I come from the most dangerous city in the world.
Where survival was a daily prayer, not a guarantee.
I’ve suffered through periods of extreme deprivation, confusion and despair at a very young age.
And those years have branded me with the following vow:
- Don’t waste the life God spared.
- Provide for your family.
- And win by all means necessary.
Despite all the challenging periods I’ve endured however, nothing could have ever prepared me for entrepreneurship.
I’m a first generation entrepreneur meaning even the idea of starting a business is seen as crazy in my family. But in my case, it was even crazier.
I had no one to support me, no one to model, ZERO resources and to rub salt to injury I completely threw away my academic career in the process. Well actually before the process even started.
‘My heart was pumping out of my chest like a car engine as I felt my vision narrowing in more and more. I felt high on stress as if I did XTC and sniffed crack afterwards.
And whilst this was going on I started hearing voices.. they were quiet at first but seemed to get louder and louder.
Eventually piercing through my own thoughts and throwing all kinds of filth at me.
“Loser, I hate you.
I told you this would happen.
You should have just listened to your dad dumbass.
You’re never getting out of this, you deserve to suffer.
You deserve your friends leaving you and betraying you.
You’re worse off than before and left school for nothing.
No one respects you anymore, you’re a nobody.
You’re weak, look at you.
You’re just pathetic.
What a loser.”’
So how did I get here?
Bad luck? A series of unfortunate events one after the other I had no control over whatsoever?
No… it was something far simpler:
Poor judgment.
A string of poor choices dressed up as hustle.
Choices so poor they lead to me being 40k in debt with no support system and a heart broken in a 1000 pieces.
Here’s a hard truth I learned during that season:
Success is nothing but a sequence of decisions and so is failure too.
Meaning that every outcome in your life can be reduced to 1 variable.
—Your wisdom expressed through judgment—
Bad judgment → compounded pain.
Sound judgment → compounded prosperity.
Luckily for me, I’m good at fighting voices in my head but it took a full year of sweat, blood and many tears to fight my way back to stability. Both emotional and financial.
1 full year of hefty stress and constant anxiety, scraping together whatever resources I could to sustain myself and the business I was building at the time.
The same business that’s now projecting to make me a (liquid cash) millionaire.
If I had simply understood the following chapters and lessons, it would have spared me a great deal of broken friendships, damaged dignity and lots of heartache..
So to my younger self I say:
The Sacred Duality
No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. — Carl Jung
There’s a sacred duality stitched into the fabric of reality.
A law authored by God himself that explains much of our daily life.
It’s the law of cause & effect.
It isn’t merely present in physics (physical plane), but also in the moral, mental, and spiritual planes too.
You’ve more likely heard of ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction.’ by Isaac Newton, but there’s a multitude of names to this law.
In the spiritual plane it’s more commonly known as ‘karma’ (although as a believer in Christ I call it God’s justice).
And it’s typically called ‘natural law’ on the moral front.
I believe most of us want to and actively seek to improve our lives in one way or another. (if that’s not you by the way then you have no business reading this newsletter or my content. You’re free to be all-around average if you so choose)
- Either through studying
- Reading
- Working out
- Or starting a business
And yet there’s a select few out there who seem to be way better off in comparison.
- Huge bank accounts
- Red Ferraris
- APs and Rolexes
- Luxury homes
- Incredibly fit
- Enlightened
- You name it
Everyone is bound to the same universal laws and people innately believe ‘if I do something good, I should reap it’s reward’. Yet from basic observation we still find a huge disparity in people’s circumstances (from similar backgrounds).
This of course, is giving major benefit of the doubt because most people are lazy and barely try in the first place.
But for those genuinely trying, why is that?
Here’s the curveball:
There’s always a time delay between action and reward.
- Between reading a book and getting smarter.
- Between going to the gym and gaining muscle.
- Between starting a business and earning a living from it.
