If we want to have lots of money in life, we have to learn from others. We have been told we need to look for someone who has what we want and model them. This is great advice, but per Tim Ferriss, we need to keep an eye on more than just this one model. In his book, Tools of Titans, he identified three types of people you need to keep your eye on if you want to be wealthy. They are:
- Someone senior to you that you want to emulate.
- A peer who you think is better at your job than you are.
- Someone subordinate who’s doing the job you did, better than you did it.
Let’s look at each one and see how watching each of them can help put more money in your pocket.
Someone senior to you that you want to emulate.
This one is quite obvious. Success leaves clues and the best way to find those clues to to watch someone who has the success you want to obtain. Find someone who is successful in your field and research them. If possible, reach out to them and ask them to mentor you. Most people are flattered to be asked to mentor someone, so most typically will become your mentor and share how they reached success. This is a great way to get moving in the right direction quickly.
A peer who you think is better at your job than you are.
If you want to make good money, then you have to be a great at something. And the only way to be great at something is to do it the best possible way. If someone is doing your job better than you are, then study what they are doing and how they are doing it. See if they have figured out any secrets or optimized ways of doing the job and learn from them. They are setting the bar. If you want to be considered the best, you have to at least be aware of what everyone else is doing and being capable of that as well.
Someone subordinate who’s doing the job you did, better than you did it.
Keep your eye on the person who is doing the job that you use to do. Are they doing it better than you? If so, how are they better? What can you learn from watching them grow and make progress? As they are growing, you can learn to see what you missed when you were in that position. It is all about being able to be the best you can be, and the best chances of that are if you have as much information as possible. Learn from this subordinate and how you could have been better.
Conclusion
As I mentioned, success leaves clues. Success can be achieved at all kinds of levels. We don’t only have to look at someone senior to grow. We can grow by watching the people around us, doing the same job, and people below us, doing our old job. We want to gather as much information as we can learn from the experiences of everyone around us. If you want to be the best at something, you have to know what you are doing top to bottom, and even sideways. Pick someone in each category of people mentioned and watch them. Measure yourself against them and learn what you can. This will help you exponentially grow and become successful.