Anticodeguy

Your New Reality: From Constantly Busy to Systematically Free Let’s circle back to where we started — your brain’s limited bandwidth. Remember those 50 bits per second? That constraint isn’t going away. But now you have a way to work with it rather than against it. By using the black box method, you’re essentially creating an external operating system for your business and life. You’re offloading complexity from your limited working memory into documented systems. Think about what this means for you practically: — No more forgetting important details (your systems remember for you) — No more being the bottleneck (processes continue without your direct involvement) — No more context-switching fatigue (clear boundaries between systems) — No more reinventing solutions to recurring problems (the system already has the answer) The data on decision fatigue is shocking — judicial studies found that decisions were 65% favorable at the day’s start but dropped to near 0% just before breaks. After lunch, the pattern would reset. This dramatically illustrates how our mental resources deplete throughout the day. Systems thinking protects you from this depletion by requiring fewer decisions. The system itself makes many choices for you, conserving your mental energy for what truly matters. For a digital nomad or online entrepreneur, this isn’t just convenient — it’s transformative. It’s the difference between a business that chains you to your laptop and one that runs while you explore a new city or take a month off. As W. Edwards Deming wisely noted,

“The system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”

If you want different results, you must change the system producing them. I encourage you to start small. Take one process in your business or life and apply the black box method today. Draw it out. Define the inputs and outputs. Set clear boundaries. Then watch what happens. You’ll likely discover, as I did, that this simple mental model becomes a lens through which you see everything. You’ll start noticing systems everywhere — some working beautifully, others desperately in need of redesign. Your brain may be limited to a small context window, but with systems thinking, your impact isn’t. By creating well-designed black boxes connected into a coherent whole, you build something greater than what any single brain could manage alone. That’s the real freedom machine — not just a business that makes money, but a system that expands your capabilities beyond your inherent limitations. So grab that notebook. Draw your first black box. And step into your new role as the architect of systems that work for you, not the other way around.

Why Your Mind Needs Systems to Scale (And Your Business Does Too) First, let’s get something straight: a system is a collection of interconnected elements working together toward a specific goal. Every word in that definition matters, so keep it in front of you. An even simpler definition is this: a system is a means to achieve a goal. That’s it. Any system exists to accomplish something. When I explain systems thinking to people, I start with the black box concept. This approach is useful when studying a system for the first time, trying to understand how it works, or looking for specific elements within it. Imagine any process as a literal black box — a non-transparent rectangle drawn on paper with the name of the process. We call it “black” because we don’t know (or don’t currently care) what happens inside. It’s like Schrödinger’s cat — the cat might be alive or dead, but we’re not opening the box yet. We’re just observing from the outside. Simple diagram of a black box system showing input and output arrows, representing the essence of black box systems thinking Since this is a process (not a physical object), the black box has inputs and outputs. Arrows go in on the left side and arrows come out on the right. The input is information entering the process — data, objects, or anything that interacts with the process. This information is processed somehow inside this mysterious black box and transformed into output information. Let me give you a simple example anyone will understand. You write a prompt to ChatGPT asking what a chicken crossed with a mammoth would look like. The prompt is your input — the arrow on the left. You see an animation showing the AI “thinking.” That’s the black box processing your request. We don’t know exactly how it works (it’s opaque to us), but eventually, it produces an output — the arrow on the right — describing your chicken-mammoth hybrid. That’s the essence of systems thinking. Any system whose inner workings are unknown or irrelevant at your current level of analysis can be viewed as a black box. What matters are the inputs and outputs. This concept is incredibly powerful for entrepreneurs. As venture capitalist Peter Senge said,

“If you don’t understand a system, it will own you.”

The reverse is also true — when you understand systems, you can build ones that work for you instead of trapping you. There are two important factors to consider when analyzing systems: 1. point of view 2. abstraction level Point of view is essentially whose eyes you’re looking through. If I put my brain in the body of a business owner and look at a business system, I might see a black box containing my employees. On the input side, I see clients (people I meet, greet, and talk with daily), and on the output side, I see money appearing in my bank account. But what happens in between? Somehow my employees process these clients and turn them into money. Now, if we look at the same business from an accountant’s perspective, the picture changes completely. From their viewpoint, the inputs are figures — company expenses and income. The output is a profit and loss statement. What happened to generate those expenses and income? The accountant might not know or care about those details. Same system, completely different picture depending on whose eyes you’re looking through. Then there’s abstraction level — the height from which you observe the system. You can look closely at individual elements (like a specific marketer’s work) or zoom out to see entire departments or the business as a whole. At different zoom levels, the system appears completely different.

