Stop Following Formulas. Start Profiting from Your Personal Wiring.
The biggest benefit of designing your business around your specific wiring is that it’s harder for anyone else to replicate.
Legendary producer Rick Rubin doesn’t make musicians sound like other artists.
He makes them sound more like themselves.
Johnny Cash’s American Recordings doesn’t sound like the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill or Jay Z’s 99 Problems. The Red Hot Chili Peppers don’t sound like System of a Down, The Strokes, or Slayer.
Yet Rubin produced all of them and many more.
His genius isn’t in imposing a formula. It’s drawing out what’s already there — the unique voice, the authentic perspective, the thing that can’t be copied because it’s inherently theirs.
Here’s what makes Rubin’s success remarkable. He’s not a musician. He doesn’t play an instrument. He can’t read music. By traditional industry standards, he shouldn’t be qualified to produce anyone.
What he has instead are “soft skills” that can’t be taught from a manual. Things like intuition, taste, the ability to create an environment where artists feel safe enough to be vulnerable, and the judgment to know when something is right versus when it’s just good.
“In a sea of information, the more yours is personal, the more it’s not like hers or his or theirs. It’s yours,” Rubin says. “There are different points of view around us. If we’re all thinking the same thing, it’s boring. Why would we make anything if everyone thinks the same thing? What makes us interesting are the differences.”
Building a successful digital business works the same way. And I should know, because I’ve been doing it that way for twenty years.
What Happened When I Stopped Fighting My Wiring
Back when I started my first online business in 1998, there were no “gurus” to emulate.
Back then, it was a new frontier, and everyone was figuring things out for themselves, yours truly included. For example, I taught myself copywriting by reading every book I could find and taking a course that arrived in a giant three-ring binder.
There was no “magic” formula, and no one pretended there was.
But I did carry certain preconceptions about what “starting a business” meant. They were shaped by societal messaging about entrepreneurship, combined with the intense law-firm environment that had been my only “grown-up” job.
That combination calcified my belief that starting a business is really hard. It’s a torturous grind. You’re meant to suffer in order to deserve the reward.
Sure, it’s hard. But I had this “whatever it takes” mentality that put me in models and roles that were guaranteed to make me miserable, thinking that’s just the way it is.
It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And yet, I was so determined to prove I could succeed outside of law that I did. And I wasn’t happy about anything other than the money.
After seven years, I decided to make a drastic change. To create a business that was perfectly suited for who I was and how I was wired. Even if that meant I made less, I was intent on actually enjoying my work and becoming a reasonably happy person.
We know what happened next. I did better financially than I had ever contemplated. Three highly profitable seven-figure companies. One highly profitable eight-figure firm.
Right now, everyone is telling you that you must make your business “as human as possible” in the age of artificial intelligence. I’m telling you this has always been a smart move.
You need a business that’s genuinely yours based on who you are, what you know, and why you do it.
And that business needs to fit you like a second skin, so you can express your winning difference to the world.
Your Wiring Determines Your Optimal Style
Every successful business is designed around someone’s temperament. The question is, whose?
Gary Vaynerchuk’s business works brilliantly… for Gary Vaynerchuk. It’s designed around extroverted, high-energy, constant-content, relentless-networking wiring.
When you try to build Gary’s business in your body, you’re not just risking burnout. You’re building something that only works if you’re someone like Gary. Even then, you look like a knock-off poseur.
Because you’re not Gary. You’re you.
And that’s not a limitation. That’s your competitive advantage.
Your temperament determines how you naturally show up, both in your marketing and with clients:
Whether you’re energized by networking or drained by it.
Whether you think by writing or by talking.
Whether you prefer depth with a few people or breadth with many.
These aren’t preferences you can change with willpower. About one-third of your personality is genetic. That immutable third is your hardware, not your software.
When you build a business that works with that hardware rather than fights it, you create something no one else can replicate. Because it’s designed for your specific human configuration.
Instead, here’s what most people do. They find a successful business owner and copy what that person does, or follow the “formula” of their favorite guru.
That successful person networks constantly. So they force themselves to network constantly, even though it drains them.
The guru creates daily video content. So they try to create daily video content, even though they think better in writing.
This month’s new guru runs group coaching programs. So they launch a group coaching program, even though they’re energized by one-on-one interactions, not group dynamics.
Then they wonder why it feels so hard. Why they’re always exhausted. Why what works for others doesn’t work for them.
The problem isn’t lack of discipline or willpower. It’s that they’re running software designed for someone else’s hardware.
I don’t have to tell you that’s not sustainable. What I’m saying is it’s not necessary.
There’s a different path. One where you build on your own wiring instead of copying someone else’s. One where work doesn’t feel like you’re fighting yourself daily.
On this path, where you design a business around your biology, work doesn’t feel like work anymore. But the biggest benefit of designing your business around your specific wiring is that it’s harder for anyone else to replicate.
Sure, they can try to copy what you do (and if you’re successful, trust me, they will).
But all that does is remind people of the real thing, much like the Pepsi Challenge ultimately reinforced Coca-Cola’s position as market leader. Because clients sense the difference between authentic and performative.
Your Wiring Determines Your Movement
Your wiring doesn’t just determine how you market. It determines which business movements you’re naturally drawn to.
The things that frustrate you about the status quo aren’t random. They’re connected to your values, which are in turn connected to your temperament.
