🔥Don‘t do it alone.

Whatever you're planning to build—be it a personal brand, a creator business, or a startup—DON'T do it alone.

I am speaking from personal experience, having held both positions.

I built my first startup at 21, built a team of 10 in less than 6 months, and we made 300k in our first year in business, all from the ground up.

But since I left my startup and went into personal branding and tried to "figure it out myself", business and financial growth actually slowed down a lot.

First, it felt like a blessing that I was only in charge of myself and my productivity, and that I could fully maintain agency and autonomy.

Don't get me wrong, working alone is extremely important:

1. for solving your own problems.
2. for developing the skill of deep work.
3. and for discovering yourself.

But once you have achieved a specific level of agency, accountability and self-mastery, you need to "level up" again.

No Successful Person Did it Alone

There is no single person who became successful entirely on their own.

• They might have had wealthy parents.
• A partner who supports and loves them.
• Employees who minimized work hours.
• A strong and supportive network.
• Investors in the business.

Even Dan Koe (one of the most famous personal brands), who popularized the One-Person Business, hasn't done it alone.

He mentioned in various podcasts that without his video editor, he wouldn't have been able to achieve all of this. Additionally, he lived in a flat with 2-3 other creators, who all pushed each other and also repeatedly recorded many podcast episodes together.

Self-Actualization is NOT the goal.

If you read these letters, you are probably into personal growth, meaning you are familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow points out that the top of the pyramid is self-actualization. (see image below)

Maslow originally published self-actualization (1943) as the apex (the highest achievable goal).

And people think the highest achievable goal is "Becoming all that one can be.”

Which is wrong.

Because Maslow revised the model later in life, roughly around his late 50s and early 60s, but died at the age of 62, never being able to publicly update his hierarchy of needs. (I captured this by Dave Evans in the podcast with Chris Williamson, and did additional research)

The goal of every human being is to step beyond the self, beyond ego, and be part of something bigger, but to get there, one must maintain a sufficient level of self-actualization.

Think about being a parent.

If you are not sufficiently developed (which many parents aren't), your kids will suffer.

The goal is always to serve other human beings, whether your kids, your partner or your customers.

Otherwise, you will become miserable.

This becomes clear the moment you travel, especially in Asia, and compare it with the Western culture of "individualism": you quickly realize how negative, egoistic, and self-centred Western culture is.

Start With The Triple AAA (Agency, Awareness and Autonomy)

The big mistake I made when building a startup at 21 was not being ready.

As mentioned in the beginning, you first want to learn these 3 skills:

1. Learn to solve your own problems. Don't be dependent on others; be independent enough to handle most problems.
2. Develop the skill of deep work. Where you can get most of your work done in 3-4 hours, which is related to flow.
3. Discover yourself first. For me, this was best achievable through my chaos to clarity method: Find out:
   1. What do you want?
   2. Why do you want it?
   3. How are you going to achieve it?

I mean, starting a startup at 21 is not bad; it is an extremely valuable experience.

But honestly, most people can't even manage themselves, so how are you going to manage others?

1) Agency

What is agency?

If you are planning to live on your own terms, to be distant from "the problems of others" while simultaneously serving others (which is more fulfilling than serving yourself), you need agency.

Back at my startup, I didn't follow my own goals; I followed my co-founder's.

That's why it made me and the other co-founder (we were three) miserable.

We were not able to take self-directed action.

2) Awareness

What is awareness?

We are all being mentally programmed by our parents, school and society.

Every idea you have comes from a cause. Something you have read, something you have consumed and something you have done.

Which is not a bad thing; it is a bad thing if you can't differentiate between your thoughts and those planted in your mind.

"Think about the movie Inception.

Dominick Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) plants an idea in his wife's dream.

This idea grows from a small "idea" into a reality outside the dream.

Spoiler:

Later, his wife can't differentiate between reality and dreaming and thinks that when she jumps down and takes her life, she will wake up from the dream."

