"Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things."

— Peter Senge

Most people are zoomed in when they need to zoom out.

Why your lifestyle feels chaotic:
— You're ignoring feedback loops
— You're optimizing individual tasks
— You're missing crucial connections
— You're blind to system boundaries
— You're solving symptoms, not causes

Rewire your brain to start seeing the whole.

It’s 11 PM and you’re still staring at your screen, surrounded by unfinished tasks. Your brain feels like overcooked spaghetti. Deadlines loom. Client problems multiply. And that algorithm you’ve been wrestling with for days? Still broken.

You’ve been there before – that feeling of complete mental saturation. Tasks piling up throughout the day, more getting added, and suddenly you realize there’s no way to complete them all. Your brain feels like it’s hit a wall. The solution seems distant, maybe impossible.

I’m not the type of person who prioritizes tasks over my well-being. I have a routine that I maintain, one that I value more than arbitrary deadlines. I understand that my physical and mental state is infinitely more important than checking boxes on my to-do list.

The most fascinating thing? Science backs this up. Research shows that an astonishing 95% of our brain activity happens completely outside our conscious awareness. Your mind processes an incredible 11 million bits of information per second, while your conscious mind can only handle about 40-50 bits. The rest? It’s all happening beneath the surface, in your subconscious.

Think about the last time you were stuck on a coding problem, designing an algorithm, or making a critical business decision. You stared at the screen for hours, feeling your productivity drain away, only to have the perfect solution spontaneously appear while taking a shower the next morning. That wasn’t magic – it was your subconscious delivering exactly what you needed, exactly when you weren’t forcing it.

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking,”

Albert Einstein once admitted. Even one of history’s greatest analytical minds understood that breakthrough insights rarely come from brute-force conscious effort.

This isn’t just philosophical musing. It’s a real, practical method you can use to solve even your most challenging problems – whether they’re technical obstacles, business decisions, or personal dilemmas. And it’s surprisingly simple.

In the next few posts I’ll show you this reliable three-step process that leverages your brain’s natural problem-solving capabilities – a method that’s been used by entrepreneurs like Larry Page, scientists like Dmitri Mendeleev, and countless others to create world-changing breakthroughs. A method I’ve personally used time and again to solve complex problems that seemed unsolvable.

Your brain processes 11 million bits of information per second.
Your conscious mind? Only 40-50 bits.
The rest happens in your subconscious - your hidden superpower for solving impossible problems.

It's 11 PM. You're staring at your screen surrounded by unfinished tasks.
Your brain feels like overcooked spaghetti. Deadlines loom. Client problems multiply.
Yet our productivity-obsessed culture tells you to push harder, grind more.
Science says that's exactly wrong.

I'm not the type who prioritizes tasks over wellbeing.
I maintain my routine, one I value more than arbitrary deadlines.
I understand that my physical and mental state is infinitely more important than checking boxes on a to-do list.
This isn't laziness.
It's strategy.

"I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking."

That's Einstein. Even history's greatest analytical mind understood that breakthrough insights rarely come from brute-force conscious effort.
The magic happens elsewhere.

The Wagner study is mind-blowing:
People who slept on a difficult math problem were 2.6x more likely to discover the hidden solution.
59% of the sleep group had breakthroughs compared to just 22% of those who stayed awake.
Your sleeping mind keeps working.
__________________________________

Step 1: Information Collection
Gather everything about your problem. Your subconscious needs raw material.
Document inputs, constraints, expected outputs. Create a comprehensive registry.
Your subconscious has no hidden agenda. Its interest aligns perfectly with yours.

Step 2: The Conscious Disconnect
The most counterintuitive step - and most important.
Once you've loaded all necessary information, deliberately shift attention away from the problem.
This isn't procrastination.
It's strategic disengagement.

Step 3: Capture & Implementation
Be ready for solutions that arrive unexpectedly - during a shower, on a walk, or in those first moments after waking.
These aren't vague ideas but fully-formed approaches you can immediately implement.
Keep capture tools handy.
__________________________________

Sleep is the most reliable disconnection method for complex problems.
One night is sufficient for most challenges; two nights at most for the complexities.
It may feel uncomfortable initially - like avoiding responsibility.
Your subconscious is still working diligently on your behalf.

Ever notice solutions appear during mundane activities?
EEG patterns show that moments before insights occur, the brain briefly reduces visual processing input and increases activity in areas connecting distant neural networks.
The shower effect is real. It's science, not magic.

If no solution appears within your expected timeframe, it means one of two things:
— Either your subconscious needs more information (return to Step 1)
— Or you haven't fully disconnected (revisit Step 2)
I've rarely encountered problems that didn't yield eventually.

Whatever advice others give will always be incomplete.
No other person has what your subconscious has – your entire history, every experience that has shaped you.
Your subconscious is your ultimate helper, working tirelessly for your benefit.
Trust the process and use it to prevail.
_____________________________

The full article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/a-hidden-superpower-you-possess-how-to-use-your-subconscious-to-solve-the-hardest-problems-in-your-l

The Subconscious Powerhouse You’re Ignoring

The human brain is astounding when you look at the raw numbers. Your conscious mind – the part you’re aware of right now as you read this – processes around 40-50 bits of information per second. That might sound impressive until you learn that your senses are bombarding your brain with roughly 11 million bits of data every single second. Where does all that information go?

