I’m 43 now. I never thought this would happen. I kinda still think I’m in my late teens. Early twenties at most. But a lot of things happened in life.
Things I often dismiss. I made millions of dollars. I launched products that millions of people used. I made things that failed. I wasted time on a lot of people that weren’t worth it.
I went over my fears, insecurities and did things I thought were not possible before.
But I also always stayed true to myself.
Here’s 43 things I learned:
1. Time > Money. Do stuff to get more time.
2. Don’t lick a car battery. Or put your finger in a door while closing it. I cut off my thumb at 6 years old and it was a miracle of surgery that it’s attached again.
3. You need both cardio and resistance training
4. Nutrition is easy – high carb + organic veggies twice a day and fast for 13-16hours.
5. Don’t go into business partnerships before you’ve known someone for 5 years. And then also likely don’t do it.
6. If a drink has more than 3g of carbs per 100ml, don’t drink it.
7. You likely need to grind for a while, but don’t make it a lifestyle
8. Get 7-8 of sleep per night
9. Learn how a business works as early as you can – all legal, invoicing, taxes.
10. Buy quality food. Spend more if you have to.
11. Take walks.
12. Remove ALL notifications from your phone and computer
13. Check email twice per day (I do 10 and noon), and then bulk reply to important stuff in 30 minutes. Archive the rest (forever).
14. Learn to say no. And the more successful you are, the more you should say no.
15. Learn to say yes – to things you haven’t tried yet. For adventure and neuroplasticity.
16. Remove clutter. Look at things you don’t use and sell / throw them away.
17. Do a workout especially when you don’t want to.
18. When a client doesn’t accept your terms of engagement, don’t work with them.
19. Don’t drink alcohol. It’s a debuff for life.
20. Sketch ideas on paper as often as you can.
21. Be silly. Often.
22. Go outside in the rain and get wet.
23. Read books – but switch it up. Reading just about startups and MRR is poison.
24. Play like you were a kid.
25. Don’t binge tv shows. Watch a few good movies per year.
26. Stretch often. If you can’t touch your toes at 40, it’s NOT the norm.
27. Try to get to a point where you don’t need to use an alarm clock. Ever again.
28. Walk barefoot often.
29. Buy bitcoin sometimes, no matter the price. Then hold it.
30. Travel at least twice per year.
31. Drive without GPS if you know the route (neuroplasticity again!)
32. Write at least a short week summary in a notebook. That’s priceless after a few years.
33. Optimize conversion of your businesses before starting new ones.
34. Chances your co-founder will fuck you over eventually are 98.3%. Choose wisely.
35. If you’re always fair and good to people, most will take advantage of you. But you should do it anyway.
36. Breathe (exercises) daily.
37. If you exercise and mind your diet, cheesecake every now and then is fine. Don’t obsess the other way.
38. Streaks are meant to be broken when you stop seeing the benefit. Don’t keep going just to keep a streak.
39. Optimize life for time.
40. Listen to people. Actually listen. Sometimes you don’t need to talk about yourself.
41. If you create content, do it for the value, even if the algo decides it’s not popular. Don’t chase clicks.
42. Limit social media consumption.
43. Smile when you look at yourself in the mirror. You’ve done well. And that’s just the beginning.
And since I’m from Poland originally, this is as much as I smile. But that’s fine. Do it in a way that’s comfortable to you.
It’s important to not treat life to seriously, but at the same time do everything you can to make it more fun for you and people you care about.
I wasted a lot of time learning that. Now I’m putting it into practice.
