Smartcuts 

Shane Snow 
 

Book Overview from the Publisher 

Serial  entrepreneur  and  journalist  Shane  Snow  delves  into  the  reasons  why  some  people  and 
organizations  are able to achieve incredible things in implausibly short time frames, showing how each of 
us can use these “smartcuts” to rethink convention and accelerate success. 

In  every  era,  innovators  from  art  to  science  to  business  have  used  what  psychologists  call  “lateral 
thinking”  to  find  better  routes  to  stunning  accomplishments.  ​Smartcuts  shows  how  they  bucked  the 
norm—and  how  the  rest  of  us  can  too.  Snow  shatters  common  wisdom  about  success,  revealing  how 
conventions  like  “paying  dues” prevent progress, why kids shouldn’t learn multiplication tables, and how, 
paradoxically, it’s easier to build a huge business than a small one. 

Smartcuts  tells  the  stories  of  people  who  dared  to  work  differently  and  lays  out  practical  takeaways for 
the  rest  of  us.  It’s  about  applying  entrepreneurial  and  technological concepts to success in life and work, 
and  how,  by  emulation,  we  too  can  leapfrog  competitors,  grow  businesses,  and  fix  society’s  problems 
faster than we think. 
 
 

KEY POINTS COVERED IN THIS SUMMARY: 

1. Connect with superconnectors ​- A meta-level strategy to accelerate 
success in any field of endeavor 
2. 10x thinking -​ This mindset is powerful in accelerating success 
3. Find mentors -​ Keys to finding mentors for your success 

1) Connect with Superconnectors 

 
What  would  be  easier  for  you:  a)  go  out  and  make  1000  friends,  or  b)  go  find that one person 
who has 1000 friends?  
 
Of  course  it  will  be  much  more  effective  for  you  to  connect  with  that  one  person  who  has 
thousands  of  friends.  You  borrow  credibility  from  that  person  and  you  have  instant  credibility 
now with all these other people.  
 
The people who have these giant networks are called s​ uperconnectors​. 
 

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Find  these  superconnectors  in  your  field  of  endeavor  and  make  connections  with them. That is 
your meta-level strategy to accelerate your success.  
 
EXAMPLE: J.J. Abrams 
 
J.J.  Abrams  is  a  highly  accomplished  director,  producer,  and  screenplay  writer.  He  started  off 
writing  a  lot  of  screenplays  early  on  in  his  career.  He  wrote 9 screenplays for movies and none 
of them went anywhere.  
 
Then  he  decided  to  connect  with  a  daughter  of  a  very  well-connected  director.  He  co-wrote  a 
script  with  this  woman  and  it  went  on  to  become  a  really  well-received  movie  called  “Taking 
Care of Business.” 
 
That  launched  J.J.  Abrams’  career.  We  know  him  now  as  the person who was behind the most 
recent  “Star  Wars”  movies,  “Star  Trek,”  and  a  lot  of  other  great  movies.  He has now become a 
superconnector in Hollywood as he is always connecting people and helping them out.  
 
He  launched  his  career  by  going  after  that  person  who  was very well connected in Hollywood, 
and that allowed him to get his grand success and go after his big dreams.  
 
How  do  we  go  find  these  superconnectors  and  how  do  we  actually  create  relationships  with 
them? Here’s the simple formula.  
 
1. F
​ igure out what it is that they need - W ​ hat is it that they need the most right now?  
 
2.  ​Find  a  way  to  give  that  thing  to  them.  Whatever it is that they want, give it to them 
and  make  them  look  good  in  the  process.  Help  them succeed. They will in turn give you 
a lot of help and support and allow you to succeed.  
 
So  ​giving  ​is  the  ultimate  smartcut  in  the  overall  meta-level  thinking  when  it  comes  to 
accelerating  success  in  any  field  of  endeavor.  The  more  you  give,  the  more  you're  going  to  be 
able to receive.  

2) 10x Thinking 
 
10x thinking forces you to break rules and challenge conventions. 
 
A  simple  10x  thinking  would  be  10x-ing  your  goals,  10x-ing  your  outcomes,  10x-ing  your 
dreams.  
 

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It's  very  difficult  to  accomplish 10x goals with just conventional thinking and hence you have to 
think bold.  
 
If  you  were  to  just  try  to  improve  your goals by 10%, then conventional thinking would work. If 
you  have  a  business,  you'd  try to improve probably your sales or marketing. You’d try to work a 
little harder in order to guarantee your 10% improvement.  
 
But  when  you  are  going  after  10%  improvement,  it's  not  really  inspirational.  There  is  no 
excitement  about  improving  by  10%.  It's  a  very  incremental  kind  of  progress  so  it  doesn't 
inspire anyone.  
 
When we go after 10x, on the other hand, when we say we’re going to multiply our goals by 10 
--  certainly  all  the  old  assumptions  don't  hold  anymore.  Therefore,  in  order  to  achieve  10x 
thinking: 
 
● We have to break the mold.  
● We have to be bold.  
● We have to be creative.  
● We have to start thinking bigger. 
 