Into your subconscious – that vast, mysterious part of your mind that works tirelessly without your awareness or direction. It’s like having a supercomputer running in the background of your life, constantly processing, analyzing, and making connections while you go about your day.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate,”

said Carl Jung. Yet most of us never learn to intentionally harness this incredible power. We keep trying to solve complex problems using only our limited conscious resources – the equivalent of trying to move a mountain with a stick when you have a bulldozer parked in your garage.

Scientific research has proven just how powerful this subconscious processing can be. In one striking study by Wagner and colleagues published in Nature, participants who slept on a difficult math problem were more than twice as likely to discover the hidden solution – 59% of the sleep group had breakthroughs compared to just 22% of those who stayed awake. Their sleeping minds continued working on the problem, connecting dots their waking minds couldn’t see.

I’ve experienced this phenomenon countless times in my own life. Recently, I was faced with a complex algorithm design challenge. I needed to create something for my client’s ERP system we developing that could handle dynamic variables that changed throughout calculations, preserving necessary information while still running efficiently and calculating correct results. I could have spent all night banging my head against this wall, forcing my conscious mind to keep grinding away.

Instead, I gathered all the information – input requirements, expected outputs, current algorithm steps, test data – and documented everything clearly. Then I simply stopped. I shifted my attention completely, went for my evening walk, and went to bed at my normal time. The next morning in the shower, without actively thinking about the problem, the solution appeared in my mind, fully formed. I understood exactly how to structure the algorithm – something that might have taken hours of frustrated effort the night before.

Man taking a shower with a calm expression, symbolizing subconscious problem solving through relaxation
This isn’t unique to me or to programming. This same approach has led to some of history’s most significant breakthroughs.

Larry Page conceived Google’s revolutionary PageRank algorithm during a vivid middle-of-the-night insight. After waking from a dream where he had “downloaded the entire Web,” he immediately jotted down the idea of ranking pages by analyzing their backlinks. This midnight revelation – a product of his subconscious – led to one of the most successful companies in history.

The chemist Friedrich August Kekulé struggled for years to determine benzene’s molecular structure until he dreamed of a snake biting its own tail, forming a circle. This subconscious image gave him the revolutionary insight that benzene forms a ring, not a chain – transforming organic chemistry forever.

Dmitri Mendeleev, after days of struggling to organize the known chemical elements, fell asleep at his desk and dreamed of a table where “all elements fell into place as required.” Upon waking, he immediately wrote down the first Periodic Table – one of science’s most important organizational frameworks – with only minimal corrections needed.

If your subconscious can coordinate something as complex as your entire biological system, imagine what else it can do for you – if you learn how to use it properly.

You feel the potential inside you. You know you’re capable of so much more than what your surroundings expect. The path society outlined — the conventional one — doesn’t work for you. It’s that traditional route where you follow the script, the template, the pre-made plan that’s supposedly for everyone.

You’re supposed to grow up a bit, go to school, get good grades, then go to college or university, keep getting good grades so you can become a rookie in some career you had to choose when you didn’t understand anything about yourself, your strengths, or what you even want to do in life. Yet somehow, miraculously, you need to make this choice, a decision that will impact your entire future from that point forward.

And this decision is critical because if you choose the wrong specialization, your life is doomed. You won’t be able to earn enough money to support yourself, to support your family that you’re supposed to start after you finish your education. You’ll need to buy property on credit that your salary from your new career can afford. You’ll need to buy a car and several pieces of furniture from a list.

Somewhere during this period, either during your university life or after, you’re supposed to find your spouse, create a family with them, have children. And then comes the next wonderful algorithm. You wake up. You wake up with difficulty, because today will be another hard day, and you have to do things you don’t really want to do, maybe things you really hate, things that make you sick, and there’s absolutely no pleasure in starting this day.

In your mind looms the ghostly goal called “Friday,” Friday evening, when you can go party with your work friends at the local bar. Discuss the latest political news, come to some conclusions, and so on. But for now, you need to get ready for work. You make your way through traffic jams and other people, trying to find some meaning in this exercise.

Well, I did feel like this conventional path wasn’t for me. And throughout my conscious life, I’ve unconsciously been searching for ways to avoid this script, trying all possible methods that somehow differ from those prescribed in this scenario, in which I had no desire to become an actor.

I was 10 or 11 when I tried my first business in quotes — when my neighbor and I wanted to organize a lemonade stand near our house and feed passersby with meals we prepared from instant noodles, tea, coffee, and a small dessert. We were going to sell this literally for a few cents, adding a small margin to the cost of purchasing the goods, which we naturally bought with our parents’ money.

The next attempt came many years later after I finished university. My girlfriend and I organized a flower business and launched a flower salon in the city where I lived then, and started selling them. Everything went pretty well, we had such a side income because at that time I was working at my second job in an IT company, earning good money. I had money to cover the loan we took for renting the premises and purchasing the first batch of goods to get the machine spinning.

And it actually spun quite well, we had a side income, and we developed it to the point where we could even sell it. And this was, in fact, the first real experience of feeling out the life model called “business.”

There was something attractive and wildly appealing about it — the fact that we solved all the problems ourselves, no one told us what to do. The tasks were, of course, much bigger, the problems were much more complex than when you work at a job, but we did it ourselves, we did it by choice, it was interesting because it was ours. And it was a feeling of freedom, real independence from other people, and this feeling, which didn’t leave me alone, in fact, doesn’t even now.

I will continue to share my business journey in future posts, so stay tuned.

The Missing Key: Your Business Is Failing Because You Skipped This One Step

42% of startups fail for one reason: they build products nobody wants.

I wasted years making this mistake.
The solution isn't what you think.

