Real Lessons from Maduro

Life lessons you have missed amid news headlines

You like movies about the President of the United States? Let me give you some plotlines.

• President falls in love with lobbyist

• Look-alike fills in for President

• President fights terrorists on his plane

• President abducts another President from his house

Well, the top three were actual movie scripts (The American President, Dave, Air Force One). And the fourth one would be a rejected script for being too cartoonish. And this past weekend, it actually happened.

While the entire news media is analyzing the Maduro capture - what happened, what it means, and what’s next, they all missed the real lessons from the Maduro story.

I will tell you the real lessons.

How do I define “real” lessons? They are the ones you can actually use to improve your lives as entrepreneurs, creators, dreamers and doers.

Note: I don’t write about politics, and this article is not meant to be political. I’m not here to argue what Trump did was right or wrong, good or bad for the country/world.

I’m not “above it all”, or “both sides are bad”, or afraid to piss you off… Ok maybe a little. Because if I were going to piss you off, I want it to be for the right reason, not regurgitate political takes from a million others on X and Substack.

I see world events as treasure trove of hidden lessons of achievements. That’s what I want to write.

To see real life lessons, you need to think, and look beyond the news headline

Real lesson #1 – Find and break experts rules

If you line up the 100 political experts, whether they are Ivy League political theorists, Nobel laureate economists, cable news talking heads, and ask them whether Trump would send in Special Forces to Venezuela to capture Maduro, how many of them would say YES? 2? 3? Likely 0. The idea is so inconceivable, and they would all tell you why no way it happens.

You have legit prohibitive reasons for this operation to not happen:

1. What if it fails? Huge hostage crisis for US soldiers.

2. What if it succeeds? A war would surely break out.

3. What would people around the world do? WWIII?

4. Finally, what would people in America say? The whole country will be in an uproar right?

That’s why abducting another head of state has NEVER happened… until it did last weekend.

Then what? Nothing. No war declarations, no mushroom clouds, no mass mobilization. There were protests and denouncement, but they don’t mean a thing compared to what the “smart experts” and talking heads predicted and reasoned.

What did all those experts do? Did they come out admitting how wrong they were? No. Not a single person. Everyone just went on to “smartly” analyze why this event happened, its ramifications and give future predictions. The world just re-orients around after the impossible happened.

Now, if you look outside of the realm of politics and world event, we have millions of “experts” telling you how the world works and how you should succeed, in every industry and in every aspect of life.

For example:

1. Never get into a stranger’s car. Or you’ll be kidnapped.

2. Never stay in a stranger’s house. Or you’ll be murdered.

3. Never take on Google search. They are both the best product and monopoly in history.

4. You can’t just show up at a company for work without interviewing or even informing them. They will call the police.

5. You can’t switch career and industries after 40. You are throwing away all your previous knowledge.

I can go on and on. But as you know, all these “rules” and “wisdoms” were broken. The results are: 1. Uber, 2. AirBnb, 3. ChatGPT, 4. Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter who got his first job by driving across country to a company uninvited. Heck, I even did this once), and 5. Vera Wang (and the majority of entrepreneurs).

And I apologize for example 1 and 2. There is an unspoken rule among authors and professional speakers that you should never again use examples of Apple, Uber and Airbnb in writing or a talk.

Well, another rule broken.

In a way, the rules and wisdoms are there for a reason. They prevent you from doing “stupid” things. But the truth is, any stupid thing, when executed well and with conviction, can become smart, industry/career changing things. And because of these rules, most people naturally stay away from these “stupid” things, so you have less competition.

So is it smart to actively look for these expert rules in the world, written down or not, and give the maximum effort and creativity to break them?

I think there is.

So how do you find these “rules”?

Well, as you go through life, pay attention to your own behaviors and those of others around you. Just know, the ways people live and work every day mostly aren’t governed by laws, but by unspoken expert “rules.” If there are ways to break these rules and do them with high fidelity design and execution, you should try them.

Do I have these examples in my head?

Yeah, I do. They are probably terrible, stupid ideas. But hey, none of these is crazier than kidnapping Maduro.

Great book title, great lesson

Here are a few:

1. Rule: you should provide fastest Internet connection in the office.

Counter: What if you provide no Internet connection? In fact, what if your office installs signal blockers so even mobile phones can’t get signals? This way, people can do the most focused deep work without getting distracted by their phones and social media. Make your office a safe haven from doomscrolling and brainrotting.

I’m sure you are getting mad now and giving me 100 reasons why this is a stupid idea. Emergency calls from family, talking to clients, online collaboration, using AI, etc.

This is where the execution part comes in. You don’t have to do it every day, but for select days. For example, make every Friday “deep work day,” and block all internet at work. For emergency phone calls, provide message relay services. Hey we had telegram rooms in the 1920s. We can recreate it in the 2020s.

