About me

• 1994 → Born in the suburbs of Pennsylvania (Paoli) after parents emigrated from England (Sunderland & London)
• 2008 → Started high school at Conestoga High School (2000+ students) and felt like an outsider among future Harvard students, Olympic athletes, and start-up founders
• 2010 → Achieved “Duelist” status (2600+ rated) in World of Warcraft competitive 5v5 arenas (I was obsessed with video games for 3 years)
• 2013 (18 years old) → Rejected from Georgetown University (my dream school), started Biomedical Engineering at GWU instead
• 2017 → Failed at multiple side hustles (drop-shipping, reselling, informational products) while my friends passed me by, and my grades were mediocre
• 2018 → Tried volunteering as an EMT, discovered I wanted to be a doctor to understand the human body and help people, applied and accepted to the University of Pennsylvania to get required courses for medical school (organic chem, biology, etc.)
• 2019 → Accepted to Sidney Kimmel Medical College (MD) in Philadelphia after being told I had “no chance” by guidance counselors due to my undergraduate grades
• 2020 (25 years old) → Felt like I had “made it,” loved medical school, loved my friends, loved Philadelphia, and was scoring in the top 10% of other medical students
• 2020 → COVID-19 hits. Started YouTube during lockdown to share the study strategies that changed me from a “B” to “A+” student—YouTube was the first side-project that energized me and showed some success
• 2022 → YouTube begins to grow rapidly. I hit 100,000 subscribers, made $10,000 in one day from my study course, and realized this internet thing is “real”
• 2023 → Matched to Internal Medicine Residency at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Loved it for two weeks, but quickly realized clinical medicine was not for me, as I wasn’t sure what impact I was making. Found myself asleep on a hospital floor at 3 AM during a night shift and a patient’s death, and realized I needed to change
• 2024 → Evaluated other options such as consulting, pharma, and being a full-time creator. Completed Intern Year (PGY-1) and then left medicine with a plan to join consulting
• 2025 → Accepted to dream consulting job but had a year off to work on YouTube and travel: published my first book, “SoloTuber,” my SoloTuber PRO course, started surfing, reached 500k+ subscribers, made more money in a month than I ever thought possible, traveled the world, tore my ACL, and started to code and build web apps and services
• 2025, Now (30 Years Old) → Recovering from ACL surgery, learning to code, moving to NYC to start my consulting job with the plan of starting my own company someday soon

1. Trust in Yourself 

Most people follow the standard path because they’ve been told “that’s just how things are.” I did it too – I became an engineer, took an investing job, entered medical school, and residency—I followed the “normal” path.

It took me 29 years, but I eventually realized I was way happier doing what I wanted to do (shocker). While on nights in the hospital, my mind kept running: “Is this the best use of my life? Is this what I’m meant to do with my life?” 

I’ve learned to check in with myself regularly and honestly:

• Is what I’m doing draining me or energizing me?
• Am I doing this because I want to, or because I “should”?
• What’s the worst that would happen if I stopped doing this (usually it’s not that bad).

When your body and mind are sending signals, pay attention. They’re usually right, even when conventional wisdom says otherwise.

2. Systems & Consistency = Superpower

Systems quietly transform your life while you’re not looking.

The boring, consistent work is what wins.

You aren’t “born with it” you “develop it.” This is a growth mindset.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in 10 years”—Bill Gates

This magic of compounding works everywhere:

• Work: Small regular investments in your projects and self → projects and self explode (in a good way)
• Health: Your daily food and movement → your overall health
• Relationships: Playing long-term games with long-term people → profound connections and outcomes (Naval Ravikant)

Getting 1% better at something each day makes you 37x better in one year. This is the exponential curve of compound growth—invisible at first, then suddenly undeniable.

3. Maintain a Beginner’s Mindset – You Can Do Anything

Steve Jobs said, “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it.”

This realization changed everything for me.

• The medical system I thought was fixed and unchangeable? People created it.
• The standard career paths everyone follows? Just social constructs.
• What if I looked into this myself? Why do people pick these careers? I could become an astronaut if I wanted to (I don’t want to).

You can learn and do anything. You just need to start. Take the first step. Take action. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. When you hit a stumble, don’t stop; it’s just a sign you are growing.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, but saw it as an opportunity to improve his skills and grow. He became the best basketball player of all time.