Here's the counterintuitive approach that changed everything:

I tried every business model:
— Flower shop
— Rental business in Bali
— Digital agency
— Online courses
— Startup founder

Some worked.
Most failed.

The difference?
One invisible factor.

The failures: I created products first, then hoped customers would magically appear.

The successes: I had customers before creating anything.

This pattern was hiding in plain sight for years before I finally saw it.

The biggest mental shift that changed everything:
Stop being a consumer of content and start being a creator.

Most people consume.
Few create.

Creators build audiences.
Audiences become customers.

The internet gives you unprecedented leverage.
You can reach millions of potential customers with zero gatekeepers.

Your voice, your expertise, your journey can attract exactly the right people — if you're willing to put yourself out there.

My freelance work succeeded because clients recommended me to others.
I never searched for them — they found me.

I had an audience (small, informal) who knew what I could do.
This is the key most entrepreneurs miss.

Don't build first and pray customers will come.
Build an audience first who tells you exactly what they need.

Then create products they're already asking for.
It eliminates the guesswork that kills most businesses.

Find platforms where your ideal audience already hangs out:
— YouTube for visual learning
— X for bite-sized insights
— Podcasts for deep conversations
— Newsletters for direct connection

Go where they already are.

Deliver unmistakable value before asking for anything in return.

Build trust.
Demonstrate expertise.
Prove your worth.

When you finally offer something to buy, they're already sold.

The biggest mistake creators make:
Building an audience for years before monetizing.

This is unnecessary.
Start selling immediately.

You don't need millions of followers — you need 1,000 true fans who value what you offer.

Test your ideas before building them:
— Create landing pages
— Pre-sell your product
— Ask for commitments

Let the market tell you what's worth building.
This saves countless hours building things nobody wanted.

Your path to location independent success starts today:

1. Shift from consumer to creator
2. Choose your platforms
3. Deliver consistent value
4. Listen to your audience
5. Sell solutions to their problems

The audience is everything.
Find your people first.

The full article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-missing-key-your-business-is-failing-because-you-skipped-this-one-step

Here’s the truth no one tells you: 42% of startups fail because they created a product nobody wanted. This isn’t just some random statistic. This is the single biggest reason businesses crash and burn according to major startup studies. Not running out of money. Not technical problems. Building something people don’t need. Lack of market need was “the single most cited reason for failure in those studies – far more common than running out of money or technical issues.”

I searched endlessly for why my ventures weren’t working while my freelance work kept bringing in steady income. The difference was obvious in retrospect: my freelance clients came to me through word of mouth. They were past clients who recommended me to others. I never actively looked for them — they found me. I had an audience, even if it was small and informal.

I didn’t realize this was the key all those years. I was building products and hoping people would come. But here’s what I’ve discovered: if there are no customers — both potential and current — then there is no business.

What was interesting to me through all these attempts was that while I created products that failed, my freelance work creating websites for clients kept growing. Over time, I started charging more and earning more from these projects. I did less work myself, having a team that I subcontracted work to immediately, and they did 100% of it independently, paying me a share for the clients.

All this time I called my business a digital agency, which is also a common business model for beginning entrepreneurs on the internet. Because it’s a business you can start literally from scratch without initial capital, requiring no special costs. You just need to find a client, agree on a deal, and then you either independently or through subcontractors complete the work that needs to be done for them or their business.

Everything sounds wonderful in theory, but the problem is that the first part — finding a client — I never managed to do, no matter how much I tried. I tried advertising, tried sending cold emails, sending messages, networking, making websites, writing articles, posting cases on the internet, running social media, running a YouTube channel — everything you can imagine. In fact, none of this led to results.

The result was exactly zero, except for wasted efforts. Probably accumulated experience — it’s hard to say how useful it was, because it seems that so far, I haven’t made any adequate conclusions from this, all because there’s no adequate feedback from this whole process. You understand that it just doesn’t work, and what to do with it — is unclear. You’re playing a numbers game, and you just need to take quantity, and the more attempts you make, the more probability that someone will respond to them. That is, you need to send not 200 letters, but 2000 or 20 thousand letters.

Maybe that’s how it works, but there’s no guiding beacon in this sea. I get a new client, again through acquaintance. They are brought by my former client. And this is a very large order, which basically covers all my current expenses, lifestyle. And I do it in parallel with my remote work.

And I realize that I can’t drag it out any further, because the longer I drag it out, the more I immerse myself in this abyss of comfort, salary from month to month, and I rely only on it. And since I basically already have an order, yes, this is not a business, this is still a freelance project, and it takes up most of my time. And here I do part of the work myself. By the way, at this time I have already gathered a team for myself, which covers about half of the labor resources that are required.

And I decide to quit my job and completely immerse myself in developing my business. But this time I don’t want to make the previous mistakes. And everything that permeates my previous attempts to do business and earn money online, while remaining independent and not turning the business into my second job, which I, by the way, currently get.

So I now have not just bosses on the side, I am not my own boss, my boss is my client. And essentially I do what my client tells me. No matter how it sounds from the side, but freelance work is still not a business. It’s the same job, only now you don’t have one boss, as it was at work, but several, if you have several clients. They tell you what to do, and you do their projects, not yours.

All the time you spend goes to making them richer and realizing their dreams, their projects. And what about my dreams, desires, interests, my projects? How do I get closer to them? That it should be a business, I have no doubt. This is the only way I can provide for my life and make it the way I want. I need money for this, since we live in a modern society, there is no other way yet. And even if we didn’t live in a modern one, humanity hasn’t come up with another way yet.

