How To Thrive With Multiple Interests

Summary

In this dynamic speech, Dan Koe challenges the traditional ideals of education and career paths that focus on specialization. He presents a compelling argument for embracing multiple interests as a way to thrive in modern society, a world where generalism, taste, and agency can be the differentiators for success. Dan delves into how societal norms can constrain creativity and expression, urging individuals to integrate their varied passions into a cohesive path that suits the future of work and personal fulfillment. He also discusses the transformative role of technology and the internet in empowering individuals to pursue their multifaceted interests on their terms.

Highlights

• Traditional education is criticized for promoting hyperspecialization, limiting personal growth. 📚
• Having multiple interests is positioned as a strength for future work opportunities. 💪
• Importance of combining various skills and interests to form a unique value proposition. 🎯
• The role of the internet in facilitating entrepreneurship and creativity is emphasized. 💻
• Diverse interests should be seen as an advantage, not a drawback. 🎨

Key Takeaways

• Embrace your multiple interests and reject the traditional path of hyper-specialization. 🎨
• Use your unique combination of interests to stand out in the evolving job market. 🌟
• Combine generalism, taste, and agency to create a fulfilling career path. 🌈
• In the age of AI, being a specialist is becoming less relevant. Be a polymath instead! 🤖
• Entrepreneurship and being a creator are viable paths to channel diverse interests. 💡

Overview

Dan Koe takes us on a transformative journey, questioning the kind of education and career paths we traditionally pursue. He argues passionately against the pigeonhole mentality of hyperspecialization that many societies enforce through education systems, advocating instead for a rich tapestry of knowledge and experience.

He unveils the 'generalist' paradigm, sharing insights on how multiple interests can be harmonized into both productive and meaningful career paths. Dan insists that embracing our range of passions and curiosities can lead to a life full of potential and fulfillment—a stark contrast to the simplistic, narrow approaches championed by traditional norms.

Moreover, Dan highlights the potential found in the intersection of entrepreneurship and modern digital tools. In a world where AI and technology are reshaping job landscapes, leveraging one's unique tastes and broad skill sets can become powerful differentiators. He calls for a proactive mindset, encouraging individuals to create their unique paths by blending art, business, and innovation.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Traditional Education and Multiple Interests The chapter delves into the issue of traditional education and its tendency towards hyper-specialization, which arguably makes individuals compliant to prevailing systems. It advocates for studying generalized principles of nature instead and champions becoming a 'deep generalist.' The narrative challenges the standard notion that individuals should decide their life's path by age 18, including choosing a field of study, career, and lifestyle. It critiques the conventional life trajectory, which often mirrors that of one's parents, characterized by employment, family life, mortgages, and periodic leisure activities.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Society's Pressure to Specialize The chapter titled 'Society's Pressure to Specialize' discusses the societal expectation to focus on a single career path or specialization, often related to economic factors. The speaker highlights their personal experience of having diverse interests and contrasts it with societal norms that discourage multifaceted exploration. The chapter implies a critique of these societal pressures, emphasizing the desire to engage in the full spectrum of human experiences.
• 01:00 - 01:30: The Value of Having Multiple Interests The chapter challenges the notion that having multiple interests is detrimental. It addresses the common criticism from figures like parents, teachers, and friends, who often discourage diverse interests by labeling them as distractions. The narrative defends the value of pursuing varied passions and ideas despite such negative feedback, emphasizing that this perspective is a misconception.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Three Differentiators: Agency, Taste, and Generalism The chapter discusses how traditional career paths, like becoming a doctor or a lawyer, are often encouraged as safe choices by society. However, the narrative challenges this notion by suggesting that such paths might not be as secure in the future. Instead, having multiple interests and skills—referred to as a superpower—is increasingly beneficial in the evolving job market. Embracing agency, taste, and generalism is positioned as the unique edge that will allow individuals to truly stand out.
• 02:00 - 02:30: The History and Impact of the Prussian Education System This chapter discusses strategies for individuals with multiple interests to differentiate themselves and create value. It introduces three key differentiators: agency, taste, and generalism. The discussion focuses on how to organize and present these diverse interests in a way that can lead to tangible outcomes, such as career development or personal growth.
• 02:30 - 03:00: The Importance of Creating Your Own Goals This chapter discusses the significance of setting personal goals to lead a fulfilling life. It suggests creating a life that aligns with one's interests and passions, enabling exploration and understanding. The chapter opens with a quote from Robert Heinlein, emphasizing the diverse skills a person should be able to perform. This serves as a metaphor for the importance of versatility and self-reliance in pursuing one's individual aspirations.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Why Society Wants Specialists, Not Generalists The chapter begins with a quote challenging the idea that humans should only be specialists, suggesting that being able to perform a wide array of tasks is more valuable. The narrator reflects on their own abilities and encourages readers to consider their own skills beyond their specialization.