Your brain processes 11 million bits of data per second. But you can only consciously handle 50 bits. Your brain has a serious problem, and that’s holding you back more than you realize. Here's the black box method to break free. __________________________________________ Knowledge workers spend 1.8 hours daily just searching for information. That's 9.3 hours weekly disappearing into a black hole. Almost one-third of your workday vanishes because your brain can't process everything at once. Systems thinking is your escape route. It's a mental model that turns overwhelming chaos into controllable "black boxes." Instead of drowning in details, you see clear inputs and outputs. Seemingly, a simple concept — but it changes everything. Think of ChatGPT as a black box. You input a prompt → AI "thinks" (mysterious process) → outputs an answer. You don't need to understand the neural networks inside. You just need to know: good input = good output. McDonald's built an empire with this thinking. The brothers designed their kitchen as an assembly line. Each step was a black box with clear inputs/outputs. Ray Kroc realized: systems run the business, people run the systems. Most entrepreneurs stay trapped inside their business. They're constantly firefighting instead of designing. This approach flips that script completely. Here's my 6-step method to build systems that free your brain: __________________________________________ Step 1: Map Your Current Reality as Black Boxes Grab a notebook. Seriously. Draw rectangles for each major process in your business. Client acquisition. Project delivery. Support. Keep it simple. Step 2: Define Your Perspective and Abstraction Level Whose eyes are you looking through? The owner? The marketer? How zoomed in are you? Individual tasks or entire departments? Pick one viewpoint and stick with it. Mixing perspectives creates distorted decisions. Step 3: Identify Process Boundaries For each black box, ask: What's the primary function? Where does it begin and end? What belongs here vs. adjacent processes? Clear boundaries prevent overlap and confusion. Step 4: Document Input and Output Flows This is where magic happens. Define exactly what goes in and what comes out. Be specific. Vague inputs = vague systems. Example: Topic ideas + brand guidelines → published articles + engagement metrics. Step 5: Design the System, Not the Steps Don't micromanage every detail inside the box. Focus on resources needed, constraints, and outcomes. Give people freedom to innovate within boundaries. Cloud services work this way — you don't manage their servers. Step 6: Connect and Optimize Your Systems Draw lines showing how outputs become inputs for other boxes. This reveals bottlenecks, redundancies, and gaps. Small changes in connected systems create massive results. The whole becomes greater than its parts. __________________________________________ Your new reality: from constantly busy to systematically free. — No more forgetting details (systems remember). — No more being the bottleneck (processes continue without you). — No more context-switching fatigue. Start with one process today. The full article to read: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-black-box-method-how-systems-thinking-can-free-your-brain-and-your-time

Your brain has a serious problem — one that’s holding you back more than you realize. When we move through life, our consciousness is limited to a tiny window of information we can actually process. It’s not your fault — it’s simply how we’re built. Research shows our brains receive around 11 million bits of data every second, but our conscious mind can only handle about 50 bits per second. That’s less than 0.0005% of incoming information! Think of it like having an 8GB flash drive permanently installed in your head. You can’t just go to the store and upgrade to 32GB. We’re stuck with our hardware limitations (at least for now). Maybe someday we’ll be able to upgrade our brains, but we’re definitely not there yet. This creates a serious bottleneck. Studies show the average knowledge worker spends about 1.8 hours every day — that’s 9.3 hours weekly — just searching for information they need. Almost one-third of your workday disappears into this black hole of trying to find shit you already know exists somewhere. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately — how our brain’s limited “context window” restricts what we can accomplish. It reminds me of those AI models with short context windows; after a few messages, the AI starts forgetting what you wrote in your first prompt. You have to keep reminding it of the original information. Our minds work surprisingly similarly. We focus on one task, then switch to another, and suddenly we’ve forgotten important details from the first one. This is why multitasking is such bullshit — research shows it can cause a 40% loss in productivity. A one-hour task ends up taking 84 minutes when you’re constantly switching contexts. But here’s the thing — I discovered a methodology that completely transformed how I approach complex problems. It’s called systems thinking, and specifically, the black box method. I first learned it in university, and it genuinely changed how my brain operates. It’s like I took the red pill in Matrix and suddenly could see systems everywhere. This approach has become my daily toolkit for designing information systems, understanding businesses, and maintaining a complete picture (as much as possible) of any venture I’m working on. It’s fundamentally shifted my mental model to a systems approach. In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to use the black box method to create systems that run without you, free up your mental bandwidth, and ultimately, give you back your time and freedom. This isn’t some theoretical bullshit — it’s a practical approach that’s helped me build systems that work while I sleep, travel, or focus on what actually matters to me.

... 4. Relationships with the opposite sex aren’t your priority This will be controversial, but hear me out. Romantic relationships can seriously derail your path to success if they come at the wrong time or with the wrong person. Studies show divorce rates among entrepreneurs hover around 43-48% – higher than the general population. In one survey, 57% of divorced entrepreneurs reported their company suffered financially from the divorce. I’m not saying become a monk. I’m saying prioritization matters. Study the psychology of how relationships impact success trajectories. A demanding partner who doesn’t support your vision can drain the energy you need for building your future. The right relationship can be an asset, but at this stage of life, a partnership should be evaluated partly on how it affects your freedom and growth goals. Be strategic, not just emotional. ____________________________________________ 5. Health and physiology come first – non-negotiable “In a healthy body, healthy spirit” isn’t just a saying – it’s a fundamental success principle backed by science. Harvard researchers have confirmed that regular exercise improves cognitive function, memory, and mental sharpness. When you’re building a business, your brain is your most important asset. Richard Branson claims his daily exercise routine “doubles” his productivity. He’s not exaggerating – studies show exercise can boost creative thinking by 60% on average. Even when money is tight, prioritize clean eating. Learn basic nutrition. Your body is the vehicle that will carry you to success or failure. A sick person has only one goal – getting healthy. A healthy person can pursue multiple ambitious goals simultaneously. Don’t wait until burnout forces you to care about health. Make it your foundation now. ____________________________________________ 6. Study psychology like your success depends on it (because it does) Psychology underlies literally everything that matters in business: marketing, sales, leadership, team dynamics, customer behavior, and your own decision-making. Harvard marketing professor Gerald Zaltman found that 95% of purchasing decisions happen in the subconscious mind. Think about that – your customers aren’t primarily making logical choices. They’re responding to emotional triggers you need to understand. Simon Sinek put it bluntly:

“If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.”

