Open Welcome

The Trifecta. The seven Chakras. Three domains, each with seven principles.

GYSHIDO is about razor-sharp focus, the art and craft of getting things done, and building what truly matters. GYSHIDO is a manifesto, a movement, and a community.

This is the way of the GYSHIDO-San.

Open DO

DO

It all starts and ends here. You can’t get your shit done if you don’t take action.

Here are seven principles to become, be, and stay your best.

First, you earn it; then, you deserve it.

Open Relentless Focus

Relentless Focus

Over 125 years ago, Vilfredo Pareto discovered that twenty percent of the plants in his garden produced eighty percent of the fruit. Similarly, in his home country of Italy, twenty percent of the population owned eighty percent of the land.

Once you recognize it, you can see the 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, everywhere.

Focus relentlessly on the 20% of your activities that drive the most value. Ignore the rest.

Like Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls, within that powerful twenty percent, there exists another, even more powerful twenty percent that generates eighty percent of the value.

Make the main thing the main thing.

Open Do, Don’t Talk (Or Overthink)

Do, Don’t Talk (Or Overthink)

Your brain is seven to eight times larger than expected for a mammal of your size. In other words, your brain is massive compared to the rest of you. Think your big brain can think through problems? It should, but often it cannot.     

Well, sometimes it can. Yet we frequently fail to act. Without action, thinking becomes rather worthless.

There are countless reasons why we don’t act. It can feel overwhelming, too difficult, or we may lack sufficient resources.

The truth is that action leads to insight more often than insight leads to action.

Replace talking with doing. When you act, focus relentlessly (see what I did here?) on finding the quickest and cheapest way to test your assumptions.

Nothing teaches you more than experience.

Open Boring Consistency

Boring Consistency

In the 2012 London Olympics, British athletes dominated cycling, rowing, and various other sports. Their success was not due to major breakthroughs in training and preparation, but rather their unwavering commitment to Sir Dave Brailsford’s 1% rule:

Improve everything that goes into riding a bike or rowing a boat by a mere one percent, and you experience the miraculous aggregation of marginal gains.

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, the only way to eat an elephant (and never, ever eat an actual elephant!) is one bite at a time.

Do the right things over and over again. Consistency forms habits. Habits make hard things effortless.

Open Single Task

Single Task

Must do more.

Can’t focus.

Switch.

Long before everybody got diagnosed with ADHD, attention ran short. We start something, our brains can’t focus for more than a hot second, and we move on to the next thing. It feels good—so many balls in the air, so many projects underway, it feels like so much progress.

Alas, multitasking is a myth. By doing multiple things at the same time, we keep ourselves busy doing shitty work with lousy outcomes.

Laser-sharp focus. One thing at a time.

Open No Meetings

No Meetings

Meetings. The bane of our existence. Ever since our English brethren coined the term in the 1500s, we have been stuck in an endless loop of uselessness. Nearly every meeting is too long, doesn’t lead to anything, and has too many people in it.

Let’s fix meetings once and for all.

Meetings come in only two forms: standing or social. If it’s social, it’s over breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner, or drinks. If not—don’t sit down. Walk. If nothing else, your body will thank you for it.

(*) Take your Zoom call on your phone. Walk. Nobody needs to see you—nor do you need to see anyone else.

Open Follow Up

Follow Up

Like it or not, you are part of an intricate, complex, and interdependent machine. You need inputs and outputs to operate. Your outputs are other people’s inputs. That’s how the machine works. When it works, it’s beautiful, mesmerizing, and powerful. When it doesn’t, it’s ugly, wasteful, and annoying.

The performance of the system is limited by the bottlenecks that exist inside the system. Don’t be the bottleneck.

Don’t let others wait for your part of the job. Ever.

Open Don’t Die in Beauty

Don’t Die in Beauty

“Il meglio è l’inimico del bene.” Perfect is the enemy of good. François-Marie Arouet, commonly known by his rapper name Voltair, said this in 1770. Remarkably, we are still falling for the same trap set by the devil himself: We work on something, and instead of shipping it, we get out the polishing cloth and rub away. As we are rubbing, we discover another little blemish that begs to be polished out. So we polish. And polish. And polish. And never ship.

