In 1852, a mid-level postal surveyor named Anthony Trollope gave Britain its iconic red pillar mailbox. He also wrote 47 novels, most of them before breakfast, 250 words every 15 minutes with a pocket watch on his desk. When he told the truth about his method in his autobiography, critics wrote him off for decades. People wanted genius to descend like weather. Trollope knew it was assembled, a small daily task at a time.
My guest today wrote his newest book exactly the same way: 100 words every morning before his family woke up, no misses, even on a cruise ship. Ryan Hawk is the host of The Learning Leader Show, one of the most listened-to business podcasts in the world with more than 650 conversations behind it. His new book, The Price of Becoming, starts with a question borrowed from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger: if compounding can turn boring, consistent deposits into extraordinary wealth, what happens when you apply the same math to your life?
In this conversation, we talk about:
- The nightly question Ryan borrowed from Charlie Munger: did I go to bed a little wiser than I woke up?
- Ryan's learning flywheel: fuel the intake engine, run experiments, pause and reflect, then teach
- Why teaching is the most overlooked accelerant of learning, and why Ryan requires every leader he works with to regularly lead a training
- Writing what's true versus writing what's merely accurate
- How Ryan wrote over 100,000 words starting with just 100 words a day, and why most of them were garbage (and why that's the point)
- Paul Rabil's 100 shots a day, no misses, and what it built beyond lacrosse
- Why "any excuse softens the character," and why endurance beats brilliance
- The free throw lesson my dad taught me: 121 in a row, and losing sight of the goal behind the goal
- Why leading yourself is the part of leadership that never ends
This week's challenge
Define your hundred. One small daily act tied directly to who you're trying to become, small enough that you can do it on your worst day. A hundred words, twenty minutes of study, a sketch, a cold call, one page. Write it down, then do it every day for the next 30 days. No misses. And before you go to sleep each night, ask yourself Ryan's question: did I go to bed a little wiser than I woke up?
Resources
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