The Three Ways We Learn (Education, Conversation, Observation)
If nobody ever told you you were brilliant, you can still build yourself from what you watch.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 80%
Asked what someone should do if no sixth-grade teacher ever called them brilliant, Storey gives three channels: education, conversation, observation. Education is being taught — through a platform, a course, a book. Conversation is what a podcast is, or an event where you converse with the people running it. Observation is the one he calls key: he watched lives he admired and deliberately took a little of him, a little of her, a little of them into his own. He watched classy men and how they treated women and decided to be that way. He watched great listeners and became one — he says he's an amazing listener, which most people are not. Paired with the labeling insight — accept the positive label, then don't let the person down — it's a method for building yourself when nobody else will.
Origin
Storey's sixth-grade teacher kept him after class and told him 'because you are so brilliant' — a word he'd never heard applied to him — then lent him three books from his personal library, including one on Michelangelo, explicitly not for extra credit but to stir up his brilliance. Storey never told his mother or sisters, but stuck the label on himself and kept his standard high so as not to let the teacher down.
Core principles
- 01Education is the formal input — courses, platforms, books.
- 02Conversation is the dialogic input — podcasts, events, being in the room.
- 03Observation is the modeling input, and it's the one people skip.
- 04You can assemble an identity from parts of people you admire.
- 05Labels others put on you become real if you accept them and refuse to let them down.
- 06Study only two things: what you don't know, and what you want to master.
How to run it
- 1
Education — get taught
Deliberately consume teaching that makes you smarter, wiser and more knowledgeable on subjects you lack. Storey's filter: study what you don't know and what you want to master.
Pro tip When NFTs and crypto were everywhere, Storey went to a friend who knew and asked her to teach him and tell him what books to read — rather than pretending.
- 2
Conversation — get into the room
Listening to and having conversations is its own channel. A podcast is a conversation. So is coming to an event and conversing with the people who run it.
- 3
Observation — steal traits deliberately
Watch lives you admire and consciously take pieces. Storey: 'I want to take a little bit of him, a little bit of her, a little bit of them, and I want to bring that into my life.' He watched classy men treat women well and decided to be that way; he watched great listeners and became one.
Pro tip Be specific about the trait, not the person. You're assembling, not idolising.
Watch out This is the channel people skip, and Storey calls it the key.
- 4
Accept the label and live up to it
When someone brands you positively, don't push the label away — stick it on yourself. Storey never told anyone his teacher called him brilliant, but he kept his standard high so he wouldn't let that teacher down.
Pro tip The private commitment did the work. He didn't need anyone else to know.
In the wild
The teacher asked Timmy to stay after class, told him 'because you are so brilliant' — a word never applied to him before — and pulled three books from a briefcase, including one on Michelangelo. He said it wasn't for extra credit, just to stir up his brilliance.
→ Storey stuck the label on himself, told nobody, and kept his standard high for decades so as not to let the teacher down.
When everyone was talking about NFTs, Storey admitted he didn't know what they were. Rather than bluff, he went to his friend Crypto Megan and asked her to teach him and recommend books. He did the same with Russell Brunson's ClickFunnels after seeing him speak at Grant Cardone's event — studied him, studied his process.
→ His two study filters — what I don't know and what I want to master — kept him current into his sixties across crypto and AI.
Common mistakes
Waiting for a mentor to name you
Storey's whole answer to 'what if nobody called me brilliant' is that education, conversation and observation are available to everyone right now. The teacher was luck; the three channels are a method.
Pushing away the positive label
Storey says he didn't push the label away, he stuck it on himself. Deflecting praise out of modesty deletes the exact input that changes a trajectory.
Using education only
Reading and courses are the easiest channel and the least transformative one. Observation is the key channel, and it costs nothing but attention.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone without a mentor, and self-taught operators who want a deliberate method for building themselves.
Not ideal for
Skills requiring supervised, corrective practice where watching and reading can't substitute for feedback.
From the transcript
“There are three ways that we learn... Number one, education. Number two, conversation. Number three, observation.”
“The observation is a key. I began to see people's lives that I admired and I said, I want to take a little bit of…”
“That teacher did so much for my life cuz he branded me brilliant. And when he branded me brilliant, I didn't push away the label.…”
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