Wow, these years are turning over like fruit in a blender. As the Italians say: here’s to years, lovers, and glasses of wine – these are things that should never be counted.
This year is a big one for me. It’s the first time in four years I’m celebrating my birthday in my home country. Building off the lists I created in Tel Aviv, Israel (focused on 27 high-level insights) and Cartagena, Colombia (28 specific tactics), I’m now adding 29 rules I can continue to remind myself about.
Currently typing this up in my favorite café in Hermosa Beach, CA, watching the world go by and trying to make sense of it all. These are just the mumble jumble musings of another guy trying to find his way through this rollercoaster we call life. Some might resonate, some might not. Either way, here’s what I’m telling myself these days:
1. Don’t shrink yourself. To paraphrase my boy McConaughey: “So I’m full of myself? Well, who else should I be full of?” When you die, you’re not going to look back on your life and say damn I wish I was not myself more.
2. What you avoid controls you. If you think having uncomfortable conversations is hard, wait till you have the result of not having those conversations.
3. Remember the spotlight effect. We assume someone is analyzing or noticing us much more than they actually do. Most humans live in their own heads and are focused on their own insecurities, not judging you.
4. Imposter syndrome is a benefit, not a curse. If you feel this way: 1) Good, that means you’re hanging out with people brighter than you 2) Everybody gets this, and most of the time, people don’t even know when you’re feeling it (spotlight effect). So lean into it – embrace that beginner’s mindset, learn to color within the lines, and then you can start to color outside of them.
5. You are going to feel inadequate before you become capable. If I want to go to the gym I’m going to feel weak before I’m strong. If I go to class, I’m going to feel stupid before I’m smart. If I go hang out with wealthy people, I’m going to feel broke before I’m rich. The discomfort of being the worst in the room is the price of admission to getting better. Don’t settle for microwaved results, put the work in.
6. Fall in love with the monotonous, small things to do the big things. Fall in love with landing an ollie, not the 360 off a rail. Fall in love with making a basic drum beat, not the platinum song. Fall in love with making a TikTok, not the Oscar-worthy movie. I’ll never get to do the big thing if I can’t get through the small stuff.
7. Recognize the taste gap. There’s often a gap between our current skills and tastes. Taste is what got us into creative work – we know what good looks like. This can make the work we do feel disappointing, but it’s also our North Star to make something better.
8. Stack days, even if it’s just 5 minutes. Even 5 minutes a day adds up. Keep stacking those days.
9. Embrace delusional optimism. If I knew how hard starting this particular company was, I never would have started. Maybe that’s why people with a higher IQ don’t often create companies – you need to be slightly delusional to start, but the optimism carries you through.
10. A watched pot never boils. If you keep checking the thing in the fucking oven, it’s never going to bake. And it’s definitely not gonna cook if you keep taking it out to change the ingredients, remix, and remake. Trust. The. Process.
11. Touch things once. If a solution takes less than 5-10 minutes, and you notice the problem, do it immediately. Don’t put things down until they are finished.
12. Pick one song and play it on repeat. Kinda psychotic, but when I need to focus on deep work, I often pick one song and play it on repeat. For basically the entire day (or whenever the thing I’m doing is done). Helps get into the zone.
13. Use music strategically to shift your mood. When you want a pick-me-up, listen to music in major keys – it’s more uplifting. Minor key music is more melancholic, but you can use it as a mental reset: listen to 5-10 minutes of minor key music, then switch to major key songs to change your mood and uplift yourself.
14. Set clear expectations. Unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments.
15. Use the Michelangelo Effect. Surround yourself with partners and friends who see your “ideal self” and help bring it out. The best relationships happen when everyone involved reminds each other of their potential.
16. Dance to the beat of your own drum. One of the most expensive costs in the world is caring about OPO (other people’s opinion). There is a great line from Rick and Morty that has always stuck with me about this. When all things were going wrong for Rick and he is getting berated, he claps back: “your boos mean nothing to me, I’ve seen what makes you people cheer.” Sometimes, to conduct your orchestra, you need to turn your back on the audience and focus on the music you’re playing.
17. Follow the 3 steps of your professional journey: 1) Get Fed 2) Feed Yourself 3) Feed Others. Learn, Earn, Return. Learn the Game. Win the Game. Coach the Game.
18. Understand that money is a lagging indicator. Money follows these 3 areas: Be the 1) Best at what you do 2) Have High Demand 3) Be Irreplaceable.
19. Think of money as gasoline on a road trip. You need gasoline to do the road trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.
20. There are 2 ways to price projects: Price to win or price for profit. Know which game you’re playing.
Price to win: Often happens when you’re bidding through a formal RFP, platform/portal, and/or when competition is fierce. Have a plan already in place to automate, delegate, or outsource at some point.
Price for profit: Happens when someone has worked with you before and likes you. Instead of a formal process, you can win contracts over an email, text, or beer. Celebrate and make sure to knock the project out of the park.
21. AI won’t take your job, but someone using AI will. Think of an accountant who didn’t want to use Excel when it came out. Accountants didn’t go out of business, but those who didn’t learn Excel did. Stay abreast of the latest tools.
22. Don’t let AI lose your ability to write. Calculators weren’t invented for you to forget basic math. You are (and always forever will want to be) a free thinker. Yes, you can use it to help expedite work emails. Yes, you can use it as a deck starter for a deliverable. Yes, it can pressure test and even clean up some of your thoughts. But to write on one’s own is to think. To have your own unique voice. To critique and analyze. You are still human. Don’t lose your ability to express yourself using your own words.
23. Pick your business partners like you’d pick a spouse. Follow the Buffett rule and look for 3 things: intelligence, energy, and integrity. By far the most important is integrity. If someone lacks this, the other 2 become dangerous.
24. Go on stag hunts, stop hunting rabbits. The bigger the dragon, the more epic the story.
25. Make decisions using the Head, Heart, and Gut Test. Run a body scan from top to bottom to determine if something is a good or bad decision. Look for clear yeses or nos. If any of the 3 tests fail, it’s a no.
26. Reduce your “should do” bucket. There are things you 1) need to do 2) want to do 3) should do. Having enough money means you can get rid of most of the “should do” bucket – all those obligations that drain your energy but don’t serve your goals or bring you joy. Financial freedom isn’t about buying more stuff, it’s about buying back your time from things you don’t actually want to be doing.
27. For at least one week of the year, track all your activities and mark them as “energy giving” or “energy sucking”. Bake in “bright lights” that you find are energy-giving and don’t cost much (from a timing perspective). For me, that’s stretching every morning and catching the sunset every evening.
28. Look for “Hic sunt leones” on the map of life. Go out into the unknown and face the danger head-on. Always remember: travel is not a reward from working, it’s an education for living.
29. Vivre au jour le jour – Live day by day. All we are guaranteed is the present – so hug your friends longer, sip that coffee slowly, and squeeze every drop of juice from life.
Well, I officially escaped the 27 club. Another candle on the cake, ring around the tree trunk, cycle around the fiery star at the center of our solar system…I’ve been able to rack up more miles on this fleshly vehicle that is my body. Cheers to that. Following up on my list from last year that was higher level insights, I’ve added some “rules for life” here that I like for their tactical nature. Here’s to continued progress and implementation. One day better, every day, for all days.
When getting on a metro, wear your backpack in front of you. This will stop you from being robbed and bumping into people unnecessarily.
When walking into a public bathroom, take the closest toilet, it’s been scientifically proven to be the cleanest, while most people assume it’s not.
Utilize small talk as a metric in order to gauge basic evolutionary principles: is this person a threat? Anything off-putting? If they can handle a basic conversation, then they most likely will be able to interact on a deeper level.
In a world of ever-growingAI, IQ is a depreciating asset while EQ is an appreciating asset. Most people listen to others with the intention to reply. Some listen with the intention to learn. But very few people listen with the intention to understand. When we do this, we can build out a map of the other person, and understand how this new information fits into their overall goals, dreams, and core values that they believe in. Hard skills can and will be automated, but the ability to truly know someone, what they stand for, and be able to relate to them, is something only humans can do.
Creativity, or anything we deem perfect is only 10% substance. 90% of it is editing. Fine-tuning,tweaking, adjusting, correcting. It’s one thing to do something, it’s quite another to do it well. This is where the grace and “art” come in.
When going to a restaurant, at least 20% of the time – don’t look at the menu, ask the waiter what they recommend, and just get that.
Don’t have coffee for the first 90 minutes after waking up, it’s been proven to have reverse effects since you are dehydrated in the morning. Drink water instead. Along these lines, don’t drink coffee after 4pm. You need to sleep.
Embrace Shoshin in everything you do. Have a beginner’s mindset and always be open to the possibility of new opportunities. Spend more time playing, and always be curious.
