The Psychological Hack to Work Harder Than 99% of People

Hey, Arjun here.

Why don’t people work hard when it’s clearly in their best interest to do so?

The answer can be found by observing Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson.

The 2-Minute Hack: Pre-Commit to Making Failure Public

Most people avoid working hard because it’s psychologically safer to have an excuse. If you don’t try your absolute best and fail, you can always say “I could have succeeded if I really tried.”

The hack is simple but powerful: Make a public commitment that eliminates your safety net.

How to implement this:

1. Announce your specific goal to people whose opinion you value

2. Share your preparation process publicly (through updates, social media, etc.)

3. Set concrete deadlines and deliverables that others can track

4. Establish consequences for not following through

Why this works:

When Tiger Woods loses, he can’t tell himself “I could have practiced more.” He worked as hard as humanly possible, which is devastating when he fails but also why he achieves extraordinary success.

Most of the psychological research on this is focused on why some kids don’t study for tests. If you get drunk the night before an exam instead of studying and you fail, then the problem is that you got drunk. If you do study and you fail, the problem is that you’re stupid – and that’s a much more painful conclusion.

This psychological hack of public pre-commitment works because it:

✅ Creates external accountability that makes backing out painful

✅ Forces you to confront the possibility of failure without excuses

✅ Builds the resilience needed to handle honest failure

✅ Attracts supporters who will help push you forward

Real founders don’t hedge. They don’t preserve optionality. They go all-in, knowing the psychological risk is exactly what separates them from average performers.

Takeaway:

We all must suffer one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

By pre-committing publicly to your goals, you choose the pain of discipline because disciplines weigh ounces while regrets weigh tons.

Caveat about the Tiger/Phil example: I fully acknowledge this is not a perfect analogy. Mickelson’s achievements are incredibly admirable and he is one of the best golfers to ever live.

The goal isn’t to “put him down” but to highlight an important psychological principle:

• Working hard is actually really risky.

• Not working hard is a form of self-protection.

• Public pre-commitment eliminates your escape routes.

• Extraordinary success requires extraordinary psychological resilience.

Try this: This week, choose one project or goal that you’ve been hesitating on. Make it public. Tell your team, your investors, your customers, or your social network exactly what you’re committing to and by when. Then watch how your behavior changes.

Hit reply and let me know what you’re publicly committing to this week.

See you next week.

Lets doola it ⚡

Arjun

P.S. Remember: There. Are. No. Shortcuts. In. Life.