• 03:30 - 04:00: The Role of Generalism in the Future of Work The chapter discusses the origins and impact of the Prussian education system, which was primarily designed to produce obedient and compliant individuals. The system emphasized mandatory attendance, standardized teacher training, national curriculum, and student testing, all structured by age and grade levels. The result was a focus on teaching students how to work, rather than how to think independently. The system's efficiency in standardization influenced education reformers like Horus Mann to adopt similar practices.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Cultivating Taste: A Key to Success The chapter 'Cultivating Taste: A Key to Success' discusses the influence of education systems, particularly in Massachusetts, which served as a model for other states. It touches upon Horace Mann's intentions to avoid perpetuating a 'slave mentality' within the education system. Despite these intentions, the chapter suggests that such a mentality is an inherent byproduct of the system regardless of efforts to avoid it. Furthermore, the text hints at the implications of not funding school systems adequately.
• 04:30 - 05:00: AI's Role and Limitations in Creative Work This chapter discusses the limitations of traditional education systems, particularly in how they restrict creative exploration and self-guided learning. The system forces students to learn at the pace of the lowest performing individuals, thereby hindering those who might thrive under different circumstances. Furthermore, there is a critique of the Industrial Age mindset of strict memorization, which is antiquated in an era where creativity is increasingly valuable. The role of Artificial Intelligence in potentially reshaping and challenging these outdated educational paradigms is also implied, suggesting a future where AI may alleviate some of these limitations.
• 05:00 - 05:30: The Importance of Multiple Interests and Taste The chapter discusses the destructive nature of the school system in shaping one's mind. It emphasizes how the mind absorbs information based on the goals ingrained in it, such as obtaining a degree and a job. This ingrained mindset is often unconscious, developed over many years, and affects individuals' pursuit of multiple interests and tastes.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Beyond Generalism: Practice and Application The chapter discusses the concept of generalism versus specialization. It highlights the potential drawbacks of having a narrow point of view when pursuing specific goals. This narrow focus can limit the information one can absorb, potentially leading to becoming replaceable. The chapter advises on the importance of nurturing multiple interests to maintain flexibility and freedom. It uses the example of starting a business to illustrate the need for a broader perspective beyond a single-minded pursuit.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Understanding Agency and Entrepreneurship The chapter explores the concept of personal agency and how it relates to entrepreneurship. It suggests that everything we perceive and consume, including conversations, books, and experiences, can be leveraged to achieve personal goals. However, it warns against pursuing goals that are not self-conceived, as they may lead to an identity shaped by external influences rather than personal aspirations. The importance of setting one's own goals is highlighted to ensure that the information and experiences absorbed contribute to a self-directed identity.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Overcoming Fear and Embracing Entrepreneurship The chapter discusses the societal expectation for individuals to become specialists to serve specific roles effectively. However, it argues that true freedom and success often come from being a generalist or a polymath. The chapter highlights how admired individuals, even if perceived as specialists, actually possess diverse skills and knowledge that contribute to their success. It touches upon the impact of AI in replacing specialist tools, emphasizing the importance of versatility in the modern world.
• 07:00 - 07:30: Turning Interests into Income This chapter discusses the concept of leveraging one's varied interests, qualities, and skills to generate income. It emphasizes the importance of not relying on a single, predefined career path, but rather embracing a generalist approach. The narrative suggests that succeeding in actualizing a grand vision for the future requires learning and doing a multitude of things throughout life. Furthermore, it touches on the notion of a modern Renaissance, where individuals have the creative power akin to iconic figures like Einstein and Da Vinci, highlighting the potential to turn diverse passions into income.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Choosing a Metapath for Success In 'Choosing a Metapath for Success,' the narrative emphasizes the empowerment of individuals over institutions in a world where multiple interests are accessible. It highlights a common struggle where individuals possess the capability and creativity but fail to take action. The chapter suggests that this failure to act is not due to laziness or lack of creativity, but rather because of persistent residual challenges that people, including the narrator, face.
• 08:00 - 08:30: The Role of Internet and Social Media in Modern Careers The chapter discusses the significant influence of the internet and social media on modern career paths. It highlights the need for a shift in mindset given the rapid changes in the work environment. Emphasizing generalism, the chapter suggests that equipping oneself with a diverse set of skills and cultivating 'taste'—an appreciation and discernment for what is of good quality or high value—is essential. The chapter references a quote from Ira Glass for further insight.
• 08:30 - 09:00: Creating a Successful Path through Innovation In the chapter titled 'Creating a Successful Path through Innovation,' the speaker emphasizes the struggle between initial creative output and personal taste. Beginners often face a gap where their work is not as good as their taste, which motivated them to start. The chapter encourages perseverance despite the initial disappointment because great taste indicates potential for great work eventually.
