Author │ Founder of Lucid House Publishing & Publish Profitably │ X'n it up about book writing, publishing, copywriting, systems, anti-niche, and ADHD ✍️
Here's to the ones picking up shifts to fund their dream.
Let's be honest—anyone who says "never have a Plan B" hasn't built anything real.
The data tells us 39% of working Americans have a side hustle—not because they want to, but because they have to.
But that's not a bad thing—here's why:
After twenty years of building companies and studying founders, I've never been more convinced of this truth: the ones who make it aren't ashamed to start over.
Why? Because they believe in their vision so deeply, they’ll do whatever it takes to make it real—and they sure as hell don’t waste time worrying about what other people think. They know most ventures won’t work out anyway, so why tie your identity to just one outcome?
They’ll pick themselves up, take a day job if they have to, and pivot again and again—because they’re ALL IN on their own path. And guess what? No one’s really paying attention to your failures or your scrappy side hustles. The only way you ever truly lose is by giving up on yourself.
That’s the key: not giving a damn about external judgment and staying committed to your own vision—no matter what.
The true winners? They’re the ones who’d rather keep creating than cling to the identity of “successful founder.”
They fail multiple times, experience modest wins, and keep going long after their friends have settled into safe careers they secretly hate.
If you’re grinding quietly and doing what it takes—at 20, 40, or 60—I see you.
And guess what? You’re already winning.
Because you understand what so many miss:
True success isn’t about money or status.
It’s about resilience—and the unwavering drive to keep creating.
7/ Embrace It
You’re not broken; you’re exceptional.
The world needs more minds that don’t fit into neat little boxes.
So, embrace your intersections.
Lean into your chaos.
It’s where the magic happens.
#Multipotentialite#Neurodivergent#ADHD#multipassionate
It takes just as much work to be unsuccessful as it does to be successful.
Procrastinating, complaining & existing in a state of mental lethargy & inaction is the worst form of work.
But make no mistake, it’s work.
Choosing what kind of work you want to do is priority #1.
In 2016, researchers at the University of Adelaide tested Kurt Vonnegut's theory that, "There’s no reason why the simple shapes of stories can’t be fed into computers."
They took the emotional arcs of 1300+ novels from Project Gutenberg, turned that into data, used modern tech to analyze the emotional arcs, and then identified 6 patterns seen over and over again in western storytelling.
Here they are:
1. Rags to Riches (rise)
Your classic underdog tale. A humble, hardworking peasant climbs the mountain to pull the sword from the stone.
• Rocky
• King Arthur
• The Pursuit of Happiness
2. Riches to Rags (fall)
Maybe the saddest story of them all. A journey from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.
• King Lear
• Citizen Kane
• Scarlet Letter
3. Man in a Hole (fall then rise)
A character’s doing fine, gets herself into a huge problem, but figures out how to overcome it. They often end up better than they started.
“You see this story again and again,” Vonnegut says. “People love it, and it is not copyrighted.”
• The Martian
• The Hunger Games
• Shawshank Redemption
4. Icarus (rise then fall)
The hero goes on a meteoric rise up New York (or some other) society, calls everyone “old sport,” and throws the wildest parties in town. Then reality sets in, and he realizes he’s too close to the sun.
• Macbeth
• Great Gatsby
• Death of a Salesman
5. Cinderella (rise then fall then rise)
I’ll leave this description to Vonnegut:
“We’re gonna start way down here. Worse than that, who is so low? It’s a little girl… the shoe fits, and she achieves off-scale happiness.”
• Red Rising
• Slumdog Millionaire
• The Count of Monte Cristo
This is my personal favorite.
6. Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)
Up until the ~70% mark of the story it looks like things are sunshine and rainbows. Walter White goes from high school teacher to king of the drug lords, if you will. Then all goes wrong. The original fall is often not their doing while the final fall is.
• Hamlet
• Gone Girl
• Breaking Bad
My 3 takeaways:
1. Rags to Riches, Oedipus, and Cinderella rank as the three most popular with consumers. AKA, those books sold the most copies.
2. When you think through a story, give it an emotional shape. Literally draw it.
X axis: Time
Y axis: Ill fortune to good fortune
You might be surprised how much it helps you craft your plot (I was shocked).
3. Vonnegut was a damn genius.
1/ What is a Scanner Personality?
A term coined by Barbara Sher, it describes individuals with a boundless curiosity and diverse interests.
Rather than focusing on one passion, scanners explore many passions ❤️🔥
#antiniche#antinicheclub#passiondriven
"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."
- Ray Bradbury
We live in a world of ANDs.
We’ve been told that to succeed in it, we need to pick.
“Be a graphic designer OR a copywriter.”
The truth is, you can do it all.
It’s not a matter of picking. It’s matter of prioritizing.
Not this OR that.
It’s this, THEN that.
"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself."
- Henry Miller
Focus is overrated.
Clarity is underrated.
It has what focus lacks:
The WHY
You can be focused yet fall short.
We fail bc of a lack of clarity.
And a lack of clarity stems from a lack of systems.
Create systems. Gain clarity.
You can do it all.
But only by design.
1/ Jack Kerouac said:
My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.
The challenge for multi-passionates isn't your "split focus."
It's a lack of systems.
These are the secrets of the most successful multi-passionates.
A thread 🧵
My dad once said, “The whole world will stop to watch a man on fire.”
He was talking how someone doing or talking about something they love is mesmerizing.
It’s refreshing to see people geek out about their interests.
The idiosyncrasies make the character.
You've been lied to.
You've been told to niche down.
You've been conditioned to turn yourself into a living elevator pitch.
But in doing so, you've lost your #1 competitive advantage: Being you.
The combo of your interests and passions is your secret sauce.
#nicheless
@matt_gray_ Completely agree — and your content has been helping me level up my life lately. Made me realize how 2-dimensional my systems had been. Thanks, Matt. 💪
The greatest creators sift through information and pluck out the pieces that, when combined, create something original and meaningful.
They understand that infinite creativity lies in the assemblage of elements.
https://t.co/tfaoCscFJw
Information is abundant, and the collective knowledge of humanity is just a click away.
The ability to create something original may seem impossible - that there's truly nothing new under the sun.
Yet, creativity isn't about conjuring ideas from the void.
To develop the skill of curation requires a willingness to experiment, to combine the unlikely, and to see the world not just as it is but as it could be.
The true art of creativity is not in the ability to create ex nihilo.