MTF needs a slumpbuster: Too many swings, no hits.

[MTF]

I can't remember if it was you or another forum member, but weren't you the one that was struggling with physical health such as perpetually low energy levels?

It's hard to think with clarity when you're tired. It's also hard to execute when there's no gas left in the tank.

Perhaps let's explore your physical situation before diving into biz strategies?

Regardless, I've always rooted for you and ChickenHawk behind the scenes.

Thank you. I wonder what's up with ChickenHawk.

And yes, I struggle with my physical health. I've thought about it before and came up with only one conclusion. Namely, whenever I felt the healthiest, it was always abroad in good weather when I had little to worry about other than whether to go swimming or surfing on a given day. As long as I fully allowed myself to let go I felt like a different person.

It's possible that despite having nothing to stress over compared to an average person, my stress levels for some reason stay super elevated when back home and that causes these issues. That would bring it back to the mental side of things, though.

 

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[MTF]

So, what do you do? Simple. Challenge that inner voice that tells you you're failing and that you're a disappointment. Go back to the actual drawing board and start from scratch. Analyze what ignites your curiosity. Adjust what you're doing. Act upon new discoveries.

Okay, I'll do a clean reset once I feel like I'm ready to analyze it again. I'm too trapped in the past and that's no way to do what you're proposing as I'll be always going back to the old drawing board instead of a new one.

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

I believe it and I 100% agree.



Good suggestion, I like it. Thank you.



I do focus on freediving and language learning in my free time. Once the spring finally arrives I'll do more stuff outside and that, hopefully, will help me recover.

I like your idea and I like the bluntness of the last sentence.

As for learning new skills with my hands, I don't think there exists anyone as terrible at it as I am and anyone that gets as frustrated as I get while doing it. I can't drive a nail straight. I can't assemble any furniture. I can't use any tools. I gave up a long time ago on anything related to DIY.

That could be a cultural difference as I know that most people in the US are great at all this stuff.

Something DIY is probably a great place to start then. There was a government official I helped out some 10 years ago who was trying to put air in a tire that was clearly completely ruptured. He spent around $20 at the air machine scratching his head why it wasn't filling up. I was going out to go some where, saw him, drove back by 15 minutes later and he was still there. I stopped and pointed out that the tire was ruptured and I asked him if he could change a tire and he said no, so I did it for him, then pumped the spare up. Ultimately I felt pretty disappointed in him and I'm sure he was embarrassed.

Being able to DIY something goes a long way toward being fulfilled in my personal opinion. Pre-internet, building something physical was probably the ONLY way you could really get fulfillment and say "I made this!". It's a primal thing and helps when you can do things yourself. There's nothing you can't do. People take far more pride in a craft done right. My girlfriend isn't very good at assembling furniture, but i'm teaching her how because I want her to be able to do that sort of thing independent of me. Believe me, it is frustrating building furniture, but the reward is huge!

My recent hobby of fulfillment has been restoring a classic ferrari. Starting out, I knew absolutely NOTHING about restoring a car. The throttle cable (the wire that goes from your gas pedal to the engine) was sticking while driving so I had to figure out how to replace it. No manuals, no books, no videos, or anything else related to how to do it. I just had to figure it out. It was by far the most infuriating physical task i've ever done in my life. I sweat, i cried, i bled. And once I got the new cable in, i felt like my brain was 100x bigger than it was and I learned some pretty extreme problem solving along the way.



Go find your throttle cable mountain, climb that shit. And feel the joy coming out on the other end with a job well done. And even if you fail, you now have 10x more experience on that subject than most people.

 

[MTF]

Go visit other Fastlaners. Go see Rob. Go get energy from others. Patience. An idea will pop up that you will handle.

I like what @Ravens_Shadow is saying. Get busy doing stuff / challenging yourself and hang out with other people. Something will present itself when you are ready! You got this!

Thanks, Zane. I think I'll just need to go back to spending more time in nature once the weather improves as that always helps me clarify my thoughts.

