Principles Strategies Hacks
In the "Levels", I showed how crucial it is for our success to operate at various levels.
Today, I want to show you these levels.
They are: Principles, Strategies, and Hacks.
What does this mean?
Principles, Strategies, and Hacks represent three different levels to operate on.
Principles
These are the basic rules and mechanisms that dictate how things work...or don't work.
They are the guideposts that I follow when I want to be successful and happy.
My task is to understand that they exist, recognize how helpful they are, and locate and utilize them.
I have tried to hammer this into you and me with my article on principles.
The problem with principles?
They are not immediately applicable.
Why?
Well, because they are universally valid.
I must first make the effort to break them down to my specific use case.
This is too abstract and strenuous for many people.
Their solution?
They ignore principles and prefer to muddle through at the grassroots level.
A better solution, in my view, are...
Strategies
These are sequences of steps that I can use to achieve a desired result.
For instance, I might have a strategy for ranking high in Google with blog articles.
I could find a strategy for gaining new links.
Or I could develop a strategy for converting more visitors to my landing page into customers.
In short, a strategy always stands between where I am and where I want to go.
A sequence of sensible steps.
So far, so good, right?
And now here's the IMPORTANT part:
If I ensure that my strategy considers the principles, then I am essentially incorporating success directly.
Why?
Because principles only became such because they have proven to work.
If I base my strategy on them, I am building this success into it.
And lo and behold, my strategy is successful as if by magic.
Only, it's not magic but simply the fact that I am following proven principles.
I know this is all abstract, and we'd prefer it all practical and tangible.
So here's an example:
The principle is: Scarcity.
It's a fundamental principle of the psychology of persuasion. It means: If something is scarce and rare, it automatically becomes more interesting to me than if it's abundantly available.
I can use this principle to my advantage when optimizing conversion rates.
When I present my offer on my landing page, I look at how I can incorporate scarcity.
For example, by limiting it in time, or the quantity, or by offering the first 100 customers a bonus.
However I design it, it follows the same PRINCIPLE: Scarcity.
And just like that, my landing page performs much better than before.
And this was anything but a miracle.
It's simply the result of applying a principle with a strategy to my landing page.
And then there's another level below that.
The Hacks
Strategies are larger sequences of steps.
Hacks, on the other hand, are single clever ideas that I can quickly and easily implement.
Here, too, I help myself by aligning them with principles.
An example?
The principle: Visual Cue.
We're evolutionarily primed to notice visual oddities. Why? Well, so we don't accidentally step on a snake, or fall off a cliff.
The Hack:
When I send an autoresponder email, I insert a cute emoji into the subject line. - And just like that, my email stands out, colorful and cheerful, in your otherwise dull inbox!
Yes, I know. This only works as long as not everyone does it and your email inbox suddenly looks like a candy stand at the fair. - But let's worry about that when the time comes, okay?
Back to the topic:
Whether it's a strategy or a hack, the principles always come first.
How does this help me?
Simply put, it helps me to have more success faster and easier.
Simply by the fact that in the things I try all day long to achieve my goals - namely strategies and hacks - I don't blindly grope around, but follow success principles.
The strategies and hacks are somewhat like the transmission and axle that transfer the power of principles onto the road.
Once I understand that, I may no longer see principles as boring and aloof, but as highly exciting and the key to everything I dream of.
I just need to convert them into strategies and hacks and implement them.
How do I do that?
Of course, the implementation brings new challenges with it.
Lucky for me, I have found a solution for that.
I will only hint at it in this article.
Because the point of this article is to illustrate the value of principles, strategies, and hacks.
And I follow the principle in my articles of always fitting in just one point.
Enough preamble, here's how I do it:
Step 1: I create a list.
Step 2: I collect success stories.
Step 3: I try to identify the hacks, strategies, and principles behind them.
Step 4: I apply the success stories to my own case.
By the way, this is also a strategy! A sequence of steps.
ANDÂ it follows several principles.
For example, the one that I orient myself to successful examples, or the one that I basically model.
But, that's just an aside.
Let me give you a quick example:
Suppose I want to gain new links for my website to rank better on Google.
Step 1: I create a list "Link building Ideas" (e.g., a Google Sheet), where I collect my ideas.
Step 2: I look at the backlinks of the websites currently ranking at the top in Google. - These are my success examples.
Step 3: I see which techniques and link strategies they have used (Guest posting links, Link roundups, Directory entries?) - Whatever it is, I try to recognize the PATTERNS.
Step 4: I choose the Guest Postings strategy myself (it obviously worked) and implement it.
This is not magic but simple reengineering.
I hope I have made this clear enough, so you won't say it was all too dry and theoretical.