Learn and Earn

by Kunal Sarkar

About 70% of the world's working population is stuck in a job they don't like. People are not lazy; they just don't know how to get out of this rat race. (Location 6)

build profitable online businesses based on the skills that you enjoy. (Location 13)

That's why the means to learn new skills and the means to reach the market play an important role in any society. (Location 42)

The Internet made world-class learning accessible to everyone. And it also made it easier to reach the market where one can sell his skills. (Location 47)

We live in an era where people with even the most unusual interests are making money online. (Location 51)

The Internet forms a planet-wide open market. (Location 57)

We are slowly shifting from an environment where hard work was the primary source of success, to an environment where authenticity and originality is the primary source of success. (Location 59)

Their love and obsession are the roots of their success; hard work is just a natural byproduct. (Location 69)

Discipline, Hard work, Drive, Grit, Motivation -- all these are just side effects of someone doing what they love to do and chasing what they are obsessed with. (Location 70)

“To the experts, what looks like hard work from the outside, is play from the inside.” (Location 72)

When you are doing something that you hate, hustling only makes it worse. But when you are doing something you love, the Hustle comes naturally. (Location 73)

it's better to find something that you love to do and try to build a career or a business in that direction. (Location 75)

Doing an activity that resonates with you is more important, hard work will come naturally. (Location 76)

If you have a job, it will provide you with a safety net to play this game more freely. (Location 81)

In an environment with unlimited options sticking to one option has a huge opportunity cost. (Location 87)

Ask yourself, what topics interest (Location 98)

recall all the compliments you get from your friends. (Location 99)

what are the things that people say you do easily but they can't. (Location 101)

What were the things you were good at as a child? (Location 103)

what activities you would do even if no one paid or noticed your work? (Location 104)

Follow Step 3 to 5 of Holy Search for each item on the list one by one until you find the one that you enjoy doing every day. (Location 106)

write down these feelings right before and after your work sessions. (Location 118)

If you are feeling miserable while doing the work, you should quit. If there are bad feelings in the During Feelings section, you should leave that skill and move to another. (Location 120)

Never quit a skill because it is getting challenging to learn or execute; this isn't a valid reason to quit. (Location 125)

Note your During Feelings again after lowering your expectations. If you feel good, then you should not quit. (Location 126)

If you are excited to do the work before starting and also feel good while doing it, that's a clear signal that you should do more of that work in your life. (Location 131)

If your During Feelings are good, but you don't feel that good in Before Feelings, you should continue that work. (Location 134)

procrastination isn't laziness, it's a lot more than that, and it's mostly not a good reason to quit. (Location 136)

sacrificing 1 hour of your life for a 1-minute dopamine pump looks like a bad deal. (Location 143)

Keep investing the decided 1-2 hour/day. (Location 149)

Patience is greater than Discipline. (Location 150)

If you love what you do, why would you want to retire? (Location 154)

when you desire the outcome but do not work on the process, it gives birth to a Passive Desire. (Location 158)

picking a goal and not working on it will only add more frustration and self-hate in your life. (Location 159)

the mind that creates the desire for a thing is the same mind that is procrastinating the required process to achieve that thing. (Location 168)

But if you force yourself to do a task and hate each moment of it, then that task is not made for you. (Location 172)

Don't let motivational speakers and authors convince you that self-torture is a good thing. It is not. It adds unnecessary stress to your life. (Location 173)

Controlled cycles of stress and recovery makes you stronger in many aspects of life. But a constant source of stress keeps your body's cortisol level high for long periods of time. (Location 174)

Inspiration (of this kind) is the big brother of motivation. Both are external. (Location 179)

In trying to emulate others, you fail to see your own true potential. (Location 180)

The shine of the outcome, once you achieve it, will vanish within a week or two. But you'd have to invest years of effort into the process to get that outcome. (Location 183)

Instead of thinking what outcome you want, think what kind of work you want to do on a day-to-day basis -- the process. (Location 185)

