Shane Parrish

By accepting the worst case scenario upfront, he took away its power.

Fear stopped blinding him, letting him see what was in front of him instead of what his anxiety invented.

And this gave him the power to take big swings and go for it.

Lesson three, let people surprise you.

Phil's approach to people was unorthodox.

In fact, some would have called it outright neglect.

He hired oddballs.

Consider Jeff Johnson, his first real salesman.

He wrote Knight passionate letters from the road.

His letters were long, they came daily, and they were filled with random missives.

And Knight barely acknowledged or even responded to these.

Sometimes he'd sit down to reply, stare at the page, realize he didn't even know where to start because he was so behind, and get up.

And by the next day, there would be a new letter anyway.

Knight was following a principle he'd absorbed from studying military leaders, especially General Patton.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do, and let them surprise you with the results.

Here's Knight in his own words.

One lesson I took from all my homeschooling about the heroes was that they didn't say much.

None was a blabbermouth, none micromanaged.

So I didn't answer Johnson, and I didn't pester him.

Having told him what to do, I hoped that he would surprise me.