Former CIA Officer Reveals The One 'Spy Trick' That Can Immediately Improve Your Entire Life
James Bond-level life advice.
Emma Rahmani from corelens | Canva A man who once worked for the CIA has revealed a "spy trick" that people can use to find success in different areas of their lives. In a clip from the "Lex Fridman" podcast, which was posted on TikTok, Andrew Bustamante, a businessman and former CIA agent, shared the life hack that he thinks everyone should follow to see positive results in their lives.
Seriously, if James Bond offered you life advice, would you turn that down? That's exactly what Bustamante did. He shared the simple trick that could immediately make your relationships and career much more successful, and it's as simple as changing your mindset.
The former CIA officer explained that we should all be practicing perception versus perspective.
"What is the one spy trick you would teach everyone that they can use to improve their life instantly?" Fridman asked Bustamante, who had come up with a few, but shared the one that he believed to be the most valuable.
"The most important spy trick to change everything immediately is something called perception versus perspective," Bustamante responded. "We all look at the world through our own perception. My stepdad used to tell me that perception is reality. I was arguing this with him when I was 14 years old, 'I told you so, Dad. You're still wrong.'"
He continued, saying that perception isn't reality but rather our own interpretation of the world around us, and is only unique to us. He claimed that there is "no advantage" in our perception, which is why so many people find themselves arguing with others and trying to convince them of their own perception.
Bustamante, who describes himself as an "improvement junkie," worked as a former covert CIA Intelligence Officer, US Air Force combat veteran, and Fortune 10 corporate advisor. Now, the 43-year-old is the founder of EverydaySpy, a company that promises people the elite skills of the CIA to help build their legacy and gain success through an "elite action plan," according to the website.
"We’re giving you every secret skill we learned from the CIA so you can beat impossible odds, win massive success, and keep yourself and your family safe," Bustamante wrote on his site. "You will learn skills in minutes that took us years to master. And you’ll use those skills to win more money, power, and personal freedom than you ever thought possible."
The former CIA officer advised people to start observing life from a different point of view.
Bustamante told Fridman that the only way people can win any argument, get ahead in their careers, or even out-sell and out-race anybody, is to move off of perception and move into perspective.
"Perspective is the act or the art of observing the world from outside of yourself," he said. "Whether that's outside of yourself as like an entity just observing as a third person from a different point of view, or even more powerful, you sit in the seat of the person opposite you and think to yourself, 'What is their life like?'"
He asserted that people must have empathy and understanding of someone else's life path, including what they might be thinking about, and if they're comfortable, afraid, or even scared. What were the stressors they woke up to that morning, and what is something that is stressing them out enough to prevent them from falling asleep at night?
"When you shift places and get out of your perception and into someone else's perspective, now you're thinking like them, which is giving an informational advantage," he continued. "Everyone else out there is trapped in their own perception. You have an advantage that they don't have."
The former CIA officer said that if we all implemented this mindset shift, it could change our lives.
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Bustamante was adamant that the shift changes everything almost immediately. He said, "If you do that to your boss, it's gonna change your career. If you do that to your spouse, it's gonna change your marriage. If you do that to your kids, it's gonna change your family legacy because nobody else out there is doing it."
Bustamante's "spy trick" is essentially learning not to be so self-absorbed and to practice the art of empathetically understanding the viewpoint of others. By doing this, it allows us to break free from our own biases and therefore have a deeper comprehension of the diverse and multifaceted people that surround us.
While it may seem like a small change, the results can often be extremely significant, in both our own lives and the lives of others around us.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
