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Below, Brad Stulberg shares five key insights from his new book, The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World. Brad is on faculty at the University of Michigan. He is a performance coach and regularly contributes pieces about sustainable excellence to the New York Times. His work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, among many other outlets. He serves as co-host of the podcast excellence, actually. Whats the big idea? What if excellence isnt about winning, talent, or perfect conditions? Lasting performance and real fulfillment live in our curiosity, resilience, and love of the process. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Brad himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. The power of curiosity to fuel greatness. Before Kobe Bryants tragic death, he was asked, Do you love to win or do you hate to lose? He responded, Im neither. I play to figure things out. I play to learn something. When you fixate on winning or losing or some other external outcome, it takes you out of the present. It makes it impossible to enter a flow state. It makes you fragile. But when you adopt a mindset of curiosity and growth, it relieves pressure and helps you stay anchored in the moment. Kobe Bryant was known for his killer instinctThe Mamba Mentalityand yet, even he recognized the difference between the finite game and the infinite game. The finite game is time-bound; there are winners and losers. The infinite game knows no end; the only goal is to keep playing, keep learning, and keep discovering. All the greats have had to learn that the infinite game is every bit as important as the finite one. Whether you play basketball or cello, repair cars, build tables, write books, or coach young people, your craft can be a vessel for self-discovery. We have a biological imperative to flourish, evolve, and grow. Theres no greater source of fulfillment and satisfaction than pushing yourself, pursuing a challenge, and developing along the way. The real cycle youre working in is a cycle called yourself, wrote Robert Pirsig, about his experience with motorcycle maintenance. The machine that appears to be out there and the person that appears to be in here are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together. Excellence requires a hunger for growtha deep curiosity to figure out what youre capable of, a curiosity to better know your craft, and a curiosity to better know yourself. 2. The power of performing well, even when you dont feel your best. A surgeon that I have coached for a long time was called into an emergency case at two in the morning, and his goal was simple: save as much of someones leg as possible. My client was tired, and his mind was noisy. He felt off, and yet he took all that with him into the operating room and nailed the case anyway. Something that we see over and over in the current culture is that people think they need to fix something before they can act. Now, you shouldnt suppress or ignore your emotions. If you can do something to feel better, do it, but the truth is you can feel like crap and still perform well. Its easy to do great work when everything is clicking, but excellence means being able to deliver even when its not. Often, its the act of getting started that shifts how you feel. Its easy to do great work when everything is clicking, but excellence means being able to deliver even when its not. Its saying, Okay, this might be harder than usual, but I can manage, and then you manage. The greats arent great because they always have perfect conditions to do meaningful work. The greats are great because they show up and give their best shot even when they dont. You could be a surgeon who didnt get enough sleep, a student with a headache before a big exam, or an athlete who couldnt get their usual pre-event meal. Those conditions arent ideal, but catastrophizing is worse. Too often, we spiral because we feel off, but the problem isnt always the feeling. The problem is freaking out about the feeling. You can feel tired, stressed, unsure, and still deliver. You can put the not-so-great feelings or conditions in the passenger seat, take them along for the ride, and show up anyway. The ability to remain calm amid challenges is a core element of what psychologists call self-efficacy, meaning an evidence-based belief that you are capable of showing up, working through challenges, and excelling in uncertain or highly-charged circumstances. Decades of research show that individuals who score high in self-efficacy are better able to work through moments when they feel lost or stuck, be that in operating rooms, on playing fields, in the classroom, or in a boardroom. One of the best things you can do for your confidence is to feel off and yet still perform well. It frees you from needing to have perfect conditions to give it a go. You give yourself the evidence that you are resilient, durable, robust, and can get the job done. 3. True discipline versus fake discipline. True discipline bridges the gap between motivation and action, making the former less necessary for the latter. When you have discipline, you dont need to feel a certain way to show up and get started. You just do. Fake discipline is a chest-thumping, performative act of toughness. Thats not the real thing. The real thing is showing up for what matters and doing what you need to do. The irony is that when you do hard things that you dont feel like doing in the short run, you usually end up feeling better in the long run. The real thing is showing up for what matters and doing what you need to do. Fake discipline is loud, performative, and wants everyone to pay attention to it. Real discipline is quiet because its too busy getting what you need to get things done, rather than parading around. 