This past month has been fucking crazy: I got fed up and decided to move out, quit personal training, turned 27, created two online projects, interviewed almost a dozen people, started a new position, said goodbye to a few great friends, and moved to Denver despite a record-low temperatures.

Needless to say, I haven’t had much time to update this darn blog.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking like crazy. I just finished a lovely stay at an Airbnb and am spending my first night Downtown, housesitting for a friend — I finally have a chance to sit down and spill my thoughts.

And here are the the eight things that have been blowing my mind.

Focus, Focus, Focus

I only have five goals in life.

If I complete those five, I can die satisfied.

Inspired by this article about Warren Buffet’s advice, I sat down and wrote the 25 important things I wanted to do in life before I died and picked the top five most important ones.

Once you do that, here’s the next little doozy: don’t touch the other twenty until these five are completed.

This creates focus. This eliminates feelings of “overwhelm.” This creates clarity. This creates your mission. Now, you know where you’re going and what’s important to you. All your energy can be allocated to these handful of things.

Now, how do you pick these five? Simple. Ask yourself: “Which has the highest leverage?” It’s like the 80/20 Principle — what 20% will lead to 80% of your desired outcomes?

I won’t tell you my goal because I don’t want to bias you, but everyone will have similar, yet differing goals. Some want to buy a home. Some want to raise a family. Some want to travel the world. Some want to volunteer in Africa. Whatever. Pick what means the most to you.

Here’s the real beauty to doing this: you can now say “No” to everything else that gets in your way.

“Wahh! Well, it’s easy to say if you’re Warren Buffet!”

Don’t miss the forest for the trees. The lesson here isn’t about what you can do with several billion dollars in the bank — it’s how to get laser-focused with your life and make shit happen.

Everything Can Change In One Year

One year ago, most of the people I now work for didn’t know I existed.

One year ago, I’ve never been to Denver. (Hell, four months ago, I’ve never been here.)

There was a time earlier in 2014 when I had to dip into my meager savings just to pay my credit card bills.

Earlier this year, I dumped thousands of dollars into a project that never saw the light of day.

Now, I’m living in Denver and can afford my own place. I work from my Macbook and I do what I love. I’m working on some fun projects on the side that I could care less if they fail because they mean a lot to me.

And it all happened in one year.

Life is fucking crazy.

You Never Know Who Will Say “Yes”

In October and November, I did the “Coffee Challenge,” which is basically this:

For the next thirty days, ask for a 10% discount on one thing everyday: coffee, food, etc. If they ask why, do NOT give them a reason.

By doing this, I hoped to acclimate myself to failure.

Like the Stoics have preached thousands of years ago, freedom is ascertained when you embrace discomfort — or “eustress” — to expand the realm of your comfort zone and gain a deeper freedom of life and expression.

The results? I batted slightly above the Mendoza line (20% for you non-baseball people). But it’s funny — a few people gave me much bigger discounts including one that was half-off. Just for asking! Get in the habit of asking for stuff you want. If you do it in a respectful and considerate way, you’ll never know what will happen.

This also holds true with emailing bestselling authors, famous figures, etc. (My batting average with this is a lot lower, unfortunately.)

Forward Progress Is Success

(All the credit belongs to Seth Godin for that quote.)

Have an idea? Want to see something in the world?

Do it. Not tomorrow, but now.

Start testing it. Send some messages on Facebook to people who might be interested. Cruise on LinkedIn and see who you could ask. Back in April, I had a business idea so I made a few calls to experts in the LA-area. After a week, I retired my idea because I realized it wouldn’t work.

But I didn’t waste time waiting for the perfect website or perfect pricing strategy or whatever. I just tested it. Ultimately, I only spent a few days on it — after that, I could devote my energy to something else.

I’ve made this mistake countless times before. I remember wasting hours on the name and logo for my idea. Ugh.

If you’re worrying about your logo, you’re already fucked.

The logo isn’t the problem — the problem is not getting started.

Social Media Is An Enormous Time-Waster

This year in late-September, I did a Tough Mudder in Seattle. But that wasn’t the hardest thing I did that particular week — it was removing Facebook and Twitter from my phone and forcing myself to check it only once a day.