Read Robert Cialdini on persuasion. Study emotional intelligence. Learn how cognitive biases affect decisions. This knowledge isn’t just theoretical – it translates directly into better marketing, stronger sales, and more effective leadership. The sooner you master human psychology, the faster you’ll see patterns in business that others miss completely. ____________________________________________ 7. Embrace change and new experiences constantly Change creates opportunity. Full stop. Psychologist Richard Wiseman studied “lucky” people and found their luck wasn’t random – they maximized chance opportunities by consistently putting themselves in new situations and meeting new people. Stay in one place, doing one thing, with the same people, and your opportunities remain static. Move around, try new things, meet diverse people, and your “luck surface area” expands dramatically. Don’t fear relocating. Don’t fear changing your business model. Don’t fear exploring new markets. That discomfort you feel when faced with change is your comfort zone being stretched – exactly what needs to happen for growth. As Branson demonstrated when his flight to the Virgin Islands was canceled, he didn’t accept fate – he chartered a plane, sold seats to stranded passengers, and discovered an opportunity that became Virgin Atlantic Airways. Your next big break probably lies just outside your comfort zone. ____________________________________________ The full list is here.

18. Don't live somewhere with a combined bathroom and toilet. Especially if you're living with someone else. Seriously, who the fuck thought putting a toilet in the same room as the shower was a good idea? 19. You are the most important person in your life. Focusing on yourself first isn't selfish – it's strategic. Prioritize your development to attract better opportunities. Every improvement compounds over time. Future you is watching what you do next. The full letter: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/letter-to-my-25-year-old-self-19-brutal-lessons-i-wish-i-d-known-earlier

Letter To My 25-Year-Old Self 19 brutal truths I wish I'd known a decade ago 1. Business is your path to freedom. Not motivational BS — it's backed by data. Self-employed people are 4x more likely to become millionaires. Your tech job is a stepping stone. Employment for life guarantees mediocrity. 2. Build your personal brand immediately and go global. Your LinkedIn profile isn't a fucking brand. Your reputation outlasts any business you build. Start writing in English today. Accent and grammar mistakes don't matter. Just get your voice out there. 3. If you think it's too late – start anyway. That voice saying "I'm not ready" is bullshit. The perfect time is now. Our brains think everything moves faster than it does. "Overnight successes" took years of invisible work. 4. Relationships aren't your priority right now. Controversial, but hear me out. 57% of divorced entrepreneurs report company financial damage. A partner who doesn't support your vision drains your energy. Be strategic, not just emotional. 5. Health comes first – non-negotiable. Harvard: exercise improves brain function and memory. Branson: daily exercise "doubles" productivity. Even when broke, prioritize clean eating. Your body is the vehicle carrying you to success or failure. 6. Study psychology: your success depends on it. 95% of purchasing decisions happen in the subconscious. Customers aren't making logical choices. They respond to emotional triggers. "If you don't understand people, you don't understand business." 7. Embrace change and new experiences constantly. Change creates opportunity. Full stop. Same place, same people = static opportunities. Move around, try new things, meet diverse people. Your next big break lies just outside your comfort zone. 8. Fix your mental health – therapy isn't optional. Unresolved issues sabotage success in ways you can't see. "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life." 95% of cognitive activity happens unconsciously. Do the inner work. 9. Think carefully before taking on business partners. Than think again. You can do this alone. You are enough. Partner only if it truly amplifies your capabilities. Don't partner out of fear. Choose extraordinarily carefully. 10. Read more, and not just business books. 85% of self-made millionaires read 2+ books monthly. CEOs read 50-60 books annually. Fiction improves empathy and social perception. Reading is like living multiple lives. 11. Don't take on debt for investments if inexperienced. The math rarely works. Market returns average 7% annually. Most loans charge significantly more. Focus on building income first, then invest. 12. Distribution matters more than your product. Counterintuitive for tech people. Remember Betamax vs. VHS? Slack vs. Teams? 42% of startups fail from "no market need" – poor distribution. Figure out how you'll sell before perfecting features. 13. Constantly meet new people. Expand your network. 85% of jobs are filled through networking contacts. 70% of jobs are never even advertised publicly. Meet people outside your circle. Each new connection increases your opportunities. 14. Cut out alcohol, smoking, and drugs completely. Even moderate drinking disrupts sleep and cognition. Being clear-headed in a room of intoxicated people gives you an advantage. Silicon Valley elites practice "sober networking." 15. You are enough – cultivate self-sufficiency. Research on self-efficacy strongly predicts achievement. "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." Develop internal locus of control – your actions determine outcomes. 16. Learn to listen to your intuition. It's not mystical nonsense. It's unconscious pattern recognition detecting what your conscious mind hasn't processed. Meditate to better hear your inner voice. It's trying to guide you. 17. Nothing is inherently good or bad – it's perspective. Not philosophical – it's practical psychology. People who reframe negative events bounce back faster. When facing setbacks, zoom out to cosmic perspective.

