74 · Three Hundred a Month

Going back to Manitoba ASAP — it's no longer about learning; now it's pure competition, back to back to back. A-levels, then IQC, then IMC, then UPC, then TMUA, then the Trinity maths interview, then Putnam, then the physics competitions, then STEP 2 and 3. That's just the academic route. And one guy and his brother launched a startup from zero to a billion within a year. You can do this, Jamie — technically alone. Run it solo or with a very small team; you could be the CTO of you.

The Winnipeg economics: University College double room, roughly $8,500–9,500 a year including the meal plan — breakfast, lunch and dinner at the dining hall. Groceries, if I supplement: Winnipeg is among the cheapest major-city grocery markets in Canada; realistically $250–300 a month cooking simply. I can survive on very little — wake up, gym, work sixteen hours, bed — for two years straight.

Still working as a barista on weekend and Friday mornings keeps the momentum going — no lazy weekends. Eight hours Friday morning, eight Monday morning, four each on Saturday and Sunday mornings: time I would have wasted anyway. Starbucks is the move — fun, fast-paced, flow state, just enough to keep life's momentum. I wish I could work at the Starbucks inside U of M: dorm, job, university and library all within the vicinity. For eighteen months, working some café 24 hours a week buys the rent, groceries and living expenses — enough to survive and drive fully into the business. Or find remote freelancing: online tutoring for international students — SAT, A-level, IB. With my credentials I can charge properly. Why would they pay? You pay £100 an hour for maths and physics A-level tutoring from someone who just took them — it's about finding the demand.

David tells me Asper uses Bloomberg terminals for some finance courses — super pumped; I'll take the financial engineering course that leads into that niche. Even if I just stay at U of M, the worst case is: I have my online business and I grow it. You think working ten to twelve hours a day for four years you can't build an online business to $10k a month? That's the floor with your work ethic — easily before 2027.

Worst case: you don't get into Cambridge (unlikely, but possible). You stay in Winnipeg, finish a U of M degree in maths and financial engineering, you've built a $5–10k a month online business in those four years, and you graduate debt-free with cash flow and a real skill. That's not a worst case — that's a better outcome than most graduates get. Then go to Bali and scale the business with the boys, go to YC, do a masters at Stanford — the options are infinite.

Get excited for this year: travel all around Manitoba, all around Canada and the US, hit SF, New York, New Jersey, Toronto, Vancouver; a summer 2027 road trip across North America; every maths, coding and physics competition; scale the trading; read three hundred hard books on financial engineering and stochastic analysis; and post three thousand videos about all of it. This life is what a startup looks like, Jamie — and you get to live it head-on.

Ask God not to lighten your cross but to broaden your shoulders. Never shrink accountability — you are greater than that. Do you think a lighter course load means more focus for the business and trading? No. Go full ham: the full fifteen-credit load, the 24 Starbucks hours (the international student maximum), then high-ticket freelancing in the remaining time. Take the maximum accountability and scale the workload you can tolerate. That is how you're supposed to operate.