Most of us assume we’ll have another day to live, but the truth is, we don’t know. We could be gone tomorrow, and that’s why I want to share this perspective. From the outside, some people might think my life looks miserable. But I genuinely love it—it’s just not their idea of enjoyment. I enjoy solving problems, whether in business or personal growth. I think about death often, and because of that, I try to live without regrets. Sure, I could spend more time with loved ones, but life is a constant gamble with time, not knowing how much we have left. Unlike money, where we know the balance, we estimate how much time we have left based on averages and assumptions. The point isn’t to discourage you. It’s to remind you that no matter what you do, you’ll have to make decisions. And for what you didn’t pick, you sacrificed for what you did pick. The reason I share this with you is not because I thought you didn’t know it, but because I agree with what @Alex Hormozi says: “We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught.”

“You don’t contribute enough.” That was something my parents once said to me, and in that moment, it hurt me a little. But how can I blame them? They are 100% right… at least for now. We obviously can't focus on contributing to society if we’re focused on contributing to our own growth. And this is when most people will call you egotistical and stamp you as a bad person. But I think that’s where we have messed up. Of course, ego in the sense of not contributing to society in any way, I think is a bad thing. But here’s an interesting thought: in what ways can we contribute to society? We contribute by bringing value to the table (image of The Value Equation↓) But in the Value Equation, there is only one thing we’re all born with: time. So, if we can save someone time, that becomes valuable. And what most people choose to do is to exchange their time for money and do labor for someone else (employer). However according to the Value Equation, “time delay” is not the only way of creating value. The other way is to work on yourself, to the point where you can provide more value than what your time used to do. Which then makes your time more valuable. And because money flows where value goes, you’ll also receive a much higher financial return. So with this, you can actually scale your value, unlike your time, which is limited to just 24 hours in a day. The trade-off is that you contribute drastically less at the beginning of your self-developing journey. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” - Abraham Lincoln Think of “sharpening the axe” as working on yourself, and “chopping the tree” as contributing to society. If you constantly “sharpen your axe” you will never get to use it. But if you constantly “chop down trees”, you’re “axe” will become dull and end up being useless, until you sharpen it again. This is how I’ve been balancing responsibilities and self-development to work towards creating immense value.

What is consistency? The simple definition is to do something repeatedly over an extended period of time. So now, why is being consistent so difficult for some people, while it seems to be so easy for others? That’s what I used to ask myself all the time. If that’s the case, there must be something that consistent people do that helps them keep going… Right? It was when I first realized the importance of feedback loops that I started to get somewhere. It turns out we humans are extremely feedback-driven creatures. So if we don’t get feedback in some way or another, we start to avoid taking action. It’s the same reason why people who try sensory deprivation make up things in their heads and sometimes start to hallucinate (image below). It’s because they lack sensory feedback and input from the external world. Then I noticed something while listening to an episode of The Game by @Alex Hormozi (btw, great podcast). In that episode, I learned that the better you get at something, the more feedback loops you can extract from your work. He explained that when he writes books like $100M Offers or Leads, he can extract a lot of small feedback loops while writing, like shortening a paragraph down to just a sentence or two. And now it all started to make sense. The reason it was so hard to stay consistent was that I lacked competence. And that made me realize there was no way around it except by getting through it. But hopefully, just by realizing this, you’ll remember that it won’t get easier over time… You’ll just get better. So that taught me that the better you become, the easier it is to keep going. Hope this helped in some way.

I wanted to give up—not in a suicidal way, but from a business perspective. I felt lost and just wanted to quit on the spot. Then, I discovered this -> (image of The Valley of Despair) I think it perfectly captures what it feels like to be on a journey of improvement. X-axis: Competence Y-axis: Confidence Here’s what it shows: Uninformed Optimism: At first, you feel optimistic and confident, but you’re really just uninformed. Informed Pessimism: As you face challenges, you realize the reality of the situation, and that the “grass isn’t greener on the other side.” Valley of Despair: This stage tests whether you’re truly committed. It shows how important your goal really is to you, and it’s where most people quit. Informed Optimism: If you persevere through the Valley of Despair, your confidence will align with your competence, and you’ll finally get the hang of it. What this taught me, was that problems are inescapable and inevitable, but it’s a matter of what type of problems we want to face. I can’t give you an action to prevent this from happening, but I hope that if you’re in the Valley of Despair at the moment or facing it in the future, this image will remind you to keep pushing through. If you persevere, you’ll reach the end of the tunnel. I hope this post brought you some value.

Staying consistent isn’t as hard as it seems—but it’s not easy either. I struggled with procrastination for a long time, it was hard for me to consistently take action. Then I read Atomic Habits by James Clear, which introduced me to the “2-Minute Rule.” The rule is simple: keep it to just two minutes when starting a new habit. The goal isn’t to make progress but to build the habit itself. I found that this trick isn’t just for beginners—it works whenever consistency is tough. That led me to develop a framework I call The Growth Equation. The Growth Equation has two parts: • Effort • Volume For growth, aim to maximize both. But for consistency, make procrastination easier to overcome by lowering either the effort or the volume. PS: Lowering the effort should be the last thing you do because it encourages to not try hard. Using this equation can help you stay on track, even when staying consistent gets hard. Hope this was helpful in some way :)