I’m writing this after learning a ton of shit in the decade since I was 25. Things that would have made my path to freedom faster, easier, and less fucking painful if I’d known them earlier. The gap between where you think you should be and where you actually are is crushing you right now. You scour through social feeds looking at these digital nomads living the dream – working from beaches in Thailand or cafes in Singapore – while you’re still struggling with your job deadlines and wondering if you’ll ever break free from the daily grind. Let me be blunt: 95% of purchasing decisions are driven by subconscious factors. Most of the choices you’re making now – from relationship priorities to business strategies – are influenced by unconscious patterns you don’t even recognize yet. This is why so many aspiring entrepreneurs stay stuck despite having all the technical skills they need. What I’m about to share isn’t the inspirational bullshit you’ll find in mainstream entrepreneurship podcasts. These are the brutal, sometimes uncomfortable lessons that have actually moved the needle in my life – and they will in yours too, if you have the courage to implement them. Consider this my letter through time, from someone who did not follow conventional wisdom, but learnt these lessons the hard way. The 19 Brutal Truths I Had To Learn The Hard Way ____________________________________________________ 1. Business and entrepreneurship are your path to freedom This isn’t just motivational crap – it’s backed by hard facts. Self-employed business owners are four times more likely to become millionaires than employees. Despite making up less than 20% of households, they represent two-thirds of high-net-worth households in America. While your tech job pays the bills, you need to think of it as a stepping stone, not the destination. Start exploring different business models now. Find one that resonates with you and commit to it like your freedom depends on it – because it does. The path won’t be easy – only about 1/3 of new businesses survive their first decade. But staying an employee for life is a guaranteed path to mediocrity. As Richard Branson says,

“Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.”

____________________________________________________ 2. Build your personal brand immediately, and make it global Your LinkedIn profile isn’t a fucking brand. Neither is that halfhearted Twitter (I know, X) account you check once a month. I wish I’d understood that your personal brand outlasts any business you’ll ever build. Companies will come and go, but your reputation and network stay with you forever. Jeff Bezos nailed it:

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Look at Elon Musk. Tesla spends virtually zero on advertising because Musk’s personal brand does the marketing for him. His tweets drive more sales than million-dollar ad campaigns. Start writing in English right now. Seriously, today. Forget the narrow audience of your home country. Go global from day one – it exponentially increases your opportunities. Your accent doesn’t matter. Your grammar mistakes don’t matter (and you have an AI to fix it for you). What matters is getting your voice out there consistently. ____________________________________________________ 3. If you think it’s too early (or too late) – start anyway That voice telling you “I’m not ready yet” or “the market is saturated” is bullshit. The perfect time to start is now. Thinking cryptocurrencies have already peaked? Wrong. The global markets are just warming up. Think it’s too late to become a content creator because “all the slots are taken”? Ridiculous. The creator economy is still in its infancy. Zig Ziglar said it perfectly:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Trust Is the Ultimate Currency If you simply buy a product in a store, it convinced you to purchase either by sitting on the shelf or because you automatically buy your favorite brand — Diet Coke, for example — without looking at other products. That is, you already understand some brand, already trust it, have a certain attitude toward it, and it's very easy to make you spend money on it because all that's needed is to see the product itself. Something clicks inside, and you make the purchase. Nielsen finds that 89% of people trust recommendations from people they know most. Even in retail, having a trusted brand dramatically eases the sale: consumers often grab their "go-to brand" on the shelf without reconsidering. That reflects brand familiarity and loyalty reducing friction in purchasing. If we're talking about a service business, you need to find someone with a specific unresolved problem they're willing to pay money for because it will be easier, faster, and in some cases even cheaper than doing it themselves, finding someone, or trying to figure out the problem on their own. Again, this person may be a business owner (for small businesses handling such issues themselves), a middle manager looking for contractors to solve particular tasks (in corporations), or perhaps a beginning entrepreneur seeking freelancers for tasks they don't want to handle themselves.

“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business.”

This is the quote from Steve Forbes, who know something about both business and brands. Now, if I want to build a business that doesn't depend on social networks — because obviously no platform belongs to me, and I can't be independent from them, and any social network could ban or block me at any moment, cease working, or become prohibited in a country for whatever reason — then I need mechanisms that allow first, diversification (having backup landing spots, preferably several), and second, audience gathering that maintains contact even if all social networks suddenly disappear. This is called a client base. Today, one of the most reliable ways to do this is to build an email list — a list of user email addresses that becomes your property, not controlled by any other social networks. You can export it, save it, it's your database, you can do whatever you want with it, and it's controlled only by you. Because you can't directly manage subscriptions on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and so on. You can only rely on these platforms' mechanisms, which work either for or against you. There is substantial evidence that a trusted brand (personal or corporate) yields a ready customer base and can lend success to new offerings. In marketing, this is akin to brand equity – the built-in advantage a known name has when launching products. Consider that recommendations from influencers (a form of personal brand) are trusted by 71% of consumers globally, and 57% of consumers have made a purchase based on an influencer's recommendation. When someone with a strong personal brand releases a product, a significant portion of their loyal followers will try it. Look at YouTube creator MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), who leveraged his strong personal brand to launch a chocolate bar line "Feastables" that sold over 1 million bars in its first 72 hours, exceeding $10 million in sales. Within its first year, Feastables generated $251 million in sales, outpacing the revenue of MrBeast's own media business, thanks to the millions of devoted fans he amassed on YouTube.

