Robin Sharma, Jordan Peterson, and 3 life lessons.

👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few posts you may have missed:

• 10 New awesome book summary visuals.

• I got to meet legendary author Robin Sharma.

• I got to see Jordan Peterson live (I recommend seeing him if his tour spots by your town).

PS: I’m doing a book giveaway this week, if you want to get a head start on it sign up for The Daily Upside (it’s free, more details coming soon).

⭐️ Life Lessons:

Instead of a book summary this week I wanted to share a few personal lessons.

I started this newsletter to not only write about lessons learned from books but also to test lessons and share what actually has a positive impact on your life.

So here are 3 life lessons:

📖

1) Don’t Be A Lone Wolf

One of my biggest life regrets is trying to be a lone wolf and do everything myself.

I thought if I didn’t ask for help from others, I was somehow smarter or better than other people. Looking back, I now realize my ego got the best of me.

If you look at any successful person closely enough, you’ll see that no one is entirely “self-made”:

• Steve Jobs was coached by the late, great Bill Campbell.

• Michael Jordan was guided by legendary trainer Tim Grover.

• Salvador Dali was mentored by none other than Pablo Picasso.

No one is 100% self-made.

I realized this after hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger talk about his life:

“To get to where I am, I stood on the shoulders of giants. My life was built on a foundation of parents, coaches, and teachers; of kind souls who lent couches or gym back rooms where I could sleep; of mentors who shared wisdom and advice; of idols who motivated me from the pages of magazines and, as my life grew, from personal interaction.”

Every successful person is supported, mentored, or befriended by other successful people. Don’t go at it alone. 

To improve yourself, you want to exchange knowledge and ideas with other people. Life is also a lot more fun (and rewarding) when you collaborate and work with others.

For example, some of my most popular posts are visual collabs I did with my friends Janis and Ash.

So don’t try to be a lone wolf, join (or start) a wolf pack instead.

📖

2) Buy Knowledge With Money Instead of Time

In life, there are two ways to gain knowledge:

• You can try to do things yourself through trial and error, but that will cost you time.

• You can pay for someone to teach you, but that will cost you money.

Entrepreneur Alex Hormozi likes to call this as “paying down your ignorance debt.”

Both time and money are limited resources, but time is your most valuable resource so it’s much better to spend money than time.

And one of the best ways to buy knowledge is to take courses.

(I know what you’re thinking, “Alex you’re only saying that because you sell a course”, and that’s a fair critique so I won’t be promoting my course in this week’s newsletter)

Now for some reason, if you tell someone you’re spending $5,000 to take a college course, people applaud you.

But if you tell someone you spent $500 on an online course, people think you’re crazy.

But if there’s a skill you want to learn, why not pay someone to teach you years of knowledge in just a couple of hours?

Another interesting thing I’ve found, is the more you pay for a course, the more seriously you’ll take it (and the reverse is also true).

I found a free ghostwriting course but always made excuses for it and said I didn’t have time for it. Then months later, I bought a ghostwriting course for $2,000, studied the whole thing, and applied it, and made $5,000 a month later (a 150% return on my investment).

More often than not, you need to have skin in the game (AKA something to lose) to get motivated to take action.

So if you really believe in a content creator or teacher and the course is within your budget, I’d say go for it.

Here are a few courses worth checking out:

• Ship30for30: A fantastic course to start writing online and creating content (live-cohort course).

• ContentOS: If you want to get into the content creator game, this is a great starting point (self-paced course).

• Creator MBA: If you’ve been a content creator for a while and want to start monetizing or building an online business, this course is for you (self-paced course).

• Write of Passage: Think of this course as getting your Masters in writing (live-cohort course).

• Ghost Writing Academy: If you want to learn how to make money as a ghostwriter, check out this course (the ebook is free).

📖

3) More Light = More Life

You’ve probably heard Dr. Huberman talk about the importance of viewing sunlight every morning for 10-15 minutes.

Why?

"Light directly impacts our mood, our sleep, our ability to wake up and focus, our hormone levels, our immune system, and our ability to cope with stress,” says Huberman.

Getting more sunlight is also a great way to combat depression.

A study done in the UK with over 400,000 people found that people who spent more time getting outdoor light had lower odds of getting major depression in their lifetime.

But I’d take his advice to the next level:

Try to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

As someone who’s struggled with depression, one of the best things I’ve done for my mental health has been trying to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

On the days I stay home all day, my mood is probably a 4-7/10.

But if I at least go for a walk or read outside in the morning, it’s usually an 8-10/10.

So:

• If you’re exercising, go for a run outside or workout at a park instead of inside a gym.

• If you’re working remotely, bring your laptop to a cafe with outdoor seating instead of staying indoors.

• If you’re reading, read your book in your backyard or your local park instead of staying home.

• If you’re catching up with a friend, grab coffee and go for a walk, or grab food and eat outside instead of eating and drinking it inside.

It’s a small life hack that will dramatically increase your mood and happiness.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Don’t try to be a lone wolf, join a wolf pack instead.

2) If there’s a skill you want to learn, pay with money instead of time.

3) Start every day by going for a 10-minute walk outside.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Podcast: How Placebo Effects Work to Change Our Biology & Psychology 

This is a fascinating podcast about how the placebo effect works and how powerful it is.

For example, hotel cleaning workers were divided into two groups: one group was told their daily activities counted as exercise, while the other group was not.

The group that believed their daily work counted as exercise experienced improvements in health, like lower blood pressure and lower body weight, even though both groups did the same amount of activity.

This shows that even exercise can have placebo effects!

🆕 Quick Updates:

• I’m thinking of doing a virtual book club ($10 per person), if you’re interested fill out this form.

• If you want to join the waitlist for my new reading course, fill out this form.

• My friend Jonathan Goodman is a bestselling author who’s hiring a part-time media manager. If you’re a young, hungry, writer/content creator, this is a great job opportunity. Learn more about the role here.

Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.