Sunday Six: 4M books, Ancient Habits, Oura Ring
Hey Friend 👋
Last night, I watched a Netflix documentary on Sylvester Stallone while my wife built LEGOs. The Dragu’s have been sick all week, so this was our first glimpse of actually relaxing in what felt like half a year.
As an absolute fan of the Rocky movies growing up, I was fascinated with this documentary. Prior to writing, directing, and starring in the Rocky movies, Sly (Sylvester Stallone) only had one decent acting role that had some momentum behind it. And even that role was tiny.
In fact, he kept putting himself out there for big parts but could not get anything. His body type, mannerisms, and slight lisp left a lot to be desired for directors.
So he wrote.
For 3 years. Ten to twelve hours a day.
In fact, he taped black curtains over his windows to make sure he had no distractions while he wrote screenplay after screenplay. Rocky was his 20th or so screenplay in a matter of 3 years.
20 screenplays in 3 years is an absolutely asinine amount of work by the way. Good or bad. It’s still nuts.
The company he worked with to produce Rocky loved the concept and loved the movie but didn’t love Sly.
They made him countless offers to film and direct the movie alongside them but not star in the movie himself.
“No… I made this movie for me…”
At one point, the offer was up to $500,000 to NOT star in the movie.
That's how much they didn’t believe in him.
Sly denied.
He told a reporter later, “If I had sold out and not starred in it myself, then I always would have thought back to What If I had really tried?”
In other words, he didn’t want to end up 65 and sold out to the concept that he never gave his dream a true shot because other people didn’t believe in him as much as he believed in himself.
Rocky releases.
It's a global phenomenon.
4 consecutive sequels break the box office time and time again.
Sly becomes a global superstar between Rocky, Rambo, and eventually The Expendables.
All because he tried and put himself out there.
The lesson…
The voices around you aren’t the ones carrying the weight of regret when you’re 65. Go for it.
Sunday Six ☀️
Jerry Seinfeld on Creativity
This may be the most genius three minutes I’ve ever experienced when it comes to the idea of gifting, content creation and genuine passion.
Here are some of my favorite lines from the video:
“My creative routine is the exact same today as it was when I was 21”
“I’m never not working on my material. Never. Every second of my existence I’m thinking — can I do something with this?”
“Making jokes is not work, it’s a gift.”
“Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with.”
Oura Ring
A couple of weeks back, I ditched the Apple Watch to get technology off of my wrist. Nowadays, I mostly wear a simple Timex to tell me the time. (That’s all it does, wild)
But one thing I don’t want to lose track of is my health statistics, especially things like:
- Heart rate
- Sleep
- Steps
For that, I’ve finally gotten my Oura ring this week and have been testing it.
A few observations:
- The data within the Oura app is highly detailed and simple.
- It’s significantly lighter than I was expecting, seriously.
- I’m a massive fan of technology that doesn’t buzz or ding.
Also, note — the Oura ring does not track workouts.
You need a Garmin or something like that to track workouts (also, do not recommend FitBit. I wore one for about a week and noticed the stats were ALL over the place and didn’t match anything like Apple Watch or Garmin from before)
If you’re looking for a simple, subtle, and non-abstruse way to track your health. I highly recommend the Oura ring.
Link here → Oura Ring
The Anthology of Balaji By Eric Jorgenson
As a follow-up book to the wildly popular The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, I COULD NOT wait to get my hands on this.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a book that I would consider in my top 5 list of all time. (Not kidding)
I’ve only scratched the surface of this book (50 pages in) but have come across a few jewels worth sharing:
“I escaped into an inner world of fiction and reading, flying through books. That was my life for many, many years”
This quote isn’t profound by any means but I highlighted it because I noticed something…
I’ve read the biographies of:
- Elon Musk
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Benjamin Franklin
- Naval Ravikant
And they all said the same exact thing. Note that.
“I think of money as a stick of dynamite. It is leverage to go and blow up the obstacles in the path of my next goal.”
“Putting in a lot of labor doesn’t necessarily generate value. Putting in the right technology often does.”
“Technologys first law: whatever can be done over the internet will be done over the internet.
Link to Book → The Anthology of Balaji
The Five Realms by Ryan Kiesshauer
My good friend, Ryan Kiesshauer, did a thing.
He released his very own fiction novel 👏
I’ve been in a guitar-focused group text with Ryan and three other close friends of mine for over seven years now. (which by the way is by far the longest group text thread I have on my phone)
I sent the group a text message about the upcoming release of my book, Meaningful Marketing (which by the way I will send you an email later this week about pre-order dropping!!) and then out of nowhere Ryan responds….
“Oh yeah, I just wrote and released a fiction novel, here’s the Amazon link”
What??
Were you not going to tell us? Also… that’s insane!
Proud of you, Ryan, I can’t wait to dig in brother.
If you’re into Harry Potter / Lord of the Rings type fiction — you’ll love this book from Ryan.
Link Here → The Five Realms
How Morgan Housel Sold 4 Million Copies of His Book
Morgan Housel wrote the infamous The Psychology of Money. Which exploded in the world of money books.
As he sits down and has a deep conversation with writer and podcaster, David Perell, he breaks down why… and I love his answer so much.
“Because stories sell more than stats. Everybody in the finance world just slaps a bunch of stats and facts on a page. Nobody remembers that stuff. They remember stories. If you give people emotional and memorable stories in small chunks, you’ll teach them way more than any stat every will.”
Link to Podcast → Morgan Housel + David Perell
The 7 Ancient Habits Every 30-Year-Old Should Have
It’s already November which has launched me into a reflective season of the year. I turn 31 in January and it feels like I just turned 30.
In my reflection, I think back to the habits that have changed my life the most in the last 10 years.
Here are the seven I came up with:
1 — Long runs
2 — Deep prayer
3 — Writing ideas
4 — Cooking food
5 — Sabbath weekly
6 — Reading wisdom
7 — Marketing yourself
The title of this section says ancient wisdom because all of these habits are ironically rooted in the bible and / or stoic wisdom. Even Jesus spoke at temples daily (thats marketing yourself).
In fact, these habits resonate so deeply with who I’ve become. I’ve started cooking up my next thing around them. (book number two?)
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