The Second Missing Puzzle Piece: Audience The one area of business I kept delegating to others was finding clients. I've always considered myself technical, usually handling product implementation. I can create information systems, build websites, sales funnels, automate business processes, assemble teams, motivate people, and so on. Basically, most business components except marketing and sales. My business ventures typically ended exactly when they reached that point. Marketing requires money already spent on product development, teams, and other things I enjoy doing that come naturally. Either that, or we needed to find customers, and here I hit a brick wall. I didn't quite understand how to do this, where to look, why people should buy my products or services. Should I walk the streets? Network? Attend trade shows? The connection wasn't clicking. How do all these startups that sell for trillions of dollars operate? I highly doubt Mark Zuckerberg travels to trade shows finding customers one by one for his social network. Somehow it works differently, right? I doubt Travis Kalanick walks the streets meeting people to convince them to install Uber. Something else must be happening. The only method that made sense was online advertising, which isn't free. Yes, there are growth hacks many startups used, but that's usually a story of luck. It might work once but won't work for your business. It could work, of course, but it's more like a legend or a one-off case you can't reliably count on when building a business, because you need consistent customer growth, not just a one-time spike. And I kept going in circles. The only approach that seemed reasonable and controllable was marketing — buying traffic and advertising the business and product — but that requires money the business isn't earning yet. How to break this vicious cycle? I didn't understand until recently. There was something else I successfully ignored all these years. The solution that's now my main focus at this stage of my life is the principle: "clients come first." First the client, then the product. I won't build or create any products until I have a customer base that can and will buy this product. And this shouldn't be a customer base I acquire somehow. It needs to be more reliable, something I don't have to worry about, something that doesn't depend on another business. Something I can count on independently. This approach is called by different names but is widely known as building a personal brand. Because any sale — whether service, product, application, or anything else — ultimately ends with a person making the purchase. Some specific person either transfers money, installs an application, subscribes to your service, or clicks "buy" in an online store. It's always a human. Where are people in today's world? They're online. Online is the most accessible place almost anyone can reach, with no barriers to entry except perhaps in countries where internet access is restricted. How can I find these people? The same way audiences are earned by those already doing it: creating something useful with your own hands, creating content. You might roll your eyes and say, "Oh God, more advice about being on social media, building a personal brand, growing an audience." But think for a moment about what I just said... People — you need eyes and ears to sell anything. First, there's no business without people. Business is essentially creating value and convincing others your value is worth their money. That's any business in very crude terms. Accordingly, value relates to specific people — actual individuals to whom your business provides value. And convincing means dialogue with a person in some form, after which they decide to give you money for what you're offering. This happens with any business.

34 failed startups taught me one brutal lesson: building products before audience is suicide. I spent $25,000 on my latest failure when the answer was right in front of me the whole time. The million-dollar strategy I ignored for years. I realized: all my projects die at exactly the same point — when it's time to find customers. I'm technical. I can build websites, automate processes, assemble teams. But marketing? Sales? This is where I always hit a wall. Familiar situation when you look at successful startup founders and think: "Why do they succeed while I fail?" I've watched people who started after me, with just $10K, accumulate half a million in capital in just a year and a half. My 34th failure cost me $25,000. A therapist pointed out the obvious: I always seek partners. Why? Turns out I wasn't looking for complementary skills, but for someone to shift responsibility onto. Seems straight from the playbook: find someone who compensates for your weaknesses, share responsibility. But there's the trap. I was looking for a second "mom" I could come to with problems, who would solve them for me. Nielsen shows: 89% of people trust recommendations from people they know. The key word — trust. Trust is the real currency in business. Without trust, no sales. Without an audience that trusts you, there is no business. The main insight I missed all these years: Clients first, then product. Don't create anything until you have a base of people ready to buy it. Where are these people today? Online. How to find them? By creating valuable content. Developing a personal brand. Yes, you're rolling your eyes: "More advice about social media and personal branding." But think about it... Steve Forbes says:

"Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business."

No people, no business. And people today are the audience you earn through your personal brand. Email list — your property, independent from social media algorithms. MailBakery claims: ROI of email marketing is 4200% ($42 for every $1 invested). That's 150 times higher than the average return from social media ads. My personal brand isn't built on my butt, abs, or dancing in front of the camera, but on experience, knowledge, and what I learn in the process of gaining them. That's the essence. Create content. Build trust. Monetize this trust. Join me on this journey. I'll share what I learn, helping you while I help myself. And remember Henry Ford's words:

"It is not the employer who pays the wages... It is the customer who pays the wages."

____________________________________ The full article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/from-startup-failures-to-freedom-the-million-dollar-business-strategy-i-ignored

However, I needed to realize that I alone am enough to run a business. I possess sufficient qualities to make a project successful. If I'm currently lacking something, it's exclusively my responsibility to take everything into my own hands and bring it to order. The simplest recommendation — that I can do everything myself — wasn't obvious to me. This is one puzzle piece I was missing. I'm not saying businesses can't be built with partners. If you're successful with partners, that's wonderful. I'm saying it depends primarily on psychology and the specific situation applicable to me. For some people, this is completely normal, and they can operate independently without transferring responsibility to others. But for me, it became a compensatory mechanism — a psychological crutch.