 

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[MTF]

Something DIY is probably a great place to start then. There was a government official I helped out some 10 years ago who was trying to put air in a tire that was clearly completely ruptured. He spent around $20 at the air machine scratching his head why it wasn't filling up. I was going out to go some where, saw him, drove back by 15 minutes later and he was still there. I stopped and pointed out that the tire was ruptured and I asked him if he could change a tire and he said no, so I did it for him, then pumped the spare up. Ultimately I felt pretty disappointed in him and I'm sure he was embarrassed.

Thankfully I can change a tire so at least I'm not completely useless.

Being able to DIY something goes a long way toward being fulfilled in my personal opinion. Pre-internet, building something physical was probably the ONLY way you could really get fulfillment and say "I made this!". It's a primal thing and helps when you can do things yourself. There's nothing you can't do. People take far more pride in a craft done right. My girlfriend isn't very good at assembling furniture, but i'm teaching her how because I want her to be able to do that sort of thing independent of me. Believe me, it is frustrating building furniture, but the reward is huge!

I like this explanation. Thank you for offering that perspective.

My recent hobby of fulfillment has been restoring a classic ferrari. The throttle cable (the wire that goes from your gas pedal to the engine) was sticking while driving so I had to figure out how to replace it. No manuals, no books, no videos, or anything else related to how to do it. I just had to figure it out. It was by far the most infuriating physical task i've ever done in my life. I sweat, i cried, i bled. And once I got the new cable in, i felt like my brain was 100x bigger than it was and I learned some pretty extreme problem solving along the way.

That is freaking crazy. I would never trust myself that I did it right with such severe potential consequences.

Though if your photo shows pure rage, then you haven't seen what I'm capable of when I get frustrated with this stuff... (spoiler: I just completely break it and then have to buy it again and hire someone to do it for me)

 

[Antifragile]

I completely lost any belief in my business skills. I feel like all the success I have I owe just to luck and the right timing. Without it, I'd be nothing.

These days, I'm just a cynical hypocrite. Friends ask me for business advice but honestly what the F*ck do I know? Just the shit I read online since I've been unable to make any business work for the past 4 years.

I just can't find any energy anymore to keep trying to figure it out. Little things overwhelm me. I've lost that resolve and the entrepreneurial spirit of figuring things out.

Not sure what to do about it other than rant since trying just doesn't work and leads to even more failure and disappointment.

I scanned all the replies and my thoughts aren't duplicated, so here it goes... hopefully it helps get you going.

The internet businesses life has been changing at a rapid pace. The issue is well documented on this forum, internet is no longer decentralized. The giants like FB, Amazon, Twitter, YT all took over "consumers" and there are very few remaining avenues to truly get excited about building when creators get no control.

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. We know that newsletters are based on Email and it's not owned by anyone, so there is a pump in the number of newsletters.

But lets face this one simple fact: doing small business on the internet has been centralized with punitive actions by the giants. CENTS is now ENTS. And how can you get scale without control? So maybe it's just ENT.

Your "swings and misses" are perhaps just part of the cycle of the very niche part of businesses you've qualified as to your liking. And that niche is getting hammered.

How many times does one have to hit a brick wall to start losing enthusiasm? Maybe, just maybe, it's not really your fault. Maybe it's not your mindset... maybe it is just the sandbox for business you chose that isn't stable enough to build a castle.

Food for thought...

 

[amp0193]

I completely lost any belief in my business skills. I feel like all the success I have I owe just to luck and the right timing. Without it, I'd be nothing.

You have to show up and be in motion and work hard to reap the benefits of luck.

Right timing is seeing an opportunity before others see it and capitalizing on it. Timing is of course a huge contributor to business success.

But you still had to have skill and hard work to take advantage of either.

But if you’re acknowledging that timing was a part of your success, then stop look forwards to what opportunities are up and coming where you can take advantage of timing once again.

What things could you do now where you would be early to the opportunity? The thing barely anyone is talking about? Where value is needed but not being delivered?


