New year, same me, different perspective, new goals.

Before reading anything:

Feel free to interpret this however it will serve you. I’m not a dictator. I don’t impose what I write as a cookie-cutter solution for everyone. What you perceive in this may resonate, it may not. Read between the lines. Take things with a pinch of salt. And if you like something, leave a comment or a thumbs up so I know that I did something to good for someone.

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I’ve decided to start documenting my journey, and build openly from 0€ to 1M, so that I can provide value for anyone who is struggling to make money and create actual value online. As well as keep trace of my journey. It’s also good because it give me a form of accountability. 

So far I’ve found these points to be of use to me.

Driving factor

This being said, there are many ways to make money online, though it is brought often to my attention through the people I encounter, and through my reading, that attempting anything solely for money just does not work. In fact, whenever money is the driving factor, I most always obsessively burn myself out because nothing else matters. And ‘else’ does matter. 

I confirm this through my own experience; over and over I’ve encountered failure after failure. Not because I’m not hard working, but because after a while, I lose interest, I lose the drive, and my focus fizzles out. I move on to the next, and lose interest all together in anything related to the project. Why? Because money isn’t fulfilling, it’s rewarding, and reward doesn’t fill you up, the fulfillment you get during your process does. And I believe it’s Steve Jobs who said that ‘the only way to do great work, is to Love what you do.’

Some people can do things solely for money, though I’ve found that money can never be a decision factor for me. I like money, I enjoy using money, and I enjoy all the things I can do with money. Though, at the end of the day, it is a tool, something to help you (be, do, achieve, render service, have… etc). Money doesn’t fulfill you, especially during the process of acquiring it. At least it doesn’t for me. 

I’ve found that, if money is at the top of my decision pyramid, all of my core values aren’t as important as money and I become corrupted (corps-rupture = cut off from the intelligence of my body) and end up going down silly paths. In fact, without values, one becomes a wh*re for money (excuse my French) and all of our important values get thrown out of the window. Hence why we live in a society where most of our social media is based on hype and click bait. 

Define Values

So, it becomes increasingly important that one define their values first and foremost and then strive with the framework of those values as invisible guiding forces. If we stray away from our values, we most often find ourselves doing anything, and anything doesn’t necessarily allow us dignity, or a constructive lifestyle. 

I’m a big believer that the process and standards we impose on ourself is what we impose on others. So, if we stress ourselves out and whip ourself into action; guess what, we’ll most likely do that to others. So, self-love becomes quite important too in the achievement of one’s financial success. 

And come to think of it, I can’t allow myself to start this journey with you by saying — as I said earlier on — I’m going from 0 to 1M. Sure, that’s a nice vision to have. But it doesn’t drive my actions, and it can’t drive my actions. It does give me an indicator of scale, of importance, of the value of my work, and impact I have on helping others. This is what I can see within the 1M reference. 

Process

The larger the number, the more pressure I put on my creative process. But, we human-beings are not coal, we don’t transform into diamonds. I’m all for pressure and steel forges steel and all that but, when it comes to quality, I like the approach of a local butcher my father introduced me to many years ago. Let’s call him Mr.D.

Mr.D was a butcher and farmer who believed that the quality of the meat he sold to his clients was directly affected by the quality of the lives his animals lead. A stressed cow produces stressed meat. An unstressed cow however would produce a tender meat. So Mr.D decided to let his cattle roam free the entirety of their lives, right up to the very last second where he’d drive one up to the back of the shop only a few hours before displaying it to customers. 

What I take from this, I apply to my creative process. The quality of the input of information I consume, is defined by the intention and quality of my state and mental process, and the result is that a quality input, and a quality process produce a highly valuable output of information/solution/production that has served me well. And this, I intend to continue doing. 

What the 1M reference doesn’t take into account is personal fulfillment, enjoyment, the quality of the journey, the value of my work, attention to detail, how much effort will go into providing something that people want. The personal side of the venture. The joy I take in discovering a new fact, or ideate a new solution. 