And then figure out what outcomes you can achieve with this process. (Location 186)

try to automate or delegate them as soon as possible. (Location 193)

Pick a process and pursue mastery in it. Keep your eyes open. You'll get opportunities that will take you to the outcomes you never imagined. (Location 194)

learning a new skill, your goal should not be to become a professional in it; your goal should be to get the feel of that skill. (Location 210)

Start following people who are already good at the skill that you are learning, also follow people on a similar journey to yours. (Location 214)

Doing this alone will improve your social media experience by ten times. (Location 215)

"Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal." (Location 229)

Instead of reading the theory of the subject, build something. (Location 232)

breaking the bigger game into smaller games, and execute the smaller games well. (Location 238)

Try to find that 20% of the components of your skill and master them. (Location 241)

"Instead of trying to do everything well, do those things perfectly of which you are capable. (Location 244)

Instead of focusing on how many hours you are working on a skill, focus more on how many feedback loops you complete. (Location 249)

failure is one more opportunity to learn, one more opportunity to update and understand some aspect of his art that he didn't look into till now. (Location 253)

feedback from other people. (Location 255)

Healthy criticism is beneficial to upgrade your skills. Someone putting in their time and energy to give you a critique is a huge favor. (Location 268)

"Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of what you're doing is as valuable as gold." (Location 269)

it's common to get attacked on social networks, especially if you are doing something different. (Location 272)

Learn to ignore them. (Location 273)

"In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind, there are few." (Location 287)

You can't fill fresh tea into a cup that's already full. If your mind is already filled with beliefs and opinions regarding a subject, you will only see the insights that align with them. (Location 288)

No matter how much knowledge you gather, you must realize that it is most possibly not true, or true only in a given context. (Location 291)

Learning is a constant process of discovery and never a concluding one." -- Bruce Lee (Location 293)

One popular belief is to imitate the top performers. You might look at the top performers of your field and think that their techniques are the best, and if you master those techniques, you will master the game too. That's a big mistake, and such thinking will distract you from your path to mastery. Everyone's path to mastery is different. (Location 294)

Break down all your opinions and use the first principles approach to find the fundamentals of your skill. (Location 297)

Being better than others is not the same as gaining mastery. (Location 302)

How sincere you are towards your skill is more important than the effort you put in your journey towards mastery. (Location 303)

If you really want to cultivate something towards your skill, let it be sincerity and seriousness. (Location 304)

Seeking scores during the game is a symptom of playing with ego. (Location 305)

Your goal should be total involvement in the game -- being one with the game. If you get mad at falling scores or get excited about rising scores, then you are not in that state of involvement. (Location 306)

you can't be one with your art if there's a huge ego in between. (Location 308)

A punch is just a punch A punch is no longer a punch A punch is just a punch (Location 311)

If you put an untrained fighter in the boxing ring, he will throw punches as per his instinct since he doesn't know any technique. Then if you coach him, he will start to use his mind inside the boxing ring. He will think before throwing a punch. He will consciously use techniques taught by the coach. Now he sees that a punch is not just a punch. You have to pay attention to your foot positions, your balance, the angle of your punch, etc. But once he masters the sport, he will again start using his instincts inside the ring. The mind is no longer needed. Now again, a punch is just a punch. (Location 313)

you have to trust your learning and put the mind out of your game to perform the best. The same is with any skill you are trying to master. (Location 317)

"One can never be the master of his technical knowledge unless all his psychic hindrances are removed, and he can keep his mind in a state of emptiness (fluidity), even purged of whatever technique he has obtained. All technique is to be forgotten and the unconscious to be left alone to handle the situation. Technique will assert its wonders automatically or spontaneously. To float in totality, to have no technique, is to have all technique." (Location 319)

To truly master a skill, you need to learn the patterns of the skill and the patterns of your mind engaged in the skill. (Location 323)

Ideally, you want to act out of instinct, not out of thoughts. (Location 324)

