Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
I read these words from Seneca twelve years ago while living in a van...
(my life hasn't been the same ever since)
Seneca's words:
"The truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.
Those who cannot govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them."
Put another way:
If you cannot DISCIPLINE yourself, then the world will have to do it for you.
Now... if you struggle with discipline (like me)...
Here's an idea that might transform your life:
(or at least it did mine)
Treat every decision as though it's important.
Imagine standing in the middle of a road stretching to the horizon in both directions.
In front of you there are signs spaced equally that say +1, +1, +1.
Behind you, the signs say -1, -1, -1.
Each sign represents a single decision.
And with that decision, you can either make the +1 decision that moves you forward, or the -1 decision that moves you back.
This is called The +1 Framework of Decision Making.
Here's the important thing about this framework:
It does not matter how important the decision is.
Each decision you make is an opportunity to either move forward or backwards ONE sign. That's it.
The power in this framework is in developing the habit of treating every decision as though it's important...
Which they are.
Because at the end of the day, your life is nothing more than a sequence of small decisions stacked upon one another.
658 - 15
A problem well defined is half-solved.
Do you struggle with any of these?
784 - 23
Simple formula for winning in the games of life that matter most.
The Infinite Games of life where the goal isnāt to reach some designated end pointā¦
Games like marriage, business, and personal developmentā¦
Games where the goal isnāt to finish, but to show up each day and play just a bit better than the last.
Follow this formula and in those gamesā¦ youāll never lose.
378 - 8
We said goodbye to this lovely lady yesterday.
Not gonna lieā¦ it has me pretty busted up.
I donāt often feel such intense emotions (particularly around sadness and loss)ā¦
So I just want to take a moment to document this moment and share a thought swirling through my mind around life, death, and everything in-between.
Hereās the thought:
āThere will be a last time for everything.ā
When they told us Pru was on her way out, we didnāt think weād get another week (much less a month) with her.
Sheād stopped eating and lost a ton of weightā¦ it was looking bad.
So we took her to the mountains to enjoy her last days with some fresh air and open fields.
To our surprise, she got a second breath of life and lived another two months(!).
This was a precious gift because it gave us the opportunity to approach the normally mundane activities of life with a newfound intention, presence, and gratitude.
Each walk, each meal, each belly rub becomes a special occasion when you know you only have a few left.
But the thing I canāt stop thinking about is this:
For everything in this life there will someday come a ālast timeā.
A last time you see your dadā¦
A last time you hold your partnerā¦
A last time you say I love youā¦
The bitch of it is that in almost all casesā¦we donāt get to know when that last time will come.
In fact, for many things in our lives, that last time has already comeā¦ and we donāt even realize it.
We take for granted that weāll see that person againā¦ that someday weāll take that tripā¦ that someday weāll do that thing weāve been putting off.
But for many things in life, that someday will never come.
Hereās a powerful question Iāve been asking myself these past few months:
āWhat if this were the last time?ā
What if this were the last time you were talking to your friendā¦ what would you not want to leave unsaid?
What if this were the last time you were able to pick up your childā¦ how would you pick them up?
What if this were your last mealā¦ how would you taste the food?
What if this were the last time you ever told your partner you love themā¦ how would you tell them?
Because we so rarely get to know when the itās gonna be the last timeā¦
The best we can do is to live each moment as though it were the last.
And I knowā¦ thatās so much easier said than done.
Life has a way of making us forget.
But maybe you could take this moment, and in memory of Pruā¦
(who was the best girl in the world damned world and lived every moment with joy, kindness, and love)
ā¦just reach out to someone and say āI love youāas though it were the last time youād ever get to tell them.
Sweet dreams, Big P.
I loved you SO damn much.
397 - 53
I charge $1,700 an hour to consult businesses scaling to 8-figures and beyond.
Here's my most common advice so you don't have to hire me:
1. Tell Your Story Better
Story is the source code of the human experience.
It's how we make sense of the universe and give meaning to the things in our life.
Without story:
- your wife is just a stranger
- your childhood home is just a pile of bricks
- your wedding ring is just a hunk of metal
And it's the same for your business.
Story is the vehicle through which your customers connect with your company.
Learning to tell your story in a compelling, impactful, and influential way is an easy way to double your business, fast.
2. What's the True Cost?
Opportunity Cost is hard to quantify on a spreadsheet, which is why we tend to overvalue the "hard" cost of dollars leaving our pocket.