It takes a lot of effort and boredom to become more self-aware, and society, social media, etc., is trying to hijack this.

The more bored you are, the more self-aware you become and the more agency "skill points" you accumulate.

3) Autonomy

A lot of people want freedom and autonomy, but they don't really know what this means.

• Freedom means being free from external constraints or interference.
• Autonomy means self-governance or the ability to make your own decisions.

So many people think that freedom is to do "whatever the f**k they want", and this is further from the truth.

Side note in spirituality:

"The lowest shakra in Hindu tradition is red. Red also has the lowest vibrational frequency among the colours, and the red shakra is the farthest from the brain.

That's why hell is associated with the colour red, which is associated with low consciousness. And that's why McDonald's, KFC, etc., often use red (and yellow) to evoke a specific feeling.

And colours like blue, violet or magenta are associated with higher levels of consciousness.

That's why heaven is often associated with blue."

Find & Build Your Intellectual Tribe

I recently attended Chris Williamson's (Modern Wisdom) Live Show here in Melbourne, Australia.

And something he said stuck with me, because the idea of "DON'T do it alone" has been in my mind for months.

He roughly said: The best thing about his work is the people he spends time with.

If you read the Wednesday newsletter, you know I was struggling a bit with loneliness back home in Germany (honestly, I heard that from many people moving to Germany and are a bit more self-aware).

In my case, I just didn't find any like-minded people, or they have already left for another region or even country.

I was bored, lonely, and not at all intellectually challenged.

That's why I isolated myself for 1-2 years and went into monk mode: work was more interesting and mentally challenging than most conversations I had in Germany.

I am sorry to say that, but most conversations were shallow and superficial.

It is just one week in Melbourne (so I can't give proper feedback), but I already feel a better energy here and also feel much better.

There is a book about the passing down of post-war trauma across generations, and it might explain why Germany is the way it is. And many more things related to history, the Prussian education system, "safety and security" in Germany, all the "legal bullshit" and the negative consequences for creative and entrepreneurial thinkers. (More on the Prussian education system in this newsletter)

So after starting 3 businesses:

1. At 19, I started a photography business. Got disrupted by covid.
2. A startup at 21 and a 10-person team, which didn't fail, but was just making me miserable.
3. Starting a personal brand after my dad passed away, and trying to figure it out all by myself.

I can clearly say:

→ Find and build your "startup tribe", and don't do it alone. But develop agency, awareness, and autonomy first, maintain them, and then build a startup, business, or personal brand.

If you can't find a tribe, build it.

The main focus here lies on creating events. Creating and building a "tribe".

The quote also relates to women to some extent; women want relationships, connections, and love. That's all intended by nature.

Men are purpose-driven providers. Something that gives their life order and meaning.

To connect back to Maslow's unpublished updated version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Meaning:

In my opinion, and after heaps of research:

• Men (or masculine energy) get closer to God through purpose and provision.
• Women (or feminine energy) get closer to God through relationships and connections (also a connection to nature itself).

That's why men need women and women need men. (Both contain masculine and feminine energy. Yin and Yang.)

There are always two sides to a coin.

Humans are dependent on each other. No great invention was created alone.

Every human mind is finite; that's why we need to combine our skills and work together. And if you don't find the right tribe, you might need to create your own or "your own niche".

• Put yourself out there.
• Upload the piece of content.
• Publish your first piece of writing.
• Show your "weirdness" and get off the perfectionism.

If you are able to put yourself out there, either written and/or verbally, you are either finding your tribe or creating it.

It might take a few months or years, but what else are you going to do anyway?

Thanks for reading.

If you want to join the waitlist for Chaos To Clarity 3.0 to create clarity in your mind through organization, structure, and gamified learning systems with templates (which also work in Notion and Kortex/Eden), to build a profitable creatorpreneur business.

Reply with:

👉 "YES"

And I will put you on the waitlist. :)

See you on Wednesday!

Jeff

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