Train your instinct. And remove your thoughts. After one point of mastery, your thoughts start to hinder your performance. (Location 325)

It's crucial to understand procrastination so that you don't quit a skill for the wrong reason. (Location 329)

If you remove distractions from your life, you will save a ton of time and energy every day to do the productive tasks. (Location 335)

when you procrastinate from work in hand, take note of the activity that you chose to indulge in instead of the task - this is your distraction. (Location 337)

Just maintaining a Not-To-Do list does not work for everyone. (Location 345)

wake up one hour early in the morning and do the work because, at that time, no triggers are programmed in your mind yet. (Location 350)

Food: do you feel low in energy after a heavy meal? Do you feel energetic or anxious on an empty stomach? Does a meal high in carbohydrates make you feel low after the meal? (Location 356)

Exercise: notice your energy levels before and after Exercise. (Location 357)

see your energy levels when you wake up to an alarm on time, or wake up an hour late, or an hour early. (Location 358)

depriving yourself of sleep is one of the worst things you can do to your health. (Location 361)

If you are feeling good while doing the work in your During Feeling but also find it very difficult, your level of expectations and skills don't match. (Location 370)

Then comes the Perfection Paralysis. Often, you won't even start a task because you want to do it perfectly in the first attempt. (Location 373)

Work like a writer and painter - with rough outlines. (Location 374)

In your initial days, Quantity matters more than quality. (Location 376)

"Quantity builds Quality." (Location 377)

Your desire to build the perfect outcome will hinder your work and often overwhelm you and stop you from starting the task. (Location 378)

"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page…because there's nothing there to fix." (Location 381)

As long as you are doing something that you enjoy doing, the results don't count that much. Just keep doing it and keep learning from the mistakes. (Location 385)

Break down your goals into smaller milestones and have a graph on the wall with these milestones marked on it. (Location 388)

not be clear about where to start the work session, or you might not be clear about the entire project. This vagueness also triggers procrastination. The clearer your vision is, the easier it will be to accomplish it. (Location 391)

if you enjoy the process and keep doing it regularly, there's no way you won't be successful in your life, especially when your Monetization and Marketing strategies are on point (covered later in the book). (Location 395)

If you are feeling good consistently in the During Feelings and the After Feelings, but the Before Feelings has some rationalization, then you (Location 402)

One of the emotions that might halt you from working on your current skill is the feeling that "this isn't for me". You might get a sense of Meaninglessness in work. (Location 406)

When this feeling arises, try to write down the reason you think why the work isn't for you. (Location 407)

When lazy, just take a break; don't quit. (Location 415)

Productivity starts with priority. (Location 418)

Remove every activity in your life that doesn't contribute to the priorities of your (Location 424)

I save large amounts of time, energy, and attention by not scrolling social media. (Location 427)

If you don't fix your priorities and eliminate all other activities, you are likely leaking a lot of energy in your day to day life. (Location 428)

Peak productivity is just efficient energy management. (Location 429)

Your daily time is limited, but your daily energy is limited too. (Location 430)

You waste so much of your daily energy in scrolling social media, thinking unnecessary things, gossiping with colleagues and friends, and unimportant things. (Location 431)

Or if you do not feel like working on the important things, then just take rest. Meditate. Sit. Take a nap. Let your body and mind recover for the next session of work. (Location 433)

I do not write complete essays on one sitting. I simply write paragraphs based on the insights that appear in my mind and combine connected paragraphs to make an essay. (Location 439)

People say that to create anything meaningful, you must work on it for a prolonged time with deep focus. (Location 443)

"Your brain is most intelligent when you don't instruct it on what to do—something people who take showers discover on occasion." (Location 445)

By applying conventional productivity advice, you are just taking away your freedom. Your body and mind resist (Location 454)

Tweak your work to fit your nature, don't tweak your nature to fit your work. (Location 456)

When building a system, try to make it more free and flexible. Life isn't static. (Location 461)

Developing and trying to stick to a rigid system in such changing life will always lead to frustration. (Location 462)

