The Renaissance Man

@Jannes The problem is that you don't know what's possible. I don't mean this in a woo-woo way, but in a really practical way. That's why I put emphasis on marketing, or in general business skills. It's impossible, and I mean impossible, to even fathom the possibilities from outside. There's people that have the knowledge to become millionaires in a year if you strip them of everything. (I'm not one of them lol, but I can start to see how that would be possible). For example, imagine person X that is left without a dollar in his bank and zero people in his network. Key thing he still has: the skills to solve the other person's problem in exchange for money. He sets up a LinkedIn profile to look professional and an expert. Posts a bunch and sends people connection requests to gain some credibility. Then he starts contacting his LinkedIn connections pitching a SOLID offer, maybe guaranteeing to work for free if they don't achieve the result. A lot of people would accept something like that. And since he has the SKILLS, he can deliver on the promise. There you go, done. He starts making money. Even the idea to set up this 3-4 step system stems from marketing/business knowledge. Imagine all the ways and opportunties that he sees and you don't. Marketing is not a career path. Marketing is how you make money from your skills. Here's the problem: You have a life purpose Therefore, you invest a lot of time in it, and you become a master, as Leo suggests If you're a master, it means you have valuable knowledge that's hard to earn. You've earned it in the process to mastery. If it's valuable, someone's willing to pay for it, or a form of it. Problem: nobody knows you're a master. Real Problem: you don't know how to solve the problem above. And there can be more problems, maybe you don't even know how to package your mastery so that somebody could want it, and you could live off of it. Business knowledge is the solution. Leo gave you the roadmap to point 3 with his course. But I suggest you don't wait until you're a master to learn how to make money from your valuable skills. View it this way: there is a way to work on your creative endeavors full time. But you lack the knowledge to even consider how that could be possible. That's what I'm pointing at, that's what I called marketing. Imagine if you had that clarity to know, oh, if I do this, get there, then do that, then today do this for x hours, I'll get that almost mathematically. Imagine how motivated you'd be. This was just to illustrate my point by the way. I haven't made it yet, but I'm very close to it, so maybe I'll come back to you in 6-12 months with more confidence lol. I do have real painful experience with being a master at something and have nobody care or realize. I also do have the experience of the wild motivation you get when you can draw a clear line between your current situation and the life purpose lifestyle. So I kind of am speaking from experience, not yet the full spectrum though.

Super cool

Idea: Breaking up your long-form video into clips and then releasing the clips of your new long-form video 1 week earlier on your 2nd channel. After one week posting the whole video on the main one as usual. Benefits I see: Traffic to the clips channel, because early access will be very compelling to send us there People can get a priming of what's to come, and once the long form video comes out, they've had time to digest some of the notions and can make more of it. More videos = more end screens of book list and LP course = mo' money. All without being more pushy at all. More videos = multiplied chance to get seen by someone new and have an impact because it's more likely the algo will push one of the vids Larger 2nd channel can be a nice backup for many reasons. Safety, and a fresher algorithm where you're not full of inactive subscribers that kill your video performance. Could appeal to people who aren't ready for a 3 hour video (but this was discussed in the past already) Costs: Shouldn't be too expensive since it's only a bunch of cuts, and even an editor would be very cheap, especially with a video a month or less. This is it really. I don't think it would hurt the main channel or your message in any way. Even if you don't care much about growth, I see no costs to this approach. Extras: Btw, I also suggest changing the "actualized clips" name, it inherently feels like the worse version of something else, and people won't subscribe. I would call it "Leo Gura" instead. A cartoon-like or painting-like AI thumbnail with MidJourney would also make the channel feel more unique and compelling, instead of the current Joe Rogan clips-inspired thumbnails of the 2nd channel. I'm thinking of super low-effort solutions that's why I suggested AI. @Leo Gura

The selection bias is strong with this one. Make your mom or your sister try, let's see how many subs she gets.

@SQAAD If the situation is bad, decide on the tradeoff between a shitty job and no job. Keep in mind that while you have a shitty job you can AND SHOULD look for a better job. Finally, I suggest you study Alex Hormozi's 1st book like the bible. Take the first book $100M offers and use it in the context of yourself being the offer. Companies aren't intersted in employing parents, they're much more interested in making money. Keep that in mind in every interview. Plus, for low-wage jobs the candidate quality is so low that if you put some intention into how you present yourself and what you say (the offer thing I told you), you'll crush it easily.

@integral Exactly, you got her strat!

