Andrew Wilkinson: Tiny Holdings
Andrew Wilkinson, co-founder of Tiny, discusses overcoming mimetic desire and dopamine addiction through a month-long detox. He shares lessons from building a profitable holding company, hiring CEOs, and using wealth to create a meaningful life, emphasizing internal satisfaction over external validation.
Deep Dive Analysis
20 Topic Outline
Andrew Wilkinson's Anhedonia and Digital Detox
Dopamine Addiction and Resetting Personal Benchmarks
Understanding Mimetic Desire and External Validation
Entrepreneurial Drive vs. Enjoying Success
Advantages of Building a Business in Victoria
Competing Against Venture-Backed Companies
Hiring CEOs for Different Business Stages
Decision-Making Process for AeroPress CEO
Using Wealth for Meaningful Life Experiences
Investing in Local Community and Tangible Projects
The Value of Structured Entrepreneurial Forums
Insights from Biology, Health, and Funding Science
Raising Children with Wealth and Fostering Drive
Lessons from Managing a $200 Million Fund
Public Investing Strategy and WeCommerce Journey
Forcing Functions for Success: Pace and Action
Managing Stress and the Primacy of Sleep
Self-Binding and Avoiding Temptation
Toughest Negotiations and Dealing with Bad Faith
Defining Success and How Andrew Wants to Be Remembered
5 Key Concepts
Anhedonia
A state where usual pleasures, such as coffee, walks, or entertainment, no longer provide enjoyment, indicating a need for a mental and emotional reset.
Dopamine Addiction
The brain's craving for constant stimulation from various sources like phones, food, or business, which can lead to a cycle of increasing demand and eventual dissatisfaction if overstimulated.
Mimetic Desire
The concept that people often desire things not because they intrinsically want them, but because others in their social environment or peer group desire them, leading to comparison and envy.
Immigrants to Wealth
Individuals who grew up without significant wealth but later achieved it, understanding the culture of affluence but lacking the inherent possessions or generational comfort of those born into it.
Self-Binding
A strategy to control behavior by physically removing temptations or creating environmental barriers, rather than relying solely on willpower, which is often insufficient against strong urges.
10 Questions Answered
Anhedonia is a state where usual pleasures lose their enjoyment. Andrew experienced it as a complete lack of pleasure from activities like drinking coffee, walking, or using his phone, leading him to realize he needed a complete reset from constant stimulation.
Mimetic desire suggests that people often want things because others in their social group or environment want them, rather than from an intrinsic personal desire, which can lead to endless striving and comparison.
Building a business in Victoria provided discipline due to limited access to capital, forcing profitability. It also removed Andrew from the mimetic desire and competitive pressures of major business hubs, allowing him to be more content.
Andrew learned that competing directly with venture-backed companies in hyper-competitive markets is difficult due to their ability to outspend and outmarket. He now focuses on 'boring' profitable niches where capital doesn't matter as much and competition is lower.
For a later-stage company, Andrew looks for someone who has implemented best practices and scaled a similar business to at least double the size. For an early-stage company, he seeks a slightly more risk-averse 'number two or three' from another scaled company, who can take an existing concept and grow it.
Instead of typical luxuries, Andrew uses wealth to meet interesting people globally and locally, fund scientific research through his foundation, and invest in local community projects like restaurants, a news business, and a hotel to make his city more interesting.
Structured conversations, especially in confidential forums, allow entrepreneurs to share personal and business highs and lows, building deep trust and providing an impartial 'board of directors' and friends who offer insights not found in casual interactions.
Andrew finds that being well-rested is crucial, as tiredness can turn small problems into large ones. He also employs 'forcing functions' like talking about ideas publicly to make them real, and self-binding strategies to remove temptations and create a disciplined environment.
Andrew's primary public holding is Pershing Square Holdings, Bill Ackman's publicly traded holding company, which he invested in after meeting Ackman and being impressed. He believes in delegating public investing to smart managers and focuses on private markets where he finds more inefficiencies and better deals.
Andrew struggles with this, but hopes to instill a love of learning in his children, allowing them the 'knowledge vacation' of university without the pressure of immediate financial necessity. He wants them to feel loved and cared for, and to develop their own drive.
34 Actionable Insights
1. Perform a Dopamine Detox
If feeling hollow or losing meaning, conduct a ‘dopamine detox’ by completely abstaining from stimulating inputs (phone, email, music, podcasts, social media) for an extended period (e.g., a month). This can reset your brain’s reward system and allow you to find pleasure in simple activities again.
