For All The Megalomaniac Mental Masturbators
I asked to spar with Ali Omar about articulation and speaking skills, but instead of that, he quickly took the conversation where it actually had to be taken: What are you doing?!
(Note: We talked for a long time, so one post is not giving you the full context. Don't take any quote 100%!)
Straight to my face, Ali crushed my dreams, in a good way.
Be intelligent, you can listen to rational advice without getting too emotionally defensive.
What I first got from Ali was: Shi*ty genes, you should not be an entrepreneur or do asteroid mining. Stop the mental masturb*tion, it will never get you there.
I have experience and genetic chances for developing different mental disorders, which does not make it optimal for me to become an entrepreneur.
While I agree that statistically, and optimally it doesn't make sense, your mind and your beliefs have a lot of power. If you start thinking that: "I can't do it because my genes are not good enough", you might end up being weak as fu*k. That's exactly what David Goggins argues against, and he's a living proof of the opposite.
I will mine asteroids. And yes, I'm masturb*ting on LinkedIn. Manifestation. I don't know if it works. We'll see in 50 years.
But hold on.
It's a really really really valid point though and important especially for me to learn. It's so easy to say that you are going to do something great in the future. Furthermore, it gives you a good feeling when you do it, because you are already imagining the successful future in your mind. Guess what, TALK WILL TAKE YOU ONLY SO FAR. Put your head down, stay focused, what do you actually need to do? Have a god-damn plan. The plan needs to be chewable. You need to challenge yourself just in the right balance, not too easy, not too hard.
I believe that you can have a dream to do something absolutely crazy, and I think it's important. We need crazy dreams to avoid stagnation and death. But figure out what you actually need to do during the next hour to get yourself closer to the dream. While mental masturb*tion feels good, it's time wasted. Time that could have been used on studying astronomy, space law, or I don't know, the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Please! Don't understand Ali wrong. He is a doctor, successful entrepreneur, investor and a really intelligent sharp man. Obviously he is not saying: "Just quit because you are not made for it". His angle is that to become a winner, you should figure out your strengths and go all in on those. Try to be objective, don't act out of emotions and beliefs.
For the masses, that is absolutely the best way to go. Just like finishing your university studies (topic for a different post).
"Name one genius that ain't crazy". Would I ever mine asteroids or do something on that level if I went for the optimal happiness route? You need to take a chance on becoming crazy to do something extraordinary.
Elon Musk is an exception.
What Ali was pointing out is that while successful crazy people, entrepreneurs, are praised on social media, we never talk about the ones who failed or possibly even destroyed their lives. And the statistics are not pretty. ChatGPT calculated that the odds of becoming the next Elon Musk is 0.00000008448%. Don't ever compare yourself to people like Elon. It's the most irrational thing to do.
Balance: Be rational and focused but understand the power of your mind and beliefs.
I didn't leave empty-handed.
Being ABSOLUTELY real, I might go crazy. Like crazy in a way that there's no coming back. And that's no joke.
Here's why Ali possibly saved me:
Taking care of your mind is number 1. Your brains are a machine that is doing calculations which lead to ideas, needs for implementations or implementations in real life. If the quality of the calculations deteriorate, you will make bad interpretations, bad decisions and bad implementations = fail, and in the worst case = go crazy.
How to take care of your mind?
There are a lot of things Ali told me about e.g. the importance of brain's resources and the load being balanced, but, what I really learned:
Sleep is the priority!!
How to take care of your sleep?
1) Stop consuming legal and illegal substances: Coffee, alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, whatever
2) Stay away from screens, especially your phone. Delete notifications. Delete apps to the minimum. Don't use your phone after 18:00 (Hardcore)
3) Constant exercise
4) Gut health (Christina Forsgård recommendation)
"Think of the brain as a battery: it needs to rest and recharge from time to time, and you should never run red or empty."
Also, I want to share straight instructions from Ali on "How to fulfill yourself":
1) Recognize your own weaknesses so that you don't break
2) Set a long-term goal
3) Calculate backwards from it what it takes
4) Start doing
5) Change the long-term goal according to whether the implementation is realistic at any given time with a significant probability, e.g. 25-33%.
Now, read the Techno-Optimist Manifesto, dream big, and avoid stagnation.
Ernesti Sario, Otaniemi, xx.01.2024