54 · Knock Twice

The world is a beautiful place, and it's your canvas. The power of networking is parallel: you are piercing through doors that were already open. The web of how close everything is, is insane. It's profound how much people are willing to advise those working on something new. You have to knock, and it will open. The Bible is so true, and I'm starting to see how magnificently transformative it is to read, research, and embody it. Also — Reality Transurfing. I heard Iman and others mention this book and thought: what is this conspiracy bullshit? But it's true. Especially releasing importance, submission into action, the world's operations as a battle of pendulums, and letting go. The flow aspect fills the other side of the biblical truths — the antithesis in a sense — where you engineer your life in a certain direction.

There aren't many people who actively ask for help on YouTube. It might be a niche. Go for it — ask random people online for advice; input that is prone to error is still better than no data. Ask people on YouTube for advice on studying maths at Trinity. Ask and you will receive. A closed mouth does not get fed.

I don't see many YouTube videos of people asking their audience for advice, being openly vulnerable. Giving people a frame in which they get to be the advisor is, in a sense, value provision — while you learn from the people ahead of you.

One thing I find really interesting: being authentic and honest lets down the most unbreakable guards. Looking out even for your ostensible enemies, being good and kind to those people especially, remembering their vulnerabilities and asking about them — even when both of you know you're mutually exclusive for the cross — a simple question shows care. Everyone warms up when a warmer force comes along and allows heat convection. Our new managing director at Tim Hortons is young but sharp; I was nice, tried to overwhelm him with love, and his guard came down.

The reason I say I grew so much is that I literally rewired myself to be authentically excited by negative feedback — leaning into it. Working at Tim Hortons for a prolonged time built the attitude that negative feedback is not personal; almost nothing is personal. It's just feedback with a pattern of manifesting. (Which raises the question I keep circling: each individual makes an individual choice with free will — how come a pattern manifests across the aggregate?)

In terms of referrals, get to know someone on a deeper level. When you pay, you pay attention — that's a quote to use in sales. If serving is below you, leading is above you. You put things on pedestals because your ego takes pride in the opposite juxtaposition.

There are two reasons you PAY mentors: for guidance and alpha, and for the elimination of wrong paths. We live in a generation where it's unusual to do either. But there are people around me with so much alpha — they can help massively. Ask for help on how to revise. They will help you, bro.

I love the fact that honesty is the strategy that can't be faked. My story is unorthodox enough that it carries its own volatility. Be brutally honest and open about everything of the past years — that is the one strategy I know opens doors.