From Startup Failures to Freedom: The Million-Dollar Business Strategy I Ignored In my relatively short life, I've launched dozens of business projects. None of them became something I'd brag about as a phenomenal success. I haven't earned my first million dollars. I haven't sold a business with a huge multiplier. I haven't built a money-printing machine that runs itself while I'm off somewhere, not needing to do anything. Every time a project failed — and there were many — I couldn't help asking myself: what's going wrong? Why do others succeed while I fail? How can someone build a successful business on their first attempt when I'm on my 34th (yes, I counted my attempts) try with nothing to show for it? I've been searching for answers all these years, and I think I'm finally closing in on the truth. I've been piecing together this puzzle for years, but a puzzle isn't complete when even one piece is missing. And if there's a hole, the picture isn't ready. After my latest failure — a project I shut down at a loss after investing $25,000, writing it off as another unsuccessful startup — I decided to act radically. I looked at the problem from a completely different angle. During all these years, I've read books and listened to countless "successful" people — those who've built businesses and now write those books, record YouTube videos, and produce podcasts sharing their success stories. I've watched people who started much later than me, from almost nothing (well, not exactly nothing — maybe $10,000), accumulate capital of half a million dollars in just a year and a half by successfully flipping a real estate property. I've seen startup founders who began just before me, following the same playbook from books like "Zero to One," succeed where I failed: selling their businesses, earning enough to live on, and now traveling around India, Bali, Thailand, sharing their experiences on social media. Yet here I still am. After another failed attempt, working at an IT company as a middle manager, using my monthly salary to close another portion of debt. Something isn't working. The First Missing Puzzle Piece: Partners After exhausting seemingly every approach in the never-ending epic of self-development — reading books, listening to podcasts and lectures, including psychology — the one thing I hadn't tried was actual therapy with a professional. Someone who could ask the right questions and guide me toward meaningful insights. A successful acquaintance in real estate invited me to try "cinemology" — watching films followed by analysis through a psychotherapeutic lens, studying character behaviors and motivations. I was intrigued. The first film was the "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas, which excellently shows how relationships between people, childhood traumas, and mental frameworks influence final decisions. This experience led me to therapy sessions with the professional who conducted the cinemology. I wasn't surprised that sessions with this particular therapist cost three times more than regular ones — he works with business people and uses unconventional methods. In our session, I laid out all examples of my ventures, explaining how my relationships with partners unfolded and where they ultimately led. One pattern — obvious to him as a professional observer but hidden from me — emerged immediately: I always start business projects with a partner, never alone. But why? Isn't this straight from the classic playbook? Understand your strengths, recognize your weaknesses, find someone who compensates for them, who'll handle what you can't. Plus, sharing responsibility is easier — the tasks and accountability get divided among multiple people. And therein lies the main catch. Throughout my life, I've been looking for someone to shift responsibility onto. A second "mom" psychologically, whom I could come to with complaints, who would solve problems for me. I saw this mother figure in potential partners.

Indeed, by such feelings, this definitely shouldn’t be the case, there definitely should be something that I can contribute as my part to human development, humanity’s movement forward – at least at the level of my own life, even if not at the level of the entire species. And in such moments, when I watch this film, after watching it, these are exactly the questions that arise for me. What am I doing, what am I engaged in, how important is it, how interesting is it, how much do I like doing what I do, how useful is it for me, for the place where I live, for the people I live with, at least for someone, does it bring benefit? You involuntarily ask yourself such questions, and when you get answers that, it seems, no, it seems that everything is much simpler, more banal, more down-to-earth, and I don’t feel myself part of this big vector that moves humanity in the direction of development. Okay, but if I ask myself such a question, then at the very least it’s within my power to try to find an answer to it. And at the very least to try to make it all have at least some meaning, so that it all doesn’t lead me to the insignificant life of an insect that has one task throughout its life, which it unquestioningly follows, listening to its natural instincts. We are humans, we have consciousness, we can think, we have cognitive abilities, we invented language, we can create, we can synthesize something from natural materials, from what we have, we can create concepts, we can think and share our thoughts, we can store information, we can pass it from generation to generation, thereby learning, expanding our knowledge zone, becoming better over time, developing. Okay, am I at least doing this? In reality, all these questions have haunted me throughout my life, and it seems I’m still searching for answers to them. But it seems that lately I’m starting to find answers to them, at least for myself, and I’m beginning to understand that, in fact, despite not building rockets, not creating artificial intelligence, not curing diseases, I am still contributing, can contribute my feasible part to human development.

