1.Happiness is the feeling derived from:
- Doing something (making progress)
- Doing nothing (at peace)
Most people are unhappy because they’re stuck in the middle. They focus on their thoughts instead of reality.
2. The answer is you.
- Self-experimentation
- Self-education
- Self-reflection
- Self-mastery
- Self-reliance
- Self-sustenance
- Self-development
If you can learn, test, pursue, overcome, persist, iterate, and take absolute responsibility for the outcome of your life – you become free.
3. The future-proof skill stack:
- Entrepreneurship
- Marketing and sales
- Writing and thinking
- Technical know-how
- Personal interests
If you can cultivate, create, and distribute value – I find it hard to believe you can be replaced
4. Thanks to the decentralized education system being built in front of our eyes (creators on social media teaching paths they’ve gotten results in) you can quickly learn relevant skills that allow you to adapt to the changing career landscape. Don’t get distracted from that power.
5. It’s incredible that you can become top 10% in the skills that allow you to control your future with 6-12 months of obsessive learning and building on the internet. Enough so that you can make a living from it (without investing more than a few hundred dollars, if any).
9. Creativity isn’t about fancy designs or artistic abilities. It’s about achieving any goal with the knowledge and skill available to you. Everyone is creative, but most people forget they have the power to achieve anything they want in life.
10. All it takes is a moment of recognition to snap out of a bad mood that is hurting everyone involved.
11. It takes 1 second to build a new habit if you are absolutely fed up with where you are.
12. The habits of the 1%:
- Self-education
- Self-experimentation
- Adding to their skill stack
- Solving meaningful problems
- Writing, speaking, and thinking
- Creating and distributing value
- Taking time for psychological recovery
Become high-value
14. Your niche is what’s important to you.
- Teach about it
- Explain its benefits
- Dissect it as much as you can
Don’t limit yourself to one thing. Obsess over the crevices of reality that make life worth living and share that passion with the world.
15. How I structure my day:
- 1 hour to build a new project
- 2 hours to maintain old projects –
- 1 hour for spill-over tasks –
- Walks sprinkled in between to learn, generate ideas, and organize my thoughts for those projects.
A lean body, mind, and business is the result
16. Every morning: Phone off.
One future-building project in front of you. Do not do anything else until your priority tasks are done for the day. It only takes one hour a day to build the thing that will change your life.
19. If you’re lost, learn.
When you have direction, act.
Make mistakes. Be embarrassed. Create a giant mess so you have something to improve. And when you feel lost, repeat the process. You don’t need more advice, you need more experimentation
20. Entrepreneurship is an extension of yourself. It is the distribution of your value. It is your vessel into the unknown. It is your protection against replacement. It is your nature to create, give, and survive. Realize this and you will find purpose.
21. Simple:
Increase value
- Never stop learning
- Never stop building
- Never stop iterating
Distribute value
- Think, write, and speak daily
- Teach what you learn in public
- Turn your journey into a product
The secret you’re looking for is to stop standing still.
22. In a world where overwork is expected, pleasure is instant, and responsibilities are endless, nobody is going to give you the time. You must take it.
24. I say this with confidence.
You will never get it right the first time. This should be obvious, but we’re often under the delusion that we need to get it right so we don’t look stupid.
You are only stupid if you never look stupid (of if you look stupid and never improve).
25. The greatest mistake is not making any mistakes.
26. Ditch perfectionism.
Build fast. Make mistakes. Take more shots. Give yourself something to improve. Stop worrying when nobody is watching. You think you’re fighting other’s opinions when you’re just a slave to your own.
27. It’s pretty simple.
Whenever I feel like shit, it’s because I’ve stopped putting as much effort into the development of health, fitness, relationships, intelligence, or business. No amount of worrying is going to fix a problem solved by doing.
28. Most of your “I don’t have time” problems can be solved by waking up an hour earlier (and not complaining about why you can’t).
29. Brilliant minds:
- Never stop learning
- Push into new experiences
- Always have something to build
Mediocre minds:
- Always take the easy route
- Stop learning after graduation
- Get trapped in robotic routines
You’re either growing or dying, no in between.