In my experience, missed opportunity is almost ALWAYS more expensive in the long run than the cost of capital in the short-term.
Concrete example: Hiring.
There are only ever two times to hire:
ā¢ Too soon
ā¢ Too late
The cost of hiring too is capital.
The cost of hiring too late is missed opportunities.
As a general rule:
The cost of the second is almost always greater than the cost of the first.
3. Execute the Fundamentals Daily
Forget massive action...
Success is often simply the result of tiny daily decisions compounded over decades.
Fundamentals executed with excellence wins championships.
Questions to ask in your business:
What are the fundamentals that:
1. Generate and Convert Leads
2. Deliver exceptional experience to my customers
3. Decrease churn and increase lifetime value
Literally all the growth you could ever want is on the backside of these three questions.
4. Belief Precedes Excellence (and failure)
Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
It's cliche, but so damn true.
Most business initiatives fail before they even get out of committee because the group doesn't BELIEVE it'll work.
A good rule of thumb:
If there's any doubt, there's no doubt... you will fail.
Now, that doesn't mean you go through life with a delusional self-belief that everything is always going to work out perfectly.
But it does mean that most any belief held with sufficient conviction can be made true.
There's no getting around this:
People show up differently when they show up with absolute certainty that what they're doing will work.
The converse of the above is also true.
Your job as the leader is to be a reality distortion field that infuses your team with belief at every step of their journey.
5. Never Assume You Know The Answer
Couple years ago we were raising capital for a deal.
Investor shoots me an investor and says:
"Put me down for $250k."
Over the next two months I email him 7(!) times to sign the papers.
No response.
I mentally wrote him off, but fired off an 8th email.
And voila...
$250k and signed docs landed the next day.
There's magic in the follow-up.
But only if you NEVER assume the answer is NO.
As a larger rule for business:
The person who thinks they already have the right answer stops asking the right questions.
This has been my downfall more often than not.
6. Sales is Service
I was talking to a financial advisor struggling to grow the other day.
He said:"If people only knew how much money we've made our clients, they'd be knocking down our door to do business with us."
Me: "So why don't they know about you?"
Him: "I'm just uncomfortable with talking about myself and what we do on social media."
Me: "Kinda selfish that you aren't sharing your story, don't ya think?"
Here's the thing...
If your product/service can GENUINELY help people, then don't you have a moral obligation to tell as many people as possible?
I believe you do.
When viewed through that lens:
Sales isn't sleazy... it's service.
Now get out of your own way and go serve somebody.
7. Clearly Defining the Problem is Half the Solution
Here's the most common complaint I hear from founders:
I just don't have enough time.
Wrong...
You don't lack time...
You lack Clarity, Focus, and Discipline.
Let's talk about that first one: Clarity.
Most people just solve whatever problem pops up and screams at them the loudest in any given moment.
And they do this because they don't know what is the ACTUAL priority in any given moment.
They lack Clarity.
This is why a problem well defined is half solved.
Remember: Speed is the result of Clarity.
8. Optimize Your Resource Allocation
Business is nothing more than the allocation of scarce resources.
Here are your most important resources as an entrepreneur:
1. Energy
2. Skills
3. People
4. Capital
5. Technology
You can never ask yourself too often:
"Am I allocating my resources as effectively as possible?"
9. Start at the End
Most people are mindlessly following a path laid out for them by society.
Entrepreneurs are a different breed.
They've bucked society's expectations and went off to build their own thing.
But still... charting your own course is difficult.
And we often find ourselves walking in the easily visible steps left by those who came before.
"I want to build a billion dollar company."
"I want to run a team of 100 people."
"I want to disrupt this industry."
Cool...
But do you really?
Maybe yes.
Maybe no.
Only YOU can answer that question, but it is perhaps the most important question of all...
Otherwise you might look up one day and realize you spent your life climbing the wrong mountain.
415 - 41
I discovered this wild business framework in the most unlikely of places...
It's called: The Problem isn't the Problem.
Here's how I stumbled upon it and then used it to build multiple 8-figure businesses:
So, you may not know, but I spent the better part of a decade sleeping in the dirt beneath the most beautiful cliffs in the world.
I was, as Lionel Terray put it, a Conquistador of the Useles.
Now, rock climbing is a peculiar sort of activity.