When  we  have  10x  goals,  we  start  to  get  much  more  excited  about  our  goals.  We  are  much 
more interested in making them happen.  
 
EXAMPLE OF 10x THINKING: Elon Musk and SpaceX 
 
When  Elon  Musk  started  SpaceX,  he  wanted  to  make  space  more accessible. He wanted to be 
able  to  take people to space. He had the grand vision of taking people to Mars and of inhabiting 
the planet.  
 
He  realized  that  in  order  to  make  space  accessible  and  in  order  to  be  able to travel to Mars, he 
needs to reduce the cost of space travel. In the old way of thinking, every launch was over $100 
million  and  the  launches  were  usually  just  for  launching  satellites  into  space  and  going  to  the 
space station. And they were all using single-use rockets.  
 
What  Elon  Musk  decided  to  do  was  instead  go  for  reusable  rockets  because  they  are  going to 
be  much  cheaper  once  they  start  to  work.  They  are  10x  cheaper  because  most  of  the  rocket 
hardware can be reused.  
 
Elon  was  able  to  make  rockets  10x  cheaper  because  he  had  a  much  grander  vision.  He  didn't 
go  after  the  regular  goal  of  just  launching  satellites  into  space.  He  said,  “We're  going  to  take 
people  to  space.  We're  going  to  make  it  much  more  accessible  to  everyone,  and  not  only that, 
we're going to take people to Mars. We're going to inhabit Mars.”  
 

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So  the  goals  were  so  giant  that  he  ended  up producing these 10x effects all over the business. 
And one of the results was a rocket 10x cheaper than what it normally is.  

10x in the Business World 

 
Businesses that have a big vision or purpose tend to have these qualities: 
● They  are  actually  400%  more  profitable  than the S&P 500 businesses which don't have 
a big vision or purpose.  
● They will always attract big money.  
● They will attract a lot of talent.  
● They have a much higher likelihood of being more successful 
 
In  contrast,  businesses  that  don't  have  a  big  mission  or  purpose  don't  tend  to  inspire  people, 
and  hence  they  don't  attract  big  thinkers  that  businesses  with  a  big  mission  or  purpose  will. 
They  don’t  really  get  anyone  excited  to  get  behind  the  business  in  the  process.  They  will  not 
attract a lot of money either.  
 
Overall, when you are going after your dream, it's much better, more effective, and faster to 10x 
your  dream,  10x  your  vision,  10x  your  goal  rather  than  just  try  to  improve  by  10%.  Trying  to 
improve by 10% does not lead to any real great success. It only leads to very ordinary success.  
 

3) Finding Mentors 
 
When  I  was  at  Tony  Robbins’  “Unleash  the  Power  Within,”  a  live  seminar  event,  the  top 
strategy  that  Tony  said  again  and  again  in  terms  of  accelerating  success  in  any  field  of 
endeavor was: 
 
Go find people who have done what you want to do and work with them.  
 
As you may or may not know -- 
● Socrates mentored Plato. 
● Plato mentored Aristotle. 
● Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great. 
 
So  there  was a lineage of people who were mentoring the next generation again and again. It is 
up  to  the  person  who's  seeking  success  to  go  find  these  mentors  and work with them in order 
to find success. 
 

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It  has  been  proven  now that entrepreneurs who have mentors tend to grow ​3.5x faster​. That is 
a really big number compared to those who don't have mentors.  

Why mentorship is powerful  

 
1.  It  provides  ​real-time  feedback​.  Whenever  you're  stuck  and  need  some  problems  to  be 
solved, you can call up your mentor, seek feedback or advice, and you can get that.  
 
2.  ​Your  mentor  has  walked  the  path  that  you're  trying  to  walk​.  He  or  she  is  able  to  tell  you 
what you should look out for, and you can actually learn much faster as a result of that.  

Keys to make mentorship work 

 
1. It should be ​informal r​ ather than formal. 
 
2.  It  should  be  a  ​deep  and organic ​relationship with your mentor, rather than something where 
you  have  some  sort  of  a  contract  or  a  bound  relationship.  The  latter  works  well too but a deep 
and organic relationship will help you solidify your relationship with your mentor much more.  
 
3. You want a mentor who's ​invested in your success​.  
● Someone who will be really happy to see you succeed.  
● Someone who cares for you. 
● Someone who has a relationship with you. 
● Someone who deeply wants you to succeed.  
 
That's  the  kind  of  mentor  you  want.  When  you  have  that  kind  of  mentorship,  you  know  that 
you're  on  your  path to great success. That's exactly what Socrates did for Plato, and Plato did it 
for Aristotle, and Aristotle did it for Alexander the Great.  
 
But  in  each  of  these  cases,  ​they  had  to go find these people. They had to go find the mentors, 
and that's what all of us need to do on our journeys.  
 
We  need  to  find  mentors.  We  need  to  find  people  who  are  a  few  steps  ahead of us and enroll 
them in this process. 
 
Related Books: 
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