“i sold my first company for $x millions when i was 13”

i lost count of the number of ppl i met who accomplished the above milestone ever since i moved to san francisco.

i turn 26 this november. sold nothing other than counterfeit t-shirts. definitely never seen more than one comma on my bank account.

while these bay area “normies” motivate me, most of the time i regret for not playing the right game early.

i’ve been fooling around in my early 20s doing stupid things like crossing the canadian border without my passport, robbing the school cafe, asking two girls be my valentines separately while knowing they talked frequently to each other…

if life has offered a number of games, i’ve picked and excelled at the ones that i’m not proud of winning.

at the age of 26, i really need to hit that “start” button for the right game.

the right game

for most ppl in a modern capitalism:

• when you are young, you have time and health but no wealth.

• when you are mid-life, you have health and wealth but no time.

• when you are old, you have time and wealth but no health.

the only time you have both health and wealth is when you don’t have the time to enjoy either of it.

it becomes obvious that to break out of this imperfect design is to crack the health and wealth game with the limited time you have on hand.

the reward of the game is not a 6-pack and a trust fund — those are side effects that make you “successful” — but relationships cultivated during the process.

your relationship with others defines happiness and fulfillment for your life, and that’s the ultimate achievement of life: do things with ppl you love whenever and wherever.

both or nothing

it’s tempting to just play the wealth game: if i can achieve financial freedom, then i will use that money to work on my health.

this mindset largely comes from the sexy stories business celebrities and media tell us: sleep on friends sofa, only eat ramen, work 100 hrs a week to grind it out into a billionaire. but they never mention how they can do this without dying.

it’s true that you need strong willpower to persevere, and in the modern age, it’s usually the mind that prevent people from achieving. however, you can’t just meditate your way to a willpower of steel.

high performing people i know either have military-grade exercise and diet routines, or just young. your physical health boosts your mental health. a strong mental health makes you resilient and ready to connect with others, and these are key components of wealth creation.

well, if health is that important, why can’t i just solely play the health game? you can. but it’s only possible if you 1) are young or 2) live outside of the united states.

stress is a big threat to both physical and mental health. and the most common cause of stress in america is — wait for it — money. i experienced this first-hand and certainly do not want it to happen again.

i’m below average 😫

to win any game, you need to know whether you are on the right track. otherwise, you will face unpleasant surprises.

this just happened to me last week when i discovered a reliable health indicator (more on this one in the next letter), and i was actually “below average”. this was very shocking to me because i work out 5 days a week, sleep sufficiently and very careful with what i eat.

if i didn’t discover this, i would have lived on with my life thinking i have everything under control. and this how life gets you, when you are the least expected, cancer hits. then everything you worked so hard for just fall apart.

this newsletter is my way of keeping myself accountable and sharing the learning during the journey in a light and fun way. and i encourage you to do the same. this is a great way to stay touch with friends post-college and form new connections.

you are what you consume

i’d been a heavily-addicted twitter user. it fucked up my mind. i started thinking in 120 characters and became curt to people. now, that app is evicted from my phone.

it’s crazy how my behaviors change from a few hours of scroll every day on a palm-size device.

now imagine if you consume the right things.

every weekend, i curate a list of readings and podcasts for me to consume the following week, and i’m happy to share them with you:

readings:

• the great online game explained

• the algebra of wealth

• the rise of teddy roosevelt

podcasts:

• alex hormozi - 23 controversial truths about life

• the diary of a ceo - scott galloway - on investing and money

that’s it for this week. if you love the content, share it with more ppl who you think can benefit from it.

signing off.

yours truly,

xipu

p.s. you can reply directly to this email