Mada_

I don’t have the stomach for sales/marketing. I started full-time quite young in this field and learned heaps of great skills. I even had my own free seminar for a little while teaching NLP-style exercises. I hate what it does to my mind, and the culture of marketing is full of putrid, status obsessed people. I am still very interested in business and have an excellent big picture understanding of it. I have dipped my toes in all aspects: cold sales, bookkeeping, lead generation, building ads, building funnels/landing pages. But I kept getting stuck on this moral issue of trying to build my ship as it was taking off e.g. Just run the ad, learn as you go etc. I got sick of feeling terror and anxiety of overselling my abilities, I am not comfortable selling a service when I have skill gaps, and I don’t really fit in with the majority of business culture, I gel better with blue collar workers. I want to take my apprenticeship as an opportunity to build legitimate skills, and build my marketing channels as I go. It’s just a more stable foundation that I think my psychology requires, I get paid to learn, then when I see it through I have an electrical license. Even if none of my marketing “tests” take off I am still employable at the end of it all. If I stick to a budget I can upgrade my health and gradually invest in myself as I progress. I have a gut feeling that if I continue to develop my music skills and even personal development, there’s going to be a really interesting niche that I can fulfil. But for me it’s all about consistency and sustainability. I remember in the LP course there was an example of a guy who does consulting 6 months of the year, then makes games with full integrity the other half of the year. I love this setup, and I have some friends who do this kind of split as tradies. Not to mention as a sparky I can off-grid my own home, probably build my own home with the help of a plumber. I have certifications in permaculture and am quite skilled at gardening, am passionate about quality wild meat and am in the process of obtaining my hunting license. I can improve my health whilst cutting a lot of expenses by doing some of these things

No luck landing apprenticeship yet, am focusing on Cert II atm and firing out applications. R/Auselectricians is a gold mine. It’s really hard to get into and you need to be on the pulse of the industry. You’re competing with 17 year olds who are dropping out of school, cheap labour and often already have amazing mechanical aptitude. the formula is: - work experience (anywhere, any niche, free or paid). Experience and use of tools is king - tickets (rigging is government subsidised in VIC at the moment and will give you most of the tickets you need, check the ETU website for the most important tickets you need - Cert II/ pre-apprenticeship. Not necessarily required but when you go for industrial jobs your resume will get binned instantly by the bots if this is not listed on there It’s really an all in pursuit. Keep showing up to school, keep firing out applications, get on site as much as you can. Repeat, repeat, repeat until you get a foot in the door. It takes some people over a year. If you’re not willing to move states your chances get way slimmer imo

Use condoms, get tested regularly. End of

My thoughts (huge Integral Theory/SD bias): There’s a part of growing up where you feel “specialness”. It’s a feature, not a bug. What is the opposite of feeling “ordinary”? - Based on your age this could be one part of what you are experiencing. Ken Wilber has a mindfulness course on his website called Full Spectrum Mindfulness and he guides people to become aware of this. Exercises like feeling into to your desire to be a fucking rockstar, to be on the big stage and have fans screaming your name, without judgment. Remember an expression of Red is big picture, grandiose thinking, and you needed to activate this meme each time you needed a push to “get the job done”. This meme is also egocentric. It is gradual, remember it takes 3-5 years to change into the next meme. You sound awesome bro keep going, you are completely right and wise to expect failure and remember this post, all your skills and inner capabilities, and your list of achievements when you do fail. It’s ammunition and irrefutable proof to keep going. Remember personal development is a choice. This was huge for me. I came to this realisation with the help of a therapist when I was 18, and it is also kind of demonstrated in Spiral Dynamics imo. Spiral Dynamics tells us we can’t grow if our Life Conditions suck, but why is Joe Rogan still stupid? He’s got a mansion, eats amazing food etc. but he endorsed Trump at the last election. Inner work is a choice, it seems to take a certain kind of person but you could drop it whenever you wanted to. Idk if this is what you’re experiencing, but I remember all of this anxiety and guilt around where I should be, internally, materially etc. But I am choosing to pursue my ambitions, to contemplate, to attempt to transform. If I were to die tomorrow and not get any of it, the world would keep spinning. Remember the “controlled folley” from the LP course? The Olympian must be able to train his whole life, fail the jump and shrug it off, because he knows that fundamentally it doesn’t matter. It’s this funny balance when you’re trying to grow, you need connection but people feel like distractions. At least this was what it was like for me. If I could go back to my teens I would have sex with the girls who offered it to me, I’d dance at clubs when I turned legal age, I’d go camping way more, maybe do some wwoofing, as well as work way harder and take my youth as seriously as you’re taking it. Take all this with a grain of salt. Godspeed bro

More than anything. But I’m probably at least 5 years away in terms of personal, financial and physical development to be a suitable student

AA philosophy lines up with what I understood from book 1 Conversations Aith God, the book is potentially quite a pure teaching. From memory Carl Jung assisted in writing it Try to integrate the teachings whilst tolerating or ignoring the difficult people you meet

Shit fight… You sound Aussie haha Appreciate your response, avoiding domestic like the plague. Have met some bad apples already for whom safety is a bottom priority.

The energy expenditure and cost of “humanoids” wouldn’t be feasible for a lot of businesses. A company that creates a humanoid robot has got to source materials and for the thing, then there will be the companies margin on top. Most businesses will not pay that, also they’d still need a human to maintain the humanoid. Unless we evolve to some insanely advanced society and someone invents cybernetic physical robots yeah everyone is out of a job, I think that’s a ways off.

