The Fundamentals Are Clearer Than Ever
This week, we went deeper into the fundamentals, not tactics, not tools, but the underlying principles that govern how we think, decide, and build inside The Club.
For months, we’ve been circling the same truth: business success does not come from complexity. It comes from clarity, structure, and the disciplined application of simple principles over time.
This year tested many of us. Markets shifted. Cycles tightened. Blind spots surfaced. That’s not a failure. That’s feedback.
High performers don’t avoid pressure. They use it to reveal what matters.
What’s becoming obvious, especially as we close out the year, is this:
Clarity is the force multiplier.
Clarity tells you where you are.
Principles organize how you think.
Frameworks translate thinking into action.
Execution comes last.
As Sun Tzu said, “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a thousand battles without peril.”
Clarity is knowing yourself. Principles are how your mind stays ordered under pressure.
The Three Pillars: Clarity, Design, and Solutions
We revisited the three pillars that make up our operating system:
Clarity
Clarity defines the game you’re playing. It forces honesty about what you want, what matters, and what you’re actually optimizing for.
Design
Design answers a harder question: Is this business built reliably enough that I can trust it?
Not when things go well, but when they don’t.
Solutions
Solutions are how we navigate constraints and problems as they arise. Not reactively, but deliberately.
These three pillars aren’t linear.
They cycle.
Different seasons. Same loop.
Warren Buffett said, “Investing is simple but not easy.”
The fundamentals of business work the same way.
Principles First. Methods Second.
A core theme this week was simple but critical: principles precede methods.
There are millions of methods.
There are very few principles.
When principles are clear, methods become obvious.
When principles are unclear, methods become noise.
We use frameworks: Winnable Game, CASE, Soft Offense, ATIMER, not because frameworks are the point, but because they operationalize principles. They bring thinking into reality.
One quote from class captured this perfectly:
“The man who grasps the principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods ignoring principles is sure to have trouble.”
Most of us have lived the second sentence at some point.
Blind Spots, Biases, and the Water You’re Swimming In
We shared the story of two young fish who swim past an older fish. The older fish asks, “How’s the water?” They swim on, confused, until one turns to the other and says, “What the hell is water?”
That’s how blind spots work.
You can’t see what you’re swimming in.
This is why business is a team sport. This is why the room matters. Sometimes the only way to see the water is to be around people who aren’t swimming in yours.
Clarity is rarely created alone.
The Club Principles
We walked through the Club Principles, roughly 25 truths that reflect how this group thinks, operates, and wins. A few examples:
Business is a team sport.
Calm is the ideal state for an entrepreneur.
Bigger and better deals over more deals.
The fewer things that need to go right, the more likely they all will.
You reserve the right to change your mind.
Action organizes.
Restraint is the #1 word in a champion’s vocabulary.
The human is the most unreliable part of the business.
Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.
We didn’t just read them. We assigned Case & Points, eal examples from your own experience where these principles have shown up.
Because we don’t learn by understanding alone.
We learn by reflection and repetition.
Case & Points: Turning Principles Into Instinct
The assignment is intentionally simple: choose a principle and find where it has already proven itself in your life.
Where did calm change an outcome?
When did action create clarity?
Where did the room save you from a blind spot?
This is how principles move from intellectual agreement to instinctive behavior.
The Cocoon and Critical Mass
We closed with an analogy worth sitting with.
The butterfly.
Inside the cocoon, everything is changing. From the outside, it looks like nothing is happening.
Many of you are in cocoon seasons. You’re rebuilding systems. Tightening focus. Revising foundations. Doing work that doesn’t yet show up as results.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t working.
Critical mass builds quietly.
Then it shows up all at once.
Slower than you want.
Faster than you expect.
The Real Takeaway
The fundamentals haven’t changed.
You’ve just gotten clearer.
Clarity first.
Principles next.
Execution follows.
That order matters.
