American Checklist™

It's the clever thinking of individuals that allows others to do things in an entirely new way. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Mark Young discuss how this is something that America has represented for people since its founding, and why it's caused some people to hate the U.S.

Selling the future: Instead of doing my research first, I get the cheque first. Then when the cheque comes in, I'm on the line because I have to figure out what the cheque writers want so I can deliver it.

A new way: The whole emphasis of ingenuity is that people are able to do something in an entirely new way because of someone's clever thinking—a good description of what the U.S. was and is for many people.

Hated for ingenuity: Ingeniousness is the biggest source of hatred of America. It's the biggest source of jealousy.

A challenge: Ingenuity is a challenge to the existing ways of doing things.

Ingenuity for freedom: The ingenuity of the United States was first of all to create a product where freedom was more possible than it was anywhere else in the world at that time, but then to send the message back to people who were not enjoying freedom and didn't even know what freedom actually meant.

Always harms: All ingenious breakthroughs harm someone economically, socially, or even politically. When you create new ways of doing things, existing ways of doing things can be harmed.

You can't have individualism without freedom, and you can't have freedom without individualism. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Mark Young discuss the benefits of taking complete responsibility for everything that happens to you in your life.

Resonant mindsets: Americans will relate to other countries that have resonant mindsets. It was in defense of mindsets that they came to the aid of countries that had mindsets that were more in resonance with their own, and fought against countries that were opposed to the mindsets.

Writing the script: There's always been an enormous emphasis in America, going back 400 years, on individualism. America gave a chance for individuals to write the scripts for their own futures. If you want to strive as an individual and succeed as an individual, the American system supports you as an individual.

Individual focus: Individualism in the fully developed American forum is a focus on your own capabilities, opportunities, and resources.

100% responsible: The essence of individualism is the willingness to take 100% responsibility for everything that happens to you in your life. Bad things can happen to people from the outside and you are not responsible, but you can choose to feel responsible.

Money magnifies: Money is a capability that magnifies other capabilities, other opportunities, and other resources. It's a capability that everybody understands can move them forward if they approach it correctly.

Opposite of individualism: There are individuals who encourage the feeling of being a victim. Victimhood is the opposite of individualism.

The collective: The opposite of individualism is that no one has any meaning outside of membership in the collective. The collective goes by different names politically: communism, Socialism, Nazism, fascism.

Pressure to conform: Conforming has to do with peer pressure. The emergence of social media has made this even more powerful. There's tremendous peer pressure that comes in on Facebook or Twitter. If you don't go along with the group, you'll be rejected.

Relationship with the future: Your only real guaranteed way of actually becoming an individual lies in your relationship to the future. It's a picture that you have of yourself some time down the road that's actionable.

Dan Sullivan and Mark Young explain how America is the entrepreneurial country and the aspirational country, the difference between a philosophical American and a geographical American, and their plans to explore the American mindsets in this podcast series.

Entrepreneurial America: America is the entrepreneurial country. If you look at the founding documents and the experience of the country's founders, the U.S. is the only country that was entrepreneurial from the start.

The American spirit: It's in the American spirit to go through all of the difficulty of being an entrepreneur and to test yourself in the marketplace—whether you're good or not depends on what the marketplace says—and to turn yourself around and try something else if you fail.

Aspirational country: America is a place where you can have a future that's bigger than your past. That's always been the central message.

All about mindsets: America is the one country on the planet that's strictly about mindsets. You're either a happy American or an unhappy American depending on your mindset about being in America or relating to America. Or you have a mindset that sees America as something negative. There's nothing predetermined about which kind of mindset you'll have.

Born everywhere: People can be born outside of the U.S. and have American mindsets.