In this day and age, the only reason to climb a mountain is for no other reason than the fact that it's there.
A question to be answered.
A challenge to be accepted.
A battle to be waged against a foe that cannot actually be defeated, but who in the process of fighting... will uncover and reveal your truest self.
The reason we fight is not to win, but to discover.
To discover who we are...
To discover what we're capable of...
To discover our place in the world.
Perspective is a super-power.
But here's an interesting truth:
I saw more of the world when I was on the side of a cliff with my face pressed inches from the wall, fingers clinging to nothing, and the entirety of my focus distilled to the singular point directly in front of me than I ever did standing at the peak.
The lesson here, if there is one, is this:
There is nothing waiting for you at the peak.
Everything worht finding is found on the way up.
Which leads us to this incredible mental model I call:
The Problem is not the Problem.
In climbing we have a special name for the routes we climb on boulders.
They're called: Problems.
I've always loved this term.
It's a subtle acknowledgement that we're there to solve something.
But what that something is... isn't always so clear.
And the reason it's not so clear is this:
The rock isn't actually the problem. YOU are.
The rock is just rock.
It's pure objectivity.
It is what it is.
The question we as rock climbers must answer is:
How are WE going to adapt to the challenge presented by that slab of granite?
And because each of us are unique little snowflakes... this means we all have to ansewr this question for ourselves.
It's no different in the game of business...
See, there are no Business Problems.
There are simply YOU Problems.
And what I mean by this is this:
Every problem in your business can be traced back to a weakness or deficiency in your skills, activities, or beliefs.
YOU are the problem.
Solve that and everything will fall into place.
356 - 23
I read my sister's text again and again and again, each time feeling like an even bigger piece of shit.
It said:
"Another bill collector called looking for you."
At 27, I was living in a van with over $80k of debt and no clue how to make money.
A few years later, I was a millionaire...
Here's what changed:
I learned how to use the number one wealth building tool:
Leverage.
When it comes to building wealth, here's the 4 most important types of Leverage:
1. Labor
2. Capital
3. Technology
4. Media
Here's how I've used each of these 4 on my journey...
1. Labor Leverage
Doesn't matter how hard you work... you can only do so much.
To get out of debt, I washed windows.
Bought $100 of supplies and charged $5 / window.
I knocked on a dozen doors before somebody answered.
Another dozen before I got my first customer.
That first customer put me in the black, which was great, but I was simply trading my time for money.
So I made my first two hires.
I kept knocking on doors and the other two washed the windows.
Within a month we were booked solid for the next quarter.
So I kept hiring...
And by the end of the first year we had cleaned over $1,000,000 worth of windows.
A task that would've been physically impossible for me alone was easy work for a team of ~15.
That's the power of Labor Leverage.
2. Capital Leverage
I bought my first investment property (a triplex) for $246,500.
I put in $7,500 of my own cash and borrowed $239,000 from the bank.
9 months later that property appraised for $375,000.
I took out a HELOC to tap into that $125,000 of equity and...
Bought another building.
And another...
But eventually, I ran out of my own capital.
So I started raising capital from friends and family...
And eventually strangers.
(to date we've raised ~$40M)
3. Technology Leverage
Earlier this month, a few people were asking me how to raise capital.
On a whim, I created a landing page and started pre-selling a course I hadn't even created yet.
It did $15k of revenue on its first day with practically zero marketing.
Once I had proof of product-market-fit, I actually sat down to create the product.
8 hours later and the course was done.
Years of knowledge and systems distilled into a digital product that can be sold into perpetuity.
(technology leverage is OP)
4. Media Leverage
It took me 18 months to write, edit, and launch a book called Passive Investing Made Simple.
It went live two years ago.
It's been sitting in the top 10 on Amazon ever since.
It only earns ~$1,000/month
But revenue doesn't matter, because...
Here's the power of the book...
Every month I onboard a dozen investors who learned about us from the book.
About 30% of them end up investing with us.
Our average investment size is around $75,000.
That means:
((12 investors/month * 12 months) * 30% ) * $75,000 =
$3,240,00 raised capital/year
All because of the book.
That's the power of Media Leverage.
"Leverage is the difference between what you put in and what you get out."
So if you're tired of putting so much in and getting practically nothing out, become a student of leverage.
841 - 33
9 simple beliefs of the successful entrepreneur:
(master these or get left behind)
1. Reality is Malleable
Successful entrepreneurs recognize that our beliefs limit us far more than reality.