It was like a smoker trying to cut the cigarettes. I wanted to check it for reasons I didn’t understand.

After two weeks, I started checking it once every few days.

Better still, I’ve never had so much free time in my life.

I hear people say that they want to travel, learn a new language, try a new skill, read more books, write more, spend more time with their family, etc. Yet, research shows that the average 18 – 34 year old American spends 3.8 hours a day checking their social media accounts on a computer, tablet, or smartphone (link).

Something doesn’t add up.

Cut out ALL social media for one week and see what you can get done. You might surprise yourself.

There Are No Limits

Do you know how Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines?

He was stranded at an airport in the Caribbean along with dozens of other people because their flight was cancelled. He called a few local numbers and eventually secured a chartered flight for $2,000. He did some quick math, grabbed a blackboard, and wrote:

“VIRGIN AIRWAYS:
$39 SINGLE FLIGHT TO PUERTO RICO”

Within a few hours, he filled every seat and they were off.

Who fucking does this?!

Then I realized something: in the US, the coveted number for annual salary is still $100,000. (Yes, my mind actually jumped to this thought after learning about Virgin Airways’s humble beginnings.) But has anyone ever pondered why? I mean, it’s been there for at least 30 years. Shouldn’t it be adjusted for inflation? Shouldn’t it be something like $130,000?

Or perhaps it’s a self-imposed limit as to what’s possible?

Now, from what I’ve seen, there is a diminishing level of income per added hour of work for a single person, which usually happens around the $100,000 – $200,000 level. After that, it becomes necessary to have people under you.

Apart from that, however, there really is no limit.

Here’s a true story that really hammers this point:

Years ago, in the Washington D.C. National Zoo, there lived a tiger named Mohini. She spent her days pacing back and forth in her tiny 12 foot by 12 foot cage, until the zoo finally built a habitat specifically for her that spanned several acres and had hills, trees, ponds, and all kinds of things that simulated the wildlife.

Despite the new, enormous surroundings, she still spent the rest of her days pacing back and forth and wearing down the grass in that same 12 x 12 pattern.

You Really Are The Average Of The Five People Interact With Most

I recently started a project with a SF-based startup, partially managed by a friend and mentor of mine for the past two-and-a-half years. But when I think about his friends and the people he associates with, I’m blown away. Many run successful businesses. Others secured millions in startup funding. Others work at some of the biggest names across multiple industries.

Water seeks its own level.

It really makes a difference. Surround yourself with people who are great communicators and, chances are, you’ll become a better communicator. Hang around ambitious people and you’ll see what true ambition looks like — not people like me who just want to move out of our parent’s house… I mean people who are doing some high-flying shit.

Be selective towards who you interact with most. Do they have their shit together? Do they lift you up? Are they ambitious? Do they want more out of themselves and their lives?

I owe everything to the people around me.

Hard Work Is The Answer

I was listening to an interview when I stumbled on this gem:

Person 1: Most people aspire to have a passive income, or a lifestyle business, when they can actually have all those things today. It doesn’t mean you actually have to be an entrepreneur… What most people want is like how do you just create the job, or have work that you’re enjoying… So I put the effort in, and most people when it’s after work, and this is something interesting. I met one of your students, and they want the job, but I’m like, “It’s a Saturday what are you doing outside? It’s a Friday night why are you drinking out?” If you really wanted that why aren’t you putting that time to make that reality true.

Person 2: It’s funny that people will look at the results of someone successful, and not see the work that went into it. Whether it is someone who made a million dollars last year. Someone who gets to travel around the world on a Wednesday, or someone who looks amazing. Whatever it may be. It’s like, “I wish I had that.” It’s not really politically correct to say, “Well, you could if you did this list of things that I did,” so what generally passes is platitudes. Find your passion, try hard, and you’ll get it. But the truth is behind any success there’s immense amounts of work.

Hard work is the answer.

If there’s something you really want in life, get some coffee, sit down, and make shit happen. Get used to working on Saturday nights to finish a self-imposed deadline. Get used to being the last person to leave the coffee shop. Get used spending days to write just one single email to one person. Get used to people giving you a puzzled look when you tell them how you spend your free time. Get used to working for a few extra hours after you finished your day job. Get used to working seven-days-a-week for years.

That’s what I did.