Nobody is coming to save you (here’s how to save yourself):

Nobody is coming to save you.

Not your family. Not your friends. Not your teachers. Not your government. No one. You need to save yourself.

It feels like the world is on fire now.

• France is in chaos with all the riots that are happening.

• Inflation is at an all-time high.

• Millennials and Gen Z can’t afford housing.

• Families are struggling to pay the rent (even when both partners are working full-time jobs).

• The division between genders is the worst it’s ever been.

Those aren’t even the biggest problems.

The biggest problem we suffer from in today’s age is learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness is a psychological state where an individual stops trying to change or escape a negative situation after experiencing repeated, uncontrollable stress or failure, even when change becomes possible.

I see so many people around the world struggle with this problem.

When I worked my engineering job, everyone in the office was depressed.

Their marriages were failing, their finances were a mess because of it, and their bodies were just ugly to look at, to be honest. It felt like they were walking zombies. The only thing they were good at was work, so they’d bury their heads in the sand and work all day and hope that their problems would go away.

Whenever I asked them why they didn’t do anything about their situation, they’d say: “That’s just how life is.”

I hated how they just gave up on themselves. They accepted that this suffering would be their default way of living.

Soon after, I found my life descending into chaos like theirs.

I’d wake up at 5 AM, get stuck in traffic for 3-4 hours, and be back home at 11 PM. I didn’t have time to go out, speak with friends, or even simply do the things that brought me joy.

It got so bad for me that every morning, I’d stare at the ceiling for 30 minutes before finally getting out of bed.

That’s when I realized that nobody was going to come and save me.

If I didn’t do anything about my situation, nothing would change.

I had to save myself.

The first thing that came to my mind was to get promoted at my job. But the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous that idea sounded. Because it wouldn’t solve my problem (doing work I hated and having no time to do what I love).

A few weeks later, I took the biggest risk of my life. I handed in my resignation and quit my prestigious job at age 22.

Most people would die for the position I had or even to work for the company. But this turned to be the best I’ve ever made.

Today, I’m running a 6-figure one-person business. I get to create work I love, I wake up whenever I want, I can work out for 2-3 hours every day, I work with people I find inspiring, and I get to build products I genuinely believe in.

I’m not here to tell you how to start a business or how to create content (I’ve done that many times in the past).

I’m here to share with you the big-picture things that I did that changed my life. I firmly believe that understanding the big picture is more important than knowing the exact steps I took.

Your life is different from mine.

You don’t have my knowledge, my skills, my upbringing, or the thousands of tiny decisions I made unconsciously that shaped who I am today.

But that’s the beauty of life. The same way you don’t have my knowledge or mind, I don’t have yours.

This is why detailed steps aren’t the answer and why I’ll be focusing on the big picture.

This way, you can extract the lessons and apply them yourself.

Let’s begin:

I - How to save yourself (do these 5 things)

i.i - Blame yourself for everything and preserve your agency

In my opinion, believing that your actions influence the future is the first thing you need to do when it comes to changing your life.

The quality of your life all comes down to how much personal accountability and agency you’re willing to take.

If you want to save yourself, you must blame everything on yourself. Everything is your fault. Everything is always your fault, even when it’s not, it’s still your fault.

Some people will say that this is bad for your mental health.

But it’s actually liberating.

When you blame others for your problems, it takes away your responsibility for them. There is nothing you can do because it’s not your fault. But when you take accountability for them, you bring the matter back under your control.

Most people never take accountability for their lives.

This is why they keep blaming the government, the education system, their boss, their middle school English teacher, the stray cat, and everyone and everything for their problems except themselves. This is why they never amount to anything in their lives. They outsource their actions to others and blame them for failing. Truth is, they’re too scared to take accountability.

When you take accountability, you’re risking something. Not just your reputation, but your ego as well. You expose your ego to yourself, and you’ll realize that you may not be as smart, skilled, or talented as you thought you were.

Another reason is that agency absolutely exists in this world.

You know for a fact that in the past, you took specific actions that led to good outcomes, and had you not taken them, you wouldn’t have gotten what you wanted.

So yes, you can absolutely change your life through your actions.

Agency exists in this world.

Life may not be fair, but there are things that you can do on the individual scale (or even a small one) that can lead to good outcomes.

Accountability and agency are the first two things you need to work on to improve your life.

i.ii - Build Your Mind

The quality of your life is determined by how well you use your mind.

Your judgment, ideas, perspective, and taste are all byproducts of a great mind.