They understand:
Your beliefs are the chisel.
Your actions are the hammer.
Reality is the stone.
2. Only Two Types of Beliefs
There are beliefs that move you towards your goals (Empowering Beliefs)...
And beliefs that move you away from your goals (Limiting Beliefs).
Here's the thing:
Any belief held with enough conviction will be made true.
So be careful which you choose to believe, for it WILL become your reality.
3. I can't afford NOT to...
The best entrepreneurs are scrappy and resourceful.
They figure out how to stretch a dollar to its limit.
But there comes a point in every entrepreneur's journey when they must weigh two costs:
1. The Cost of Capital
2. The Cost of Missed Opportunity
As a general rule:
The cost of the second is almost always greater than the cost of the first.
4. Question Everything
"We question all our beliefs except those we truly believe... and those we never think to question at all." - Orson Scott Card
Beliefs (especially the Limiting kind) are sneaky.
They hide in plain site as "common sense" and "tradition".
But listen:
"The chained man doesn't realize he's chained until he tries to move."
Successful entrepreneurs never stop moving and they never stop questioning their assumptions.
5. Only impostors fake it until they make it...
The strongest beliefs are not formed through faith or delusion.
But through evidence.
Confidence stems from competence.
Stack proof, not affirmations.
6. Act despite how you Feel
The universe doesn't care how you feel.
It cares what you do.
And you don't have to feel a certain way to do a thing.
You just have to show up and do the thing.
You don't have to love it, do it anyways.
7. You will never feel as though you belong
If you don't ever feel like an impostor, it's probably because you've stopped growing.
Stopped reaching for goals beyond your current capacity.
Stopped stepping into rooms with people operating beyond your level.
Stopped growing...
If you never want to feel like an impostor, strop striving...
But if the cure for impostor syndrome sounds worse than the disease to you...
Just accept it and keep moving forward.
8. I'm not special...
The most pervasive belief holding young-entrepreneurs back:
"Nobody can do this as well as me."
This is a one way street to burnout.
9. YOU are the Problem
You will unlock unlimited growth the day you master the Theory of Constraints.
A system will never grow beyond its biggest constraint (aka: bottleneck).
P.S. YOU are almost always your businesses biggest constraint.
***
What belief has served you best on your journey?
Let me know! š
419 - 25
I'm a collector of mental models...
But this one is by far my most precious.
It's called The +1 Framework for Decision Making.
Here's how it works:
(bookmark + save this for later)
This framework revolves around something Socrates pointed out many years ago:
"The truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery.
Those who cannot, or will not, govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them."
I had to learn this lesson the hard way when at 28 years old I found myself crushed beneath a mountain of debt and bad decisions.
Now, at the time, I was highly MOTIVATED to change...
But I lacked the Discipline necessary to make myself do the things I KNEW I must do to change my circumstances...
And as a result, I kept losing the battle being fought daily against my own worst enemy:
Myself.
Now, before we can even win the war, we have to understand this person we're fighting.
See, each of us have two-selves:
1. The Biological You
2. The Modern You
The Biological You evolved over millennia with one goal:
Keep you alive long enough to pass along your genes.
This version of you is a powerful foe who wants to keep you zoned out eating Cheetos on the couch while binging Netflix.
It's only goal is to Survive.
But this is a problem for the other you...
Now, the Modern You isn't just interested in survival...
It's wrestling with questions of meaning, purpose, and legacy.
The Modern You's goal is to Thrive, not just Survive.
The problem is that the things which lead to a Thriving Life are not easily accomplished. They require hard-work, energy, sacrifice, and...
Discipline.
And what is Discipline, really, if not the ability to make decisions that'll positively benefit our future-selves?
So with that in mind, developing Discipline is simply a matter of making better decisions.
Enter: The +1 Framework for Decision Making.
At it's core, this framework is all about:
Treating every decision as though it's important.
Imagine standing in a road stretching to the horizon in both directions.
In front of you there are signs spaced equally that say +1, +1, +1.
Behind you, the signs say -1, -1, -1.
Each sign represents a single decision.
And with that decision, you can either make the +1 decision that moves you forward, or the -1 decision that moves you back.
This is The +1 Framework of Decision Making.
Note: It does not matter how important the decision is.
Each decision you make is an opportunity to either move forward or backwards ONE sign. That's it.
