30 Lessons Over 30 Years 🌱

Tomorrow I turn 30 years old; here are 30 simple lessons and mental models I’ve learned over the last 30 years.

1. Happiness is the absence of desires. To be happy in the present, remove the web of desires keeping your mind from running into the future or the past.

2. You will find the right career through pursuing your genuine curiosities. The perfect career is a “job” that you would take if you weren’t going to get paid to do it. A meaningful career feels like play rather than work.

3. The best relationships are the ones that don’t take work; don’t force something that’s not meant to be.

4. Real education begins after you finish school and it is self-guided; the ultimate resource is resourcefulness, you must be a lifelong learner, or you will fall behind.

5. To win at the game of life, achieve these three things: A calm mind, A healthy body, And loving relationships. Everything else is just noise.

6. Every person is designed to be a creator; engaging in creative activity is one of the few instances we lose the concept of time. Every person is an entrepreneur; just some entrepreneurs get paid for the problems they solve.

7. If you want to protect yourself in the modern world, your sword and your shield is the ability to communicate effectively, speak clearly, write articulately, and think critically.

8. Anger is a low return emotion; a terrible use of time and energy; process, forgive and move on.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” - Buddha

9. Everything of value has a compounding effect; wealth, relationships, health, skills, writing, reading, creatively, etc. Improve everyday by 1% and you’ll end up 37x better at the end of the year.

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it, he who who doesn’t… pays it.” - Einstein

10. Those who live well below their means enjoy a certain level of freedom that those busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom.

11. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; start now, so your future self can enjoy the shade. ou will never regret a workout, taking care of yourself, learning a new skill, building a strong relationship, or making a good investment.

12. The first step in changing your life for the better is taking personal responsibility. Acknowledge you are not where you want to be because of you, not external circumstances. Realize you have the power within to change your perception and your life. You can’t determine the cards you’re dealt, but you can determine how you play your hand.

13. One simple secret to obtaining wealth is curiosity, asking “how?” There are people who are less intelligent than you who have achieved what you desire, the only difference is they kept asking the right questions, took action and didn’t stop their pursuit.

14. Income has a diminishing return on happiness once you exceed $90k/year. Paid material pleasures and experiences beyond $90k/yr do not increase your happiness.

15. Being rich and being wealthy are not the same. The rich trade time for money; the wealthy trade money for time; you will run out of time first.

16. Stop trying to impress people that you don’t even know; you’ll save time, money, build stronger relationships and find yourself with a calmer mind.

17. The trick to obtaining wealth; focus on inputs with multipliers tied to their outputs.

• A job pays you a fixed dollar per hour (1:1 ratio)
• A business or investment is valued on a multiple of the earnings it produces (1:25+ ratio)
• Types of leverage: Capital, Code, Media, and Labour

  “Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication” - Naval
  “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” - Archimedes

18. The secret to achieving your ideal body; intake less, or more calories than you burn.

The Daily Calories Required To:

• Gain weight: times your weight by 17
• Lose weight: times your weight by 11
• Maintain your weight: times your weight by 14

There is no secret diet; it’s simply the measurement of your intake vs expenditure.

90% diet, 10% exercise.

19. My hack for hitting my daily protein requirements for building strength and mass.

• Target: 1 gram+ of protein per body weight, per day.
• The hack: 1 lb of meat is 100 grams of protein; if you weigh 200 lbs, eat 2 lbs of meat per day.

Extra lean ground beef is $5/lb; thus, it is $15/day for me to build and maintain my strength and size.

20. You have a $100k product in your head; We all have unique experiences and problems we’ve faced. If you detail the steps on how you solved those problems, package it in a way for others to follow, there’s an audience who will pay for your solutions.

21. The internet is a great leveler; if you have something of value to offer the world, the internet will connect you with those who need it.

22. Cheap highs are expensive and long lasting dopamine hits.

23. What gets measured gets managed: finances, health, goals, etc. Regular measurement is the secret to staying focused.

24. The trick to completing your goals is making the list real, physically. If you have goals but haven’t written them down, you have dreams, not goals.

25. Your net worth directly correlates with your network, you become the average of the 5 people you hang around.

26. You become what you consume; your brain is a muscle, provide it with the right food and exercise routine.

27. Take jobs for the skills you will learn, not for the money it pays.

28. No one can take skills and knowledge from you; if I lost everything I have, I would build it back better and in half the time because of the skills I’ve learned and the person I’ve become.

29. If you can’t imagine yourself traveling with someone for 24 hours, you shouldn’t get into business with them.

30. Investing isn’t risky, one source of income is.

No job, pension or income stream is guaranteed, never rely on just one.

31. (BONUS 1) A primary residence is not an investment; it’s a consumer good. The cost of homeownership well exceeds the cost of renting, especially if you consider the opportunity cost of money and mobility. Delay buying a home until the downpayment can leave your account without you realizing a noticeable dent and/or your total monthly housing expense is below 30% of your net income. Include all costs such as mortgage payment, taxes, bills, R&M, etc. [Tertiary markets and house-hacking are exempt from this lesson.]

32. (BONUS 2)- The greatest risk is not taking a risk.

It is overwhelming how many times people give me an excuse as to why they can’t take a ‘risk’.

The risk being: 

Can’t start a business, 

Can’t leave a job for a better one,

Can’t relocate to take a better job, 

Can’t downsize their lifestyle to save for a business/investment,

Can’t go back to school and increase their education and skill sets,

Among many other things such as getting their health, finances and relationships in order. 

90% of the population is walking around like they’re coming back. Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is it folks, there is no second chance, if your actions up until now are anything short of you realizing your potential, it’s on you. 

Not only is “taking the risk” your responsibility, but it’s a moral obligation. As you improve, so does everyone around you; a rising tide lifts all boats. If not do it for yourself, do it for those closest to you and allow the ripple effect to take its course.

Playing life safe, as we were taught, gets you sunk down in one address, working 40 hours a week, for 40 years to try and retire on 40% of what you couldn’t afford to live on in the first place.

Now that I’m turning 30, based on statistics, I have less than two thirds (2/3rds) of time left on this planet (if I’m lucky.) I refuse to spend any of the remaining time living in regret on squandered time and opportunity.