Use ego as a driver. If I work in a public area, I check my phone less, because I want to appear productive. If I run where other people are running, my speed increases, because I don’t want to get passed. If I want to improve in a sport, play with others that are slightly better. Never be the smartest person in the room, and if you ever think you are, change rooms.
Create incentives for yourself and your company wisely. When the British were governing India, they were concerned about cobras and offered a monetary reward for every snake brought to them. Soon after, local entrepreneurs started breeding cobras just to collect the bounties. After the government found out and ended the policy, all cobras used for breeding were released, which as a result, increased the total cobra population. Oftentimes the incentives we create for ourselves do not align with our own goals.
Utilize Pareto’s Law – 80% of your results come from 20% of your activities. 80% of your problems come from 20% of your activities. Trim the fat, and focus on what matters most.
Get paid in USD, spend in pesos, yen, rupees, euros, etc. US is the best place to make money, Europe is the best place to spend, Southeast Asia / Latin America is the best arbitrage (value per buck).
Drink less. I know it’s hard for you to admit, but your parents were onto something here. Not saying you should give it up entirely, some of your favorite memories have been after a couple of beers where you and your current/new friends loosened up a bit, but sometimes a night in is better than going out. And the next day definitely is.
When you are angry or stressed, go lift some heavy rocks in the gym.
As far as I know, there is only one true answer to fully getting over heartbreak: time.
It’s ok to reach out for help, no man is an island. And if you have ever seen further than others, know that it’s because you stood on the shoulders of giants.
The ultimate form of leverage is when you are so indisputably good, that people call you when they need help.
Remember the 5×5 rule – Most of us spend way too much time sweating the small stuff. If it won’t matter in 5 years, don’t spend more than 5 minutes worrying about it.
Choose the third door into the nightclub of life. In life, there are always three ways in. There’s the first door, where 99% of people wait in line, hoping to get in. There’s the second door, where billionaires and royalty slip through. But then there is always, always… the third door. It’s the entrance where you have to jump out of line, run down the alley, climb over the dumpster, bang on the door a hundred times, crack open the window, and sneak through the kitchen. But there’s always a way in.
Apply the principle of Misogi – Do something so difficult one day of the year (every year) that it has an impact on you for the other 364 days. Run a marathon, quit a job, start a business, etc.
Follow the Rule of 100 – if you spend 100 hours in a year (equals 18 min a day) at working on one skill, you will be better than 95% of the world’s population.
When I want to be more productive, go to phone settings –> Color Filters –> Greyscale mode on. Your brain will be 40% less ‘attracted’ to social media and other phone distractions.
Pretend that you have a camera crew always following you around. Be the hero in your own story/movie. Your friends are the sidekicks, your music is the soundtrack, and your challenges are part of the character development. But you will come out on the other side, and it will be better than you can ever imagine.
Your days are made up of good, bad, and “just ok.” 10% of the days you wake up amazing, ready to conquer the world, kiss the girl, and seize the day. These days you don’t need motivation, you are going to have a great time regardless. 10% of your days you wake up sick, heartbroken, injured, or upset – these days are the hardest to push through, and even when you do, they usually don’t move the needle forward that much. But the 80% days, the days that define your life, are the “just ok” ones. These are the mas o menos / comme ci, comme ça / so-so. They make up the majority of your life – so you need to push, squeeze the juice, memento mori, carpe diem, and do whatever it takes to win. It will make all the difference.
Be a traveler. Go to the local restaurant whose name or menu you can’t pronounce. Jump in the local pickup basketball or futbol game. Walk the streets aimlessly until you inevitably get lost. Take the public transport. Have a drink with strangers. Learn how to say “thank you,” “sorry,” “hello,” and be able to order a cup of coffee in the local slang. Say yes to the randomness and craziness that life throws at you.
Be a surfer. Paddle for waves, and when you catch one, enjoy it and be present. Yes, you know that wave is going to end, but it doesn’t matter nor make the ride any less beautiful. The more you surf, the more practice you put in, the more waves you catch. The collection of these raw, flashy, fleeting moments is the pinnacle of human experience.
Be a snowboarder. Life is best when you are “living on the slope.” It’s here that we push past our comfort zone, try new things, and experience the most growth. Nobody ever became a pro skier or snowboarder by staying on the bunny slopes.
Don’t worry. A bad day is coming for all of us, whether we like it or not. Someone we love will die, and we will die. So no need to cry over spilled coffee or flat tires. Enjoy the sunshine as you sit in traffic, be the last to release from a hug, and wake up every day cheesing from ear to ear. Life’s pretty great when you can bathe in the sun and dance in the rain.
A couple months ago, while I was updating my work resume, I suddenly asked myself: What am I actually proud of? I don’t give a shit about how I improved X% of a client’s operations, increased efficiency by Y, or saved Z amount of dollars for capitalistic companies that treat people as a number and data point.
So what do I care about?Enter the life resume: things that I deem important milestones for me about what I value and what has shaped me to be the “man” I am today.
LIFE EXPERIENCE
PLYS, Incorporated______________________ IL → OH → NJ → NY → Nomad
Son, Brother, Godfather, Friend, Lover, Athlete, Artist, US Citizen, Human
June, 1996 – Current
Scored 10 goals in a park district soccer game when I was 10 years old, received claps from over-competitive parents and was told that I’m a stud, thus beginning my egotistical nature and God complex
Became an IHSA All-State Tennis player in Doubles due to quitting (being cut from) the varsity soccer team, missing school dances, having no social life, and realizing that Tennis players are, on average, less athletic than other sports teams
Won a $10K Business Scholarship after building a business plan and pitching my company called “Cake & Bake”
Failed building +30 side hustles, ranging from: lemonade stands to E-Commerce, selling “friendship” and the “possibility of giving my number” to affiliate marketing, coaching Tennis to selling books, trying to build physical products to coding social media apps, and everything in between
Built and sold Crazy Men’s Dress Socks, which, after all was said and done, probably broke even due to all my failed marketing campaigns
Read +50 books on self-help, productivity, and psychology to improve my crippling anxiety about not currently being Michael Jordan or Elon Musk
Created a Mental Models life guide that is +50 pages long and is structured on a use-case basis (when I am eating, when I want to sleep, when I want to get a job, when I want to develop a new skill, etc.)
Mastered how to play Riptide, Viva La Vida, Cigarette Daydreams, and other generic white boy music (except Wonderwall) in order to be campfire-ready, impress my drunk friends, and convince pretty girls that I’m actually a cool guy
Failed at becoming a “college dropout” and ended up getting the meaningless Magna Cum Laude accolade in Finance and Marketing
Cold emailed +5K prospective employers/mentors and scheduled +200 calls/coffee chats in order to land internships and full-time offers
Skipped my graduation and booked a bus from Ohio to meet up with some mentors in NYC
Made coloring books for executives (aka Management Consulting), where I became very good at going to meetings, preparing for meetings (I can make slides very fast), presenting at meetings, taking notes that could be included in meetings, and of course, scheduling future meetings
Cut my chin open and got stitches while riding my longboard around a neighborhood (you should have seen the pebble)
Traveled around North America (US, Canada, Mexico) with 3 friends for 2 years, where we visited +40 states, worked remotely from +50 Airbnbs, visited +20 National Parks, hiked, surfed, skied, and somehow didn’t kill each other in the process
Saved from drowning by my friend, Ben, while hiking through the Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah
Gained and lost +$100K in the stock market through my own personalized investing strategy, buying shares in individual companies I believe in, leveraged ETFs in particular high-growth sectors, and speculating on cryptocurrencies
Quit my consulting job and solo traveled around Europe, Asia, and Africa for +1.5 years, visiting +45 countries
Documented my travels and thoughts through blogs, photos, and films, yielding a culmination of +100K views across all platforms
Learned how to land a backside 360 on a snowboard after many attempts of falling on my ass, praying to a Snow God I don’t believe in, and putting +150 days in on the mountains (skiing US, Canada, France, Italy, and Switzerland)
Capitalized on my privilege and learned how to be a subpar surfer, traveling to some of the best spots in the world (California, Hawaii, North Carolina, Portugal, Indonesia, Morocco)
Given the opportunity to be involved in several love stories while traveling, some that I regret, some that I cherished, and other(s) that may still be ongoing (if only someone would confirm with the other party)
Played pick-up basketball in +10 countries around the world
Hiked +3 14ers (mountains over 14K feet) in Colorado, US
Biked across the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland
Sumitted Pen y Fan (highest peak in South Wales), Bobotov (highest peak in Montenegro), and Mount Toubkal (highest peak in North Africa)
Bungee Jumped from Maslenica Bridge (tallest point to jump from in Croatia)
Paraglided (in tandem, lame I know) over Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia
Experienced Oktoberfest (Wiesn) in Munich, Germany
Hot air ballooned in Cappadocia, Turkey
Island hopped around Hawaii, Greece, Indonesia, and Thailand
Trekked through the Sahara Desert on camel and foot with the Berbers (indigenous group of nomads) in Morocco
Marveled at some of the Wonders of the World (Grand Canyon, Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Giza, Petra, etc.)
