Life update: I went to New York again...

I’m back in New York, writing this email from a WeWork.

Guess I can’t stay away from NY haha.

I’ve got an hour before I run to a lunch with a few entrepreneur friends, so I wanted to quickly share a few reflections and updates:

• Went to an author meetup!

  • I’m constantly amazed by how many doors open when you make useful things and put yourself out on the internet.

  • Make a useful body of work. Compound.

  

• A friend asked me how I define ‘failure’. I struggled.

  • What is failure?

  • Is losing failure? How do you define losing?

  • Is losing not getting what you want?

  • Or is that learning?

  • Honestly, I don’t even think about failure.

  • It doesn’t register in my brain. Failure is not an option.

• The traits that make us successful are often the traits that prevent us from enjoying our success.

  • To become successful, you need to move fast, be decisive, have a high bias for action, a sense of paranoia. Those same traits often conflict with slowing down and being present.

• People who have been married. I’m curious… How do you define “love”?

  • My working definition:

  • Love is what you’re willing to sacrifice for.

  • You can tell how much you love someone or something by how much you’re willing to sacrifice to keep it.

• “What are you afraid of?”

  • Been thinking deeply about this question recently.

  • My answer:

  • My macro fear is not living up to my “potential” because I played a short-term game.

  • I have 2 reminders on my phone screen:

  • 1. Don’t interrupt compounding unnecessarily

  • 2. Avoid stupidity

  • I’m on the right track. The only way I lose is if I keep getting distracted or do something that will take me out of the game.

• Underrated hack to learn faster:

  • Have conversations with…

    - people older than you

    - people on different paths

    - people with different goals

    - people younger than you

    - people who inspire you

    - people you’ve inspired

• My first YouTube vlog is out now!!

  • Watch it here: Greece Vlog

• Not enough people talk about psychological age.

  • Biologically I’m 20 years old. Psychologically I feel more like 27.

  • This entire week in New York I’ve hung out with people older than me… and it hasn’t felt weird at all.

• The Kickstarter for my new book closed today. I’ll be emailing everyone who pre-ordered to collect addresses and get your books (and bonuses) sent to you 🙂 

  • For those who missed the pre-order window, the book will be available on Amazon Sep 30th

• I spoke to the Alpha School students this week about entrepreneurship at a young age.

  • The premise: kids learn with AI for 3 hours each day, then spend the rest of the time working on real-world projects. This is the future of education.

  • For the high school, kids will make $1M in EBITDA in 4 years or they get their tuition refunded. Cool premise!

  • Here are the slides from that day.

  

  Shoutout Brooke for joining me!

• Did a fireside chat with Vitoria

  

  Will likely post the recording on YouTube

• Hosted an Asian creator meetup! (sponsored by Stanley)

  • When I first started creating content, there weren’t that many Asian creators, so it’s cool to see more people like me taking the unconventional path!

    

    Shoutout Leo Yu

  • The older I get, the more I realize that life will meet you at your level of audacity. The people who get what they want out of life aren’t necessarily the smartest or most talented. They’re the ones who have the most courage.

• I hit a new deadlift PR (315 lbs).

  • I don’t deadlift often, but working out with others has inspired me to deadlift more.

  • Video here.

• My friend Corey Wilks featured one of my quotes in a Psychology Today article.

  

• Progress is rarely linear. It's usually the result of long periods of feeling like everything is chaotic, failing, and doomed, followed by a short stint where you make quantum leaps. Such is life.

  • Life is really great right now. Family is healthy and happy. Business is growing. In the best shape of my life. Lot of momentum. Thank you all for being a part of it 🙏🏼

    

• In the coming weeks, expect more “value” newsletters on things I’m learning about

  • Scaling a new business to $108k in 6 days

  • Growing my YouTube channel

  • Finding peace in chaos

  • Dating??

Until next week,

Jay “New York Again” Yang

Author of You Can Just Do Things

Ps. Sahil Bloom deeply inspires me. This is cool.

— (@)

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Calling someone fat won’t make you skinny.

Hating on someone’s business wont build you a successful business.

Talking cannot replace doing.

Either go after what you want…

Or bear the consequences of your lack of courage

You can grab your copy here.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Stanley

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I love using AI for everything else.

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