I believe anyone can change their life through technology.
We’re aiming to learn for 6 months, then to earn $100k after 12 months.
So, think of what you’d do with that kind of money, and let that be your fuel.
Don’t worry, the areas we are going to focus on, are some of the most lucrative in the AI and tech space, so this is very doable.
The big goal of my content is to help people change their lives through technology, and I’m not trying to sell you anything. But if you don’t have goals, it’s all a bit aimless.
I believe anyone who’s physically and mentally healthy, and has a computer, can change their life in the next year.
And I’ve done it. I’m writing this from the perspective of talking to my younger self (so it might sound a little like tough love at times, but that’s what I needed).
It took me 11 months. I went from working an awful office job to living a life of freedom and eventually wealth, with multiple streams of income.
I learned to code, built things, and posted the work publicly. It worked, and when I look back at how, it wasn’t luck or talent. It was being boringly consistent, and a handful of ordinary decisions that anyone can repeat. This post is those decisions.
First, one of my favourite ever quotes (it was once my iPhone background):
“People overestimate what they can achieve in a day, but underestimate what they can achieve in 1 year.”
Tech is one of the few fields that doesn’t care about your background if your work is good. Nobody asks where you went to school when your app works, or when your automation saves a client ten hours a week, or when you close a deal.
That’s unusual, and it’s why someone starting from nothing can move quickly.
Why start now
Timing matters.
Right now, we are seeing a gold rush of AI and tech which is still maturing and still has opportunity.
Also you can build a small audience around what you’re learning for almost nothing, because the feeds aren’t full yet. That won’t last.
I believe something called the “infinite content machine” is coming.
As it gets easier to flood every platform with AI-generated content, attention gets harder to earn, and it’s going to be harder and harder to gain an audience.
Tech and AI are what I teach on my page, and there is opportunity out there right now.
The door is open right now because demand is higher than the number of people who can do the work, and that gap shrinks every month as more people move in.
Here are the steps.
1) quit brain rot
You have to quit brain rot content and consumption. It will kill your dreams.
Video games, TikTok, news, the scroll, X.
Whatever is taking up your attention right now is literally stopping you. Twenty years from now you’ve got to look back at the decisions you made.
I can’t tell you how to do this. You’ve just got to do it yourself.
No one is coming to save you.
If you spend too much time on social media, playing video games, or whatever is consuming your time. Put a system in place. Don’t rely on your own willpower.
Don’t sacrifice long-term success for short-term gratification.
You cannot build anything while a few hours of every day disappear into a feed.
2) pick one skill worth paying for
These are a list of skills and areas in tech and AI that I’ve hand-picked, which I believe have a huge upside. Some you start totally from scratch. Some, like people management, suit someone who already works in tech.
And there’s ones like building an app or learning AI automations.
Again, I can’t tell you which. But all of these have an opportunity in right now. It might change in a year, but you should find which one you vibe with, and go for it.
Here’s a rough list, ordered from easiest to break into to hardest:
Tech sales: the most underrated way in. You don’t need a technical degree, and since it’s commission-based, your income grows with your results. Good if you need money coming in soon.
AI automations and consulting: most businesses still do a lot of manual work that current tools can handle. You don’t build the models, you connect them to a company’s workflow and charge for the time you save them.
Building apps and SaaS: you make software people pay to use. Higher ceiling, takes longer to earn, and you own what you build. A big focus with apps now is distribution (I’ll get to that)
Generative AI: the image, text, and video tools everyone is trying to figure out. It moves fast, so knowing what worked six months ago already puts you ahead.
AI/ML engineering: building and training the models instead of just using them. More technical, harder to get into, paid well for it.
Robotics: early and difficult, with a payoff over the next decade that could be huge. A longer-term bet than the others.
Founding engineer: join a small startup and take equity instead of a big salary. The equity only pays off if the company works, so you’re betting on your judgment as much as your skills.
Big tech: the highest status and the hardest to get into.
People management: if you’re already in tech, this is the quickest way to more responsibility and pay without switching fields. It means you stay in the 9-5, but focus on the most lucrative part (always will be management roles) so you can target early retirement.
There’s no right answer. The best skill is the one you’ll still be doing in month six once the novelty wears off, because that’s where most people quit and where the real progress starts.
3) make short-form content
There’s a huge amount of upside in starting short-form content. The reason I say short form is that I think it’s the easiest to get into. All of the algorithms are built for discovery, which means it can be free attention.
Whilst people hate on TikTok, the ‘TikTokification’ of content has meant that followers isn’t actually that important anymore.
But, you’re not trying to go viral.
You’re just showing what you’re learning: what you built this week, what broke, what finally clicked. Post about the cool stuff you’re learning and interested in.
And get it out of your head that you need to be an expert.
Do it consistently and it becomes both a portfolio and a network. Clients and employers hire people they can see doing the work, and posting about your work regularly is a low bar that almost nobody keeps up for more than a couple of weeks.
Learn hooks, learn about storytelling, evoke emotion. Don’t make it all about you, and make your audience the hero. Study content that inspires you, and create something.
Also.
No one cares.
A lot of people hold back from doing this because they’re obsessed with what other people think of them, or with looking like a failure.
The biggest failure will be in 20 or 30 years, when you look back and see you didn’t do the thing you wanted to do.
And if you post a lot and the posts flop, no one sees them anyway lol. There’s literally no downside.
But you can’t make 20 posts and give up. You have to commit to consistently posting 3 days a week for 6 months. If you don’t do that, you have no right to say ‘I tried my best’. I’m sorry you didn’t.
I don’t mean to be harsh here, I just think tough love is in order. Also I’m writing this talking to my younger self, who nearly quit after 10 posts.
I also recommend these. Substack, LinkedIn (yeah…I know…but these have the biggest brand deals due to the business focused audience). I do also recommend YouTube, but it’s harder to start.
4) build your own thing
Eventually you have to make something real and put it in front of real people: a product, an app, a small service, a business.
It might fail.
A failed project still teaches you more than a course does.
Courses give you clean problems that already have answers.
A real project gives you messy ones nobody has solved for you, and working through those is where the skills actually stick.
Tutorials feel productive because they’re easy. The thing that breaks in front of a paying customer is what teaches you what matters.
If you do this, you will be a lot further ahead than you are now. Time is going to pass anyway. So you might as well spend that time working towards something you dream of.
Where to start this week
Again, that quote again.
“People overestimate what they can achieve in a day, but underestimate what they can achieve in 1 year.”
You don’t have to do all of it at once. Cut your biggest time drain. Pick one skill and give it two weeks before you judge it. Post one thing about what you’re learning. Sketch the smallest version of something you could ship.
MAKE A LIST…..like
do a basic AI automation youtube course
learn basic editing in capcut
watch a youtube vid andrew made about making apps… whatever
None of this is complicated. It’s slow and a bit uncomfortable rather than hard, which is exactly why the opportunity stays open.
Most people won’t stick with slow and uncomfortable long enough for it to pay off.
The big ‘why’, of why I make content, is this.
To inspire people, particularly young men who feel lost, alone, and not good enough, to change their life through technology.
Share this with someone it might help.
P.S. Latest YouTube below. You might like it on AI concepts for anyone who works in tech.
A
It’s like you’re writing straight to my opticnerve mate. Appreciate the tough love and wisdom, pen-pal. 👊
This touched my heart, thank you.