Context: I too made a bunch of money due to luck and timing (and a shit ton of hard work). I thought it would be easy to replicate that success a second time, and it hasn’t been. But I’m learning through each failed attempt to make this work, and despite not having the bank account yet to show for it, I know I am 10x the business guy I was back then. The repeated failures have been an enormous education and when I find success is not a matter of if, but when. I think the track I’m on now is the right one, but I wouldn’t have honed in or identified this track had it not been for the failures and me stepping back to reflect on them to see where I went sideways.

Not sure what to do about it other than rant since trying just doesn't work and leads to even more failure and disappointment.

List the 3 biggest things you’ve learned from these failures. You wasted time and energy on things that didn’t pan out. But if you’ve learned something that you can carry forwards into the future, that can be quite valuable. And maybe the thing you land on next you wouldn’t have found had you not learned these lessons the hard way.

The Obstacle is the Way

 

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[MitchC]

If you were dead broke and wanted to make 100k in the next 3 months would you do what you’ve been doing?

I said it before when you stopped doing discomfort club. You start weird art project passion project businesses for fun and no money, then get frustrated when they make no money.

The execution of discomfort club was more than good enough to see success, so you are perfectly capable. It just wasn’t what the market wanted.

If you wanted to you could execute at the same standard, if not a lower standard, and ride a huge wave making the Milk Road but for AI.

A daily ai newsletter to keep people up to date, maybe industry specific.

Sell ads, sell a course, promote other people’s courses, promote apps.

You could do all of that, you just don’t want to, and that’s fine because the position you are in you don’t have to.

I think if you came back to Sunshine Coast or somewhere else hot and healthy, you’d get your health and business sorted pretty quickly. And I’m not saying that to brag about living here or whatever, I’m saying that as someone who moved from a cold unhealthy place who moved here and suddenly was healthy and successful. It has a much bigger impact that you can even imagine or realise at the time when you are in those environments.

 

[MTF]

The internet businesses life has been changing at a rapid pace. The issue is well documented on this forum, internet is no longer decentralized. The giants like FB, Amazon, Twitter, YT all took over "consumers" and there are very few remaining avenues to truly get excited about building when creators get no control.

Thanks for your response, Volodya.

That's been on my mind for a long time already. I even posted a thread about this in 2019 (SOCIAL MEDIA - RANT - Can You Escape the Giants in an Online Business?).

I do find it very tiring and discouraging that no matter what it is, usually you rely on 1-2 companies. If they ban you, your business is gone because there's no viable alternative.

And just to make sure: are you suggesting that all online businesses are like that or only the creator-based ones?

From my perspective at least some B2B software companies are better protected as long as they're web only (because otherwise Google or Apple can ban your app for no reason). They also typically don't rely on any social media platform to get sales (maybe LinkedIn at most).

Could you share other examples if you know of any?

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. We know that newsletters are based on Email and it's not owned by anyone, so there is a pump in the number of newsletters.

In theory yes, in practice both Google and Yahoo have already started tightening the rules. I won't be surprised to see new requirements and limited reach. And yes, email is not owned by anyone but Gmail accounts for at least 40-50% of all email users. Recently even Tim Ferriss had issues with his newsletters going to spam in Gmail.

How many times does one have to hit a brick wall to start losing enthusiasm? Maybe, just maybe, it's not really your fault. Maybe it's not your mindset... maybe it is just the sandbox for business you chose that isn't stable enough to build a castle.

It may be possible though if I were to focus way more on marketing and way less on content, then it would probably work better. The creators who win often don't create any mind-blowing content. What they do have is very solid marketing that few creators have (precisely because they prefer creating content rather than marketing).

But yeah, I'd rather do something that stands on solid ground.

 

[MTF]

Right timing is seeing an opportunity before others see it and capitalizing on it. Timing is of course a huge contributor to business success.

But you still had to have skill and hard work to take advantage of either.

But if you’re acknowledging that timing was a part of your success, then stop look forwards to what opportunities are up and coming where you can take advantage of timing once again.

What things could you do now where you would be early to the opportunity? The thing barely anyone is talking about? Where value is needed but not being delivered?

And what if trying to time things and ride trends is exactly the wrong strategy because it has such a high failure rate?

