The mental slavery of trying to be your best. — Last Tuesday, I dislocated my kneecap. It hurt — a lot. It was a completely different experience than 2 weeks ago — when I competed in a team Jiu-Jitsu tournament in California with a few of my good friends and took home the winning prize of $1000 each and some…

“Every action has its pleasures and its price.”―Socrates — Socrates lived a unique life, to say the least. He had a basic Greek education, but likely not much more than that. He then spent part of his early years as an infantry soldier, as that was about as much as his family could afford to get him to do…

The crisis of masculinity is deeper than you think. — Being a man is weird right now. On one side of the “how to be a good man” coin, we have people telling us that as men that it’s finally okay to have feelings, that it’s okay to cry, and that everything will be okay if you express yourself. This…

Overcoming the blank page. — When I was 18, a friend of mine was doing a research project for a class at school. The topic for their research project was “inspiration”. Their assignment was to collect a series of images that inspired people, and each interviewee was supposed to explain in a sentence or 2…

This simple strategy has been the key to maximizing my learning over the last 2 years. — I don’t have a problem with waking up at 5 am. If that’s what you want to do and you like getting up at that time, then that’s what you should do. But this sentence drives me crazy. “Doesn’t waking up early make you more productive?” No. It doesn’t. Unfortunately…

Learning is the way out. — The Covid-19 pandemic was a huge wake-up call for me, as it was for many people. When the world “ended” in 2020, I was a college senior finishing up my senior year, and I was sent home to live with my mom and dad. …

And how those subscribers can help you build your online business. — I’ve been writing a newsletter for about a year and a half, and if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that building a newsletter is harder than it looks. The big guns in the writing world seem to find a way to make everything seem easier than it actually is. They…

I wasn’t ready for this. — When I was in college, I dreamed of being an entrepreneur. I wanted the unpredictability, the excitement, the thrilling victories, and even the agonizing lows. I was prepared to not make any money for a while trying to do what I love. I was prepared to try things and fail…

Remember when Meryl Streep said that martial arts were not arts? Yeah, that pissed me off. — Whenever I go on trips, I’m usually hungry because I’m cutting weight. I usually have a scale in my backpack and I’m monitoring how much water I’m allowed to drink over the course of the trip. If I’m not cutting weight, I’m anxious because I know I’m about to get…