If you’re biologically wired to value autonomy and independence, you’re naturally drawn to movements that fight against systems of control. The sovereignty movement. The location-independence movement. The “own your digital assets and distribution” movement.
If you’re wired to value depth and mastery, you’re drawn to movements that fight against superficiality. The “slow business” movement. The craftsmanship movement. The “quality over quantity” movement.
If you’re wired to value community and connection, you’re drawn to movements that fight against isolation. The “third place” movement. The local-first movement. The community-building movement.
And here’s the key: Once you understand your wiring, you don’t choose your movement. You come to recognize it. Because you understand which movements already resonate with who you actually are.
And that recognition — that authentic alignment between your wiring and your movement — is something competitors can’t copy.
When someone tries to become a leading voice in a movement they don’t actually believe in, it shows. The language feels borrowed. The passion feels manufactured. The conviction feels thin.
But when you’re positioning in a movement that matches your values, which stem from your temperament, everything lands differently:
You’re not performing belief. You’re expressing it.
You’re not strategically choosing positions. You’re articulating what you truly believe.
You’re not trying to sound like a leader. You are a leader, because this movement is fighting for what you’ve been fighting for all along.
This is the unreplicable combination. Your specific wiring, working in your natural marketing mode, positioned in a movement that matches your actual values.
No one else has that exact combination. No one else can occupy that exact position.
In other words, that’s your “moat.”
Your Wiring Is What You Must Discover
This article explored why human architecture matters. Why building on your wiring, rather than following formulas, creates a moat no one else can cross.
What it didn’t show you is how you specifically are wired.
It took me seven years of business models that were the wrong fit to realize what the right fit looked like. And it took me years beyond that to get fully comfortable with only doing what I was great at, and getting out of the way of what others were great at.
The first step is to identify your specific wiring. Your energy patterns. Your natural strengths. Your authentic marketing mode.
Then, how to identify which movements actually resonate with your values versus which ones just sound strategic.
And finally, how to build a business on your architecture versus copying someone else’s blueprint.
That’s what the upcoming Sovereign Startup Foundations reveals.
Not esoteric theory about why temperament matters. An actual assessment that reveals your specific wiring across multiple spectrums.
Not generic advice about “finding your niche.” The framework for identifying which movements match your values and where you can position authentically within those movements.
Not abstract concepts about artificial intelligence and human judgment. The specific mapping of what goes in your (AI-assisted) execution layer versus what stays in your (human) judgment layer for your specific service.
Understanding that your wiring is your moat is the starting point. And it’s one that most people neglect, only to (one hopes) figure it out the hard way.
Knowing exactly what your wiring is, and how to build on it specifically, is how you create something that succeeds, perhaps beyond your wildest expectations.
Plus, your competitors can’t copy it, and AI can’t disrupt it. In this era of extreme uncertainty, that’s a gift.
Your Wiring or Someone Else’s?
Most people will keep copying guru blueprints. They’ll try to build Gary’s business, or Amy’s business, or whichever flavor-of -the-month they’re following.
News flash: The fundamentals of human nature don’t change, despite how gurus try to reposition it. You’re the X factor that hasn’t been taken into account. That’s where the disconnect is.
But most people willl keep fighting their own wiring daily. They’ll exhaust themselves doing things that energize other people. They’ll chase trends that seem strategic rather than becoming a leader in a movement that represents what they truly believe needs to change.
And they’ll wonder why it’s so hard and unsatisfying, like I did when I started.
But others will realize the game has changed.
The only defensible advantage left in the age of AI is being yourself at scale. Building on your actual wiring instead of copying someone else’s. Marketing in modes that match your biology. Positioning in movements that reflect your actual values.
And you do that by combining your specific temperament, experience, expertise, and values together in a business designed around them. That’s unreplicable by definition.
Because no one else is wired exactly like you. No one else has lived exactly what you’ve lived. No one else sees problems exactly the way you see them.
Will you build on it, or keep fighting yourself?
Keep going-
Brian
P.S. Join the Sovereign Startup Foundations Challenge.
Four weeks. Four modules. One invaluable outcome:
Your personalized Sovereign Startup Blueprint.
You’ll explore how to discover, develop, and enhance your expertise.
You’ll discover your leading skills, specific temperament, and which models match your wiring.
You’ll map the intelligence/judgment split in your service so you know exactly what AI handles and what only you can do.
You’ll identify which movements align with your core values and how to authentically position yourself within them.
Not theory. Not some guru’s formula copied onto your unique life. Your blueprint, built on who you are, what you know, and why you do it.
This post hit directly on an issue I've been gnawing on for longer than I care to admit. Knowing that the uniqueness of what you alone can bring to the party should be protected like intellectual property is one perspective. However, your description of "wiring" turns that perspective a bit by focusing on how that wiring in combination with other knowing creates a "moat." Something impossible to replicate. What a comforting revelation and mindset.
Wiring as moat sounds airtight until you ask who it actually protects. Usually it protects the founder from doing the parts of the work that feel hard, not the business from competitors.
The piece treats temperament as fixed and tells you to build the business around it. What it misses is that capacity gets built exactly where wiring gets stretched, not where it gets accommodated.
After 35 years leading people through transitions, the leaders who grew the most were the ones who could name their wiring clearly and still choose to operate against it when the moment required it.
Before designing a business entirely around your wiring, name the one skill outside it that this season is asking for, and build that on purpose. Not as an exception to the model. As part of it.