The law is unchanged, every action HAS an equal and opposite reaction, but there’s a new element now. (For clarity sake, the action here is the equal opposite of reward because it’s always painful. And that takes shape through the delayment of gratification which feels painful in the moment)
That element is time.
Pesky ol’ time.. yet another plane us humans are bound to.
So time is here just to torture you with uncertainty?
Just to delay the reward of your hard work?
No.
It’s to test your faith and purify your soul.
To measure your character, perseverance and determination.
But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” — Jeremiah 17:10 NLT
Let’s consider your business isn’t generating any revenue.
Will you still make cold calls to generate more leads?
Or will you falter and quit because “it’s hard”?
Will you remain faithful in believing things will work out for the good?
Or will you rush and take shortcuts that undermine your growth process?
- By avoiding the grunt work.
- By trading long-term skills for short-term trends.
- By chasing the appearance of success over acquiring competence.
- Or reaching for get-rich-quick schemes instead of solving real problems.
Here’s what the bible says if you can’t endure periods of tribulation.
If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small. — Proverbs 24:10 NLT
I’ve never had any quit in me, but I have fallen victim to hastiness.
Instead of just focusing on 1, I tried to build 5 businesses at the same time.
And then tried to sell 5 different products inside any one of those “businesses”. Amateur..
For here’s the reality: you plant seeds today, but the fruits might not show for months or even years.
And as unfair and bitter as that might sound, the alternative is way worse: incompetence and immaturity.
Being a person with no character and no depth. A failure.
Easily dismayed by the storms of life and knocked down with the slightest hits.
A 40-year-old child who still lives in his mom’s basement if you will.
The counterpart of a 35-year-old “city girl” with 2 children who still sleeps around and shakes ass.
All symptoms of parting our ways with God, of course.
How much our societies have degraded…
I won’t get too spiritual in this newsletter, but I’ll write about generational curses and how they distort and corrupt this chain of cause and effect. If you feel like your life has been nothing but a series of unfortunate events one after the another, this could be the underlying reason. I have an incredible personal experience with this I’ll soon share in my newsletters, but seek Lord Jesus to break these chains of bondage and heal you. He’ll gladly do it for his children… but I digress.
It’s easy to throw in the towel and quit on your dreams once your face difficulties.
However, here’s what you must understand..
If you want success (an outlier result), you must suffer extraordinary (outlier) pain.
Furthermore, it is to the extent that you want to be rewarded that you will suffer.
Not more, not less, but EXACTLY just as much.
God does this, not because his cruel and doesn’t want you to succeed, but because pain is the crucible that forges your character and grants you wisdom. Preparing you to carry the weight of the success you desire.
It would be more cruel to give your the success you desire knowing you can’t handle it.
- How can you have millions if you can’t even do basic bookkeeping or budgeting? You’ll surely run around like a fool, waste it all and get scammed.
- How can he hand you a Ferrari if you don’t even have a driving license? You’ll surely crash and die.
- How can he give you a wife if you can’t even care for yourself? You’ll surely treat her horribly and destroy the relationship.
The more uncertainty you embrace, the greater the potential result. But also the greater the potential fall. (Of course, I’m not saying anything profound here for we all understand the nature of risk)
I like how Alex Hormozi put it:
God doesn’t want you to fail in life and thus he’ll mould and discipline you however he sees fit.
Sometimes even with a small (or big) fall.
Hard as you try, you can’t escape the laws of nature.
Thus you must learn to work with them and not against them.
So yes, every action has an equal and opposite reaction (hard work will pay off), but there’s a time delay. And it’s not pointless.. it’s the very mechanism that ensures the faithful, hard working and disciplined get their reward.
For what would be the point in receiving everything you desire without working for it?
You wouldn’t appreciate it and life would lose all of its precious meaning.
And for the men out there.. you’re not a beautiful woman after all.
So be ecstatic that this the case, because it gives you the formula for success.
‘The only thing you must do to succeed is be more diligent and hardworking than others.’
