I’ve been blogging, vlogging, and podcasting about personal development for about 8 to 9 years. And towards the latter years, there’s often a young man who reaches out to me via email or social media asking me about the latest fad, eager to hear me talk about it or thinking it’s the hottest, freshest, most impactful thing that will leave to their success and wealth in life.
Sometimes, it’s a practice and sometimes, it’s a person. Examples include:
- intermittent fasting
- making your bed when you wake up
- Jordan Peterson
- Andrew Tate
- David Goggins
- The book Can’t Hurt Me
- The book Atomic Habits
- The Miracle Morning
- some morning routine
- waking up very early
- ice baths
- cold showers
- keto
- vegan
- a primal diet
- TRT
- blue or red light blocking sunglasses for better sleep
- journaling
- a gratitude journal
- the Five Minute Journal
- Men Going Their Own Way MGTOW
- The Red Pill
- The Black Pill
- some other new nonsense
- Tai Lopez
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- forming better habits
- habit stacking
- Ben Hardy
- cryotherapy
- some business book that came out
- a book a day or a week
- flipping houses / real estate
- meditation
- goal setting
- visualization
- manifestation
- a Mastermind group
- you get the point. That’s enough examples.
The thing is businesses prey on the general public’s natural bias to gravitate to something new, fresh, different. It’s human nature to default to something new that’s never been offered to them before as some easier, fresher way to more easily achieve their dreams of a better body, more health, better relationships, better dating, or more money. But just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s really any better.
And while I would try to tell them that. I wouldn’t 100% sure myself. What if I’m wrong? So, of course, I end up talking about a lot of this stuff, trying it out myself, realizing it’s not that effective, but trying it still because of my doubt and sometimes, not even because I like it at all or enjoy it as enthusiastically as the people who pitched it but almost out of obligation to test it out or confirm my suspicions. Now, some of it is useful – I’m not saying all of what these people or methods teach is nonsense. But it’s rather disappointing seeing people that I figure are smart as I am or smarter who are constantly hopping on these trends when I would figure they would know by now that these things aren’t going to be what’s impactful enough to solve everything.
And that’s why I’m thankful for Alex Hormozi. He burst onto the social media scene a couple years ago and has been dominating, racking up millions of followers. The biggest thing he’s pointed out is that if these fads work for you, great. He’s not saying there’s zero value for everyone. But for him, he found he didn’t need any of it. This guy has made $100 million dollars and has the credibility to back it up. And he’s often telling you in his content that he achieved all his success without having to bend over backwards and follow any of these fads. He simply found something worth selling and sold it to people for more than it cost to make. And repeated.
A lot of his content is attacking against all these fads, which he claims are a waste of time. Just wake up and get to work. Work on your business. Work on what actually gets you sales. Nothing else. And for once, I’m certain about it because this man has the credibility to back it up. Alex was really into self help stuff too when he was younger and he claimed none of it helped him. He realized what really mattered to getting rich was the work needed to get rich, nothing else.
Alex, coming from the fitness industry, is also an expert on dieting. And he follows the same philosophy there. He says all these fad diets are all just different ways of getting you to do the same thing sustainably in the long run: eat less calories on average so you lose weight. They’re just cutting out different macronutrients to get you there. It’s all the same under the surface.
