New World: Why Most People Keep LOSING and a few WIN
- Laura Culver
- Mar 23
- 8 min read
Leadership in Practice | Episode 275
Most people have the will to win. They want success. They want to perform well. They want to achieve their goals.
But here's what separates elite performers from everyone else: the will to prepare to win.
Winning in a world of chronic uncertainty requires moving beyond mere willpower to a state of being psychologically active—where you intentionally train to handle unpredictable stress before it arrives.
This article breaks down the difference between defense (not losing) and offense (actually winning), why "average" is now a liability in the AI era, and the training protocol that builds the skill of preparation (to WIN).
Defense vs. Offense: Not Losing Isn't the Same as Winning
A lost of times in development we focus on defense: managing your psychology, controlling fear and ego, avoiding self-sabotage.
Defense is critical. It prevents you from spiraling into what we call "distorted sense-making"—the mental state where fear or ego warps your perception of reality and you make decisions based on manufactured threats rather than actual data.
But perfect defense only scores zero.
Defense prevents you from losing, but it doesn't result in a win. You're protected, but you're not progressing.
What Offense Actually Means
To actually win, you need an offense. You have to go after something, not just protect what you have.
Offense begins with answering a deceptively simple question:
What do you want to do?
Not what you should do, or what's expected, or what's safe. What do you actually want to create, build, or achieve?
Most people can't answer this clearly because they've spent so much energy on defense—managing fears, protecting egos, avoiding mistakes—that they've lost touch with their own desires and direction.
The Goal: Self-Induced Training (Investment in Loss)
The path to offense requires what we call an "investment in loss."
This is the skill of making anything awesome by intentionally doing things that are more difficult so you can replicate and eventually master your internal triggers.
It means:
Practicing failure in safe environments
Intentionally increasing difficulty to build capacity
Training your psychological responses before high-stakes moments
Accepting emotional discomfort as the price of improvement
You can't skip this phase. Stop fighting it and accept it as part of the training.
Average vs. Amazing: Why AI Makes This Choice Critical
The world is already filled with abundant average. In fact, AI functions as "the largest database of average."
If you're aiming to create average work—competent, acceptable, "good enough"—AI can do that faster, cheaper, and at greater scale than you can.
The New Standard: Shockingly Cool
Creating something "shockingly cool" or amazing requires:
Full engagement: Not half-assing tasks just to check off a box
Clear human-generated ideas: AI will magnify your confusion if you feed it unclear input
Refusal to settle: Rejecting "good enough" as the standard
The AI amplification principle: If you feed AI "slop," it will return "crap multiplied." Garbage in, garbage out—but at massive scale.
The only way to stand out is to create work that's genuinely different, insightful, or ingenious. That requires full psychological engagement, not just technical competence.
The Real Blocker: Psychological Mistakes, Not Technical Ones
Here's the uncomfortable truth: staying lost or stuck is now approximately 100% due to psychological slips rather than a lack of technical skills.
People often blame technical failures—"I don't know the right tool," "I need more training," "The system is confusing." But in an era of abundant information and AI assistance, technical knowledge is rarely the bottleneck.
The Two Psychological Mistakes: Fear and Ego
Fear is perceived danger manufactured in your head. It's not based on actual threat—it's your mind predicting doom and reacting as if it's already happening.
Ego is an overprotective mechanism that leads to justifying errors rather than releasing old habits. It's the voice that says, "I was right to do it that way," even when the evidence shows otherwise.
Both fear and ego create what we call distorted sense-making—you're not seeing reality clearly, so you can't respond to it effectively.
Why This Matter More Now
In stable environments, you could compensate for psychological mistakes with time and effort. You could grind your way through fear or ego blocks.
In chronic uncertainty, you don't have that luxury. The environment changes faster than grinding works. Psychological agility is now the primary competitive advantage.
Burnout vs Going All In: Two Ways to Use Energy
There are two fundamentally different ways to spend your energy:
Burnout: Using Energy to Stay Stuck
This is worse than losing because you burn energy just to remain in the same spot. You're exhausted, but there's no progress to show for it.
Signs you're burning out rather than going all in:
Constantly busy but not moving forward
Resentful about the effort you're putting in
Half-engaged in everything, fully engaged in nothing
Checking boxes instead of creating value
Going All In: Seeking Full Benefit from Every Moment
If you're gonna be there, make it worth it.
To achieve "amazing" results, you must seek the full benefit and full engagement of every moment. This is a repeatable skill regardless of the task.
Full engagement means:
Bringing complete attention to what you're doing
Refusing to phone it in
Extracting maximum learning from every rep
Treating even small tasks as practice for excellence
This isn't about working more hours. It's about being fully psychologically present when you're working.
The Training Protocol: JJ Reps and VD Reps
Winning in the "new world" requires two distinct types of high-speed repetitions that train your psychological offense and defense:
1. JJ Reps: Training Judgment and Fear Management
JJ Reps (based on Jia Jiang's rejection therapy) train your judgment to identify and neutralize fear and ego in a snap.
The protocol:
Identify something that scares you but won't kill the business
Intentionally seek rejection or discomfort
Practice calming your fear—recognizing it as manufactured, not real threat
Increase difficulty over time through speed and higher stakes
Why this works: You're training your nervous system to distinguish between perceived danger (fear) and actual danger. The more reps you do, the faster you can spot and dismiss manufactured fear.
Learn more about JJ Reps
Watch the Full Talk from Jia Jiang
2. VD Reps (Visceral Drafting): Training Your Offensive Skill
VD Reps train the "offensive" skill of rapidly articulating and iterating on what you want to create.
The protocol:
Start with a visceral draft—your gut reaction to what should be created
Don't overthink; capture the raw idea quickly
Iterate at speed, refining through multiple fast reps
Focus on "shockingly cool" as the standard, not "acceptable"
Why this works: Most people get stuck in analysis paralysis when creating. VD Reps train you to move fast from concept to execution, trusting your judgment and refining through iteration rather than trying to perfect before you start.
Learn More about Visceral Drafting
3. The Critical Ingredient: Speed
Both types of reps must be done with speed to move past logical overthinking and train genuine human judgment.
Speed forces you to rely on System 1 thinking (intuitive, pattern-based) rather than System 2 (slow, analytical). In high-uncertainty environments, your intuitive judgment—trained through reps—is faster and often more accurate than laborious analysis.
The principle: You can't think your way to better judgment. You have to train your way there through repetition at speed.
Practicing Winning: The Investment in Loss
Here's the counterintuitive insight: you have to practice losing in order to learn how to win.
Most people avoid situations where they might fail. They stay in their comfort zone, only attempting things they're confident they can do well.
But this means they never build capacity beyond their current level. They plateau.
What "Investment in Loss" Actually Means
An investment in loss means:
Intentionally attempting things you're likely to fail at initially
Seeking "skinned knee" failures in training so you don't break your leg in performance
Accepting emotional discomfort as the price of expansion
Measuring success by learning, not just outcomes
Why You Can't Skip This Phase
Every elite performer has gone through their investment in loss phase. There's no shortcut.
The only question is: Will you make that investment intentionally through training, or will you be forced to make it in high-stakes situations where the cost is much higher?
Practical Steps to Build the Will to Prepare
Define Your Offense
Answer clearly: What do you want to do?
Not what you should do or what's expected. What do you actually want to create or achieve? Write it down. If you can't answer this, everything else is just defense.
Start JJ Reps
This week, identify one thing that scares you (but won't kill your business or relationships). Do it. Practice calming the fear by recognizing it as manufactured.
Start VD Reps
Pick one project or idea. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Draft your visceral reaction to what it should be—no editing, no overthinking. Then iterate quickly. Aim for "shockingly cool," not "acceptable."
Increase Speed Deliberately
Whatever reps you're doing, intentionally increase the speed. Force yourself to rely on judgment rather than analysis. Notice what happens when you can't overthink.
Track Full Engagement
At the end of each day, ask: When was I fully engaged today? When was I half-assing? What's the pattern? Work to increase the ratio of full engagement moments.
The Bottom Line: Choose Preparation or Stay Average
The world doesn't need more people with the will to win. It's full of them.
The world needs people with the will to prepare to win.
People who:
Make investments in loss before they're forced to
Train their fear and ego responses through intentional reps
Choose full engagement over box-checking
Go on offense, not just play defense
In the AI era, average is automated. Shockingly cool is the only thing that matters.
You can't think your way there. You can't wish your way there. You have to train your way there—through JJ Reps, VD Reps, and the discipline to choose preparation over comfort every single day.
The question is simple: Are you willing to prepare, or are you just willing to wish?
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Ready to Start Training?
Start with one JJ Rep this week—identify something that scares you (but won't kill you) and do it anyway. That's where preparation begins.
Resources
Check out our free AiCoach trained to help improve YOUR judgement over time.
Watch the full episode (with quick reference chapters) here
Watch the Full Talk from Jia Jiang
Short Clips of Related Topics:
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FAQ's
Isn't "will to win" enough if I'm really committed?
No. Will to win is emotional energy—it's motivation in the moment. Will to prepare is discipline over time. Motivation fades. Discipline compounds. Elite performers don't rely on motivation; they rely on trained habits and responses built through preparation.
How do I know if I'm doing defense or offense?
Ask: Am I protecting what I have, or am I going after something new? Defense prevents mistakes. Offense creates value. Both matter, but if you're only playing defense, you're stuck at zero.
What if I don't know what I want to do (offense)?
Start with visceral drafts. Don't wait for perfect clarity. Ask: What would be shockingly cool to create? What would I be embarrassed not to try? The answer doesn't need to be perfect—it just needs to be directional. Clarity comes through action, not contemplation.
How do I distinguish between investment in loss and just failing randomly?
Investment in loss is intentional. You're choosing to attempt something difficult in order to learn from the failure. Random failure is unintentional—you tried to succeed and didn't. The difference is awareness and purpose. Are you treating failure as data, or as something that happened to you?
What's the difference between burnout and going all in?
Burnout is high effort with low engagement—you're grinding but not present. Going all in is high effort with high engagement—you're fully there. Burnout leaves you empty. Going all in leaves you energized, even if tired. The emotional residue is different.
Can I do JJ Reps and VD Reps simultaneously?
Yes, but start with whichever you need more. If fear is your blocker, prioritize JJ Reps. If unclear direction is your blocker, prioritize VD Reps. Eventually you'll need both—defense and offense working together.
How long does it take to build the will to prepare?
It's not a destination—it's a practice. You'll notice shifts in weeks (catching yourself avoiding preparation), meaningful changes in months (choosing reps over comfort), and transformation over years (preparation as your default mode). The question isn't "how
long" but "am I starting now?"
What if my environment doesn't support investment in loss?
Then you need to create spaces outside your primary environment where you can practice. Side projects, low-stakes experiments, conversations with training partners. If your job punishes all failure, you can't build capacity there—so build it elsewhere and bring the skills back.
How do I know if something is "shockingly cool" or if I'm just being a perfectionist?
Shockingly cool creates disproportionate impact with apparent ease. Perfectionism is endless polishing with diminishing returns. Ask: Does this create real value, or am I just avoiding shipping? If you're stuck refining forever, it's perfectionism, not excellence.