In other words, the more time delay you take on (delaying instant gratification), the bigger your rewards will be.
- Missing out on parties? Good.
- Missing out on sexual impurity and pointless dating? Good.
- Missing out on ‘playstation night’ to work on your business? Good.
- Missing out on chips and coke to build your body? Good.
God will see your hard work and reward it. Of that you can be certain.
Or don’t. Choose the easy way out and be a failure.
The choice is yours.
No one will force you to work hard and succeed.
It’s not like you have forefathers you must honour right?
Who cares anyways..
“Okay.. so I must work hard and be diligent to get a good life?”
Well yes, but no.
Wisdom must be your only pursuit as a young man.
- Not money.
- Not status.
- Not clout.
- Wisdom.
And wisdom alone will bring you everything else you desire in an honourable manner.
God planted the desire to improve in our hearts, but you must tie it to a greater purpose than yourself. Only then will it be fulfilling as we’ll learn in the following chapters.
We’ll also get more tactical.. patience.
‘Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.’
‘Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy. Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. ‘ — Proverbs 2:9-12
Tie this teaching around your heart and don’t chase the pleasures and possessions of this world.
For they’ll always leave you feeling empty and wanting more.
Pursue wisdom instead, remain steadfast in your belief, and whatever you do.. don’t give up and don’t take shortcuts.
I believe in you.
For real wisdom is understanding that there are no shortcuts.
And the only real shortcut is through.
Straight through whatever challenge life is presenting you with.
That’s the only shortcut.
Your family is reliant on you after all.. don’t disappoint them.
The Eternal Dilemma
As a believer in Christ, I’ve often heard the following argument:
“If everything has a cause, then who created God?”
On the surface, it seems like a fair question. But it misunderstands the very nature of causality.
If everything had a cause, we’d be stuck in an endless loop of creators creating creators. A domino chain with no first push. And if there’s no starting point, then nothing could ever begin.
Yet here we are. Creation exists and you’re reading this letter.
That means something beyond time, space and matter had to initiate everything.
A pencil doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It was made in a factory, boxed, shipped and bought. It’s a chain of causes, but that chain had to start somewhere.
The same is true for the universe. Science confirms:
- That it had a beginning.
- That It’s expanding
- And that it’s running on limited energy.
Meaning It cannot be eternal.
Which begs the question: what is eternal?
Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. — Psalms 90:2 NLT
God doesn’t need a cause. He is uncaused, eternal and timeless.
He didn’t begin, He is the beginning. There is no end to him, He is the end.
He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.
The King of kings and Lord of lords.
When someone asks “Who created God?”, they’re thinking within time.
But God is outside of it and is the one who created it.
He wrote the very laws they’re trying to apply to Him.
So no one created God, He is creation itself.
He is.. the great I AM.
The paradox of wisdom.
You want wisdom to avoid stupid mistakes & unnecessary pain, but you gain wisdom by making stupid mistakes and getting hurt.
That begs the question then: Is all suffering wisdom?
What if I just stub my toe? That’s painful, but do I gain wisdom from that?
Not exactly.
I believe the following to be true.
Wisdom is acquired through the positive transformation of one’s suffering, toward a meaningful goal — David Wayne
Meaning there are 3 key ingredients to gaining wisdom:
- Hardship & Pain. (motivation to change)
- Reflection: the process of turning that pain into understanding.
- Direction: anchoring it all to a purpose greater than yourself.
That’s how suffering becomes fuel for character.
Or in other words:
Embrace discomfort. Grow Stronger. Be free.
Let me explain.
The meaning-making process.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
How then, exactly, do you extract wisdom from your pain?
The answer is simple: you need a goal.
- A vision to bring to life.
- A daughter to provide for.
- A wife to take care of.
- An enemy to defeat.
These are all worthy reasons to endure the suffering life will inevitably throw at you.
Without a goal, life becomes a random barrage of events.
