Hey
, everyone.
I'm Garrett, and we're going to be talking about the Hacker Mindset today.
So let's start off with some movie trivia.
Anyone know where that's from?
No?
Hey, there we go.
Goodfellas.
Awesome movie.
If you haven't seen it, I'd say add it to your watch list.
This is actually the opening statement to that movie, and it sets the stage for the whole movie.
And while I never wanted to be a gangster myself, I did always want to be a hacker.
And I knew this because I always liked puzzles, I liked building things, and I was curious how things worked.
And for me, hacking started when I was 11 in elementary school.
At the end of every week during General Assembly, my principal and two teachers drew a name from a weekly good behavior box.
It was a simple system where every student's name was in this box so that it was evenly distributed.
And every time someone exhibited good behavior, they would get another entry to that box.
And since I was curious how things worked, I observed how those winners were drawn.
Ultimately, because I wanted that prize at the end of every week, even though at that age it was just a pencil or eraser or a piece of candy.
So the drawing came up, and my name was chosen.
The next week was coming up, and my name was chosen again.
And again, and again.
For a record, seven weeks in a row.
So how did I win?
You know, those are like common hacking traits of curiosity and observation.
I noticed that they only drew the paper from the very top of the box and never actually shuffled it.
So right before they were about to draw, I just plopped my paper onto that box, and I was literally stacking the deck in my favor.
And I consistently won.
So I'm going to age myself a little bit, but this was all in the 90s.
Computers and the internet wasn't super common.
But they were getting more accessible at the time, and so I naturally gravitated towards them.
I grew into programming and game hacking.
And by 15, I had a job offer from Google and the U.S.
government.
So can I get a poll of who would take the job from the government?
One person.
Who would take a job at Google?
Pretty much everyone.
Yeah, I was that person taking the job at the government.
And I'll tell you why in a little bit.
But that decision kind of paid off as I was transferred to the cybersecurity group, which is what I really wanted in the first place.
It was also brand new to the industry and brand new department overall.
And by 20, I was recognized as a hacking expert on national YTV on 60 Minutes.
So, you know, fame and fortune kind of was at my doorstep.
Except the only person that ever saw that 60 Minutes episode was my grandma.
And she thinks computers are useless.
So by 25, continuing on, I was working for the Federal Reserve doing pen tests and writing mops.
So once again, momentum and trajectory seemed to be on my side.
I was off to a great start.
Brand new to the industry, doing new and interesting things.
Getting promoted.
Doing work, interesting work.
Securing the nation's financial systems.
And ultimately, I was living and breathing that world.
So really this kind of checked all the boxes for myself along with my family.
Since culturally, I was raised to get a safe and stable job.
Along with keeping my head down, doing the work, and rinse and repeat.
So then, in January of 2007, I found myself sitting in the front row of the Steve Jobs iPhone announcement.
I was in that place because I hacked into the Macworld registration system.
So as Steve was announcing the very first iPhone, the excitement was building very much so.
And I took a pause for myself to see who else was around me.
And that was the moment that changed my life.
Because I was really seeing who else was in there next to me because I was in that front row.
And two conclusions that I had was I've been really playing small at that time.
And I really wanted more for my life.
I really came to that conclusion because of who the other people were around me.
And I kind of foresaw those decisions.
And ultimately, I was just limiting myself.
Sure, I've grown into my technical capabilities.
But every other aspect of my life was fairly stagnant.
And it hit at me because it was all really my fault.
I'd settled.
I continued doing the work that I loved.
And I think that's where a lot of us kind of get stuck in that trap of loving the work that we do, committing to it.
And ultimately, that kind of leads to burnout.
So, after that Macworld hack, I kind of thought to myself, well, how can I be very proficient in hacking, but so mediocre in my other aspects of life?
So, back in my office, I was re-evaluating everything.
Kind of taking into assessment all the hacking background and expertise that I had.
And kind of came to some conclusions of, like, adding in some buckets of what are the hacker characteristics, principles, and methodologies that we're used to.
Eventually came up with this list.
And while we don't have enough time to cover all these subjects, I want to go over the most important one.
Because it not only helped me in my journey, but hopefully it will help you.
And for those wanting to learn more about that, I did write a book about it that goes into all these topics.
It's traditionally published, so you can find it in bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Amazon, as well as translated to a few different languages.
Okay.
So, after that Apple event, my brain was on high, wanting to start taking action.
And I realized that the strategy that I had developed several years ago, which was the whole, like, safe and stable environment, safe and stable job, was no longer really serving me at that time.
From lifestyle to interest and income alone.
So, I needed a new plan.
Since my trajectory was completely off at that point, I was in a rabbit hole of researching and thinking about new businesses and different projects.
So, at that point, I was still working at my day job.
And I was using all the available time that I had to think of the next thing to work on.
At the same time, that really didn't get me anywhere.
Because I didn't really take action at that time.
So, one experiment that I did was get an apartment one block away from the work.
So, that would free up two hours a day of my time.
Because I had a one-hour commute from the East Bay to San Francisco every day, one direction.
So, that would really free up two hours of my time to do other things.
So, while that theory was good, that just essentially meant I was working even more.
And that kind of led to exhaustion, as well.
I did have a killer view of the Bay Bridge every day, though.
So, from that experience alone, I came to the conclusion that if you're only focused on strategy, it'll lead to frustration.
And if you only focus on execution, it'll lead to exhaustion.
You really need both.
And that's what I call the hacker versus slacker pendulum.
On one side of the pendulum is strategy.
It's easy to find yourself into that dreaming, planning state that's like the fun, creative space.
