An ideal read for 16-19 year olds.
- you are ambitious and have high work ethic
- you live in a major city. if you don't, move to one
- you don't have family wealth to lean on. if you do, you probably should
- read these books as soon as possible. shouldn’t take more than a year. these will be foundational principles that define your view of the world. you can then use as foundation to think better.
- 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene
- How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
- Principles - Ray Dalio
- Antifragile - Nassim Taleb
- Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
- The Art of Seduction - Robert Greene
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini
- Mastery - Robert Greene
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness - Eric Jorgenson
- Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
- Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz
- Reality Transurfing: Steps I–V - Vadim Zeland
- have a coffee with someone new everyday. send emails. messages. aim for at least 5 meetings a week.
- filter these new people into:
- mentors
- contacts
- clients
- job oppurtunities
- out of everybody you meet, meet with the helpful few people as much as possible without being a pest.
- be out of home as much as possible. home should only be for sleep.
- ask for things. ask for help. ask for internships. ask for jobs. nobody asks. present yourself well, ask, and receive more than most.
- get in shape. having a fit muscular appearance will help channel respect.
- don’t participate in activities that will impact your focus badly. if you can go out to a club and get back to work 9am the next day, great. if not, don’t.
- be self conscious. care about your appearance and presentation. buy a few interchangeable high quality clothes. find a professional hairstyle you like. wear a watch. one of the most important things i ever heard was “you never know who you might meet today”.
- don’t penny pinch. buy coffees, lunch, and gifts for people. think of money like energy. spend on anything that will get you an positive return.
- purchases that give adequate returns:
- presentable clothes from Uniqlo
- coffee, lunch, and dinner for yourself, given it saves time
- coffee, lunch, and dinner for people you want to keep close
- a nice watch that holds value
- powerful technology. get a good laptop and headphones
- good mattress
- a pair of nice shoes
- books and education
- supplements. my general recommendations:
- creatine
- magnesium glycinate
- whey protein
- vitmin D3 + K2
- a signature cologne
- a good barber
- purchases with little to no return:
- recreational drugs
- alcohol
- most designer items
- most ‘collections’ of things i.e shoes, colognes.
- cut off friends who
- A: are influencing your habits and views badly
- B: never really had your back or believed in your visions
- be selective with who you become friends with. having lots of friends is not necessarily a great thing. better to have one very high quality companion.
- this is opposite with your network. at this stage, grow the amount of people you know as quickly as possible. quality matters less, you will find higher quality people the more people you know.
- listen way more than you think you need to. try go whole meetings without talking. if you are asked a question, find a way to answer it by asking a question back. if you think you aren't talking much, talk even less.
- if you are making less than 5K a month, there isn’t much point in saving or investing. you should be spending/investing into things that will get you into: A. better rooms/opportunity, B. 20K+ a month, as quickly as possible.
- spending that may help you get there:
- good laptop (Mac)
- education
- traveling to explore
- buying gifts for people you value
- buying a car
- renting in a good location
- learn an online skill. doesn’t matter which one, you can always change later. at this stage you have the time to get pretty good at a whole bunch of skills if you put in the work. you’ll end up finding one that you are naturally best at.
- take a gap year. read this article by Max to help understand how.
- listen to your parents less at face value. this is controversial, and depending on who, but know that your parents usually have great advice, but from the lens of safety. great success is the result of taking calculated risks. parents will usually advise against this. just take this into consideration.