When people lose interest and / or fulfillment on a job, they move on. This is why, being aligned with what we enjoy is of utmost importance. Which brings me to my last year. 

Understand your nature.

Since September 2022, I decided to go back to school to become a Full stack developer. And since this period, I have spent the majority of my time reading, testing, applying code. While it does have upside, and it can be helpful to produce solutions. I also saw a lot of downside to learning code. 

I saw my mental clarity become scattered, my handwriting started to slant backwards, my ideation flow became ebbed and because I’m an auditive primary (vakog) less words = less expression, my thought process became less fluid, and I became less and less clear about how I am feeling, what my intuition is telling me, as well as losing interest in being in front of a computer screen at all. 

And for a writer, or at least a creative dreamy ideator like me, this means feeling dead. Sure, I could write code, implement control structures, automate outcomes and add Api’s to things. But at what cost?! Because, my sole purpose to learn code was to get a job that could provide a stable income, I was doing it for money. Not necessarily because I ‘loved it’. 

Straying from your nature will produce anti-productive outcomes

Another thing I’ve observed with ‘doing something we don’t like’ is that when our daily process is spent doing something we don’t enjoy for the purpose of money, we end up seeking forms of pleasure and instant gratification that we wouldn’t normally have to if we were fulfilled by a work well-done. I believe the quote is to ‘live a life we don’t want to escape from’. 

We can’t live a life we don’t want to escape from, if we spend the majority of our day focused or thinking about something which isn’t what we truly want. And so, the inevitable solution is to find what we love to do. 

Connect the dots.

In order to succeed, I’ve found that we must connect the dots looking back and define a theme. My theme is [Ideation, writing, speaking, creativity] verbal expression/ communication. If I disconnect from that, I will feel a lack of enlightenment. I must read every day in order to write every day, and I must write in order to have clarity of mind. And in order to speak well, I must have clarity of mind and references of ideation, which come from reading and writing. 

This is the paradigm I must live in. If I don’t apply it, it becomes my prison. If I do apply it, it becomes my liberation. But either way, it seems to be the only path which I can travel which fills my soul, and gives me the clarity and energy to do anything and everything else. 

Without food and words, life isn’t really worth living. Love comes and goes apparently, but food and words must be daily. 

Deliver Value to others

I’ve found also that in order to succeed and do well in business, one has to wrap the entire business around two points. The first is to make that business customer centric. The second is to be in love with the process of delivering results to that specific customer. And I believe that if we have both ingredients, it hightens the probabilities of achieving a successful business. 

Use contrast to understand yourself and see life more clearly. 

Over the last few years, I decided to go experience as much contrast, difficulty, and even pain and embarrassment as possible. (Bear with me, there is a method to my madness). In order to create the fuel which would propel me towards achieving the pleasure I wanted. 

When I left high-school (2012, a good number of years ago now..), I observed that I was ambitious, but I had no drive, no motivation to make money. I was good at everything else in life, but money was not my strong suit. And I needed money to afford living a lifestyle that would attract the woman I’d want to be with. So, I devised of a plan to suffer and create references that I’d never want to ever experience again, in order to fuel me towards the desired outcome I dreamed of having. Drive is defined by an axis of Pain and Pleasure. 

Now, enough about me already.. How do I intend to succeed? 

Discover your zone of Genius / Strength

When I was younger, I noticed that I could do really well in one specific area; sports. I hated school, mostly because I rejected all authority (as an aftermath of rejecting the example my father lead), but I had a lot of energy to apply. So, I became the football captain and striker, I worked obsessively to run faster, and I’d train over and over until I could put the ball where I wanted. And so on… Okay, nothing special yet.. Then, I started to notice that because I was doing well on the team, I started to do well with the guys on the team. And because I did well with the guys on the team, this transfered to my social too, so I started to do a lot better with women because I could lead men. (I think lead is a strong word for a kid who could put a ball in a net, influence might be more appropriate). 