2. Implement Self-Binding for Habits
Acknowledge that willpower is often insufficient and implement ‘self-binding’ strategies to remove temptations and stimuli from your environment entirely. This could involve not keeping unhealthy foods in the house or using screen time limits on devices with a trusted person holding the passcode.
3. Prioritize Sleep to Manage Stress
When feeling stressed or overwhelmed, check your sleep status, as being underslept can magnify problems and negatively impact your emotional resilience. Prioritize adequate rest to maintain perspective and effectively manage challenges.
4. Maintain a Consistent Sleep Ritual
Establish and adhere to a consistent bedtime ritual, including winding down activities like watching TV, reading, and using low light, to ensure you fall asleep at the same time each night and improve sleep quality.
5. Just Get Started
Avoid the ’endless loop of research and never doing’ by taking action and getting started, as this prevents paralysis and allows for learning through doing.
6. Hire to Learn, Not to Perfect
Instead of perpetually measuring and delaying, hire the ‘wrong’ person first to gain immediate experience and learn what is truly needed. This approach prioritizes action and learning over seeking perfection upfront.
7. Recognize Mimetic Desire
Be aware of ‘mimetic desire,’ where you desire things simply because others around you desire them, rather than from an intrinsic want. This awareness can help you avoid endlessly striving for external validation and appreciate what you already have.
8. Curate Your Social Environment
Intentionally choose your social environment to avoid mimetic desire and unnecessary competition. Surround yourself with people whose values align with a lifestyle you genuinely desire, rather than constantly striving for what others have.
9. Identify Intrinsic Motivations
Reflect deeply to understand your true intrinsic motivations, such as a ‘sense of safety and security,’ rather than being driven solely by external desires modeled by others. This self-awareness helps align actions with genuine personal fulfillment.
10. Harness Anxiety for Productivity
If you experience anxiety, try to harness it for productivity by focusing on ticking off to-do items. This approach allows you to channel anxious energy into tangible accomplishments.
11. Adopt “Pleased, Not Satisfied” Mindset
Cultivate a mindset of being ‘pleased, but not satisfied,’ which allows you to appreciate current achievements while remaining driven to continuously improve and find better ways of doing things.
12. Trust Your Team & Delegate
Delegate effectively and trust your team, as removing yourself from daily operations can reveal their capability to perform excellent work independently and allow you to focus on higher-level decisions.
13. Cultivate Financial Discipline
Operate with financial discipline, especially when capital is scarce, by focusing on running a profitable business from day one. This approach fosters resilience and sustainable growth.
14. Focus on Profitable Niches
Seek out ‘boring’ but profitable niches where outcomes are predictable and competition from venture-backed companies is low. This strategy, often described as ‘fishing where the fish are,’ helps avoid high-risk, capital-intensive battles.
15. Tailor CEO Hiring to Company Stage
Adapt your CEO hiring strategy to the company’s stage: for later-stage companies, seek experienced leaders from similar industries who have scaled businesses to at least double the size; for early-stage companies, look for risk-averse number twos or threes from scaled companies who can take a concept and grow it.
16. Prioritize Trust and Vision Alignment in CEO Hiring
When hiring a CEO, prioritize ethics and trust (e.g., ‘would I let this person babysit my kids?’). Additionally, ensure strong alignment with their vision and strategy, as you cannot dictate their approach once hired.
17. Allow People to Learn from Experience
Recognize that you likely ’never, ever had any luck changing anyone’s mind,’ as people often need to come to their own conclusions and gain experience, even if it means making mistakes.
18. Embrace Learning from Mistakes
Embrace mistakes and ‘wrong’ hires as valuable learning opportunities, using them to ‘calibrate’ your understanding and identify what ‘good’ looks like in future endeavors.
19. Cultivate a Sense of Pace
Develop a ‘crazy sense of pace’ by immediately talking about new ideas, giving them a name, or creating a logo to make them feel real and push them forward. Prioritize getting started over perpetual planning to avoid inaction.
20. Avoid Deals with Bad People
Steer clear of negotiations and deals with individuals who act in bad faith or manipulate, as such partnerships inevitably backfire. As Charlie Munger advises, ‘you can’t make a good deal with bad people.’
21. Prove Concepts with Own Capital First
Before inviting external investors, prove concepts and ventures internally using your own capital. This approach, as practiced by successful investors, mitigates psychological stress and ensures conviction in the business model.