@stephenkettley Maybe this could help. I have two ideas: 1. Gain clarity over each possible path. Make it explicit, write it down if needed. Then, think of how you would get to make a living off of it. Think of the actual lifestyle during the grind, and after. Some options will be more unpleasant than others, while some will be very inspiring. Sometimes the idea is good, but the reality of doing it as a job sucks. 2. Think of what the best outcome would be, considering all your paths. What would a dream life (keep it minimalistic in terms of money). Maybe a combination of all of them, maybe of some of them, maybe a different business structure comes to mind. You can apply point 1 to the different combinations. THEN, SERIOUSLY (IMPORTANT, DO IT FOR REAL), LOOK FOR A SOLUTION TO ACHIEVE THAT. Your mindset needs to be: there must be a way. You have no idea of the opportunities around you. This is because of business ignorance. Seriously keep this thought in mind, and make your mind run day after day. Instead of thinking: these are my resources, and with these I can't see a way, think: this is the way I want, now let's make my gears work to find a way to make it happen. Let's make it real with an example. I had a job full of menial tasks. I didn't make much, but I thought of delegating. Too expensive. Fuck. I needed a result, but with my current knowledge or resources there wasn't a solution, if not to continue doing the tasks myself and wasting hours every week. And then BOOM, I discover no-code automation, and with one click I do 40 minutes of work. In my case, necessity forced an innovation. Without necessity I was doing the dumb work myself. When it became a problem, and my mind started to think, a solution came pretty quick. I suggest you shortcut this by taking the pursuit of finding a way to get there even without the pressing need I had. Another example: I want to work 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. And then I start to reverse-engineer how I can achieve that. But for this to be successful (and you'd be surprised how often there is a solution (I'd seriously say 99% of the time, not exaggerating), you need: A resonating, ambitious goal Confidence in the fact you can get there. If you have both, the result is the actual thing that gets you there: A SERIOUS EFFORT TO FIND A SOLUTION. Hopefully this helps. Internalizing this notion is changing my life. I now think of what I want, and then of how to get there, instead of thinking of what I have, and then of where I can get from that.

@Jannes Reality of life purpose: you need to become a marketing God. This is an understatement. Everything clicks when the bridge from current situation to "I'm making some money from this" takes shape, even if just in your knowledge and understanding. People will NOT pay you if you're the best in the world. People will pay you if they first know about you (big problem #1), and then perceive you to be the best. People will keep paying you if you are actually the best. The idea of life purpose is motivating, but only half motivating, because if you haven't made money once in your life as an entrepreneur (enough to make a living), it just sounds like a pipe dream, with the only thing in the middle is the trust you have in Leo's promises, keeping a strand of hope there, but there's not much more behind that. Tell me if this isn't true. It was for me. Imagine the motivation you'd have if the path to making a living through your life purpose was crystal clear all the way through. So you'll make yourself a huge favor by mastering marketing. Re-read the 3 sentences above on people paying you. This is not an option, plus, it will revolutionize your motivation, because the link between input (putting in the work into something meaningful) and output (actual impact + making a living) will be obvious and direct.

@Leo Gura Love the slideshow, also because I'm interested in making long-form videos as well. I'd love to know your process behind videos (mainly researching & scripting, talking & recording), I'm sure many other people would be interested too, a blog post would be super cool!

Chess ELO percentiles if you want to check out a chart: https://lichess.org/stat/rating/distribution/blitz

@Leo Gura They're little reminders of the fundamentals, that otherwise aren't mentioned if not through a topical blog post. I don't know about "useful", as most stuff was covered more in depth through the videos, and without the videos is hard to understand the depth of the quotes anyway. But I did like today's one on opinions though, that I found directly useful.

I guess I kind of got it... if you sell at a price that's in line with what you offer, "you're good", even if you make a lot of money. Because that would not be grifting. So if you sell medium quality stuff, but you make it very accessible, then it's justified, and it's not grifting. Then if you want to make a lot of it free, it's not about morality, but personal preference and willing to help for free. I get 99% of people who sell courses don't operate this way, but this was also to decide a strategy for myself. It's easy to abuse an opportunity when you can, and I want to be more conscious than that.

@Leo Gura often said how he chose to only sell the life purpose course, and share everything else for free on YT. Saying that he could've made 10x the money, but chose not to. I agree that there's something more advanced and mature to this approach, as it's more altruistic, and contributes more to society. But would making a course wherever possible actually be morally inferior? I can't quite put my hand on it. I imagine a discussion with a person who monetized all their knowledge, saying: "look, everything I sell is of the highest quality. The value is there. It's a fair exchange and everybody wins. I make $3M per year, and that's A LOT, but I have provided $30M in value. I'm not scamming anybody, I don't see the problem here". And I wouldn't know how to reply to that. I wouldn't do it myself, but I still don't know how to reply to that, maybe he is right.