What if instead of looking for that hot new thing you were to look for something that is stable and doesn't have "good" and "bad" timing but it simply works?

I didn't read it but Morgan Housel wrote a book on things that never change: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1685PDK/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Maybe I need to read it to reprogram my brain to focus on what's timeless.

List the 3 biggest things you’ve learned from these failures. You wasted time and energy on things that didn’t pan out. But if you’ve learned something that you can carry forwards into the future, that can be quite valuable. And maybe the thing you land on next you wouldn’t have found had you not learned these lessons the hard way.

Yes I'll be taking notes from these failures and this thread to make sure not to repeat the same mistakes.

 

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[MTF]

If you were dead broke and wanted to make 100k in the next 3 months would you do what you’ve been doing?

Thanks for your answer, Mitch.

Lol no. Good point.

You start weird art project passion project businesses for fun and no money, then get frustrated when they make no money.

100%, and this is something I'm not doing again.

I'll be making a very clear separation between passions and business. I have no problem surfing, swimming, freediving, and doing other stuff like language learning with no expectation to make money from it.

Now I also need to apply the same to writing. Instead of looking for businesses where I can write, just have a business that doesn't depend on writing (and if I want to, write for myself).

You could do all of that, you just don’t want to, and that’s fine because the position you are in you don’t have to.

The way I see it logically:

• I can start an enjoyable passion project that doesn't require much time and effort - but then I often end up tired of it because deep down I can't work without financial compensation.
• I can start any business without thinking about any criteria - but if it imposes on my lifestyle too much, then I'll end up frustrated and inevitably shut it down. I don't see the point in having a business that I don't need only to reduce my life quality.

So my best option is the third way: start a business that meets some criteria but not too many AND, most importantly:

• rely more on contractors (so that it doesn't impose so much on my lifestyle),
• do NOT include anything passion-related (so that I don't have another weird hybrid passion/business business).

I think if you came back to Sunshine Coast or somewhere else hot and healthy, you’d get your health and business sorted pretty quickly. And I’m not saying that to brag about living here or whatever, I’m saying that as someone who moved from a cold unhealthy place who moved here and suddenly was healthy and successful. It has a much bigger impact that you can even imagine or realise at the time when you are in those environments.

I planned to go for a short trip to southern Spain but I have other commitments in two weeks and such short trips often destabilize me too much. I also want to help my girlfriend with her business and now is a better time compared to the summer when I won't have so much free time.

Man I do miss Australia and planned to go again this year. Now I'm consoling myself knowing that Australia will soon have winter while Europe will enjoy summer (I have lots of travel plans).

 

[Supa]

Just wanted to chime in to say thank you for all the Gold posts in this thread!

 

[ygtrhos]

@MTF I did not read the whole thread and I am not really a successful entrepreneur or something.

Just two things that caught my eyes:

1. It sounds like you are getting almost the same inputs every day. Same people, same office, same texts read, same podcasts listened.

I might be wrong, but you might do yourself a favor by changing your environment (going away for some time).

You can write me if youre in Southern Spain and if you want some company. I will be there around the beginning of June.

2. You might also benefit from doing some sports that you have not done for some time. I have neglected my gym sessions a lot these 4-5 months and it is like a magic pill for me these days.

It might be soccer or tennis for you. Just make sure that there is some novelty in it for you (you really are enthusiastic about it) and it is physical (dont sit around any play chess)

I wish I could give you more business related advice, but I do not feel myself qualified to do this here.

 

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[Andy Black]

I think it annoys me more than inspires because it's a good example of useless content, sort of like naked women getting paid 1000x more than my physiotherapist doing a much more important job. These quotes don't change anything in anyone's life compared to proper, strategic advice. But people like it so who am I to judge that.

I'm neither inspired nor annoyed by that account. It just made me curious how to replicate that page's growth, and what their business model is with all that attention.

MINDSET - Amateurs vs Pros

If an amateur poker player gets beaten by someone doing something dumb they often go "on tilt" (get mad or fearful and no longer play their best game). Professional players don't bat an eyelid though - they just file it away for future reference. What's helped me in business is to see...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Intax]

I completely lost any belief in my business skills. I feel like all the success I have I owe just to luck and the right timing. Without it, I'd be nothing.

