This playbook is a bit different. It's a response to a msg I (Navid) got from Sigil (TKS Toronto 2020). I don't address everything in the msg intentionally, instead I'm commenting on the root cause.

<aside> 💡 To understand the message and response, you'll need to read this playbook after 6 months into the program.

</aside>

Sigil's msg:

Below is my response:

What I liked about your msg:

You have ideas and suggestions. It’s not just bringing up problems/gaps. Example: “In the tks.life dashboard, add additional specific milestones, build your website, send out a (insert month here) newsletter. Launch weekly challenges (do 5 braindates with other cities), write an article on the mindset of the week.” --> That is actionable, which shows you’re thinking about problem solving, not just complaining. That’s an important trait. Keep thinking of solutions whenever you see problems.

My take on the underlying theme:

The more we do in TKS, the more hand-holding it becomes. When you look at Ananya, Jay, Ben, Brianna, Liam, Izzy, Shagun, whoever you want - they didn’t have this level of prescription. The more prescriptive TKS becomes, the less people think for themselves. My philosophy is to provide people with resources and guidance, then help them understand why it’s important. After that, it’s on them.

Even if you crush it in TKS, that doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful in the real world. There’s a much higher probability that you will. But if you didn't, it’s because you’re checking all the boxes (like you mentioned). It’s not about checking boxes. It’s not about motivation. It’s not about hand-holding.

At the end of the day, if people are smart they will try to understand. Doing things for the sake of it is stupid. But also making assumptions based on limited data is stupid. It’s about understanding why. Everything we do in TKS is important. Everything. If someone thinks newsletters aren’t important, they don’t understand them. If someone thinks braindates, daily updates, explores, focuses, or giving feedback isn’t important, they don’t understand.

I can’t force people to understand, and if I did, then I’m not helping them train the mindset of understanding. I’m just hand-holding. You’re not going to do anything significant in life if you always need hand-holding.