Most people don’t realize they can choose what to believe.
We think agency is about doing—starting companies, making investments, building things. But there’s a deeper form of agency that precedes all action: belief agency. The ability to examine, select, and update your beliefs.
Most of us inherit our beliefs. From parents, from school, from whatever ideology happened to be popular when we were forming our worldview. We wear these beliefs like ill-fitting clothes, never thinking to try on something different.
The greatest founders I know all have this in common: they’ve taken ownership of their belief system. They’ve questioned everything, kept what works, and discarded the rest without sentimentality. They don’t ask “is this belief true?” They ask “is this belief useful?”
The Belief Stack
Your beliefs form a stack. Surface beliefs rest on deeper ones. “I should work in finance” sits on “money equals success” which sits on “external validation matters.” Most people only see the top of the stack.
To have belief agency, you need to:
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Make your beliefs explicit. You can’t change what you can’t see. Write them down. Most people have never done this.
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Identify the load-bearing beliefs. Some beliefs are decorative. Others are structural. Change a load-bearing belief and your entire worldview shifts. “The future is predetermined” vs “I create my own future” – these aren’t just different opinions. They’re different operating systems.
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Test through action. Beliefs aren’t abstract. They predict outcomes. If your beliefs consistently lead to poor predictions, you’re using the wrong model. Update your priors.
Why This Matters
Without belief agency, you’re running someone else’s software. Their fears become your fears. Their limits become your limits. Their dreams become your ceiling.
I see this constantly in Silicon Valley. Smart people with all the action-agency in the world—they can code, they can fundraise, they can ship—but they’re still running beliefs installed by their parents, their schools, their first boss. “Big companies are safe.” “You need credentials.” “Don’t rock the boat.”
These beliefs are viruses. They replicate but they don’t serve you.
The most powerful thing you can do isn’t to work harder. It’s to believe different things. Change your beliefs and you change what seems possible. Change what seems possible and you change what you attempt. Change what you attempt and you change your life.
How To Build It
Belief agency isn’t mystical. It’s a muscle.
Start by noticing when you say “that’s just the way it is.” That’s code for “I’ve never questioned this belief.” Question it. Where did it come from? What evidence supports it? What would happen if the opposite were true?
Surround yourself with people who believe different things. Not to adopt their beliefs wholesale, but to prove to yourself that many belief systems can work. The conservative banker and the anarchist artist can both be happy and successful. This alone breaks the illusion that there’s One True Way.
Run experiments. Hold a belief lightly for 30 days and act as if it’s true. “I’m creative.” “Money is easy to make.” “People want to help me.” See what happens. You’re not committing forever. You’re just trying on a different operating system.
The Paradox
Here’s the thing about belief agency: once you have it, you realize that “true” and “false” are less useful categories than “helpful” and “harmful.”
Some beliefs are useful even if unprovable. “My actions matter.” “Things will work out.” “I’m capable of learning anything.” Are these “true” in some cosmic sense? Who cares. They’re useful. They lead to better outcomes than their opposites.
The goal isn’t to find The Truth. It’s to find the beliefs that help you build the life you want to live.
The Ultimate Agency
You can have agency over your calendar, your attention, your health, your career. But without belief agency, you’re optimizing within someone else’s value function.
Belief agency is the root. Everything else branches from it.
Most people will spend their entire lives inside a belief system they never chose. They’ll work hard, they’ll be disciplined, they’ll execute beautifully—in service of goals they never questioned.
Don’t be most people.
Take ownership of your beliefs. Question everything. Keep what serves you. Discard the rest.
This is the real work. Everything else is just tactics.
The most important question isn’t “what should I do?” It’s “what should I believe?”