Bathed in the Dead Sea (lowest point on earth)
Designed a travel app (WIP) to revolutionize the way backpackers/nomads interact and stay in touch with their travel friends
Informed that I could be a professional dancer by +200 drunk people in my life
Repeated the exact same 3 magic tricks at parties that I learned when I was 13 years old
Notified that only 1 of 8 of my jokes land and are actually funny, but that has never stopped me from trying (quantity over quality approach)
FUTURE LIFE
Goals: Visit +100 countries in the world, retire from the working world, drop an album, get sky/scuba dive certified, be a better surfer/snowboarder, be a better friend, be a better human
After writing this out, it’s been great to look back at this to 1) Reflect and show gratitude for the life I’ve been blessed with 2) Use it as an operating model for living. If I ever come across a challenge or opportunity that would make a bullet point on this list, then I have to do it.
“Life is our resume. It is our story to tell, and the choices we make write the chapters. Can we live in a way where we look forward to looking back?”
Writing this in a cafe in Tel Aviv, Israel, I can’t help but think about my friend Beane while typing this. That guy is obsessed with this number. Well, it feels like just the other day I was the 17-year-old, skinny, acne-prone, cocky, full-of-himself boy who thought he was going to take on the world. Come to think of it…all of that still holds true.
Reflecting on my short time here in this massive playground we call “life,” here’s 27 things I have realized and am trying to understand/implement in my day to day:
(Note: Like most things in life, few of these ideas are original. Inspirations and mentors include, but are not limited to: Tim Ferriss, Naval Ravikant, Jim Rohn, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey, Gary Vee, Alex Hormozi, Bill Perkins, Zig Ziglar, and others)
No one owes you anything. And no one cares about what you are feeling or how “hard you’ve had it.” People only care about what you can do for them. How you’ve made them feel.
Privilege breeds more privilege. I’ve lived an easy life according to most definitions. And because I’ve been “born ahead” of other people, the race to certain life milestones has been more accessible, which gives me the ability to get to the next one quicker, and so on. If you are the best football player on your team at a young age, you will play more minutes than your peers, giving you more touches on the ball, more game time experiences, and more opportunities to grow. This only widens the gap. Making it harder and harder for those with less to catch up. It’s incredibly important for me to recognize that I was born with pocket Aces, show gratitude for the life I’ve been handed, and try to pay it forward / even the scales for others I cross paths with.
Life is like Netflix. Avoid the endless scrolling, pick a goddamn movie, and see it through.
Focus on ROE – not return on equity, but return on experience. Memories are all we get to keep at the end of the day. So invest in things that will give you the most memory dividends. For one-time purchases, you can have a memory dividend that pays out every time you relive or retell your stories. With this in mind, it pays more to have experiences earlier in life. Instead of constantly worrying about your Work Resume, think about your Life Resume. What would you put on it?
Add a little bit of spice. Brush your teeth / eat with your non-dominant hand, angle your hats differently, lift up one sock, grow out your hair. Have fun.
Personalize everything. Create your own brand. Create a unique system of writing, thinking, and talking that is specific to you and works for you. Pick a favorite number, favorite color, favorite sports team, etc, and own it.
Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what sets your soul on fire. And go do that.
Don’t wait for people. Do epic shit. Your people will find you.
Taste everything once. You never know what you may like until you try it yourself.
Introduce yourself to everyone. First and last name.
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be. Pet the dog/cat, smell the flower, ask the girl out, try the new food, watch the sunset, book the ticket, take the flight, ride the wave, jump off a snowboard, sing in karaoke, dance in the street.
Exercise the mind. Come up with 10 new ideas a day. Become an idea machine by taking the quantity over quality approach.
Tell stories. People don’t remember statistics or facts, but they buy into humans. To be human is to have your own story, your own thoughts, emotions, perspective, memories, and experiences. Share it with others.
Take opposing viewpoints on the world and play them against each other, adopting whatever serves your purpose at the time. Examples:
When I want to work harder / do more, I tell myself: This is my one life, as far as I know it. I already won the lotto, being born a human, which is 400 Trillion to 1 odds. I have around 85 years of life, so I’m in my second quarter already. The first quarter of life was just learning the rules of this video game we call life, now I need to dominate life and defeat bosses. I need to squeeze the juice and do everything possible to live my best life. To avoid being on my deathbed and have “what if” floating around.
When I feel overwhelmed/stressed, I tell myself: This doesn’t matter. Nothing really matters. In a hundred years, I and everyone I know will be dead, and no one will remember anything. I could go on to create the world’s most valuable company, and then be 6 feet under the ground in 50 years. I could also play video games for the rest of my life, and it still doesn’t matter. Legacy doesn’t fucking matter when you’re dead. So no point in my stress. I have lived many a conflict in my life, and most of them never came to pass, but just lived in my head. So screw it, take the day off, and stop applying needless pressure.
You catch more flies with honey. Often, the best way to win an argument is to avoid one altogether.
Wealth comes from VALUE x LEVERAGE x SCALE. VALUE = Time / Money / Improvement in people’s lives. LEVERAGE = Capital x People x Systems. SCALE is derived from the number of people served. In today’s world, the quickest way to grow is with permissionless leverage. (Media or Code)
In a world where everything is finite, play infinite games. My friends, business partners, hobbies, and passions should be lifetime pursuits. Perfection and winning the game is not the goal. The goal is to keep playing the game, and to get one day better, every day.
You get more out of reading 1 book that’s great 5 times, than out of reading 5 mediocre books.
Extraordinary accomplishments come from doing ordinary things for extraordinary periods of time.
Focus time and energy on Multipliers. Multipliers are activities that compound and yield dividends. Once-in-a-lifetime experiences, goodwill to others, financial investments, and personal development are examples. Activities that are directly related to your time, and cannot be shortened in the future, should be avoided, unless you get real enjoyment from them. For this reason, since I don’t like cooking, I should avoid it and prioritize other activities.
You gain status by giving more to the group than you get. Note: status is a tool that can help you accomplish your goals, but it should not be the top priority.
Make sure the girl sitting next to you in the passenger seat is the same girl who would be waiting with you at a bus stop if life turned out differently.
The current economic system is broken. We were not meant to just study things that don’t fascinate us, work a shitty job, retire in old age, and then die. Life is a marathon, but I like to live my life in short sprints. Ideally, I break life into 3 phases: Exploration, Deep Work, and Vacation. When I wake up, I would like to have options of different projects that I find 1) Meaningful 2) Play to my skill sets 3) Make me money 4) Give me the opportunity to grow. I then can pick what I find to be the best fit at the time, and work hard on it. After that, maybe I go dance my ass off in Ibiza, surf in Bali, or visit friends in the US. Once my system is cleared, I start thinking about the next thing, read more books, take more courses, and learn/hone more skills. The cycle repeats, burnout never happens, I still save for “raining days” or old age, but I don’t miss out on the present moment of my current age. Because, at the end of the day, the present is all we have.
You don’t become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror, you become it by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are. Outwork your own self-doubt.
Ready, Fire, Aim. when you see an opportunity, take the shot. If you miss, then you readjust and take another shot. If you end up waiting, aiming for the perfect shot, the opportunity is often already gone
Understand that the 3 biggest decisions in life are 1) what you do 2) who you are with 3) where you live. Practically everything else is cheese.
Time is the most valuable currency in the world. A Billionaire on his deathbed would give all of his net worth for one more year. Imagine how much he would trade to be in your shoes right now. You are worth more than a Billionaire, so act as such, and be resilient with what you trade your time with.
Taking into account a life expectancy of 85, and just turning 27, I have approximately 1.8 Billion seconds left. Time Billionaire > Monetary Billionaire, so wake up every day smiling.
Saying goodbye to the UK was bittersweet. I was leaving behind a girl that I was falling for, a friend who was letting me crash at his place for free, a drone that I was allowed to fly (fuck you and your permit policies, Morocco), and a country where I could order food without using google translate. But I was ready for the next step. Ready for a new continent. Ready for a new adventure. Plus, I believed my “business plans” would start in Morocco. Between my adventures, I could carve out time every day to develop my ideas, which upon looking back, was harder than if I had stayed put…but I digress. Well, one thing I was for sure not going to miss: UK prices.
