learn.fttgsolutions.com · The Stack
The Builder's Philosophy
Think. Reflect. Grow.
Foundational Thinkers
| Jim Rohn | America's foremost business philosopher — taught that personal development is the foundation of all success. |
| Napoleon Hill | Interviewed 500 successful people over 20 years and distilled their mindset into a replicable system. |
| Earl Nightingale | Radio broadcaster who defined success as 'the progressive realisation of a worthy goal.' |
| Marcus Aurelius | Roman emperor who wrote private meditations on virtue, duty, and self-mastery — still essential reading. |
| Epictetus | Stoic philosopher who taught that freedom comes from mastering your response to what you can't control. |
Essential Reading
| Think & Grow Rich | Napoleon Hill's 1937 masterwork — 13 principles distilled from decades of studying the ultra-successful. |
| Richest Man in Babylon | Timeless wealth parables set in ancient Babylon — simple rules for saving, investing, and growing money. |
| Meditations | Marcus Aurelius's private journal — raw reflections on discipline, perspective, and ruling your own mind. |
| As a Man Thinketh | James Allen's short 1903 essay — your thoughts shape your character, circumstances, and destiny. |
| The Compound Effect | Darren Hardy's guide to small consistent actions — tiny daily choices compounding into extraordinary results. |
Mental Models
| First Principles | Strip a problem to its fundamental truths and reason up — the thinking tool behind every breakthrough innovation. |
| Compounding | Small consistent gains multiplied over time — the most powerful force in skills, finance, and relationships. |
| 80/20 Principle | 80% of results come from 20% of effort — identify the vital few actions that drive the most output. |
| Inversion | Solve problems by thinking backwards — instead of how to succeed, ask what would guarantee failure. |
| Second-Order Thinking | Consider the consequences of consequences — what happens after the thing you're planning actually happens? |
Builder Principles
| Discipline | Doing what needs to be done regardless of how you feel — the gap between knowing and doing is closed here. |
| Long-term Thinking | Sacrificing short-term comfort for compounding gains — the lens that separates builders from consumers. |
| Mastery | Pursuing deep expertise over breadth — deliberate daily practice building irreplaceable, differentiated skill. |
| Purpose | A clear reason why that outlasts motivation — the anchor that keeps you building when conditions are difficult. |
| Consistency | Showing up daily without waiting for inspiration — repetition is the engine of skill and reputation. |
Daily Practices
| Journaling | Writing to think clearly — externalising thoughts on paper forces clarity that staying in your head never does. |
| Deep Work | Cal Newport's term for focused, undistracted output — where the highest-value work actually gets done. |
| Weekly Review | Stepping back to assess the week, clear your mind, and deliberately plan what comes next. |
| Mentorship | Learning from someone ahead of you — compressing years of trial and error into months of guided growth. |
| Environment Design | Shaping your surroundings to make good habits effortless and bad habits inconvenient. |
Applied Stoicism
| Memento Mori | Remember you will die — a daily reminder to live deliberately and not waste time on what doesn't matter. |
| Amor Fati | Love your fate — embrace everything that happens, including hardship, as fuel for growth. |
| Dichotomy of Control | There are things in your control and things that are not — wisdom is knowing which is which. |
| Premeditatio Malorum | Pre-meditate the bad — visualise what could go wrong so you're not blindsided when it does. |