What drives you to keep growing despite already having made many millions of dollars?
One thing I've realized recently is that the idea people grow simply for the sake of accumulating power is weird; you'd only believe that if you'd never done anything like that before. People look at Elon Musk and think he just wants more money because he's greedy, but an extra dollar makes no difference to his quality of life. It's not about greed or desire; it's about genuinely enjoying the activity of accomplishing big things. Most people never understand this because they've never been in that position; they see work as something to avoid or want to go on a trip, and they project that onto others. I feel really good when I record videos, work with clients, and design systems that solve bottlenecks—this stuff is awesome.
I came up with the idea of accelerating the transition to a more efficient economy about eight months ago, and I feel I've made a little bit of progress toward that. With 200,000 followers watching my long‑form content, the leverage is insane—if even 1% of them work with businesses, each might serve 10 to 100 businesses over their career, impacting 100 to 1,000 customers each. If we can improve those experiences by just 5% through automation, I'm already having a substantial effect on the global economy. While I like making money, it's not my primary goal; it's probably in my top five. Ultimately, I want to be a positive force for change in the world in my own way.
I do make a significant amount of money—around $300,000 per month—mainly from the school games (third-party revenue) and another community. I earn far more talking about the stuff than actually doing it, which is typical for an information product: leverage comes from teaching others, allowing them to achieve 100x results while I earn proportionally. What do I do with the money? I don't have guilty pleasures like cars; I invest it. I have friends aiming for tens or hundreds of millions in the S&P 500, but that's never been my primary motivator. When I was broke, an extra $10,000 a year would have dramatically improved my quality of life; now, extra millions don't materially affect it unless you have extreme comfort needs. I'm thankful my family immigrated from Eastern Europe around the fall of communism; they lived frugally, teaching me that a fulfilling life doesn't require a lot of money. Though I now make what most would consider a lot of money, I still find life enjoyable and fulfilling without needing wealth.
That's a really interesting question. The reality is with content you have an explore-exploit trade-off. That means you are constantly faced with a fork in the road: should I continue doing what's already working, or should I go and find greener pastures elsewhere? It's a fork in the road human beings have had throughout our history, even from the agricultural and hunter-gatherer times. Essentially there is an optimal ratio of exploration to exploitation based on how big you are. The bigger you are, the more exploitation you should be doing — the more you should be taking advantage of proven formats in order to make money. Whether that's on social media or your business or whatever, the reality is the bigger you are, the more you have to lose, and so the safer you have to play. The smaller you are, the more you can explore, the less safe you have to play, and the more you can look for greener pastures. When I was really early on, I spent a lot of time exploring. Now that I'm getting bigger and bigger — although by no means am I a big channel on socials — the more exploiting I am doing. That's just how it works. Big corporations have way more to lose — why do you think they focus on compliance and really honing in on one product-market fit and so on?
Yes, I once believed I needed to make $2,000 a month to live comfortably, and at the time I was earning far less, living frugally in a converted garage and feeling proud enough to avoid getting a job or moving back home. That period was tough and gave me many gray hairs. Now I earn that amount in the time it takes to record a video, showing how my perspective has shifted. The reality is that money is abundant; the issue was my mindset—I was my own worst enemy, unable to see opportunities. Success isn’t about sheer hours worked; it’s about working effectively. When you focus on effective work, you can achieve in moments what others take days, weeks, or years to accomplish.