The illusion that is self-improvement.

When I talk to a lot of my peers (students and entry-level folk), they always tell me they read every book imaginable, listen to all the Gary V. audio clips, and have joined 5 cohort-based classes.

Okay, great. But remember the “why?”

You need to apply it! These are great sources of information and inspiration. But absorbing information alone won’t make you successful unless you realize how to apply it to your current situation.

It’s like watching videos about doing karate and expecting yourself to know how to defend yourself in a fight. It doesn’t work.

Apply it to make something tangible of the knowledge you’ve gained.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

I’ve read a lot of business and leadership books the past year. They’re honestly 90% all the same.

You can usually get the gist of what the rest of the book will say after the prologue and first chapter.

What’s the point of the extra 200 pages of fluff that’s a repeat of the first 20 pages?

In school, this is what we do. We fill an essay with fluff to meet the page count. But in reality, it would have been BETTER to just get our point across in a few sentences. It proves you really know your stuff.

Most people don’t have time for essays. Tell me something in 5 minutes.

It isolates the idea to its core fundamentals — the most important things we need to know.

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The new American dream is living in a van?

The vanlife movement is really intriguing to me, especially as a young person without liabilities (i.e. family, non-remote job, etc).

With decentralization becoming the big new thing, is decentralizing populations going to be next? Maybe the population will become less concentrated around cities.

To me, it seems vanlife offers a higher quality of life. Any vanlifers in my following who can shed some light?

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The future of incentive-alignment in pricing and how #HigherEd could align with students

Incentive-aligned pricing ensures that both parties of a transaction are working towards the same goal.

Right now, students pay universities $100K+ to get a degree without a guarantee of a job. But what if universities were incentivized to get a student a job? For example, in a incentive-aligned pricing model, schools would only get paid if they helped get a student a job (in their target market) — in this way, both the student and the school are working towards the same goal (a job).

Jonathan Javier and Jerry Lee’s “The20” is set up in a similar manner. Jonathan and Jerry only get paid AFTER they get a student/ person their dream job based of a % of salary. Not only does this mean no upfront cost for coaching, but it also incentivizes them to help you negotiate a higher salary.

I probably talk too much about Doorvest — but the pricing model was built to be incentivized with Doorvestors.

I’m a firm believer in incentive-aligned pricing. It makes sure both parties have a stake in the game and that both parties will effectively work towards achieving that goal.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Hey students, I think one of the most important things I’ve done this year was outline what I was looking for in a position.

I still don’t really know what role truly excites my soul. Perhaps that role doesn’t even exist. But this past year when I worked at XY Planning Network, my manager, Kassy, had me do this exercise.

I wrote down a few aspects of an ideal role for myself. I forgot exactly what I put down, but it was something like:

👉 In a highly intrapreneurial / entrepreneurial role
👉 that allowed for remote work
👉 allowed for a flexible schedule
👉 that had ownership over projects

It sounds like such a small thing. But it actually really refined my thinking of what role I would have in the future. I didn’t know what industry, what job / title, where I was going to work — but I had these traits that I looked for.

Here’s what you should do right now —

1. Get a piece of paper
2. Write down the top 5 traits of an ideal role (even if you don’t know what role)
3. Reflect on how you’re going to get all 5

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What is fair?

As I age, I've thought about the systems that affect me. Is it fair that I was able to get a college education? Is it fair that I've had success in my life? Is it fair ….?

Part of me says yes. I worked hard for it. The other part says no. My parents set me up for it.

I find that when fortunate things happen, we believe it's fair. It's the result of our hard work, right? But when it's not in our favor, we believe it's unfair.

Maybe it's neither. Or maybe it's both. I'm not sure.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

My 1 month experience working at a startup:

I wouldn’t call myself an evangelist, but I’m a firm believer as a personal growth junky that being at a startup is where I need to be.

A month at a startup doesn’t feel like a normal month. It’s weird — but it felt like a week, but also a year. It’s fast-paced, exciting, but also tiring.

Some highlights?

👉 I’ve been able to meet with several people I looked up to as thought leaders (s/o to Andrew’s huge network of people)
👉 I’ve ran projects that I had no idea how to approach (thanks to advisors and Kristina) = growth
👉 My first 401k is a Roth
👉 Having a young and energized team to bond with
👉 Remote work is the best (though I’m somewhat close to the office if I want to see people!)
👉 Flexible timing to work around my classes (and exams)
👉 No hard budgets, but I’m probably a bit too scrappy (I’m so used to spending $0 on everything)
👉 The power of the Brex card

I don’t think startup life is for everyone. But for those looking for personal (and professional) growth, it’s been an awesome experience!