So, what am I going to do now? I’m going to earn my audience, gather people who are interested in my way of thinking, with whom we have something in common, with whom our thought processes align, with whom our desires and goals are similar, with whom values coincide, and who find close and resonant what I share on the internet.

And yes, this opens up a whole rabbit hole for discussions that all the audience is gathered in order to make money on it. But:

— First, I don’t see anything wrong with this.
— Second, that’s how every business works.

For example, any luxury brand similarly gathers its audience, an audience of its fans, those who love beautiful things, living well, and then sells them its luxury items. Similarly, any consumer product does this, publishing information about its brand in the form of advertising, inserting it into films, inserting it everywhere possible, gathering its fans, a whole army, with whom they share interests or the lifestyle that the brand promotes, and sells them its product.

In fact, this is done by absolutely every business, because that business that sells either to end customers or to other businesses, sells it to people too, because people work in business. And, selling to business, you close the needs of some specific person or an entire group of people that they have.

Yesterday I rewatched “Interstellar” and found myself pondering once again: what’s the actual purpose of a human being? What’s the goal of humans as a species in the world we currently inhabit? A world where we basically have everything, where we don’t yet face the catastrophic problems shown in the film. From an existential standpoint, things are pretty damn good. Humanity’s future looks bright, and we’re moving forward at breakneck speed.

Brian Johnson is developing immortality protocols. Brett Adcock is producing robots that will replace human physical labor. Elon Musk is building rockets to send us to other planets. Sam Altman is building AGI to solve our most complex problems. Microsoft is developing quantum computers to provide the necessary power to solve these tasks. Basically, everything humanity could dream of lies ahead. And some company is working on genetic engineering to eradicate all diseases. Another is preserving animal embryos in case of extinction and trying to resurrect mammoths to help protect the Arctic permafrost from melting. It all sounds incredibly inspiring.

On one hand, I look at these people and what’s happening with awe. On the other hand, it’s almost unbelievable that all this is actually real. It seems like these are just magazine covers or news feeds, that none of this actually exists beyond media headlines. But thinking about it seriously, I feel endless admiration for how far humans can go using creativity, thinking, cognitive abilities, and the desire to discover something new, to move forward and bring all of humanity along.

Yet for most of us, there’s a crushing reality beneath these lofty accomplishments. Research shows that nearly 80% of workers globally are disengaged from their jobs, creating a staggering $438 billion black hole of lost productivity. The gap between what we’re capable of and what we’re actually doing has never been wider. And if you’re reading this, chances are you feel that tension acutely – the pull between earning a living and creating something meaningful.

When I read such news, I inevitably think about my own life, its purpose, and what specifically I can do for humanity, maybe not on such a global scale. I’m not Elon Musk or Brett Adcock. Although, who knows, maybe they once had exactly the same thoughts, but eventually managed to bring their lives to a point where their decisions become something that moves humanity forward.

This manifesto isn’t about becoming the next tech billionaire. It’s about finding your unique contribution at the intersection of passion, purpose, and income – a place where over 90% of people admit they’d sacrifice some earnings to stand. It’s about how you, as someone navigating the digital landscape with newfound freedom, can create ripples that extend far beyond your laptop screen.

We admire the rocket builders and AGI creators.
But most of us are stuck in jobs we hate, wondering if our existence matters.
There’s a different path — where meaning and money finally align:

1. Research shows nearly 80% of global workers are disengaged from their jobs.
That’s a $438 billion black hole of lost productivity.
Meanwhile, we scroll through social media looking at "freedom lifestyles" wondering why we still feel empty inside.

2. The greatest paradox: having unprecedented freedom but still feeling trapped.
You escaped the office.
Got the laptop.
Maybe even found the beachfront.
…
Yet something’s missing.
The coconut doesn’t taste as sweet when you’re still doing meaningless work.

3. Since the dawn of time, humans have been driven by curiosity and creation.
Not consumption.
You’re part of this continuum.

Your existence isn’t separate from these grand ambitions — it’s an extension of them.
Which thread of human progress resonates with you?

4. Most of us live in pure consumption mode, even with tools for creation at our fingertips.
Yet the barrier to creation has never been lower.

The critical shift happens when you see yourself as a creator, not just a consumer.
What unique perspective do you have?

5. I rewatched Interstellar recently and found myself asking:
What’s my purpose? What can I contribute?

These aren’t philosophical luxuries.
They’re the exact questions that led to rockets, AI, and dreams of interplanetary living.

6. Your bridge point is where passion, skills, and market opportunity converge.
37% of side hustlers started to pursue passion.
41% to spend time doing what they love.
What if what puts you in flow state also pays the bills?

7. The digital nomad has an extraordinary advantage over previous generations.

5 billion internet users.
1 billion daily hours watched on YouTube.
Your ideas can reach virtually anyone, anywhere.
The infrastructure for global distribution already exists.

8. The starving artist trope needs to die.

71% of creators earn under $30,000 yearly.
But 9% earn six figures.

Those who monetize effectively don’t start with money as primary motivation.
They create genuine value first, then capture some financially.

9. Don’t try to change the world overnight.

Think of impact as expanding circles:
1) Personal impact
2) Immediate community
3) Growing audience
4) Industry influence
5) Cultural shift
6) Systemic change

Few start beyond circles 1-3.

10. "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."
This isn’t just poetic — it’s practical.
The research consistently shows those who align work with internal motivation sustain efforts longer and achieve more meaningful results.