Marrakech
I flew into the Marrakech, Morocco airport, about an hour’s walk from downtown…so naturally I walked the whole thing rather than pay for a taxi.
En route to my hostel, I found out that this city was one of the places where Google Maps would not be that helpful. Sometimes Maps thinks you can pass through brick walls, swim across rivers, and teleport into homes. Significantly worse than a usual street in NYC, but still not as bad as Venice with Maps, I eventually found the hostel, checked in, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed. Next day at breakfast, I sat down next to 2 Americans and a Swede, with one objective in mind: had any of them been to the coast? How was the surf?
I knew that the best season was September to March, but as it was mid-April already, I wanted to get a dirt/in-the-weeds view of the situation. Not the bird’s eye/sometimes inaccurate view that Magic Seaweed (MSW) provides. Lucky for me, the Swede just came from the coast and was a surfer. He fit the stereotype: lanky build, tan, bleach blonde, wavy-haired, free spirit, who may possibly have a minor weed addiction. Although it seems all the best surfers I know are shorthaired (Kelly Slater is bald for Christ’s sake), I still have a cognitive bias when it comes to what I view as the “surfer look.”
The Swede was a chill dude and filled me in on all the appropriate information: Yes, the surf is still manageable, but fading quickly. A lot of the traditional surf breaks are getting wind blown, the water slightly choppy, and there were still hoards of people fighting over the waves like the American masses on a Black Friday. One break in particular stuck out to me. In a town called Imsuoane, there was a right-hander that claims (or makes the case for) the longest break in Africa. If you catch it early, you could ride the wave for like 2 minutes. Say less. That morning, I formulated my plan: stay in Marrakech for a couple days, go to Essaouira (also a surf town) for 2 days, and then take another bus to Imsuoane.
With my “life admin” out of the way, I began to look around for any other miscreants who may want to hoon around Marrakech. Right at that moment, I saw 2 curly-haired, rugged, simple, yet well-dressed guys walk down for breakfast. Colored shirts slightly wrinkled as if they had slept in them from the night before (classic backpacker look), I overheard their conversation and immediately labeled them Brits, probably brothers. Turns out they were cousins, and more than happy to join the Swede/I for a little walkabout the city. The Cousins had been in Morocco for a couple days (coming from Tangier the night before) and had somehow already effortlessly assimilated into the culture. It definitely helped that one of them spoke French. For the next couple of days, we got lost in the streets of the Medina and ate our way through Marrakech – drinking heaps of mint tea, Tagine, and Couscous. I couldn’t help but notice a lot of similarities between Morocco and Turkey – the religion, the food dishes (Tagine is basically the clay pots that they love in Cappadocia), the architecture/mosques, the hustle of the people in the streets, the overall culture/way of life.
The timing was particularly special, as it was during the last few days of Ramadan. Because of this, the streets were quite empty during the day, but electric after sundown. A tradition I started was to find a cafe and order tea right around sunset – the changing from day to night with the Moroccans during Ramadan felt like I was in a live timelapse of calm to chaos. The gardens (Jardines) were also quite stunning, with my favorite being Jardin Majorelle. If colors had a smell, it would be the flowers that overflowed in a natural yet symmetrical style throughout the guided walkways and copious archways that drifted through the Jardin walls. After collecting my footage and promising to make the Reel/TikTok trend of “pretending to be in a Wes Anderson film,” I jumped on a SupraTour bus headed to Essaouira. I didn’t realize then how good I had it. Unlike the main bus company in Morocco (CTM), Supratours have strong AC in their vehicles.
Essaouira
My days in Essaouira were a time of impatient waiting before the storm. Upon arriving, I immediately realized that this Greek-like, blue-and-white town was a kite surfing spot, and the waves were too small to do any traditional surfing at this time of year. Cursing the mudbloods that are kitesurfers, but at the same time secretly wishing I could override my cheapskate nature and pay for lessons, I ended up enviously watching these “wannabe” surfers on their devices. It was nice to feel the sand under my feet, the salt water smell, and the coastal wind that makes you want a hoodie on a +30 C day.
Reflecting on my goals, I realized this was a perfect time to make some headway on my ideas. So where am I at? I’m a little under 3 years of being a nomad, +1 year of quitting the job and not working, and coming to the realization that the longer I stay abroad, the more I don’t ever want to work again. Yes, I miss my friends and family, but I owe it to them to “live my best possible life.” To figure out how to live a bold life and do “epic shit.” At this point, I still don’t know what that fully means. Should I go back to my friends in the States and live out that “Friends” “How I Met Your Mother” time of my life? Or continuing burning cash in the outwardly flashy, but often lonely road of solo travel? And what should I do with the “burning cash” situation?” I have some offers to work remotely for “the man” aka companies, but is that me “selling out?” Will I never be able to indefinitely break free from the 9-5 life? With all these questions, it seems a project for me could be to build something of my own, around a topic that I genuinely love. I know I like to travel, so I decided to build out a customer journey of the typical traveler, to see if there were any gaps in the current market solutions. This resulted in building a PowerPoint deck on the current landscape of the travel market, what I viewed as current gaps, opportunities within the gaps, and constraints within the opportunities. Can take the boy out of consulting, but not the consulting out of the boy. But the keyword in all of this is boy. I still feel like one, and as such, could only think about getting to Imsuoane as quickly as possible to catch some of the last good waves of the season.
Imsuoane
I needed some preparation though. Turns out, in a lot of Morocco surf towns, there are no ATMs. And there were no traditional busses going from Essaouira to Imsuoane. After asking around, I learned of a “Soup to Souk” shuttle that takes the route and booked it for the next day. Getting into Imsuoane before sunset, I immediately dropped off my shit in the hostel and headed to the nearest surf shop. Within the hour, I was out on one of Imsuoane’s 2 breaks, this one called “The Cathedral.” And boy did it feel like one. The erosion of the beach over time had created a cliff. Restaurants and surf shops overlooking the ocean, and rocky steps down the cliff led to the paddle-out spots. As it was high tide, the “beach” was basically nonexistent and I entered the water directly from the rocks. Finding the channels to paddle out was quite seamless and, once beyond the break, I took a moment to soak in my surroundings. Wow, I’m in another country, another continent, surfing again.
Now, something to clarify: I have not and I do not call myself a surfer, but a surf advocate. A passionate seeker and willful student I am, but I have lacked the consistency, drive, and skill of what I deem to be classified as a “surfer.” I one day would love to call myself a surfer, but want to know that I have earned that title before I’ve bestowed myself it. In my journey, however, I have been very privileged to be out in the water of some top-tier spots (California, Hawaii, Portugal, Indonesia) and as always, love to analyze the particular breaks and unique nuances within my surroundings.
Cathedral was no different. With the aforementioned cliff and restaurant perched on top of it, I felt as if I was a modern-day gladiator in an arena, with people viewing/cheering from the nosebleeds. And yet the waves in front of me and the need to paddle kept me fully occupied at times. It’s this juxtaposition that I think is special with surfing: the desire to be alone and one with nature, yet still at the same time to perform and show off to one’s friends. I also love the hunt. The hunt for the proper wave, the correct takeoff timing, the thrill of my (incredibly small, but riveting) drop-in, where you feel light as a feather. And then the knowledge that even if/when you catch the wave, you know the feeling is temporary. No matter, there will always be another wave.
Salt-watered hair still dripping over my tangerine-colored trunks, sunburnt, eyes red, smiling from ear to ear, I made my way back to the hostel. Here I met some future friends – a German, a Swiss, and a Pole. These guys had been in Imsuoane for the past 6 weeks, living and breathing the surf life. Talking with them and the Moroccans running the hostel, I learned a lot about the 2 breaks (Cathedral and the Bay) and how much I had missed out on over the past month. The break I had surfed that day could become more than 4X the current size. The other break (the Bay) was the long right-hander, reef break that was currently pretty mellow in size, but could have some final good days before the season was officially a wash. I was obsessed with how they talked about everything surf. It seemed every conversation went back to a previous or current day out on the water. Here was a paradise, a bubble, in a little shitty town that really doesn’t have anything going for it, except the waves. But that was all that mattered. It protected us from the world news, from previous relationships, from our quarter-life crises. Like an alcoholic looking for his next drink, like a serial killer looking for his next victim, like a mother looking for her child, all that mattered was catching that next wave.
I awoke the next day to find the surf flat (as predicted by MSW). Devastated, I still decided to walk around the town and beach to get familiar with my new surroundings. I learned 2 key things:
There are a lot of stray dogs here, and they literally have their own “gang” with regions. If another dog from outside the pack was to cross the imaginary border, (usually in pursuit of a trash can) the gang dogs would attack it and eventually scare it off its course. That same attacked dog would patrol its borders elsewhere, as if a scout searching for any trespassers. Once, I saw a black lab cross its path for some peanuts on the street, and the patrol dog howled to alert its crew. When the crew showed up a second later, they went after the black lab, who was prepared, and quickly bolted back from whence it came. The patrol crew did not even eat the leftover peanuts, but were satisfied that the black lab didn’t get to them. We humans really are animals and no better than dogs.
