Personal finance
19 tweets
One year from now, you'll either be complaining that you never got started or celebrating all that you've done. The choice is yours.
My conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy (@patrick_oshag), founder and CEO of Colossus & Positive Sum. 0:00 The Joy of Championing Undiscovered Talent 2:21 How One Tweet Changed David's Life 5:07 The Upanishads Passage That Shaped Patrick's Worldview 8:34 Growth Without Goals Philosophy 10:40 Why Media and Investing Are the Same Thing 28:41 The Search for True Understanding Through Biography 31:04 The Daniel Ek Dinner That Launched This Podcast 34:28 Making Your Own Recipe From the Ingredients of Great Lives 39:11 The Privilege of a Lifetime Is Being Who You Are 48:25 Bruce Springsteen's Battle With Depression and Self-Worth 53:21 Clean Fuel vs Dirty Fuel: The Source of Your Ambition 57:03 Professional Learners: The Unfair Advantage of Podcasting 1:00:18 Relationships Run the World 1:06:30 The Origin Story of Invest Like the Best 1:08:05 Building Colossus: Why Start a Magazine in 2025 1:14:01 People Are More Interested in People Than Anything Else 1:17:32 Finding Jeremy Stern and Hiring Through Output 1:23:40 Learn, Build, Share, Repeat 1:30:07 The Daisy Chain: How Reading Books Led to Everything 1:30:32 Red on the Color Wheel: Sam Hinkie's Observation 1:37:13 Finding Your Superpower and Becoming More Yourself 1:42:57 Repetition Doesn't Spoil the Prayer: Teaching as Leadership 1:46:02 Life's Work: A Lifelong Quest to Build Something for Others 1:49:51 The Ten Roles Game and What Matters Most 1:57:03 Husband, Father, Grandfather: The Roles That Endure 1:59:48 The Kindest Thing: Tim O'Shaughnessy and Meeting Lauren 2:05:11 Conclusion Includes paid partnerships.
I’m thankful I got to make up a job where I read, write, invest, spend time with my family, go down whichever rabbit hole is pulling me in, and be the dumbest person in any conversation I’m in.
Current state of tech: If you’re not pumping your chest with hockey stick graphs or 996 grind mode tweets, many assume you’re ngmi. The good news: It doesn’t matter what most people think.
Is quitting the 9–5 the ultimate millennial dream? Every time I mention “quit 9-5”, something goes viral.
A few days ago I shared a life calendar I built: your entire life, shown as weeks on your iPhone lock screen. A lot of people asked for it, so here it is: https://thelifecalendar.com I also added a yearly view to visualize the progress of the current year. Happy New Year
2025 as an entrepreneur: Earned $885K with my startups Launched 3 new startups Built a $780K SaaS Made $147K in the stock market Got 107K followers on 𝕏 Read 10 books Traveled to 9 countries Exercised for 340+ days Gained 4kg of muscles Walked 4.2M steps Top 1% sleep score on WHOOP Reached 57.4 mg/kg/min VO₂ max Reached <18 yo biological age Drank 0L of alcohol Spent 365 days with my wife I hope 2026 unfolds like 2025: peace of mind, discipline, more startups. Happy New Year
I made $51,842.39 in 2025 @tinylaunch — $33,100.00 @tinytab_ — $30.00 ProductLab — $0.00 ZenDone — $0.00 RenderLab — $0.00 DontWaitList — $0.00 EnigmaBot — $0.00 Freelance — $18,712.39 7 products. One success. Doubling down on @tinylaunch in 2026!
The average salary for an entry-level SEO specialist in the US is $67,388. That means many businesses are willing to pay $5,615 per month for someone who might have just learned what WordPress was yesterday. Yet I still see some very skilled people on the SEO services side charging < $1,000 per month. Once you consider campaign expenses, you might make more money working at McDonald's. If you're an agency owner, freelancer, or consultant, please do me a massive favor: 1. Stop undervaluing what you do 2. If you're doing good work and getting your clients results, please increase your prices by at least 3.30% every quarter (to match inflation). 3. Don't let businesses bully you into charging less because they're still living in 2011 (when any could rank #1 in Google). SEO is more complex than ever, and your prices should reflect that.
If you have multiple interests, don't let anyone convince you that you should narrow your focus. You may be confused for a while, but if you stick it out, you will blow past everyone else.
2025 as a solopreneur: - $2.834M+ in revenue - Operated at ~91% margins - Sunset my 2 top products - 134K new followers on LinkedIn - 45K new followers on 𝕏 - Traveled domestically 12x - Traveled internationally 8x - Threw 7 small masterminds - Exercised 348 days - Walked 2,460 miles & 6.15M steps - Lost 8 pounds - Took my wife to lunch 60x - Visited 10+ breweries - Lived abroad for 60 days - Flew our parents on vacation first class Life came first, business supported it.
fun fact: you’re 40% more likely to hit your goals if you keep them private. sharing your 2026 plans prematurely triggers a "social reality" in your brain it gives you a fake dopamine hit of success before you've even started. that premature satisfaction kills the drive needed for the actual grind.
(this is not ragebait, i promise, just read til the end) The "employment" concept is having its last decade. Salary alone can't make anyone work hard anymore. Tiny startups run by founders outcompete employee-run businesses. AI replaces junior/average work, while top talent freelances, productizes skills, or starts a business. All recent notable hires were - acquihires (Bun, Windsurf, Lemon Squeezy, and more) - bribe-hires (Marc paying huge signing bonuses to get people to join) The critics are gonna say, "but everyone can't be a businessman.." Well, go back to the early years of IG/YT. Only professionals were making videos and creating social media content. Today, half of the working population is doing blogging and other types of content creation. I think in the old days, "business" meant "i'm planning to raise money, build a unicorn, go for IPO...". But today the definition has changed. People would rather prefer making $30k/mo with their own biz instead of being employed. Just because it feels better and you get 100x more respect from society. E.g. when you go to a party and say "i work as .... in faang.." nobody really cares about you from that moment and on. But if you run a business that's barely making a living, people are interested. So the future key human KPI wll be this: "Be interesting". There are many ways to achieve it, but entrepreneurship will be one of the most popular. Long story short: no matter what you do, try your shots at building a business. Do it as a side gig, on weekends. Maybe it's not for you, fine, but give it a try, dont take risks, keep your job, just use your spare time. thx for coming to my ted talk.
The wait(list) is over. A new era of personal banking* starts now. *Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.
Big fintech news: @mercury is officially launching Mercury Personal to general availability! After a limited beta that started last year (April '24), Mercury is making their product available to all. The early traction was impressive: - Beta users average $80K+ balances (vs ~$60K US average) - 50% are existing Mercury business customers - 50% are entirely new to Mercury It costs $240/year but gives users access to all of the following: - High-yield savings (5x+ national average APY) - Built-in investing via Mercury Invest - Up to $5M+ FDIC insurance - Shared access with customizable permissions - Joint accounts (up to 4 people) - Multiple physical/virtual debit cards with custom limits - Free domestic wires & ACH - Global ATM fee reimbursements - Automated savings & cash flow tools https://businesswire.com/news/home/20251211260682/en/Mercury-Launches-Premium-Consumer-Banking-for-Builders-and-Founder…