11. You don’t need to build rockets to contribute meaningfully.
The act of creation itself — whether writing, coding, teaching, or designing — is fundamentally aligned with humanity’s grand journey.

The challenge isn’t finding purpose.
It’s starting small.

Start creating today.

The full article with all the details: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-creator-s-manifesto-align-passion-purpose-and-income-while-contributing-to-humanity

When Freedom Isn’t Enough: The Search for Meaning in a Digital World

The greatest paradox of our time is that despite unprecedented freedom, most of us feel trapped. The digital nomad lifestyle promised liberation – geographical independence, flexible schedules, escape from corporate bullshit. Yet something’s still missing. The emptiness persists, even with a coconut in hand and a beachfront coworking space. Even with freedom.

All these grand dreams about becoming part of some global movement quickly shatter to pieces when suddenly the rent bill arrives, and you realize these dreams won’t take you far and pursuing them doesn’t help pay the bills. You quickly come back down to earth and return to your familiar circle of existence, where there’s work – work you don’t love, where you have to do things you don’t like, and after a long, hard day, you simply have no energy left to create.

And talking about creating and being creative for inspiration isn’t even on the table – it becomes quite difficult to even think about it. Because inspiration doesn’t pay the bills, creativity doesn’t earn money. The starving artist is the fate of most who engage in creative work. But is that really true?

Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture. Since the beginning of time, humanity has been driven by curiosity, the pursuit of first discoveries, the desire to create something new. The drive for development, the desire for order, the striving to answer the question: why do I exist here? The desire to understand this world and answer the questions it poses to us, and actually understand: what is all this for, why did we appear on earth, why was I specifically born, do I have some kind of purpose, is there some path I need to find during my life, why am I here and what can I do, do I need to do something?

All these questions have led us to where we are now. Robots, rockets, artificial intelligence, life extension, and dreams that someday there will be no diseases, we’ll fly to other planets, become a truly interplanetary species, and heavy physical labor will cease to be necessary, even intellectual labor, when it will be possible to live in complete abundance and do what you want.

This is, by the way, a key moment – doing what you want. Because if your life currently represents doing what you don’t want to do, then at the very least this should suggest a thought or a couple of questions about why is this happening? Why, as a human, was I born and still live in such a wonderful time, when there’s plenty of abundance around, yet must spend my life time solving some petty household issues, some tasks that seem incomparably insignificant compared to those being solved by the world’s powerful figures?

“The passion principle can lead people to accept lower pay for meaningful work,”

observes Harvard sociologist Erin Cech. And yet, there’s an economic revolution happening right under our noses. The global creator economy – currently valued at around $250 billion with an estimated 50 million creators worldwide – has fundamentally changed how passion connects to income.

Most people view the divide between meaningful work and financial stability as fixed and unchangeable. But the research tells a different story: technological progress, particularly the internet and digital platforms, has created unprecedented opportunities to align passion with income. The evidence is compelling – the number of Americans living a “location-independent” work lifestyle has surged dramatically – rising from 7.3 million digital nomads in 2019 to 17.3 million in 2023, a staggering 131% increase.

What most people miss is that this isn’t just about remote work – it’s about the democratization of impact. For the first time in human history, a single motivated individual can potentially reach millions with their ideas, creative work, or solutions. This isn’t just marketing hype; it’s the new reality being shaped by digital infrastructure that’s still in its infancy.

Indeed, by such feelings, this definitely shouldn’t be the case, there definitely should be something that I can contribute as my part to human development, humanity’s movement forward – at least at the level of my own life, even if not at the level of the entire species.

And in such moments, when I watch this film, after watching it, these are exactly the questions that arise for me. What am I doing, what am I engaged in, how important is it, how interesting is it, how much do I like doing what I do, how useful is it for me, for the place where I live, for the people I live with, at least for someone, does it bring benefit?

You involuntarily ask yourself such questions, and when you get answers that, it seems, no, it seems that everything is much simpler, more banal, more down-to-earth, and I don’t feel myself part of this big vector that moves humanity in the direction of development. Okay, but if I ask myself such a question, then at the very least it’s within my power to try to find an answer to it. And at the very least to try to make it all have at least some meaning, so that it all doesn’t lead me to the insignificant life of an insect that has one task throughout its life, which it unquestioningly follows, listening to its natural instincts.

We are humans, we have consciousness, we can think, we have cognitive abilities, we invented language, we can create, we can synthesize something from natural materials, from what we have, we can create concepts, we can think and share our thoughts, we can store information, we can pass it from generation to generation, thereby learning, expanding our knowledge zone, becoming better over time, developing. Okay, am I at least doing this?

In reality, all these questions have haunted me throughout my life, and it seems I’m still searching for answers to them. But it seems that lately I’m starting to find answers to them, at least for myself, and I’m beginning to understand that, in fact, despite not building rockets, not creating artificial intelligence, not curing diseases, I am still contributing, can contribute my feasible part to human development.

From Startup Failures to Freedom: The Million-Dollar Business Strategy I Ignored

In my relatively short life, I've launched dozens of business projects. None of them became something I'd brag about as a phenomenal success. I haven't earned my first million dollars. I haven't sold a business with a huge multiplier. I haven't built a money-printing machine that runs itself while I'm off somewhere, not needing to do anything.

Every time a project failed — and there were many — I couldn't help asking myself: what's going wrong? Why do others succeed while I fail? How can someone build a successful business on their first attempt when I'm on my 34th (yes, I counted my attempts) try with nothing to show for it?

I've been searching for answers all these years, and I think I'm finally closing in on the truth. I've been piecing together this puzzle for years, but a puzzle isn't complete when even one piece is missing. And if there's a hole, the picture isn't ready.