Your mind is what separates you from all the other species in the world. It’s how we became apex predators, and now we sit on top of the food chain. We’re not the strongest species. There are many animals that are 100x stronger than us, but it’s because of our minds that we were able to conquer the lands, explore the deepest oceans, go to space, and even land on the Moon.

Your mind is everything.

Do everything in your power to build your mind. The easiest way to start is to build a daily writing habit.

• Writing is how you think.

• Writing is how you speak.

• Writing is how you process information.

• Writing is how you solve problems.

• Writing is how you connect ideas together.

Start by writing 500 words a day. Literally. Grab a notebook (or your notes app) and write 500 words. Without AI, without judgment, without trying to sound smart, without the need to impress others. Just you and your thoughts.

It will literally rewire your brain, and you’ll see the world in a way you never thought was possible.

It is through writing that you expose yourself to your thoughts. When you write, you’ll realize that the majority of your thoughts weren’t yours to begin with. They’re regurgitated ideas you consumed in the past.

If your life is determined by the choices you make, and if the quality of the choices you make is determined by your thoughts, and if your thoughts are determined by what you watch, read, listen to, who you speak to, and follow, then you should be obsessed with having a high-quality consumption habit.

You should reduce as much noise (low-quality information and low-quality content) as possible.

You need more nuance in the content you consume. Cut off short-form content. It is shallow by nature. It’s designed to capture your attention, and that’s it. It does not have room for nuance.

This is why you need to go and consume long-form content. Listen to podcasts, read challenging books, read articles, subscribe to more newsletters, and fill your mind with high-quality ideas like your life depends on it (because it does).

i.iii - Build Your Body

If you’re in your 20s or 30s, for the love of God, get in shape.

You’ll never have more free time in your life than what you have now.

You’re not “too busy”. That’s an excuse, and you know it.

If you don’t get in shape now, then accept the fact that you’ll never be in shape for the rest of your life. It does not make sense to keep wanting something that you’re not willing to work towards.

Good health isn’t reserved for those who have a business or have a lot of free time.

Improving your health is actually easy. You also know what you need to do to improve your health. You’ve watched hundreds of videos on how to get started in the gym, what foods to eat, and recipes you can cook. The only thing that’s holding you back is you.

Improving your health is all about simple behavior changes. Walking for 10 minutes after every meal. Swapping junk food for fruits. Parking slightly away from the entrance so you can walk a little more.

But the reason you need to get in shape is that the lessons you learn in the gym can be directly applied to life.

The concept of progressive overload is how you continue to build muscle, but it’s also how you keep improving as a human when it comes to your work, relationships, and business. If you’re not constantly pushing yourself to your absolute limits (mentally, physically, and spiritually), then you won’t grow.

The greatest lesson I learned in the gym: Time will pass by anyway.

Before the gym, I was a scrawny dude, severely underweight, and had very low self-esteem because of how skinny I was.

I couldn’t even look at myself shirtless.

So when I started going to the gym, a lot of people in my life told me that I was wasting my time because “it takes too long to get in shape.”

But even if it took me a year, or 3, or 5 years to get the body I wanted, who cares?

Time will pass by anyway.

Before you know it, 5 years will pass and by then, you’ll either have put in the effort, time, and work and have the body you wanted, or you won’t.

In my case, I was in pretty good shape 6 months in. Today, 3.5 years later, I’m in even better shape. I genuinely never thought I’d have the body that I have now.

In case you’re wondering about my transformation… very proud of myself :)

Parallels between the gym and business/life:

• At the start you’ll feel like everyone is watching (they’re not, people are too busy performing their sets or scrolling their phones in between sets).

• You’ll go through Beginner’s Hell where your body will be sore for weeks, but soon after, you’ll start to see the progress you’ve made (there’s no better feeling than seeing progress being made).

• You’ll think that you’re the strongest person in the world, increase your weights too quickly, start ego lifting, then get humbled by life.

• After your first 6-12 months, your newbie gains are gone and putting on muscle will slow down drastically. Your previous goal of just “looking good” won’t be enough, and you’ll need to create a new goal to chase, preferably one that requires a sense of mastery.

You can know lessons by reading about them in a book or watching a YouTube video. But you’ll never truly learn them unless you get in the arena and get firsthand experience. Only then will you internalize those lessons and understand the deep meaning behind them.

i.iv - Build Your Own Body of Work

“Job security” is a fantasy.

It no longer exists in today’s world.

Just look around.

How many people have lost jobs they thought they’d never lose?

And AI just makes everything worse. Now everyone thinks AI will take over their jobs.

