I’m so proud of you:

I’m so proud of you.

For putting in the work.

Saying you were going to do 100 pieces of content this year and then finish that in 4 months while also predicting how the stock market would crash.

You’ve positioned yourself perfectly.

If the market crashes, people are going to want to know who I am.

They’re going to want to understand me and my ideas.

How did this 25-year-old doctor turned venture capitalist guess the market was going to crash and say it exactly as it happened?

Good question fellow readers.

I have no idea.

But there are a few things I do know.

I read a lot.

I listen to podcasts a lot.

I study a lot of different subjects.

I have a lot of interests.

I’ve also had a lot of time.

I’ve gotten really lucky.

People took chances on me that I probably didn’t deserve.

I looked for opportunities that were completely different to what I was told.

And I jumped headfirst.

This writing journey has been the same.

When you say you’re going to do something, do it.

Don’t disappoint yourself.

Don’t talk about it before you do it.

Just go do it.

Stop waiting.

No one is coming to save you.

No one is coming to help you.

If you want to get ahead in this world, you need to figure out how to stop feeling sorry for yourself and invest in yourself.

The Internet is the ultimate equalizer.

You can learn anything if you set your mind to it and put in the hours.

Sit there, get rid of your phone, and create something for hours every single day.

If you do that for 1 or 2 years, you’ll see how much you can grow by committing that time.

I have this belief that if people believe in themselves more than anyone else and put in the work while everyone else is coasting, they’ll get ahead.

They have a chance in today’s society.

The opportunity is there and it’s online.

You can learn any skill you want.

Say you’re a business kid right now studying in university. Newsflash, your degree is essentially worthless in today’s job market.

You need skills.

You need to understand what types of skills are needed at the job you want to apply for.

How do you find that out?

Let’s use an example and say you want to work at an investment bank

Type on google or youtube, ‘what does an investment banker do? What are the best investment banking firms?’ 

Go stalk people on LinkedIn at the different investment banking firms and look for analysts/associates. They’re people lower down in the firm who are probably happy to chat with young people. If you message them, you may be able to get a job out of it. I wrote a blog post about it (here), but essentially you can use the Internet to get a job through a backdoor.

If you spent 1 hour of your time in undergrad reading investment banking books, messaging young investment bankers to speak to them, and learning financial modeling, you’re ahead.

If you can learn how to do an excel model, which you can learn in an online course in a few weeks, you’ll be ahead of everyone else who applies to that job by miles.

If you practice that skill, even for as little as an hour a day in university, you’ll become an expert. As soon as you start that job, you have an edge. You can finish your work quicker than others because you’ve practiced. You’ve already put in the time to learn it.

This is what the Internet does. It gives you the tool to learn any skill.

Most quality courses cost money but you’ll be surprised how much info you can find for free out there.

The question is ‘are you willing to put in the time?’

Because there is no shortcut to success.

You have to put in the work.

You have to put in the time.

While everyone else is relaxing, put in the work.

Get off your phone.

Set a timer for 1 hour, throw it in another room and sit there.

Listen to yourself.

Listen to your mind.

Listen to your thoughts.

Write them down. Sing about it.

Whatever it may be.

You need to understand yourself before you can understand the world.

Everything starts within.

It starts with your decision to decide what you want out of your life and how much work are you willing to put in to get there.

Because there is no shortcut.

Do the work.

I’ve done the work.

Yet I’ve only just started.

There’s so much more work to be done.

***

I want to make a lot of money to give it away to a lot of people who are genuinely changing the world.

In today’s society, you cannot do anything without access to significant amounts of money or influence.

Could I get both?

Maybe.

No matter what happens, I need to focus on myself while I’m young. Take as many calculated risks as possible and make a lot of money so I don’t have to worry about it anymore and I can focus on making more to give more away.

Nothing happens in this world without money.

Access to money and power puts you in a different class of people.

There are very few people in that class.

Could I get there one day?

Who knows.

All I know is I’m proud of you.

You bet on yourself.

You did the work.

You took the risks.

Congratulations big man.

You’ve made it this far.

Yet your work has only begun.

I can’t wait for what’s in store next.

I’m just getting started.