Contrarian Thinking: How to Develop the Elite Man’s Mindset

“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” – Warren Buffett

If you take a glance at some of the lives and mindsets of the most important and revered people in history, you’ll see that they all had one thing in common:

They were all contrarian thinkers.

Plato, Napoleon, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, countless others…all contrarians.

Even though these people are famous for their outlier ways, contrarian thinking is accessible to everyone.

In this article you’re going to learn:

• What a contrarian thinker is
• The downsides of being a contrarian
• The big benefits of contrarian thought
• How to build contrarian thinking into your lifestyle

[toc]

What is a Contrarian Thinker?

A contrarian thinker (also known as a contrarian) is someone who takes an opposite stance to popular opinion. It literally means to “be against”.

This can be in any area, but it mainly applies to areas where large groups of people lead with emotion rather than logic. Two of these areas are politics and money.

People who act in a contrary way think differently thus will get different results.

Contrarian individuals typically “read in between the lines” and see things that others don’t see. Visionaries like Steve Jobs are likely to be contrarians.

Someone who is truly contrarian doesn’t just take an opposing stance for the sake of it (that’s a hipster), they do so because they see that an opposing viewpoint will lead to more favorable outcomes. Contrarian viewpoints may arise out of a need for “rebellion” but they stay around because of the validity of the idea.

While there are many things that are popular that are “good”, there are many things that are popular and just don’t work or work as well as they should.

While it is very likely that some people with opposing viewpoints will amass massive cult-like followings, these people are more likely than not figures who take advantage of the inherent black and white bias in an untrained mind.

These people are not contrarians, they are ideological demagogues intent on enhancing their own power at the expense of the mental fluidity of others. These people are to be avoided at all costs.

Areas Where Contrarianism (Might) Help

You can find a lot of areas where contrarian thinking is applied or where it possibly can benefit outcomes.

Here’s just a few.

Education

You’re told that going to college at an expensive brand name university will get you a super high-paying job.

In actuality, there have been many people who are/were successful without a college degree or went to a lesser-known school and are still in high management at successful companies.

These people either graduate with a significantly lower amount of student loan debt or none at all, enabling them to have more financial fluidity in the process.

Lifestyle

Popular culture tells you that you should live your 20s with abandon and “follow your passion”. While I do think that experimentation and trying to figure out your talents/interests is important, it doesn’t give you a license to do anything.

During your 20s the cost for failure and learning lessons is low. You have less to lose but also more to gain.

The guy who works 4x as hard, saves 4x as much can stand to make much more later in their life due to the nature of compound interest. Putting your foot down on the pedal all the way through your 20s can set you up in a significant way later in life.

If you’re wondering how you should live your 20s, I made a podcast with some thoughts on the topic.

Money

Contrarianism is most evidently seen in the area of finance, especially in investing. When there is turbulence or a windfall in the stock market, people will act fearful or greedily. A contrarian approach to investing is known as “dollar-cost averaging”, which means putting in the same amount of money week after week regardless of how the market is doing or how others are acting.

Social Media

There are millions of people across the globe who are addicted to social media. The zeitgeist is to describe it as an “essential” or a “genie out of the bottle” that you have to live with when our ancestors lived for thousands of years in civilization without social media. Many people have lessened their use or have quit entirely and have even called it a “game-changer”.

Time (and Money)

Many people trade years of their life for shiny objects instead of using money (a renewable resource) to leverage time (a non-renewable resource).

So there are thousands and thousands of examples that show “taking the road less traveled” is a better choice for anyone who wants stellar results.

Then…why don’t more people do it?

The Downsides of Contrarian Beliefs + Why Contrarianism is Discouraged

“In virtually all of the great spiritual and philosophical traditions of the world there appears some form of the idea that most human beings are sleepwalking through their own existence…If we do not bring an appropriate level of consciousness to our activities, if we do not live mindfully, the inevitable penalty is a diminished sense of self-efficacy and self-respect.“ – Nathaniel Branden, Six Pillars of Self Esteem

Despite contrarianism appearing to be a good idea, it is discouraged by the majority of people (duh). Here’s why that is:

People Want to Conform

We human beings are a paradoxical species.

We want to stand out. We want to be “one in a million”. We want to be unique.

Yet simultaneously…

We want to fit in, rise up the social hierarchy, and generally feel safe and secure.

We are wired to care deeply about the opinion of others and their judgments on us. From an evolutionary standpoint, this makes a whole lot of sense because it was impossible for any one human being to survive on their own. In ancient times, being cast out of the group or herd meant death.

Think of all the great philosophers, spiritual teachers, and businessmen of times past and our current era. They experienced a lot of social ostracism.

Regardless, this trait is ill-suited to our current world of opportunity. What’s right for someone else may not be right for you and if you just do things because other people are doing them, you’re setting yourself up for a massive fall.