But when you have your own work, make your own money, and build your own products, you now have something that no one else can take. This is the greatest confidence boost you can ever have.

I’m not saying you need to quit your 9-5. What I am saying is that outsourcing your livelihood to a stranger who only sees you as a number on a spreadsheet is a recipe for disaster. You can absolutely build something small on the side that can give you the peace of mind you so desperately desire.

I’m a graduate student. I even have plans to do a PhD and eventually work as a professor, and yet I don’t care if I find a research job or an academic position because I have a thriving business (funny enough, my business makes me more money than any academic position I could get lol).

The best way to start building your own body of work?

Running a one-person business.

Why?

Because you live in an age of infinite leverage. Social media is permissionless media, AI is permissionless labor, and you can create and sell digital products that have no cost of replication and instant product fulfillment.

A one-person business will challenge you to learn new skills and get comfortable living in the unknown. You’ll quickly realize that every problem you have in your business is caused by a personal problem.

With a one-person business:

• You use social media as a public journal documenting your journey towards your goals

• You use your previous self as the Customer Avatar

• The problems you solved in your personal life become the products you sell.

You write for yourself, build for yourself, and sell to yourself.

You’re literally getting paid to improve your own life.

i.v - Build Your Spirit

Whenever I heard the word spirituality, I’d immediately think of hippies smoking weed, telling me about how they’re living in the 7th dimension.

When in reality, they’re just high...

But now I realize that spirituality is much bigger. It’s about connecting with reality, understanding your place in the world, and knowing that you’re a part of something that is much bigger than you.

A useful definition of spirituality is releasing the limits on your mind.

Your life will drastically improve once you realize the limits on your mind are not the limits of reality.

Most people get trapped living in survival mode.

Ruminating about the past and stressing about the future. Their minds only operate in a small negative domain. The mortgage they have to pay, the health care that they can’t afford, the car that’s about to break, the work they hate, and how little time they have left to enjoy their lives.

This constant negative thinking creates psychic entropy. Their minds

cannot think straight. Because they can’t think straight, they can’t make the right decisions to improve their health, finances, and relationships.

All of this starts by building your spirit.

The best way to do it is to believe in a higher power. I’m talking about God. If you don’t believe in God, I’m not going to argue with you about it or try to prove it because you’re not the person I’m writing this for.

Modern society killed God.

They replaced him with productivity, money, status, and sex.

This is why you see so many young adults completely lost in their lives, depressed, aimless, with no reason to continue living. It’s sad to see.

What I need you to understand is that you don’t do anything. Everything that is good in your life, you didn’t do it. This does not mean that you shouldn’t try to solve your problems or achieve your goals, because if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen on its own.

This sounds like I’m contradicting myself, but I’m not.

A sign of low intelligence is not being able to hold two contradicting ideas simultaneously without breaking down.

What I am saying is that you should do everything that is in your power to achieve your goals, but you’re not the one who has control over the outcomes. God does.

If you got what you wanted, great.

If you didn’t get what you wanted, also great.

Because if you believe that God is wise (which means that he doesn’t do anything without a good reason or that isn’t beneficial for you), then everything that is happening in your life now is a good thing.

A lesson that took me an embarrassingly long time to learn is that in the end, everything will turn out better than you expected.

In the end, you’ll have everything you ever wanted and more.

5 years ago, I got into a car accident and my car got totaled. That was the worst summer of my life. Every day brought problems and arguments. I was stressed about money and the future. And the car I lost wasn’t even the one I wanted.

But 3 months later, I was able to buy the car that I actually wanted.

It’s funny to see how God works. You can put in an insane amount of work, effort, and dedication towards your goals, but you’ll see the fruits of your labor after 5 years.

And you’ll be glad that it happened that way.

If you don’t believe me, grab a piece of paper and write down:

• Everything you want to achieve in 2027.

• Every problem you want to solve in 2027.

It does not matter how big or small those things are. Just write everything down. Then keep this piece of paper somewhere safe. What will happen is that first, you’ll forget about what you wrote down, but after 3-5 years, you’ll find the piece of paper, and you’ll realize that everything that you wrote down has already happened (or something better has).

One last thing: God created the heavens and the earth. He is both omnipotent and omniscient.

He gave you what you asked for and didn’t ask for.

He gave you what you wanted whether you believed in him or not.

He gave you what you thought you needed and didn’t know you needed.

Have a little more faith in him.

Because at the end of the day, this life is nothing but a short stop on the way to some place greater.

That’s all for today.

Thank you for reading.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

-Hussain