After my latest failure — a project I shut down at a loss after investing $25,000, writing it off as another unsuccessful startup — I decided to act radically. I looked at the problem from a completely different angle.

During all these years, I've read books and listened to countless "successful" people — those who've built businesses and now write those books, record YouTube videos, and produce podcasts sharing their success stories.

I've watched people who started much later than me, from almost nothing (well, not exactly nothing — maybe $10,000), accumulate capital of half a million dollars in just a year and a half by successfully flipping a real estate property. I've seen startup founders who began just before me, following the same playbook from books like "Zero to One," succeed where I failed: selling their businesses, earning enough to live on, and now traveling around India, Bali, Thailand, sharing their experiences on social media.

Yet here I still am. After another failed attempt, working at an IT company as a middle manager, using my monthly salary to close another portion of debt. Something isn't working.

The First Missing Puzzle Piece: Partners

After exhausting seemingly every approach in the never-ending epic of self-development — reading books, listening to podcasts and lectures, including psychology — the one thing I hadn't tried was actual therapy with a professional. Someone who could ask the right questions and guide me toward meaningful insights.

A successful acquaintance in real estate invited me to try "cinemology" — watching films followed by analysis through a psychotherapeutic lens, studying character behaviors and motivations. I was intrigued. The first film was the "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas, which excellently shows how relationships between people, childhood traumas, and mental frameworks influence final decisions.

This experience led me to therapy sessions with the professional who conducted the cinemology. I wasn't surprised that sessions with this particular therapist cost three times more than regular ones — he works with business people and uses unconventional methods.

In our session, I laid out all examples of my ventures, explaining how my relationships with partners unfolded and where they ultimately led. One pattern — obvious to him as a professional observer but hidden from me — emerged immediately: I always start business projects with a partner, never alone.

But why? Isn't this straight from the classic playbook? Understand your strengths, recognize your weaknesses, find someone who compensates for them, who'll handle what you can't. Plus, sharing responsibility is easier — the tasks and accountability get divided among multiple people.

And therein lies the main catch. Throughout my life, I've been looking for someone to shift responsibility onto. A second "mom" psychologically, whom I could come to with complaints, who would solve problems for me. I saw this mother figure in potential partners.

However, I needed to realize that I alone am enough to run a business. I possess sufficient qualities to make a project successful. If I'm currently lacking something, it's exclusively my responsibility to take everything into my own hands and bring it to order.

The simplest recommendation — that I can do everything myself — wasn't obvious to me. This is one puzzle piece I was missing. I'm not saying businesses can't be built with partners. If you're successful with partners, that's wonderful.

I'm saying it depends primarily on psychology and the specific situation applicable to me. For some people, this is completely normal, and they can operate independently without transferring responsibility to others. But for me, it became a compensatory mechanism — a psychological crutch.

34 failed startups taught me one brutal lesson: building products before audience is suicide.
I spent $25,000 on my latest failure when the answer was right in front of me the whole time.
The million-dollar strategy I ignored for years.

I realized: all my projects die at exactly the same point — when it's time to find customers.
I'm technical. I can build websites, automate processes, assemble teams.
But marketing? Sales? This is where I always hit a wall.

Familiar situation when you look at successful startup founders and think: "Why do they succeed while I fail?"
I've watched people who started after me, with just $10K, accumulate half a million in capital in just a year and a half.

My 34th failure cost me $25,000.
A therapist pointed out the obvious: I always seek partners. Why?
Turns out I wasn't looking for complementary skills, but for someone to shift responsibility onto.

Seems straight from the playbook: find someone who compensates for your weaknesses, share responsibility.
But there's the trap.
I was looking for a second "mom" I could come to with problems, who would solve them for me.

Nielsen shows: 89% of people trust recommendations from people they know.
The key word — trust.
Trust is the real currency in business. Without trust, no sales.
Without an audience that trusts you, there is no business.

The main insight I missed all these years:
Clients first, then product.
Don't create anything until you have a base of people ready to buy it.

Where are these people today? Online.
How to find them?
By creating valuable content.
Developing a personal brand.
Yes, you're rolling your eyes: "More advice about social media and personal branding."
But think about it...

Steve Forbes says:

"Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business."

No people, no business.
And people today are the audience you earn through your personal brand.

Email list — your property, independent from social media algorithms.
MailBakery claims: ROI of email marketing is 4200% ($42 for every $1 invested).
That's 150 times higher than the average return from social media ads.

My personal brand isn't built on my butt, abs, or dancing in front of the camera, but on experience, knowledge, and what I learn in the process of gaining them.
That's the essence.
Create content.
Build trust.
Monetize this trust.

Join me on this journey.
I'll share what I learn, helping you while I help myself.
And remember Henry Ford's words:

"It is not the employer who pays the wages... It is the customer who pays the wages."

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The full article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/from-startup-failures-to-freedom-the-million-dollar-business-strategy-i-ignored

The Second Missing Puzzle Piece: Audience

The one area of business I kept delegating to others was finding clients. I've always considered myself technical, usually handling product implementation. I can create information systems, build websites, sales funnels, automate business processes, assemble teams, motivate people, and so on. Basically, most business components except marketing and sales.

My business ventures typically ended exactly when they reached that point. Marketing requires money already spent on product development, teams, and other things I enjoy doing that come naturally. Either that, or we needed to find customers, and here I hit a brick wall. I didn't quite understand how to do this, where to look, why people should buy my products or services. Should I walk the streets? Network? Attend trade shows? The connection wasn't clicking.

