four life lessons that fundamentally altered my life trajectory

in the last year i've met some of the most successful people in the world.

20 y/o's with $150M companies. Billionaires like Sam Altman.

They all had 4 things in common. It's the same 4 lessons that I used to completely transform my life in the past 3 years.

1. Intuition > Everything

Logic is a fantastic framework for life and society. It's the backbone of science, cs, ai, math. But there's one place where it's detrimental: ambition.

Ambitious things are stupid and illogical; why would you do something that has a 99.999% chance of failure?

The answer isn't to listen to logic and give up. Instead, it's to switch your framework. Listen to intuition. The crazy little voice in your head. It will always tell you the right move.

Every single ambitious thing I've done (skipping my senior year and flying to hackathons every month on student loans, moving to new york to do content with no job, launching a nonprofit at 15) has been because of intuition.

And just like everything else, intuition's a skill. The more you execute on it and succeed, the stronger it gets.

2. Environment > Everything

I spent 21 years trying to find ambition in canada and never really did. In sf, I found it in two weeks.

You're NOT going to be the one person that changes everyone around you. It's just not possible. Instead, they're going to change you and put out that special flame you have, whether it's ambition, talent, creativity.

You NEED to find the best place in the world for what you're trying to do and work your ass off in getting there. For builders and innovators, its sf, which is why I spent 37 months trying to get here.

3. Distribution > Everything

It's no longer 2005. The world runs on an attention economy. If you're going to do crazy things, why do it in a silo and not in front of 500k people?

I've met countless creators in sf & new york and they all say the same thing: the roi from publicity is a complete hack. For example, just having a good brand and posting on linkedin got me 59 interviews in 5 months. The 4 years prior, barely 10.

You need to start doing things in public and learn how to consistently go viral.

4. Anything Is Possible

If you're in a developed, democratic, capitalist country post-1995, you have the resources to achieve literally anything. The limiting factor is no longer technology. It's mindset.

We don't do things because we tell ourselves it's not possible. Our parents tell us it's not possible. Our schools tell us it's not possible.

But soon as you mute out all the noise, suddenly you can do anything. I've met more people than I can count in the last year that got started with nothing and are now some of the most successful 20/21/22 year olds in the world, all because they said they could.

Another way to think of this rule is agency: you can just do things. Stop self-restricting.

Putting these rules into practice have given me and those around me unreasonable returns. It's literally a social cheat code.