Model the Rise, Not the Result
When seeking advice from someone successful, ask what they did early on, not what they do now.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 75%
This is a simple filtering rule for advice-seeking: when you ask a successful person how they got there, most will default to describing their current state — their present-day habits, philosophy, or work-life balance — because that's what's top of mind for them. But someone at an earlier stage doesn't need to hear about the successful person's current meditation practice; they need to know what that person actually did when they were still climbing. The rule is to explicitly redirect the question toward the mentor's rise (their actual early behavior, sacrifices, and grind) rather than their result (their current, comfortable state), because that's the part that's actually transferable.
Origin
Articulated by Will Guidara on Modern Wisdom, prompted by a conversation where he pushed a mentor for what they actually did decades earlier rather than what they now recommend.
Core principles
- 01People who've achieved a high level of success often forget the reality of the stage you're currently at
- 02Their current habits (meditation, work-life balance) reflect where they are now, not what got them there
- 03The honest answer to 'what did you do when you were at my stage' is usually less polished and more useful
- 04Advice about 'it's all about the pursuit, don't worry about the accolades' is frequently given by people who just got the accolades
How to run it
- 1
Notice when advice defaults to the mentor's current state
Listen for cues that the advice describes present-day habits (balance, meditation, delegation) rather than earlier-stage behavior.
- 2
Explicitly ask about the rise, not the result
Redirect with a direct question: 'What did you actually do when you were at the stage I'm at now?'
Pro tip Frame it as a specific time period (e.g. '30 years ago,' 'in your first two years') to force a concrete answer.
- 3
Push past the sanitized first answer
If the response still sounds like current-day philosophy, ask again more bluntly for what they actually did day to day.
- 4
Weigh the answer against your own context
Use the mentor's early-stage answer as a data point, not a universal rule — adapt it to your own situation rather than copying it literally.
Watch out The mentor's early path may include unhealthy extremes (overwork, stimulant use) that shouldn't be copied wholesale even if they were honest about it.
In the wild
In discussing this exact idea, one host pushed the other: 'don't tell me what you do now, dude, tell me what you did when you were at my stage,' getting the blunt answer that it involved heavy stimulant use and 16-hour days for a decade.
→ The direct, unpolished answer was more useful and honest than a generic answer about current balance or meditation.
A founder just past their first big fundraise asks a well-known operator for advice and gets told to focus on culture and delegation — advice suited to a 50-person company, not their 5-person one.
→ Illustrative example: redirecting the question to 'what did you personally do in your first year' would surface more applicable, tactical advice.
Common mistakes
Accepting the first, polished answer at face value
Successful people often default to describing their current, comfortable state unless explicitly pushed to describe their earlier grind.
Copying the early-stage behavior literally, including its unhealthy parts
An honest answer about the rise may include extremes (overwork, substance use) that shouldn't be replicated just because they were part of someone else's path.
Is it for you?
Best for
anyone early in a pursuit who is seeking mentorship or advice from someone further along
Not ideal for
situations where the mentor's early path is genuinely irrelevant to your context (different era, different industry structure)
From the transcript
“I've got this rule that model the rise, not the result.”
“Don't [expletive] tell me what you do now, dude. Tell me what you did when you were at my stage.”
“I worked 16 hours a day for 10 years straight.”
From the episode
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Will Guidara