John McEnroe, one of the best tennis players, was always told he was “naturally gifted,” and often was quoted as saying how he hated tennis. When he lost one doubles match, he decided never to play doubles again, saying it was “inferior” to singles. Imagine if he took that loss as an opportunity to grow? Instead of yelling and screaming (although it is entertaining).

I constantly put myself in situations where I’m a beginner and look dumb – learning how to surf at 30 years old, saying “hi” in the elevator, reading books on topics that scare me (like Economics, Adam Smith, woof).

When you stay humble and curious, you see opportunities that everyone else misses, and, most importantly, you grow.

4. Have Fun

But my biggest game-changer in life? Learning to laugh at myself and not take everything so dang seriously.

Who cares if you “look cool?” I’d much rather be silly and have fun.

No one is paying attention to you anyway.

99.99% of everyone’s thoughts are on themselves, so stop worrying about what other people think. If someone judges you or insults you, that 99.99% rule holds true—they insult you because they actually are unhappy with themselves and pushing their personal burden onto you. They are insulting themself. Laugh them off.

Life is ups and downs. And that’s ok. Sometimes I’m not even productive all day, “OH NO!” Please chill out. I’ve learned to:

• “Write off” entire days without guilt when things aren’t flowing
• Keep most weeks completely blank in my calendar (if I’m working a 9-5, I add one week a quarter of “nothing”) 
• Treat every failure as a learning opportunity

Life is absurdly short. The good times pass, but so do the bad times. None of it lasts forever, so why not enjoy the ride?

*Beginner’s mindset + Grit + Courage. My motto: “When learning, maintain the ego-less and evolving search for truth.”

I like:

• Laughing so much my brain empties out
• Early morning workouts before the world wakes up
• Looking at the sky before my phone (no phone until 2 pm)
• Automatic systems that work while I sleep
• Books that change how I think
• Conversations that go deep quickly
• Travel without itineraries and niche hobbies (like surfing)
• Coffee shops anywhere
• People who do what they say they’ll do
• People who are truthful at cost
• Building things that help others

I dislike:

• Small talk that goes nowhere
• Meetings that should have been emails
• Emails that should have been nothing
• People who complain but never act
• Advice from people who haven’t done it
• Being busy for the sake of being busy
• Energy vampires (people, places, and things)
• Perfectionism disguised as standards
• Living someone else’s definition of success
• The word “should”

Every year, I write myself a list of principles to take into the new year. Here is the most frequent advice I write to myself.  