4. The 48-hour rule. Whether you succeed or fail, give yourself 48 hours to celebrate the victory or grieve the defeat. Then, get back to doing the work. Results are an emotional roller coaster, but the work doesnt change. Neurons that fire together wire together. Its easy to get addicted to the high of external validation or become consumed by the low of failure. You want to avoid this trap at all costs. Its kryptonite for sustaining high performance. Doing the work has a special way of putting both success and failure into their respective places. The work itself doesnt change nearly as fast as our emotionswin or lose. Great day or terrible day, the blank page is still the blank page. A lap in the pool is still 25 meters. The classroom still needs to be taught. The pregame speech still needs to be given. Returning to the work keeps our focus rooted in the process, not the outcome. It reminds us of why we committed to our crafts in the first place. The work is the win. Its the best medicine. 48 hours is an arbitrary amount that you can stretch or shrink to suit you,but the concept still stands. It ensures that we dont become overly attached to success or failure, each of which comes with its own trappings. 5. Fulfillment and joy versus external achievement. Matthew Perry was one of four actors to ever have a number one movie and TV series. During that time, he dated Julia Roberts, bought the oceanfront house of his dreams, and made $1 million per episode of Friends. But as he repeatedly wrote in his memoir, none of it was enough. You can have it all, but there is no greater trap than thinking external achievement will fulfill you. The neurochemicals associated with wanting dopamine are much stronger than the ones associated with liking serotonin. The human brain is wired to want more. Its how we evolved. We are suckers for the chase. We struggle to be content. The only Zen youre going to find on top of the mountain is the Zen that you bring up there along the way. We all have holes were trying to fill, but no achievement, income, fancy watch, or substance is going to fill those holes in any meaningful way. Researchers call this the arrival fallacy, and recognizing it is liberating because you can stop expecting the next accomplishment to make you feel like a finished product. You can turn your attention to the process, finding joy, energy, and fulfillment in the work, rather than in the illusion of what might happen if or when you arrive. In his 2022 memoir, Perry wrote, Im certain that I got famous so I would not waste my entire life trying to get famous. You have to get famous to know that its not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that. The trap of fame status doesnt just affect actors. It affects artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, bakers, athletes, knowledge workers, teachers, coachesmany of whom have made it to the proverbial mountaintop. It affects all of us. If you cant find joy and fulfillment in the climb, none of it is going to matter. The only Zen youre going to find on top of the mountain is the Zen that you bring up there along the way. The only place youre going to find the love you are looking for is by losing yourself in meaningful pursuits, expressing your innate gifts and creativity, and walking the path with good people. Thats what excellence is all about. Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea app. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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E-Commerce
A viral X post from late last year pitted images depicting two hustle-culture lifestyles side by side: tech bro hoodie and Notes app icon on one side, a business suit and a copy of Cal Newports Deep Work on the other side. Left guy will most likely beat the right guy, it concluded. Guy on the left makes more money but guy on the right is happier, one user commented. Whether its grind mode, routine maxxing or some other high-octane sleep when youre dead approach to work, the right specific approach within that umbrella is unclear. Its the question plaguing young founders and Silicon Valley types. Maybe some aim to lock in, grind away from 9 to 9 six days per week, fueled by White Monster, a laptop and a dream. Or perhaps the more effective rise-and-grind technique is to stick to some version of Patrick Batemans morning routine from American Psycho. Alarm at 3:55 a.m. Ice bath. Affirmations. Lift some weights. Supplements. Ready to stare at a three-monitor setup for the next eight hours straight, interrupted only by a wearable tracker reminding you to hit your ten thousand steps. One founder suggested the best combination is actually both. There’s gonna be weeks where you have specific deadlines that you just have to grind it out, and you’re not getting good sleep, and you’re not really taking maybe the best health approach to your work routine, explains Gannon Breslin, CEO of snowballapp.ai, in a recent TikTok post. He calls this pure grind mode. Its a case of simply getting done what needs to get done, however you can get it done. This grind mentality is increasingly common among a new generation of Silicon Valley upstarts. In fact, many job listings for AI startups leave no confusion about their expectations from potential applicants. “Please don’t join if you’re not excited about working ~70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC,” read the description for a role at Rilla, a New York-based tech business. Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week, Elon Musk once said. The key, according to Breslin, is to balance this out when your business is in homeostasis. This is prime time to optimize. That’s when you’re really caring about your sleep pattern, making sure you have everything dialed in, he says in the clip. This is when workers might reestablish a sense of routine wake up early, focus on their nutrition thats been neglected while living and breathing the 996 lifestyle, and reduce any inefficiencies (or health problems) that emerged while in grind mode. And so it’s kind of this, like oscillating pattern between what state your company and business is in, Breslin concludes. If this all seems unsustainable, thats because it is. Burnout amongst workers is already at an all-time high. A 2025 report from online marketplace Care.com found, while companies believed 45% of their workers were at risk of burnout, in fact 69% of employees said they were actually at moderate to high risk. Luckily, theres also a secret third thing. Its called having a life.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youve been dreaming of adding a mid-sized SUV to your cart alongside a bulk pack of granola bars and a new air fryerwell, were not quite there yet. But that day is getting closer: Amazon has officially rolled out its car-buying program. But before you prepare your driveway to make room for a two-ton Prime delivery, you should know that buying a car on Amazon isnt exactly like buying a Kindle. Heres the lowdown on how it works, who its for, and why you definitely cant return a Hyundai to Whole Foods. Whats for sale Right now, your options are limited. The main partner for new vehicles is Hyundai. If youre in the market for a Santa Fe, a Tucson, or an Ioniq, youre in luck. But if youre looking for a brand new Toyota or Ford, youre still gonna have to do things the old-fashioned way for now. For used cars, the selections a bit wider. Amazons opened the doors to certified pre-owned inventory from other brands and even some fleet vehicles. How it actually works Amazons essentially built a very slick, very familiar skin over the traditional dealership inventory system. Heres the process: Search: You go to the Amazon Autos section and filter by model, trim, color, and your zip code. Inventory: Youre looking at real cars sitting on real local dealer lots. Purchasing: This is the cool part. You can see the actual price, run a credit check, apply for financing, and put down a deposit directly through Amazon. No sitting in a glass office for three hours while a salesperson repeatedly “checks with the manager.” Handover: Once the digital paperworks done, you schedule a pickup or delivery. Returns: If your dealership participates in Hyundais Shopper Assurance program, youll have three days or up to 300 miles to decide if you want to keep the car or not. You can check if your dealership participates here. The catch(es) This isnt “Prime” Delivery. Dont expect a navy-blue van to drop off your Elantra. Youre actually buying this car from a local dealership, not Amazon. Amazons just the matchmaker. Youll either drive to the dealership to pick it up or, if youre lucky, the dealer will drive it to you. The closest one to me only offers pickup and the car wouldnt be ready for a few days. And the paperwork isnt 100% digital yet. Depending on your states laws, you might still have to sign a “wet” signature (real ink, real paper) when you take possession of the car. Were living in the future, but the DMVs still living in the 20th century. You might not have a ton of dealerships participating in your area, either. Where I live, near Boston, the closest dealership is 17 miles away which, given the absolutely atrocious traffic around here during normal business hours, might as well be on the other side of the planet. The bottom line Is this the revolution we were promised? Yes and no. If you hate negotiating and want to see transparent pricing without leaving your couch, buying a car through Amazon is a massive upgrade. It forces dealers to display real prices and cuts out the haggling. However, if you were hoping to bypass the dealership model entirely, were not there yet. Youre still buying from a dealer; youre just using Amazon as a buffer to keep the sales pressure at bay. For now, its a pretty good way to buy a Hyundai without spending your entire Saturday at the dealership.
Category:
E-Commerce
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