The Most Underrated Superpower: Inversion

How to Build a Life of Success by Studying Failure

A few days ago I wrote about asking better questions.

About coming from curiosity instead of criticism.

But here is the thing about criticism: even when you are judging someone else, you can use that judgment to your benefit.

Not by tearing them down.

By inverting what you see.

By turning their mistake into your roadmap.

The Problem with Should

I have a long list of how people should behave.

You probably do too.

People should show up on time. People should keep their word. People should train harder. People should take responsibility. People should stop making excuses.

And every time someone violates one of those shoulds, I feel it. That little spike of judgment. That little voice that says they are doing it wrong.

But here is the thing about should.

That word is worthless.

Should puts you straight into Fantasyland. Into Disneyland. Into the world where things are not how they actually are, but how you think they ought to be.

You are not living in reality anymore. You are living in the fantasy of what you think the world should be.

And that is a losing game.

Because the world does not care what you think it should be.

The world is what it is.

People are who they are.

And you can waste your whole life angry about it.

Or you can use it.

The Inversion

Here is what I learned early on.

If you use the criticism not to judge others, but instead to give yourself a roadmap of how to live your life, you have inverted the negative and turned it into a positive.

You have taken the thing that makes you angry and made it useful.

Let me show you what I mean.

When I was first starting out, I was surrounded by 80 percenters.

Not because I wanted to be. Because I had not yet earned the interest or mentorship of the 20 percenters.

The high performers were not paying attention to me yet. I had not done anything worth noticing. I had not proven myself. So the only people around me were the ones who were struggling just like I was.

And I could have spent that time complaining. I could have spent that time wishing I had better mentors. I could have spent that time angry that nobody was teaching me what I needed to know.

But I did not do that.

Instead, I watched the people around me.

I watched them make mistakes. I watched them struggle. I watched them get in their own way. And I evaluated what was behind their actions, their words, and sometimes the thoughts behind those words.

I looked for where they were fucking up.

And that told me what not to do.

It might not have told me what to do. But it certainly told me what not to do.

And if I inverted it to its opposite, that was a good place to start on what to do.

What Inversion Looks Like

Let me give you examples.

I saw guys showing up late to the jobsite. Every day. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. Always an excuse. Always a reason.

And I saw how the foreman looked at them. How the other electricians looked at them. How they got the worst jobs. How they got passed over when good opportunities came up.

That told me: show up early. Every time. No excuses.

I inverted the behavior I did not want into the behavior I did want.

I saw guys talking shit about the boss when he was not around. Complaining about the job. Complaining about the pay. Complaining about everything.

And I saw how that made them. Bitter. Angry. Stuck in the same position year after year.

That told me: do not complain. Keep my mouth shut. Do the work. Let the work speak.

I inverted the behavior I did not want into the behavior I did want.

I saw guys on the mat who trained inconsistently. Showed up when they felt like it. Skipped class when it was hard. Made excuses when they got submitted.

And I saw how they stayed white belts for years, or worse, quit. How they never got better. How they blamed the instructor or the other students or the style.

That told me: show up every time. Even when I did not feel like it. Especially when I did not feel like it. Take responsibility for my own progress.

I inverted the behavior I did not want into the behavior I did want.

This is not complicated. This is not genius. This is simple observation.

But most people do not do it.

Why Most People Do Not Invert

Charlie Munger talks about Inversion in his book, Poor Charlie's Almanack​

It's a great read if you want to be more successful.

But most people haven't so they make mistakes in judgement.

Most people see someone else failing and they stop there.

They see the failure. They judge it. They feel superior. And they move on.

• They do not ask: why did that fail?
• They do not ask: what can I learn from that?
• They do not ask: what is the opposite of that, and would the opposite work?

They just see the failure and they feel better about themselves for not being that person.

And then they go home and make the same mistakes in a different area of their life.

Or they see someone else failing and they get discouraged.

They think: if that guy cannot do it, how am I supposed to do it?

They think: everyone around me is struggling, so I must be doomed too.

They think: I do not have the right mentors or the right opportunities or the right resources, so I am stuck.

And they stop looking.

But here is the truth: you are surrounded by data.

Every single person around you is running an experiment. And most of those experiments are failing.

And that is useful information.

If you know how to use it.

Inversion Is Not Judgment

Let me be clear about something.

Inversion is not the same as judgment.

Judgment is:

Inversion is:

Judgment is personal. Inversion is tactical.

Judgment makes you feel superior. Inversion makes you better.

Judgment is about them. Inversion is about you.

I am not saying do not judge people. You are going to judge people. That is how your brain works. That is how my brain works.

But once you judge them, do not stop there. Use it.

• Ask: what is the pattern here?
• Ask: what is the mistake?
• Ask: what is the opposite of that mistake?

And then do the opposite.

The 80/20 Problem

Here is the thing about being surrounded by 80 percenters.

Most people think that is a disadvantage. They think they need to be around the top 20 percent to learn anything. They think they need mentors and coaches and access and connections.

And those things help.

I am not saying they do not help.

But if you do not have them yet, you can still learn. You just have to invert.

Because the 80 percent are showing you exactly what not to do. Every single day.

They are showing you what does not work. What leads to failure. What keeps people stuck.

And if you pay attention, that is just as valuable as watching the top 20 percent succeed.

Maybe more valuable. Because failure is more common than success. And failure leaves a clearer trail.