These days, I'm just a cynical hypocrite. Friends ask me for business advice but honestly what the F*ck do I know? Just the shit I read online since I've been unable to make any business work for the past 4 years.

I just can't find any energy anymore to keep trying to figure it out. Little things overwhelm me. I've lost that resolve and the entrepreneurial spirit of figuring things out.

Not sure what to do about it other than rant since trying just doesn't work and leads to even more failure and disappointment.

I don’t know anything about your businesses so I can’t give you in-depth advice like the others.

As a reader of this forum, I can attest that your posts have been super valuable and have helped me a lot. So I’m sure you deliver value to customers and probably have better business skills than most people on the forum.

You are probably in a depressed mood and only see everything that didn’t work, goals you didn’t reach, business ideas that didn’t go as far as you wanted them to go. That sucks and feels shit.

In my experience, you end up in these situations when you spend a lot of time in your head with an inner critic who beats you up. For me what helps most to put things in perspective and brighten my mood is to have honest conversations with friends about how you feel. When you just honestly tell them about everything that F*cks you up you can let it out. Also, their feedback to you probably shows you that it’s not as bad as you think it is.

When you feel mentally a bit more stable and ready to tackle the problem then it’s time for an honest and fundamental evaluation. You made the impression to me that you in a way hit rock bottom. You are annoyed and angry that your ventures didn’t perform as much as you expected. You spend so much time in business and still don’t get as much out of it as you should. You see other people perform better than you.

This is a great place to evaluate and change the basic beliefs and assumptions that got you in this place. Understanding them helps you to do something completely different than you did before and therefore get different results. How exactly do you do it? - I don’t know. I can just tell you an example of how it worked for me.

We are a group of four founders and didn’t progress as much with our venture as we liked to. Our revenue didn’t grow fast. Our customers didn’t use our software a lot. The impact and feedback were okay. Everything was going okay but not good. We were all trying to change little things and improve but never asked the big questions, were never completely honest with each other and ourselves, and didn’t change big things about our approach.

Then out of nowhere, one founder said he wanted to quit. He doesn’t believe anymore in the business and that we are able to make the changes necessary. I was destroyed and heartbroken. After some time of processing and being depressed we started to have really honest talks with each other. As honest as we’ve never been with each other: what really F*cks us up? What annoys us about the way we interact with each other? How do we honestly see each other and our abilities? And many more questions like these.

This led me to the realization that what we did before couldn’t even work. Our approach was flawed in so many ways but I could only start seeing it, being open to hearing about it, and questioning our underlying assumptions and approach by kind of hitting rock bottom. Now the fourth founder didn’t leave and we are doing better than we’ve ever been doing.

What I want you to take away from this is that talking with others 100% honestly about what’s going on inside of you will probably help you to get mentally better and that this situation can be a great catalyst for changes you have been craving for.

Hopefully, this can help you at least a bit.

 

[MitchC]

The way I see it logically:

• I can start an enjoyable passion project that doesn't require much time and effort - but then I often end up tired of it because deep down I can't work without financial compensation.
• I can start any business without thinking about any criteria - but if it imposes on my lifestyle too much, then I'll end up frustrated and inevitably shut it down. I don't see the point in having a business that I don't need only to reduce my life quality.

So my best option is the third way: start a business that meets some criteria but not too many AND, most importantly:

• rely more on contractors (so that it doesn't impose so much on my lifestyle),
• do NOT include anything passion-related (so that I don't have another weird hybrid passion/business business).

Thanks for the reply, glad you took it well, hopefully this one is okay as well.

We will be in Europe for their summer if you want to do some diving somewhere I'd love to, plan is to hike in Switzerland and then spend the rest of the trip in Greece, Spain, Italy, anywhere with water.

Anyway, this section of the reply is really strange to me, maybe it's just explained poorly, but why do you want to start a new business? If you're happy with your lifestyle it makes no sense. If you want to get to the next level wealth wise then there's going to be some trade-offs.