• 09:00 - 09:30: Steps to Discovering Your Uniqueness The chapter titled 'Steps to Discovering Your Uniqueness' begins by addressing the struggle many creatives face when they are disappointed with their own work. It highlights that it's common for people to quit at this stage, but emphasizes perseverance and continuing despite the dissatisfaction. The narrative encourages creators by acknowledging that everyone goes through a phase where they have good taste but are unable to meet their own expectations. The chapter suggests that the key to unlocking one's uniqueness lies in pushing through this period of creative dissatisfaction.
• 09:30 - 10:00: Creating Content and Building an Audience The chapter discusses the importance of consistent content creation and setting deadlines to build an audience. It emphasizes the necessity of producing a large volume of work to improve and meet one's ambitions. The author shares a personal experience, indicating that mastering this skill took a considerable amount of time.
• 10:00 - 10:30: The Importance of Art in Business In this chapter, the discussion begins with a motivational note about persistence and the time it takes to achieve success. It emphasizes that this journey is normal and requires determination. The chapter then moves on to highlight a crucial shift in the business landscape: intelligence alone is no longer a unique competitive advantage, particularly with the rapid advancement of AI models that are becoming increasingly accessible and affordable. The availability of information doesn't necessarily translate to success, as evidenced by the statistic that 99% of people have access to all the answers they need but still struggle. This chapter underscores the need for businesses to go beyond mere intelligence, hinting at the integration of artistic and creative elements to maintain a competitive edge.
• 10:30 - 11:00: Conclusion and Call to Action The chapter emphasizes that intelligence alone is insufficient for success. Many people fail to recognize or utilize this because intelligence, when isolated, isn't as beneficial. The narrative points out that AI is capable of replacing specialist roles since these often involve repetitive tasks that generate non-creative outputs, which AI can handle effectively. However, the chapter warns that things become more complex when additional layers of abstraction are added, as the potential outputs become infinite, illustrating the limitations and challenges faced when integrating AI into more complex tasks.

How To Thrive With Multiple Interests Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 traditional education and hypers specialization is a way to make people subservient to the dominant Paradigm or system study the generalized principles of Nature and be a deep generalist it's insane to think that you should know what you want to do with your life by the time you turn 18 years old what you want to study what career you want to pursue how your life is going to end up most of the time it's just like your parents a job a spouse a mortgage a few vacations a few nice dinners maybe a cat or dog maybe some kids maybe not because
• 00:30 - 01:00 you know the economy at least that's what you're supposed to do that's what Society wants for you but you're different you have multiple interests if you're anything like me and yes I shave my head again we'll talk about it in the next video focusing on one thing is just the bane of your existence you can't do it you have multiple interests you can't help yourself you want to explore the full range of The Human Experience you want to acquire as much knowledge as you can but people in society maybe not directly have convinced you that this
• 01:00 - 01:30 isn't going to lead to anything great in your life and I'm here to tell you that that is a complete lie because everywhere you turn it just seems like your parents your teachers your friends or whoever it may be shoot you down when you bring your ideas and your interest to them or they say that shiny object syndrome is bad or something that you shouldn't do and they may even throw subtle Jabs at your dreams and aspirations because they say they want what's best for you but in reality
• 01:30 - 02:00 they want what's best for them they want you to pursue the safe route become a doctor become a lawyer do something respectable get a high-paying degree they drill your mind into this little box that they can understand but you hate it little do they know having multiple interests is a superpower going into the future of work and as we're going to talk about I believe it's the singular Edge that will make most people stand out what used to be the safe route is no longer safe at all
• 02:00 - 02:30 if you have multiple interests you need to learn one how to differentiate yourself from everyone else because having multiple interests it's kind of chaotic right you don't know how to make sense of it and package it up in a way that is valuable that leads to you getting something in return so we're going to talk about the three differentiators right now which is agency taste and generalism and then later in this video we're going to talk about how to turn your multiple interests into some kind of path forward in life it could be a career it could be
• 02:30 - 03:00 a way of making an income a way of sustaining your multiple interests building a life that allows you to explore and understand these things and share them with other people so let's start with this classic quote from Robert heinlin a human being should be able to change a diaper plan an invasion butcher a hog con a ship design a building write a sonnet balance accounts build a wall set a bone Comfort the dying take orders give orders cooperate act alone solve equations analyze a new
• 03:00 - 03:30 problem pitch manure program a computer cook a tasty meal fight efficiently die gallantly specialization is for insects something fun as I was reading through that think about how many of those can you actually do I think I hit on quite a few but it made me realize that I need to learn a few so comment if you how many of those that you hit I personally can't change diaper now in the early to mid 1800s when America was industrializing and needed to educate large numbers of immigrant children Educators like Horus man traveled to Prussia to study their system this
• 03:30 - 04:00 Prussian education system was designed to create obedient soldiers compliant citizens civil servants and well-behaved workers it accomplished this with its focus on mandatory attendance training for teachers National curriculum and testing for students division of students by age and the concept of grade levels and if you're anything like me a little part of you just died reading that the thing here is that students were taught how to work not how to think so impressed by its efficiency in stand ization Horus man and others implemented