Famed Silicon Valley investor and founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, astutely observed: “If you aren’t embarrassed by the first version of your product, you shipped too late.”

You will never know if you never go (which is another great quote by one of the greatest—I’ll let you figure this one out).

In other words: Ship it!

Open LEAD

LEAD

“Know thyself” is inscribed at the temple of Apollo in ancient Delphi. We don’t need more leaders; we need better leaders.

You are a leader. We all are. Like it or not. So, get good at it. No, get great at it.

The world needs you to step it up.

Open No Ego, No Fear

No Ego, No Fear

(It’s Not About You)

Remember Fight Club? Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. The first rule of Fight Club? You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club? You DO NOT talk about Fight Club.

Leadership is not Fight Club. But the first and second rules of leadership are the same: You do not talk about yourself. You DO NOT talk about yourself. Leadership is not about you; it’s about others and the work at hand.

Ego is the top reason leaders suck. It often pairs with fear. The ego is fragile, living in constant fear, and will do anything to protect itself.

As Ryan Holiday says: Ego is the enemy.

Overcoming fear and ego takes work. It must be done. All good leadership starts here.

Open Treat People Like Adults

Treat People Like Adults

You want to GYSHIDO your leadership journey? Absolutely! Treat people like adults.

Sounds simple and obvious? Yes. Sadly, it is far from normal. Too many companies (and their leaders) treat people like irresponsible, immature pencil pushers. Am I too harsh? Consider the hoops companies make you jump through to replace a broken keyboard. Why not trust employees to buy a new keyboard without question?

You solve 80% of a company’s internal challenges by treating everyone as mature, responsible, educated adults—because they are.

Open No Bullshit

No Bullshit

The hardest thing for many is to say, “I don’t know.” So we don’t say it. Instead, we make things up.

Even harder is admitting mistakes. Saying “I messed this up” is courageous, but most avoid it. Instead, they make things up.

Don’t bullshit yourself or others. Apply brutal honesty and transparency to everything you do.

This earns respect. Respect is the foundation of leadership.

Open Most of It IS Bullshit

Most of It IS Bullshit

Ever read one of the countless 250-300 page books on leadership, self-growth, or productivity? The ones which promise you to do 10 times more in 1/10th of the time, become superhuman, and lead your teams to greatness.

Here’s a secret: Most books should be 100 pages tops. Few ideas warrant more than 25,000 words. They aren’t shorter because of the publishing industry and our bias for “more is better.” A thicker book must have better content, right? Wrong. It’s fluff.

Most of the leadership books I have read are bullshit. The ideas aren’t new, original, or are just wrong. Bad for you, terrible for your team. Even when you find a worthwhile book, we fail to implement even one idea. How many productivity books have you read, only to move onto reading the next?

Get back to basics and do the right things right—consistently.

Open You don’t win alone

You don’t win alone

In 1933, nine working-class students at the University of Washington sat in a rowing boat for the first time. Three years later, at the Olympic Games in Berlin, they won gold.

Success came when they found perfect synchronization, known as “swing,” where eight rowers and a coxswain move as one. Individual talent alone couldn’t achieve this; it required unity and trust.

What’s true for rowing is true for every business. Individual performance is less important than cohesion. Steve Jobs once said:

One team working on one thing.

Open Common Sense ≠ Common Practice

Common Sense ≠ Common Practice

How often have you faced a situation where the right action was obvious? It seems simple—common sense. Yet, we often fail to act on it.

Avoid checking email first thing; prioritize important tasks. Choose stairs over the elevator. Resist social media notifications.

The best advice, including GYSHIDO-San’s teachings, is straightforward and logical. It embodies common sense. Yet it’s not common practice.

The real challenge lies not in knowing what to do but in having the discipline to follow through.

By consistently turning common sense into common practice, you will place yourself in the top 10% of your field. Guaranteed.

