These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Walking down a quiet street in Chiang Mai and I bump into a legend of a man I last saw in Colombia back in 2014. We promptly drop all plans and spend the next 4.5 hours catching up. He’s aiming to visit 40 countries this year (on a mission to see the whole world), and in April he’s heading to a Moroccan desert to run 6 marathons in 6 days… despite never having run a marathon before.
2
Someone asked why I’m going so deep into all this Tai Lopez stuff. I mean, seriously, I must have researched this guy for 80+ hours already. And it’s unlikely I’ll get much financial reward out of it. Not directly anyway. But two things: I’m enjoying the day-to-day of this immensely; and I believe that this level of work, if I can keep doing it consistently, adds a ton of value to the world. Fingers crossed that value earns me a living.
3
A big reason I’m able to spend 80+ hours of my time researching Tai Lopez is because I’ve been living in Chiang Mai the past three months. It’s the kind of place where you can get more done and feel less rushed. Everything I need is a short walk away, and I rarely have to cook or buy groceries. The runway here is long and wide.
4
There’s this thing called the Mandela Effect, where folks misremember stuff that did or didn’t happen. It’s so called because many people apparently remember Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980’s, even though he didn’t. Other examples are the Monopoly Man wearing a monocle, and Forrest Gump saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
5
You know that famous study that found happiness increases with income, but only up until about $75,000/year? Only half the story. Happiness tends to level off at that point, but “evaluation of life” doesn’t. In other words, your day-to-day emotional well-being isn’t much different whether you’re earning $100,000 or $100,000,000. But how secure and satisfied you feel about your life differs greatly. 1
6
Long term with eBiz Facts, I’d like to have a team working on it. I’d have one person just doing case studies, researching and writing up 5-10 per week. Another person just doing reviews. A tech person, taking care of updates and such. And I’d like to spend most of my time focused on growth and community. Although I’d probably miss the writing if I stopped doing it altogether.
7
You can be doing something ordinary and everyday, like having dinner with your partner, no big deal. Until you realize that this simple meal, with this person you love, and you in good health… this is a moment you would give anything to get back to if you were stuck in a war zone, or lost in the mountains, or lying on your deathbed.
8
It’s been nice here at the coworking, Hub 53. I haven’t been very social, haven’t attended any of the meetups, preferring to keep to myself, just come in most days, keep my head down, get my work done. I like places where you can easily be introverted or extroverted, or even a bit of both. You can do that here, no worries either way.
9
Two years deep. Sitting and reminiscing. Kinda crazy how many places we’ve been together, all we’ve experienced. Prague, Barcelona, Kyoto, Crimea, Istanbul, Vietnam, the Canaries and Faroes… just to name a few. Hasn’t all been plain sailing, but it’s all been worthwhile. And, on balance, better than I could have ever predicted. Here’s to many more.
10
I’ve gotten very bad at social media. In a good way. I glance at my Facebook newsfeed every couple of weeks maybe. Haven’t checked my Facebook page in two months. Gave up Twitter years ago. Have an account on Instagram but never used it. The most I ever do on social now is check Facebook messages and my FBB group a few times a week. No longer a slave to it.
11
In my role as project manager for a client, had to drop someone from the team today and hire a replacement. First time I’ve ever had to “fire” someone. Feeling fine about it though. Definitely gave the guy plenty of opportunities to improve. He just didn’t take them. New person is promising, should put us in a much better position to succeed. I love business I do.
12
Leaving Thailand after a 3-month stretch. Met some good people, got a lot of work done, ate well. Definitely getting out at the right time though. The sky was thick with smoke today, the season in full swing. We’ll come back later in the year when it’s cleared up again.
13
Timeshifter worked well last time so bit the bullet and bought the premium. It’s an app that helps you fight jet lag. You put in your flight details and it tells you when to sleep, when to wake, when to drink coffee, when to stop, when to avoid bright lights, etc. Spent about 30 hours in transit the past two days getting to Gran Canaria and it seems to have done the trick.
14
It takes work to appreciate what you’ve got, doesn’t it? Gratitude isn’t a default state for most of us. We’re hard-wired to focus on threats and insults and bad shit that won’t ever happen to us. Harder still in the smartphone age, when all the world’s troubles are a swipe away. But put that aside and think for two seconds and you realize we really have it good. Most of us, anyway. Me, definitely.
