How to Use People (Ethically) to Make Money

I’ve always been obsessed with doing whatever I want to do in life. (I’m sure if you are subscribed to this newsletter you are too)

I would always notice throughout my early adulthood how people would have polar opposite opinions of mine when it came to this.

Interestingly enough, my financial situation would follow suit being opposite to those same people in a positive way.

After constantly noticing friction between my ideas and others, I used this to my advantage. I would continuously notice that people who did not agree with my viewpoints on life, would never progress in theirs but stay normal.

Bro… I hate normal.

"Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt

So many people do not live by this one simple quote and THAT should scare you alone… let’s get into it.

I’m going to show you:

• my personal experience and how I capitalized on this

• Common triggers to watch out for

• How to use these triggers to your advantage

First and foremost what are the dangers of listening to others’ beliefs without forming your own?

When I was in the military and I brought up to my leader that I was planning on getting out to pursue real estate, start a business, and do what I love I was immediately hit with the following:

• you ONLY have 13 years left for guaranteed retirement

• Do you know how risky that is?

• Do you know how many people fail?

• You have already been in for so long, why stop now?

Let’s dissect these common objections into why this is such a problem

“You only have 13 years left for guaranteed retirement”

This is quite common in the average community chasing retirement. We tend to minimize the time in pursuit of a common goal, but then we get to that goal and wonder where did the time go? Why did I waste away my 20s? My 30s??

Ya see all I’m doing is taking action now before I get to the state of regret, but we will touch on this more later…

“Do you know how Risky that is”

Listen…life is risky.

—> Driving to work facing death every day is risky

—> Being in a job you hate and afraid to exercise your true potential…also risky.

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” - T.S. Eliot

Think of how RISKY it must feel to settle for average when you have a burning fire in your chest to do something more to just be on your death bead haunted in a shadow of regret. That my friend..is risky.

“Do you know how many people fail”

Failing is a part of life.

Most people look at failure as a black eye but I tend to look at it as a calcification of the mind. I want to get as many calluses on my mind as early as possible as I can so I am hardened mentally when the time comes to need it.

As far as the stat of X amount of people failing from doing X, I could care less. Why? Cause I’m not a statistic, I’m myself with a vision to try.

Guess what they don’t tell you from those stats? That X amount of people that failed at X things may lost the battle, but did they win the war? We don’t know because that statistic starts and ends in a small piece of time.

They could have:

• learned from that failure to know what doesn’t work

• Pivoted to something even better and went on to be successful in another statistic

• Been fulfilled in life KNOWING they took a chance, and now live knowing they won’t live I. A shadow of “what ifs”

“You have already been in for so long, why stop now?”

The most heartbreaking thing I can see is someone committing spiritual suicide from the fear of quitting.

We grew up hearing “quitters never win and winners never quit”. We also grew up being told to drink your milk for calcium but pound-for-pound regular yogurt contains way more calcium, better nutrients, probiotics, and way less sugar.

See what happens when you do an ounce of research to form your own belief using other beliefs as a stimulus? Get ready, we’re about to get into that ;)

Back to my point, quitting can sometimes be the single most pivotal moment in your life. I quit the military which is severely looked down upon once you make the rank of Staff Sergeant and have been in as long as I have.

Now don’t get it twisted, don’t quit something just to make yourself feel better because I mentioned this. You still have to ensure quitting is right for you, and your situation, and far outweighs the cons. That’s an entirely new Newsletter tho ;)

I quit the military and thanks to quitting regardless of the masses’ opinions I have:

• more happiness

• Higher-income

• Pursuing work I find fulfilling

• Freedom to be who I feel like I was set out to be

Now the good stuff, how did I use this to my advantage and how can you strategically use it to yours?

Easy, let’s go over what I like to call The Aspiration Compass.

The Aspiration Compass

Just like how a compass always points north, your aspirations should ALWAYS be pointing towards your vision. So what’s your vision?