Doing well, and focusing on my strong suit, allowed me to develop confidence. This confidence allowed me to become more popular. And that popularity, allowed me to shine who I was. Now, I all of that was based on physical prowess and the fact I peaked in high-school and seemed to have some sort of a clue of how the world worked. I didn’t, I simply understood how to work social situations to my advantage, like most students in school… Doing what was trendy, standing out, and being loud somehow, but also a little vulnerable. but I digress.. 

Focusing on my strong suit, allowed me to Shine. And in my ability to shine, I became attractive, outgoing and popular. So, that is a success for a student, who wants to be liked by his peers.

Focussing on my strong suit / what comes naturally to me, and going all in on what only I can do, in addition to finding a pain point to provide a solution only I can provide due to my strong suit, will allow me to produce a high output of value overtime, without too much fatigue. Because at the end of the day, its all about consistency and compounding of value. 

Be the Master your own narrative. Be selective of who puts what in your mind. Define your own future.

Which brings me to determining, What empowers you the most in the world? The information related to solving your present/current pain point. The one which will enable you to 10x yourself. The insight that will help you define the next clear step and direction you need to take.

As human beings, we are interested and curious about the future, but we’re not able to determine it clearly. We love predictions and astrology and even the doomsday theories we imbibe when we listen to .. any random youtuber today, about “how the end of the financial market..” or how “AI will put an end to.. and you’ll get left behind…”. The point is, we focus on these ‘alert’ messages, because we want information about how to go towards the future without encountering death. We need to prevent death. 

Though, when we’re preventing death, we’ve already lost the game. 

Hone the present day

You see, the most important thing to note is that, if someone else is telling you how the future is, they are dictating not only the future you will go towards, but they are robbing you of the power to take action in the present. Without a compelling future to go towards, we are robbed of the gift within the present moment: the possibility to take inspired action to build towards that future. 

So, it’s my understanding, that if we reject the future, we will also reject our present, which prevents us from doing anything of value. 

In contrast, I’ve understood through my own experience, that we must START where we are. When you choose the state you are currently in, and accept it. You can start working towards where you want to go with the thing you want to evolve.

• Start where you are mentally, find where you are on your internal path.
• Start where you are physically, what weights can you lift and grow your muscle with here, not the heaviest you can lift, but what can your muscle comfortably support.
• Start with where you are emotionally, what are you feeling right here and don’t repress it.
• Start where you are financially, what do you have and how can you BEST use those finances for the best impact Right now? Instead of wanting more to do what you can already best start.
• Start out where you are health-wise
• Start out where you are relationship-wise.
• Start-out where you are business wise, start with what you’ve got and do the best you can.
• Start out where you are spiritually.
• Start out where you are habit-wise.

When we can accept where we are, first and foremost, we can decide to empower what we have and appreciate what we have. When we reject where we are, what we have, we can’t use it to our advantage, we can’t build on it, we can’t grow it. We must start from where we are. If you can start from where you are, you have control. You don’t have control or power over something that is out of your reach.

Community

I’ve gone at it alone, a lot. Simply because I needed to make a lot of mistakes, and test a lot of things quickly. Though, once those things are over, one tends to feel somewhat isolated. And success isn’t supported by isolation, its supported by networking. We succeed as part of a community we participate in. Even if its simply being seen, witnessing someone elses presence can be a huge determiner of how well you perform. Being around other entrepreneurs and solopreneurs is a massive game-changer, and saves you a tremendous amount of time. Not to mention that it keeps you accountable to live up to your word.

Join a club, have a team

When, I was younger, I played soccer on the local team. I didn’t think much of it back then. All I knew was that I practiced a lot, and put in a lot of personal hours on the side. Though, with retrospect, being a part of a whole like a soccer team is valuable. It gives you a standard to perform at. On your own, you are at the mercy of even the wind blowing in a direction. When you’re surrounded by a team, you are within a structure which imposes a certain form of conduct, and expects you to live up to the same goals. So it’s important to be around other people, even if you don’t necessarily have the same values, who have a a similar goal to you. You’ll become alies in mutual success.

