Hello again, Squad.

The Really Rich Journal

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The Weekly Tone

You did it! You got started. Most people never make it this far. Usually, they plan, ask friends, query their mentor, watch a YouTube series, and then realize it's too hard (which it kinda is), and crack open a Coors and fire up the Netflix. What kind of jerk drives a Porsche Turbo anyway? Oh well.

But that's not you!

No, no, no, you're the chosen one--an entrepreneur (said in a forced French accent), a networker, the company rock star. So, you get right into it. You're a Spanish bull after all!

¡Toro!

And you do it, do it, do it. And then three months in, you realize you built everything with popsicle sticks upside down and backwards. In fact, you didn't really want to do this you wanted to do that. You managed to climb Everest and, upon looking around, realized you didn't much like tall mountains in the first place. WTF?

This has has happened to me exactly three times in life in monumental proportions.

Please allow me to save your ass from the same fate.

Act One

I want to get rich. I want to pay off my college loans. I want to wear English-tailored suits before I turn 25. I want to slick my hair back (and still do). Wall Street here I come! Pay no attention to the fact that I'm a better painter, writer, guitarist, inventor, and tinkerer than a multivariate gambler. Oh, and that I'm incapable of working for someone else. Let's ignore that when I look at my MD I think--man, when I'm that guy's age, I'll be a looong way from this freaking place! Soon I realize, sure I'll get by, but I'll never be Paul Tudor Jones. You need passion to get to that level.

Is a million-a-year even rich if you wake up at 4am? That's not even enough money to afford the apartment you saw in the Architectural Digest. Maybe I miscalculated. There are only two people awake at 4am: junkies and bond traders. When did I sign up to have my face glued to a screen until my hair turns gray? When did I start looking forlornly into windows of fancy restaurants in Midtown to gawk at the "normal" people who're able to take a lunch break?

Ah! Those are the real players. I quit.

Lesson: There are a lot of ways to get rich, not just the obvious ones. Choose the one you don't mind doing for a long, long time.

Act Two

I want to make $100,000 a month. That's a nice round number. Sell something recurring for $10,000 ten times. What's hot? SEO! I don't know anything about it, though. I guess I'll learn it inside out. I'll do everything it takes. Flash forward six months. It worked. Great! I'll eat steak every Friday night from 7 to 9, which is only two hours I have to enjoy myself every week.

Why? Because I'm on the phone from 7am to 7pm with small e-comm owners. Every day is a fire drill. And I don't have a single basis point of equity in the businesses that I'm saving from certain death with my sweat. They refuse to talk to the Project Manager I hired and demand time with me directly. We're paying top dollar! I have a six-person team, but I'm the Chief Strategist. Good thing I gave myself the worst job in the lineup. Add another client, do more work! I'd rather be tortured in a medieval jail than sign another client. What the hell did I build? A trap? Sweet Baby Jeebus. I did it again.

Lesson: Don't optimize for a number, optimize for a lifestyle.

Act Three

I'm wiser now. Build crazy value, ignore the numbers. There's no way I'm going to make the same mistakes I made before. I'll make a few funny videos online while I sort out what I'm going to do next. I'll iterate on it like a startup. Oh. Five million in a day is a lot of views. The advertisers are lining up. This is a pretty good gig. Three hours of work for three million impressions, that's good ROI. That's not good, that's freaking amazing. I can still run my other businesses in the background (yes, I ended up building a few the right way). I'm making a lot more money now, without trying to make a lot more money. That's how it should be. And more people actually like me at the end of the day? It's the opposite of running an agency. Not too shabby.

Getting antsy now. I hear people have Premium and Bonus content. I'll do that too! I'll just create more of the stuff people like--content. Deal?

Hang on, sweetheart.

You barely have enough time to make the normal content, the core content, in the first place. Now, you're going to make more? From where? Are you going to cut from the core content that got you here in the first place? Do you have a doppelgänger I don't know about? Abort, abort!

That was close. Stick with the plan. Try a newsletter. I can do that and enjoy the hell out of it. It scales too if people like it.

Lesson: Don't turn scalable things you love into unscalable headaches because you can't sit still like a normal damn person while things grow.

Bigger Lesson

Now! Did you notice what was missing from each of these blunders, dear reader, that would have saved our protagonist (me) from suffering?

Time.

Taking five freaking minutes to think things through. Can man not sit still in a room alone? Must he rush into a blazing fire while there's a hydrant around the corner? Clearly not.

So, I devised this mental algorithm:

• Do you want to do this thing?

• Do you want to maintain this thing for a long time?

• Will the amount of money you make doing this thing surpass your threshold of X dollars an hour?

To do anything, I need to check ALL THREE boxes above. It takes a few hours to think through.

Or as the Navy SEALs (pros in doing things the right way the first time) say, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

This week, I’m taking virtual meetings

Optimize: Grow a Really Rich Personal Network

I always want to meet more people. More collaborators, customers, users, more...eh-hem...readers. The problem with reaching out to someone who you don't know is that (if you're smart) it takes a lot of time to learn about them. Notice how I said "them", not it "takes a lot of time for me to perfect my pitch".

No one cares about your offer, product, startup, barbershop, right off the bat.

If you could see my LinkedIn connection requests, you'd cringe. Wait, you don't need to see mine, just look at yours. There are thousands of generic, one-size-fits-none intros in there. What's the point? There's a 0% chance we're going to connect with:

Hey Nicholas - I see you're in software. Funny enough so am I! How about we hop on a quick Zoom so I can show you how I can pack your funnel with leads?

How about I pack your face into a mailbox?

The emotional reaction I get from a generic outreach message is a combination of rage and violence. Not good. Luckily I can't choke an email address, because the "Rich Guy" comes out in full force during these insane misuses of my time. The worst thing you can do to me is waste my time.

But, miraculously, a tiny fraction of intros are beautiful. They're personalized, well-written nuggets of joy that entice me to click "connect" or setup a meeting. It's the same story in my inbox. The messages are personalized for me and I can tell. I've met friends and co-founders from cold outreach.

These magical intro's contain:

• A personal annecdote

• An insight

• A clear, non-pushy CTA (that's actually fun)

• Good wishes either way!

Now, most outreach today starts from a smartphone. However, it's a painful process to comb through bios and websites to compile a winning email, DM, or LinkedIn request.

I wanted to solve this challenge. So, I built the AI tool FastOutreach.ai. Yes, it's my company. I designed it to make building a meaningful connection with anyone completely effortless. Now, instead of 30 minutes - I have a personalized, punchy message to shoot off in under 30 seconds thanks to AI.

Feed FastOutreach.ai a LinkedIn profile, a website, whatever, and the AI gets to work "thinking up" the most amazing icebreaker in seconds. That's one helpful robot.

Give FastOutreach.ai a shot for 7 days for free. It's been my secret weapon in growing my network with awesome people during the development phase. Now, I can share it with you.

Just don't go using this on me to pump your new NFT collection...

🤝 How I can help you:

1. The Entrepreneur’s Field Guide (Book) - learn the rules for entrepreneurship and how to blaze your own path.

2. The Guided Journey (Course) - I’ll be your personal guide on your path to success in my comprehensive digital lecture course

3. The Really Rich Podcast (Free) - a weekly deep dive into business, finance, and wealth mindset.