Each pain and hardship hitting you without meaning, disorienting and confusing you.
But when you have a goal (or a vision) then even your suffering becomes educational. Because once you know what you’re aiming for, even the worst days teach you something.
During my darkest periods, the thought that I might one day share these lessons to spare someone else the pain I was enduring became a lifeline. It was a silent vow that helped me survive a psychosis from stress. That’s how bad it got at one point. And this is coming from a world record holder in push-ups. (sign up to The Wayne Letters to know more about this world record.)
This isn’t just motivational fluff by the way. It’s neurobiological law.
It is physiologically impossible to experience positive emotions without a goal.
You must aim, pursue, and track progress towards your goal to feel well and alive.
God designed us this way.
So what are you suffering for?
What is your why?
What will make you say: “Today might suck, but I’m attacking it with all my might regardless.”
Craft your vision, young man.
Because one day once you’re at rock bottom, motivation will vanish.
Fear will crawl into your gut and whisper into your ear that you’re not enough, loser.
And pain, real pain, will start whispering lies that sound like truth. Loser.
‘You’re a failure. You’re a nobody. You should have just listened to your dad. I told you you wouldn’t amount to anything. You’re not built for this. Just quit already. No one cares anyways. Dumbass, what a joke. Everyone sees it. And now look at you. Broke, broken, and alone. You’re nothing but a loser.’
You’ll suddenly find yourself awake at 3AM, questioning every decision you’ve ever made. Hallucinating from regret.
Haunted by decisions no one clapped for.
No crowd. No cheers. Just the echo of your own choices and the pain they’re causing.
That’s when your vision saves you.
Not when everything is smooth sailing and sunshines & rainbows.
So if you haven’t yet, start developing one.
It will serve you greatly on your climb to greatness, I promise.
Here then is the formula for rapid character development:
Have a goal —> shoot for it —> eat pain for breakfast, lunch and dinner —> fail —> reflect —> repeat.
Simple, not easy.
The more cycles of this you can endure, the quicker you’ll achieve your goals.
Removed all distractions and doing this with multiple goals? You’ll become a formidable force that crushes the competition with ease.
Go get what’s yours.
Be relentless.
The Cycle of Wisdom
What I haven’t mentioned however is that your suffering gains even more meaning when you share the wisdom it gave you, completing the cycle of wisdom.
That’s the moment you stop being the student and become the tutor.
Which is exactly what I’m doing with this letter.
I’m turning my trauma into teachings, so none of it was in vain.
Not that I feel attached to my “trauma” by the way.
Excuse my language, but shit happens.
I know that better than anybody immigrating form a war-torn country.
Never feel sorry for yourself.
Never complain.
And never ever seek pity.
No one cares you’re hurt and neither should you.
Instead, reflect deeply and extract out every ounce of wisdom you can.
- Grab a piece of paper
- Write down all the mistakes you made
- And simply never do them again
Then, put on Rocky music and start crafting your comeback arc just as quickly as you got knocked down.
You’re a winner after all, are you not?
And winners don’t lose, we only learn.
Let’s go! Round 2!
Or whatever round you’re at..
Still working on the visuals. This one is definitely not made by chatgpt, wink wink.
Wisdom is wealth
Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. [14] For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. [15] Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. [16] She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. [17] She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying. [18] Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly. — Proverbs 3:13-18 NLT
But why is wisdom more profitable than gold?
Why is it the real currency of life? And how can you acquire it?
For the ambitious men out there, listen carefully if you don’t want to end up being 40k in debt and losing all your leverage in the process.
Understanding the following paragraph can change your life.
Strap in.
Success is Wisdom in Action
You’re not living your dream life because you lack judgment.
You’re accountable for your judgment. Judgment is the exercise of wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. Gathering experience can be accelerated through quick iterations. – Naval
Judgment is your ability to judge/analyze a situation and make the best decision possible. And most people never seek to develop it. They chase results while ignoring the root cause of their setbacks: poor decisions.
