A few thoughts on money...

I’m feeling a bit emotional right now…

I’m on a bus heading back home. I just spoke at my old college about entrepreneurship.

I had so many students come up to me and say they’ve seen my content on social media - and how much I’ve inspired them to “just do things”.

YES!! That’s exactly why I do what I do.

My goal is to make my life my masterpiece. To show what life can look like when you give an ambitious goal your ALL.

A hill I’m willing to die on: real success is how many people thank you for theirs.

— (@)

Anyway. Today, I wanted to share a few thoughts I shared on money/entrepreneurship this past week:

• The definition of entrepreneur is someone who has ideas and brings them to fruition.

• You don’t have to have a business to be entrepreneurial.

• Ask yourself: (1) What do I want, and (2) What inputs would increase the likelihood I get the output that I want?

• Making money is not hard, it’s just unfamiliar. It’s like a Rubk’s Cube. You think it’s hard? People solve it in under 3 seconds. It’s UNFAMILIAR.

• You don’t want me to give you the step-by-step roadmap. The joy is in figuring it out yourself.

• The best way to learn a skill is to work at an agency for free. Why? (1) you don’t have to build a whole business right away, (2) they’re likely at the edge of their craft, (3) you get to peak at their operations and learn.

• You are in a skill deficit. “What’s the easiest way to make $1k/mo?” Or “How long does it take to get to $10k/mo” are the wrong questions.

  • If you are skilled, you can compress the timelines.

  • I made $124k in 8 days from this new business. How?

  • Speed & specific knowledge

• In general: don’t ask for advice on your ideas, ask for feedback on your attempts. Show that you have skin in the game.

• Entrepreneurship is a courage problem disguised as an intellectual one. We think more research, more analysis, more thinking will solve the answer. When in reality, the only correct answer is action.

• Action produces information. We spend longer delaying doing the task than it takes to actually do the task.

• You want a “Level 1 business”: low startup costs, quick to start, trade what you have (time & energy) for what you don’t (money)

  • Hot take: if you’re young, you’re way better off learning a high income skill and freelancing or apprenticing under an entrepreneur than trying to start your own VC-backed tech startup.

• A useful mental exercise that I like to walk myself through: If you had to make $100,000 this next year, do you think you could do it?

• Now what if your entire family died if you didn't? Do you think you'd approach the problem differently? Of course you would. You'd work harder, think more creatively, move with more urgency, try things you'd never normally try. So why does it take something that extreme to light a fire under your ass?

Okay, that’s a good enough brain dump. What are the FOUR CORE things I want to impart?

1. Making money is not evil.

   • Money inherently can't be evil because it's a tool, and, like all tools, it is about who wields the tool, not the tool itself.

   • If you are a bad person, a bad person with more money will be able to do more bad things. If you are a good person, a good person with more money will be able to do more good things.

   • If you want a reason for making more money or getting rich and you're not really into these materialistic things, think about all the people that you can help. Think about setting up your family and your friends and your loved ones with an amazing life. Think about all the people in your hometown and in your life and strangers on the internet that will be inspired by your story.

2. Making money is a skill

   • A business is just selling a collection of skills for money.

   • There are a million ways to win and only one guaranteed way to lose: never start.

   • Pick ONE thing. Go obsess over it. Follow the rabbit down the hole.

     • Watch content about it

     • Talk to people doing it

     • Try doing it

     • Apprentice under someone doing it

     • Do it

3. Get over yourself

   • The trap of the intelligent person is they want everything figured out before they take action.

   • None of the things I just told you are objectively difficult.

   • But many of you will get hung up on some trivial thing: what niche should I pick? What skill should I learn? Which agency should I learn from?

   • You have to rewire your subconscious beliefs and mindset and emotions and get over yourself.

     • I believe in my ability to figure it out more than any obstacle. That is my super power.

   • Smart people sometimes struggle to get what they want because they think every problem is an intellectual problem that requires more analysis when oftentimes their problem is a courage one that requires action.

   • This is why I love entrepreneurship: it’s a personal development vehicle disguised as a business vehicle.

4. Get into AND stay in the game

   • The market is only saturated to those on the outside. Start.

   • I am a product of volume. 5 years of newsletters. 55,000 tweets. hundreds of books/podcasts consumed. 4 apprenticeships.

   • I've been in this game for the last half decade, and let me tell you, it's a game of attrition.

   • I've had so many friends, mentors, and peers fall off and quit. By simply staying in the game, you can beat 99% of people.

   • As Phil Knight (founder of Nike) once said, "The cowards never started, and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen, us.”

   • So go out, make mistakes, and keep going.

17 year old me: trying to convince people to START. Current me: still trying to convince people to start.

Watched Alex & Leila’s content in 2022. 3 years later, I worked on their media team. STAY IN THE GAME.

Until next week,

Jay “GET IN THE GAME” Yang

Author of You Can Just Do Things & Work With The Best

Ps. Copy

Pps. I rarely ask for favors, but if you're thinking of buying a copy of my new book, I'd appreciate if you did it this week! Would be sick to get both of my books to #1 😊

Grab your copy here :)

Entrepreneur Justin Welsh on what to optimize for:

“Be careful not to become impressive to strangers and unavailable to your family.”

“Don't do something permanently stupid when you're temporarily upset.” — Unknown

I’ve changed my mind…

I don’t think my goal is freedom.

I think my goal is commitment.

I don’t want freedom from obligations.

I want freedom to CHOOSE what I commit to.

A life with little responsibility is a dull and slow death.

Give me responsibility. Give me pressure. Give me stakes.

But stakes that I choose.

One of my favorite management lessons from working with Alex Hormozi is to end every meeting with:

"Who, what, when."

WHO does WHAT by WHEN?

A brand is the result of teaching.

If I point at a car and say the word "car," kids will associate the vehicle with the sound.

A brand works the same way. You're teaching the associations you want your audience to have.

Bad branding is when your audience makes those associations on your behalf.

Good branding is when you make those associations for your audience. It's intentional.

A question I want you to reflect on: what do I need to be associated with, so that when my audience has a problem, they think of me first?

For me, I want people to know I'm the best damn social media copywriter in the space, I'm a marketing strategist, and I have a lot of proof at a young age. Investing in me is like investing in Bitcoin in 2009.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Stanley

I hate using AI to write.

I love using AI for everything else.

Stanley (my AI content agent) helps me distribute my content and maximize my leverage. Here’s how:

• Anytime I post on X, it will automatically post that tweet on Threads and Substack.

• Anytime I post on X, it will automatically design an image of that tweet that I can post on Instagram.

• Anytime I post on X, 7 hours later it will retweet that post so it hits the other side of the world.

• And much much more.

It’s awesome. Try it for free. (I asked the team to give people who use my link 60 days free and my custom automations auto-added to your account).

Forwarded this email? Sign up here
Follow me on Twitter & LinkedIn
Wear YCJDT merch