30. You’re overwhelmed because you’re focused on the many things that need to be done rather than the one thing that will get those things done.
31. One of the most useless, non-specific procrastination tactics disguised as a question is “How do I start?”
- Start
- Hit a roadblock
- Educate yourself
- Attempt to overcome it
- Then, ask for specific advice
You don’t need advice right now, you need to trust yourself and fail.
32. It’s not that people know more than you. It’s that they’ve tried, failed, got back up, tried again, failed, and repeated that process more than you.
33. Discipline is not about forcing yourself to get things done. It’s about having absolute clarity on what you want out of life. No distractions. Pure focus. Seamless action.
34. Boredom and anxiety are guides not masters.
Boredom tells you to move, experiment, build, and try new things. Anxiety tells you to slow down, realign, be present, and remove the unnecessary.
Life is telling you to live at your edge, that’s where enjoyment is found.
35. More people need to realize that life doesn’t hurt you, you hurt yourself by reacting to life, and you have zero control over what life decides to do.
36. You don’t have ideas because you don’t read. You can’t articulate ideas because you don’t write. You can’t leverage ideas because you don’t build. You feel bored, anxious, or overwhelmed because your mind wants ideas to flow but you won’t let them.
37. The secret to self-discipline:
- Become fed up with where you are
- Get clear on what you want
- Create a plan to get there
- Remove every single distraction
- Take the smallest step
- Fail until you are okay with failure
Discipline is the byproduct of clarity, not force.
38. Use the same notebook and write out:
- What you want your life to look like
- What you need to learn to get there
- What you need to build to get there
- What you don’t want to sacrifice along the way
Remind yourself of this every morning until your mind is programmed to act
39. If you have a negative goal, your mind will accept ideas that help you achieve that goal. If you have a positive goal, your mind will accept ideas that help you achieve that goal. Choose your goals. If you don’t, society will, and you’ll wonder why life “isn’t fair.”
40. Writing = foundation of communication.
Communication = requirement for getting what you want.
The internet = the ability to communicate at scale.
Identity = what makes you unique.
Writing on the internet = a viable way to control your life.
41. Writing is intentional thinking. Intentional thinking is the prerequisite for good decisions. Good decisions are how you create a life you enjoy. If you don’t want to live a life of mindlessness and mediocrity, write.
42. Stop waiting until comfort turns to discomfort to finally start creating a story worth writing about. Because at that point it may be too late.
43. Your writing sucks because you only think about yourself.
People don’t want clever, they want clear.
People don’t want a lecture, they want emotion.
People don’t care about you, they care about themselves.
Write with this in mind and watch your readers pay attention.
44. Stress and anxiety absolutely destroy your creative ability.
You can’t think big picture. Your mind refuses to connect ideas. Writing is slow and painful.
Staring at the screen will only add to it. Get outside. Breathe. Slow down.
It will save you hours of wasted work.
45. Nobody can replicate your mind. Your worldview. Your story. Your identity. Your goals, values, beliefs, traits, interests, drives, skills, experiences, and problems. The most profitable, unique, and irreplaceable niche is you.
46. Most of your values aren’t based on what are true. They’re based on what allow you to survive and not be an outcast from your peers. You didn’t choose them. You were programmed into them.
47. It’s not difficult to see that most people have neglected their responsibility to control their life. They say they want freedom, but they only learn, do, and think what others tell them to. Snap out of it. Your potential depends on it.
48. Do what you want, but learn from your mistakes. If you are honest with yourself, that is the only advice you need to live a great life.
49. Take a chance on yourself for once. Ignore society. Ignore your friends. Ignore your parents. They want the best for you, but most of the time, they want what’s best for them. If you only do what others approve of, you drastically limit your potential in life.
50. Go on more walks if you want to:
- Clear your mind
- Stay lean with ease
- Become more energetic
- Generate profitable ideas
- Exchange screens for sunlight
- Find direction by removing distractions
Walks are the lowest friction way to solve most of the problems in your life.