No matter how disciplined or talented you are, if your judgment is flawed, your efforts will be misdirected.
Judgment, is thus your wisdom in motion.
If wisdom is vapor, then judgment is water.
Same substance, different form.
Here’s the main point of this entire letter:
Success is a series of choices.
That’s it.
Actually take a second to think about this.
Success is NOTHING more than a series of good decisions, one after the other.
There are many timelines where you become wildly successful.
They’re real, possible and waiting.
- A brotherhood and support network.
- A strong body.
- Loving relationships.
- A spouse who adores you.
- Children who love you.
- A luxury lifestyle.
Whatever your heart desires. It’s all there, waiting for you.
But… it’s locked behind a series of decisions.
So the ONLY thing that separates your current life from that life… is the choices you make using your judgment.
Your path to success is made of LITERALLY NOTHING OTHER THAN A SERIES OF CHOICES. That’s what everyone has ever done to become successful. Every successful person you admire. Every person you look up to. And every person who has something you don’t. They have all done the same thing to become successful:
- They set a goal and chased after it.
- Problems presented themselves.
- They fail and gain experience in the process.
- After enough experience they solve the problems.
- They get closer to achieving their goals than before.
And after many cycles of this, they eventually achieve their goals.
Why? Because they have too much experience and wisdom to fail.
Not because they know what to do, but mostly because they know what NOT to do.
- Don’t be weak.
- Don’t do drugs.
- Don’t get in debt.
- Don’t trust everyone.
- Be a dependable person.
- Be an honourable person.
- Be a charming & fun person.
- Always have a firm handshake.
- Always stand up for yourself.
- Always give your best.
- Always be on time.
- Never cheat.
- Never steal.
- Never kill.
That’s it. That’s all that anyone has done to become successful.
There’s not exactly any fancy formula.
This is how you achieve success: you make choices.
Imagine it like this..
Since success is quite rare and a statistical oddity, that means it’s a narrow path.
But every outcome in life is a path, so how can we walk down paths that lead to “success”?
And I say “success” because success looks different for everyone.
More precisely, I mean achieving your goals.
So how can you make sure you take the right steps that lead you down roads of success?
- By being careless and running in every direction?
- By being very cautious and never taking a step?
- Or by carefully measuring and thinking about every step?
“How long should my stride be? Should I do it quickly or take my time? Should I ask for help first? Should I research first?“
None of the above.
The real answer, as any successful person would tell you, is to go down so many paths as quickly as possible that you eventually develop the capacity of finding paths that lead to success.
It means that you must be decisive, execute quickly, fail quickly, reflect quickly and path-correct.
Unfortunately, you don’t just “stumble” upon success. It’s that you’ve taken so many steps, you know exactly which one to take next.
In other words, your judgment now allows you to find paths that lead to success.
And discipline is what will lead you to stay on the path.
Because finding one is half the battle, staying on it is the challenging part.
Which is where most quit and choose failure by the way.
They know EXACTLY what they must do, but they’re either too lazy or too arrogant to do it.
And that’s a choice you’ll to have make as well.
So what will you choose?
Freedom or slavery?
Success or failure?
Win or lose?
Decide.
Timeless Wisdom: The Value of Principles
Here’s a secret most people won’t tell you:
Scrap that, I hate it when people say “most people won’t X”
I often ask myself ‘who are these “most people”? No one is gatekeeping that’.
Round 2..
Here’s a nugget of wisdom you should write down and immediately apply in your life.
Finding principles removes entire paths that lead to bad outcomes.
And that’s how you can exponentially speed up your journey to success.
Finding principles instead of focusing on the latest ‘tactics’ is a far wiser strategy to utilize.
Why? Because they are tactics that have withstood the test of time.
People across civilizations, countries, cultures and languages have all agreed that these principles are sound and applicable in all circumstances.
