A fortnight ago, we had the pleasure of gathering with our Platinum Mastermind & Alumni community on the Gold Coast for two transformative days.  
 

The focus? Diving deep into the ‘Tune In’ layer of the TOP Producers Model (more info on this model here). This meant not only working on their farm business but, more importantly, gaining absolute clarity on what they truly want from life. 
 
It was about tapping into the mindset of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and getting intentional about what success really looks like. 
 
A Business Will Never Outgrow Its Leader  
 
At some stage in your journey, YOU as the leader, will become the biggest constraint to your business’s growth or success. 
 
YOU will be the thing that is holding your business back. 
 
It won’t be intentional, but it will happen. Recognising this early is one of the most valuable skills a leader can develop. 
 
We all have to acknowledge this fact and commit to doing the ongoing work on ourselves that allows us to create the life and business of our dreams. 
 
Reflecting on this Deep Dive and the lessons in it I was reminded of the wisdom found in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, a book filled with insights and wisdom from the late, great Charlie Munger - legendary investor, business person and long-term business partner of Warren Buffett. 
 
One of Munger’s most valuable principles is inversion thinking — the idea that the best way to get what you want is to first identify what you don’t want. 
 
In this book, Munger shares seven habits that will guarantee a miserable life. 
 
Want to live your best life? Just do the opposite! We have recreated these here… 
 
7 prescriptions for misery 
 
Habit #1: Ingest chemicals in an effort to alter mood or perception 
 

• While susceptibility varies, addiction can happen to any of us, through a subtle process where the bonds of degradation are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
  
   
•  I have yet to meet anyone, in over six decades of life, whose life was worsened by over-fear and over-avoidance of such a deceptive pathway to destruction. 

 
Habit #2: Envy 
 

• Envy is almost the only vice which is practicable at all times and in every place; the only passion which can never lie quiet for want of irritation: its effects therefore are everywhere discoverable, and its attempts always to be dreaded. 

 
Habit #3: Resentment 
 

• Life is hard enough to swallow without squeezing in the bitter rind of resentment. 

 
Habit #4: Be unreliable, so you are excluded from the best human contribution and company 
 

• Be unreliable.
    
• Do not faithfully do what you have engaged to do. If you will only master this one habit, you will more than counterbalance the combined effect of all your virtues, how so ever great.
   
• If you like being distrusted and excluded from the best human contribution and company, this prescription is for you.  
   
• Master this one habit, and you will always play the role of the hare in the fable, except that instead of being outrun by one fine turtle, you will be outrun by hordes and hordes of mediocre turtles and even some mediocre turtles on crutches.  

 
Habit #5: Try to learn everything by yourself. Don't try to stand on the shoulder of giants. 
 

• Learn everything you possibly can from your own experiences minimising what you learn vicariously from the good and bad experience of others, living and dead. This prescription is a sure shot producer of misery and second-rate achievement.
   
• The other aspect of avoiding vicarious wisdom is the rule for not learning from the best work done before you. The prescription is to become as non-educated as you reasonably can. 

 
Habit #6: Don't try again if you fail. Disregard grit, perseverance, and resilience. Believe in shortcuts and overnight success. 
 

• Go down and stay down when you get your first, second, or third severe reverse in the battle of life. Because there is so much adversity out there, even for the lucky and wise, 
   
• This will guarantee that, in due course, you will be permanently mired in misery.  

 
Habit #7: Never invert. Don't try to identify or avoid obstacles. 
 

• Ignore a story they told me when I was very young about a rustic who said, "I wish I knew where I was going to die, and then I'd never go there." 
   
• Most people smile (as you did) at the rustic's ignorance and ignore his basic wisdom. The rustic's approach is to be avoided at all cost by someone bent on misery. To help fail, you should discount as mere quirk, with no useful message, the method of the rustic. 
   
• What this means is to approach the study of how to create X by turning the question backward, that is, by studying how to create non-X.  

 
So, there you have it, a sure-fire recipe for living the most miserable life. 
 
The good news? Your most magnificent life can be achieved by simply adopting the opposite of each of these habits. 
 
Create Your Dream Farm Business & Life 
 
To create your dream farm business and life join us at the next TOP Producers workshop on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th June 2025 – either in person at the Melbourne Convention Centre, or virtually from home! 
 
Spend 2 days with a group of like-minded, high-performing farm business owners all looking to take their business and life to the next level. 
 
We will work on your business, in the room, so you leave with a clear action plan and a heap of strategies and tactics to build a great business. 
 
By the end of the two days, you will: 
 

1. Meet a community of amazing farm business owners who are all cheering for your success and supportive of you achieving your goals.
2. Identify opportunities for your business to improve profitability, reduce stress and create more freedom. 
3. See what’s working right now for the Top 20% farm business owners and have a clear roadmap of how to integrate this into your business. 
4. Develop the confidence to implement, fail fast and learn in your business rather than get stuck in analysis paralysis or procrastination. 
5. Identify clear goals for your business and remove the obstacles that are holding you back from achieving them. 

 
Limited early bird tickets are available at $795 for two tickets (normally $995 per ticket). Click here to secure yours.
 
We look forward to seeing you there. 
 
Regards 
 
Sam Johnson  
CEO Farm Owners Academy 
 
P.S. This will be your last chance to attend a TOP Producers event in 2025 😱 if you can’t commit to getting to this event, you will have to wait until 2026! So no excuses! Join us in person at the Melbourne Convention Centre or virtually from home.  
 
With over 150+ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Google reviews, we encourage you to secure your seat before early bird ticket pricing ends, or we sell out (this has happened the past 3 events).