And on the other side of that pendulum is execution.
And sometimes, like myself, you might get confused in that state because you're working towards the thing that you're working on.
And you might hit a max capacity, you might hit a wall, but also, once again, that's kind of like where you just get stuck in a rut and get into burnout.
But really, the key here is maintaining that balance between strategy and action.
Similar to a pendulum.
So, really, the pendulum is not about over-indexing on one side.
So, let's take a moment for all you guys to assess where you think you are in life right now.
Are you the person that's always dreaming, thinking, and comparing, always in your head, kind of like being stuck in strategy?
Or are you the type of person that's always working, heads down, grinding away, and never looking up?
I've definitely been on both sides of that.
And hopefully, we don't have any, like, typical slackers here of just low execution and low strategy.
And when you have high levels of execution strategy, you really, to me, that equals freedom.
That's the true zone of being a hacker.
Because for myself, leveraging my hacking background, I went from full-time government employee to seven-figure business owner, only working an hour a day.
So, many of you might know me from Hacker Warehouse, but I wasn't always entrepreneurial.
I'm not even saying that's, like, the right path to go down.
But I am a hacker.
I know many of you are.
And when I put my skills towards a different set of outcomes, that's the freedom that I was seeking.
And that's what I really want for you.
So, the key is to ask yourself, am I balanced?
Or am I over-indexed on one of those sides?
One question that you might ask yourself is, is the strategy or decision that I made a long time ago actually still serving me today?
And you might not have even made a conscious decision about that.
When I told you about me selecting the government job, that was because all of my other family members are civil servants.
So, it was just natural for me to go into a government job.
I wasn't even thinking about it.
So, that was the unconscious decision for myself.
But once again, keep the pendulum in mind.
So, we covered the pendulum, but how can we implement that into your workflows?
In pen testing and red-timing, there's all sorts of methodologies.
There's PTES, OSSTMM, NIST, MITRE, etc.
And all of these are frameworks to break down the activities into different stages.
So, I thought about how that approached to general hacking, like when I hack and find zero days.
And came to the conclusion that all of these are success systems.
They're structured systems for success.
And I wanted to create a success system for myself.
As well as others.
And I call this the hacker helix.
It shares a lot of structure between the technical hacking methodologies.
But it generalizes them so that it could be applied to anything.
This methodology is also cyclical and iterative.
So, it will force you to continue moving forward towards your own journey.
The main point is that it's a systematic process.
And it goes from one step to another to make sure your goals are achieved.
And
going back to the pendulum, if you overlay that workflow to the pendulum, every stage is kind of being flipped.
So, it's like forcing yourself to maintain that balance between those different zones.
So, setting an objective, more strategy, performing reconnaissance, more execution, and etc.
So, by using this framework, it really forces you to keep moving forward and work towards your goal.
So, why do any of this?
Once again, for myself, I think high levels of strategy and execution is equal to freedom.
And when I leveraged the hacker mindset, it generated that freedom to spend time intentionally.
From consulting on TV shows like Sense8, Jason Bourne, Mr.
Robot, to learning about electronics and building badges.
I even learned about the cotton industry, which resulted in four patents.
And it also allowed me to intentionally spend time with friends and family.
For me, the biggest reward was that you intentionally spend time because you never know how much you or others that you love have with us.
So, everyone in here is highly intelligent.
And I know you have the power to change your own life, but to change those around you.
And I encourage you to use the hacker mindset to create the life you deserve.
And that is it.
Let me know how I can help you and level you up.
I'd love to chat with you, whether that's in person or online.
Thanks!
And I blew through that really quick.
So, we've got like ten minutes to chat, if you want.
Please.
Yep.
Yeah, so the question was, when do you know when to quit?
When do you know when you want to pivot or change direction?
I think there's a good book Seth Godin wrote called The Dip.
I would highly recommend reading that.
If you haven't already, it sounds like you're familiar with it.
At one point, you've got to choose and then continue to actually take action and see where that leads you.
I definitely, for myself, have taken lots of different pivots away and just see where it goes.
But naturally, I think you have a gut feeling of where your trajectory is and where it's going.
And where you can see it.
And just following that.
Yeah.
So, the question was, how did I go from technical hacking to other creative pursuits?
To me, like I was saying, they're all creative pursuits.
It's just different puzzles and different challenges.
So, for myself, I always like learning different systems and doing different things.
So, from a technical perspective, I love pen testing.
I love red teaming.
It always had different new challenges.
But after 10, 15 years, it's kind of that same...
Even though the technologies are changing a little bit, it's still the same thing.
So, for me, the reason why I pivoted is because those were new, completely different areas to hack.
Anyone else?
Yep.
What was my...
Sorry, I still can't hear the first word.
Oh, okay.
What was my thought process between moving businesses?
Oh, creating new business.
Really, it's leveraging the skills that you have currently and taking assessment of what else, like competition-wise, what people are paying for, what people are interested in.
So, Hacker Warehouse, this was, I don't know, 15 years ago.
I noticed that there wasn't a single source of verified tools on the market.
So, at that time, I was at the Federal Reserve and I needed to source products across everywhere.
And pretty much everyone was doing that same thing.
So, I knew by creating a single store that I could serve as that function because everyone else would have that problem.
So, knowing and kind of seeing where people have problems.
So, like, if you're a consultant, I'm sure you could see the trends of what type of problems people are asking about and to identify a solution based upon that.
Good question.
Anyone else?
Yeah, I have a few with me.
Happy to hand it out.
Thanks, everyone.
Thank you .