51. You are programmed.
You were once a child who didn’t know any better. You were taught how to survive by people who learned how to survive 50+ years ago.
“Go to school get a job” probably isn’t going to work out well for you.
Think for yourself. Your future depends on it.
52. Procrastination is a lack of alignment.
No urgency, meaning, or priority in the goal you are trying to achieve makes distraction the only other option.
You don’t need to stop procrastinating, you need to choose something better to focus on.
53. Read to collect ideas.
Write to distribute ideas.
Build to monetize ideas.
You can read, write, and build whatever you want because you have a brain (I hope) and an internet connection.
54. Get paid for your ideas, not your looks. Get paid for your mind, not your time. Get paid for the infinite, not the finite.
55. The desire to succeed is more important than knowing how to succeed because the person with the strongest desire will figure it out no matter the cost.
56. Discipline is saying no to people, places, and things that distract you from the pain of not achieving your goals.
57. It’s not about finding the thing you love doing, it’s about finding the thing that makes the pain, sacrifice, and hours of work worth it.
58. Life is an endless string of problems that compound into meaning when solved and suffering when ignored.
59. If you believe you need more than 1 hour a day to see success, then 99% of people will never see it in their lives. You don’t need more time, you need more focus.
60. Personal growth doesn’t feel good in the moment. You sacrifice the habits, people, and beliefs that you’ve lived with for so long because you finally realize how much they hold you back.
61. You aren’t where you want to be because you care too much about:
- Others dreams vs your own
- Others opinions vs your own
- Others feelings vs your own
62. The deliberate act of pursuing your curiosity is the start of a transition from doing what others tell you to doing what you enjoy.
63. If you don’t know what to write, just write.
You need to clear the gunk from your mind to allow clean ideas to flow. You need to put ideas on paper – no matter how bad – so you have something to improve.
Write, without judgment, and I promise you won’t be able to stop.
64. Do it all. Become a writer, designer, marketer, filmmaker, bodybuilder, runner, or whatever your curiosity desires The internet gave the individual the power to learn almost anything, fast, and get results from diverse interests. You are living through the second renaissance.
65. “Trusting your gut” is reserved for those who have developed their gut through failure, risk, and experience outside of society’s plan for you.
66. The only real shortcut is not taking shortcuts.
67. You feel bad because you know what you’re supposed to do and you aren’t doing it.
68. If I could go back in time, I would learn:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Persuasion
- Social media
- Writing
- Offer creation
Then turn any of my interests into a business.
My problem was that I was so focused on my interests that I forgot I needed actual people to pay me for them.
69. You need a project to build. Something that you can invest your focus into. Something that has more gravity than distractions. Something that will bring you one level closer to the life you want. Study less, build more, and your skill set will be forced to grow.
70. Most people use learning as a way to feel good about making progress when, in reality, they aren’t learning or making progress. If you don’t have a project, business, or purpose to apply what you learn, you are lost.
71. It’s not that you don’t know what you want. It’s that you know what you don’t want and are hiding from the work it takes to get away from it.
You know what you want. Stop lying to yourself.
72. A pattern I’ve noticed in successful people:
They disappear from the world for months at a time to force pure focus on themselves and their vision. They laser in on one meaningful goal and make it a reality.
73. I love to walk.
It clears my mind. It burns calories. It keeps me healthy. It removes me from distractions. It gives me time to contemplate meaningful ideas.
I genuinely don’t know where my life would be without 1-3 long walks every single day.
74. A writer doesn’t need motivation to write every day, it’s just a part of who they are.
A bodybuilder doesn’t need motivation to lift and eat healthy, they just do it.
You aren’t where you want to be because you aren’t the person who makes good decisions by default.
75. If you don’t know what to do, build something.
Anything.
Your mind. Your body. A business. A creative project. Something you can invest care and energy into. Something you can share with the world.
People find a way of rewarding those who build cool shit.
76. You have $100,000 trapped in your head.
- Your skills
- Your interests
- Your knowledge
- The goals you’ve achieved
- The problems you’ve solved
- The story you’ve created in life
If you’ve done anything with your life, there’s a chance someone will pay you to help them do the same.