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. (Location 466)

Sitting still and taking a nap works the best. (Location 476)

Those apps and unnecessary thoughts bring no value to your life. (Location 481)

To Solve a Problem For Entertainment To satisfy an Obsession/Addiction To Confirm to Society To Confirm to Self Identity For Self Growth For Growth of Others (charity) For Safety (of self and closed ones) We will call these the Buying Causes. (Location 486)

If you can figure out a way to satisfy any of these buying causes with your skill, people will give you money for that. (Location 491)

multiple Buying Causes for an individual customer, and different customers might have different buying causes for buying the same product. (Location 496)

Find a way to satisfy one or multiple of these buying causes of people (or businesses) using the skill you've picked from your Passion List. (Location 503)

solve a problem that you have and scale that solution to serve other people facing the same problem. (Location 508)

the second-best way to find a problem is to look at your friend and family circle. (Location 509)

Internet connects you to the entire planet. Use it to find people having problems that you can solve using your skill. (Location 510)

Facebook Groups: (Location 512)

Online Forums: (Location 513)

Reddit: (Location 515)

Book Reviews: (Location 516)

Patreon.com is one of the sites that allow people to take donations from their fans. (Location 527)

If you can find a way to help people and organizations grow using your picked skill, you will never have to worry about money. (Location 535)

People will pay you for their personal growth, and organizations will pay you for their financial growth. (Location 536)

Can I help a person grow in any aspect of his life using this skill? Can I help any kind of business grow with my skill? Can I solve any kind of problem that people face using my skill? Can I solve any problem that businesses face using my skill? Can I entertain people with my skill? (Location 550)

If you have something to sell and have a reach to enough people who would potentially buy it, then no one can stop you from making money. (Location 557)

The thing you can sell could be a Product or a Service, and your reach to the people you will sell to is your Audience. (Location 558)

You can either reach out to people who have an audience and ask them to share your product with their audience for a commission per sale or a one-time payment. (Location 567)

building an audience from scratch is a long process and requires consistent effort. (Location 579)

You can build a product first and then build an audience gradually later, or build an audience first and then build a product later (till then, sell other people's products). (Location 584)

When you own the Product and Audience both, you can keep all the profits. (Location 585)

The disadvantage of making money with an audience is that building an audience is a slower process. (Location 601)

It's a list of email addresses of people who are interested in consuming your content. (Location 606)

Your email list is your business asset. (Location 612)

SubStack (substack.com) and MailChimp (mailchimp.com) are two of the easiest providers to create and maintain an email list. (Location 613)

You can also give away a small piece of content for free to people so that they have an incentive to give you their email address. (Location 616)

In marketing terms, this piece of content is called a lead magnet. (Location 617)

Nothing wrong with saying "Subscribe to get weekly updates from me," but giving an extra piece of content will get you more subscribers. (Location 618)

The social media that's best for you is the one that your target audience uses, plus if you are using it already, that's a bonus, it will reduce the initial learning curve. (Location 630)

This is the hardest but the best approach for the long term. (Location 640)

You can build your audience by interacting in communities already built around your industry, or by creating your own community. (Location 642)

Whether you are increasing your reach on pre-built communities or creating your own, do mention the link where people can subscribe to your email (Location 644)

Reddit FB groups Slack Channels Online forums WhatsApp Groups Telegram Groups (Location 647)

If you are comfortable talking to the camera or you can create good videos, YouTube is the medium for you to build an audience. (Location 650)

You might not want to write or show your face; in such a case, an audio podcast is your best option. (Location 656)

starting to realize the power of Audio. If you can get into this industry at this time, you will have a significant competitive advantage down the road. (Location 658)

You can increase your reach by either getting invited to talk at other people's podcasts or by creating your own podcast and invite others to your show. (Location 659)

Selling a digital product is a scalable way of making money. (Location 663)

You need to bring people to your products to sell them. (Location 679)