We all only have a fixed amount of steps to take.. so I won’t you tell you risk doesn’t exist.
You are indeed wise to be strategic with the hand you’ve been dealt in life.
“Okay, so what is a principle?”
I’ve already shared the most important in this newsletter… did you catch them?
- Don’t be weak.
- Don’t do drugs.
- Don’t get in debt.
- etc..
These are all timeless principles one must tie around his neck and hold close to his heart.
I promise you if you do all of the above for 3 straight years you will set your life up for great success.
To further clarify and compare though, an example of a tactic would be:
‘Don’t scroll your phone before sleep’
This is a tactic because people of old didn’t have phones like we do. It is only applicable to a specific group of people in specific circumstances.
But which principle can we derive out of it?
Sidenote: this ability to derive principles out of tactics and mistakes is what will you separate you from the rest. This will determine the speed by which you can iterate and “play out” different paths.
The principle is fairly simple and I’m sure you’ve often heard it.
FIX YOUR SLEEP.
Fixing your sleep is one of the highest ROI activities you will EVER do.
Because it is LITERALLY the biggest determining factor of the quality of your decisions.
That’s why sleep is so important, not because “you need to recover”. Although you certainly do..
You practically become unable to make any sound decision if you’re under-slept.
This is the easiest and most potent principle you can apply immediately. (I say that as I’m writing past my bedtime.. no one is perfect)
Tactic —> Little blue light after 7pm.
Principle —> Ensure quality sleep and rest.
This then must become your only pursuit as a young man.
To find these principles of sound decision-making (wisdom).
They hold real power beyond your imagination.
The kind of power that can turn a boy into a man.
And a man into a king.
Best of luck on your pursuit, young king.
The Wisdom in Understanding Value
To build a building you must first know which materials you can use.
In the same way, to build a successful life you must know which resources you have at you disposal.
I’ve always had a fascination with time.
Living in dire circumstances from a young age greatly attuned me to the flow of time.
- How were things back then?
- How long has it been like this already?
- Do I have a future or am I living in war forever?
- Will I make it till tomorrow or are ISIS getting me?
- Will my circumstances ever change?!
So let me give you 1 more piece of wisdom before closing.
And I won’t hammer this point like I did the others.. I’ll leave it up to you to process it as you wish.
Your time is the most valuable resource you have.
Do you know how you’ll spend it?
Do you steward it with the care it needs?
Reflect on this..
An Ancient King
An ancient king, who later became known as the wisest person to have ever lived, understood life very well.
When king Solomon was granted a wish from God, he didn’t ask for riches. He didn’t ask for women, land, or power.
He instead asked for wisdom.
And because of that choice, he received everything else.
Not because wisdom is just “nice to have”, but because the exercise of wisdom, expressed through judgment, produces right decisions.
And right decisions are what create wealth, peace, power, and success.
God simply collapsed time and gave him everything else too.
[10] The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. [11] So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies— [12] I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! [13] And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! — 1 Kings 3:10-13 NLT
So all that to say..
Hone your judgment, and success becomes INEVITABLE.
Stay curious,
David Wayne
PS: I know luck exists and that some people have better circumstances from the get go. Personally, I’m of the view that makes life more exciting because you get to work harder and thus develop more character. Should you persevere and achieve success, your story will be much more inspiring and interesting to listen to. And let’s face it.. also plainly cooler.
There will be a far more tactical part 2 to this newsletter that dives into systems, cybernetics, decision-making frameworks and secrets that billionaires leverage to gain outsized returns on their inputs (decisions).
Subscribe to The Wayne Letters to receive it straight into your inbox.
That one will be jam-packed with material I have in my free course LifeLens Navigator.
If you’re feeling stuck or lack your direction in your life, check it out. I doubt it’s going to be free for long but the material inside will astound you. I wholeheartedly believe it’s one of the best free courses you’ll EVER take.
Simply sign up to The Wayne Letters to gain access.
See you inside.
