Selling cereal to fund AirBnb.
“When you’re told that something is impossible, is that the end of the conversation, or does that start a second dialogue in your mind, how to get around whoever it is that’s just told you that you can’t do something?”
This is the question that Eric Weinstein, mathematical physicist, asked when describing high agency. High agency is arguably the most valuable personality trait that you can nurture. It’s the ability to get things done, regardless of the circumstances.
The founders of AirBnB ooze high agency. To raise money, the co-founders sold their own breakfast cereals. They purchased huge quantities of bulk cereal, pasted together cardboard boxes, and branded them as limited-edition, politics-themed cereals called Obama O’s, Cap’n McCain, and Breakfast of Change. They raised R600 000 ($40 000)— selling cereal!
High agency is everywhere, you just need to be looking for it. It’s the blatant rejection of the script handed to you by society, choosing instead to write your own. People of high agency believe that they have control over their own story. If that story isn’t going according to plan, they find a way or make a way to ensure that it does.
Warby Parker, a brand that sells designer eyewear at a lower cost, started when one of the co-founders, Dave Gilboa, lost his $700 glasses on a backpacking trip and couldn’t afford to replace them.
To attract media attention early on, the team bought an old yellow school bus, travelled across the U.S., and created a mobile store called The Warby Parker Class Trip. Since its launch in 2010, the brand has sold 1 million pairs of glasses.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder uses this question to identify high agency:
“If you were stuck in a third world prison and had to call one person to try and bust you out of there — who would you call?”
Low agency people are compliant and accept the script handed to them. An inability to question decisions and norms is at the heart of low agency behaviour. Passive behaviour is the name of the low agency game.
“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” — Steve Jobs
High agency is not innate. It is learned, practised and developed — iteration by iteration. It is questioning everything and creating your own reality. Most importantly, it is a fundamental requirement if you wish to be wildly successful.