How do all these startups that sell for trillions of dollars operate? I highly doubt Mark Zuckerberg travels to trade shows finding customers one by one for his social network. Somehow it works differently, right? I doubt Travis Kalanick walks the streets meeting people to convince them to install Uber. Something else must be happening.

The only method that made sense was online advertising, which isn't free. Yes, there are growth hacks many startups used, but that's usually a story of luck. It might work once but won't work for your business. It could work, of course, but it's more like a legend or a one-off case you can't reliably count on when building a business, because you need consistent customer growth, not just a one-time spike.

And I kept going in circles. The only approach that seemed reasonable and controllable was marketing — buying traffic and advertising the business and product — but that requires money the business isn't earning yet. How to break this vicious cycle? I didn't understand until recently. There was something else I successfully ignored all these years.

The solution that's now my main focus at this stage of my life is the principle: "clients come first." First the client, then the product.

I won't build or create any products until I have a customer base that can and will buy this product. And this shouldn't be a customer base I acquire somehow. It needs to be more reliable, something I don't have to worry about, something that doesn't depend on another business. Something I can count on independently.

This approach is called by different names but is widely known as building a personal brand. Because any sale — whether service, product, application, or anything else — ultimately ends with a person making the purchase. Some specific person either transfers money, installs an application, subscribes to your service, or clicks "buy" in an online store. It's always a human.

Where are people in today's world? They're online. Online is the most accessible place almost anyone can reach, with no barriers to entry except perhaps in countries where internet access is restricted.

How can I find these people? The same way audiences are earned by those already doing it: creating something useful with your own hands, creating content. You might roll your eyes and say, "Oh God, more advice about being on social media, building a personal brand, growing an audience." But think for a moment about what I just said...

People — you need eyes and ears to sell anything. First, there's no business without people. Business is essentially creating value and convincing others your value is worth their money. That's any business in very crude terms.

Accordingly, value relates to specific people — actual individuals to whom your business provides value. And convincing means dialogue with a person in some form, after which they decide to give you money for what you're offering. This happens with any business.

Trust Is the Ultimate Currency

If you simply buy a product in a store, it convinced you to purchase either by sitting on the shelf or because you automatically buy your favorite brand — Diet Coke, for example — without looking at other products. That is, you already understand some brand, already trust it, have a certain attitude toward it, and it's very easy to make you spend money on it because all that's needed is to see the product itself. Something clicks inside, and you make the purchase.

Nielsen finds that 89% of people trust recommendations from people they know most. Even in retail, having a trusted brand dramatically eases the sale: consumers often grab their "go-to brand" on the shelf without reconsidering. That reflects brand familiarity and loyalty reducing friction in purchasing.

If we're talking about a service business, you need to find someone with a specific unresolved problem they're willing to pay money for because it will be easier, faster, and in some cases even cheaper than doing it themselves, finding someone, or trying to figure out the problem on their own. Again, this person may be a business owner (for small businesses handling such issues themselves), a middle manager looking for contractors to solve particular tasks (in corporations), or perhaps a beginning entrepreneur seeking freelancers for tasks they don't want to handle themselves.

“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business.”

This is the quote from Steve Forbes, who know something about both business and brands.

Now, if I want to build a business that doesn't depend on social networks — because obviously no platform belongs to me, and I can't be independent from them, and any social network could ban or block me at any moment, cease working, or become prohibited in a country for whatever reason — then I need mechanisms that allow first, diversification (having backup landing spots, preferably several), and second, audience gathering that maintains contact even if all social networks suddenly disappear.

This is called a client base. Today, one of the most reliable ways to do this is to build an email list — a list of user email addresses that becomes your property, not controlled by any other social networks. You can export it, save it, it's your database, you can do whatever you want with it, and it's controlled only by you.

Because you can't directly manage subscriptions on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and so on. You can only rely on these platforms' mechanisms, which work either for or against you.

There is substantial evidence that a trusted brand (personal or corporate) yields a ready customer base and can lend success to new offerings. In marketing, this is akin to brand equity – the built-in advantage a known name has when launching products.

Consider that recommendations from influencers (a form of personal brand) are trusted by 71% of consumers globally, and 57% of consumers have made a purchase based on an influencer's recommendation. When someone with a strong personal brand releases a product, a significant portion of their loyal followers will try it.

Look at YouTube creator MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), who leveraged his strong personal brand to launch a chocolate bar line "Feastables" that sold over 1 million bars in its first 72 hours, exceeding $10 million in sales. Within its first year, Feastables generated $251 million in sales, outpacing the revenue of MrBeast's own media business, thanks to the millions of devoted fans he amassed on YouTube.

I’m writing this after learning a ton of shit in the decade since I was 25. Things that would have made my path to freedom faster, easier, and less fucking painful if I’d known them earlier.

The gap between where you think you should be and where you actually are is crushing you right now. You scour through social feeds looking at these digital nomads living the dream – working from beaches in Thailand or cafes in Singapore – while you’re still struggling with your job deadlines and wondering if you’ll ever break free from the daily grind.

Let me be blunt: 95% of purchasing decisions are driven by subconscious factors. Most of the choices you’re making now – from relationship priorities to business strategies – are influenced by unconscious patterns you don’t even recognize yet. This is why so many aspiring entrepreneurs stay stuck despite having all the technical skills they need.

What I’m about to share isn’t the inspirational bullshit you’ll find in mainstream entrepreneurship podcasts. These are the brutal, sometimes uncomfortable lessons that have actually moved the needle in my life – and they will in yours too, if you have the courage to implement them.