77. The worst belief you can have is that you deserve money for working hard on a string of tasks that add minimal value to the person paying you.
78. If execution outpaces knowledge, you get lost.
If knowledge outpaces execution, you get overwhelmed.
Learn, build, hit a wall, and repeat the process until you achieve anything you want.
79. Too much structure makes life mundane. Too much spontaneity makes life chaotic. A dance between the two makes life meaningful.
80. You can work hard at writing for 1 year, but that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed any form of payment.
You are paid based on how many people know about, care about, and benefit from that writing.
“Your skill set isn’t valuable unless paired with marketing, sales, and persuasion.”
81. How much you make = how valuable you are.
The problems you solve, the solutions you create, and your ability to get people to care about your creation.
If you aren’t happy with how much you make, it may be time to take a brutally honest look at what you contribute to the world.
82. The act of consistency is the commitment to embrace inconsistent results.
83. You can’t improve something that doesn’t exist.
Launch the project when it’s not perfect. Start the business when you don’t know enough.
You can only find the second step when you take the first.
84. You can either sell now and attract people who have a healthy relationship with money, or build a reputation of not selling and have your audience turn on you for trying to survive.
85. The path to $1 million as 1 person working 4 hours or less:
- Do not work more than 4 hours
- Start with client work
- Get results, make money
- Build your audience
- Productize your work
Repeat steps 3-5 until you reach $1 million. Then, don’t stop.
86. Do your own Q&A.
Don’t outsource the answers to your questions. Go inward. Peel back the layers of your thoughts until you reach the answer.
Some answers come in seconds, others come in decades.
You’ll be surprised what you find.
87. For every excuse you have about limited money, time, and skill there’s another person in your exact same shoes who figured it out.
88. Even if somebody is coming to save you now, it’s better to maintain a sense of personal responsibility because they probably aren’t going to keep saving you, and life is a never-ending string of problems. Everyone has them.
89. Productivity is getting from where you are to where you want to be as fast as possible.
Productivity is not seeing who can work the longest to win the status game (with little to show for it).
90. Your happiness stems from your inner game: your ability to understand, interpret, and mold your mind toward favorable outcomes.
91. The 4 pillars of a one person business: Brand, content, product, marketing.
- Brand is your story.
- Content is your map.
- Product is your solution.
- Marketing is your experience.
92. Your mind hates discomfort.
But discomfort is a signal for something new. Something you haven’t experienced before. A new potential that can expose you to a better life.
When you train your mind to default to calmness, you can create a solution to grow through the discomfort.
93. For business, adopt the perspective of your customers.
For relationships, adopt the perspective of your loved ones.
For progress, adopt the perspective of your ideal self.
For peace, adopt the perspective of life itself.
94. The protégé effect: A psychological phenomenon where teaching, pretending to teach, or preparing to teach information to others helps a person learn that information. When you teach, you pay closer attention when you learn and identify knowledge gaps that help you learn faster.
95. Solving a problem in your life is only the first layer of experience.
Solving a problem in others lives – and the constant testing, nuance, and iteration involved – forces you to learn and grow beyond yourself.
Business growth is the second layer of personal growth.
96. You feel lost because you don’t have direction.
Set a goal. Educate yourself on what it takes to reach it.
Practice the skills that take you there. And when you inevitably feel lost again, restart the process.
97. In many jobs, humans are the machines until machines take over.
Creativity and uncertainty are the keys to opportunity and security.
98. Invest your focus in:
- Your connection with quality people
- Your physical strength & aesthetics
- Your intellectual development
- Your emotional resilience
- Your financial safety
Focus is a muscle, and success is reserved for those who train it.
99. Every situation presents a lesson. Especially the low points in your life.
The times when your mind is clouded with negative thoughts and it feels like there’s no escape. If you can calm yourself, the light at the end of the tunnel slowly becomes visible.
100. The greatest skill is writing because:
1) It forces you to articulate your value
2) It can be repurposed into any other medium
3) It enhances any other skill you acquire
4) It brings immense mental clarity