1/ For anyone who is on the fence about @growclass, I remember the exact moment I was sitting in my car in the parking lot on September 9th, 2020 calculating on the phone what the ROI would need to be for me to join the program.

1/ A lot of people ask me how Bleacher Report found our first writers when we were tiny and had no funding.

So here's a thread on all the things we tried, what worked best, and lessons on growing a community from scratch:

2/ When we first started B/R, all the articles were written by my co-founders, our friends, and me.

This led to some hilariously bad takes. Like this article where I panned the SF Giants for drafting future World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner.

3/ When we were ready to start building our community, we started with word of mouth. We drafted an email pitching our concept. It went out to everyone we knew, asking them to share it with anyone who would be interested.

This got us maybe a few dozen signups.

From the email:

4/ With only a handful of members, we needed to make the community feel more active.

So we faked it til we made it.

Our team created multiple accounts and posted using different fake names. This created the sense of more activity and encouraged new members to join in.

5/ Later, I learned that the founders of Reddit did the same thing early on.

Sometimes the solution to the "chicken and the egg" problem of building community is to create the illusion of more chickens (or

Get a cup of coffee.

Let's kickstart 2022!

To that end, here are 22 key concepts to help you appreciate and achieve Financial Independence.

Concept #1.

What is Financial Independence?

It's a state of *self-sufficiency*. It's when you have enough money, and enough income-producing assets, that you and your family can live comfortably for the rest of your lives -- WITHOUT needing a job.

Concept #2.

Financial Independence is not really about spending MONEY how we like -- although, to an extent, that becomes possible.

It's about being FREE to spend our TIME how we like.

Concept #3.

Financial Independence is not really about quitting our jobs and retiring from work -- although that's possible.

It's about being FREE to pursue *whatever* kind of work we find most fulfilling. Things we love to do. Things the world benefits from. Etc.

Concept #4.

For most of us, the path to Financial Independence consists of:

- Starting Early,
- Saving Diligently, and
- Investing Responsibly.

Here's an inspiring story of a janitor who amassed an $8M fortune by following this very playbook:

🤔 Thread: More of the wrong thing is less
(or, how I stepped off the hamster wheel)

I’m going to share a personal story with hope that it inspires at least one person to re-examine their definition of success 👇

Through hard work and an unfair share of luck, I’ve done some cool “bucket list” things in my career:

✅Raised VC from the worlds’ top firms
✅Helped build 100’s of millions in revenue from nothing
✅Rang the bell at the NYSE
✅Met & did deals with billionaires & business icons

These are things I dreamed about when I was young and I treasure some of the memories. But when they finally happened I felt surprisingly unfulfilled. I was scoring lots of points but didn’t feel like I was winning.

Then a few years ago during a board meeting I had a moment of clarity. I looked around the table at 10 people, all absurdly successful by financial measures. There wasn’t a single person I wanted to emulate. Most were unhealthy and several had told me that they were unhappy.

Within months I walked away from from a 7-figure salary, moved my family to Boulder, & haven’t looked back. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a capitalist & like money as much as anyone. But for me it's not the thing, and *more of the wrong thing is less*.

The most memorable interview I did this year was w/ Stanley Druckenmiller, who famously made $1B shorting the British Pound.

The trading legend's track record includes a 30-year stretch returning 30%+ a year (without a single down year).

Here are 8 investing lessons🧵

1/ Make concentrated bets in high conviction plays

2/ Concentrated bets can sometimes *reduce* risk

3/ Use a multi-disciplinary approach to investing

4/ Know when to sell (he never uses a stop loss)

10 Key Takeaways from the book: The Emotionally Intelligent Investor

1. Investing success does NOT come from ignoring or suppressing emotion. Assuming that you have relevant expertise, disregarding intuition and empathetic feelings because they cannot be explained, is a mistake!

2. Self-awareness is the first and most important step in improving as an investor. An investment approach needs to fit with your unique set of motivations, personality traits, weaknesses, and strengths. Don’t try to be exactly like Warren Buffett if you are not like him!

3. Humans have certain common investing vulnerabilities, but everybody is unique in their susceptibility to them. Consider your weaknesses to be the investing biases and traps to which you are most prone.

4. Because we are constantly changing, introspection should be incorporated into the daily and weekly routines of any investor. Try writing in a trading/Investing journal.