Start thinking about your purchases in units of time and not money.

Money is basically stored physical versions of your time.

You go to a job (or are self-employed) to trade your time (and skills) for money.

But when you start thinking of spending in units of time, it becomes much more apparent the things that are important to you.

I want to go buy an Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook. It’s $300.

If I make $10/hour, that’s 30 hours of my life.
If I make $50/hour, that’s 6 hours of my life.
If I make $300/hour, that’s 1 hour of my life.

This mindset makes you much less careless with money.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

When it comes to being successful, it comes down to two things: time or money.

— Time

You can put in the time to get really good at something. The more time you spend doing something, the better you’ll get at that one thing.

There are some creators who put 100s of hours into their craft. Some Youtubers spend 100 hours to craft Netflix level documentaries and videos. And that’s their differentiator.

You can do the same.

— Money

Money just accelerates things. It’s like throwing gasoline into a fire.

Often times, you can’t be successful with money alone. But you can use money to accelerate the rate in which you perfect your craft and get better at it.

You can hire others to outsource tasks you aren’t good at. You can hire a coach to help you change habits.

It just depends which you value more. Time or Money. It’s a tradeoff.

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I always tell my friends to start posting on LinkedIn. It’s been a part of my career success so far.

But everytime I mention it, I get pushback — “I’m worried about what my friends and family will think.”

Truth is. No one actually cares. Everyone’s generally more worried about their own lives. Either that or they’ll even support and uplift you.

Just hit the post button. It gets easier.

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The most important skill to work in a startup:

Googling!

I’m halfway joking. But really, working at Doorvest has afforded me the opportunity to do things that I’ve never done before and had no experience doing.

But Google is a blessing — learning how to find the answers you need is a skill.

It’s impossible for you to know everything, but good thing humans created this interconnected web of information that basically gives you access to everyone’s minds!

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A thought for this week: people aren't equal.

*This isn't a race, social, or political post - please do not make it one.

People have natural abilities - ones that they are born with, but also ones that are nurtured in childhood.

Intelligence, charisma, physical ability to name a few. There are, of course, others.

So even if everything given to two people were equal (money, power, etc), their natural abilities would produce unequal results.


#TheMillionImpactMission

Jobs that people don't want to do.

People love tech jobs. They're often paraded around like a badge of honor — "ex-Google", "ex-LinkedIn", "ex-Facebook".

But what often aren't talked about are the jobs people don't want to do. It's not even that they don't pay well or have high barriers to entry.

It's that they're unsexy.

Jobs like running a pressure washing solo-business, storage solo-businesses, laundromats, car detailing, and more. These are high profit jobs (and potentially businesses) that require little upfront cost and little technical skill to do.

A full-service car detail that might take 3 to 4 hours might easily cost $500. Less material expenses + taxes, you'll easily net ~$350.

I'm curious why these jobs aren't popularized.

#TheMillionImpactMission

Why is Elon Musk living in a $50k house?

It's fascinating the a man with nearly $200B in net worth chooses to live in a $50K home. You would think he would have a $100M mansion with state of the art tech and luxuries.

But I think it has to do with purpose. Elon does the work he does because he has a sense of purpose— goals that he wants to achieve.
And curiously, The World Happiness Report often cites purpose as strongly correlated with happiness.

So it had me thinking, maybe dream jobs don't exist. But dream purposes do. What if we designed our lives around a singular purpose— a mission?

#TheMillionImpactMission

The grass is not always greener on the other side.

I think we look at people and always think they have it all figured out, that their life is great, and that we would love to have their life.

But as I talk to more people, I reflect on the fact that everyone's life is hard, but we get to pick our own struggles.

I saw a quote once that...
— Being poor was hard. Being rich was hard. You need to pick your hard.

You never really know what it cost someone to get to where they are today. It's easy to criticize.

That CEO that has the fancy car, fancy house, and millions of dollars? They chose to work 15 hours a day, have no social life, and gave up part of their mental health.

This isn't about hustle culture. This is about reflecting on the achievements of others. This is about choosing your struggle.

I used to be a terrible writer. I’m still not great, but better.

I failed my English entrance exam for college, which meant I had to take a remedial English course.

And even after 3 college English courses, I didn’t feel good about my writing.

So I made myself a goal to become a better writer: write every single day until I felt better. Posting on LinkedIn was a result of that.

And I think I’ve achieved that goal. After over 150 posts, I feel that my writing has improved significantly.

And with that, I’ll be writing long-form articles over on my website about topics I’m interested in: #personalfinance #investing #marketing #business #careerdevelopment.

And on the flipside, the daily LinkedIn post will be going away. They’ll be a bit less frequent from now on. Thank you all for tuning in each day for a daily read :)

Being direct.

I thought one of my weaknesses was being direct. But I think it’s more than that — it’s my inability to choose the “best” wording for conversations I encounter in my life.