2. Rule: you have to be employed by a company to work there.

Counter: What if a company has an open-door policy and provides an office space so every aspiring and ambitious person who thinks they can improve the company can voluntarily sit down and work for the day. They can do whatever work they think can benefit the company. At the end of the day, they present their work to the Open-door Program Manager to judge. For those who consistently prove they have good ideas and can execute, hire them! (And for the crazies who take a dump on the office floor, kick them out and block them for good.)

Think of this as an open hackathon crossed with daily internships crossed with action-based interviews.

3. Rule: you should never kidnap anyone

Counter: what if we actually kidnap/arrest online scammers. First of all, the President of the United States just dragged the head of state from another country, so that rule is broken anyway.

But you know who really deserve kidnapping/arresting? Those online scammers. You’ve heard stories of these scammer compounds in Southeast Asia (mainly Myanmar) who steal billions of dollars from innocent people around the world. They are under the protection of local junta government who also benefits from these scam operations. Well, kidnap them!!! Just copy and paste operation Maduro, and parade these scumbags in DC in front of Pennsylvania Ave, Roman conquest style. I’ll attend, waving my proud American flag.

Again, I’m not saying these are amazing ideas. I have dozens of these in my head. But the key is not idea, but execution. If you execute bad ideas flawlessly and with taste, they can become great ideas, and sometimes industry changing ones.

And the world will re-orient around the new reality, and experts will analyze why you were right.

Real lesson #2 – Be able to ditch everything in 30 seconds.

Lesson 2 is reserved for billionaires and dictators. If you aren’t one of them, skip to real lesson 3.

I’m assuming everyone who’s reading here is a billionaire and dictator, so…

Hi Zuck and Vladimir, thank you for reading my newsletter. It’s a pleasure to have your patronage.

You have lots of power and money, and you know someone is constantly thinking about snatching you in your sleep, Maduro style. I’m sure you spend hours and days thinking about how to escape in a situation like that. I’m sure you have safe rooms built in your mansion and palace.

But let me introduce you to this rule based on a great American movie - Heat: “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner”.

Key takeaway: when shit hits the fan, you have 30 seconds to get out.

You don’t believe me? It took the US special force just a few minutes to go from landing the helicopter to locating and grabbing Maduro and his wife in the palace. In those minutes, the couple tried to get into a “steel escape room”, which theoretically blocks them from attackers. According to report, they hit their heads and couldn’t lock the door, and got grabbed by US soldiers like chumps.

I used to work both in product management and technical support. I know most times frustrated customers call me about an issue, it’s a user error. But in this case, it’s TERRIBLE product design for the escape room. Let me tell you a couple of things.

1. If you can’t escape in 30 seconds, you are doing it wrong. Make the escape entrance inside your room, not downstairs in the hallway across the kitchen. In the middle of the night, when bullets are raining down in your yard and blood and guts splatter on your window, your adrenaline will double the size of your head and make them open targets for gates and cabinet doors. So save the run. Build your escape mechanism INSIDE your bedroom.

2. Don’t do safe rooms. “Steel escape room”? What was Maduro thinking? When you get in, you are trapped. They can smoke you out. They can use hyper soundwave guns from outside to explode your bladder. Or they can bribe your security guard to get the code. (You think Jose will turn down $100,000 for the code? He probably hates your guts).

So what’s the perfect product? Let me introduce you another great American movie: Air Force One. They have an escape pod for the US President in case of plane hijackers.

For you, build a tunnel and slide underneath your bed. When things are going down, hit the button and slide down with your bed. That’s your escape pod. Ideally, the slide should lead you to an escape tunnel. Make sure the tunnels are well lit. No head bumps. If you are afraid of tunnels, install micro-kitchens along the path, with coffees, milkshakes and trail mixes. A little pleasure in a hellish experience makes all the difference. They will calm you down and help you think clearly.

Slides and micro kitchens are not only fun, but can be life saving

Real lesson #3 – Spend time on what matters the most

OK back to a lesson for normal people.

Maduro spent a fortune to protect himself. Venezuela had 53 air defense systems, 440 anti-aircraft cannons, a fighter force, 93,000 ground troops, and a steel escape room. He thought he was safe. But in the end, none of these helped him. In the middle of night, he was on an unplanned flight to NYC.

You probably also spend lots of time and money to fortify yourself. But the ugly truth of life is, sometimes it doesn’t matter. Just know, we will all have our Maduro moments sooner or later. Everything is hunky dory today, but a bad health exam report, a speeding car, and a stock market crash might change everything.

What did Maduro grab when everything was falling apart in a matter of minutes? His wife’s hand. That was the most important thing to him.

Whose hands will you grab in situations like that? Well, don’t grab them when your world ends. Grab them now.

Kiss your spouse. Hug your kids. Walk with your parents. Call your friends.

When you do it, do it slowly. Savor the moment.

And watch your head.