Success can be hard to replicate. You watch a high performer and you think: I do not know how to do that. I do not have what they have.

But failure is easy to avoid. You watch someone fail and you think: I can just not do that.

And that is a start.

Inversion on the Mat

I use this on the mat all the time.

I watch a white belt make a mistake. He gives up his back because he is reaching for something he should not be reaching for.

I do not judge him. I just note it: reaching for that leads to giving up the back.

So when I am in that position, I do not reach. I keep my elbows tight. I protect my back first.

I inverted the mistake.

I watch a blue belt gas out in the first round because he is going too hard too fast. Burning all his energy in the first two minutes and then he has nothing left.

I do not judge him. I just note it: going hard early leads to gassing out.

So when I roll, I start slower. I breathe more. I conserve energy. I build my pace so I can last the whole round.

I inverted the mistake.

I watch a purple belt get frustrated and quit training because he hit a plateau and he stopped seeing progress.

I do not judge him. I just note it: expecting constant progress leads to quitting.

So when I hit a plateau, I remind myself: this is normal. This is part of the process. Keep showing up. The progress will come.

I inverted the mistake.

Every single failure I see is a lesson. If I pay attention.

Inversion in Business

Same thing in business.

I see gym owners who do not track their numbers. They do not know how many leads they got last month. They do not know their conversion rate. They do not know their retention rate.

And they wonder why their gym is struggling.

I do not judge them. I just note it: not tracking numbers leads to struggling.

So I track everything. Leads. Conversions. Retention. Revenue. Churn. Everything.

I inverted the mistake.

I see gym owners who try to be everything to everyone. MMA and kickboxing and BJJ and kids classes and women’s classes and fitness classes and yoga and everything under the sun.

And their gym has no identity. No brand. No clear reason why someone would choose them over the gym down the street.

I do not judge them. I just note it: trying to be everything leads to being nothing.

So I help my clients narrow their focus. Pick one thing. Be the best at that one thing. Build a brand around that.

I inverted the mistake.

I see gym owners who are the only ones who can teach. The only ones who can sell. The only ones who can run the business. And their gym dies the moment they are not there.

I do not judge them. I just note it: being the only one who can do the work leads to a business that cannot scale.

So I help my clients build systems. Train staff. Document processes. Get themselves out of the day-to-day so the business can run without them.

I inverted the mistake.

Every single failing gym I see teaches me something. If I pay attention.

The Simple Formula

Here is the formula.

• Step one: observe.
• Step two: identify the mistake.
• Step three: ask what the opposite would be.
• Step four: do the opposite.

That is it. That is the whole thing.

You do not need a mentor to do this. You do not need access. You do not need a coach or a course or a program.

You just need to pay attention. And you need to be willing to invert.

Most people skip step three. They see the mistake and they stop there.

But step three is where the value is. That is where you turn observation into action.

What If You Are Surrounded by Failure

If you are struggling right now, and it seems like you are surrounded by people just like you, people who are stuck and frustrated and not making progress, do the simple easy thing.

Invert.

Look at what they are doing. Look at what is not working. Look at the patterns.

And then do the opposite.

It might not be the perfect answer. It might not be the optimal path. But it will be better than what you are doing now.

And better is enough. Better compounds.

You do not need to figure out the perfect strategy. You just need to stop doing the thing that is obviously not working.

And the people around you are showing you exactly what is not working. Every single day.

So pay attention. And invert.

The Lesson from the 20 Percenters

Here is the funny thing.

Once I started doing this, once I started inverting the mistakes I saw around me, I started getting noticed by the 20 percenters.

Because I was not making the same mistakes everyone else was making.

I was showing up early. I was keeping my mouth shut. I was doing the work. I was asking better questions. I was taking responsibility.

And the high performers noticed.

And they started giving me opportunities.

And they started mentoring me.

And they started teaching me.

Not because I was special.

Because I was not acting like everyone else.

And that made me interesting. That made me worth investing in.

The inversion got me access to the people I wanted to learn from. Because I was already doing the basics that most people skip.

And once I had access to the 20 percenters, I inverted their successes too. I watched what they did. I asked what the pattern was. I asked what the opposite of failure looked like.

And I did that.

So inversion works on both ends. You can invert failure to avoid it. And you can invert success to replicate it.

But you have to start somewhere. And if you are surrounded by failure right now, start there.

Put It On the Mat

If you are stuck, look around you.

Look at the people who are struggling. Look at the people who are failing. Look at the people who are making excuses.

Do not judge them. Learn from them.

Ask: what are they doing wrong?

Ask: what is the opposite of that?

Ask: what would happen if I did the opposite?

And then do it.

You do not need a guru. You do not need a mentor. You do not need access to the top 1 percent.

You just need to pay attention. And you need to be willing to invert.

That is the most underrated superpower.

Not learning from success. Learning from failure. And doing the opposite.

Inversion can make all the difference in the world.

⚔ The Dojo Drill

Today’s training:

The Fear List

Write down 3 fears you’ve been avoiding.

Take one small action toward one today.

📚 Leader’s Library

Book I recommend this week:

​​​Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger​

Why?

Because it will give you the rare opportunity to get inside the head of a billionaire and what it took for him to get there.

P.S. Know a martial arts gym owner who’s stressed about money or student numbers?

Do them a favor: send them to The Leader's Dōjō, my website where I help owners get more students and keep them longer with simple systems.

One forward from you could change their gym: The Leader's Dōjō​

Chuck