What if you question everything you know, throw away pieces holding you back, and build new rules according to your values?
“The code of the extraordinary mind”, the New York Times bestseller, tells how creative minds question, challenge and develop new rules in spheres of relationship, education, work, religion, etc. According to the author, Vishen Lakhiani, there are 10 unconventional laws to become an extraordinary person, redefine life and succeed on own terms.
Today, when everyone tries to be great and meet society’s expectations, the author doubts the importance of standard limiting brules (also known as “bullshit rules”) and breaks them.
Started with denying the religion brules, following only that postulates that are close to his heart; he ended up with creating a website and quitting a job of a software engineer at Microsoft. An episode describing that times of setting up and growing his business is the most exciting extracts for me.
“I registered the first cheap domain I could find—mindvalley.com—and launched my little e-commerce store. I worked on it a few hours every evening after I got home from the office.
In my first month, I lost $800. In my second month, I lost $300. In my third month, I made a profit—a grand total of $4.50 for every day I worked.
Still, it felt good. It bought breakfast at least. I loved my morning cup of a Starbucks coffee. Now, I had a tiny website that earned me enough to buy a Starbucks coffee every single day. At first it was a Grande Cafe Mocha, but the growth of my microbusiness did not stop. Soon I was making $5.50 a day. I could upgrade to a Venti. That was a pretty exciting moment.
By month six, I was earning $6.50 every day—enough for a Venti with (drumroll please) hazelnut flavoring. A few months later, my little site was buying me my daily Starbucks and a Subway sandwich for lunch.
Exciting times, indeed. I remember having beers with some friends at a bar, proudly telling them of my little side business that paid for breakfast and lunch each day—and how in a few months, it would pay for dinner, too.
That was basically how Mindvalley started. It wasn’t about building a business. No big goals. No deadlines. Just this little game to see how much food I could get with my profits. Without realizing it, I’d stumbled upon a secret that video-game designers and psychologists had long been aware of. I was “gamifying” my life.
The money continued to grow. I soon had a new goal. I knew my minimum livable income was $4,000. That was what Kristina and I needed to eat, pay rent, live in Manhattan on a modest budget, and reinvest in the business. I was earning $7,500 from my job, but I really needed just $4,000 to survive in New York with Kristina at that time. Right before Thanksgiving 2003,1 hit that number for Mindvalley’s monthly earnings. I called my boss and resigned.”
The main idea of the book is the 10 laws to set us free from the shackles of ordinary life and an old mindset.
Part 1.
Law 1: Transcend the Culturescape.
Law 2: Question the Brules.
The author emphasizes that all beliefs, religion and nationality ideas we hold we’ve chosen to follow and believe. Certainly, they were drilled into us in our childhood, and, as a result, we grew up following them without reviewing.
As you may guess, the most popular brules are the college rule, the hard work rule, and the religion rule. However, some ideologies or beliefs can be outdated, so why not reevaluate them and create new ones if necessary?
Part 2.
Law 3: Practice Consciousness Engineering.
Law 4: Rewrite your Models of Reality.
Law 5: Upgrade your Systems for Living.
Part 3.
Law 6: Bending Reality.
Law 7: Live in Blissipline.
Law 8: Create a Vision for your Future.
Part 4.
Law 9: Be unfuckwithable.
Being unfuckwithable means to be at peace and in touch with yourself. Nothing anyone does or says bothers you and no negativity touches you. This means that your feelings and state of mind are under your control.
The extraordinary mind doesn’t need to seek validation from outside opinion or through the attainment of goals. They are resistant to criticism, praise, and judgment, and fueled by their inner happiness and own goals. They are enough.
Law 10: Embrace your Quest.
Wrapping up
I shared my thoughts on the 3 laws out of the 10 on purpose. Now you have a lot of unveiling things in the book to read about the code of extraordinary mind by yourself.
Above all, what I didn’t like about the book is too much text about the author’s business that looks like a promotion. I remember reading “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight: there was no advertisement at all.
However, at the end of “The code of the extraordinary mind” Vishen shares with us the author’s step by step meditation scheme which I’m sure can bring value to many people. And the most powerful benefit I found is the questions concerning all the main spheres of life. Answering them will help you see your desired future much clearer following the true own goals.