Even during the offseason, the beach in this little town can get busy. Swarms of tourists will bring out the foamies to surf the 1-2 feet whitewater, the local Moroccans will draw lines in the sand and set up football (soccer) games, and the other bystanders will hang out by a cafe to read / people watch. While I was walking the oceanfront, a ball drifted towards me. I wasn’t going to miss this chance. I did a quick kick-up, juggled a few times, and sent it back over to a Moroccan. My little display of showmanship worked, and luckily, as they were odd-numbered, I was motioned over to play. Communicating as if we were playing a game of charades, (none of them spoke English) I was assigned a team and played football with them for the rest of the afternoon. Ah, this is why I love sports. It’s a universal language.
Although I had a great time that afternoon and it was a highlight of my time in Imsuoane, I wish that ball never rolled over to me. As a result of playing barefoot, I ended up having 2 massive blood blisters on both feet, which made surfing quite difficult for the rest of the week. Every time I did catch a wave (a rarity), I felt as if I was standing on spikes. The walk to the beach made me feel like a cripple with my haphazard hobbling, and the salt water (while relieving at times) did not help the feet heal whatsoever.
With the season waning, the last few good surf days over, and my blistered feet, I decided it was time to bid goodbye to Imsuoane and make my way up to the North of Morocco. I stopped by Essaouira for one more day to do the tourist stuff, and then I was back on the road to Casablanca. En route, I gained a fascinating appreciation for my goateed, suited-up, tie straight, Moroccan driver. I have never seen a more horn-happy, hairy armed (when he took the suit off), man. He only spoke Arabic, which made it tough to learn how long our snack/toilet breaks were, as well as if he could turn on the AC. But his ability to deal with the ever-winding roads while changing the music on his playlist was enchanting. He conducted business transactions at stoplights and once made a transaction for some mint leaves within 10 seconds, before throwing the change at the merchant and tossing the leaves on his dashboard.
Casablanca
Oh and now we come to Casablanca, the soulless city, as I like to call it. Even before visiting, all locals I met from there only asked me one question: “Why?” I wasn’t so sure why I visited myself. It could be because I heard of a famous old movie with its title. Or I mistakenly thought that it was the “White City” due to its name. Or maybe because there was an easy bus route there from Essaouira. Most likely a combination of all three, I found Casablanca to be a city that would be ok to work in (seemed like there were a lot of business opportunities as the economic capital of Morocco), but probably bad for my mental state. The typical waiter, city walker, businessman, father, mother, and child all seemed to have the same expression on their face: Dead behind the eyes. Whenever I struck up a conversation, they seemed to sway all their positive stories towards times outside of the city, and viewed their life in the city as a “phase.” Wanting to leave the party before the cops show up, I booked a train (they have trains in Morocco?) to Tangier. Yes, they have trains (in certain areas). And they are just as good as any European train I’ve been on.
Tangier
On the train ride to Tangier, I realized I was traveling too fast to actually get any work done on my ideas. Self-doubt and insecurity began to creep in. Hello darkness my old friend. But while I was concerned with breaking the promises I made to myself, I also realized that I need to follow “whatever sets my heart on fire.” And currently, that was traveling fast, writing, and making videos. So I decided I was going to do that, and pick up the pieces where they may. Continue down the path of the hedonistic treadmill, if at least for a little while more.
Checking into my hostel, I immediately went to the rooftop to catch the view. In the corner of the rooftop was a slender, olive-skinned, blueish-green-eyed girl, gracefully putting a cigarette to her seemingly soft lips. The divergence between 2 thoughts popped into my head at this moment: A cigarette is terrible for you and we all know it can kill you, and yet here in front of me is a girl that could single-handedly bring low-rise jeans back into style. And herein lies my problem: If I saw an out-of-shape man smoking a cigarette, I would automatically associate him as a loser. But take a fit individual, well-fashioned and groomed, in the exact same scenario: sexy. The double standards I have are remarkable.
“Hey”
“Hey, this is an incredible view right?!?” I wasn’t talking about the buildings.
“Yeah, it sure is.”
“Are you American or Canadian?” Tough to miss that accent.
And so the conversation continued, classic topics for backpackers: Where you from, what’s your route, how long have you been traveling for, you know, the typical stuff. Stuff that gets boring real quick for me. But this young Lindsay Lohan (if she never did drugs) looking individual had a unique background: Yes, she was American, but had spent half of her childhood in Brazil. She also spoke Portuguese and Spanish fluently. Damnit, now I’m the uncultured stereotypical American in the group. I gotta change that at some point and brush up on Duolingo. All of Morocco was a good reminder of that. In every place I’ve ever been before, English was always the first or second language spoken. It was the language of movies, music, and the hostel world. But here in Morocco, English fell to 3rd or 4th place with the locals (Arabic, French, Spanish, and then English). And while it was helpful becoming friends with an American-Brazilian who could ask “Espanol o Ingles?”, I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.
For the next couple of days, we collected a group of other travelers (an American, a Dutch, and a Brit) and explored the town together. Lots of coffee, tea, camel rides, cave exploration, nougat snacks, and random conversations later – I decided Tangier was not bad. As I was coming from Casablanca, my overall opinion might be slightly skewed.
Chefchaouen
The blue city. The white girl wannabe influencers really come out of the woodwork in this place. But I get it, there are only a few towns that I thought were as picturesque as the cobbled streets, the streaks of freshly painted blue walls (they had just added a layer), the sights and sounds of the souk (market), and the surrounding silhouette shape of mountains that look down on the town as if providing a celestial blessing from above. I purposefully spent most of my time here alone. I didn’t want to make friends, I had some more “life admin” to do, existential thoughts to have, and videos/creative ideas to pursue.
Life admin consisted in planning my future travel to-dos: 1) book a flight to Egypt. Against all concerns from several friends about it being unsafe and me inevitably being scammed, I couldn’t shake that desire to see the pyramids. 2) Trekking through the Sahara Desert by Camel/foot 3) Hiking in the Atlas Mountains. After booking my flight to Egypt from Marrakech, I decided to figure out plans for numbers 2 and 3 later.
The existential thoughts were not worth dwelling on, but I did go down a rabbit hole of creativity while in the blue city. I’ve often found this to be the case: the more I find a place blooming with beautiful backdrops, the more “life” around me, the more creativity and “life” I can produce from within myself. My poison of choice here was around AI. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past years exploring this topic, but I started getting a more grounded idea of what I could personally use it for. My favorite two tools were 1) autonomous agents. I ended up building personal programs for them to determine visa status and pricing for countries/places I wanted to visit, alongside a bunch of other metrics I was interested in tracking. Although promising, the downside was that often, the information provided was still inaccurate or outdated. 2) Stable diffusion. This was some specific tech I really liked – it didn’t function that well on my low computing-powered Mac, but I saw the potential and was learning how to incorporate AI into my video projects.
Fez / Sahara
When I arrived in Fez, I decided to switch off my “project Mitch hat” and prioritize setting up a Sahara trip, that would lead me back to Marrakech. Outside of that, I explored the Medina, Tanneries, and rooftop bar scene with some Brazilians and a Dutch. During our exploration, I hit my breaking point with some of the Moroccan peddlers. I’ve spent a lot of time around cities, and am quite used to being bombarded and barraged with lines like “Hello my friend” “Come here” and “I’ll give you good Moroccan price.” But Fez tipped the scales, as they do not always respect personal boundaries. I was grabbed several times and literally pulled in directions, which I find to be unacceptable. Needless to say, I did not buy anything in Fez, but now that I have a more clear/level head, am thinking deeply about why they behave the way they do. 1) It works. The average scared tourist will end up buying from them just to get out of the situation. 2) They do not know any better. The souk in Fez was quite different than other Moroccan cities in that it was a very thin (basically one-way) snakelike pathway that led through the Medina. Those who grew up there would be used to constantly brushing shoulders with others and talking 2 cm away from your face. Taking a note out from Matthew McConaughey, I chalked it all up to “cultural differences” and decided I would probably behave the exact same way if I was in their shoes.
