people know they are good & want to do big things so you need to have a vision big enough for someone else’s big dreams to fit inside. This leads me to actually trying to distill who is good while interviewing someone.

It's their job to trick you into hiring them. It's your job not to fall for the tricks.

The candidates are competing with you for their livelihood (rightfully so). The competition is they want to say or do what it takes to get the job vs. you who only wants the right person and wants to make the best hire.

There is nothing wrong with this. They will try hard to present themselves in the best way to get the job. Knowing this is to be expected, you can start to point your attention towards asking the hard & uncomfortable questions to really get down to the assessing the nitty gritty.

1. Domain Knowledge (expert level top 0.1%)

2. Cultural Fit

3. Motivations & critical thinking

4. Values

5. Work style

6. Past performance

7. Leadership competency

Look for where the've already done what you're trying to do. Ask repeated questions to spot where the truth might not be as it appears. Past performance dictates future performance. Great people do the work of 10 good ones.

The best companies hire the best people. People who are already great. They let the companies they dominate (or plan to) do the filtering & on the clock learning for them in that sense.

Do your best to see outside of yourself and your day to day work. It’s a sweet & stimulating trap that feels fine but it’s really not - kinda like this guy.

My best advice is to face the fact that you’re never going to build anything great on your own. Don’t fear acquiring talent, making investments, leading others and them into your vision.

You will arrive to a place in the future where you'll no longer be able to proceed on your own, so why wait until then to start building that team?

Dividends & life

Tom Allen — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 01:46:14 GMT

There’s a hidden side to compound interest that is frequently overlooked...

What happens when we go deeper into our good decisions?

What if we start thinking long-term and “reinvest the dividends...”

An investor who put $10,000 into an S&P 500 index fund in 1970 would have more than $350,000 by the end of 2019 - not bad. (according to data from Morningstar and Hartford Funds. That return is the price growth only, as it assumes no dividends)

However, adding in dividends changes the equation dramatically. Investors who reinvested their dividends back into that same S&P 500 index fund would have more than $1.6 million at the end of the same 50 years

Big difference...

I hope to remind you that every single decision we make in our daily lives also pays dividends.

Often we spoil them as a result of short-term thinking.

We eat well all week, therefore we can afford a cheat meal on Sunday.

We save hard so that we can make a big splurge

What about relationships? Imagine 365 days of 100% intentional love and premeditated acts of kindness, never skipping a beat. Where do you think your relationship will be vs. waiting for special occasions to show love in a big way?

Those who are in the top 0.001% in any form let dividends from the decisions they make compound in their favor.

Don’t take “money off the table” or let off the gas, instead reinvest dividends daily wherever you can - the best life has to offer will find you because of it.