There is a certain type of person everywhere now, especially online.
He consumes endless information every day: philosophy, psychology, productivity, spirituality, neuroscience, business, self-improvement, history.
He knows a little about everything and deeply experiences almost nothing.
His entire identity becomes built around understanding instead of living.
He watches videos about confidence instead of speaking confidently. Reads about discipline instead of becoming disciplined. Studies relationships instead of learning how to love. Consumes motivational content instead of taking action.
He feels intelligent because he is constantly mentally stimulated. But stimulation is not transformation.
Most of the time, knowledge becomes emotional protection. Reality is unpredictable. Reality humiliates. Reality exposes weakness. Books and ideas do not.
Inside information, he can continue imagining himself as intelligent, deep, insightful, different from ordinary people. So he remains trapped in preparation.
He constantly feels as if he is "becoming" someone, while his real life remains strangely untouched. He develops sophisticated language for problems he never confronts directly. He can explain human behavior beautifully while being unable to handle ordinary discomfort, rejection, uncertainty, loneliness, or risk.
He slowly turns life into observation instead of participation.
The internet rewards this personality heavily. He receives validation for sounding aware rather than becoming capable.
Eventually, he begins confusing self-analysis with growth and information with wisdom.
But beneath the intelligence usually exists the same thing: fear. Fear of failure. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of reality answering back.
Because action destroys fantasy. The moment he truly acts, he can no longer hide inside potential.
My favorite @elonmusk quote that I often send friends:
Do not fear losing. “You will lose,” Musk says. “It will hurt the first fifty times. When you get used to losing, you will play each game with less emotion.” You will be more fearless, take more risks.
dont be confident, be over confident. be delusionally confident. be so confident that doors open for you and reality bends for you. be sure that GOD walks beside you. The meek inherit nothing if they never believed they were worthy of more. be too much. be impossible to ignore.
3 years ago i found @marclou online and saw him making $30,000/month
3 years ago people laughed when i mentioned that amount of money per month
i didn't believe it would be possible either, not yet.
i dreamt every day for years about $10,000/month, and not having a job for the rest of my life
luckily with those dreams came action!
it also helped discovering marc lou + reading some pivotal books years before like the almanack of @naval ravikant and fastlane millionaire by @MJDeMarco
#1 thing through all of these 5+ total years of trying to make money on the internet though?
staying curious about the world, and optimistic about the future.
^ it's the only way i've found to KEEP GOING.
and now i'm at $50,000 MRR on my business baby @postbridge_ :')
yet somehow i still worry and fret over daily expenses of $100 or less, it still hasn't quite set in that this is real, and my brain doesn't believe yet that it will last. for now i will remain driving my new toyota corolla off into the sunset