So good they can’t ignore you is a really interesting frame for LP. To me it’s about playing your cards to the best of your ability. The example of Steve Jobs (which I honestly don’t know is true), of being a spiritual seeker, but getting involved in tech because there was market potential, then putting all his creativity into it (e.g. being so granular with quality that he made the microchip that nobody ever sees a thing of visual beauty), is interesting. It levels the playing field for those who aren’t child prodigies in terms of creating meaning in their lives - David Deidas concept of purpose comes in layers and waves, and will hit you like a bolt of lightening in the form of a vision if you limit distractions. He also gives the example of “giving your gift”, as stuff you pick up along the way; In WOTSM there’s the image of the businessman who gets bored and goes and shares his skills with a NFP for free, full commitment until someone becomes his patron. Do you think that character was a 15 year old dreaming of doing the equivalent of clerical work for a NFP? Maybe, but to me that’s an image of someone who is going through life, building skills somewhat reactively then using them to the best of their ability as their sense of meaning dies out. Leo’s process of defining values, defining a clear purpose, shooting for that North Star is obviously a recipe for success. He has proven it himself. I think Owen Cooks view of purpose is similar, it’s like pick a lane, make sure you believe in it, you’re not going to like it all the time, but stay with it and the joy of mastery is your reward. If you’re 15, and you choose roller hockey because you love it, and just never take your eye off that, I know people who’ve built their careers in this way.

Hunting is a better rite of passage as a man imo. Can be done sustainably (very good for the environment if you target pest animals) and with respect, can cut out a huge expense (meat) financially once you’re setup, connects you to nature and primal instincts. Also there’s a huge amount of physical labour involved in harvesting, hiking etc. With military you’re trained to shoot other humans in the face often to steal their country’s resources.

Honestly might help you bust through stage red. And there’s all the government benefits you get. Make sure you’re actually shooting for a skill though and don't sign your life away. Like doing some combat bootcamp is not going to turn you into a man unfortunately, I think it’s a longer road than that. A draw to military would be you come out of it with an actual trade that allows you to make an ethical living with flexibility. Like if you became a plumber in the military (idk if that’s an option in your country) you’ve ticked off the employment rung of the hierarchy of needs

I’m 24 and starting an industrial electrical apprenticeship. I get paid to learn an incredibly sought after trade and grow my cognitive ability as mathematics is essential for this job. I’m excited to use my maths brain again and might be able to tackle Gödel Escher Bach finally haha I was pursuing music for a little while, even met some incredibly successful people who gave me inside information into the industry. And I realised I don’t want to make short form content, ever. I want to bin my iPhone actually as soon as my work allows for it haha. I want to do my time, get incredibly skilled at this blue collar skill. My passion for music remains, as does my nascent joy of tinkering. I’m getting visions of using my time off to invent new instruments with therapeutic application, to create one of a kind synthesisers using foraged materials, repurposing discarded amplifiers etc. Eventually I see myself leaving the industrial/manufacturing sector, only working in renewable energy. Having my own property and workshop where I can use my skills creatively and with full integrity. I also have informal qualification in permaculture so want to live close to nature and semi off-grid. Admittedly I am conforming. I worry about the economy, I worry about never having property, I worry about being in a career that is replaced by AI (electrical/instrumentation will be one of the last professions to be replaced). On the flip side, I’ve spent my early adulthood starting projects that I keep quitting. I have an excellent understanding of business development and have dabbled in each area (lead gen, marketing, sales, ad building etc), and I hate it, I hate selling shit that isn’t worth selling, I hate these bullshit artist jobs where I am inflating people’s emotions, I feel like I can’t see straight after a days work. I feel like if I go full steam on art and work odd jobs there is a genuine chance I’m going to fail financially, which jeopardises my other ambitions (health, spiritual, owning property etc.), if I go full ball on business I’ve gotta go full steam and jeopardise my creative ambitions. I’ve had a go, I’m not special, I’m not amazingly talented, and it’s time for me to go back to school haha. This doesn’t exclude me from my ambition and passion for life, I’m humbled by the enormous organisational and effort it takes to go 100% your own way, and have enormous respect for Leo and all of you that are choosing this path. As soon as I start work I’m enrolling in one of Peter Ralston’s courses to keep myself growing whilst I work for the man. By the time I’m 28-29 I’ll have a skill that I can work 6 months of the year with for excellent pay if I want to, or charge a high rate for contracting. Then I can use the rest of the year to grow, create etc. I’ve got my own music/creative computing projects to keep busy with along the way.

Psychoslouch: Someone who takes psychedelics without any prior research, doesn’t way their dose of mushrooms, takes them at parties. Has never heard of DMT Nexis and has only read trip reports by accident. Watched Instagram reels and texts their friends whilst tripping on acid.

@Leo Gura your blog post about marketing. Definitely good to know in my situation as I do B2B sales - you’ve said in the past that Actualized.org could not be successful without the money you made from marketing, and you popularised your recent work with SEO. what approach should you have taken to start and grow Actualized.org instead of the route you took?

imo Marketing is communicating that your product physically exists by posting an advertisement somewhere visible, whilst persuading people to buy your product/service. Marketing is in essence manipulative. Leo built Actualized.org by buying time with money earnt from owning a marketing agency.