Having a higher profit margin allows you to invest some part of that profit back into marketing. (Location 685)

Instead of competing on price with your competitors, try to increase the value of your product and increase your rate. (Location 689)

A business doesn't start when you register it; a business starts when it gets clients. (Location 701)

In a service based business, getting the first 5 clients is the toughest, but once you get the initial set of clients and if they are happy with your service, they will recommend your service to their friends and you'll start to getting businesses. (Location 703)

Know your buyers Find where they hangout Reach out to them with your offer Analyze and upgrade your offer (Location 707)

Knowing your buyer also help you market your service effectively. (Location 718)

There are two categories of information you must gather about your buyers: Demographics and Psychographics. (Location 722)

Demographic factors include: Sex Age range Marital Status Common problems faced Income range Type of Job (Location 723)

If you know what's important for a person, and how to motivate the person to take action, you can create irresistible offers for that target market. (Location 733)

Dig deeper into the online communities and the book reviews. You will start to get a feel of your Buyer. (Location 752)

If we look at the top 100 most visited websites, we can see that people majorly spend time on social media, online communities, news and Information sites, search engines, and apps and games. (Location 754)

Partnership: Partner up with someone who already has an audience on that platform. (Location 767)

share a percentage of your profits with the person you are partnering up with. (Location 768)

Put advertisements on that platform. (Location 769)

Audience: Build your audience on the platform. (Location 771)

This method is the best one for long term marketing, but it's also the most difficult one. (Location 772)

All the major social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn gives the option to run ads on their platform. (Location 774)

You can also reach out to the large and medium accounts on social media that your buyers follow and ask them to promote your product. This is called influencer marketing. (Location 776)

You can divide your marketing budget into social media ads and influencer marketing. (Location 778)

Reddit is the biggest player in online communities. (Location 785)

With Reddit Ads, you can show your advertisement to people based on their location, interests, subreddits, devices, and time. (Location 786)

Reddit users hate marketers. So, don't even think about just dropping a link to your product in subreddits. Instead, provide some value for free. (Location 790)

So, post free, valuable content, and occasionally share the link to your offer inside your content. (Location 792)

The big advantage you get with Google Ads is, the buyer is already looking for something when your ad comes in front of him. (Location 806)

The disadvantage with Google search ads is that it's costly. (Location 810)

For example, instead of running Google search ads for the term "learn martial arts", Kobe searches that term in Google and sees which websites are coming up. (Location 812)

The third way of promoting your content via Google is to build your own website. (Location 814)

But if you like writing, I would 100% encourage you to take this long term approach. It's worth it. (Location 817)

You can approach those websites to have an ad about your product/service on their web page or a specific blog post. (Location 821)

If you are low on budget, you can reach out to them to write an article for their blog and ask for a link to your service at the bottom of that article. This approach is called guest posting or guest blogging, and its a very effective approach to gain the initial traction to a newly found business. (Location 824)

Currently, there are three big players in the podcasting industry: spotify, anchor, and overcast. (Location 827)

You can reach your buyer's inbox in two ways: by directly emailing them, or through an email list. (Location 840)

Use online tools like Hunter and Anymail Finder to find the email address of people behind the businesses. (Location 841)

Because the time and effort invested in finding email addresses and emailing are high, and the percentage of people who will respond is low. (Location 843)

This was the direct email approach. If you are selling a low priced product or building an audience, then this approach won't help. (Location 847)

Most bloggers maintain an active email list of their regular readers. You can partner up with these bloggers to promote your product/service to their subscribers. (Location 848)

To improve something, you must know how to measure it first. The effectiveness of a marketing campaign is measured by two numbers: Conversion Rate and Return on Investment (ROI). (Location 857)

conversion rate and your ROI will give you a clear idea if your marketing is working (Location 869)

your product/service isn't bringing enough value to the customer (improve your product) you are not properly communicating the benefits of your product/service (improve your marketing) you are targeting the wrong people (improve your Buyer Research) (Location 871)