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Do you sleep once per day? Maybe it's not natural.

This week, I experimented with bi-phasic sleeping! The premise? Maybe humans were meant to sleep in multiple sessions a day in the past - when humans had to survive amongst predators.

Most humans experience something called The Afternoon Slump - tiredness after lunchtime for most. This period of time is typically unproductive. So, instead, what if you slept during this time?

By sleeping during your afternoon slump period, you could theoretically sleep less during the night, but still total 8 hours a day. For example, you sleep 2 hours in the afternoon and 6 at night.

There have been a few studies, but nothing that would suggest that it's any better, but some people have experienced much higher energy levels when doing this.

It has been going well for me based off a week'd experiment and I'd recommend trying it out!

I haven’t posted on LinkedIn for the past 3 days. But I have an excuse!

I’ve been grinding away to create blog.doorvest.com (an updated version for Doorvest’s blog and content future). Not only that, but I’ve also been busy putting together a nearly 10,000 word guide on “Why You Should Be Investing In Real Estate”

You can find the link to that guide here: https://blog.doorvest.com/why-real-estate-investing

You can expect more guides coming soon! I’m already working on one on “How To Buy Your First Investment Property”

P.S. Shout out to Justin Kasad for helping on transitioning from our old blog :)

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Curious people are successful people.

Curious people learn just for the passion of learning something. They don’t do it for the next hot trend, but they do it because they want to understand.

But what I really like about curiosity is that it has no preferences.

You can be poor (or rich).
You can be a person of color (or not).
You can be any gender (or nonbinary).
You can be the janitor (or CEO).

It doesn’t care. But curiosity is a superpower. Curiosity builds companies.

Be curious.

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“In every organization, everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear.”

— Tribes, Seth Godin

In other words, “when you do a great job, you get promoted. And that process repeats itself until finally you end up in a job you can’t handle.”

This is usually fine…until it isn’t.

When people stop trying to become leaders, they become complacent — they become followers.

It’s uncomfortable to give a speech. It’s uncomfortable to do something that can fail. It’s uncomfortable to challenge others. But in this discomfort, the leader is born.

And I believe we are all leaders, at least, we should all try to be one. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing.

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You’re not afraid of failure. You’re afraid of criticism.

People talk about embracing failure, but that’s usually not an issue.

It’s criticism. You don’t want to take the blame. You don’t want people to call you out and say “you failed at doing this.”

That’s what frightens us. We choose not to try achieving remarkable goals in the face of criticism.

Unless you’re the founder, failure is a stupid excuse anyways. If a product launch you’re in charge of fails, the company loses some money and they move on. They’re not going to fire you and the costs get absorbed by the company.

When I run an experimental campaign for Doorvest, it’s most likely going to fail despite my efforts. And I’ll admit that it hurts my feelings personally. But in total, I realize that it COULD HAVE BEEN innovate, new, and remarkable.

I wouldn’t know until I try. And you won’t either.

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I have a month left until graduation.

It’s a conflicted feeling. Part of me is scared to face the real world. The other part of me was ready to kick some ass since I’ve been a freshman.

And even after getting advice from people at all different paths in their life, I realized something: I won’t ever be ready.

AND…you won’t be either.

And it’s okay. Every time I talk to someone, they always tell me, “I don’t have it figured out either.” Even people 20 years older than me are still figuring it out.

We won’t know the opportunities that present themselves. Nor will we know the entire plan. But that’s what makes it fun.

We need to face it head on with whatever we’ve got at the time and hope for the best.

So my fellow seniors, it’s okay not to have it figured out. Everyone who does is just faking it ;).

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Want to become a better writer?

The special secret is to just write.

I completely flunked my first pre-college exam. I had to take a “pre-college” English course in order to meet the basic requirements to take an English course.

I have a ton of excuses for this. But in reality, it’s because I lacked practice.

It’s like riding a bike. In the beginning, it’s hard. You’ll have no momentum. But as you ride, it becomes easier and you’ll barely need to pedal.

With writing, it’s hard to start. You have to find ideas, figure out how to phrase them, find the right words, and more. But once you figure out your writing style and palette, it becomes easy. Your writing will flow.

And more importantly, it’ll connect people.

It’s a bit cheesy, but writing on LinkedIn has been great for solidifying my thoughts, things I read, and have the ability to connect with others on these ideas.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

I went back and read the beginning posts of my LinkedIn journey.

Things have changed. And honestly, I didn’t realize the impact it would make on my life.

It doesn’t seem like people read my posts to be honest (except the odd one that gets traction) because there isn’t a ton of engagement.

I’m starting to think impressions is much more important.

As I left @XY Planning Network, many told me they loved my LinkedIn posts. And when I visited the @Doorvest office a couple weeks ago, as I met people, one person told me, “are you the Justin from LinkedIn? You’re all over my feed.”

Maybe it’s annoying to see my posts everyday. But I think it’s awesome that my online posts are reaching my offline life.

Anyways, if you made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading these! And I hope you have an amazing day :)

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I’ve spoken to over 50 founders and CEOs. Here’s the advice they wish they knew at 21:

[PART 7/7]

💡 Listen first.

My thoughts below:

One of the mistakes I made early on was wanting to display what I knew by talking first. People don’t care what you know.

First, diagnose the goal. Why is this person talking to you? What are their desires and and inhibitors? Without figuring that out first, you’ll be basically talking to a brick wall.

This is the listening part.

Then, once you diagnose the goal, you can now frame what you know to fit their goal. Not only will you create connection and rapport for listening, but your answer will just be better — tailored to the problem at hand.

So stay curious. Ask questions first. Learn to listen. Listen to learn. And always diagnose the goal first, so that you’re not answering blindly.

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#TheMillionImpactMission #AdviceFromThe50

I’ve spoken to over 50 founders and CEOs. Here’s the advice they wish they knew at 21:

[PART 6/7]

💡 Learning to learn is the most important skill (that everyone can do).

My thoughts below:

This was one of the first pieces of advice I got entering college. Learn to learn.

This means…

— Don’t learn to memorize.
— Don’t learn to impress.
— Don’t learn for a piece of paper.

Instead, it means…

— Learn to gain new skills.
— Learn to apply.
— Learn to make connections (create a mental neural network)

If you can’t learn to learn (and learn quickly), you’ll lose your competitive advantage overtime. Up and coming stars will outgrow and overtake you. You become less in tune with what’s the new trend if you don’t continuously learn.

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I’ve spoken to over 50 founders and CEOs. Here’s the advice they wish they knew at 21:

[PART 5/7]

💡 Extreme focus + delayed gratification = superpowers

My thoughts below:

Having extreme focus allows you to put all of your efforts in one direction. It’s easier to push a car in one direction than 5 different ones.

The second part of the equation is called “time preference.” The famous marshmellow experiment has preliminary results giving that those with time preferences that favored their future selves were often more successful in life.

This is because they have mastered delayed gratification. Sacrifice short term gains for long term GAINS.

Combining both means your laser focused on a goal (that’s likely bigger than yourself.)

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I’ve spoken to over 50 founders and CEOs. Here’s the advice they wish they knew at 21:

[PART 4/7]

💡 Understand the regret minimization decision-making framework.

My thoughts below:

That was a mouthful. I’m cheating - this is an idea popularized by Jeff Bezos, but also taught in many Decision Making and Game Theory courses!

The idea is that you choose the option that you would MOST regret not doing in the future. Here’s a question you can ask yourself:

”Once I’m 80 years old, which of option X, Y, or Z would I most regret thinking back on?”

This will keep you disciplined and trained to be good to your future self. It’s against human nature to prioritize your “future” self. But it’s one of the most important parts of decision-making.

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I’ve spoken to over 50 founders and CEOs. Here’s the advice they wish they knew at 21:

[PART 3/7]

💡 Find mentors, but don’t be committed to just one.

My thoughts below:

Obviously I’ve had lots of mentors. They’ve bolstered my career, helped me grow, and were the light at the end of the tunnel at times. Many mentors later, I still try to have 3 at any given time.

Mentors help you grow. They teach you the insider information you won’t find on any blog. It’s a superpower in of itself.

However, people (especially students) get trapped into idolizing a single mentor (i.e. a successful CEO). This sucks because you only will ever hear one perspective on a problem.

Having multiple mentors gives you access to more perspectives and more times to schedule! Not only that, but you get exposed to their networks (which are often expansive).

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