My favorite investor is Peter Thiel. His resume speaks for itself. He was a co-founder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook. Along with several other successful ventures, it’s safe to say that Peter is doing just fine.
Peter wrote a book called Zero to One in 2014. In his book he talks about monopolies and perfect competition. Monopolies are companies that dominate a certain sector of the market. Perfect competition, in contrast, is when businesses compete so vigorously that all profits get competed away. In Peter’s opinion, an investor should always be seeking to invest in monopolies and avoid competition at all costs. In 2014 the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about Zero to One titled: Competition is for Losers. The article inspired the title for this blog post and Zero to One inspired the content.
Everyday we have to make a hundred decisions. What to wear, what to eat, what to say, what to do next, etc. All of these decisions are in competition with each other. If you go to the movie then you can’t go to the baseball game. If you go to a taco stand then you can’t go to a burger joint. Making healthy decisions is no different. Sipping on whiskey while watching Netflix makes it so you can’t sip on tea. Having bacon and eggs for breakfast makes it so you can’t have fruit and oatmeal. For many people making healthy decisions is hard and requires some degree of willpower. If you’re continually relying on willpower to make these decisions you’re not necessarily a loser (let’s be nice) but you’re definitely losing!
Don’t Compete
Peter Thiel’s “competition is for losers” sentiment can be applied to health and wellness. But what does that look like? I can tell you that you would be faced with very few unhealthy options. Deciding between whisky and tea would transform into deciding between sparkling water and tea. Whisky would never enter into the equation. Willpower wouldn’t be required to make the healthy choice because all options would be healthy!
Turn healthy choices into monopolies. Have them be so dominant and prevalent that they force out all unhealthy options. Visualize a spread of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes (oh baby!). If you’re hungry then you’re going to naturally munch on those things. The second you throw a bag of chips or a warm plate of cookies in there, healthy and unhealthy are in competition again. Willpower will be needed to choose the healthy option.
Willpower is Finite
Roy Baumeister & John Tierney’s book, appropriately titled Willpower, makes the argument that we only have so much willpower available to us. Willpower behaves much like a muscle. It will fade over time because it gets fatigued just like your legs would from climbing up a steep hill.
Assuming that willpower is finite, one can make the logical assumption that it should be rationed. Eliminating competing choices, healthy versus unhealthy, helps conserve one’s willpower. If you can monopolize healthy choices then willpower will only be used in critical situations. But the good news is if you have monopolized healthy choices then willpower will be fresh and effective when it’s required to choose between healthy and unhealthy.
How to Monopolize
One way to monopolize healthy choices is by what you get at the grocery store. What you bring home is all important when it comes to your health. Don’t assume that you’re going to have a bag of candy bars in your pantry and just avoid them with your nerves of steel. They’ll probably get eaten. The best option is to not buy them at all. But if you don’t want to eliminate them entirely then you could limit the amount you buy. Another way to tip your decisions toward healthy is to keep the candy bars in the basement or somewhere that requires effort to retrieve them.
Another really common error people make is unplanned meals. For example, if you’re traveling you might not have any idea about what you’re going to eat or when you’re going to eat. These scenarios usually lead to eating whatever is available when you get hungry. Packing a meal or snack is the best solution for these situations. But just thinking through what you’re going to do in advance is also extremely effective. Continually strive to make healthy choices easy and appealing.
Arrange your life so good decisions and bad decisions aren’t in competition with each other. Good decisions should have a monopoly, especially when you can control the environment. When variables are outside of your control then use a fresh supply of willpower to make the healthy choice!