Life/Business Lessons From Mr. McMahon

A documentary that's worth watching

I just finished binging the new Vince McMahon doc.

Worth if for nostalgia purposes alone (assuming you’re a millennial).

Who among us didn’t get sent to the principal’s office for practicing the Stone Cold Stunner on our friends during recess???

It’s not purely a millennial nostalgia trip, though.

There’s a lot you can learn about business/success as well (particularly the intangible side of things).

Standing out from the crowd

What really stood out to me while watching the doc is the value of being your own person.

Vince McMahon had a vision that he brute forced into existence. He swept aside anything that stood in his way: competitors, lawsuits, anything.

Once he was on the warpath he didn’t stop until he achieved what he wanted to achieve.

And it made him rich AF.

You might think: “Yeah, that’s obvious. Don’t quit. No shit. Talk about generic self help advice. I’ve heard that a million times.”

Cool. You’ve heard it. But have you lived it?

Most people do the opposite of what Vince McMahon did. They get all excited when they first start something but then quit the second they don’t get instantaneous, overwhelming success.

Every generation is full of narcissists. But unlike the high-effort narcissists of the past, our new generation of soy narcissists thinks they should be given everything they want without risk, competition, or fear of failure.

These Inverse-McMahons don’t use their delusions of grandeur to help them power through all obstacles and achieve success beyond their wildest dreams.

Instead they think the world should just randomly acknowledge their greatness and give them everything on a silver platter despite the fact that they feel social anxiety when they have to make a phone call and say stupid shit like ‘if the book is good they’ll turn it into a movie so why read it.’

Pathetic.

Killing sacred cows

Another thing that helped Vince succeed was that he was willing to kill sacred cows when they were no longer useful.

When pro wrestling was regional and operated under a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, he said ‘fuck it’ and intruded on other peoples’ turf. Everyone freaked out. He did it anyway.

Looking at it from 2024’s POV, it’s obvious that that was a fantastic decision and it makes you wonder why his competitors didn’t do the same. WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS DOESN’T COMPETE WITH ITS COMPETITORS?

If you want to REALLY understand people, you have to be aware of a simple psychological heuristic: most people operate under the spell of Present Zeitgeist Bias (PZB).

PZB causes people to think that the way things are now is the way they always will be.

Even worse, they think the way things are now is the way things SHOULD be. Almost like it’s a moral issue. “How dare you question the WAY THINGS ARE?”

If someone asked me what I thought the most important trait for success is, I wouldn’t say work ethic. I wouldn’t say intelligence. I wouldn’t even say confidence.

The most important trait for success - the one that really propels people into the stratosphere - is the ability to see things no one else sees.

If hindsight is 20/20, the present moment is like looking at the world through those side blinder things that horses wear during parades so they don’t freak tf out.

The present moment almost forces you to see only what’s right in front of your face and nothing else. Resisting this feels like resisting gravity.

Today is Thursday. The world is exactly the same as it was on Wednesday, and it’ll be exactly the same on Friday. It feels like the world will just carry on being the same, day in and day out, forever.

But it’s not true.

The ideas, opportunities, and aesthetics of today will seem dated and ridiculous one day. Think about how every adult cringes when they see pictures of themselves as a teenager.

This concept applies to business opportunities the same way it applies to fashion. The things that make money now won’t necessarily make money in the future. And the things that most people can’t even see right now will be lucrative beyond belief.

The real winners have the ability to zoom out.

There’s nothing special about the present moment just because we’re experiencing it. It’s just another day, no more or less special than a random day one year ago, or ten years ago, or a thousand years ago, or five years in the future, or a million years in the future.

We’re not at the end of history. We’re living in a random moment in the middle.

Once you fully accept this, it’s easy to also accept that everything will change and that you need to position yourself to take advantage when it does.

The way Vince McMahon switched WWE from being a form of entertainment that appealed only to little kids in the early 90’s, to an over-the-top edgelord style that appealed to adults in the late 90’s (Attitude Era), back to being family-friendly in the late 2000’s was genius.

He saw the changes in the zeitgeist when no one else did and made BANK.

The only way to ride these waves is by simultaneously keeping your finger on the pulse of society while also viewing things from a detached 69000 foot perspective. An outsider viewing things from the insider POV. A king who’s still in touch with the streets. It can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t.

Being larger than life

Vince McMahon is a CHARACTER.

I’m not talking about the Mr. McMahon made-for-TV character. I’m talking about the guy himself.

Everything he does is ridiculous. His facial expressions are ridiculous. The way he talks is ridiculous. The way he walks is ridiculous. His entire aura screams ‘I’m not a regular person and normal rules don’t apply to me’.

People are naturally drawn to that.

99%+++ of people have to restrict who they are to appease their boss at work and society at large or they won’t get a paycheck and won’t be able to survive.

They’re in awe of anyone who doesn’t live by those same rules and wish they could do the same.

Important note: This is assuming you’re successful.

Lots of dudes out there ‘rejecting society’ from their mom’s basement or while working some low wage job at Petco, wearing cargo shorts to dinner and making a fool of themselves to show how non-conformist and ‘real’ they are.

That’s obviously not a good approach to life.

But if you’ve achieved some level of success then being seen as Someone To Whom Normal Rules Don’t Apply can be extremely beneficial.

Vince’s shtick is obviously tailor-made for pro wrestling, but assuming you have social skills (a big assumption these days) you should be able to think of a few ways to make yourself seem larger than life in a less weirdly flamboyant way.

Bottom line: watch the doc. It’s good.