I ended up spending 2 days in the Sahara – words cannot describe the experience. I truly felt like I was living out 2 of my favorite childhood books: The Alchemist and The Horse and His Boy. Trying to find my own personal legend, running away from what I know, while also running towards things that excite me. The desert brought out a lot of emotions. Trekking around by camel and foot, I caught some of the best sunsets and stargazing I’ve ever seen, met Berbers (families of indigenous nomads that live in the desert), and even got to sandboard. Not nearly as riveting as snowboarding, but quite harder to turn, as the board I borrowed had no straps. Being around that much sand, something that effortlessly slips between your fingers like nothing, was a good reminder for me of the fleeting nature of life.
Mount Toubkal
After analyzing my budget, I decided that eating street food had paid its dividends and I had enough money to pay for a guide to hike Mount Toubkal, which was not only the highest point in Morocco, but all of North Africa. After convincing a friend, Tony, to join, we were told by the tour operator that 2 other people would be joining. This was a huge plus, as the price of the tour went down the more people we had. Tony and I conjured up ideas of who the other 2 people could be: 2 sorority girls, an old married couple, the honeymooners, the friends. I settled on 2 Germans in their late 20s. Seems like a very German thing to do, this hike. Turns out it was 2 Austrians (brothers), around the same age as us. They did get slightly offended when I assumed German, and said, “When the Germans go on a hike in Austria, we end up having to send a helicopter.” We finished the hike on day 2, waking up at 4am to catch sunrise at the peak. While I didn’t think the hike was that difficult during the process, the following days I was aching and quivering in the knees whenever I saw a stair.
The Pool
After all the adventuring, I spent my last couple of days in Morocco reading, writing, and people-watching. I found no other better place for the latter than the pool of my hostel. This pool was the meeting spot. It’s like we went fully around the moon, from house parties before phones to swiping on Tinder, back to the OG spot of poolside chats. I loved being a fly on the wall here, eavesdropping in on random conversations and psychoanalyzing people I will never see again. A lot of Americans provided entertainment and fit the usual stereotypes. There was the Hawaiian, who was not actually from Hawaii, just a transplant baby, but made it their whole personality. Then there’s the Californian, who finds it impossible to do anything on their own. Like a leech, looking for some boy toy to play with and solve all her travel plans. The Germans, who tend to find each other and group up. They would usually mention the difficulty of finding a drink in Morocco, and could be found at the restaurant bar upstairs. The Dutch, who, similar to the Germans, when asked about if they speak English, say “a little bit.” And then they speak more coherent sentences than you. The Brits, who ended up buying me a bunch of wine just to continue playing cards late into the night. The Aussies / Kiwis, who throw out more slang than the fries portion you receive at a Five Guys. Main nationalities covered, there were also some French, Moroccans, Spanish, Belgians, etc. All walks of life, all gathered by the pool. It was never about the water.
In Flight
Welp, that’s my egotistical, condescending, irrational, nonsensical thoughts around traveling Morocco for a month. Hoping that when I reread this, 10 years from now, future Mitch is not absolutely abhorred by the atrocious words coming from the page.
Off to the pyramids. But this time, I’m taking a car transfer from the airport.
I want to treat the rest of my 20s like they are a wash.
Now is not the time to get a safe job. I already did that.
Now is the time to be as risk focused as possible.
I will never be as “free” as I am now.
I have no baggage. No college debt left, no significant other, no parents I need to take care of, no children, nothing.
I can eat like shit and still be ok.
I can barely sleep and be fine.
Not saying I shouldn’t eat and sleep well, but I could survive. And on top of that, it’s not that hard to still eat and sleep well.
I can sleep anywhere (couches, beds without a bed frame, floor) and cook cheaply.
I can live for free with friends or my family.
I can stay in hostels for cheap all around the world.
I’m 26 now, so I have 4 years left.
So let’s think about the worst-case scenario: I wake up broke at 30. I have to move back home with the parents. I have to get the “safe job.”
Most likely scenario: I wake up broke at 30. But I’ve traveled the world, met incredible people, tried starting businesses, tried learning a new language, tried getting jacked in the gym, and learned about all these things I do/do not like. And then I can still use my college education and friends to get the “safe job.”
I understand this “20s are a wash” is a privilege. I am a college grad, I grew up / still have a somewhat stable family household, I have good friends/mentors, my body is fully functional, and I was born with a good mental state. But one thing I have learned in the last couple of years is it’s foolish to not recognize the privilege, but even more foolish to not use it. It would be selfish of me to not go for it. To not try and live my best possible life. If I was to just coast on my privilege, then I would be just taking it for granted. I owe it to my family and friends to go for it.
And the best-case scenario? I think we can all realize how good life can get.
But I think the best will be to look back on my life and not wonder: “what if…”
To know that I went for it.
And the chips fell where they did. But I went all in.
Hell, I was born with pocket Aces.
What a foolish thing to go silently, tiptoeing, safely to my deathbed.
I want scars.
I want the lessons, the failures, the struggles.
I want to point to the scar tissue on my body and say: Got this playing basketball with friends, this from snowboarding, this from longboarding, this from surfing…
When I was studying at Uni, I heard a quote from Peter Thiel that has stuck with me since. He said, “In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.”
What a sad day it would be if I woke up and realized there was no time to try out / risk / do the things I always wanted. (Paulo Coehlo paraphrase)
The happiest I’ve been in my life has always been when I’m doing what I deem “epic shit.”
That’s often when adrenaline and risk are involved.
I could get hurt doing this. I could lose money, get my heart broken, fall off a cliff, get shattered by a wave.
But it’s all risky.
None of us are making it out of this alive.
Nietzsche said: “I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.”
That makes sense. Why be satisfied with average?
But the key is to listen to my own internal dialogue about what I deem ”great and impossible.”
My definition of “epic shit.”
I don’t need to surf Nazare waves.
But maybe I don’t go back to working in Corporate America for now.
Maybe I don’t play the status games of a high-paying job and instead take the zero pay of startup life.
Follow the “epic shit” and happiness model, cut out the status games and flexing that is engrained in me.
When in doubt about what to do, I should do what scares me.
Because if my dreams and plans don’t scare me, I’m not dreaming big enough.
I just spent 10 hours last night editing a 3-second clip that still turned out subpar. But at least I learned a new concept around masking, distortion, and animation within Final Cut Pro. The concept has been something on my mind for the last couple of years, ever since I saw a travel video that incorporated it.
Now, if you told me to work a job for 10 hours last night, I would have never done it. But because it was my own choice, the time flew by. I had full creative control. I didn’t need to do it, I could have stopped at any time. It was not productive of me. But somehow, I felt like it was worth it. I needed to know how the effect was created. And I needed to learn how to do it myself, to create the magic.
I’m starting to notice this is a common theme in my life. To do my best to “create magic.” Stemming probably from my love of fantasy books and movies as a child, I have always been fascinated by things that seem impossible. Things you need to take a second look at, to admire their beauty. Things that you can’t wrap your head around. “How did he or she do that?” If I ever have that question, it becomes insatiable. I need to know, how can I create such magic? What is the science? And then that evolves. It turns into, how can I create my own spin? How can I take concepts, themes, techniques, and create something that no one else has seen? That is art to me. Creating magic in music, visuals, anything.
My reading/watching fantasy applied to playing sports when I was young. I watched highlight reels of Jordan and Messi growing up, and every time I played Basketball/Soccer, I wanted to have the “magical moment” of hitting the game-winner. Free/Penalty kicks in soccer were particularly adrenaline-rushing. That moment in the game where the ref blows the whistle, coach symbols to you to take the kick, the crowd (however small, mostly parents) hold their breath, every now and then spouting words of encouragement…and all in an instant, you tune everyone out. You pick up the ball and rotate it in your hands to find the perfect pedestal on the grass for it to rest. Sometimes you dig your foot into the grass in front of the ball to give it additional elevation. This is routine, this is the science. The balance needed for the art. You take the same amount of steps back and to the left, as always, run up and kick the ball with the same form that you trained/practiced with thousands of times. But in that moment of routine, in that science, there is the art/grace. Putting the ball in the “far corner, upper 90” away from the soccer team’s wall, out of the goalies’ reach. There’s something special about being the skinny, 90 pounds soaking wet, short kid that no one expects, pulling up from +20 yards and drilling it in the back of the net. That feeling was magical.
When I entered high school, my parents made me sign up for gym class. Assuming that I wouldn’t make any team sports (I was no longer scoring goals or taking the free kicks for soccer), they wanted me to “stay active.” During gym class, we had a section on dancing. I hadn’t danced for years, ever since the “potty dance” incident. That last time was engrained in my memory. I remember proudly telling my sister I could beat her in a “dance-off.” She confidently accepted and went on to perform her ballet routine. When it was my turn, I tried my best Michael Jackson impersonation, shaking my legs like a dead fish. The reaction from my sister and the other sister (who was the judge): “Looks like you have to go the bathroom. That’s a potty dance!” Needless to say, I stopped dancing for a while, and ironically enough, the sister who won became a professional ballerina.