Step 1. Identify your vision then create EXTREMELY specific aspirations that target your vision.

Step 2. Go public.

The best way to hold yourself accountable is to be uncomfortably public about what you set out to achieve. This also makes you feel morally responsible to uphold this promise to yourself. But more on that in another newsletter.

Mention your ideas, goals, and aspirations to your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone you normally are around. Hell, go to your local coffee shop and strike up a conversation and jokingly mention your idea in third person to someone.

“Haha yea man the coffee here is great, also quick have you heard of insert idea here? What are your thoughts on that?”

Step 3. Analyze

In my experience, you will have 2 common reactions. All of which warrant extremely valuable feedback.

• extremely supportive - this shouldn’t be taken lightly. Ask yourself, why are they supportive? What do they see in you that makes them so supportive? Do they have a real reason to be supportive or are they just being nice? Shoot maybe even ask them, why are you so positive about insert thing or insert idea?

Echo chambers can be extremely dangerous if not used in the right way. Allow someone to be supportive but be brutally honest, why are they supportive, and if there is a reason for them to be supportive, capitalize hardcore on that reason.

• extremely negative - my friend you just struck GOLD. If you trigger someone to have a super negative reaction to something you bring up in relation to your goals, ideas, investment strategies, or literally anything beyond the norm, you have just created an amazing feedback loop.

Now when you get this just like we mentioned above… WHY are they super scared, angry, unsupportive, or generally negative about whatever you said?

Take this…AND RUN WITH IT.

• research why their common objections

• Find why their common objections are either valid or invalid

• Understand if their objections are from personal experience, assumptions (ignorance), or “they heard it from a friend (also ignorance)”

Step 4. Human Experimentation

Ok ok ok not that kind, but you get it. Experiment yourself. This world is nothing but a culmination of human experiments. Why can’t you be one of them VS a cog in the machine?

• but where to start?

Start with their objection. Did they say it was too risky? Too dumb? Unrealistic? Some kind of opinion with no facts to back it up (ignorance)? Start there!

Example: “Don’t invest in stocks it’s too risky! The market goes down and you lose all your money”

Experiment: I invested $50 into APPLE stock.

Results: well one day I checked and I was down $1, another day max I was down $5 on a super red day, but then a couple of weeks go by and now it’s worth $55! I could sell right now and make $5! That’s a 10% return on my money in only a few weeks??

Conclusion:

• Have the people that told me it was too risky tried it themselves?

• If they did, did they take a second to understand what they were getting into or did they go in blindly?

• Did they just hear from a friend's experience?

My conclusion is that even on the worst red day I never lost any money, in fact, I never lost money at all cause I never sold. I held and made more than a savings account ever would!

See how you can be your own entrepreneurial scientist?

Step 5. Assess (the fun part)

• What went wrong?

• What went right?

• Did your conclusion align with other people’s fear and/or belief?

• Did this make you uncomfortable to try?

• What new things can you try that build on what you learned from this experience?

The Aspiration Compass is undefeated

• Identify

• Go public

• Analyze

• Experiment

I’ll give you one last personal experience to end on and show you the true powers of the Aspiration Compass.

→ people around me were fearful of crypto

→ I tried crypto

→ I lost money, I made money, and I networked with amazing people

→ I assessed what was good, and what was bad, understood the technology and the benefits

→ the people I happened to network with became my business partners

→ we built a branding agency that builds brands for Web3 businesses

→ people in crypto were weary of crypto trading bots

→ AHA a new challenge within a challenge So through my research I found Astrabit

→ I tried their bots and they were legit, made me some money, and still to this day I use them

→ I was impressed so with the customer service of Astrabit I reached out to the CEO to form a sponsorship

→ they liked the sponsorship benefits that we ended up being their exclusive branding agency that works with their strategists that lists on their platform

Do you see how something so small as a common fear exploded into a full-blown business opportunity?

Take this framework and run with it.

Choose to be curious and be your own person.

Choose The Per[mission]less Life.