Achieving extreme excellence in life
Extreme excellence requires 5 levels of education
This has been running in my mind since like a un-embodied thought that what kinds of education do one need to be successful in life and finally I got it through Sam Ovens when he described “full-stack business skills” in one of his videos
There are 5 levels of education you need to achieve business excellence in life. To become legendary like Ellon Musk, Richard Branson, Sam Walton and Geoff Bezos, the billionaires who not only created $100s of billions of dollars, but impacted millions of lives as well.
So what are those 5 levels of education? I am writing them in the reverse order for a reason, but start reading them starting at the bottom at level 1, going upwards to 2,3 4 and 5.
5. Tools, processes, and techniques
- Business process to prevent errors
- To reduce cost
- To increase efficiency
- Customer management
4. Niche principles
- Businesses types; marketing, transportation business, medical services, manufacturing etc.
- Customer psychology within the niche
- Productising your products/services
3. Business principles
- Economic psychology
- How to create value
- How to deliver value
- Communication
- Relationship development
- Leadership
- Negotiation
2. Life principles
- Principles of life
- Time management
- Attention management
- Prioritisation
- Growth management
- Setting and achieving goals
1. Foundation
- Knowing who God is
- Knowing who you are, your self image and identity
You don’t need to go to a special school or university to get them. As a matter of fact, no school or university can offer them all. Our educational system at best can offer level 4, and you have to learn level 1, 2, 3 and 5 yourself. If you had opted for business subjects at O’Level, you are likely to get level 3, 4 at school, still missing three fundamental levels. But if your education spanned at all 5 levels, you will be next billions maker, impacting life of hundreds of million people.
Why you need full stack education?
When you have full-stack education, you can see cause and effect from the start to end. You understand the whole system and you control every aspect of your business system — from the start to end. If something doesn’t work, you “see it” and “control it”.
Consider you riding a bicycle. When you ride a bike, you are in total control of it. You see the road, you see the bicycle, you see what lies under its wheels and ahead. You know when to paddle, you know when to stop. You are in total control of “bicycle system”. You have no control over the road or the traffic nearby, but since your system is fully understood and in your full control, and are able to ride regardless of traffic on the road.
Such a level of control is required to be successful in business. Businesses are much complex systems in themselves and they have systems within systems. You need to educate yourself to a point where you see all aspects of it and control it. This is where a full-stack education is required.
5 levels of education doesn’t mean you should be a one-man company, but it means you know everything and every aspect of the business you run, from the start to end — so you could do effective analysis and fix thing when they break. You need to hire people, get help from tools and other systems for sure, but you need an education that could give you eyes to see what is getting under your wheels and what lies ahead, and when to start, stop and take turns, steering your business on the road to growth all the time. In bicycle you do not control road and traffic, and in business you do not control economy and competition, but you must be in such an effective control of your business that you keep it running and growing regardless of challenges. Full stack education gives you that.
Each level of education in full stack possibly deserves a book on itself but let’s try to comprehend what these 5 levels are.
Level 1, the foundation
This level of education is not for the brain but for the heart as this controls everything that comes out of you. Education at level 1 is your belief about Allah, His powers and belief about you and your powers. This level of education is like your “raw material” and whatever education you have here will decide what type of things come out of you. If your raw material is mud, everything that will come out of you will be made of mud, and if it is steel, everything that comes out of you will be made of steel. Your belief in Allah sets your responsibility towards life, and your belief about yourself sets your performance limits. No university offers this level of education.
Your self image sets the boundary of your performance and achievements in life. If you think you are born to live an average or below average life, you will end up living an average or below average life because all of your standards will be mediocre, and average type. If your self image is that of a legend, a hero and a leader, a person who will create history and will be remembered for 100s of years, you will start things which are that big, you will deal with problems and challenges which are huge in nature. Your approach to life will be as big as your self-image says it is. Whoever has a bigger self-image will life a as big life. There is no school or college education which addresses this aspect.
Level 2, principles of life
It’s not “principles in life” but “principles OF life”. Life runs on principles and it works for everyone who follows it. Principle of cause and effect, defining and following your goals, giving before receiving, using power of habits and so on. They control everything that happens in life and when you are aligned to these principles, you become unstoppable. Power lies in principles, and when you employ them, your powers become as big as the powers of principles. No university offers this level of education.
Level 3, business principles
Business principles are principles of economics and human psychology around products and services we buy. Innovation, economy of scale, collaboration and cooperation, When you understand this level, you become great at dealing, negotiating and selling. If you opt for business subject at school, you are likely to learn them but opting for non-business subjects means you will miss this important education.
Level 4, business niche
This level of education is specific to a business niche. For example accounting, designing, engineering, hospitality and medical services etc. This level of education requires theory as well as hands-on knowledge and you learn by doing. This is the level of education that is provided by most schools and universities, but if this was your starting point, you cannot start a business yourself as your level 3 is missing.
Level 5, tools, processes and techniques
This level of education helps you to operate tools and run processes you use to improve your work efficiency. These tools include computer software, hardware, working procedures, record keeping, transaction processing etc. Clerical jobs exist at this level and this level changes a lot and every now and then it will be completely replaced by new models and new systems.
All educational levels evolve over time
Level 3,4 and 5 are subject to change, and they shift and wobble over time. Level 3 changes when the society changes and may take up to 50–100 years to evolve, but level 4 and 5 change quickly and a lot once every few years. If your mental energies were invested in level 4 and 5, which is the standard school education in the world, your job or business is likely to be replaced within 10–20 years.
Changing carriers
If you have level 1, 2 and 3 built well, it will be very easy for you to change jobs, jump from one business into another and be successful most of the time. When you know business principles, starting a different kind of business is easy.
Purpose of education
The real purpose of education is to build yourself a better human. To know who God is and to know who you are — so you could do what a human is supposed to do. But for most of us, the purpose of education is to secure financial future and being able to socially survive.
Money is a very tiny part in your life’s story. Money in life is like a fuel, which you put into your car so your car could go in a particular direction, and travel as far as your destination lies. If you have built lots of fuel and have no car, or if you have lots of fuel and car but no destination to go to, you have wasted your efforts collecting fuel. Life doesn’t mean achieving comfort or control, life means achieving your life goals and rising to legendary levels where other forms of life on the planet could thank Allah that He had sent you down among them because you had made a life for yourself, for fellow humans and other forms of life — better.
An obvious purpose of education is to earn money, and you should earn as much as you like. But be mindful, your money is fuel, and you only need as much fuel as much far your destination is. Think, money is like wood or bricks which you need to build a house. You need as much wood/bricks as high you want your home to be, and you have only got a certain period of life to build this house. But just don’t keep collecting wood/bricks and do nothing with it after. Allah has sent you down to do something worthwhile, so become a human who is worthwhile in education, and is able to do things which are worthwhile.
May blessings of Allah be with you and us all. Aamin.