Well, now back to the freshman dance class. It’s been years since I danced (there also had not been a wedding in the family for a while), and now all of a sudden, there is this section in gym class where I’m forced to. No matter, I was born in a time where “trying” was labeled uncool. In school, I would always secretly study for tests. Partly due to fear from my parents and mostly due to my intrinsic perfectionist nature, I had to get an A or bust. But I couldn’t let anyone else know that. It had to be natural. I was just a “Michael Ross” and could consume knowledge like no one you’ve ever seen. Math class would start, and I would appear asleep on my desk. My friend Deandre would wake me up and ask: “You study for this?” To which my sarcastic response was, “There’s a test today? I don’t have time for that.” Outside of test days, when I had a question, I wouldn’t ask. I’d just spend an extra hour outside of class figuring out the answer. Better waste the time on my own dime rather than be labeled a “trier” or worse, ask a question that was obvious and be labeled dumb. All this to say, yes “being successful” and smart was always good, but trying in order to get it,? Uncool. Long ramble short – with dancing, I didn’t need to try. None of the guys in my class really did. Dancing was a girl’s thing. Why waste our time? So it was as a 14-year-old boy with a teacher who didn’t really care what we did, as long as the district paid his pension. Music turns on, teacher gives us time to “feel the beat,” girls are trying to one-up each other, guys are standing awkwardly around (every now and then trying to flirt with the girls)…and then, out of the corner of my eyes, I see 2 guys actually dancing. One of them was my friend, Stefan. In a split second, I see him fall over one of his knees to the floor, and somehow magically spin and pull himself back up simultaneously, without ever using his hands. The timing was perfect – right at the drop of the song.
How the fuck did he do that?
I was hooked. I asked him a million questions, went home, googled “how to pin drop,” and practiced for weeks, using my bed frame for support and thanking God that my parents had carpet on the floor to make the knee hurt a little less.
That pin drop move was the gateway into the addiction I now still have for dancing. But the catalyst, the thing that would propel me into obsession, was the YouTube video, “Pumped Up Kicks.” About 6 months after the pin drop incident, I stumbled across the video, and had another “oh shit” moment. Marquese Scott looked inhumane. I remember showing it to my Dad, and he didn’t even believe it was real. “They have technology and editing to slow/speed up movements, and make waves through the body,” he said. That was it. Scott was so good, even my Dad thought the video was edited. I was sold. I needed to create this magic. For the next several years, I watched YouTube videos and danced every day. Once I learned the general concepts (waving, tutting, popping, body isolation, etc) I realized that things truly were unlimited. I could apply my own twist to things, and come up with my own moves that no one has ever seen.
This magic creation has continued in my life – learning card tricks, writing/producing my own music, starting businesses, and now editing videos with effects. In all of these things, productivity was never the goal. Honestly, mastery wasn’t even the priority. I just had an insatiable curiosity to 1) learn how the trick is done 2) Perform the trick for others 3) Create my own tricks that no one has ever seen. To keep the magic alive. To do something that seemed impossible, that no one expected from me. For it’s in those brief, fleeting moments where I can take a finite thing, and make it infinite in a small way.
10 hours on a video edit is a small price to pay for that.
After an electric time in London, I decided it was time to take the city out of the boy and head out to Wales. Well, not fully out of the city, because I ended up staying in the Capital of Wales, Cardiff. This is a place you can skip. Even the people don’t want to be there. In their ever-friendly smiles, they tried to tell me how much of a shit hole Cardiff is. Ok, fine it’s not that bad, but definitely not a place I want to live in. Their national parks in Wales, however, are spectacular. The Brecon Beacons was incredible, and Snowdonia is a top reason why I know I need to return to Wales. Something to note: the country does make it tough to travel around. (Especially to these national parks) I highly recommend if you go, to rent a car. Linking some notes on the main bus line from Cardiff to the Brecon Beacons below. I also recommend that you do not decide to piss off the road while waiting for the bus, could make it challenging to grab your gear and flag down the driver. Not speaking from personal experience or anything.
Outside of general touristy things in Cardiff and a lot of hikes in the Brecon Beacons, my highlight was finding and absolutely demolishing a group of Welsh uni students in basketball. Did I enjoy asserting my dominance on kids 6 years younger than me? Absolutely. US 1. Wales 0.
Edit: I recently met a Welsh from Cardiff who actually likes her hometown. I’ve been told to issue a public apology for my opinions. Take this as a witness. Writing this so she does not go full Liam Neeson from “Taken” and end my always entertaining, nonsensical life.
From Wales, I took a train to Scotland, where I ended up visiting Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, Glencoe, Loch Lomond, and Loch Ness. Top highlights for me were the architecture of Edinburgh, drunk conversations with Glasgow locals on politics, finding (and slaying) the monster Nessie, and the Scottish countryside.
Note to every girl I have met on my travels: No, I did not check out the filming locations of Outlander in Scotland. Sorry not sorry.
New Travel Rules I added for myself in Scotland:
“If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar.” – Kevin Kelly
If you are supposed to walk up/down 3 floors or less, then take the stairs. Anything over that is acceptable for the elevator
Always bring a water bottle. Fuck paying a pound/euro for every meal. This might be the first thing I noticed the US is “in the right” for.
Greatest invention I saw:
On my flight from Scotland to Spain, the airline loaded up the plane from back to front. US and the rest of the world NEEDS to adopt this strategy. I don’t understand why this is not common, best practice. Yes, I know there are the Karens of the world who want to be put on the plane first, but their rationale of being “prioritized” doesn’t even make sense. Why would you even want to be in a small condensed space for longer? Loading from back to front would save so much time and increase efficiency with flight timelines. It’s a seamless process with no downsides. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Summary:
Overall, I absolutely loved my time in Wales and Scotland. Next time I’m back, I’m trekking through Snowdonia, training the North Coast 500 (Route 66), and visiting the Isle of Skye. Peace out UK.
Directions to Brecon Beacons:
If you want to trek to Pen y Fan (the highest peak in South Wales), stop at Storey Arms. Read more about ways to reach Pen y Fan here
Spots in Cardiff:
Roath park
Cardiff castle
Cardiff bay
Millennium centre
Llandath cathedral
Castell Coch
Caerphilly castle
City hall
Spots in Edinburgh:
Arthur’s seat – extinct volcano overlooking the city
As many of you already know, I decided to take a gap from Corporate America and travel Europe for a year. In my free time, my mind has been exploding with ideas, and naturally, a lot of them have been in the not-so-niche or unique market of traveling. Here are some high-level thoughts on 4 ideas I’ve had currently. If you end up reading the ramblings of a mid-20s coffee-addicted drifter/nomad, I’d love to hear any feedback or advice you might have.
Nomadista (Schengen/Travel Itinerary) App
Concept: Travel itinerary and calculator app for US citizens abroad
Current Market Problem: Non-visa and visa requirements are quite confusing for US citizens
The most visited countries for Americans are all in the Schengen zone (includes 26 countries)
Schengen rules are complicated
Out of a 180 period, (that begins once you step foot in a Schengen country) you can only be in a Schengen country for a total of 90 days. These 90 days do not have to be consecutive. (e.g. you can be in Schengen for 10 days, leave for 10 days, and keep doing that. As long as you don’t spend more than the allotted 90 days out of the 180-day period) The time period does not reset when you leave the Schengen zone, but only once the 180-day period has passed.
Schengen rules are strict
Some people have received massive fines, been put in prison, and even been banned from the Schengen zone for several years due to overstaying beyond the 90-day limit.
The current solution for handling Schengen is other calculator apps, but the majority are buggy and shit
The user interface is non-intuitive, a lot of the calculators do not work properly, and some do not take into account the first day of the Schengen zone as your start of the 180-day period
Every country outside of Schengen also has its own rules about how long a US citizen can stay in the country with or without a visa
Why I think I am a good person to solve this issue:
I am the customer. I am traveling Europe for the next year, which would be a total of two Schengen cycles (meaning I can only be in the Schengen zone for 6 months of the year). Originally I planned on spending a lot more time in the Schengen zone, but upon finding out about the law, knew I had to pivot my plans. I tried all of the current solutions in the market for Schengen calculators, saw they were shit, and then decided to build my own basic google sheet that calculated if I was “Schengen or Other Country policy clear” with my itinerary of places I wanted to visit. I still use my program when I change my travel plans (which happens often) and wish my own program was an app for easier usability
Concerns:
Don’t have my PC anymore (just a Mac without excel), so I built the program in Google Sheets rather than Excel, which is what I would normally use. With this in mind, it will take time to convert the program to an overall, full-scale application.
