You can drop $100K on learning a new skill and still be broke.
Spending more money is rarely the answer. The cheat code to unlock more wealth is often found in the free things 99% of people overlook.
It’s the nuances and the 1-percenters that create a strong foundation from which anything is possible. Treat your life like an investor. Find opportunities, then invest time and effort into them.
Here are the best free investments you can make.
Help people for free without asking for money
Everyone wants to monetize each other.
Few people genuinely want to help others. But people who are helpful without expecting anything in return paradoxically make the most money and have the most success.
Throwing a paywall in front of a stranger’s face is rude. You may as well slap them and scream “take that mofo!”
Successful people solve problems.
They find out what problems to solve by first helping people for free. Then they look for the pain and create a solution. That solution always has at least one free option.
Become a problem solver, not a problem creator.
Be a pain in the ass optimist
In 2013, Harrison Okene was a cook on a tugboat off the coast of Nigeria.
A big wave came over the top of the tugboat and it sunk to the bottom of the ocean. In the front of the boat was an air pocket. Harrison swam to it.
All around him were the dead bodies of his crew just floating there.
Creepy. It was cold, dark, and lonely. He thought he might die. The clock was ticking. The air would run out at some point.
Fish began entering the tugboat and eating the dead bodies. The smell was horrible. 60 hours in, there was a knock from the outside. Who knows what it was. Could have been a shark.
A diver swam into the boat and saw Harrison alive. They were both shocked. The diver didn’t expect to find anyone alive. Harrison says he still has nightmares about being stuck in the tugboat at the bottom of the sea.
What kept him alive was staying calm and believing he’d survive. Optimism saved his life.
After the ordeal he faced his fear once more and became a certified diving instructor. The world doesn’t need more “America is burning” crazies.
We need optimists to survive and later thrive.
Write in public
Writing online is free.
It’s how you take the day-to-day grind and make it meaningful. Sharing your thoughts is how you attract people and opportunities to your goal. Because a goal without people to help you achieve it is useless.
Light your journal on fire and start writing for real humans on a free social media app of your choice.
- Turn your challenges and problems into opportunities for growth and networking.
- And get feedback on your ideas, so you don’t walk around thinking an idea you create is genius when it may actually be a pile of dog sh*t.
Writing online can guarantee your success in bizarre ways.
The problem is when you start, you’ll have no clue where it’ll take you — and that’s half the magic.
Read books from the library
I used to think libraries were bullsh*t.
A place where minds go to die. (Librarian Roz Warren would have my head for saying that.) But it’s true. I believed libraries would go bankrupt and they’d be turned into McDonald’s stores. Or TikTok watching hubs.
Then I my wife gave birth to a baby girl. She’s now 1 year old. Every night she wants to read books. Last night I read over 30 books to her. I can’t buy books fast enough. Our book-buying expense will cost as much as a Lamborghini if we keep going at this rate.
To avoid baby-induced bankruptcy, we’ve had to get a good ol’ fashion library card. I now go to the library every week to get books for my daughter and it’s free.
It’s reminded me how powerful reading is.
When we read the perspectives of other writers it expands our worldview. We go from this naive Red versus Blue hellscape that mainstream media promotes, to a more nuanced outlook and understanding of our fellow humans.
When your worldview expands so, too, does your success in life. Read.
Do more than is asked of you
A lot of people do the bare minimum, then complain they’re not getting paid what they’re worth.
Doing the bare minimum is overrated.
It’s not a question of intelligence, but one of effort. Success takes more effort than our lizard brains tell us it does. Just doing what you’re told isn’t enough. Just fulfilling the ask or the order isn’t enough.
Why?
Because when you do what is asked you meet a person’s expectations. There’s no wow factor. And most importantly, there’s no emotion. Without the emotion there’s no action or desire to pay, promote, or reward you.
In my banking career, I took on one customer and blew their minds. They were so impressed they told every executive at my company.
This allowed me to go from $50,000 to 6-figures in record time, and earn bonuses higher than what drug lords get paid. Short-term effort, life-changing long-term gains.
Go beyond expectations.
Be a practitioner instead of a philosopher
I’ve been writing on social media for 10 years and amassed over 1B+ views.
One pattern I’ve noticed is there are too many wannabe philosophers in the world giving random advice about nothing, and not enough practitioners.
The smartest people online talk about goals, businesses, and projects they’ve actually worked and made progress on.
They’re talking from real-world experience. They’re not trying to be the next Donald Duck president with amazing theories and zero proof-of-work or evidence to back them up.
Being a practitioner has an added benefit: you don’t need to network.
Naval Ravikant explains:
“I think business networking is a complete waste of time. The reality is if you’re building something interesting, you will always have more people who will want to know you.”
Sit up straight soldier
Body language is a quiet form of communication.
When you slouch around or drop your shoulders it makes you lack confidence. So people don’t buy into your ideas as much, and your conversion rate on pitches and ‘asks’ mysteriously drops to zero and you don’t know why.
Make sure your physical body communicates as clearly and succinctly as your words do.
Sit up straight. Shoulders back. Clear hand movements. Slow walking while giving a speech, instead of frantic pacing back and forth.
A fit body
The health industry has convinced us we need 5000 Athletic Greens pills, a personal trainer, pre-prepared meals delivered to our door, Jenny Craig to yell at us to lose weight, and a new diet every week backed by Oprah.
The truth is the opposite.
Calories in, calories out — this is the formula that helps anybody lose weight for free. If calories go down, then weight falls off. Add some light exercise to that formula and you’ll likely have a fit body.
But why be fit?
Because when you are fit and healthy you have more energy. Energy is the currency in life and it determines how much effort you can invest into your family, goals, career, business, writing, etc.
Without energy you’re dead inside waiting for a funeral date.
Final Thought
If you follow even a few of these free strategies above, it’s almost impossible not to experience some level of success.
The consumerism economy wants you to believe you need to spend more money to be successful. I’ve found the biggest growth hacks and best strategies come from the free things everyone else is overlooking.
The consulting industry has spent decades making the world complicated, so they can profit from it by making the world simple again for a fee.
Don’t be fooled. Success is simple and free if you master the basics and pay attention to the nuances.
