🏒 Is Canadian pro hockey totally rigged?

Paula Barnsley was at a Canadian hockey game with her family when she noticed something odd on the roster sheet…

She showed her husband, a researcher, how almost all of the players on the Lethbridge Broncos team were born in January, February, or March.

Roger was blown away… was it just a weird phenomenon on this team, or was it something more?

That night they researched every roster of every elite team in Canada, only to find the same pattern:

So why does this matter?

For decades before this discovery, pro hockey players likely would’ve attributed all of their success to simple hard work, practice, and determination.

It turns out Canadian hockey leagues scout for upcoming pros as young as 9 and 10 years old.

• Scouts pick kids that physically look the biggest and most promising

• That’s usually the one’s born in January-March since the cutoff date is January 1st

• Smaller kids, usually the one’s born at the end of the year, tend to not get picked

Due to something completely out of their control (the month they were born), up-and-coming hockey players are sifted into groups: Future pros, and future not-pros.

Future pros end up playing twice the number of games each year and get better coaching.

No wonder they get better!

Okay, but why does this matter to you?

Here’s the key insights that stand out:

• ALL of us have succeeded in one area of our life or another thanks to some kind of “unfair advantage”. Practice humility and gratitude in recognizing how the actions of other people, opportunities you didn’t truly “earn”, or even a system structured in your favor may have contributed to your success beyond your efforts alone.

• Stop comparing yourself to others who may benefit from an “unfair advantage” in an area where you personally struggle. Holding yourself to their bar is bound to discourage you.

• Instead of seeing these “unfair advantages” as disabling or limiting on you, see them as the challenge they are. If it truly matters to you that you succeed in this area, make a plan for how you’ll succeed despite others’ unfair advantages. How can you construct your own unfair advantage?

Doing this is how victims turn into victors.

You can be like the 10% of elite hockey players born at the end of the year… the one’s who truly had to work hard to earn their spot amongst the others.

Source: The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.

Manufacturing your own unfair advantage sounds nice, but is it even possible?

After picking which area of your life you want to excel in, consider how you could overcome some of the most common “unfair advantages”:

1. Relationships: Make a plan for making more friends and connections in this area. Join online communities, go to in person events, practice starting conversations with strangers and asking who else they know in this domain.

2. Resources: Even the $50M that Mr. Beast earns through his main YouTube channel isn’t enough cash to fund all of his ventures, so he created his gaming channel as a profit machine to solve the problem. Could you cut unnecessary expenses, use a budget, or pick up a side-gig to build your own financial unfair advantage?

3. Experience: However much time you invest in improving your skill in this area, how could you double it? Do you need to wake up earlier, rearrange your schedule, or drop a less important commitment to give you more time to refine your skills and abilities?

Don’t blame or play the victim for why these won’t work for you.

The only way to do this effectively is when you’re in a mindset of taking responsibility for your own life, and open to new creative ideas you haven’t seriously considered before.

Thanks for reading!

- Kody