72 · The Cheat Code Was Joy

It's a lie that you always have to suffer. The same work, the same tasks — why not do them with joy? You can find happiness and joy in any dark situation. The emotion in which you do the work changes the tonality of the work itself. Match the frequency of zeal, passion, love, momentum, excitement. You can choose the hardest possible things and enjoy the process. Don't play the martyr — have fun and love the journey. That is the cherry on top of the hero's arc: to be the light in your own story.

If you actually think of the work as a research project where you're just having fun, that's a massive inflection point in the energy you bring to the table. When you have fun — truly have fun — life can be beautiful, and you progress in ways you can't fathom, because you are just playing.

I need some financial anchor — an online business that is fun and makes £10–20k a month, ideally scalable later. When you're enjoying the work, the entire sentiment changes; it becomes play. It could be anything, and it's doable with the work ethic, the passion and the zeal. I want it to use AI agents — we could take all the programming courses and figure it out. Or start with high-ticket tutoring for the TMUA. Anything.

Frames and narratives are dangerous. Holding onto traumas, accepting convention, casting ourselves in a victim role, succumbing to fleeting manifestations. Life is too short to only suffer. Know that these pass; watch the thought. The default should be excitement, joy, life and growth.

Some people carry this weird frequency — poignant, bittersweet, egoistic — telling the same story for the same twenty years. It's a comedy. Just chill, have fun, go full ham, and joyously attack the work you want to do.

Losing sleep over your dreams is better than dreaming about them in your sleep.

The truth, for me, is deeply personal. I don't need much money. I don't need the flashy things. I want to travel the world and do what interests me. The scores don't matter as much as my mind shouts that they do — the same for A-levels; I don't even need the A*, and yet I keep screaming at myself that they matter. Deep down, from my time in Winnipeg: true freedom is living life on your terms. Not making a billion dollars because every founder says that's what a twenties is for. Not taking a course because everyone says it's the best. Not suffocating yourself to death for a metric. It's being authentic. Going to a country because it interests you. Working as a barista because you find it interesting. That doesn't mean not working — my propensity is to go all in regardless. But go all in on your interests, not on a calculated market gap. What is your truth? What feels like play, the thing you naturally return to when you come home? For me: maths, trading, coding, physics, programming, AI, building models, reading books, long bike rides, dressing well, listening to music. Stay true to what you find interesting and go all in on those. Don't hold onto what others subjugate as truth.

Truly a conundrum: some founders are people who stayed true to themselves — their edge was being their own version of themselves — and they built massive things. And some people brute-forced through pain and suffering at a hundred hours a week. Both are true. Both will manifest as different phases. Hold both conundrums — just like reality does.

New rule: never buy black and white and grey. Add colour to your life. Let the absurdity of it all play into everything.