Do You Like This Too?

Hey amorteur,

I'm writing this from the comfort of someone else's home. I have an essential question for everyone:

Mint chocolate or Nah?

Reply to this email with your thoughts. And if you make it to the end of this short email, I have an amusing story to share.

Let's get started:

The PROBLEM of a Generation:

When Should You Quit What You're Doing and Do Something Else?

This is a potent question for many of us, especially for

• The rampant quitters out there

• And the tired gritters.

Creating is a great example. Many people attempt to build an audience, and just as many drop out early on.

But is this justified?

Or are many just not up to the challenge and should be labeled with the soft title of "failure"?

The Hidden Loop of Self-Destruction

I identify with this completely. I'm one who's quit writing various forms of fiction, dropped the ball when it came to Twitter and left creative courses unfinished. I'm a rampant quitter, or so I proudly proclaim.

I could just be a loser. I probably am a loser, one who's struggled to make anything worthwhile, running in circles and wasting my money.

There's only so much time, and I have so many responsibilities. I feel like you could relate.

If you are sticking to the game, that's great. Creating, like many things in life, is a game of consistency.

But what if you can't be consistent? Or what if you failed even that?

Will we succumb to being hopeless? Should we just give up and succumb to the 9-5?

Or should we just be trying harder to build "better" habits?

I struggled with this exact problem...

Until things changed for me.

Why I Built a Website, Then Shut-It Down... Then Revived It Again

I crashed for the nth time attempting the next habit-based self-improvement strategy.

The problem was I couldn't stick to anything. I knew I

• Needed a sustainable approach to create the success I wanted for myself

• Needed to build digital leverage to secure my financial freedom

• Needed to get out of my pit of despair

But nothing stuck. It was challenging because everything I tried would work for a few days, and I'd fizzle out.

Even downscaling, a strategy of making things as easy as possible (which I'm known for on Twitter), seemed not to be invincible.

I needed a solution. And soon. But as much progress as I was making, I felt I wasn't changing much.

Then, I rediscovered a former philosophy.

One that feels natural, requires no additional effort and shows results immediately.

Skeptical? You should be. After all, I'm saying it: no credentials, no name, nothing.

But stick with me. I think you'll be very interested in this secret technique.

Maximizing Strengths.

That's it.

No, it's not a secret technique the monks hide in the hollows of Tibetan mountains, nothing that requires you to pass through 12 divine gates, only to be gatekept because the opposing parties are "not a monk".

It's as simple as multiplying and maximizing strengths instead of incrementally improving weaknesses.

It's kind of obvious but also nuanced.

It's kind of stupid but also brilliant.

It's kind of silly. But also silly.

By optimizing for your strengths, you're doing what you're already doing but getting handsomely rewarded for it. You don't have to force yourself to become somebody else. You become more of who you already are.

No more:

• Lengthy systems with high failure rates

• Crash and burn strategies

• Boring and unsatisfying work

You skip straight to the good stuff. The fun stuff.

The world is built on rewarding the masters. This is even more prevalent in the creator economy, where the top 1% win it all. 

Not only is it a more sustainable and fun strategy: it is necessary.

Think about all of the digital monopolies:

• Google own SEO.

• Twitter dominates written ideas,

• YouTube owns video (and TikTok short-form video).

And this applies to creators.

• Sahil Bloom owns Twitter threads.

• Justin Welsh owns solopreneurship.

• Easlo owns Notion.

And more. Now let's say you want to do these things.

You can compete for them. I sure did, and it is hard, and you have little show for it except that you were consistent and that you made a few friends. Those are actually pretty cool so maybe you can do that.

Or you can own a niche. And what's a niche?

A 'Category of One', one where your strengths dominate.

Strengths In Action

Before this idea, I deleted my website. I thought, "I'm not consistent. For schnauzer's sake, I can barely keep up with my Twitter engagements! Why am I paying $11 monthly to maintain a website I don't use?"

Trust me, it was hard enough to go back in time and interview my former self to get that quote. Note to self: make sure you empty your bladder before leaping into the past.

Then, when I consulted my dear beautiful lovely girlfriend (yeah, I know you're reading), she said my best work was in my newsletters. And you know what?

I thought, "That's a lot of work. Also, stop visiting me. This is dangerous, you might rip the space-time continu-". I don't know what he said after that because I believe I ripped the space-time continuum.

But as I write this, I'm enjoying the hell out of myself and hope to keep writing newsletters until the neurotic voice in my head tells me I've had too much fish oil.

So here we are on Beehiiv. I decided at one point to quit the website but then re-entered.

The differentiating factor is this:

Does this activity line up with my strengths? Is this the right pond for me?

If so, keep gritting!

If not, maybe quit.

And if you can't quit? Hehe, glad you asked. More on that in the next issue ;-)

For now (and for more), read my first post about what that means and how to apply this concept here.

Hey there. It's a bit late, and I'm reaching the end of this newsletter's due date.

As promised, here's a fun story to tell someone (forgive the formatting):