Consider this my letter through time, from someone who did not follow conventional wisdom, but learnt these lessons the hard way.

The 19 Brutal Truths I Had To Learn The Hard Way
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1. Business and entrepreneurship are your path to freedom

This isn’t just motivational crap – it’s backed by hard facts. Self-employed business owners are four times more likely to become millionaires than employees. Despite making up less than 20% of households, they represent two-thirds of high-net-worth households in America.

While your tech job pays the bills, you need to think of it as a stepping stone, not the destination. Start exploring different business models now. Find one that resonates with you and commit to it like your freedom depends on it – because it does.

The path won’t be easy – only about 1/3 of new businesses survive their first decade. But staying an employee for life is a guaranteed path to mediocrity. As Richard Branson says,

“Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.”

____________________________________________________

2. Build your personal brand immediately, and make it global

Your LinkedIn profile isn’t a fucking brand. Neither is that halfhearted Twitter (I know, X) account you check once a month.

I wish I’d understood that your personal brand outlasts any business you’ll ever build. Companies will come and go, but your reputation and network stay with you forever. Jeff Bezos nailed it:

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Look at Elon Musk. Tesla spends virtually zero on advertising because Musk’s personal brand does the marketing for him. His tweets drive more sales than million-dollar ad campaigns.

Start writing in English right now. Seriously, today. Forget the narrow audience of your home country. Go global from day one – it exponentially increases your opportunities. Your accent doesn’t matter. Your grammar mistakes don’t matter (and you have an AI to fix it for you). What matters is getting your voice out there consistently.
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3. If you think it’s too early (or too late) – start anyway

That voice telling you “I’m not ready yet” or “the market is saturated” is bullshit. The perfect time to start is now.

Thinking cryptocurrencies have already peaked? Wrong. The global markets are just warming up.

Think it’s too late to become a content creator because “all the slots are taken”? Ridiculous. The creator economy is still in its infancy.

Zig Ziglar said it perfectly:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Letter To My 25-Year-Old Self
19 brutal truths I wish I'd known a decade ago

1. Business is your path to freedom.
Not motivational BS — it's backed by data.
Self-employed people are 4x more likely to become millionaires.
Your tech job is a stepping stone.
Employment for life guarantees mediocrity.

2. Build your personal brand immediately and go global.
Your LinkedIn profile isn't a fucking brand.
Your reputation outlasts any business you build.
Start writing in English today.
Accent and grammar mistakes don't matter.
Just get your voice out there.

3. If you think it's too late – start anyway.
That voice saying "I'm not ready" is bullshit.
The perfect time is now.
Our brains think everything moves faster than it does.
"Overnight successes" took years of invisible work.

4. Relationships aren't your priority right now.
Controversial, but hear me out.
57% of divorced entrepreneurs report company financial damage.
A partner who doesn't support your vision drains your energy.
Be strategic, not just emotional.

5. Health comes first – non-negotiable.
Harvard: exercise improves brain function and memory.
Branson: daily exercise "doubles" productivity.
Even when broke, prioritize clean eating.
Your body is the vehicle carrying you to success or failure.

6. Study psychology: your success depends on it.
95% of purchasing decisions happen in the subconscious.
Customers aren't making logical choices.
They respond to emotional triggers.
"If you don't understand people, you don't understand business."

7. Embrace change and new experiences constantly.
Change creates opportunity. Full stop.
Same place, same people = static opportunities.
Move around, try new things, meet diverse people.
Your next big break lies just outside your comfort zone.

8. Fix your mental health – therapy isn't optional.
Unresolved issues sabotage success in ways you can't see.
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life."
95% of cognitive activity happens unconsciously.
Do the inner work.

9. Think carefully before taking on business partners.
Than think again.
You can do this alone. You are enough.
Partner only if it truly amplifies your capabilities.
Don't partner out of fear.
Choose extraordinarily carefully.

10. Read more, and not just business books.
85% of self-made millionaires read 2+ books monthly.
CEOs read 50-60 books annually.
Fiction improves empathy and social perception.
Reading is like living multiple lives.

11. Don't take on debt for investments if inexperienced.
The math rarely works.
Market returns average 7% annually. Most loans charge significantly more.
Focus on building income first, then invest.

12. Distribution matters more than your product.
Counterintuitive for tech people.
Remember Betamax vs. VHS? Slack vs. Teams?
42% of startups fail from "no market need" – poor distribution.
Figure out how you'll sell before perfecting features.

13. Constantly meet new people. Expand your network.
85% of jobs are filled through networking contacts.
70% of jobs are never even advertised publicly.
Meet people outside your circle.
Each new connection increases your opportunities.

14. Cut out alcohol, smoking, and drugs completely.
Even moderate drinking disrupts sleep and cognition.
Being clear-headed in a room of intoxicated people gives you an advantage.
Silicon Valley elites practice "sober networking."

15. You are enough – cultivate self-sufficiency.
Research on self-efficacy strongly predicts achievement.
"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right."
Develop internal locus of control – your actions determine outcomes.

16. Learn to listen to your intuition.
It's not mystical nonsense.
It's unconscious pattern recognition detecting what your conscious mind hasn't processed.
Meditate to better hear your inner voice.
It's trying to guide you.

17. Nothing is inherently good or bad – it's perspective.
Not philosophical – it's practical psychology.
People who reframe negative events bounce back faster.
When facing setbacks, zoom out to cosmic perspective.