Inspired by Nabeel S. Qureshi, Kevin Kelly, and Paul Graham

1. Schedule everything important. Your calendar is your life’s blueprint—treat it as sacred.
2. Say “hi” first.
3. Interview your parents while they are still alive. Keep asking questions while you record. Ask your relatives for question ideas. You’ll learn amazing things.
4. Create, don’t consume. The production/consumption balance determines your life’s trajectory.
5. Everything passes—your opinions, possessions, goals, emotions, body, and life. Enjoy the good, notice the bad, realize both will pass.
6. Stop complaining. No one wants to hear it, and it accomplishes nothing except lowering everyone’s energy. Stanford research shows complaining literally rewires your brain for negativity.
7. Take all the blame, give all the credit. Leadership is about responsibility upward and recognition downward.
8. Whenever you hug someone, be the last to let go.
9. 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time for personal projects daily will change your life. Protect this time fiercely.
10. Best sleep aid: first, get really tired.
11. Single task. Multitasking is a myth that destroys quality and presence.
12. Ask for help. Pride is expensive and unnecessary—most people want to assist.
13. Remove energy vampires from your life. Time is finite; don’t waste it on people, activities, or desires that drain you.
14. Sleep is the ultimate life hack. Optimize for 7+ hours in a cold, dark, quiet room. Matthew Walker’s research proves this is non-negotiable for performance. My sleep quality jumped dramatically when I had consistent wake and sleep times and turned the temperature to 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
15. Writing and meditation are clichés but magic. Spend at least 10 minutes a day on each.
16. There is nothing more calming and restorative than exhausting exercise. Push it in the gym, on the track, or outside at least twice a week. Your heart rate likely didn’t get high enough. Your body can handle much more exertion than your brain wants you to think you can.
17. Once a month, take a different route home, enter your house by a different door, and sit in a different chair at dinner. 
18. Reading is a superpower. There is no quicker accelerator to success (no matter your definition) after doing the work than reading.
19. Do “the work,” you know what it is.
20. Automate and delegate relentlessly. Your unique value lies in creation, not administration.
21. Think about what makes you ‘different’ as a personality, & do things where this gives you an edge. What did you love to do when you were 7-15 years old?
22. Call customer service instead of googling for hours. Experts solve problems faster than search engines.
23. Write like a human, not a corporate robot. “Hey John, how can we fix this?” not “The proposed formatting or our introductory piece…” yuck. 
24. Listen actively. Most people hear words but miss meaning, emotion, and body language. The secret to this? Be genuinely interested in other people’s lives. What can you learn from their 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and multiple years of actually living a different life?
25. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Persistence beats perfection in most scenarios. Annoying people on airplanes are spoken to first. Be squeaky, but don’t be annoying.
26. Your parents are people with dreams, fears, and problems. They, just like you, aren’t perfect.
27. Aim for respect, not likability. Respect lasts; popularity fades. Do this by being honest always.
28. Anger solves nothing. Wait 24 hours or walk away before making decisions tainted with anger.
29. Mental toughness can be trained like any muscle. Do one thing you are scared of every day.
30. Everything can be learned. The only limits are time and effort, never ability.
31. When someone texts you they are running late, double the time they give you. If they say they’ll be there in 5, make that 10; if 10, it’ll be 20. This applies to proposals, costs, and travel time.
32. In a museum, you need to spend at least 10 minutes with an artwork to truly see it. Ask for help, learn the background of the picture, and try to understand the intention behind the picture. Did the artist succeed?
33. Focus on execution over ideas. 3,000 ideas are worthless. One finished project is monumental.
34. Avoid debt at all costs. Financial, technical, and emotional—pay off your debts. 
35. Take calculated risks in your teens, 20s, and 30s. Index funds return 10% yearly; big bets can return 10-10Mx. Young entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg took massive risks early when the recovery time was longest.
36. Build something that scales. Your life can change quickly—be ready. Will what you’re doing ever grow? What’s the ceiling? 
37. Fire drama creators immediately. Life’s too short for manufactured chaos.
38. Alcohol ruins 2-3 days for a few hours of fun. Calculate if it’s worth it.
39. Protect your health. Physical wellness directly impacts effectiveness. If you think it doesn’t, you are wrong.
40. Figure out your peak performance hours and guard them fiercely. Figure out your trough performance hours and schedule BS tasks and chats for those times (I nearly listed my weekly time for this, but realized I would quickly offend 10 people).
41. Focus on 3-5 truly important things. Everything else is distraction or delegation material.
42. Every now and then throw a memorable party. The price will be steep, but long afterwards you will remember the party, whereas you won’t remember how much is in your checking account.
43. Don’t waste time on work that doesn’t matter to you. Start the side project now. Establish 1 year of a financial safety net. Hit 60% of your current salary with the project. Then quit and go all in on the project.
44. From my time as a doctor: ask yourself, “How does this information change my management?” If it doesn’t, ignore it.
45. Junk in, junk out—applies to media, food, daylight, and relationships.
46. Understand power laws. Outlier math rules everything—80/20 is just the beginning. Pareto’s principle governs most life outcomes.
47. Build genuine friendships, not networks. Networks drain you and the other person.
48. Write online regularly. 
49. Separate “creator” and “editor” mindsets when working. Create first, refine later. I love Stephen King’s door shut and door open methodology.
50. There should be at least one thing in your life you enjoy despite being no good at it. This is your play time, which will keep you young.
51. Think in writing. External memory extends your cognitive capacity infinitely.
52. Move fast. “Slow is fake”—resistance and procrastination eat time, not actual work.
53. Discover people whom you love doing “nothing” with, and do nothing with them on a regular basis. The longer you can maintain those relationships, the longer you will live.
54. Environment shapes performance. Place yourself where you must excel to survive or survive in excellence.
55. Status is fake and transient. Focus on substance and valuable work instead.
56. If you are out of ideas, go for a walk. A good walk empties the mind—and then refills it with new stuff.
57. Send more cold emails. People respond more than you think—assume everyone’s your friend.
58. Stop asking for permission. Plant the “this is happening” flag and let people join your mission. Steve Jobs never asked permission to revolutionize entire industries.
59. The best work comes from joy and excitement, not grinding through misery. Follow your energy.