Life Experience

Yesterday, I read an email from Tim Schreiber.

As a fellow German (and a very handsome one, I will add), I’m giving him the mandatory shoutout - also because he writes some fantastically entertaining and valuable emails on marketing, copywriting and sometimes even life.

Top notch storytelling is on the house.

Tim was reacting to a post of Harry Beadle (which makes technically a reaction to a reaction - feel like I’m on YouTube now).

TLDR of both:

Harry says young people especially would benefit from more “life experience” to have higher success chances in the online world, and Tim agrees.

Not only because you can tell way more epic stories.

More life experience is invaluable in itself - the longer you live (and the more “extraordinary things” you go through), the more often you fuck up, the more lessons you learn, the more you simply KNOW about life.

Sounds eerily similar to my mom’s question, “Why would any sane person ever buy from teenagers with no qualifications??”.

(Mom, the internet is simply insane)

Back to the point, and my take on this:

I DON’T disagree with the statements mentioned. More “life experience” is never going to be detrimental to do anything online.

In the end, your social media lives off of YOU. The more interesting and extraordinary things you do, the more attention you’ll receive. Basic equation.

Telling epic stories brings views.

A bunch of “achievements” and “experience” under your belt makes you more trustworthy.

Having a lot of life experience makes you able to relate a lot more to people (which you can use to convince them to buy your stuff).

I’m not going to pretend that I’ve got any significant life experience whatsoever compared to people who have literally been walking on this planet for a decade longer than I have.

But I did do a few things.

Got myself into severe drinking problems at the age of 18.

Traveled and visited 5 continents (Australia is still missing, shoutout to my homies in Down Unda, I’ll be coming someday).

Went through 2 transformative years of “breaking up” with my friends, ridiculously short romance endeavors and turning me from a literal 1 on the scale to wherever you’d rank me now.

But now experiencing “exceptional life experience moments” has come to a rapid halt.

I’m not going to lie; I’m struggling to find half-decent (recent) story ideas for my emails simply because not much is going on in my life.

It’s the same schedule every single day.

Wake up. Work. Eat. Work. Gym. Work. Eat. Work a bit more, prepare the next day, same schedule, same locked-in routine, same story.

Hardcore “muuunk mode”.

The reason is pretty simple - I’m chasing business goals over everything right now. As I learned from various online goorooz, the path to success is, more often than not, a rather boring one.

And it’s working.

Since I quit university in late August, in the last 3 months, I’ve made more rapid progress than ever in my business.

And I’ve spent one of them on holiday.

No, “monk mode” is not a scam invented to make you live a miserable and boring life - it’s a tool to leverage in certain times.

Saying no to everything but your one thing. Zero distractions. Developing an unreasonable obsession with your work.

Back to Harry and Tims take:

Yes, I agree that “life experience” is going to make you a more capable human, essentially.

But what do you do if you're 16, have zero life experience, and simply don’t want to do anything but work hard for your dreams?

Just today I had a young friend of mine comment under a post that he’ll never intend to touch drugs or alcohol. And if that’s his decision, he’s already way ahead at his age than I was at 16.

I mean…

There’s simply no definitive answer to this.

In the end it’s completely up to YOU which actions you take and what life you choose to live.

BUT if you’ve read another recent email of mine, here’s my short breakdown of what I intend to do over the next years (to not completely get stuck in a deep dark monk mode hole, never wanting to speak to people again).

Self-improvement winter starts in September. Until Christmas, I’ll be pretty much “locked in” - which is where I’m at right now.

Short Christmas break. Catch up with old homies. Get my ass out there and do something else than just grind.

Continue in monk mode fashion for the first few months of the new year.

Take short, weekly breaks, when I need to/want to.

And as soon as it gets warmer again - you emerge back into society, fully functioning (and having crushed your biz goals).

Social time. Travel. Gaining “life experience”.

That’s pretty much the shortest way I can break it down.

That’s my plan. Take inspiration if you want to. I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just sharing my ideas here.

But to hit home this one point a last time:

I believe “locking in” for even months at a time is necessary to make the progress you’re probably looking for.

Ofc, personal take.

Thank you for reading this one.

See you soon,

Henri

PS. Genuinely curious what you think about this. Let me know.