Open In the Long Run We Are All Dead

In the Long Run We Are All Dead

John Maynard Keynes said so in 1923, and it still resonates today. We're all temporary visitors on this planet, with limited time to make our mark.

Too many leaders postpone the important for the urgent, the meaningful for the convenient. They kick decisions down the road, avoid difficult conversations, and push transformative changes to some mythical "better time" that never arrives.

Great leaders understand the fierce urgency of now. They recognize that waiting for perfect conditions is a fool's game. They know that while patience has its place, procrastination dressed as strategic patience is just cowardice wearing a suit.

Your team needs you to be decisive today. Your organization needs your courage now. The world needs your contributions in this moment—not in some indefinite future that may never come.

Make the call.

Have the conversation.

Implement the change.

Take the risk.

**Because in the end, your legacy won't be built on what you planned

Open WIN

WIN

Winning isn’t about beating others – it’s about going above and beyond the ordinary and creating something truly worth fighting for.

It is not just about crossing the finishing line either – it's about how you run the race. 

These principles separate those who merely participate from those who truly win.

Open Superior Products Matter

Superior Products Matter

We live in a world of mediocrity. The products we buy, the food we eat, the services we receive, and the entertainment we consume – almost all of it is just meh. “Everything is average, bland, and boring.” Kurt Cobain said this in the early nineties, and it hasn’t changed. Mediocrity is exhausting.

When we encounter something vastly better we become ravenous fans. We can’t get enough of it, stop raving about it, and constantly recommend it to everyone we know. Superiority is rare, even more so today.

When you build something, why not strive to make it vastly better? You are already doing the work; so make it great.

Build what matters.

Open Speed Is Your (Only) Advantage

Speed Is Your (Only) Advantage

For most of us, speed is our main advantage. While our competitor is still in their fourteenth planning meeting, we have shipped version three of our product. We listen to our customers, market, and trends, quickly spin up new versions, gather feedback, and iterate. And then we do it again.

We build systems to reduce the time and cost of change because change is the only constant in a rapidly spinning world.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Amazon, under Jeff Bezos, was the poster child of doing things faster than almost anyone else. See where it got them.

“Doing things at high speed, that’s the best defense against the future. If you are leaning away from the future, the future is going to win every time.” That’s straight from Jeff’s mouth.

Be faster.

Open Be Known Or Be Nothing

Be Known Or Be Nothing

Quick: Name the brands that stick in your head. The brands you remember are louder in the marketplace. Their marketing is funnier, edgier, and better. Their products rock. They are known for something specific. One thing.

Red Bull gives you wings. Apple is beautifully designed. Ferrari is fast.

Being known means being known for one thing. Your product or service may shine in many areas, but consumers remember only one thing.

If that one thing polarizes, even better. Be loved, be hated, but don’t be something that evokes no emotion.

Polarize on purpose. Be known.

Open Luck Is Earned, Not Given

Luck Is Earned, Not Given

Success often comes with a dose of luck—being in the right place, at the right time, with the right offering. The stars align, and a breakthrough occurs.

Contrary to common belief, luck is something you create, not something that just happens to you.

Two thousand years ago, Seneca the Younger remarked, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Both parts are your responsibility: you prepare and are ready to act when opportunity arises. You put in the work to be ready for the moment. If you aren’t, the moment will pass you by. You also create the moment by putting yourself out there, entering the arena, and not leaving until Fortuna shows herself.

Luck is work. Nothing else.

Open Failure Is Inevitable

Failure Is Inevitable

You know it. You might as well face it.

Failing is par for the course. You can’t win without fumbles, stumbles, and the occasional bloody knees. Instead of running away, you might as well embrace it.

But don’t embrace failure for its own sake. Failure has a purpose—failing without learning is foolish.

Make “Fail” an acronym for “First Attempt In Learning.” To fail successfully, learn from your failures, apply that knowledge, and keep doing it over and over.

Success in life and business is like rolling a die. You win when the die shows a six. Roll the die multiple times, and your success rate increases dramatically.