Schengen countries and Non-Schengen countries could change requirements, making this program moot, or in need of an update to the backend data
The typical long-term traveler does not like to plan and resort to itineraries (but I bet they also don’t like getting deported or fined…)
Limited Market (US-focused initially). The majority of travelers in Europe are European and allowed to travel freely if they are from a Schengen area.
CityRank App
Concept: As the name implies, this would be an app that allows you and your friends to rank the cities you visited
Rationale:We as humans love to rank and compare things. It’s part of our nature and how we filter our reality. We decide what food we like best, what sport is our favorite, and what car we want to drive. This is included in our commonplace conversations: “Who would win in a fight: Gorilla or Lion?”, “What level of attractiveness is that person on a scale from 1-10?” As superficial or artificial as this is, it’s not going away. We enjoy it for two reasons:
Entertainment’s sake (these are subjective answers)
The possibility that it can actually help us in making future, more informed decisions. (If a friend said their favorite food is Octopus, and you have never tried it, you are probably more likely to now try it in the future)
Purpose: In order to receive entertainment or education from an individual’s ranking, we need to respect their ranking framework and see how they came to their conclusion. This app completes just that, and can be used:
For personal reference
To share with your friends to get their opinion
To analyze your friends’ rankings and determine if that’s a place you want to travel to in the future
App Layout:
Tab 1 includes the framework for the city rank. It includes a list of metrics, plus the ability to customize this list based on your own personal preferences, such as:
Location
Arts / Culture
Shopping / Restaurants
Nightlife
Transportation
Outdoors / Nature
People
Architecture
Weather
Activities / Entertainment
Cost of Living
Tab 2 is the manual entry where you add in the cities you have visited, and rank that city based on the framework or metrics from tab 1
Tab 3 is the data visualization page, where you can see the list of your “top 10 cities” and have the ability to sort based on specific metrics or country views (e.g. best cities for Nightlife, the best city in all of Spain, etc.)
Once new data from Tab 2 is entered into the system, Tab 3 will be automatically updated, allowing you to share your “new city profile” with your friends through IG, FB, and other social profiles.
Think “Spotify Unwrapped,” but for traveling instead of music
Tab 4 is the feed section where you can view your friends or travel influencer city rankings, and see if you need to add a city to your next vacation/trips
The Other 2 App Ideas
Wanderlust App:
Think Tinder and Pinterest, but for vacation/travel destinations
Swipe through profiles of places (left is pass, right is interested)
Only get so many swipes per day, with a collation page of all your likes
Becomes personalized based on your previous likes
Bucketlist App:
Travel guide/checklist that includes the “top 10/20 must do” things in that city you are visiting
Filter by city and check them off as you complete them. (Includes google maps address for the destination for easier accessibility)
Feature to add in additional destination/to-dos for that city, so that way you have all of your checklist items in one place
All 4 Travel Apps Summary
Using Google Sheets could be the easiest way to get to an MVP (minimum viable product) to test in the market
There are a lot of non-code based App development platforms that will connect to Google sheets or another dataset and help you develop a customized app based on your backend data
After researching several app development platforms, my favorite right now is Glide due to their:
Relatively easy user interface
Learning modules to get up to speed on using the software
Pricing (can have 100 public members of the app for free. Up to 1K members and white labeling for $25/month)
White labeling would remove all branding from Glide and make the app look like a full-scale, normal iPhone app that can be downloaded through the App Store
Obviously, if any of these apps show promise or take off at all, it would definitely be worth creating the app in-house, without using a third-party provider such as Glide
If built correctly based on control and inputs, all these apps could be dynamic programs
Market Size and Valuation (according to Statista)
Total Contribution of Travel & Tourism to Global Economy: 5.81 Trillion USD
Number of International Tourist Arrivals Worldwide: 426.9 Million
Global Leisure Travel Spend: 2.37 Trillion USD
Future monetization strategy for all 4 apps (not really thinking about this at all right now)
Freemium pricing (free version, with a premium version without ads)
Partner with accommodations (hostels, hotels, BnBs) and airlines to show deals based on the customer’s location and their liked or itinerary destinations
Upon visiting London, I’ve officially checked off 1/3 travel goals I’ve had since middle school when I was finally starting to get that craving to travel. (The life goal: Coffee/Tea on a raining day in London. The other 2 to be completed: Vacation in Santorini Greece, backpack across New Zealand)
My list of top touristy shit to do: 1) Tower of London 2) Tower Bridge 3) British Museum 4) London Eye 5) Buckingham Palace 6) Trafalgar Square 7) Houses of Parliament 8) Shakespeare’s Globe 9) HMS Belfast 10) Camden Market
London actually has bike lanes! NYC could learn a thing or two from this. Yeah fuck you and your tickets NYPD.
Besides the bike lanes, there actually is a lot of similarities between London and NYC – both extremely large cities filled with busy (sometimes pretentious) individuals. Amazing restaurants, activities, and other entertainment that will leave your wallet crying. But the people living in both cities will tell you they can’t imagine living anywhere else.
Camden Street might be my favorite market I’ve ever been to. The decorations, the water, the streets, the shops, the people, the food…all amazing. Best part: the sampling. When I was a child, after a soccer (sorry, football) game, my Dad often went to Costco to pickup food for the family weekend. Yet somehow he never seemed to comprehend that after playing a game of soccer and burning hundreds of calories, I would be hungry. It was in these moments that Costco was my saving grace. I’d hit up every single sample stations and usually repeat spots to get enough of a meal to quench the appetite. Camden took me back to this memory, except the samples here was from some of the freshest meat, potatoes, and deserts I’ve ever had.
New (Terrible) Business Idea: Right by Platform 9 and 3/4, there should be a “rent a child” station – this could be utilized for all the adults like me who want to take a picture, but feel awkward. Being able to pay a couple quid to rent a child to escort them will make waiting in line less embarrassing, and give the adult someone to talk to about their love of the books / movies. The child can also be there as a caretaker (and accountant) for the foreign adult who may most likely wander into the Harry Potter store and want to buy everything there.
Hoping that Brits find my accent as charming and attractive as I find theirs. Ah no way, this can’t be objectively true….Well come to think of it, there has to be something there due to the scarcity model. You hear a Brit (am I allowed to call them Brits?) speak in the US, it’s rare and deemed more attractive. Perhaps the opposite could ring true in London. Yes, perhaps. Need to remain optimistic and hopeful.
Overheard in the streets of London:
Girl 1: “Why did you do it?”
Girl 2: “Because he was sooo hot.”
People really aren’t that different from place to place.
If you want to be a posh tourist and visit Buckingham Palace, its worth going to watch the changing of the Queens Guard – 11 am weekdays, 10am Sundays
Was not allowed into a club because the bouncer “could see in my eyes I was drunk.” Literally didn’t even have a single lick of alcohol in the past 48 hours. Fuck Fabric nightclub.
British Museum Notes
Oh the famous British museum – Look at the history of England and all its artifacts? No, more like look at all the things across the world that Britain stole haha. I think I’m allowed to call the kettle black since the US is just like this. (Takes one to know one)
For a good 2 hours while visiting, (don’t ask me why) all I could think about was how I would get away with stealing items, and what items would be impossible to steal. (6 tonnes of stone lion? Yeah infeasible) Is this an admission of guilt? Absolutely not.
2 things I found most interesting: Mummies and Money sections
Mummies – naturally anything dead and yet still not fully dead due to preservation will be fascinating. Most humans I think are in a constant stage of fear and curiosity about the process of death, as well as how other humans have dealt with it
Money – could be my finance major or my internal greed I have always felt as a kid, but I found this incredible interesting. (Total nerd move I know) One part worth noting – they went all the way from the start of exchange of goods and system of accounting —> “present day” where they talked about “electronic cash” and how we may live in a future without any physical coins / paper, just paying with a credit/debit card. In my opinion, this falls incredibly short of where we have been for the last +10 years. (bitcoin invented in 2009) I wonder when crypto will be included in this museum, because it will happen some day soon and should already be included.
I actually like Shakespeare plays. After seeing my Insta post of the Harry Potter picture at Platform 9 & 3/4, my friend Mike challenged me to watch a play and “be cultured.” Turns out for 5-10 euros you can do just that.
As this was my second country in Europe, this was the first time I was able to meetup with “old travel friends” who I made in Ireland. A simple game of Wordle with an Auzzie in the Galway hostel led to hanging out again with her in London. And a British hostel mate from Dublin became my local tour guide of Wimbledon. This friend Charlie introduced me to the beautiful world of British parties, fish & chips, Wetherspoons (Spoons) pubs, and how to drunkenly navigate the tube and trains of England. Solid lad.
England could very well be a good country to post up for the incoming World Cup this Autumn. We shall see.
Mitch's Blog 