Money, grandmas, and scrappy batman

Hi nerds,

I salute you from Panama, where I’ve been stationed while transitioning US visa status.

I don't have a masters degree, but I've spent ~$5,000/year in courses over the last ~10 years.

200h yoga training, wine sommelier, AI engineering course, erotica writing, smart contract auditing, investing, product sense mastery..

Some I did from universities, others online, some at bars..

10 things are true in all of them

1. Education is just another form of procrastination

Ouch. This one hits home.

Did courses level up my confidence on those topics? Sure!

Underneath that, lies fear in shipping scrappy. And that doesn't go away with a course.

2. Control always stems from fear

Control is how we cope with fear of the unknown.

Releasing control is how we bring pleasure into pressure.

3. It's less about what we do and more about when we start

Only action brings clarity.

The "starting early” muscle grows by launching before we’re ready.

Ideas are alive and they only gain an owner when they're executed.

4. Financial literacy is creative freedom

We all have a relationship with money. More importantly, money funds our dreams.

I know my creative freedom is a positive to the world, ergo it is my duty to build wealth to fund it.

And it is nothing to be ashamed of.

5. Everything compounds

The intentionality we live with,
the relationships we nourish,
the posture and habits,
the funds we allocate,
the ideas we spend time on.

Not making a choice is often picking the worst choice.

6. Most stress is self-inflicted

We're stressed when the expectations we set for ourselves crash with our version of reality.

Limitations are mental barriers,
possibilities are a mindset.
Stress dims when we change narrative, not circumstance.

7. How we do one thing is how we do everything

In the yoga poses, in finances, in relationships.

The lessons I have to learn will come up for me until I face them.

8. Avoiding conflict is how we create the conflict

Uncomfortable conversations early prevent tensions from scaling.

Not having the conversations has the opportunity cost of all I could have attracted had I betted on myself earlier.

9. Confidence comes from owning your truth

People want your story, not your achievements.
Authenticity resonates because it connects soul-to-soul.

The only way through a scandal is taking ownership.

10. Everything is cyclical

Decisions are hats, haircuts, or tattoos.

Hats you can exchange if wrong.
Haircuts take a bit longer to grow out of.
Tattoos are harder to remove if you fuck up.

Nothing lasts forever and that's actually a gift. The gift of the present.

a funky audio

Sanskrit is a language optimized for voice vibration and breathing frequency.

It’s why mantras calm our nervous system. One of the many gifts yoga has left me.

I’ve been loving my email penpal relationships - it’s always fun to hear if anything resonates. Reply here and let’s chat!

— This newsletter is dedicated to my friend Analida, who asked me this (and many other epic questions) over dinner yesterday. Always grateful for your honesty & wisdom.

See you in cyberspace,

Jules 🤸🏻