Contractors make sense, excluding passion for no reason doesn't, I think more importantly you just need something people want, and a way to get some sales from day 1.

Also, I saw above you wanted to read a book about things that don't change, how about reading breakthrough advertising? 2 birds with 1 stone. How to come up with products people want and position and market them. And it's written in the 50's so you'll see how much, and more importantly little, has changed in peoples desires in the last 80 years.

 

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[MTF]

1. It sounds like you are getting almost the same inputs every day. Same people, same office, same texts read, same podcasts listened.

I might be wrong, but you might do yourself a favor by changing your environment (going away for some time).

I was in another city for two weeks and came back a few days ago. Before that, I spent most of 2023 traveling. But yes, I'm tired of my current environment despite all that traveling.

You can write me if youre in Southern Spain and if you want some company. I will be there around the beginning of June.

Okay, thanks. I usually don't go to Spain in the summer (too crowded, too hot).

2. You might also benefit from doing some sports that you have not done for some time. I have neglected my gym sessions a lot these 4-5 months and it is like a magic pill for me these days.

My favorite sports are all performed outdoors. With shitty weather, that's not possible.

 

[MTF]

As a reader of this forum, I can attest that your posts have been super valuable and have helped me a lot. So I’m sure you deliver value to customers and probably have better business skills than most people on the forum.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

You are probably in a depressed mood and only see everything that didn’t work, goals you didn’t reach, business ideas that didn’t go as far as you wanted them to go. That sucks and feels shit.

In my experience, you end up in these situations when you spend a lot of time in your head with an inner critic who beats you up. For me what helps most to put things in perspective and brighten my mood is to have honest conversations with friends about how you feel. When you just honestly tell them about everything that F*cks you up you can let it out. Also, their feedback to you probably shows you that it’s not as bad as you think it is.

Fair point and makes sense. My inner critic is very strong and I struggle to think about myself positively, ever.

I didn't hit true rock bottom as it's more of an aspirational thing than a need thing. But I do need to change the approach a lot.

What I want you to take away from this is that talking with others 100% honestly about what’s going on inside of you will probably help you to get mentally better and that this situation can be a great catalyst for changes you have been craving for.

I try to talk with others but few people can truly relate because it's a relatively rare problem that a seemingly successful person thinks they're useless.

 

[MTF]

We will be in Europe for their summer if you want to do some diving somewhere I'd love to, plan is to hike in Switzerland and then spend the rest of the trip in Greece, Spain, Italy, anywhere with water.

Cool. My tentative plan for a longer trip is Croatia and Greece in September if you're still going to be around then. I will also probably go to the Azores in the summer. I don't go to hot destinations in the summer as they're too crowded then, with crazy prices and often way too hot temperatures.

When you're in Switzerland, check out Liechtenstein. It's a really cool tiny country with very nice people (and why wouldn't they be, as rich as they are).

Anyway, this section of the reply is really strange to me, maybe it's just explained poorly, but why do you want to start a new business? If you're happy with your lifestyle it makes no sense. If you want to get to the next level wealth wise then there's going to be some trade-offs.

Maybe I didn't explain it well. In the long term, I would like to own 2-3 houses around the world. With my current net worth, I can live comfortably for the rest of my life as long as I rent these places whenever I travel. I can't afford buying 2-3 houses for, say, 1 million dollars each.

But I would like more stability and a predictable place and routine. Right now, each longer trip is stressful because you never know how the Airbnb is going to be, whether you're going to like the place, whether it has a good place to work, whether it has stable and fast Internet, whether it has peace and quiet, etc.

By having homes in places I love I could just go there whenever I want with a laptop in hand and have all the stuff ready there (clothes, sports equipment, etc.) to quickly resume my routine.

I understand there will be some trade-offs. I can accept some but I can't accept others (like not being able to travel anymore).

Contractors make sense, excluding passion for no reason doesn't, I think more importantly you just need something people want, and a way to get some sales from day 1.

I meant excluding passion if there's a risk it will interfere with decision-making. It's better to be emotionally detached than let the passion influence your financial decisions.

