Todd Brison

Today I turn 40. Every birthday, I share the lessons I've learned along the way. Here are 40 life lessons from my 40 years... 1. Having kids will turn you into a giant pussy. Even if you're a hard ass on the outside like me. I cry all the time over my two daughters. Their struggles bring back mine from childhood. And seeing the innocence of a child put under pressure is crippling for any human. You want the best for your kids. And that makes you a better, more compassionate human. 2. "Trust me, bro" doesn't work. You must have proof of work. Proof of competence. Proof of skill. Social proof. If there's nothing to evaluate, the risk of betting on you is too high. 3. Burnout isn't real. You only experience burnout when you live a life you shouldn't be living and do nothing about it. Stress is good for you. If you run from it and call it burnout, you're missing the point. Eliminate the bullsh*t work, not the stress. Time off doesn't fix it. Changing your life does. 4. The only way to be a loser is to be afraid of losing. Pessimism is low IQ. You won't know anything unless you try. And the way you learn is by losing. So not losing equals zero learning. You gotta love losing if you want to win. 5. Your life isn't unique. Everyone else is facing death, sickness, money problems, job loss, and uncertainty too. Once you understand your life is the same as millions of other people's you can stop letting excuses hold you back. Yes, life is hard. But what are you going to do about it? Delay? Complain? Wait? Just f*cking get going. 6. Understand everyone's secret incentive. It'll help you make better decisions. And it'll stop you from getting scammed. A person's bias is your opportunity. See it. Verbalize it. Then make an informed decision. 7. Most problems make sense when you apply basic logic. Instead of looking for complex solutions, break down the problem and analyse it. What seems logical? That becomes your starting point. 8. Understand human psychology to become wealthy. And to get people to take the actions you want to take. People do things out of selfishness, not compassion or virtue. 9. Everyone needs someone to mind f*ck them. Tony Robbins did it for me. For others, it's Dan Koe. Find your person and let them challenge your view of the world. Let them stress test it. 10. If your focus is to always save money or cap downside, you'll never be wealthy. Good news is it's easy to change. 11. No one who said "in 3 months will be the right time" achieves their dreams. Avoid these people like the plague. A dream is a daily habit that starts today. If you can't even work on it for 10 mins a day today, you're not serious. 12. Many opportunities are lottery tickets in disguise. Sell SaaS. Write a best-selling book. Selling $50 digital products. Run a $5/month Substack. People are tricked easily into these paths because they look easy. But they're actually dumb. People win lottery tickets. Doesn't mean you should try to too. 13. All the psychological labels give people permission to be mediocre. "It's not me. It's because I'm introverted." Don't outsource your potential and identity to a made-up human label. Your brain can literally rewire itself to believe anything and to heal from anything. 14. The most life-changing rabbit hole I went down is neuroplasticity. Nerd out on it. Understand it. Experiment with it. Your entire life can change because of neuroplasticity. It's the antidote to boredom, procrastination, laziness, and feeling stuck. 15. Selling is just helping. Learn how to help people and you'll make a lot of sales without having to try and sell. 16. When people call you cringy, they really just mean "I wish I could do that." I love being cringe. It means I'm acting weird and refusing to fit in and that's my zone of genius. What you want to avoid is being unremarkable. 17. Not taking risks is disrespecting yourself. You won't know unless you take a risk. And 99% of decisions are reversible anyway. In the future you'll appreciate the chances you did take, not the failures. 18. Relying on fantasies hurts you. Many people fall for this delusion. They think the result they crave is inevitable. Most results are insanely hard to achieve and require more effort that is hard to imagine. Focus on actions that create memories of what you did. 19. Most luck is just hard work and networking over a time horizon that makes you forget what you did Luck is earned. It's proof of work. It's when what you do is undeniable and you appear serious due to the library of experiences and moments you've shared. 20. Aim to be a practitioner – not a leader, influencer, or guru. People trust practitioners more. The barrier to entry is work and effort. Anyone with a low IQ can do it. While it's simple it's hard. And most people won't do it, so there's little competition. 21. Your nightmares reveal your fears. Mine are about failing high school and something happening to my daughters. High school isn't important to me, but being self-made is. You can't stop nightmares. But you can use them to tell you what's important. 22. "Get good grades. Get a good job. Stay for 40 years. Retire at 65." Tech killed this dream. Most haven't realized. 23. The country you live in and its government are actively working against you. Not in an evil way. It's just incentives. Their incentive is to take more of your money. Unless you understand how and why they do that, they will get more of your money. And you'll work harder without realizing it. 24. When you have kids you miss simple things. Much of your social life disappears for a while as you nurture small children. When they're able to fend for themselves more, society has already written you off. You've been missing from the social scene for years. All you can do is jump back in. Let people know you're back. And make going out a priority. 25. Family picnics with friends are way more fun than nightclubs/pubs. A picnic is where you go to enjoy the moment and look at what you've built. A nightclub is where you go to drink and escape the life you have. They're not the same. 26. Avoiding alcohol and drugs solves a lot of problems. Addiction rots the brain. 27. Having a copy of "Ego is the enemy" next to you at all times keeps you humble. Your ego will ruin more opportunities than rejection ever will. 28. Life is more fun if you learn to enjoy the struggle and see hard mode as a way to get everything you ever wanted in life. 29. The courage to look stupid matters more than skill acquisition or competency ever will. If you can look dumb and not care, you'll figure out what you don't know. 30. Rock bottom is just a breakthrough that's about to happen. Craving them is important. Knowing we all have them makes it easier to push through. Without extreme pain you don't have the motivation to change. 31. There's no need to explain yourself. As long as your world makes sense to you that's all that matters. If people ask for explanations you can ignore them. Not every question of you demands you to answer. 32. Fall in love with criticism. I get about 5-10 people every day criticizing me. It used to make me depressed. Now I crave it. Criticism means you're making moves. You're repelling people. And that means you're actually trying to produce change. The haters just want what you have anyway. 33. The best skill to acquire is to constantly reinvent yourself My dad started as a minister. Then he became a soldier. Then late in life he bought a business. You're not one thing. Your life is made up of many different paths. Don't get stuck on one. 34. "Am I willing to change or am I happy to stay the same" reveals your true bottleneck. It's rarely money, time, resources, or information. It's you. You're the roadblock. 35. Redundancies proof job security is bullsh*t. Stop protecting your job and start protecting your family. 36. When you truly witness insane levels of obsession it's hard to forget. David Senra is my daily reminder of this. 37. A war always ruins your investments at the start. But after people get used to the war it becomes old news and the markets recover. Same with the pandem!c. Same with tech layoffs. Same with the AI debate. Same with the president being shot in the head or the Queen dying. 38. Labor leverage is still one of the greatest advantages. Hire smart people to replace you, then let them do the work and measure the outcomes. Doing everything is dumb. And people can be more talented at a skill than you. 39. If you play the social media game, embrace authenticity above all. It's what people now crave. It means mistakes, typos, and being vulnerable. It also means you don't let AI do the writing for you. 40. Anyone (including me) can die tomorrow. Stop waiting for someday like a f*cking clown. Do it today.

I don't understand the point of using the term "dozen". It means 12, so just say 12? It's even worse when people say or type "half a dozen". Just say 6 or six.

I don't remember where I found this, but its spot on.

Okay sure but what was your card back choice when playing Solitaire?

Most email marketers write to 'subscribers.' I write to Bill. Bill is 50, picks his own stocks, doesn't know whose advice to trust, and checks MarketBeat before opening his brokerage account. One real person, written for specifically. That's the copy that converts.