Me being direct often leads to animosity. In my eyes, sugarcoating something to avoid conflict is stupid.

But maybe there’s a way to be direct without sugarcoating that doesn’t lead to animosity. I’m still looking for it.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Time pressure is an amazing productivity tool.

A few months ago, I thought I was at my limit. I was doing a part-time internship, full-time university, and an accreditation program.

The last two weeks, I had a full-time job, full-time university during finals, the accreditation program, and a certificate in data science coursework to complete.

It doesn’t sound rationally feasible. But time pressure works quite well for making you an efficient person. If it has to get done by a certain time, you’ll get it done.

Also, shoutout to companies (like Doorvest) that allow for flexible work schedules, an open vacation policy, and remote work. We’re always hiring ;)

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Be open to both good and bad experiences. Good judgement can come from bad experiences; good experiences can come from bad judgement.

The key in all of this is to trust chance, and to steer it in such a way that you’re always learning from it. These are the kind of humble choices — each of them as bold as bungee jumping — that lead not only to new discoveries to to an uncommon feeling of hard-won joy.

— Rolf Potts, Vagabonding

Looking to work in the #fintech, #proptech, or #realestate space?

The Doorvest team is hiring for our Houston team!

We’re looking for amazing talent to join us as our Renovations Project Coordinator and Renovations Estimator.

My favorite perks:
— autonomy
— no hard budgets
— (mostly) flexible work schedule
— open vacation policy
— investment perks
— mission-driven team with substantial ownership

As an early Doorvest team member, your role and responsibilities will encompass both creation and execution. This means you’ll experience much ambiguity but this also will serve as an opportunity to build your function as you see fitting for the world.

Apply here:
https://www.indeed.com/job/renovations-estimator-3304e38785c1a824
https://www.indeed.com/job/renovations-project-coordinator-7b85e3300059e488

Feel free to DM me with any questions :)

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I’m now a graduate!

Even though half my college career was spent on Zoom, I’m happy to have graduated with my Bachelor’s in Economics with a specialization in Data Analytics from the University of California, Davis.

It took a change of major and summer classes the first year. A part-time job the second. Quarantine, the pandemic, and three consecutive internships the third year.

But I did it! AND debt-free!

#UCDavisGrad #ClassOf2021 #TheMillionImpactMission

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Stop underestimating your ability and start overestimating your ability to learn.

When I talk to people, I’m brutally honest that I don’t know how to do most things even if they’re “supposed to be” in my wheelhouse.

On the flip-side, I also tell people that I’m overly confident in my ability to learn and adapt quickly.

There’s far too many possibilities that might come and become an obstacle in my path. Preparing for every one would be a waste of time.

All you need is confidence — the confidence to do the best work that you can do.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Whatever the original motivation for going some place, remember that you’ll rarely get what you expect when you go there — and this is almost always a good thing.

— Rolf Potts, Vagabonding

We’ve devised a culture of picking a belief and never changing. We’re scrutinized for changing ideas, swapping beliefs, and rethinking through ideas.

We’re scrutinized for changing ideas, swapping beliefs, and rethinking through ideas.

Too often, people become “religious” to the thoughts shown to them.

Instead of thinking for themselves, they think about what people they look up to think and adopt their beliefs.

It’s a terrible way of doing things. Sharing thoughts is good, but every individual speaks from their own subjective point of view (me included).

Life becomes more interesting when you come up with your own creative thoughts.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

Learning from the experiences of others is important and it can lead you to amazing places.

But cut from that same cloth, if you rely too much on what you’ve learned and ignore what your gut tells you, you’re likely to miss out on unexpected answers that sit right in front of you.

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#TheMillionImpactMission

I started part-time with Doorvest 6 weeks ago. Yesterday, I signed my first ever *full-time* contract!

I would like to take this time (and your attention) to give back.

I’ve had many mentors that helped me to get here + those who took the chance on my random cold emails and DM’s. I couldn’t have done it alone.

So for the month of June, I’d like to offer my time to anyone who would like to chat about careers, professional development, resumes, and anything else in between for free.

Shoot me a DM or comment down below if you’d like to partake (or know someone who would like to 🙂).

Disclaimer: I’m not a career expert - just a random dude on LinkedIn with an approach that has worked and that is passionate about personal/professional growth :)

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#TheMillionImpactMission

The four types of work:

Necessary Work
— Work that is productive, but unattractive

Purposeful Work
— Work that is productive and attractive

Unnecessary Work
— Work that is both unproductive and unattractive

Distracting Work
— Work that is unproductive, but attractive

When we move into unnecessary and distracting work, it’s often that we are facing a more challenging task. It’s work we shouldn’t focus on, but it’s the time many of us spend our time on.

Being able to distinguish the types of work in your life will allow you to be more intentional about where you should place your focus.

(a note from the book Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey)

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