15
Spain ain’t great for the cafe culture. Well, maybe it is, depends on your priorities. I likes me a digital nomad style cafe, with soft furnishings and long tables for extended work sessions. But Spain is all about the social cafe, with hard surfaces and twenty different conversations happening around you. Had to retreat to a quiet McDonald’s today to get a bit done.
16
Came across a saying recently, about how children don’t listen to their parents, but they never fail to emulate them. Interesting to think about the habits you picked up from your folks, behaviors they modeled to you for years and impressionable years. Brings to mind a verse John Wooden once shared:
No printed word nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be. Not all the books on all the shelves – but what the teachers are themselves.
17
Memories fade. Sometimes I’ll try recall an adventure from my travels, or my days in New Orleans, and find them all fuzzy and faded. Like that time I took a 3-day train ride across Turkey and Iran. Almost seven years ago now. Luckily I wrote about the experience, so it’s not hard to recollect. But many of my memories aren’t so fortunate. I’ll never get them back.
18
Back in Las Palmas, staying at another co-living spot. It’s a nice big house in a fancy part of town, close to the beach and everything we need. Thinking we’ll end up calling this island home in the long run. Lots to like here. Will need to improve my Spanish though. No progress on that the past two years, preferring to devote brain power to business building.
19
Read something from Nathan Barry this morning that resonated:
If step one in building an audience is to create great content, step two is to endure long enough to get noticed.
I’ve been pretty good at enduring. Almost ten years working for myself now. Many of the people who started with me are long gone. What I need to get better at is creating great content. That’s coming together, I hope.
20
Difficult is good. Our lazy monkey brains shy away from difficult stuff, but if you can train your brain to persist and overcome difficulties, well… you’re likely to be rewarded with a shitload of bananas. Thing is, it’s easy enough to appreciate that about someone else, to see their struggles as opportunities. Not so easy to view your own in the same light.
21
Back walking the prom at Las Canteras, checking out the new co-working, friendly faces, on the hunt for coffee and cheesecake. It’s low season at the moment but the weather was great today, perfect surf conditions. The right place to be, the right time to be here.
22
It’s like I had two separate energies when I was younger, could work all week and then go “let off steam” at the weekend. These days, all I want to do after a full workweek is rest up. I struggle to muster the energy or desire to go do something active. It’s a trap, I realize. Succumb to that struggle and you end up flabby in your forties.
23
It takes sunlight about eight minutes to travel 93 million miles through space and reach Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a whole year. And a year consists of about 65,700 eight-minute chunks. Which should give you some idea of what kind of distance we’re talking about when we talk about light years. In short, it’s a very long way.
24
We’ll see how this Tai Lopez stuff does when I publish it all at the end of the month. I’m hoping to make a bit of money off it, or at least see a flood of links and traffic. If neither happens, I’ll definitely be disappointed. But disappointment doesn’t matter much. I’ll move on to the next thing and keep going. Eight years deep and I’m not about to quit anytime soon.
25
Long day doing grunt work, putting blog posts in WordPress, getting the formatting just right, all that jazz. Stuff I will outsource eventually but gotta suck it up and get it done myself this week, no time to train someone. But had a nice break for a picnic lunch down by the beach today. Pretty sweet when you can go watch sun, sea and surf whenever you like.
26
You ever get that thing where you feel like your work is way more important than anyone else’s work, and perhaps even the most important thing in the whole wide world? Yeah, that’s me lately. I probably felt the same a year ago though and I can only vaguely remember what I was working on back then.
27
Jen Sincero on how to become a badass at making money:
You just have to be willing to do what it takes. And here’s what it takes: Agreeing to get really really really really uncomfortable. Over and over again. […] you have to take huge, uncomfy risks. You have to do stuff you’ve never done before, to make yourself visible, to acknowledge your own awesomeness, to risk looking stupid.
28
Alright, just about done. 25,000 words and a 15-minute video about Tai Lopez all lined up to publish in the morning. This could turn out to be a huge boost for my site, or a gigantic waste of time. Hard to know when I’m this close to it. But hey, if nothing else, at least the journey’s been enjoyable. I’m definitely a man who likes his work.