10min zScore Call Prep
Are we aligned on the zScore definition? What resonates and why?
How does the outside world gauge you today? This is your zScore.
Where does your ambition lead you? This is your zPotential.
How would your closest friends describe your current mode of operating? They are your truest "investors" in life and should be able to accurately assess your strengths and weaknesses. Sample a rough average, and floor it to be conservative. This is your zLevel.
(If you don't have friends who can speak in these terms, that's what I'm here for :)
Describe your high-level master plan. Big picture, what's the next step toward your potential? How will the world know you've succeeded at this, to update zScore?
That's it, thanks for interviewing!
Optional + Time Permitting
- How do you see zScore being helpful (or harmful) for other people in your life?
- Any key resources or learnings that helped you uplevel? For anyone who might be in your younger shoes.
- What is your main bottleneck or blocker? Thinking through your master plan in a bit more depth.
- Do the other case studies make sense? Any particular ones you like?
- Final words. Reflections on the above discussion and your numbers. Was this useful or clarifying for you?
Important Note
It's truly OK to want a family or otherwise stop yourself at Lvl 4. I tried to encapsulate this in the links above, Zaltiva's distilled values, and my Future of Loving Grace prediction. Ideally, freely and for your own sake, you'd want to push past Lvl 3.
When I first wrote about "altruistic alignment" there's an important part about putting on one's oxygen mask being both 100% selfish and 100% altruistic simultaneously. This speaks to the necessity of principled priorities.
Just by reading this, you probably have the critical thinking of Lvl 5+ even if the wider world scores you as a corporate drone making $100k/yr, a simple dad or mom, a hedonistic vagabond, etc. The projects you undertake need not be directly and immediately tied to the pursuit of economic leverage. For example, traveling or nonprofit work might lead to gains on the z-axis long-term.
And as long as you are happy with your life, who cares?
Internalizing your own answer is part of getting past Lvl 3 as a functional, net contributing adult in possession of emotional intelligence, maturity, EQ. Or spiritual centeredness, self-confidence, whatever you want to call it. A good neighbor and respectable citizen.
Deeply profoundly living this self-responsibility, such that $100,000,000+ in your bank account doesn't change you at all, is what makes Lvl 7 a harder version of Lvl 3. Abundance breeds complacency.
The inertia of compounding to 8+ figures and resultant social power dynamics can easily lead one astray. By default, one experiences survivor bias and potentially a significant amount of mental rigidity. You've played within existing structures and won, so why not keep them?
Protection mode kicks in, which means fear has entered the building again.
Even high-functioning people—who got past baseline social skills for net productivity—have to re-learn deep introspection, such that material wealth and external stimulation don't crowd out tranquility and foster "rich asshole" vibes.
The problematic tragedy of Lvl 7 is that it's obvious to everyone around you that you need work to get to Lvl 8. But very rarely do people tell you as a result of economic-emotional dependence (not being Lvl 4/8 themselves).
Lvl 7's don't truly listen until they start to accumulate enough data points to learn things the hard way. Otherwise they'd already be at Lvl 8. And with resources to sustain indefinitely, they might die without ever attaining the next level. Perhaps they arrive very late in life, unfulfilled in their ambitious potential to reach Lvl 9+ and reshape society for the better.
The truest friends keep us accountable, proactively aligning on bullshit intolerance. They are not just social dopamine machines for our use or status, nay, they are respected (z-oriented) mentors.