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John Danaher’s Advice for Young People: “You’re Not Special”

John Danaher’s Advice for Young People: “You’re Not Special”

If you’re a young person who’s just starting to make his/her way in the world, getting good advice can be worth more than gold. And if you’re someone who trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, then getting advice from John Danaher himself sounds like a great combination!
Danaher appeared on a recent episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, side-by-side with Georges St-Pierre and Gordon Ryan, where he decided to share his “success advice” for young people:

You’ve got to be able to identify some kind of undervalued elements in the industry you’re in; and show the world what their true value is.

In addition, you can’t go through life doing the same things as everybody else and expecting to get different results. This is straightforwardly irrational and, even worse, is arrogant. It’s essentially a statement: “I’m going to do the same things as everyone else, but I believe I’m different. So, it’ll work for me.”
That’s like saying: “No, I’m special.” No… You’re not special. We’re all pretty much the same. In order to be special, you’re going to need to exhibit skills that other people simply don’t have.

He went on to explain what you need to do to become the very best in something, highlighting George St-Pierre as an example:

If you want to become something truly impressive in life, you’ve got to be able to focus on one or two things that you do better than anyone else in your industry.
You can’t learn anything, but you can learn one or two skills… And the more innovative those skills are, the better [it is for you].

For example, at the peak of his [Georges St-Pierre’s] career, no one was better than him in the world, in integrating striking and takedowns. No one in the world was better in integrating grappling and striking on the ground.
He had two skills that he could confidently say he was the best in the world at. Now, was he the best at every MMA skill? Nope; but he was absolutely the best in those two skills.

Hear more on John Danaher’s advice for young people on the video below: