Codie A. Sanchez

Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC fund, Founder

On a mission to create financially free and free-thinking humans.

I founded a advisory and investment company called Contrarian Thinking that helps owners buy and scale businesses.

Our newsletter has over 1M+ weekly readers, here → contrarianthinking.biz/li

Our community has taught 9,000+ members biz buying, biz growing, and doing deals. 

We value experience over degrees.
Betting on yourself over building someone else's dream.
Main Street over Wall Street.

My mission is less suits, more boots. Meaning: we the people holding the power… and the purse strings.

🔗Join 1M+ others who get our free newsletter: contrarianthinking.biz/li
🔗YouTube: @CodieSanchezCT
🔗Instagram: @codiesanchez
🔗Twitter: @Codie_Sanchez
🔗Weekly business-buying newsletter Main Street Minute: contrarianthinking.biz/minute-li

Founder

We help free minds and build bank accounts.

This is the real rich life. Don’t buy into the consumerism the world wants you to.

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Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC, Founder | NYT best-selling author

The best advice that no one follows:

- Wake up at 5:45am.
- Marriage done well is a huge superpower.
- Trust God.
- Be careful what you read, it becomes the way you think.
- No going out on a school night.
- If you have to drink to hang out with someone, you probably shouldn't be buds.

Feel free to share if you agree ♻️

I have no energy for hate. Love you, wish you well, or hope you heal. That's it.

You will make 10x more money if you present ideas like this to your clients or leaders.

Harsh truth:

Running a company is simply a game of prioritizing problems.

Here’s how to become the Chief Problem Solver in your business:

Want to know Elon Musk's "secret" to running Tesla, SpaceX, and 3+ other billion-dollar companies?

According to Marc Andreessen, it's simple:

"He shows up every week, identifies the biggest problem, fixes it, and does that 52 weeks in a row."

Most companies hide from problems:

• They reframe them as "challenges"
• They create layers of abstraction
• They delegate them into oblivion

But problems aren't biohazards—they're your biggest opportunities.

Bigger the problem? Bigger the potential.

There’s a reason SpaceX is able to send a 400-foot skyscraper into the sky knowing it might explode.

Because they want to know exactly what breaks, when, and why.

Every failure incapacitates dozens of future problems.

This approach works because running a company is simply prioritizing problems.

Your earnings directly reflect what you solve...

Big problems pay better.

Another great example of this is Brad Jacobs.

He built 7 billion-dollar companies in logistics, waste, and warehousing - industries most people find boring until they see his bank account.

Here’s how he evaluates risk vs reward on different deal sizes:

• Small, low-risk deals: exist but limited reward
• Small, high-risk deals: limited reward with high risk (avoid)
• Big, low-risk deals: unicorns (don't exist)
• Big, high-risk deals with solvable problems: "the bingo quadrant"

One of my favorite lines from his book is:

"If you want to win, you have to rearrange your brain to lean into those big, hairy problems and figure out how to cut off the hair and de-risk."

This is exactly what your job is as a CEO.

It’s simple: hire the smartest people in the world... and solve the problems they can't figure out.

That's it. That's the whole job.

Not avoiding problems, but identifying and selecting the right ones to solve.

Becoming a Chief Problem Solver requires you to create your own weekly problem-solving loop:

1. Identify your single biggest constraint
2. Focus all resources on solving it
3. Measure the result
4. Repeat next week

1 problem. 1 solution. 52 weeks in a row.

The best entrepreneurs don't just "think differently" about problems. They actively build muscles for problem identification and execution.

Then they do it again and again.
Fair warning though, this isn't glamorous work. It means:

• Living inside friction
• Facing uncomfortable truths
• Fixing things no one else wants to touch

But it's where all the leverage is.

If your business is stuck, your unlock is often solving ONE big problem.

Maybe you know exactly what it is, but don't know how to solve it. Or maybe you're not sure what the problem is yet...

P.S. If you want to see how we think about solving these problems for our own businesses, you might want to check this out: https://lnkd.in/enaBvipE

Underrated quality of awful leaders:

They try to please everyone & lead by committee.

The hardest parts about leadership:

• Telling truths people don’t want to hear
• Watching decisions people will regret
• But you can’t force mentorship
• No one cares about your business as much as you do
• Micromanaging means YOU hired wrong

Doesn't mean you have to be a jerk.

But often trying to please everyone is the worst thing you can do for your people.

What do you think?

A reminder to myself and you this Saturday...

It’s really just you against the mirror. You vs you. No one else can win at a game of one. I know it’s hard not to get distracted, race horses wear blinders for a reason. Your lane you’re game. LFG.

Codie Sanchez

How to be unrecognizable in 90 days:

1. Be obsessed

Every outsized outcome I’ve seen came from people who genuinely enjoy the pressure. Not motivated people. Obsessed people. It’s almost impossible to compete with someone who treats the thing you dread as fun.

2. Clean out your closet

Get rid of anything that doesn’t fit the person you’re becoming. Cluttered space creates cluttered thinking, and cluttered thinkers don’t make money. Changing how you show up physically is one of the fastest ways to change how you behave.

3. Clarify your ONE thing

Not five ideas. One. Put a number on it and give yourself 90 days to get there. You have to prove to yourself that you keep your word.

4. Tell a better story about yourself

Not a vision board. Write down the words. If your life were a book, what’s supposed to happen next? What goes wrong and how do you react to it? When challenges show up, it’s much easier to keep going if you already decided they were part of the plot.

5. Start a not-to-do list

Becoming elite means cutting distractions aggressively and doing fewer things better.

6. Eliminate distractions

Most distraction is optional so make it harder to waste time and easier to focus. Small changes here create outsized results.

7. Outwork people

If you wake up earlier, protect the first part of your day, and eliminate distractions, you will get ahead faster than you think. Because most people just aren’t willing to work hard.

8. Move in silence

When you’re actually changing your life, you don’t need an audience. Do cool shit. Then talk after the result.

Do this for 90 days and your life will look different.

Because you WILL be different.

Is talking about vanity superficial? Maybe.

Is it effective? Absolutely.

Being well-dressed and well-groomed is a massive edge in any negotiation. It’s hard to push back on someone who looks like they’ve already won. Own your 2026 look.

Harsh truth on scaling businesses: 

Your goal as CEO is to build a team that runs your entire company better than you.

5 other lessons I’ve learned the hard way from 15+ years of being an owner:

1. Operating Systems Win

The difference between McDonald's and your local burger joint isn't the food.

It's that any 16-year-old can run McDonald's because of their systems.

If your business needs you to be the hero every day, you own a job, not a business.

No systems = Everything breaks when you aren’t there

The most effective systems I’ve seen all had the same four features.

I call it the PEIC framework:

1. Proven (battle tested)
2. Explicit Processes
3. Implementation
4. Continuous Improvement

Apply them across your core functions and your business will pretty much run on autopilot:

2. Your Revenue Is A Reflection Of Your Vision Distributed

Every time you say your employees don’t care about your business, you're admitting you failed at distributing your vision.

When your team can't see where you're going, they can't help you get there.

Your business needs two guiding metrics. 

At Contrarian Thinking, we call them “Oars.”

One needs to be quantitative and one qualitative. These act as our north stars to drive prioritization and resource allocation. 

Our left oar? Revenue. Our right? Followers. 

Everything flows downstream from those two numbers. 

3. Successful People Make Quick Decisions

Not only that but they move fast, in the right direction.

It always sounds simple but it comes down to knowing exactly what you want and having systems to execute on it.

That’s where planning in layers comes in:

Annual → Quarterly → Monthly → Weekly

Once you're clear on direction, decisions become obvious.

All that’s left is to track:

- What team
- What goal
- Who
- Percentage Done
- Status

 Keep an eye on all five and you’ll always have a pulse on what’s going on in your biz.

4. Successful People Hang Out With Other Successful People

Your success as an owner is determined by who you surround yourself with.

If you're the smartest person in your business, you're doing something wrong.

Your goal should be to build a team that runs your company better than you do.

5. Find 1-1 Mentors To Hold Your Hands

I used to turn my nose at masterminds.

But then I realized my only other option was to figure sh*t out with years of expensive mistakes.

That’s why I have coaches for everything now.

Most wealthy people got rich by paying for shortcuts whenever they saw one.

There’s no shame in stealing someone else’s 10,000 hours.

Time is the only thing you can't buy more of.

Get in rooms with people who've already solved what you're facing.

↓↓↓

I'm running a masterclass this week on how to grow any business faster. 

Sign up here to reserve your seat: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

Why most people get married – & divorced.

Petri Dish Effect:

The main reason most people get married is they start out as two petri dishes with the same inputs going into them. School, geography, career. Like likes like.

Then as you grow, your husband joins new clubs, you start a business he doesn’t, your hobbies split and before you know it... what you each have grown in your petri dish is completely different.

You’ve lost compatibility.

That’s why my husband and I do work together, are in the same groups together, read and share what is inspiring us, try to never be apart more than 1 week at a time.

Easier to grow together than apart.

That's just us, you do you.

Only 6% of Americans own a business.

And of that, less than 1% ever hit $1,000,000 in revenue.

After investing in businesses for 15 years, here are three reasons why 99% of businesses never scale past 7-figures: 

1. Organizational Challenges

There are a ton of sub-catagories here but today we’re going to unpack “Executive Vision.”

Most owners think their problems stem from poor strategy, when it’s typically poor execution.

You can have the best plan in the world, but if your team can’t understand it... you're not going anywhere. 

You need to have a clear vision that every person in your business believes in and wants to fight for.

The best CEOs think in years, then translate this vision in plain english to their team.

Make it stupid simple: everybody needs to know where the biz is going, what their contribution is, and why they are important.

When done right, it creates a flywheel:

• Executive vision gets translated into specific quarterly goals
• Goals become daily/weekly metrics on dashboards
• Dashboards drive structured team communication
• Communication reinforces the culture you're building 
(…which makes scaling almost inevitable).

When you nail this sequence, your team starts executing your vision without you having to micromanage every decision. 

2. Finances & Future Casting

The worst thing you can do is manage your business like a personal checking account.

Sadly, that’s what 99% of owners do.

They look at what's in the bank today and make decisions based on that number.

There’s a reason why that never ends well… 

Because revenue is vanity and cash flow is sanity. That’s not just to make a cute rhyme.

If your business lost all revenue tomorrow, how long would you survive?

You need to know this number.

That’s why we tell all our owners to have a rolling 90-day view of expected cash inflows & outflows.

With this data, you know:

• When to hire
• When to invest
• When to hold back on a big purchase

Scaling a business is hard enough, keep a little sanity in your life by keeping a pulse on collections, obligations, and cash reserves. 

3. Avatar Defintion

When owners say people can’t afford their product…

99% of the time, it's not a pricing problem. It's an avatar problem.

Most businesses chase anyone with a pulse and a credit card.

As a result, they end up selling snow to Eskimos instead of hot chocolate to skiers. 

Compare that with owners who get obsessed with ONE specific customer type.

And I’m not just talking about demographics…I mean knowing their pain points, what podcast they listen to, where they go on vacation…

I have yet to find a business that can’t scale to $10M focusing on one person.

↓ ↓ ↓

Come to my masterclass to learn how to scale your business farther than you may think you can push it.

More info here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

I asked my mom & dad for advice recently from raising me and my brother...

This is what they told me, maybe you’ll find it useful too:

1. Your kids are not your friends. They’re yours to safeguard and support, but set rules. Biggest problem with most kids in our generation, their parents wanted to be liked not respected.

2. Psy ops are underrated. My mom had this line for whenever I got into trouble. She’d say, “When I ask you a question like this, I already know the answer. I am giving you a chance to come clean...” At which point I’d sing like a canary because I’m a scaredy cat. I found out today she rarely knew the answers. Brilliant and maniacal.

3. Always on the same page. My mom and dad rarely fought in front of my brother and I. They would never go back on the word of the other. United front to deal with us mini terrorists.

4. Make time. My dad had this silly line that is actually not silly: “You can make money, you can make a cake, but you can’t make time.” So they made allllll the time for us.

5. Four chairs. We have these four chairs in our living room, no tv. Growing up, we’d sit and debate and talk for hours. Politics. Opinions. Our days. Only thing not allowed was an opinion you couldn’t defend unemotionally. We still do this today.

6. Mi Sangre mi siempre. They’d always say, blood comes first. They meant it. I hired my brother, my dad, my mom, my cousin at times. We stick together and we may fight like hell but never in front of others.

7. Once you decide, you don’t quit. We could play any sport or instrument BUT if we committed we had to play the full year all out. No 3 lessons and quit. Taught us to choose thoughtfully and keep going even when it hurt.

8. Always call. They still pick up the phone nearly every time it’s family. My dad in a meeting will pause to answer my mom. My husband taught me this too, and I try to do the same. If they’re your first priority this is an easy way to prove it.

9. You’re not a princess, you’re a president. My dad always used to say that line. He told me this week that I lived up to it. Gutted me. He taught us we didn’t need to be saved, instead we could save ourselves and help others.

10. Hug often and seriously. If you’ve ever hugged my parents, they mean it when they do it. Such a simple, free gesture. My mom always gives you a hug and says vaya con dios… go with God. How can you not do big things with parents that hold you like that?

Just some Lessons from the Road from parents I happen to think are some of the best in the world.

Moms and dads everywhere, I’m in awe of you.

Hardest job I’ve ever seen.

*This is one of my favorite pics of me and my dad. Doesn’t get old.

The #1 killer of businesses is bad cashflow.

15 other harsh business truths for you:

1. The greatest muscle you can build is urgency. Bureaucracy is business poison.

2. Decrease the time between having an idea and getting it done. Everything changes.

3. Never sacrifice reputation in the name of business. You can always start another company. You can never create a new reputation.

4. Long-term games and long-term people compound. Resist shiny objects.

5. Hire smart people, pay them well, set them up for success... Then leave them the hell alone.

6. “There’s nothing worse than being sick, fat, tired and trying to run your business.” - Dana White

7. The highest ROI investment founders & owners can make is in themselves. Health shapes mindset. Mindset shapes action.

8. You're better off learning negotiation than financial modeling. Business is less spreadsheets than words.

9. The best business of all time has only you, a computer, and the send button.

10. Every additional employee increases complexity. Hiring is a last resort.

11. The best advice comes from those just a couple steps ahead of you. These people still vividly remember the problems you're facing today.

12. Sell painkillers, not vitamins. There's more money in needs than wants.

13. No discounts. Compete on value, not price. Any biz with $$$ can enter your market and bleed you out. Differentiate beyond commodity.

14. A happy customer is the most powerful marketing. Prioritize reviews. Humans are social animals.

15. If no one thinks you’re crazy, you’re too late. If everyone thinks your idea is good? Even worse. Outsized returns lie in non-conformism.

↓ ↓ ↓

Come to my masterclass tomorrow to learn how to grow your revenue & profit. 

It's 90 minutes + fully remote. 

Details here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

Everyone should be obsessed with chasing their first $500k.

Capitalism has pulled more people out of poverty than any system ever created.

Stop pretending it’s evil.

↓↓↓

And one of the most important skills to learn to hit your first $500k? 

Sales. 

Read this to learn why now is the perfect time to get great at sales: https://lnkd.in/eqESyABe

The surprising truth about stocks and getting seriously wealthy:

99% of people will not get wealthy from it... you need money first. 

Let me break down an unsexy but effective path to wealth that I call Evolutionary Wealth Theory.

There are 4 levels to the theory:

Level 1: FEEL

Your money mindset is programmed early.

Most of us inherit beliefs that become self-fulfilling prophecies:

- Finances are stressful
- Money is always scarce
- Never enough to go around
- Hold onto every penny
- Don't spend too much 

If you hate money, you'll never attract it.

If you never feel that you COULD be wealthy, you never will be.

Get your money beliefs right first.

Level 2: WALK

Performance is contagious.

To build wealth, you must:

- Go where the game is played
- Be ruthless about who surrounds you
- Level up your environment as you grow

Hard truth: Your current friends might hold you back. They love the old you. They fear the new you. 

Level 3: SPEAK

This is the next plateau people hit.

They do their affirmations, they level up the people around them... But then they never truly learn the game.

You must learn the language of money. 

The real game is understanding:

- Business fundamentals
- Deal structures
- Contracts

But most people never learn these because they're too busy gambling. 

The correct order:

1. Earn first - negotiate a higher salary
2. Learn the mechanics - how to invest
3. Invest intelligently - now that you have the $$$ and the knowledge

Level 4: MASTERY

The wealthy have a different goal than most:

Ownership.

Look at the world's quietest billionaires:
- Bernard Arnault (LVMH) worth $171B
- Charles Koch worth $67B
- Carlos Slim worth $81B

All worth that much because of the businesses they own.

The final step of wealth-building isn't a trick or a hack. It’s simply, owning.

That’s what the entire framework is about:

The slow, uphill grind until you can intelligently own assets. Then you let those assets gain value over time.

Most people rent their whole lives:

- Rent their time to employers
- Rent their apartments
- Never own real assets

This is your sign to stop trading time for money and start gaining ownership...

Come to my masterclass this week to learn how to get started: https://lnkd.in/g3V6NrTZ

What no one tells you about being a CEO:

1. If you want to be the boss, first be the top performer where you are.

2. At the start, CEO is Chief Salesperson. Your entire job is cashflow.

3. Your goal is to build a company that runs better without you.

4. If you’re growing fast, your number one job as CEO is to replace yourself every 3 months.

5. You can usually tell if a startup will win or lose by one thing... Do they ship product fast? The best CEOs push for action.

6. You are no longer paid to "do things." You're paid to hire smarter doers, while creating a dream so big it overwhelms theirs..

7. Get over the title of CEO. How do you own your business instead of it owning you? Let your specialists run the show.

8. You really just become a recruiter for a living.

9. Understand your employees. A CEO is a psychologist. It's all about carrots and sticks.

10. Big vision = top talent. Can you get smarter people than you to believe YOU are a bet worth taking?

11. Being able to actively look for a sale is the greatest sign of health for your biz.

12. Your fastest way to millions is hiring the right people.

13. Your fastest way to misery is hiring the wrong people.

14. Pick a goal, and repeat it constantly. You must be comfortable repeating yourself over & over.

15. As a CEO you have to be a surgeon. Cancers will pop up... bad workers, terrible deals... Cut them out, fast..

16. Do what is required, not what is desired. "You can't show me a task that is beneath me."

17. Working harder always leads to money is a beautiful lie.

18. You will have to work irrationally hard and ALSO learn what to work on before you make real money.

19. It's all a who problem past your first $1 million.

20. You win in business doing the boring things: hiring well, spending little, selling often, and obsessing on customers.

21. You are always one hire away from a better, happier, more stress-free life.

↓↓↓

If you own a business and want to grow your profit this year...clear your schedule March 11th @ 10 am CT. 

I'm hosting a masterclass on how to grow any business faster (using my "Profit Multiplier" method).

Grab your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

We put a lot of pressure on interviews.

Here's what to ask to get more out of them:

↓ ↓ ↓

Want my full hiring method?

Download the system + matrix template here: → https://lnkd.in/euywp8w7

Job Interview Questions

The average person thinks having a job is safer than starting a company.

They're wrong:

Having a job vs Starting a compamy

Aussie writer with 1B+ content views in 10 years | I teach people to use writing online to create career opportunities | Let's connect: tim@timdenning.com

I quit my eCommerce startup with 100+ employees. Then got depressed, developed an eating disorder, and got a minimum-wage job in a bank. I now work for myself and make 7-figures writing.

I'm not that smart and have no college education. The way I used the internet made the difference.

And going to a Tony Robbins event changed my mindset. He taught me to go from being a victim to be in control.

This led to:

• 1B+ content views
• Financial freedom
• Book deal with a major publisher
• Meeting my heroes (like Tony Robbins)
• Quitting my banking career forever in 2021
• Multiple successful businesses fuelled by obsession

My mission: Help 100,000 people start online businesses. 

My beliefs that drive everything I do:

- Anything is possible
- Positivity above all
- Ego is the enemy
- Challenge the status quo
- Chase obsession, not passion
- Always be kind, grateful, and a good person

How can I help you?

• Social media audience building
• Starting or growing an online business

Join my email list with 200,000+ other high performers for more helpful insights:
https://timdenning.com/start-social-hustle-linkedin-bio/

Tim Denning

Corporate "culture" is the biggest lie in business. 

Nobody wants to admit it.

I spent over a decade in banking watching companies obsess over culture. We had culture committees. 

Culture surveys. Culture town halls where executives would stand up and talk about how much they valued their people.

Then they'd go back to their offices and send emails at 11pm expecting responses.

━━━━━

I remember when remote work first became a thing at my company. They treated it like a privilege. You had to apply for it. You needed manager approval. 

You had to prove you could be trusted to work from your own home like some kind of child asking for permission.

Then C0VID hit and suddenly everyone could work remotely. T

he company didn't collapse. Productivity didn't tank. People actually got more done because they weren't spending two hours commuting or sitting in meetings that could have been emails.

For about 2 years, everyone pretended this was the future. Executives gave interviews about how they'd never go back to the old way.

━━━━━

Now look at what's happening.

The same companies that said remote work was revolutionary are demanding people come back four days a week. They're calling it "collaboration." They're calling it "culture."

I've been in those offices. I know what actually happens.

People show up, put on their noise cancelling headphones, and do the exact same work they were doing at home. 

They sit in open plan offices designed for collaboration and spend eight hours trying to block out the noise so they can concentrate.

The only difference is they wasted an hour getting there and another hour getting home.

━━━━━

When I got fired in 2019, I was devastated. 

I'd given that company 10 years. I'd shown up to the office every day because that's what good employees did.

Looking back, getting pushed out was the best thing that happened to me.

I started building my own business. I work from wherever I want. I don't have to pretend that sitting in traffic is "culture."

━━━━━

Companies don't actually care about culture. They care about control.

They want you at your desk because it makes managers feel important. They want you in the building because they signed expensive leases and need to justify them.

Real culture isn't about where you sit. It's about whether you trust people to do their jobs.

The companies forcing everyone back to the office don't have a culture problem. They have a trust problem.

P.S. What's your experience with return-to-office mandates?

If you want to level up your career faster, then join my unconventional Substack newsletter with 183K others: https://lnkd.in/gMkRFmj9

Aussie writer with 1B+ content views in 12 years | Teaching high performers to build million-dollar digital businesses | Let’s connect: tim@timdenning.com

Most people chase the wrong version of success.

I know because I used to be one of them.

When I worked in banking, I had a colleague named Steve who bought a brand new Mercedes. He parked it in the premium spot every morning. 

Made sure everyone saw him get out of it. He talked about the leather seats, the sound system, the way it handled on the freeway.

Steve also worked 60-hour weeks. He missed his kid's school plays. He had to ask permission to take a long weekend. He was stressed, tired, and trapped by a car payment that demanded he keep showing up to a job he hated.

I remember sitting in a meeting with him one afternoon. His phone buzzed. He glanced at it and his face dropped. It was a photo from his wife. 

His daughter had just lost her first tooth. He missed it. He was stuck in a conference room listening to quarterly projections while his kid was at home wondering where daddy was.

Steve had the car. But he didn't have the life.

━━━━━

When I got fired, I lost the salary. I lost the title. I lost the security that comes with a corporate job.

But I gained something I didn't expect. Time.

I started building my own business. The first year was brutal. I made less money than I ever had. But I also had something Steve never did. 

I could be home on a random Tuesday afternoon. I could take my daughter to the park while other dads were stuck in meetings. I could watch her discover the world instead of hearing about it secondhand.

That's when I realized the Lambo dream is a lie.

It's not about the car. It's about what the car represents. People think if they get the Lambo, they've made it. They've won. They can finally relax.

But the Lambo requires the income to maintain it. The income requires the job. The job requires the hours. The hours steal your life.

You end up working for the car instead of the car working for you.

━━━━━

I've coached thousands of business owners since leaving my corporate career.

The ones who are actually happy aren't the ones with the flashiest stuff. They're the ones who built businesses that give them flexibility. 

They're the ones who can pick up their kids from school. They're the ones who don't have to ask a boss for permission to live their life.

The pattern is always the same. The people chasing status symbols are running on a treadmill that never stops. The people chasing freedom figured out how to get off the treadmill entirely.

━━━━━

My daughter just turned 3.

Today I took her to get ice cream at 1PM on a Monday. The shop was empty. We sat outside in the sun. 

She got chocolate all over her face and laughed about it. No rush. No meetings to get back to. Just a dad and his daughter enjoying a random afternoon together.

That moment is worth more than any car

I don't want the Lambo. I want more Tuesdays like that

What does success look like to you?

If you want to level up your career faster, join my unconventional Substack newsletter with 181K others: https://lnkd.in/gMkRFmj9

I gave a company 10 years of my life. They gave me 2 weeks notice.

When I got made redundant, I remember sitting in that meeting room thinking about all the times I'd stayed late. All the weekends I'd worked. All the family dinners I'd missed because something "urgent" came up at the office

I thought loyalty meant something. I thought if I just kept showing up and doing good work, the company would take care of me. That was the deal, right? Work hard, stay loyal, and you'll be rewarded.

Turns out I was the only one who believed in that deal.

━━━━━

There was a guy in my office named David who'd been at the company for 22 years.

He started there straight out of school. He trained half the managers in the building. He knew every system, every process, every client relationship. The company was his entire identity.

When they restructured his department, they let him go with a standard severance package. Same as everyone else. Twenty-two years of loyalty got him the same exit as someone who'd been there for two

I watched him clean out his desk. He looked confused more than anything. Like he couldn't understand how this had happened. He'd done everything right. He'd been loyal. And none of it mattered when the spreadsheet said his role was redundant

━━━━━

I used to judge people who job-hopped.

I thought they were disloyal. I thought they didn't understand the value of commitment. I thought staying at one company and working your way up was the honorable path

Now I realize those job-hoppers understood something I didn't. They knew the relationship between employee and employer is transactional. Always has been. The company will keep you as long as you're useful. The moment you're not, you're gone

That's not cynical. That's just how business works

━━━━━

Loyalty to a company that would replace you in 2 weeks is insanity

I'm not saying be a bad employee. Do great work. Hit your targets. Be reliable. But don't confuse being good at your job with owing your life to an organization that sees you as a line item on a budget

Your company is not your family. Your manager is not your friend. Your job title is not your identity. These are business relationships. Treat them that way

━━━━━

The only loyalty that makes sense is loyalty to yourself

Be loyal to your own growth. Be loyal to building skills that travel with you when you leave. Be loyal to creating options so you're never dependent on one employer's decision about your future

I spent a decade being loyal to a company. Now I spend my time being loyal to what I'm building. The difference in how I feel every morning is hard to describe.

━━━━━

Stop sacrificing your life for an organization that would post your job listing before your desk is cold

Build something that's actually yours. Or at least build skills that nobody can take away

That's the only job security that exists anymore

P.S: Have you ever felt burned by corporate loyalty?

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If nobody's rejecting you, you're not doing anything with your life.

Harsh but true.

In my banking days I watched colleagues avoid asking for anything. They wouldn't pitch ideas to leadership. 

They wouldn't ask for raises. They wouldn't apply for roles they actually wanted.

When I asked them why, the answers were always the same. "I don't want to look desperate." "What if they say no?" "I'll wait until the timing is better."

They were protecting themselves from rejection. And in doing so, they were rejecting themselves before anyone else had the chance.

━━━━━

I remember the first time I pitched an idea to a senior executive at my company.

I'd spent weeks preparing. I rehearsed my talking points in the shower. I ran the numbers over and over. I was convinced this idea could save the company money and make our team more efficient.

He listened for about 90 seconds, then told me it wasn't a priority right now. Meeting over.

I walked back to my desk feeling like an idiot. My face was hot. I kept replaying the conversation, wondering what I could have said differently.

But something interesting happened the next week. 

That same executive stopped by my desk and asked me about a different project. He remembered my name. He remembered I was someone who brought ideas to the table.

The rejection didn't close a door. It opened one I didn't even know existed.

━━━━━

When I got fired, I had to start pitching myself constantly.

I pitched my writing to publications. Most said no. I pitched my services to potential clients. Most ignored me. I pitched ideas to people I admired. Most never responded.

In my first year of building my own business, I probably heard "no" more times than I had in my entire corporate career combined.

And my business grew anyway.

Because every rejection meant I was actually doing something. I was taking swings instead of sitting on the bench hoping someone would notice me.

━━━━━

The people who never get rejected are the people who never ask for anything.

They stay safe. They stay comfortable. They stay exactly where they are.

I've worked with thousands of business owners. The ones who struggle most aren't the ones getting rejected. They're the ones who won't put themselves in a position to be rejected in the first place.

They won't send the cold email. They won't post the content. They won't make the offer. They're so afraid of hearing "no" that they guarantee themselves a lifetime of "nothing."

━━━━━

Rejection is proof that you're in the arena. You're not watching from the sidelines. You're actually playing the game.

If you're not getting rejected regularly, you're not taking enough action. You're playing it too safe.

Go get rejected this week. Pitch something. Ask for something. Put yourself out there.

The worst they can say is no. And that's not the end. That's the beginning.

P.S. What's a rejection that ended up being a good thing for you?

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The weirdest people I've met are also the most successful.

I don't mean weird in a bad way. I mean they never tried to be normal. 

They refused to follow the script society handed them. In banking I worked with hundreds of people over a decade. 

Most of them were interchangeable. 

They dressed the same. They talked the same. They had the same opinions in meetings because they were too scared to say anything different.

Then there was Dave.

Dave wore sneakers to client meetings. He'd interrupt senior executives mid-sentence if he thought they were wrong. He'd leave at 3pm on Fridays because he wanted to pick up his kids from school.

Everyone thought he'd get fired. Management talked about him like he was a problem to be solved.

Dave got promoted three times in four years. He became one of the youngest directors in the company's history.

━━━━━

I asked him once how he got away with it. He laughed and said he wasn't getting away with anything. He was just being himself.

"Most people spend their whole careers trying to fit in," he told me. "They're so busy copying everyone else that they forget to be useful. I'd rather be useful than popular."

That stuck with me.

I spent years trying to fit in at that company. I wore the right suits. I laughed at the right jokes. I stayed late because everyone else stayed late. I was so focused on not standing out that I became invisible.

The people who got ahead weren't the ones who blended in. They were the ones who had the guts to be different.

━━━━━

When I got fired, I realized I'd wasted years performing a version of myself that wasn't real. I'd been so worried about what people thought that I never asked what I actually wanted.

Building my own business forced me to stop pretending. 

There's no corporate dress code when you work from your living room. There's no manager to impress. There's just you and the work.

I started writing what I actually thought instead of what sounded professional. I started saying no to things that didn't interest me. I stopped trying to sound smart and started trying to be helpful.

My audience grew faster than it ever had before.

━━━━━

Fitting in is a survival strategy. 

It keeps you safe. It keeps you employed. It keeps you average.

The people who refuse to fit in take a risk. They might fail. They might get laughed at. They might get fired.

But they also might build something remarkable. They might become the person everyone else wishes they had the courage to be.

I admire people who refuse to fit in.

Not because they're rebels for the sake of it. Because they trust themselves more than they trust the crowd.

P.S. When did you stop trying to fit in?

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If you're easily offended, you're easily controlled. 

Most people never realize this.

I spent years in banking letting random comments from colleagues live rent-free in my head. Someone would make a snarky remark in a meeting. 

I'd replay it for days. 
I'd adjust my behavior. 
I'd shrink myself to avoid future criticism.

I was a puppet. And I didn't even know who was pulling the strings.

━━━━━

Getting offended is a choice most people don't realize they're making.

Someone criticizes your work. You can let it ruin your week. Or you can ask yourself: Is this feedback useful? If yes, use it. If no, delete it from your brain and move on.

That's it. That's the whole framework.

But most people skip the evaluation step entirely. They go straight to emotional reaction. They let strangers control their mood, their confidence, their entire day.

━━━━━

I've coached thousands of people trying to build businesses and careers.

The ones who struggle most aren't lacking talent or ideas. They're paralyzed by what others might think. 

They won't post content because someone might disagree. They won't launch products because someone might criticize. They won't charge what they're worth because someone might call them greedy.

They've handed the remote control of their life to people who don't even think about them.

━━━━━

Being easily offended means being easily manipulated.

Think about it. If I know exactly which buttons to push to make you angry, sad, or defensive, I control you. Politicians know this. Media companies know this. Toxic people in your life definitely know this.

Every time you react emotionally to provocation, you've given someone else power over your mental state. You've become predictable. Controllable.

━━━━━

Training yourself to not get offended isn't about becoming cold or emotionless.

It's about being selective with your energy. It's about choosing which battles actually matter and which ones are just noise designed to distract you.

Someone disagrees with your opinion online? Good. Let them. You don't need everyone to agree with you. You need to stay focused on what you're building.

Someone talks behind your back? Good. Let them. Their opinion of you is none of your business. Your opinion of yourself is the only one that pays your bills.

━━━━━

The most successful people I know have thick skin and selective hearing.

They hear criticism, evaluate it quickly, keep what's useful, and discard the rest without emotional attachment. They don't waste mental energy defending themselves against every slight.

They're too busy building to be bothered by people who are too busy judging.

━━━━━

Want more peace in your life?

Stop giving random people the power to disturb it. Train yourself to pause before reacting. Ask yourself if this will matter in a week, a month, a year.

Most things that offend us today won't even be memories tomorrow.

Save your energy for what actually matters.

What's helped you develop thicker skin?

Most people's version of freedom looks like this:

Work 40+ years. Save enough. Retire. Do nothing.

They call this "the dream."

I call it a slow death.

━━━━━

Retirement isn't freedom. It's delayed living.

You spend your best years trading time for money. Your healthiest decades sitting in meetings. Your most energetic moments answering emails.

Then at 65, you finally get permission to live. Except now your body hurts. Your energy is gone. Half the things you wanted to do require a younger version of you.

The math doesn't work.

━━━━━

I watched my friend’s dad do this.

He worked his whole life for a company that didn't care about him. Saved diligently. Did everything right. Finally retired at 64.

Two years later his health started failing. The travel plans got shelved. The bucket list gathered dust.

He traded his best years for a retirement he couldn't fully enjoy.

━━━━━

Freedom isn't an age. It's a feeling.

It's waking up and deciding how your day goes. It's saying no to things that drain you. It's having options instead of obligations.

You can have this at 35. Or 45. Or right now.

But not if you keep waiting.

━━━━━

I used to think freedom meant "not working."

I was wrong.

Freedom is working on what matters to you. It's building something you own. It's choosing who you spend time with and what problems you solve.

The people I know who "retired early" and did nothing? Most of them are miserable. No purpose. No growth. Just endless days of golf and Netflix.

That's not freedom. That's a comfortable cage.

━━━━━

Society sold us a broken definition.

Work hard now. Sacrifice now. Live later.

But "later" isn't guaranteed. And even if it comes, you'll be a different person with a different body and different energy levels.

Stop optimizing for a future version of yourself that may never exist.

━━━━━

Redefine what freedom actually means.

Freedom isn't quitting everything. It's designing a life where work doesn't feel like work. Where Monday doesn't feel different from Saturday.

Start building that now. Don't wait for some magical age when you're finally "allowed" to live.

The permission slip you're waiting for doesn't exist.

Give it to yourself.

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The Battle

Codie A. Sanchez

Tim Denning

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The Battle

Codie A. Sanchez

Tim Denning

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Codie A. Sanchez's LinkedIn Performance

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