The Four Powers of True Aiming

When you aim for billions—even if you just want to retire early—you unlock four superpowers that change how you see and act in the world.

🔍 THE FILTER

”Will it help me become a billionaire? No? Then I don’t care.”

What it does: Your aim filters reality. Of the billions of signals hitting you daily, only relevant ones get through.

Why it matters: Most people drown in noise. They check every app, chase every trend, read every headline. Their attention is shredded.

When you aim for billions:

Irrelevant opportunities become invisible
You naturally ignore status games that don’t serve your aim
You see billion-dollar problems while others see noise
Your time and attention become laser-focused

Example:

Without the filter: “Should I learn Python? Or React? Or AI? What about NFTs? Crypto? Day trading?”
With the filter: “Does this help me solve a billion-dollar problem? No? Next.”

The paradox: By aiming for something “unrealistic,” you become MORE focused than people with “realistic” goals.

🎯 THE RECOGNIZER

”We can exploit that.”

What it does: You spot misaligned aims in markets, people, and opportunities.

Why it matters: Every market inefficiency is someone’s misaligned aim. Every arbitrage opportunity is aims not matching reality.

When you aim for billions, you start asking:

“What are people REALLY aiming at here?”
“What’s the conscious aim vs. subconscious aim?”
“Where’s the divided house?”

Examples:

Market Example: Tesla at $1,000

Surface: “The stock is overvalued!”
Aims Analysis:
- Buyers aren’t aiming for returns—they’re aiming for tribal belonging (“I’m on Elon’s team”)
- Buyers aren’t aiming for dividends—they’re aiming for narrative (“I own the future”)
- Short sellers aren’t aiming for profit—they’re aiming for being right (“I told you so”)
The opportunity: When you see the AIMS, you see the behavior. And behavior creates price.

Business Example: Dropbox

Surface: “Cloud storage is commoditized”
Aims Analysis:
- Users don’t aim for storage—they aim for peace of mind (“My files are safe”)
- Users don’t aim for features—they aim for simplicity (“It just works”)
- Competitors aimed to add features—Dropbox aimed to remove friction
The result: Won by understanding aims, not features

Career Example: “Good” Job vs. High-Impact Path

Surface: “Take the FAANG offer, it’s stable and high-paying”
Aims Analysis:
- The job aims for career safety (“Don’t look like you failed”)
- You aim for billion-dollar impact (“Build something that matters”)
- The aims are misaligned—you’ll self-sabotage or feel trapped
The recognition: The “safe” choice is the risky one if it doesn’t align with your aim

The skill: See aims everywhere. Markets, prices, decisions, behavior—they all reveal what people are ACTUALLY aiming at.

🛡️ THE RESILIENCE

”That’s noise.”

What it does: Scale determines pain tolerance. What feels catastrophic at small scale barely registers at large scale.

Why it matters: Most people quit too early because losses feel too painful. The scale of your aim determines your resilience.

The math:

Your Aim	$50K Setback	Emotional Impact
$100K goal	50% loss	Catastrophic
$1M goal	5% loss	Painful
$10M goal	0.5% loss	Annoying
$1B goal	0.005% loss	Barely registers

Real-world impact:

You stay in the game longer
You take calculated risks others won’t
You don’t panic-sell in downturns
You learn from failures instead of being destroyed by them

Example: Two Entrepreneurs

Small-aim Sam:

Aims for $100K/year business
First $20K loss feels like 20% of his goal
Panics, pivots constantly, quits

Big-aim Betty:

Aims for $100M business
Same $20K loss feels like 0.02% of her goal
“That’s noise. What did I learn?”
Stays in, iterates, succeeds

The principle: The size of your aim determines the size of your resilience.

✍️ THE FREEDOM

”My strategy.”

What it does: You stop living someone else’s narrative. You write your own reality.

Why it matters: Most people live in narratives they didn’t choose:

“Go to college, get a job, save for retirement”
“Follow the FIRE script: 4% rule, index funds, retire at 40”
“Be grateful for what you have, don’t be greedy”

These narratives aren’t wrong—they’re just someone else’s.

When you aim for billions:

You give yourself permission to question everything
You stop asking “What should I do?” and start asking “What do I want to do?”
You realize the rules are made up
You write your own script

The liberation:

FIRE Fred’s Journey

Following script: Save 50%, invest in index funds, retire at 40 with $1.5M
Result: Has the money but feels trapped. Still anxious. Still following rules.
Realization: “I’m following the FIRE narrative, not MY narrative”
Freedom: “What if I aimed for $100M and built something that matters?”

The Artist Who “Sold Out”

Following script: “Real artists don’t care about money”
Result: Broke, resentful, can’t focus on art
Realization: “This poverty-as-virtue narrative isn’t mine”
Freedom: “What if I aimed to create billions in artistic value AND capture millions?”

The “Realistic” Entrepreneur

Following script: “Start small, grow slowly, don’t take on debt”
Result: Safe business, modest income, no impact
Realization: “I’m following the ‘stay small’ narrative”
Freedom: “What if I aimed for billions in value created?”

The truth: Verbs are free. Aiming is a choice you make right now, with no permission required.

How They Work Together

The four powers compound:

The Filter focuses your attention on billion-dollar problems
The Recognizer shows you where others’ misaligned aims create opportunities
The Resilience keeps you in the game when others quit
The Freedom lets you play YOUR game, not someone else’s

Example: Seeing an Opportunity

Without the powers:

See market crash → panic → sell everything → miss recovery

With the powers:

Filter: “Does this change the billion-dollar problem I’m solving? No.”
Recognizer: “People are panic-selling because they’re aiming for safety, not returns”
Resilience: “A 30% drawdown on my $1B aim is noise”
Freedom: “Everyone’s following the ‘sell in a crash’ script. What if I bought?”

Result: You act differently because you see differently.

The Counter-Intuitive Truth

Most people think: “I need to be realistic. Aiming for billions is delusional.”

The reality: Aiming for billions makes you MORE grounded, MORE focused, MORE resilient, and MORE free than aiming for “realistic” goals.

Why?

Billion-dollar outcomes require mastering fundamentals
You can’t fake your way to billions—you need deep competence
The journey to billions builds you into someone capable
Even “failing” to millions means you’ve become a virtuoso

The person who aims for $1.5M and hits it? They followed a script.

The person who aims for $1B and "fails" to$ 10M? They mastered the fundamentals, became a virtuoso, and wrote their own reality.

Who’s more free?

Activating the Powers

These aren’t passive traits—they’re active practices:

1. Practice THE FILTER

Every day, ask: “Will this help me become a billionaire?”

If yes: Do it
If no: Don’t care

2. Practice THE RECOGNIZER

Every day, ask: “What are people REALLY aiming at here?”

Look at market prices: What aims do they reveal?
Look at behavior: What aims explain it?
Look at your own actions: What are YOU really aiming at?

3. Practice THE RESILIENCE

Every day, remind yourself of scale:

“This setback is X% of my billion-dollar aim”
“That’s noise”
“What did I learn?“

4. Practice THE FREEDOM

Every day, ask: “Is this MY strategy or someone else’s?”

Question narratives
Write your own script
Remember: Verbs are free

The Freedom Ladder - What level are you at?
Five-Step Integration - How to integrate your aims
The Divided House - Are your aims at war?

Remember

“A true aim will set you free.”

The four powers aren’t magic. They’re what happens when you stop fighting yourself, integrate your aims, and point at something worth aiming at.

Aim for billions. Even if you just want to retire early.

Because the powers you gain along the way are worth more than the money.