Welcome to The Vault. (we are so back)
Every Sunday, I send out ten pieces of winningcore—insights, lessons, and stories to help you win in business, sports, and life.
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Also, I just want to say I appreciate your patience with these essays. It’s been a few weeks since I last posted—I made a major life move, threw myself in the deep end & have been sprinting to stay afloat for 3 weeks straight. It’s been pure chaos and nonstop stress. But it’s paid off, and i’m about to reclaim some stability. More is on the way. Let’s go:
On Tesla’s Work Habits
I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.
— Nikola Tesla, My Inventions
On Abandoning Yourself to Destiny
THE TORMENT OF PRECAUTIONS OFTEN EXCEEDS THE DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED.
(Tattoo this on your forearm)
On The Victorious Attitude
Life is not a losing game. It is always victorious when properly played. It is the players who are at fault. The great trouble with all failures is that they were not started right. It was not drilled into the very texture of their being in youth that what they would get out of life must be created mentally first, and that inside the man, inside the woman, is where the great creative processes of life are carried on.
That which man does with his hands is secondary. It is what he does with his brain that counts. That is what starts things going. Some of us never learn how to create with our minds. We depend too much upon creating with our hands, or on other people to help us. We depend too much on the things outside of us when the mainspring of life, the power that moves the world of men and things, is inside of us.
There are times when we cannot see the way ahead, when we seem to be completely enveloped in the fogs of discouragement, disappointment and failure of our plans, but we can always do the thing that means salvation for us, that is persistently, determinedly, everlastingly to face towards our goal whether we can see it or not. This is our only chance of overcoming our difficulties. If we turn about face, turn our back on our goal, we are headed toward disaster.
No matter how many obstacles may block your path, or how dark the way, if you look up, think up, and struggle up, you can't help succeeding. Whatever you do for a living, whatever fortune or misfortune may come to you, hold the victorious attitude and push ahead.
— The Victorious Attitude, Orison Swett Marden
On Adventure-maxxing
This was Shackleton’s appeal for men to join him on his antarctic voyage. The point of sharing it is in what it stirs in you. If there’s a part of your soul that leaps at the idea of something like this, you have the “call to adventure” inside you, and a regular life will never satisfy your appetite. Knowing that, you have to consciously integrate spontaneity, risk and adventure into your routine or you’ll always self sabotage. When work feels like a prison, the subconscious registers “more success” as “more work” and therefore “more prison”, and it will thwart your efforts at every turn. Only once “more success” registers as “more LIFE” will the invisible barriers melt.
On ONE Thing
On Hit Rate
On Doing Mighty Things
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
— Theodore Roosevelt
A reminder: Do more. Live more. Risk more.
On Getting Out Of Bed
"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do?'"
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
The beauty in this quote isn’t so much the specific advice—which is good—but in the reminder that Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest leaders of all time, was a fallible human just like you or I. His meditations were never meant to be published. This wasn’t a piece of advice he was giving out. It was a note to self.
The message = it’s okay you sometimes struggle with small, seemingly trivial things like getting out of bed. It’s normal even amongst the greatest winners. The key is putting systems and mental models in place to overcome them.
On Mental Sovereignty
"The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled."
— Andrew Carnegie
Your mind and body are the only things which are truly yours in this life. All life is just a game of sharpening these resources and applying them towards the thing you want.
Sharpening your body = clean diet, consistent quality sleep, daily training (minimum = break a sweat), avoiding consuming “poison” in excess (processed food, alcohol, etc).
Sharpening your mind = spending as little time on “for you” algorithms as possible, avoiding mindless entertainment, reading widely, writing to sharpen your thinkingBy far the HARDEST part about sharpening your mind in 2025 is cutting loose from “for you” algorithms. Everything on social media is an ad for something. Even if they don’t want your money, they want MINDSHARE a.k.a. a piece of your consciousness. You’ll never be mentally sovereign until you learn to disconnect. It’s like cutting off a tumour; painful at first, but makes your life immeasurably better.
On Cowardly Words
‘Cowardly words make the heart itself cowardly, and being regarded as a coward by others is the same as being a coward. The slightest flaw in word or deed causes the collapse of one's philosophy of life. This can be a hard truth to bear. If we believe in the existence of the heart or mind, in order to protect it, we must watch what we say or do. By taking meticulous care over the slightest word or deed, one will become unimaginably rich in new-found inner passion, and the heart will bear undreamed-of fruit.
A samurai must be careful in all matters, and he must strictly avoid even minor failures. Sometimes a samurai does not watch his tongue and inadvertently makes a remark such as, "I am a coward," "If that happens, let's run for our lives," "How terrify-ing," or "Ouch." Such words must never pass one's lips, not in jest, nor in fun, nor asleep, nor by accident, not in any context whatsoever. A perceptive person hearing such a remark will discern one's true nature. One must always be on one's guard.’
— Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo
This is an excerpt from Hagakure, detailing the samurai’s way of living and thinking. In a world that trivialises the importance of what we say and do, it’s important to remember that almost all the greatest cultures throughout history felt the exact opposite. What you say matters, and ultimately bleeds into every action you take.
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