Yes, sales from day 1 is what @Andy Black told me a few times as well and I'm going to adhere to that rule.

Also, I saw above you wanted to read a book about things that don't change, how about reading breakthrough advertising? 2 birds with 1 stone. How to come up with products people want and position and market them. And it's written in the 50's so you'll see how much, and more importantly little, has changed in peoples desires in the last 80 years.

I'll re-read it, thanks.

 

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[ygtrhos]

My favorite sports are all performed outdoors. With shitty weather, that's not possible.

What are your favorite sports then?

 

[MTF]

What are your favorite sports then?

Freediving, open water swimming, surfing, hiking, walking, running. I also used to rock climb and sometimes do it when there's a chance.

 

[ygtrhos]

I would not cross all of these out, if I were you.

The point is, you might benefit from some physical activity. If you cannot climb outside, why not boulder inside?

You are your own boss, you decide upon such things of course.

 

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[MTF]

I would not cross all of these out, if I were you.

The point is, you might benefit from some physical activity. If you cannot climb outside, why not boulder inside?

You are your own boss, you decide upon such things of course.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I train with kettlebells 3x a week, do yoga 3x a week, walk 5-10 km a day and do dry freediving training 4-5x a week. These activities are just my baseline now because I draw way more enjoyment out of the water sports which I can only do in the summer (open water swimming) or not in my hometown (surfing, freediving).

I did climb a few years indoors and I grew tired of it. My city has only one gym and it's old and unsanitary.

 

[ZCP]

@MTF have you been to the hormone doctor and checked all your levels? simple stuff like certain vitamins or minerals. how is your T levels? these make a huge difference.

relationships? got people / SO to hang out with and have fun with?
come stay with me for a week in ATL
hit up @GlobalWealth , he is about to do an RV trip across the US. ridealong with him.
go help @Fox with the baby.
volunteer to coach some kids in swimming

and like @amp0193 said, keep your eye out for the next big thing. you are good at seeing an opportunity and capitalizing. take the jay abraham approach..... what OTHER industry could you take what you know into and be successful?

Love you, boo. You got this!

 

[MTF]

@MTF have you been to the hormone doctor and checked all your levels? simple stuff like certain vitamins or minerals. how is your T levels? these make a huge difference.

Yes, I had a very extensive medical check-up last May and everything was fine. I do regular blood tests and stuff.

relationships? got people / SO to hang out with and have fun with?

Mostly just my girlfriend these days.

come stay with me for a week in ATL
hit up @GlobalWealth , he is about to do an RV trip across the US. ridealong with him.
go help @Fox with the baby.
volunteer to coach some kids in swimming

Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it a lot and it's just nice of you to be so kind and supportive. I did plan to hang out with Rob.

and like @amp0193 said, keep your eye out for the next big thing. you are good at seeing an opportunity and capitalizing. take the jay abraham approach..... what OTHER industry could you take what you know into and be successful?

I actually planned to re-read some Jay Abraham stuff as well so thanks for the reminder.

 

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[Supa]

Freediving, open water swimming, surfing, hiking, walking, running. I also used to rock climb and sometimes do it when there's a chance.

Have you tried martial arts yet?

Martial arts, in my case especially kickboxing and muay thai changed my life and how I see myself and feel about myself for the better in lots of ways.

 

[MTF]

Have you tried martial arts yet?

Martial arts, in my case especially kickboxing and muay thai changed my life and how I see myself and feel about myself for the better in lots of ways.

I practiced krav maga and MMA (mostly kickboxing). I stopped because I met too many people with broken bodies after years of training martial arts.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@MTF -- thanks for being authentic in your struggles. Like many other threads you start, they always prove valuable not just in business, but just for life. Thread upgraded to GOLD as any of us struggling in a rut can leverage the advice here, now 80+ posts strong.

 

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[MTF]

@MTF -- thanks for being authentic in your struggles. Like many other threads you start, they always prove valuable not just in business, but just for life. Thread upgraded to GOLD as any of us struggling in a rut can leverage the advice here, now 80+ posts strong.

