Getting Rich, Rethinking Travel, and Ghostwriters

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🏄‍♂️ I. Rethinking Travel

While in O‘ahu on a surfing trip last November, I bought 50 Places to Surf Before You Die, a coffee table book exploring surf breaks around the world.

I almost never open these types of books after buying them, but this one has unintentionally become my go-to guide for deciding where I travel. When I hear about a cool place or get invited to go somewhere, I look in the book to see if there is a wave that I can surf. If there is, I book the trip.

So far, this new lens on travel is taking me to Biarritz/Hossegor in France and Tofino in Canada. Both places seem lovely even if you don’t surf, but I likely would not have considered them without the book.

This idea of traveling as a pathway to do more of what you love extends beyond surfing. You could travel to enjoy the best skiing, hiking, biking, or fishing spots. You could travel to eat at the top 50 restaurants in the world or visit the best wineries and breweries. Or you could travel to the sites of history’s most important events.

Instead of traveling to relax on a beach or go to some famous city that is not all that different from other cities, you can start looking at travel as a way to go deeper into the interests and activities that bring you the most joy.

🤑 II. How to Get Rich

I finished reading How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis, a quirky magazine publisher who amassed hundreds of millions of dollars before he died in 2014. While I generally optimize my life for time freedom instead of the number in my bank account, I really enjoyed the book.

Dennis has a fun, candid, and bold writing style that makes the book an entertaining and surprisingly informative read if you are interested in what it actually takes to make a lot of money.

If you want to get a flavor of what you will discover in the book, I published my notes and takeaways here.

👩‍💻 III. Twitter Ghostwriters

Paul Millerd, a fellow creator who writes about unconventional ways of living, published an interesting interview about Twitter ghostwriters, which are people who write tweets for other people.

I took away two things from the interview:

1. Many big Twitter accounts (~50%) may pay other people to create content. If you’re an entrepreneur who views Twitter as a marketing channel designed to build trust with an audience of people who will buy your products or services, it makes sense to pay people to help you do that better.

But if you’re a consumer of these people’s content, it’s helpful to know that the people you follow may not be altruistic experts who want to help you in some domain. They may be clever cats who want to build just enough trust with you to eventually convince you to part ways with some of your cash.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. It’s simply modern marketing. But when it comes to your health, wealth, and relationships — the areas of life that you need to get right — don’t be too quick to listen to a random person on the internet.

At the very least, know that the tweets and other social posts from the random person you follow and trust may actually be written by a clever freshman in college who understands the content game.

2. Ghostwriting is a viable career. There are endless interesting ways to make a good living online, and being a ghostwriter is one of them.

Based on the interview, it seems like you could easily make six figures writing Tweets for other people by simply understanding how the Twitter game works and being a half-decent writer who slowly builds a roster of clients willing to pay for this expertise.

This is especially interesting for people who have good writing and social media skills, but who are not interested in sharing details about their own life online. As a ghostwriter, you can basically stay hidden in the shadows making other people rich and famous without having to be a public figure yourself.

🧠 IV. Something I’m Thinking About

Once you commit, the world may begin to work in your favor.

That's all for now. See you next Sunday.

— Cal

🌎️ Three other things you might enjoy

1. Doing Time Right: Everyone wants to get more done in less time. This course will show you exactly how to do that with the eliminate, automate, delegate, and iterate framework.

2. Foundations. Looking for good books to read? Check out Foundations, a growing digital notebook with notes & lessons from 100+ timeless books.

3. Listen to the Podcast: Feel like school didn't prepare you for adulthood? The Sh*t You Don't Learn in School podcast exists to help make up for this societal failure.