If You Could Call Yourself Five Years Ago and Had 30 Seconds, What Would You Say?

Nik

January 10th, 2012. Rrrrrring.

“Hey Nik, I don’t have much time, but this is important: stop worrying so much about your fucking grades and start earning your own money.

I know you’re stressed out, because in 4 weeks exams will start and you’re taking more than ever this year, but trust me on this. Grades don’t mean shit and they’re not gonna open you the doors you think they will.

However, not having to rely on your parents’ money to live is something you’ll be proud of for the rest of your life.

And yes, you’ll fail that math exam you postponed because you shat your pants last time. But even that will be okay.

Now go work for Starbucks, that’ll really teach you something.”

How Is Brand Building Best Done Using Social Media?

Nik

Social media is great for listening and engaging. Social media is all about people. And all brands are run by, surprise, people.

The listening and engaging part IS what builds the brand.

If you’re building a brand for cross-country motorcyclists, then your only job is to care about cross-country motorcyclists.

  • Help them,
  • serve them,
  • make them feel better,
  • ask questions,
  • answer questions,
  • give them something to think about,
  • ask them for direct feedback,
  • make them think,
  • show them respect,

and, most importantly, don’t rip them off for a short-term gain, because long-term, your brand only exists because of them.

If you care more about cross-country motorcyclists than anyone in the world, prove it and one day, you’ll be the most popular cross-country motorcyclist brand ever.

How Do I Acquire the Millionaire Mindset?

Nik

Last year, I’ve written 365 book summaries. Among the books I learned from were many like the ones you refer to, like The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Fastlane or Secrets of The Millionaire Mind.

The truth is none of the things I learned actually moved me closer to being a millionaire. Writing the summaries on a blog that makes money did.

A blog I was writing because writing is the thing I want to become insanely good at, the thing I have tons of fun doing, the thing I want to do to change the world.

And if one day I become so good at it that the world can’t help but make me a millionaire, then that’s cool. If not, that’s perfectly fine too.

You can go through a million mindsets without ever making any progress, because if deep down your shit is broken, no mindset will get you those 7 digits.

As long as you’re chasing the million just for the sake of money, you won’t keep any mindset long enough to actually get it.

If you have the right why, if you’re doing something you can commit to, because it’s fun, meaningful and you have a talent for it, almost any of all these positive mindsets will get you there.

When you have your priorities in the right order, all you have to do is one thing:

Make more money than you spend.

Making more is hard. It takes time. It takes skills. It doesn’t happen fast.

What’s easy is spending less. Don’t spend your money on dumb shit.

  • Don’t buy a house.
  • Don’t buy a car.
  • Don’t buy a TV.
  • Don’t buy new clothes unless your old ones are tearing apart.
  • Buy good food.
  • Rent a good place.
  • Save and invest the rest.

Take a percentage out of your paycheck that goes right to the bank. Take another cut and put it in stocks. Take another and invest it in business ideas.

Once you do that, life becomes a fun journey you never want to end. Regardless of the money.

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Why “For Example” Is A Bad Way Of Explaining Things

Nik

When our math teacher in high school introduced a new topic, what happened next would always follow the same pattern:

  1. She explains the Pythagorean theorem.
  2. Nobody gets it.
  3. She makes an example.
  4. Some people get it.
  5. The rest of the class goes “Can you make another example? Pleeeeeeeaaaaase?”

Steps 3-5 of the pattern would then repeat until the majority of the class understood the new concept and the “More examples!” screams slowly died down. Then we moved on.

Since I was often part of the group who got the gist the first go around, I’d be bored for the remainder of the lesson, waiting for everyone else to get the joke so we could continue. In the meantime, instead of listening, I tried to come up with more of my own examples.

I didn’t know it back then, but as it turns out, I was doing something right.

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If You Forget As Fast As You Read, This Is For You Cover

If You Forget As Fast As You Read, This Is For You

Nik

“Knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing.” — Peter Sage

If you read a lot, but seem to forget most of the information you so eagerly soak up, this is for you. I’d like to give you 3 things today:

  1. A wake-up call.
  2. An explanation of why it’s necessary and how it’ll help you remember better.
  3. Four hacks you can use to memorize stuff more easily.

Let’s go!

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What Are Some Mind-Blowing Technologies That Exist That Most People Don’t Know About?

Nik

There’s this little thing called the internet. It’s pretty awesome. I know you have heard of it, but actually, most people still haven’t.

As of right now (checked 5th of January, 2017 via Internet Live Stats), 3.5 billion people in the world have access to the internet.

The current population is ~7.5 billion (checked same date, via World Population Clock).

That means 3.5/7.5 ≈ 47% of all people in this world have access to the internet – and 53% DON’T.

I know we all love talking about “the next big thing,” but actually, our last “next big thing” still isn’t quite here yet.

So before we upload and link our brains, live forever in VR and casually talk with each other over Skype, no matter what language we speak, we have to get everyone online first.

Facebook is making one of the biggest efforts in this arena with unmanned aircrafts, powered by solar panels and supplied with internet access via laser technology. They’ve already helped 25 million people get online.

Note: I’m well aware of the fact that people not having access to the internet ≠ people don’t know it exists, I just thought it’d be fun to point out, since we’re talking about space paint and meat from a tube when there’s a huge pink elephant in the room that also deserves to be addressed 🙂

What Is James Altucher’s Secret Method for Buying Into Companies Before They’re Public?

Nik

First of all, James has written publicly about this, and it seems to me most people are more busy trashing him and his service than actually finding out what he does, which is sad, because he’s a good guy who knows his stuff.

I’ve been reading James’s blog since 2012, I’ve read all of his books and my roommate got the Top 1% Newsletter when it came out. I’m personally not a member yet, but I plan on joining this year.

One of the special reports you get when signing up is about trading like a hedge fund. My friend let me read it and it describes the “backdoor” approach pretty much the same way his blog post does.

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