22. Seek Inefficiencies in Private Markets
Explore private markets for investment opportunities, as they can be less efficient than public markets and offer better deals, especially when founders are looking for buyers who align with their values rather than just financial gain.
23. Build Trust with Founders in Acquisitions
When acquiring businesses, build trust with founders by addressing their core concerns: fair compensation, care for employees, and the long-term legacy of their business. Emphasize a sustainable, non-disruptive approach to foster successful partnerships.
24. Disregard Daily Stock Fluctuations
For long-term investments, disregard daily stock price fluctuations, as they are irrelevant unless you are selling. Focus instead on the underlying earnings growth of the business, which the market price will eventually reflect.
25. Prioritize Exercise and Healthy Eating
Recognize that exercise and eating well are fundamental to overall health and well-being, forming the core of a healthy lifestyle.
26. Use Health Monitoring for Behavior Correction
Utilize health monitoring tools (e.g., glucose monitor, smartwatches) to gain insights into your body’s responses and correct behaviors, such as avoiding foods that negatively impact sleep. However, avoid obsessive monitoring and limit deep dives into health science to prevent anxiety.
27. Create External Incentives for Goals
Establish external incentives or social ‘shame’ mechanisms with trusted friends to help enforce commitment to personal goals, making it harder to break habits due to the undesirable consequence.
28. Engage in Structured Conversations
Participate in structured conversations, such as confidential entrepreneur forums or using prompt cards like those from School of Life, to foster deeper connections, gain impartial perspectives, and learn what’s truly happening in others’ lives.
29. Leverage Wealth for Learning & Connections
Utilize wealth to connect with fascinating people and expand your knowledge, such as by funding research labs to gain access to world experts or by hosting events to bring interesting individuals to your community.
30. Invest in Local Community Impact
Invest in projects and businesses within your local community, such as starting a news business, building a hotel, or acquiring local institutions, to make a tangible impact and foster a more interesting environment.
31. Prioritize Kids’ Love & Well-being
Prioritize ensuring your children feel loved and cared for, as this is the ultimate personal success, rather than seeking external validation or material achievements.
32. Cultivate a Love of Learning in Children
Encourage a love of learning in your children from an early age, hoping they can enjoy educational pursuits without the pressure of immediate financial necessity, allowing them to explore their passions freely.
33. Avoid External Validation & Ostentation
Resist the urge to seek external validation through material possessions or public displays of wealth, as these often fail to bring true satisfaction and can make you a target for criticism or envy.
34. Fund Scientific Research
Consider funding scientific research through a foundation, applying business skills to help bring lab discoveries into clinical practice and make a tangible impact on health and well-being.
5 Key Quotes
I'm perpetually 20% dissatisfied with everything.
James Dyson (quoted by Andrew Wilkinson)
Most successful people are just an anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity.
Andrew Wilkinson
I've never, ever had any luck changing anyone's mind in my whole life. People come to their own conclusions and they have to go and have those experiences.
Charlie Munger (quoted by Andrew Wilkinson)
Boring is beautiful. There's riches and niches.
Andrew Wilkinson
Whales only get harpooned when they surface.
Andrew Wilkinson
3 Protocols
Andrew Wilkinson's Digital Detox Protocol
Andrew Wilkinson- Put phone in a drawer.
- Go to a secluded place (e.g., a lake house).
- Avoid phone, email, music, podcasts, and any other constant stimulation for about a month.
- Endure initial withdrawal symptoms (e.g., misery, anger, irritability).
- Allow the brain to reset, enabling engagement with simple pleasures like views and playing with kids.
Entrepreneurial Forum Meeting Protocol (EO)
Andrew Wilkinson- Meet once a month with six other entrepreneurs in a completely confidential setting.
- Give an update on personal life, including highs and lows.
- Give an update on family life, including highs and lows.
- Give an update on work life, including highs and lows.
- Follow a structured format with a timer and moderator to ensure focused discussion.
- Build trust over time to create an impartial board of directors and strong friendships.
Self-Binding for Habit Control Protocol
Andrew Wilkinson- Identify a specific food or behavior to control (e.g., eating ice cream).
- Remove the stimulus completely from your environment (e.g., don't have ice cream in the house).
- Avoid situations that trigger the desire (e.g., don't ask for the dessert menu).
- Optionally, create external incentives or disincentives (e.g., a 'shame hat' for breaking the rule) to reinforce the behavior change.