Contrarian Thinking Requires Unavoidable Pain

A human is naturally wired to avoid pain and seek pleasure.

However, if given a choice, many people will avoid pain more so than they will seek pleasure.

This is why many people stay in situations that they don’t like or may even be hurting them, but they do it because it’s comfortable and familiar. Many people are lazy and don’t want to put forth the effort to change their situation.

You will feel the pain as a contrarian by experiencing criticism or outright harassment by a horde of people who don’t see what you see.

This double dose of potential pain is why many people would rather take the path of instant gratification and settle for lazy belief systems that are by themselves sub-optimal to create change in whatever area they’re looking to create change in.

Many People Do Not Have a Mindset of Purposeful Progression

Here’s the truth: A LOT of people do not consciously choose their direction in life.

Many are like leaves in the wind, being pushed here, being pushed there – by whatever stimulation hooks their attention.

Many are living a lifestyle of continuous comfort-seeking instead of asking the hard questions and taking the necessary actions. As a result they live a life of relative unconsciousness. It’s the type where things “aren’t that bad” but aren’t really that great either. It’s a sort of mind-numbing existence that doesn’t really require much out of you.

Contrarian thinking requires an attitude of conscious and purposeful action, something which requires effort and a break out of comfortable homeostasis.

In order to succeed in something like self-development or life-improving activities, you must be conscious and purposeful.

The Importance of Being a Contrarian Thinker

Here’s where I want to drive this point home:

Our world is an information-based society that by its nature requires discernment and nuanced thought.

It requires an individual to consciously filter through the sensory data they are receiving at all times and decide what is relevant or irrelevant to their current situation in life.

Despite having universal needs such as food, water, shelter, and social connections; everyone is a unique individual with unique interests and wants. It is impossible to have a complete overarching narrative in society that will “cover all the bases in all situations”.

“Go to school and get a good job” will work for some people. It won’t work for everyone.

Getting married in your late 20s and early 30s will work for some people. It won’t work for everyone.

Going on a certain diet will work for some people. It won’t work for everyone.

There are so many gradations and a difference in subtle life areas that it’s required for everyone to ask themselves consciously what choices and decisions will be best for them in their situation and life circumstances.

If a person fails to ask this and ask questions that have varying levels of psychological, social, or even physical discomfort and inconvenience – they risk living a life full of regrets and missed opportunities.

Instead of making a choice that was right for them, they went along and did what everyone else did – so now they’re getting average or even subpar results.

They became a “human ATM” who was pimped in the attention economy and now have no resources of their own.

They are a sucker for “quick fixes” and simplistic solutions.

They eventually become an individual who is sarcastic, nihilistic, and indifferent. This further tightens this loop and makes them fall deeper into the existential hole they’re in.

If you ever see those old (or young) people that are always cantankerous, this is what happened to them.

If this sounds absolutely terrible to you, you need to develop a contrarian mindset.

Here’s how you can start this process:

How to Be a Contrarian Thinker

Taking on the mindset of someone who thinks “against the grain” is a collection of thought processes and orientations to life that as a whole, create some sort of contrarian philosophy.

Contrarian thinking and acting will look different for every individual, but here are some things to think about as you decide what it looks like for you.

Think long term.

The contrarian always thinks long term, in essence making him a strategist.

Long-term thinking is not the default of human programming, so it needs to be learned. Delayed gratification is at the essence of contrarian thinking.

Why?

Because competitive advantage lies in being able to set yourself up for the future. While everyone else is on the back foot or even trying to catch up, you’ve already passed that stage.

A prime example of contrarian thinking is going to college, knowing what you want to do before college, firmly deciding on it, and networking with people who are already doing what you want to do. By the time you leave, you will have built up 4 years of connections that you can use to leverage to start your career.

Meanwhile, the rest of your peers will be partying like there’s no tomorrow and living it up hoping and praying for a good outcome in the future.

Become (extremely) conscientious.

The Conscientiousness trait shows how thoughtful, goal-oriented, and controlled someone is. Those who are more conscientious tend to be more self-disciplined and persistent. Those who rank lower in conscientiousness tend to prefer spontaneity and procrastination. – Crystal Knows, Big Five Personality Traits: Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is defined as being careful and meticulous in your actions.

Many people are very careless and haphazard in their communications and actions.

The lower your conscientiousness is, the more chaos you will invite into your life and the less clarity you will have.

Conscientiousness isn’t necessarily a hard requirement for contrarianism, but it will make it much easier to think differently when you have a full scope of all the options involved and have less clutter in your life.

One example of conscientiousness is minimalism. It’s so easy to consume junk that living a life of conscious consumption requires conscientiousness and discernment. Anything that you do have is immediately organized and you are continuously going through your life and ditching what should not be there.