The beauty of this framework is that it gives you a lens through which you can treat every decision, no matter how small, as though it were moving you towrds (or away) from your greatest-self.
Because at the end of the day...
It is.
861 - 30
15 ways to stay poor:
(Iāve personally used all of these.)
1. Do the bare minimum
I wasted years thinking I was going above and beyondā¦
But the truth is:
I was doing the bare minimum because I didnāt REALLY understand how much effort goes into doing great work.
A good rule of thumb:
Take your current output and multiply it by 1,000.
Now youāre in the ballpark of what itāll takes.
2. Wait to be told what to do
Hereās a lesson my younger-self wouldāve done well to learn sooner:
You have very little value to the world if youāre waiting to be told what to do.
3. Expect praise
Nobody cares. Work harder.
4. Turn everything into a transaction
The poorest people I know (and I donāt just mean monetarily), treat everything as a tit-for-tat.
Do this for me and then Iāll do that for you.
No more, no less.
This is how I operated throughout my 20s.
My thesis was simply: If you want me to work harder, pay me more.
As a result, I got passed over for countless promotions.
When you treat everything like a transaction you get exactly what you giveā¦
And the people who treat everything like a transaction tend to not give very much.
This is a great recipe for staying poor.
5. Spend more than you make
Wealth is the ratio between what you make and what you keep.
Unfortunately, for most people, their lifestyle grows as fast as their income, which means they stay forever poor.
This generally occurs because people are more concerned with playing Status Games than they are with winning the Money Game.
But ask yourself this:
Is your goal to look like you have moneyā¦ or to actually have money?
These are very different things.
6. Stop learning
Humans are like that myth of the shark:
If weāre not moving forward, weāre drowning.
Might not be true for sharks, but it certainly is for humans.
The day you stop growing is the day you start dying.
7. Trade your time for money
As Buffett said:
āIf you canāt find a way to make money in your sleep, you will work until you die.ā
8. Take advice from poor people
Donāt take advice from somebody you wouldnāt trade places with.
That means:
Donāt take fitness advice from an unhealthy person.
Donāt take relationship advice from a single 19-year old.
Donāt take financial advice from a poor person.
Itās shocking this even needs to be said.
9. Surround yourself with people who tolerate mediocrity
There are no prizes for being the smartest, most driven, or most focused person in the room.
Every room reverts to the mean.
Which means youāre only ever getting pulled upā¦
Or down.
Choose your rooms wisely.
10. Overthink and Underact
Nobodyās ever been guilty of Overexecuting.
Overthinking? All the time.
Overexecuting? Itās actually impossible.
11. Wait until you feel āreadyā before getting started
Spoiler Alert: You will never feel ready.
So might as well get started.
12. Quit when things get hard
If youāre out there feeling like youāre screaming into the void and nothing you do mattersā¦
Just remember, this is what hard feels likeā¦ and itās why most people give up.
Donāt be most people.
13. Complain about how easy others have it
Winners focus on winning. Losers focus on winners.
They competition DOES NOT matter.
14. Break the promises you make to yourself
If you canāt discipline yourself, then the world will have to do it for you.
15. Blame Luck as the reason you arenāt where you want to be
Hell, it might be trueā¦
You might be the unluckiest person on the planet.
Itās not your fault, but it is your problem.
And no problem was ever fixed by complaining about it.
***
Most of us have been programmed for poverty ever since we were kids.
Want to rewrite your source code to escape the poverty programming trap?
Check out the video we just dropped.
38 - 5
Ten years ago I was $80k in debt, living in the back of a van, and struggling to get out of my own way.
I felt trapped by my quirkly ADHD mind and life's infinite distractions.
Unfocused, undisciplined, and unreliable... I lacked the tools needed to survive, much less thrive.
But I knew I was made for more and so I went on a search.
A search that led me to a system for reclaiming control of the most valuable asset any of us have...
My focus.
With this system, over the past decade, I've built a few businesses to 7 figures, wrote a couple bestselling books, and acquired a $70M real estate portfolio.
I might have ADHD, but there's nothing unique about my story.
We all struggle with distractions, procrastination, and self-sabotage.
I simply found a system for goal setting, prioritization, and execution which allowed me to unleash my hyperfocused mind on demand.
Now I'm here to share what I've learned about building businesses, investing in real estate, and going Beyond the Apex.