• 04:00 - 04:30 many of these methods in American schools particularly in Massachusetts which became a model for other states now doing further research into this Horus man didn't want the whole like slave mentality to be brought over but if we just look at the school system that's kind of a byproduct of the system itself it doesn't matter how hard you try to avoid that that's just the system that's a property of the system but there's an important Point here since you do not fund this school system you
• 04:30 - 05:00 do not control what is taught you're told to read this and memorize that and if you don't then your Industrial Age parents will scold you and threaten to ground you and then you can't pursue your own interest or go hang out with your friends or explore so it's you're getting uh double the pain even further and the crazy thing about this is that this education system has to bias the bottom quen tile in other words you are forced to learn at the same Pace as the dumbest 20% of the people in the public
• 05:00 - 05:30 school system and this is extremely destructive I don't even we don't even have to talk about that because if you understand how the mind works you understand that your mind absorbs the relevant information according to the goal that is at the top of your mind and if your goal is to get a degree and job that's the main overarching like homing mechanism for your mind that's been coded into your head since for 18 years of your life that's what you're doing whether you want to do it or not you're just going it's unconscious to you right
• 05:30 - 06:00 you don't even have to think about it you just do it but since you're doing that your mind is narrowed it it has a narrow point of view that's what a goal is is a point of view it's not something that you achieve it's a way of viewing life so when those goals frame what information you can even pick up your destiny is to become replaceable because you're not going to learn the multiple interests that allow you to be free as an example of this if I want to start a business I really want to start a business that's the only only thing I
• 06:00 - 06:30 can think about then everything I perceive the conversations I have the books that I read even if it's some weird self-help book or fiction book I'll pull lessons out of it that apply and help me achieve my goals but if you're going to school or you're getting a job or whatever it may be you're doing the same thing but for those goals the real kicker here is that since those goals are not your own and you didn't think them through the information that is programming your mind is creating an identity that you didn't create because you didn't create the goals that your mind operates on so think about that for
• 06:30 - 07:00 a bit here's the point Society wants you to be a specialist because useful workers serve Society but every single person you admire is not a specialist Specialists are tools tools get replaced AI is doing the replacing every free and successful person is a generalist a polymath even if they put on the guys of a specialist like if you are thinking of someone where it's like oh yeah that's a they're very good at one thing what allows them to be good at that one thing how do you know about them because they
• 07:00 - 07:30 had other traits qualities and skills that allowed them to make that one thing work they understand that in order to actualize a Grand Vision that they create for their future they're going to have to learn and do many things throughout their life One path one static known defined path that many people have gone down before does not cut it but generalism generalism alone is only one piece of this equation we are going through a second Renaissance we have the power of Einstein and da
• 07:30 - 08:00 Vinci in our pockets the individual not the institution has more power than ever to thrive with multiple interests but still people aren't doing anything it doesn't matter how many interests you have it doesn't matter how much of a generalist you are if you sit around and do nothing it's useless but it's not because you're lazy or you lack creativity you have those things you know you have those things it's because you and most people and myself included it's not something that just goes away it like has residual there's residue
• 08:00 - 08:30 that still needs to be cleaned up for kind of your entire lifetime but our minds have been programmed for 20 plus years and continue to be by a society that benefits from our stupidity so in the future of work you need to drastically change how you think about the future generalism is a must you have that right you have multiple interests you're okay with learning many things but the the next piece of the puzzle is taste so let's talk about how to cultivate it with a quote from Ira Glass and I'll let him say it so I don't
• 08:30 - 09:00 butcher it it may be long but really listen closely here because I resonated hard with this nobody uh tells people who are beginners and I really somebody had told this to me is that all of us who do creative work like you know we get into it and we get into it because we have good taste but it's like there's a gap that for the first couple years that you're making stuff what you're making isn't so good okay it's not that great it's it's trying to be good it has ambition to good but it's not quite that good but your taste the thing that got you into the game you're your taste is still killer and your taste is good
• 09:00 - 09:30 enough that you can tell that what you're making is kind of a disappointment to you you know what I mean a lot of people never get past that phase a lot of people at that point they quit and the thing I would just like say to you is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be they knew it felt short it didn't have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing I would say to you is every goes through that
• 09:30 - 10:00 and for you to go through it if you're going through it right now if you're just getting out of that phase you got to know it's totally normal and the most important possible thing you could do is do a lot of work put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you're going to finish one story because it's only by actually going through a volume of work that you're actually going to C catch up and close that Gap and your the work you're making will be as good as your Ambitions like I I took longer to figure out how to do this than anybody I've ever at it
• 10:00 - 10:30 takes a while it's going to take you a while it's normal to take a while and you just have to fight your way through that okay that's one of those quotes that's just like you store forever and you come back to and look at because it just hits very hard so I want to see if I can articulate this point well so stick with me intelligence is no longer a differentiating resource AI models continue to get better and better while the price of those models gets closer and closer to zero everyone has all the answers they could ever need and yet 99%
