Momentos
These are my Momentos, vignettes I write daily and publish twice a month. They’re incredibly self-indulgent and I’m surprised anyone reads them. There’s one for every day since February 27, 2013.
1
Off a call with an old friend there, his online business has exploded the past 18 months or so. Talking 10x revenue, up to $40k/month now. Asked if he’d be down for an interview but he’d rather his competition doesn’t know what he’s doing. Understandable. Has me buzzing though, wondering if I should take a similar path.
2
Well fuck, it’s 24 hours later and I’m rethinking my entire business. Had a plan for the new year but it’s complex and not all that exciting to me. Whereas my friend’s approach is much simpler and more appealing. Not easy, by any means, and it would likely take several months to see any significant return, but I’m having a hard time convincing myself it wouldn’t work.
3
I’ve now talked with three trusted friends and savvy business owners and can’t find a good reason not to do this. So I’m doing it. Will have to quit the daily Facebook Live videos though, take a short break from YouTubing, might have to let a few other things drop as well. Focus, focus, focus. Can’t make this happen without prolonged, laser-like focus.
4
Almost nine in the evening, sitting at a street side food truck, waiting to be served pad thai by a chap with an impressive mustache. Today was a good day. Eased into it, couple of hours of client work, lots of planning for the new project, nice chat with a friend I hadn’t met yet, gifted a free pass at the coworking, and quality time with my favorite lady.
5
Napoleon Hill, the mad yoke, once said that “in every adversity lies the seed of an equal or greater opportunity” I reckon the reverse is also true: In every opportunity lies the seed of an equal or greater adversity. In other words, every gift can be a curse. For example, I love to help people, but sometimes I jump in to help so readily that I deprive them of the opportunity to help themselves.
6
Off a three-hour coaching call and I can walk a minute down the street, cough up $9, and promptly enjoy an hour-long massage at one of the best rated places in town. Mind has been racing lately with the new thing, finding it hard to sleep, so having this kind of service on my doorstep is a godsend.
7
“The first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life.” – Charlie Munger
8
On a visa run to Myanmar, get stuck beside a Canadian lady, super loud and enthusiastic about everything. I’m really not in the mood, so I try to be short with her so she’ll stop talking to me. I fail miserably. Even though there’s zero negative consequence to this lady thinking I’m rude – I’m actually far more likely to get what I want if she does – I can’t stop myself responding pleasantly to her conversation.
9
The inner walls of the White Temple might be more spectacular than anything you see outside, and that’s saying something. To the east, as you enter, are scenes of death and destruction… and superheroes and cartoon characters, the world coming to an end while we’re distracted by pop culture. The west wall is peaceful, a meditating Buddha representing self-awareness, compassion, restraint.
10
My wheels have been spinning like mad the past ten days, diving deep on this new project, planning, researching, strategizing. Sleep hasn’t been great, hard to shut down at night, and I wake up mid-thought while it’s still dark out. But that’s okay. Feeling like I’m making good progress. Going to ride this giddy wave as long as I can.
11
I’d spent several months in Chiang Mai before, but the big difference now is I’m with my lady. That solves the biggest frustration I had here in the past: the dating scene. With that no longer a factor I’m appreciating the place a lot more. Warm weather, good food, super low cost of living, all the essentials within walking distance here in the Nimman area…
12
The problem I’m trying to solve: there are so many different ways of making money online that it’s all very confusing and fragmented. Given that, it’s very difficult for a newbie to make a smart decision on how/where to get started. Without a clear view of the online business landscape, how are they supposed to know how best to enter into it?
13
It’s like a big jigsaw, except you’ve lost the box so you’re not sure what the final image is supposed to look like, and each piece is invisible until you snap it into place. Trickier still: the pieces are such that, even when you put one in its proper place, you can’t quite tell if you’ve reached the edge. That might be as far as you can go in that direction. Or there might be plenty more beyond.
14
I haven’t felt this engaged working on something since three years ago when I was building my course. I was putting in serious hours back then, working on it day and night, focused like a tiger on the hunt. This is similar. So many things I considered important a month ago have fallen by the wayside. I sleep less than six hours and find myself tap dancing back to work.
15
Woke up before five again, but that’s okay. Packed my laptop and en route to a 24-hour cafe down the street. I like being out early in the morning, watching the world rub the sleep out of its eyes. I walk past a flock of pigeons pecking at crumbs, a lady frying up some churros, a security guard scooting to work. These are the happiest days of my life.
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