Open Success Can Be An Illusion

Success Can Be An Illusion

We love success stories. The entrepreneur who mortgaged their house, ate ramen for two years, and struck gold. The artist who lived in their car before becoming a sensation. The athlete who overcame impossible odds to become a champion. These tales inspire us, showing what’s possible with determination and grit.

The problem is we only see the winners. For every successful risk-taker, countless others have lost everything. The entrepreneurs who went bankrupt, the artists still living in their cars, the athletes whose bodies broke before reaching the top. Their stories remain untold, hidden in the shadows of triumph.

This creates a distorted view of success. We start to believe the path to greatness is clear and straightforward, ignoring the hidden pitfalls and challenges many face. More importantly, we miss the lessons on what to avoid.

Question everything and strive to see the whole picture.

Open There Are No Rules

There Are No Rules

Play by the rules and… lose.

There are two types of rules—the hard and steady ones that exist for a reason, keeping you from doing harmful things. These are good rules.

Then there are rules that exist just because. Rules made by people who don’t want to be bothered, to maintain the status quo, and protect what’s theirs. Those rules aren’t your rules.

Don’t do something only because “it is the way it is being done.” Think. Go back to first principles—the first basis from which a thing is known—and ask yourself: Is this a good rule? Does it benefit society? Or does it just serve the gatekeepers? If so, ignore it, rewrite it, or break it.

It is not YOUR rule.

Open MORE

MORE

Follow these rules and become a GYSHIDO-San. But before you go off into the world, let us add one more thing…

Open The Tale of Two Lumberjacks

The Tale of Two Lumberjacks

Two lumberjacks entered a tree-cutting competition. The younger one—strong, confident—worked non-stop from dawn till dusk. No breaks, just pure grit and sweat. The older lumberjack took a break. Hour after hour, on the hour—a break.

The young man watched in disbelief. Why waste time resting when there's work to be done?

When the final tally came in, the older lumberjack had cut significantly more trees. Impossible.

“How did you beat me when I saw you sitting down every hour?” the bewildered young man asked. The older lumberjack smiled. “Sometime you have to sit down and sharpen the axe.”

Most people confuse motion with progress. They measure value by sweat, not results. They celebrate the grind while ignoring the outcome.

Take time to sharpen your axe.

Open Where it all began…

Where it all began…

GYSHIDO isn’t just a mindset—it’s a movement. It’s about razor-sharp focus, relentless execution, and mastering the art and craft of simply getting things done.

Our story began on a trail run through Aspen’s legendary Maroon Bells, where Will Butler and Daniel Epstein first coined the term “GYSHIDO.” The phrase stuck. Just a few weeks later, over gin & tonics and ginger beers in Boulder, Colorado, Daniel and Pascal found themselves trading stories about their superpowers. Both landed on the same answer: their uncanny ability to “just get sh*t done.”

That night, inspired by their conversation, Pascal penned the first GYSHIDO manifesto and launched the website. With that, the GYSHIDO movement was born—a rallying cry for anyone ready to cut through the noise and make things happen.

A decade later, GYSHIDO has evolved into a philosophy of doing, leading, and winning.

Now it’s your turn. Embrace the GYSHIDO way and become a true GYSHIDO–San!

Open About Pascal

About Pascal

Over thirty years in technology, Pascal Finette has become a powerhouse of strategic insight and leadership. From building startups before the web had browsers, to investing in early-stage tech companies, to holding key roles at Google, eBay, and Mozilla, Pascal’s journey is a masterclass in innovation and adaptability. As faculty chair for entrepreneurship at Singularity University, he’s guided countless entrepreneurs and executives, knowing exactly what mindset is needed to lead effectively in any context.

What truly sets Pascal apart is his gift for turning deep experience into practical, no-nonsense wisdom that empowers others to drive real change. As the founder of the advisory firm “radical” and the global GYSHIDO productivity movement, he’s inspired thousands to cut through noise, focus on what matters, and create lasting impact. A bestselling author, nonprofit founder, and sought-after executive coach, Pascal is relentless in his mission to amplify positive change, helping leaders

Open Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Pascal Finette

All rights reserved.

If you like this e-book, please consider buying the hardcover version – it is gorgeous!