@Emerald Thank you

To the women of the forum. Especially in the context of pickup. Do you feel it's true for you that before sex happens, the man is completely unimportant and irrelevant to you, even if you had a great time on a date? I'm talking about a great impression without sex vs a great impression with sex. So, even after a great date or first interaction, but still no sex between you, your likelihood of flaking is much higher. Do you feel this is true? This question stems from what I remember Leo saying in the how to get laid series on YT: before sex, you're nobody to the girl, regardless of how the previous interactions went.

@Leo Gura @PenguinPablo even if they are providing value, ChatGPT made the great critique of "not fully leveraging their wealth to benefit others". And that while he's not harming anybody, that doesn't mean he's doing good either. It's as if selling 12 legit courses is not a scammy or evil approach, but just a neutral one. While a positive one would be to leverage that privileged position to help for free or at a lower cost. It's similar to the debate of capitalism vs communism, or at least capitalism vs the sharing of wealth so that the less fortunate can live a great life, and the more fortunate don't have a disproportionate and unnecessary lifestyle.

The frustration is natural and understandable. But anger towards the women can be overcome by understanding you're not entitled to them. They don't owe you anything, and they have all the rights to reject you. Even if it's 100 in a row, and it fucking sucks, you still can't be angry at them, it would be illogical and false. You already got the answer: persist (in a smart way, analyzing your mistakes & getting better though, not in the same way that lead you to the failure).

It's alright, I don't think that by the way. My goal isn't even sex per se, but being in a healthy loving relationship. But I get the boundary between being manipulative vs improving your social skills is very thin.

@Princess Arabia So what I say and how I behave has no influence on how well, or how fast things go? I think it's up to me because it's very up to me. If it wasn't, then the whole discussion about getting better at socializing is useless, because "it's about what they decide". And that's clearly not the case.

@Buck Edwards Makes sense. Obviously this sunk cost fallacy thingy is also true for men. But I perfectly get what you're saying

@Buck Edwards I have exaggerated the phrasing too much to get the point across, my fault... I didn't mean completely unimportant to the woman after having a great time, but I recall Leo saying in his series the crucial importance of sex in creating a bond, especially for the woman. Maybe he meant that her seriousness changes drastically after sex, but this doesn't mean that before that she considered him completely unimportant. So you do enjoy the date, but the risk of losing her is "much higher" if sex didn't happen. It was probably taught in the context of: don't wait for 2 months, going all the way is important for creating a bond, not necessarily being pushy on the 1st date. What I got (and maybe I was completely wrong) was that sex is disproportionally more important for a woman to create that commitment and seriousness, while for many men it's a lot less of that, and more "balanced" we may say.

@Natasha Tori Maru Thank you for answering

@Capital This post is clearly proof that you can indeed think long-term. Trying to transcend one's current stage is clearly far from instant gratification! So that's great, and the self-honesty you showed is also rare. I probably wouldn't be able to self-assess like that. I ask this with zero judgment, just to understand your feelings & thoughts, since empathy is clearly the biggest hurdle (or so it seems). How would you answer to: What if you were on the other side of the manipulation and cheating? Doesn't that idea discourage you from manipulating? At least the people that are closest to you? What if everybody were to lie and manipulate? What world would that be? After all empathy just boils down to knowing how painful being on the other side is, and so trying to avoid that pain for others. Have you experienced painful situations, and after experiencing them, found yourself trying to not put others in the same kind of pain?

@Sugarcoat Exactly, especially as you gradually get to notice these more conscious behaviors are well received it starts a chain of positive reinforcement too. It ends up being a new kind of social learning, similar to the one you naturally go through growing up

@Someone here I experience the exact same thing. Literally the same. It's true that ultimately you're more spontaneous and less self-conscious in those "lower status" situations. But in my experience it wasn't something I could just turn off. Instead, it helped for me to progressively be more intentional with my behavior in social situations. Improving my understanding of social dynamics, what a "charismatic" person is like, and so on. It made the next steps tangible. I found, again on myself, that I needed this explicit understanding to replicate stuff that I was naturally able to do in "lower status" environments. So I'm all for a conscious understanding of what good socialization is like, like on a technical level, like in game, for improving your behavior where it's not natural. Then you can combine this with exposure to social scenarios, but exposure alone will probably do what has done up to your age of 26: almost no serious change. Think about it, something's got to be different.