When Freedom Isn’t Enough: The Search for Meaning in a Digital World The greatest paradox of our time is that despite unprecedented freedom, most of us feel trapped. The digital nomad lifestyle promised liberation – geographical independence, flexible schedules, escape from corporate bullshit. Yet something’s still missing. The emptiness persists, even with a coconut in hand and a beachfront coworking space. Even with freedom. All these grand dreams about becoming part of some global movement quickly shatter to pieces when suddenly the rent bill arrives, and you realize these dreams won’t take you far and pursuing them doesn’t help pay the bills. You quickly come back down to earth and return to your familiar circle of existence, where there’s work – work you don’t love, where you have to do things you don’t like, and after a long, hard day, you simply have no energy left to create. And talking about creating and being creative for inspiration isn’t even on the table – it becomes quite difficult to even think about it. Because inspiration doesn’t pay the bills, creativity doesn’t earn money. The starving artist is the fate of most who engage in creative work. But is that really true? Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture. Since the beginning of time, humanity has been driven by curiosity, the pursuit of first discoveries, the desire to create something new. The drive for development, the desire for order, the striving to answer the question: why do I exist here? The desire to understand this world and answer the questions it poses to us, and actually understand: what is all this for, why did we appear on earth, why was I specifically born, do I have some kind of purpose, is there some path I need to find during my life, why am I here and what can I do, do I need to do something? All these questions have led us to where we are now. Robots, rockets, artificial intelligence, life extension, and dreams that someday there will be no diseases, we’ll fly to other planets, become a truly interplanetary species, and heavy physical labor will cease to be necessary, even intellectual labor, when it will be possible to live in complete abundance and do what you want. This is, by the way, a key moment – doing what you want. Because if your life currently represents doing what you don’t want to do, then at the very least this should suggest a thought or a couple of questions about why is this happening? Why, as a human, was I born and still live in such a wonderful time, when there’s plenty of abundance around, yet must spend my life time solving some petty household issues, some tasks that seem incomparably insignificant compared to those being solved by the world’s powerful figures? “The passion principle can lead people to accept lower pay for meaningful work,” observes Harvard sociologist Erin Cech. And yet, there’s an economic revolution happening right under our noses. The global creator economy – currently valued at around $250 billion with an estimated 50 million creators worldwide – has fundamentally changed how passion connects to income. Most people view the divide between meaningful work and financial stability as fixed and unchangeable. But the research tells a different story: technological progress, particularly the internet and digital platforms, has created unprecedented opportunities to align passion with income. The evidence is compelling – the number of Americans living a “location-independent” work lifestyle has surged dramatically – rising from 7.3 million digital nomads in 2019 to 17.3 million in 2023, a staggering 131% increase. What most people miss is that this isn’t just about remote work – it’s about the democratization of impact. For the first time in human history, a single motivated individual can potentially reach millions with their ideas, creative work, or solutions. This isn’t just marketing hype; it’s the new reality being shaped by digital infrastructure that’s still in its infancy.

We admire the rocket builders and AGI creators. But most of us are stuck in jobs we hate, wondering if our existence matters. There’s a different path — where meaning and money finally align: 1. Research shows nearly 80% of global workers are disengaged from their jobs. That’s a $438 billion black hole of lost productivity. Meanwhile, we scroll through social media looking at "freedom lifestyles" wondering why we still feel empty inside. 2. The greatest paradox: having unprecedented freedom but still feeling trapped. You escaped the office. Got the laptop. Maybe even found the beachfront. … Yet something’s missing. The coconut doesn’t taste as sweet when you’re still doing meaningless work. 3. Since the dawn of time, humans have been driven by curiosity and creation. Not consumption. You’re part of this continuum. Your existence isn’t separate from these grand ambitions — it’s an extension of them. Which thread of human progress resonates with you? 4. Most of us live in pure consumption mode, even with tools for creation at our fingertips. Yet the barrier to creation has never been lower. The critical shift happens when you see yourself as a creator, not just a consumer. What unique perspective do you have? 5. I rewatched Interstellar recently and found myself asking: What’s my purpose? What can I contribute? These aren’t philosophical luxuries. They’re the exact questions that led to rockets, AI, and dreams of interplanetary living. 6. Your bridge point is where passion, skills, and market opportunity converge. 37% of side hustlers started to pursue passion. 41% to spend time doing what they love. What if what puts you in flow state also pays the bills? 7. The digital nomad has an extraordinary advantage over previous generations. 5 billion internet users. 1 billion daily hours watched on YouTube. Your ideas can reach virtually anyone, anywhere. The infrastructure for global distribution already exists. 8. The starving artist trope needs to die. 71% of creators earn under $30,000 yearly. But 9% earn six figures. Those who monetize effectively don’t start with money as primary motivation. They create genuine value first, then capture some financially. 9. Don’t try to change the world overnight. Think of impact as expanding circles: 1) Personal impact 2) Immediate community 3) Growing audience 4) Industry influence 5) Cultural shift 6) Systemic change Few start beyond circles 1-3. 10. "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do." This isn’t just poetic — it’s practical. The research consistently shows those who align work with internal motivation sustain efforts longer and achieve more meaningful results. 11. You don’t need to build rockets to contribute meaningfully. The act of creation itself — whether writing, coding, teaching, or designing — is fundamentally aligned with humanity’s grand journey. The challenge isn’t finding purpose. It’s starting small. Start creating today. The full article with all the details: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-creator-s-manifesto-align-passion-purpose-and-income-while-contributing-to-humanity

Yesterday I rewatched “Interstellar” and found myself pondering once again: what’s the actual purpose of a human being? What’s the goal of humans as a species in the world we currently inhabit? A world where we basically have everything, where we don’t yet face the catastrophic problems shown in the film. From an existential standpoint, things are pretty damn good. Humanity’s future looks bright, and we’re moving forward at breakneck speed. Brian Johnson is developing immortality protocols. Brett Adcock is producing robots that will replace human physical labor. Elon Musk is building rockets to send us to other planets. Sam Altman is building AGI to solve our most complex problems. Microsoft is developing quantum computers to provide the necessary power to solve these tasks. Basically, everything humanity could dream of lies ahead. And some company is working on genetic engineering to eradicate all diseases. Another is preserving animal embryos in case of extinction and trying to resurrect mammoths to help protect the Arctic permafrost from melting. It all sounds incredibly inspiring. On one hand, I look at these people and what’s happening with awe. On the other hand, it’s almost unbelievable that all this is actually real. It seems like these are just magazine covers or news feeds, that none of this actually exists beyond media headlines. But thinking about it seriously, I feel endless admiration for how far humans can go using creativity, thinking, cognitive abilities, and the desire to discover something new, to move forward and bring all of humanity along. Yet for most of us, there’s a crushing reality beneath these lofty accomplishments. Research shows that nearly 80% of workers globally are disengaged from their jobs, creating a staggering $438 billion black hole of lost productivity. The gap between what we’re capable of and what we’re actually doing has never been wider. And if you’re reading this, chances are you feel that tension acutely – the pull between earning a living and creating something meaningful. When I read such news, I inevitably think about my own life, its purpose, and what specifically I can do for humanity, maybe not on such a global scale. I’m not Elon Musk or Brett Adcock. Although, who knows, maybe they once had exactly the same thoughts, but eventually managed to bring their lives to a point where their decisions become something that moves humanity forward. This manifesto isn’t about becoming the next tech billionaire. It’s about finding your unique contribution at the intersection of passion, purpose, and income – a place where over 90% of people admit they’d sacrifice some earnings to stand. It’s about how you, as someone navigating the digital landscape with newfound freedom, can create ripples that extend far beyond your laptop screen.

