the loneliest time of your life

‘i know i have so much potential, but i just feel stuck, like i can’t do anything with it.’

that’s a real quote from a guy i worked with a few months ago.

he was spending 11h per day, every single day, on his phone.

but he wasn’t just some loser with no self-control.

he was an ambitious young guy who felt lost, & was going through a chapter that i had also been in recently:

the lonely chapter

it happens when you know you have more in you, & you’re trying to become that better version of yourself.

but for some reason, you waste your days scrolling, doing nothing with that potential, & feeling mad at yourself the whole time.

& it sucks, because you’re too ambitious to fit in with the people around you, but you don’t yet have the results to find the people you belong with.

so you’re stuck in the middle.

your friends are great, but when you try to talk about your goals, you can see them mentally check out.

so you bite your tongue, & you go back to talking about normal shit like sports or gossip or whatever.

& the whole time, you’re wondering if you’re the only person in the world who thinks the way you do.

when i went through this, it was the loneliest time of my life.

& when i look back, it’s obvious why my screen time was so high in that chapter:

self-improvement content, podcasts about business, emails like this — they all made me feel understood for the first time.

but it was a trap.

consuming content about building stuff is not the same as actually building stuff.

if you can relate to any of this, you’re probably in some version of ‘the lonely chapter’ too.

so do you want to know how i got out?

i stopped scrolling.

i started building.

& eventually, i ‘found the others.’

now, i’ve dedicated my life to helping other people do the same.

which leads me to my big announcement:

i’m finally launching 0to1.club!

this is a Skool community that i’ve spent the last few months building.

the idea is simple:

half your screen time + build something real, in 7 days — guaranteed.

0to1.club will be the best place on the internet for ambitious people who want to stop scrolling, start building, & find the others.

ok that’s it. that’s my whole pitch lol.

get early access (free)

now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

some things i learned

1. how to trick yourself to work faster
   Parkinson’s Law says ‘work expands to fill the time available for its completion.’
   i couldn’t agree more. if you want to get stuff done faster, set closer deadlines!

2. reading is the easiest way to get ahead of everybody else
   the 2023 American Time Use Survey (236,000+ participants) found that only 16% of Americans read for fun on any given day. from that 16%, i wonder how many are reading nonfiction books to learn new skills..? my guess: not many.
   the bar for ‘above average’ is lower than you think.

3. things unexpectedly named after people
   - Taco Bell —> Glen Bell
   - Boycott —> Charles Boycott
   - Shrapnel —> Henry Shrapnel
   - PageRank —> Larry Page
   - Nachos —> Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Anaya

cool stuff i found

1. a beach that’s too beautiful for pictures
   my favourite beach ever — by far — is Praia do Canavial in Lagos, Portugal.
   we basically scaled down a cliff to get there, but it was so worth it. take a look:

   

2. an easy fix for bad breath
   i sat next to someone with ASS breath recently, so this is personal lol.
   here’s my current stack for oral hygiene:

   

3. a boring purchase that made my life better
   we had some wildfires that made Toronto’s air quality the worst in the world last week, so my girlfriend & i bought an air purifier to see if it would help.
   
   it did. now we keep it running 24/7, even after the smoke cleared.
   

   

that’s all for now!

0to1.club has been a long time coming, & i’m super excited to finally make it public — even if it’s only for a few of you who want early access.

to be completely honest, this is the most unpolished & raw it’s ever gonna be, but i was determined to just get ‘version 1’ out so i could improve it with your feedback along the way.

so if you’re up for the (free) 7-day challenge to half your screen time + build something real, i’d be more than happy to work with you in there.

go make yourself proud this week!

~ liam (:

get early access (free)

PS - only a few slots are open this week!

PPS - making stuff limited like that^ is a popular sales tactic, but honestly i can’t handle more than a few people at a time rn lol