Embrace depth and possible complexity.

Many issues in our world have varying degrees of complexity and nuance to them.

When you blame these issues on intangibles such as “capitalism” or “the system”, then you make the road to a solution less clear and muddy it with externals.

For example, take the problem of world hunger. Theoretically, we (collectively) have enough resources to feed every man, woman, and child at least 2 times over. However, the problem of “world hunger” involves various things such as economics, infrastructure, geopolitics, ulterior interests, and a host of other things wrapped up in the web of “world hunger”.

Think of any other problem in your life. You may be a “nice guy”. There’s a large chance that you’re just not a “nice guy”. Various problems some of which are low self-esteem, low self-confidence, lack of assertiveness, and maybe an unresolved traumatic event – are bundled up in that.

Finding a solution to that won’t be as easy as reading a book or seeing a therapist. It is something that will require a multifaceted approach and of course – time.

If you’re a contrarian, you respect this and accept that complex problems which afflict the self and society are multifaceted in nature.

Think of it like untangling a ball of yarn. You don’t unravel the ball by tugging at numerous strings. You find one end and follow it until it becomes non-knotted then you do the same for other pieces.

Embrace boredom.

Being bored or having nothing to do scares the shit out of most humans.

It forces them to come face to face with the voice in their head that they drown out whenever they resort to escapism in order to sidestep harsh realities.

Contrarian thinking requires depth and space. You can’t explore that depth and space when you drown it out with stimulation in low-value trash.

When was the last time you really laid down and just let your mind sort of…drift?

Develop mental toughness.

You will need mental toughness in order to stay on the path of contrarian thinking.

As a teenager and adolescent, I developed a sharp contrarian streak early on – mainly because I wanted to be “against” and I realized that what most people were doing was not in line with my budding value system.

I was mocked and made fun of. It hurt at first, but that forced me to develop the armor required to take the insults and carve my own path.

If you’re an adolescent/young adult, having this emotional fortification is essential, especially because most people your age are slaves to instant gratification, which again – is against contrarian thinking.

Focus on the straight line.

The quickest path between two points is a straight line.

The only way to get somewhere is by doing it. When? Sooner is better than later.

Many people would rather play all sorts of games and tricks to avoid the effort of doing hard but necessary things.

The only time people will walk the straight line and do what needs to be done is when there is an outside force pushing them to do it (a boss, a landlord, a car repo etc.)

When you walk the straight line, you push for results as immediately as possible as fast as possible. This requires contrarian thinking.

Many people don’t plan ahead or push for results as quickly as possible, that’s why it’s contrarian by default.

Prove yourself right.

One way to build self-confidence and prove contrarianism to yourself is to do it and prove it yourself over and over again.

You may have made a choice that was different than what everyone else did and it got you good results. Awesome. Do it again.

Once you rack up these wins, you’ll start seeing opportunities that almost no one else is seeing and as a result, get results that no one else is getting.

Surround yourself with contrarian individuals.

People who “color outside the lines” a bit are the best people to engage with.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so make it a point of duty to spend time with people who don’t just gulp down popular narratives about this or that.

Likewise, make it a point of duty to seek out opposing viewpoints and try to see where other people are coming from with them.

Always ask questions.

Rather than just getting it right on the first try, contrarians accept that they can be wrong and thus will focus on orienting themselves to a proper viewpoint – even if it is one embraced by popular opinion.

Many people engage in black and white thinking without any nuance, so it is always wise to ask what people aren’t seeing or talking about.

A contrarian mindset is focused on “better”.

Ask yourself:

• Is there a better and more efficient way to do this (whatever “this” is)?
• Are there solutions that I could have access to with the right resources?
• Are there people who have succeeded with similar circumstances and situations as myself?
• What do I need to do over any given length of time (hours, days, weeks, months, years) to achieve something?

Asking all of these questions (and more) will help you hone in on a specific course of action that’s right for you.

Rounding Up + Conclusion

In conclusion…

A contrarian thinker is someone who has viewpoints opposed to the majority of people. True contrarians are pragmatic and action-oriented people, not people who have their views just for the sake of rebellion.

Contrarian individuals understand that competitive advantage lies in thinking and acting differently than the majority of people because many people are lazy and seek quick solutions, most of which do not offer any real or lasting gains in any area of life.

Because of this, contrarians realize they risk social isolation or outright rejection due to their differing viewpoints. Thus, they act appropriately and embrace that pain.

Since contrarians think differently, they will act differently, and get different results.

Contrarianism should not be used for the sake of being different, it should be used as a way to achieve beneficial results beyond that of what can be achieved being lackadaisical in any area of life.

Are you a contrarian thinker in many areas of your life? Which ones? Let us know in the comments.