So I now have not just bosses on the side, I am not my own boss, my boss is my client. And essentially I do what my client tells me. No matter how it sounds from the side, but freelance work is still not a business. It’s the same job, only now you don’t have one boss, as it was at work, but several, if you have several clients. They tell you what to do, and you do their projects, not yours. All the time you spend goes to making them richer and realizing their dreams, their projects. And what about my dreams, desires, interests, my projects? How do I get closer to them? That it should be a business, I have no doubt. This is the only way I can provide for my life and make it the way I want. I need money for this, since we live in a modern society, there is no other way yet. And even if we didn’t live in a modern one, humanity hasn’t come up with another way yet. So, what am I going to do now? I’m going to earn my audience, gather people who are interested in my way of thinking, with whom we have something in common, with whom our thought processes align, with whom our desires and goals are similar, with whom values coincide, and who find close and resonant what I share on the internet. And yes, this opens up a whole rabbit hole for discussions that all the audience is gathered in order to make money on it. But: — First, I don’t see anything wrong with this. — Second, that’s how every business works. For example, any luxury brand similarly gathers its audience, an audience of its fans, those who love beautiful things, living well, and then sells them its luxury items. Similarly, any consumer product does this, publishing information about its brand in the form of advertising, inserting it into films, inserting it everywhere possible, gathering its fans, a whole army, with whom they share interests or the lifestyle that the brand promotes, and sells them its product. In fact, this is done by absolutely every business, because that business that sells either to end customers or to other businesses, sells it to people too, because people work in business. And, selling to business, you close the needs of some specific person or an entire group of people that they have.

Here’s the truth no one tells you: 42% of startups fail because they created a product nobody wanted. This isn’t just some random statistic. This is the single biggest reason businesses crash and burn according to major startup studies. Not running out of money. Not technical problems. Building something people don’t need. Lack of market need was “the single most cited reason for failure in those studies – far more common than running out of money or technical issues.” I searched endlessly for why my ventures weren’t working while my freelance work kept bringing in steady income. The difference was obvious in retrospect: my freelance clients came to me through word of mouth. They were past clients who recommended me to others. I never actively looked for them — they found me. I had an audience, even if it was small and informal. I didn’t realize this was the key all those years. I was building products and hoping people would come. But here’s what I’ve discovered: if there are no customers — both potential and current — then there is no business. What was interesting to me through all these attempts was that while I created products that failed, my freelance work creating websites for clients kept growing. Over time, I started charging more and earning more from these projects. I did less work myself, having a team that I subcontracted work to immediately, and they did 100% of it independently, paying me a share for the clients. All this time I called my business a digital agency, which is also a common business model for beginning entrepreneurs on the internet. Because it’s a business you can start literally from scratch without initial capital, requiring no special costs. You just need to find a client, agree on a deal, and then you either independently or through subcontractors complete the work that needs to be done for them or their business. Everything sounds wonderful in theory, but the problem is that the first part — finding a client — I never managed to do, no matter how much I tried. I tried advertising, tried sending cold emails, sending messages, networking, making websites, writing articles, posting cases on the internet, running social media, running a YouTube channel — everything you can imagine. In fact, none of this led to results. The result was exactly zero, except for wasted efforts. Probably accumulated experience — it’s hard to say how useful it was, because it seems that so far, I haven’t made any adequate conclusions from this, all because there’s no adequate feedback from this whole process. You understand that it just doesn’t work, and what to do with it — is unclear. You’re playing a numbers game, and you just need to take quantity, and the more attempts you make, the more probability that someone will respond to them. That is, you need to send not 200 letters, but 2000 or 20 thousand letters. Maybe that’s how it works, but there’s no guiding beacon in this sea. I get a new client, again through acquaintance. They are brought by my former client. And this is a very large order, which basically covers all my current expenses, lifestyle. And I do it in parallel with my remote work. And I realize that I can’t drag it out any further, because the longer I drag it out, the more I immerse myself in this abyss of comfort, salary from month to month, and I rely only on it. And since I basically already have an order, yes, this is not a business, this is still a freelance project, and it takes up most of my time. And here I do part of the work myself. By the way, at this time I have already gathered a team for myself, which covers about half of the labor resources that are required. And I decide to quit my job and completely immerse myself in developing my business. But this time I don’t want to make the previous mistakes. And everything that permeates my previous attempts to do business and earn money online, while remaining independent and not turning the business into my second job, which I, by the way, currently get.