Thanks, MJ. I'm very thankful for all the responses here. They've helped a lot, more than I thought any response could help when I posted that initial post. The community here is like in no other place.

 

[Antifragile]

Thanks for your response, Volodya.

That's been on my mind for a long time already. I even posted a thread about this in 2019 (SOCIAL MEDIA - RANT - Can You Escape the Giants in an Online Business?).

I do find it very tiring and discouraging that no matter what it is, usually you rely on 1-2 companies. If they ban you, your business is gone because there's no viable alternative.

100% and it's worse than that. Not only they can ban you, they charge you draconian fees to use their network. They own the network.

It's like saying you'll open a coffee shop at your favourite corner in your town, you know you'll deliver value but the roads aren't free - they are owned by the same landlord that owns the retail space you want to lease. Not only they can kick you out of the store you created, they control who can travel to your store because they own the damn road.

What I mean is that it's just a bad place to do business because the odds aren't on your side. Heads you lose, tails they win.

And just to make sure: are you suggesting that all online businesses are like that or only the creator-based ones?

Nothing in life is truly a binary thing, zero or one. So it would be just as wrong to say "all online businesses" as "none of the online businesses".

For example, Amazon FBA with their "Amazon Basics", aren't they the most profitable of all products? Aren't they being promoted better than any of the third party retailers trying to make it work?

Clearly it applies broadly, not narrowly. But there are exceptions.

The challenge with business is simple: finding the best asymmetric return that's tilted in YOUR favour. Which broadly speaking no longer applies to the vast majority of online business that used to work very well.

And this is especially bad for the creators.

From my perspective at least some B2B software companies are better protected as long as they're web only (because otherwise Google or Apple can ban your app for no reason). They also typically don't rely on any social media platform to get sales (maybe LinkedIn at most).

Building a B2B usually involves growing a team. Doing it solo often requires being a strong programmer that's got both introvert & extrovert parts fully developed. Few people are like that.

Could you share other examples if you know of any?

Even in the Youtube space it is still possible to create a following and succeed. It's not impossible, but what I don't like is the odds.

If we agree that the value is in the network, not just the content... and in fact that the network effect is more important than the content (frustrating, I know but remains true), then leaning into the rules and paying the "fee" for the network to YT, Twitter and so on is a must.

But in short, I'd not want to do any of this. Like I said, odds are tilted the wrong way.

What's left?

Most here probably won't like what I have to say, but here goes nothing:
1) Internet space is now about blockchain. It's the 1990s of the old internet, just upgraded to the newest thing. And AI is a huge part of that, they are hand in glove. Solving problems there is not centralized and cannot be centralized. But it's also not the big 7 lane highway of the 2010, it's hard to travel there at speed at the moment. But that's where I personally believe the "internet business future" resides.
2) As a non-tech but curious entrepreneur, I prefer to stick to the old style businesses that rely on humans interacting. Where leadership matters. Where employees and money help provide scale. Where control is with those who have access to capital and human talent. With that, I promote small businesses that can thrive in a local environment. A local quarry that provides concrete to construction concrete projects can make millions! A person who starts a plumbing company and scales it up to 100 staff will make millions. (Assuming they do good work and there is a need for it!) You get the point.

In theory yes, in practice both Google and Yahoo have already started tightening the rules. I won't be surprised to see new requirements and limited reach. And yes, email is not owned by anyone but Gmail accounts for at least 40-50% of all email users. Recently even Tim Ferriss had issues with his newsletters going to spam in Gmail.

That's how RSS died... remember that? Terrible but it's expected. No one is immune, not even Tim Ferriss level of influence.

But he has an advantage, he can get up on a new platform a lot faster than regular Joe.

It may be possible though if I were to focus way more on marketing and way less on content, then it would probably work better. The creators who win often don't create any mind-blowing content. What they do have is very solid marketing that few creators have (precisely because they prefer creating content rather than marketing).

Still a losing battle, if you ask me...

But yeah, I'd rather do something that stands on solid ground.

That's key. Building on sand isn't same as building on rock.