• 10:30 - 11:00 of people don't realize or utilize it because intelligence has proven to be a poor resource in isolation there's more to the story of success now this is where it gets tricky listen AI is replacing specialist roles because predictable outputs come from predictable inputs since many jobs are repetitive series of tasks that lead to non-creative outputs AI can do this good enough but when you add another layer of abstraction or multiple the number of outputs that can occur are infinite AI
• 11:00 - 11:30 only gives you one unless you refine it or tell the AI to refine itself the thing is that's probably not the best output and it's absolutely not the one that will Garner the love and attention of the supporters who consume the output because most AI Generations right now are slop now I'm not anti- aai if you watched the last video on the death of the content creator which was a play on the death the personal brand both my videos you'll understand what my viewpoint on AI actually is I mean we're putting it inside of Cortex I'm not
• 11:30 - 12:00 anti- aai I'm anti- Quick Fix I'm anti- Outsourcing your thinking and just becoming a a drooling blob of Flesh I'm anti- being used by machines I'm Pro using machines now it may sound like I'm repeating myself here if you've watched those previous videos but just stick with me cuz we need to illustrate a point here let's say you want to write a book and you can also think about building a software or designing something or any type of other creative work right now you can have ai spit out
• 12:00 - 12:30 a book if you want to and you've played with AI a bit so let's say that we want to write a book how to focus so we can open up Claud Sonet 3.5 you give it a purpose as a ghost writer you give it your writing style tone and voice you give it the target audience you have it create a table of contents based on pain points of that audience for each chapter you can have it include something like a relevant Story main Insight actionable steps and a novel concept like time blocking and along with that you can go and study other books and look for
• 12:30 - 13:00 patterns within them and then be like okay this one has a metaphor you can kind of create these building blocks that the AI can use to craft a a compelling and attention grabbing narrative within a book and then you can give it previous ideas you've written about on Focus or whatever it may be you can create and refine the outline for each chapter you can finish the book and refine it to your liking now take 1,000 different people and have them write a book on the same topic every single final output will be different from the
• 13:00 - 13:30 other do you see where taste is starting to come into play one book can be written a thousand different ways and 1,000 different people can interpret that book in 1,000 different ways the point is it doesn't matter if AI can write a book or build a software or design a website or whatever it may be with a human behind it right now so it's the human anyway because that's not what makes creative work successful that's also not what makes people care about the creative work which is necessary if
• 13:30 - 14:00 you want the creative work to actually be valuable so with this you have to understand that multiple interests are merged with taste that anyone can create anything that you have the power to do all of these different things you have the multiple interests you have multiple goals you see your life going in so many different ways and you can test and experiment with so many different ones of those now because technology has made doing things so accessible you can embrace your nature as a generalist and
• 14:00 - 14:30 tie things together with taste but what makes a book a brand a software and any other creative Pursuit work is not the ability to create that thing but how you synthesize multiple various ideas from different disciplines in a way that nobody could have thought of a book on how to focus takes a completely different shape when you're at the pillar of it with your personal experience and you merge in something like philosophy psychology metaphysics spirituality whatever your interests are
• 14:30 - 15:00 think about it what's an interest just a random weird interest that you have now think about how that can fit into a book called How to focus and it probably can are you seeing where I'm getting at here is that things can be created in so many different ways but it's your multiple interests that come together to create that thing that is unique the good thing about this is that most people had their taste blunted by schools and jobs and since you have multiple interests you are at a major advantage here because you you didn't let School prevent you
• 15:00 - 15:30 from studying beyond what was defined for you to study you love to explore the unknown so we have generalism we have multiple interests we understand taste and I want to reiterate that you need to practice it like you actually have to do things in order to uh get that taste come when I first started on Photoshop it's like obviously I had good taste and I would see people creating things that I wanted to create but when it came time to create them it it just didn't work it didn't look that good I would I would post post it and I'd be kind of
• 15:30 - 16:00 confident in it but then over time as you gradually learn these little tiny things the the details is where things start to stand out that's when you start to really cultivate it is you have to practice Beyond generalism and taste we need agency and to illustrate agency we need to illustrate employment versus entrepreneurship because it's sad that Business and Entrepreneurship have become dirty words we have a pretty immature definition of them and for most people when they hear those words their
• 16:00 - 16:30 mind just starts to flood with self-doubt and alarm they think things like that requires a lot of money to start I'm not talented enough to do that charging people for money that sounds like a scam I don't know how to create an LLC or do my taxes so I'm never going to learn sounds boring now I'm not here to talk about entrepreneurship as a role or a title or something that's reserved for talented people I'm here to talk about what it actually is which is a state of mind it's a state of consciousness the difference between an employee and an entrepreneur is the
• 16:30 - 17:00 difference between low agency and high agency in this context High agency individuals are those who create their own goals and actively pursue them without permission from another low agency individuals are those who are assigned goals and pursue them because they don't have a mind that allows them to see any other option true agency can only be developed when you blame yourself for every problem even when you're not at fault an entrepreneur is often an employee but an employee is rarely an entrepreneur at top companies
• 17:00 - 17:30 the most sought-after employees are those with high agency the people who just go and solve the problem and deliver some kind of value they just do it they don't need their handheld they're an entrepreneur in mind but as I've said before the jobs of the future will be reserved for the elite the top 1% the NBA of jobs the entry level is going extinct because replaceable work is replaceable so the main option in my eyes for those with High ambition and multiple interests is to create your own
• 17:30 - 18:00 path and the only way to do that is by becoming an entrepreneur no matter how long it takes for your dreams to gain traction you have multiple interests you're going to be exploring this stuff anyways you might as well try to make it all work in some entrepreneurial Endeavor as your vessel for your multiple interests you're doing it anyway just bring that extra layer try to do it in a way that allows you to sustain your lifestyle and control your lifestyle now I'm going to throw up a graphic here just so you can look at it as I'm saying these next things because
• 18:00 - 18:30 it's easy to lump me into the camp of all 9o FS are bad when that's not my belief at all however I do understand psychology to a reasonable extent as a child there is a magic to life because everything is new you are constantly improving evolving and taking on new challenges that make life worth living schools simulate this desire to hunt for good dopamine by providing a video game like progression to learning and when you accept your first job it's challenging at first you develop skill to cure your anxiety Then when you reach
• 18:30 - 19:00 as far as that career ladder will allow you the challenge and Novelty cease to exist your days turn into a blur of repetition this is incredibly damaging to your psyche you get stuck in the defined the known and you can't escape because a monthly paycheck is addictive and you max out your lifestyle to fit what that paycheck allows so for those who want more out of life the only way out is entrepreneurship right Schools jobs they're kind of like a video game at first that's what makes life worth living is you can reach the next level grade 1 grade two grade three you can
• 19:00 - 19:30 get a few promotions you can get a raise you're acquiring skills you're evolving you're expanding but then one day that just stops and since most people aren't going to get the elite jobs that allow them to continue up the ladder the you you have all of these skills and interests just break off and do your own thing so you're in control of the novelty meaning fulfillment of your life you are literally only afraid of survival you're afraid of not making money you can't you're you're thinking too generally too abstractly so you're thinking from the amigdala you're not thinking specifically you're not
• 19:30 - 20:00 actually thinking through okay what can I do how can I actually do this and creating a plan a plan is a surface area for luck it's something that evolves it's something that brings order and Clarity to the mind and once you have a plan then your anxiety tends to fizzle down and you start to see that you can do it now obviously don't do anything stupid although I personally would I quit my job I move into places that I can't afford all the time because it forces me to stretch and grow and most people are afraid of that because they'll sink okay so we have the three differentiators which is generalism
• 20:00 - 20:30 taste and agency now we need to learn how to take our multiple interests and turn them into a life that we want or in this case it's turning your interest into an income because whether you like it or not you need an income to survive in order to pursue your multiple interests full-time so if you're not okay with making money or you're hiding the desire to make money even though it's the lifeblood of society then I can't help you any further sorry you're probably not going to find a solution into your problem so let's start with
• 20:30 - 21:00 this this is a little clip from chth I would focus on the content creator side of things because I believe that's where the puck is going that's a much more important shift in how we all consume information and content and are entertained so the final problem is this you have multiple interests you're developing taste you're ready to increase your agency but you have no idea where to start and if you're young and haven't been doing this at all the only places you know to look are are like freelance markets and job boards
• 21:00 - 21:30 because you haven't learned and educated about how to do your own thing and the thing with those is is that those are known paths that's no different from a job if someone can give you the work if you aren't hunting for the work if you aren't tracting the work then it's replaceable and it's you're probably not going to get paid as much as you deserve so rather than giving you a singular place to look or some kind of tactical step that everyone else gives you and you can go and find and try I'm going to guide you to creating your own path so that's what we start with step number
• 21:30 - 22:00 one is to choose a metapath what a metapath is is a path of paths so a metapath is like okay we need to climb this mountain but there are multiple different ways to climb the mountain and the way that you climb the mountain is unique it may take longer it may take shorter I want to give you a a a metapath that anyone can take because the greatest mistake you can make is boxing yourself into a specific model like starting an agency business or an e-commerce business or some kind of other Niche model like Amazon print on
• 22:00 - 22:30 demand those are great things to learn but only to acquire relevant skills and knowledge to advance along your metapath what I'm saying is I don't want you to operate as like oh I'm this agency owner and that's all I do that's all I know you're a CEO you're the director of your life and an agency could be a way of getting to that but if it's not then you're probably on the wrong path now a better route aside from pursuing those models is to zoom out a layer and to view the principles that make all of
• 22:30 - 23:00 those models work because once you understand those you can create success in whatever you want to do and you don't have to put a label on it so if you want to do your own thing you need these three things a valuable product or service a way to attract people who care and the skill to make people care and thanks to the internet all of these are accessible to those with an internet connection you can build a product or service with relative ease you can write a book or an ebook or a guide you can start a cohort based course around your interest you can build a software with
• 23:00 - 23:30 AI assisted coding and learning you can drop ship if you want to although I don't think that's the best model to go after although people are doing it well but we talked about this in a previous video a full guide to creating your first profitable product and those are the best options for a beginner who hasn't done anything before and wants to get the grip of creating a product and learning to monetize their interests and if you don't have an excessive amount of money to invest in something like physical products or a physical location or whatever may be then digital products
• 23:30 - 24:00 Media or Code Media or software podcasts books courses whatever it may be software and app things like that that require that are pretty I would say easy to get into that takes a lot of skill and you still have to learn a lot but those are what you can get into that don't really cost too much money to create software can get up there of course depending on what you want to build but the options are there I like media based products first then go into software then go into whatever you want so once you've launched a few media
• 24:00 - 24:30 based products around your interests you now have data on what works and you have some money to invest so at this point you can take the Justin Welsh route and you can chill out with a multi-million dollar info product business and I'm not talking about the make money online courses I'm talking about something more sophisticated around your interests you don't go to skillshare and udem me and think oh these are all just get-rich quick scheme scams no media based products are important they're the education of the future creators are the decentralized Educators so people like Justin Welsh that was his path he got
• 24:30 - 25:00 burned out working as an executive at a tech startup and then he took his skills and expertise turned it into Consulting then turned it into media based products like courses for him which could also be cohorts or an ebook or a book itself and now he has time for family he doesn't have to continue building products they sell on their own and he doesn't have to do any fulfillment he can work for 2 to 4 hours a day plus writing on social media to attract an audience to his products or services that help that audience and he can spend time with his
• 25:00 - 25:30 family and live a good life or you can go the route that I've been going where I went that route and I could have pulled back and chilled out but I'm young and I want to do more and I like how personal development and Business Development are intertwined and how business can be a a vessel for personal growth for me so I started cortex and I'm like okay what's holding me back from building a team why am I so focused on this one person business thing and so I started building it and I started realizing my own faults and I needed to
• 25:30 - 26:00 improve myself and become a better person and be able to provide for my team and make sure that we have a product that's going to feed the team and allow us to survive and hopefully provide something beneficial to the people who are using the product now the problem again here is that anyone can build the thing you can build a note-taking app or a writing app right now if you wanted to but not everyone can attract people to that thing or allow them to care about it that's where most coders creatives or authors fall flat they build a cool app or they write a book or they create art but they can't
• 26:00 - 26:30 get people to care they can't get customers but thankfully we have the internet and you can build an audience and social media is the New Media you don't have to try to get on the radio or TV or a billboard you can be like Devon Ericson who we had a very popular podcast with on this channel who was the author of a fiction book theft of fire he used to be a programmer but then he thought okay I've wanted to write a science fiction book for my entire life so he started writing one and when he started to go look for publishing deals
• 26:30 - 27:00 I actually don't know if he looked for publishing deals but he decided to just sell it himself because even if he got a publishing deal he would still have to sell the book The publishing would help with distribution and other things like that but now with Amazon and all of these different technologies that allow you to distribute the book you don't need a publisher you need to go out and sell you need to go out and express your opinions and interests and beliefs online to attract people to your work it's not just about info products it's not just about science fiction books it's it's about music it's about any of
• 27:00 - 27:30 your multiple interests that you want to build an audience around being a Creator is interest agnostic it's not just about self-improvement and philosophy because you follow me and you're in an echo chamber there are creators creating about every interest on the face of this Earth because the Creator economy cannot get saturated because being a Creator is an extension of yourself the internet is the Public Town Square it's us connecting with each other and removing the physical limitations of connection
• 27:30 - 28:00 stop thinking about social media as just this app on your phone when it is the way forward if you get caught up in the half perspective that it is all toxic you're going to lose and you're not going to make your creative work a success the thing is none of this is anywhere close to being easy that's the entire point you're going to have to learn more skills going to have to learn how to attract people how to write how to persuade how to Market how to sell you're the CEO you need to learn
• 28:00 - 28:30 every single skill that requires you to operate a business along with your multiple interests that you're learning you need to become a generalist you need to have taste you need to be able to package up and deliver signal to attract people you need to merge art and business as we'll discuss to hone in on that you need to attract people to your interests and your creative work in other words you need a medium and a message writing and speaking are the medium that's how you communicate with people you either write posts threads newsletters products ads emails articles
• 28:30 - 29:00 Etc or you speak to a camera to get your message out to people who may benefit from it psychology Marketing sales and persuasion help form your message you need to write or speak in a way that captures attention articulates value and builds trust if you want to learn more about this go watch the futureproof skill Stack video or the $1 million skill stack there's a few of them but if you want to learn how to write how to turn one idea into seven days of content that allows you to attract an audience to your creative work then consider
• 29:00 - 29:30 enrolling in the writer's boot camp which is a cohort for cortex or writing software that we run every quarter or so this one starts on March 4th and enrollment closes on that date so that was long but that's the metapath being a Creator is the metapath that's how you can make any business model work you can be a Creator and an agency owner you can be a Creator and a uh e-commerce store owner you can be a Creator and a teacher or running a cohort you can be a Creator and you can build a software Elon Musk
• 29:30 - 30:00 is a Creator all the people that you look up to understand the power of sharing their voice and message online to attract people to their life's work that's the metap path so step number two once you're on the metapath you need to understand that intersections are your Edge because if everyone Builds an audience how do you stand out well this is only a difficult question because you aren't your authentic self if you were and everyone else on this planet was everyone would be unique in other words if everyone were to become a Creator and
• 30:00 - 30:30 all of those creators were their authentic self meaning they solved their own problems and sold the solution then we would enter some form of a digital tribal era it would be composed of small self-sustaining tribes that would form and each person in it would be able to help others within that tribe with their own uniqueness this is already happening you don't need a lot of followers you need a few hundred people who support your work and need what you offer you really don't need a lot of followers in order to just replace place the income that you want to make or live a decent
• 30:30 - 31:00 life or make your enough amount of money if you want to take it further then you have the agency to do so but you don't have to I'm not saying that everyone here is going to gain a million kajillion subscribers I'm saying that everyone can have enough to sustain the life they want the other thing is that with followers with how social media works a lot of people aren't in the game so they don't understand how it works but the internet it evolves a few hundred people follow you and then after four or five months they stop they take
• 31:00 - 31:30 a break and by that time a few hundred more are following you and then they stop and take a break my audience probably isn't 4 million plus people it's probably maybe 100,000 people that listen to me consistently and that's more than I need personally but I'm not going to like like chop myself off from creating things that people like and coming to watch that thing so the thing is is you evolve your tribe evolves the internet is a constant flow of attention attention and if you aren't in it your
• 31:30 - 32:00 creative work doesn't make it the problem is that we conform we copy other people we lack vision for a future and the agency to make it a reality so here's what I want you to do to discover your uniqueness first is write out your story where were you a few years ago what was your mindset then what was the major turning point what skills did you learn where are you now can you help others do the same second is write out 10 to 20 interests pull out a notebook and write down 10 to 20 things you love studying want to study or are slightly interested in three write out three pain
• 32:00 - 32:30 points for each under each interest write down three problems or pain points that you have faced or others face relating to those interests and fourth connect the dots draw lines between parts of your story your interest and the pain points and you'll be amazed with how many things connect my writing or videos can't be replicated with AI unless I'm the one Manning the AI because my Edge is my personal experience and how I blend business and philosophy AI isn't in my head it doesn't have
• 32:30 - 33:00 access to my state of mind it doesn't have access to my experience therefore that's the only Mo doing nothing with your life is still a bad option all around it always has been and it always will be so the only option is to do something with your life because you can talk about the same topic as everyone else but your experience what you do is what brings a fresh and unique lens to that thing by doing nothing by never failing by never just moving throughout life when you have nothing better to do
• 33:00 - 33:30 you don't give yourself the chance to be unique because you aren't you haven't done anything the second thing here is that I am focused on attracting people with similar interests why because I know I can help them in some way if you want to do the same take what you wrote above write one article or post for every paino you listed out sprinkle in your personal story throughout your writing bake in Connected ideas to synthesize unique ideas and of course be persistent remember you have taste but
• 33:30 - 34:00 it doesn't reflect in your work until you practice for years and no a few years is not a lot of time considering you spent 18 plus years being drilled into something you don't want to do a few years of effort is absolutely nothing you don't want to commit because you have something better you could be doing when all that involves is numbing the pain with cheap Pleasures to escape your current situation the only thing you should want to do is get out now the last and final thing is to merge art and business so here's a quote from nval to build product make something people want
• 34:00 - 34:30 to create art make something you want the best do both because with all of this it's sad that people can't come to terms with the fact that business or entrepreneurship or being a Creator can be a very fulfilling thing because happiness is a two-sided coin the creativity required to make progress and contributing to something greater than yourself in other words becoming valuable and sharing that value with the internet anyone can do this and reap the rewards of doing so you merge art and business buiness when you make something you want and share it with people who
• 34:30 - 35:00 have similar interests because they will probably want it too write content for yourself treat the internet as your public Journal put effort into getting that spread to more people build a product you would buy use and benefit from given time you'll do very well for yourself thank you for watching again you can join the writer boot camp that starts on March 4th or start using cortex which is a writing note-taking and idea capture app not a mobile app just an application as a whole on your desktop the mobile app is coming soon but check the links in the description for all of those things like the video
• 35:00 - 35:30 if you like the video subscribe if you want the next video thank you for watching bye