I've been trying to make money online for a long time.

I had one attempt that gave me a mindset shift that has stuck with me to this day.

I decided I would start a car washing business a couple of years ago. So I got to work and I planned every conceivable thing out. I watched dozens of videos on the best car washing equipment for me to buy (when I already had some in the garage). I made my list of equipment. For every possible scenario: bargain, ideal, rinseless, interior, detailing everything you can think of. I preplanned every possible scenario.

But that wasn't all I also planned out the exact packages I would charge for all of these scenarios.

Here's the notion doc of the packages I had planned out:

Here's the notion doc of my full prep:

Sounds all great right?

Well, there was one problem.

I never ended up washing a single car.

I was mentally masturbating.

And I did this with so many business models: Youtube Automation, Dropshipping, even X at a time, and more.

The point here?

Mental Masturbation

Many people spend most of their time thinking about what they will do rather than doing it.

From a mathematical and logical perspective, this is foolish. Because especially as a beginner you lack leverage. So you aren't rewarded for your judgment. The way you improve your judgment isn't by thinking it's by taking action and getting feedback.

From a psychological perspective consuming more information without action is overwhelming because you have no way of prioritizing which information is better or worse because you have not tested it through direct experience.

There are some other problems overconsumption without action will cause.

Your subconscious will know you can be doing better because you have the information to improve your life. This causes you suffering because you aren't taking action. If this suffering is transmuted into action it can be powerful but most people feel sorry for themselves and take no action.

I wrote this newsletter so you don't have to go through this same pain of wanting to start a business and make money but never doing it because you get stuck in analysis paralysis of what model to choose.

As Alex Hormozi said, "Any model will work if you put the work in" or something along those lines.

This means that the "perfect" business model isn't going to change anything. If your goal is to earn an income any of these business models could work if you put this work in.

(I would recommend this model though)

Escaping the information trap

It's not that information is bad. However, the best information is the one gotten from direct experience or implementation (especially for business). It is also how you stand out because your direct experience is different than others so you will develop unique methods.

Make sure that you are certain of what the goal of the learning is.

You probably want to make progress toward a meaningful project/goal.

The only way that you can do that is:

1. Implementing the information you learn

2. Get direct feedback

3. Implement that feedback

This cycle is the best way to make progress towards a meaningful goal.

If you are tired of constantly feeling like you could be doing better you need to start taking action on the information you have. You'll never feel like you are even close to living up to your potential if you never implement anything you learn.

The information you have access to whether it's in your brain or courses is unactualized potential. The more you leave it untapped the more you feel behind.

Implementation is the only way for you to get true information. An armchair philosopher sits around and theorizes about which plan is the best approach and never gets direct feedback from reality. Someone who implements takes the information they learn creates a theory and then acts on it. They get direct feedback from reality and calibrate. The second person always progresses faster because the direct feedback from reality will always be better information than the lofty theorizations that haven't been tested.

This information trap is something so many people fall into. They think if I can just find the best business model, the best diet, etc, then they will take action. But the truth is the only way you will know if something is the "best" is by testing it up against reality.

The most successful people were able to escape the information trap and that's why they became successful, however, once you reach a certain level. To stay or become even more successful this principle of the information trap reverses. Once you've gained lots of feedback and have more leverage it makes more sense to gather information. For instance, Warren Buffet has enough leverage and enough applied knowledge that he can spend a whole year making one decision that will make him more than enough money.

The best information you will get isn't from consumption without action. It's from taking action and getting feedback.

Information Formula

I'm going to cover the 3 steps of the information formula. So that you can start implementing what you learn and get better information in your life so you can progress faster and live a better life.

1) Vision and Anti-Vision

In my self-improvement-centered newsletters, this is always a crucial step in the process. The reason is that if you don't have a vision of the future then you are lost. You need a reference point to navigate the chaos of the world.

Both the vision and the anti-vison will help us in becoming researchers rather than consumers.

Anti-Vision

You can start with your vision or your anti-vision but data suggests that humans can more easily think about what they don't want rather than what they do want. That's why I'll begin with an anti-vison.

Write out a clear picture of the future that makes your skin crawl…

"You turn to mindless consumption of all kinds to escape your unfulfilling and robotic work and life. The news, sports, beer, food, video games, dessert, music, drugs, porn, social media, and more. You use mindless consumption to escape the problems and depression of your conscious mind. The easy pleasures of mindless consumption become your guiding joy and are the only thing that gets you through the monotonous tasks of the 9-5. You live your life in unconscious consumerism, and because of this, once you snap awake at 50, you have a mid-life crisis. You look back and wonder what life could have been like if you had followed your dreams and gone down a different path. Eventually, you shut these "dreams" down because the information you consume informs you that these dreams are for fools.”

Just looking at that and thinking about that picture of the future makes my skin crawl. That's my anti-vison. It's what I don't want. It's what I'm running away from. Especially when you lack motivation, confidence, and discipline running away from something can be more inspiring to take action rather than running towards something.

When you are feeling low and think your dreams aren't possible it can be hard to imagine a vision of the perfect future could even exist.

Since pain is the fundamental of reality it makes sense that running away from it would be a powerful motivator.

A powerful tool to get yourself to take action can be exaggerating your anti-vision's urgency. "If you don't do this right now I'll end up like that!". That could be the inner voice in your head.

Vision

This is a clear picture of the future that makes your face light up. It's the opposite of your anti-vison.

If you don't want to be sluggish and overweight then your vision would be feeling full of energy and thin.

You should get a clear idea of what this feels like. Whenever you need to tap into that feeling of excitement you should be able to visualize that future. You can create a vision board to make it feel even more real.

This can be pictures of different places you want to travel to, a car, a kind of house you want to live in, etc.

2) Zooming in

Once you've determined your vision and anti-vision it's time to zoom in. Not all the way but let's say a 3x lens. Once you have your big vision/goal for the future it's time to break it down into smaller time frame goals. If your vision is 10-20 years out break down the milestones you'd have to achieve to be on track.

1, 3, and 5-year goals.

The purpose of this is to make it more real and to start to develop a plan because the vision and goals are the reference point but without action it's useless.

If your big vision is to have multiple houses around the world and be able to travel whenever you want your 1 year goal could be to reach 10k/mo consistently.

3) Creating a Project

For this step, we will zoom in even more. let's say a 10x lens. After creating your 1, 3, and 5-year goals it's time to determine a project you can work on to move you towards that goal.

For example, it might be a digital product, a 1-1 coaching offer, or a lead magnet. This project creates a clear focus on where your energy is going. It becomes a priority It becomes the focal point of your life. Right now the project I'm working on is "The Creator Business Blueprint Event" (more details will be out on this in the next newsletter). This is my central focus and top priority.

Consumption → Research

Once you have created a project you're no longer consuming your researching. This is because you are now applying your consumption so you are a researcher. In the lab and science in general a researcher will read research papers and conduct tests to get data which they will implement into presenting a study. I got to learn about this up close in my semester at college.

It's the same with your consumption in your business. Right now all my consumption is being filtered through the lens of "The Creator Business Blueprint Event". For you, it might be a digital product you want to launch or something else.

Consumption stops becoming mindless consumption when you have something you're applying the information to.

When you start implementing what you're consuming you’ll likely make a lot of mistakes when it comes to trying to make money or achieve your goals.

If you want a headstart so you don’t make mistakes I’d recommend reading these:

• How to grow a brand(9 lessons on building a creator business)

• How to position yourself online

• Creator Business Blueprint

That’s it for this letter.

Thanks for reading.

– Christian