Having a clear and meaningful vision.

Lack of vision is probably the most painful state. Because nothing is clear and everything is anarchy. In order to make sense of anarchy, one must have a point to aim for, otherwise one gets swayed and caught within the disorder of what is passing at that moment.

Having a clear vision is also motivational. It helps give meaning to the actions and process we enact while going towards it. If the outcome is a meaningful vision, then the journey towards that vision will be all the better. Taking action, simply because it fulfills the steps layed out to achieve an outcome which has no meaning to us is worthless. And what is more, detached from our internal journey we travel while we work. So a meaningful vision is fulfilling as much as it is useful.

Enjoy the journey.

For the past 10 years, I’ve killed myself to produce outcomes, reach achievements and so on. But.. Living in a future which would never come. This is a draining way to live life. And what’s more, we miss out on the present life we have, while waiting for a better situation which could potentially never arrive. That, in my view is a waste, and I suppose I could say its ungrateful to God for the present circumstances given to us. If we truly appreciate what we have, then we also appreciate our present moment and time enough to optimize how we experience them and what we do with them. Living for the future is ungrateful of the present, and also if that future is taken away, your sense of meaning goes too.

Another thing; when you enjoy the journey, you are in joy. And when you enjoy yourself, it makes your experience worth living. Being in stress all the time wrecks havoc in your health, or at least your health takes a toll. Having faith in the journey and enjoying what is in front of us is beneficial.

Choose appreciation and Gratitude over impossible standards and complaints.

When we appreciate what we have, just like in trading when an asset appreciates, we grow what we have. Or at least we grow the reference of what we have within our internal kingdom; the mind. Being grateful for what we experience, for what we have, and for those around us, grows the amount of references/seeds we have within.

Embrace what is in front of you.

For the longest time, I rejected what was in front of me. The people, the environment, pretty much everything which wasn’t what I didn’t want. And so, I disempowered myself as a result of rejecting what was around me. Everything around us can be considered a block to build with, and if we’re so stubborn as to believe that the grass is greener somewhere else, then you never water your own circumstances. Its with gratitude that we grow our current circumstance, and we’re able to make use of everything that is around us.

Ex: I need to go to silicon valley in order to be around the best in the world. But, if I actually look around, there are startup incubators around where I am. There are successful people here too. There are opportunties here, and great people to network with. And whats more, if I don’t succeed here, why do I expect to succeed there? I’m simply saying I need a better looking building and people in order to be able to achieve what I can achieve here anyway if I put my limitations and blockages to bed.

I think its Walter Wattles, in The Science of being Great, who said that: one must do a great job where one is, and only with a certain frame of mind can one grow out of ones circumstance.. That one will find ones personal mediocrity in every circumstance, until one becomes great where he already is. — I hope I’m correct, although I’m quoting from memory, I read the book a long while ago…

Breathe.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. There’s no point getting yourself into a heart-attack by trying to have over night success, because everyone else is applying this AI tactic… Your boat won’t leave without you. Or as is said in Conversations with God, you can’t fail. You may take a detour, but you will get there at some point. Just don’t give up.

Take a break and breathe from time to time. Contemplate everything you have achieved. Witness the beauty around you, or if it is lacking, imagine something beautiful. Turn on some classical music, or a tune that elevates the mood.

Sometimes, doing more work isn’t the solution. Taking a step away to see the picture clearer later on is.

You aren’t subject to VC’s, no one is on your back expecting an elevated return (hopefully). March to the sound of your own drum, and listen to your own rythme. After all, we’re not in school anymore, the only person who takes care of us, is us. And if you don’t respect yourself enough to slow down once in a while, no one else will.

If you don’t have a plan for yourself care, someone will have a plan for you, and that doesn’t look healthy.

🙂