Hey everyone,
Ok, I’m sorry. I’m going to be a douche and ask you to do something.
I’ve mentioned it a few times, but I wrote a book.
It’s called Never Enough and it’s a memoir about building my business over the last twenty years. Going from a barista making $6.50 an hour, to being a billionaire (spoiler: I’m not a billionaire anymore). It was a crazy experience, and it was fun to put it all down in writing.
I thought I was going to write a business book, but as I started writing it evolved into a deeply personal memoir.
It’s coming out July 9th and I want you to read it.
Here’s what a few smart people have said about it:
“A massively important topic written by a guy with firsthand experience. Everyone should read this.”
–Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money:
“Like going to business school and therapy all in one book.”
–James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
"A gripping reminder about what’s worth wanting and being careful what you wish for.”
–Shane Parrish, author of Clear Thinking
If you’ve even remotely enjoyed my newsletter, it would mean a lot to me if you’d do me a favor and order a copy of my book. You can order one here, and if you forward a copy of your receipt to book@neverenough.com, I’ll send you a PDF list of my favorite books, questions, and products, as a thank you.
K. Thank you. Please go do it now 🙏
Also: if you happen to be in Victoria, Canada, I’m doing a book launch event at Bolen Books at 7PM on July 9th. You can grab tickets here (need tickets, but 1 ticket = 1 book at the event):
Don’t worry. I’ll pause and wait while you go do that, then get on to the rest of the newsletter.
Ok did you do it?
Cool? Did you order the book?
THANK YOU.
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled newsletter where I brain dump interesting stuff that has been on my mind over the last week..
- I work from cafes and hotel rooms a lot, and I often find myself hunching over my laptop in an awkward position. Then, my friend Codie told me about the Logitech Casa Pop-up Desk. It’s really cool. It looks like a little laptop case, and inside it has a bluetooth keyboard, a trackpad, and a laptop stand. In short: a desktop-like experience from anywhere you happen to be. I love mine and it’s become part of my day-to-day kit that I carry everywhere.
- Time perception is a strange thing. When you’re in a routine, time rips by. Break the routine, and time slows down.
There are a bunch of different ideas about why this is, but the one that makes the most sense to me is the theory that your brain is constantly mapping out the world and building models. It’s a prediction engine, and the more it can predict the terrain/people/experience, the fewer new memories it needs to form.
I read an interesting article about this phenomenon a month or so ago and it recommended changing things up to extend your sense of time. Drive a different route to work. Rearrange your desk. Vary your experience as much as possible.
Most days, Zoe and I take the dog out for a walk in our neighborhood. We’d typically do the same route. In an effort to mix things up (and expand our sense of time), I downloaded an awesome app called AllTrails. Basically, it’s a crowdsourced map of all of the best hiking/walking paths and parks in your area. Through it I’ve found dozens of parks I didn’t even know about, and we’ve been trying new ones every day.
Oddly, this has added a sense of novelty to my life, I assume because my brain is building new models each time and therefore building more memories. It has made me oddly happy and become a fun new hobby: finding cool hidden natural beauty in my own city. So often, we think we need to travel to have new experiences, but sometimes the novelty is right under our noses.
- Each summer, I try to disconnect from all the noisy stuff and focus on reading. I recently read two books that I absolutely loved, both for different reasons.
1. Useful Not True by Derek Sivers - Derek is one of my favorite writers, and his latest book is focused on a simple idea: our beliefs are often not necessarily true, but simply useful to us. That beliefs are tools, not truths. They should be judged by how useful they are, not by how true they are.
I read it in one sitting and absolutely loved it. In fact, I liked it so much I trained ChatGPT on the book and started asking it questions to help me work through a few problems.
I highly recommend it, it’s a 1-2 hour read and it slapped me in the face. I also recommend Derek's other books (How To Live is especially good).
2. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow - I’m reading this one for the second time, and I’m loving it. Here’s what I’ve found particularly interesting about it:
• Rockefeller was a walking contradiction: a brutal monopolist, yet deeply honest, religious, and generous in the rest of his life. This makes for a fascinating character study.
• The book offers valuable insights about philanthropy and how to do it effectively. Rockefeller single-handedly brought evidence-based medical research to the United States and generally gave to causes that compounded knowledge (universities/education/medical research). He was unique in his approach to giving: he did not seek to control or ask for credit, and largely left the non-profits he funded alone, even when he disagreed with them.
• The story serves as a great reminder of Mark Twain's observation that "History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme." Rockefeller's era faced concerns that echo today's issues: fears about a weak younger generation, the rise of socialism, and the growing power of unions.
- I found a t-shirt that I love. It’s made by Ecolygist, a brand based here in Victoria, and it’s nice and thick, and fits perfectly. I just bought a whole bunch of them. Check it out here.
- I recently spoke with Ali Abdaal, a doctor turned entrepreneur, and the world’s most followed productivity YouTuber. Think of it as a mini coaching session on everything I’ve learned from starting businesses, hiring, delegating, making mistakes, and writing my book, Never Enough. Ali is one of the nicest people I have met in the past few weeks. Check out the full interview HERE.
That’s all for this week…
Next week I will give you a preview of the first chapter of my book.
-Andrew
Check out my podcast: YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcast
Want to sell your business or know someone who does? www.tiny.com
Follow me on Twitter/X: @awilkinson
Forwarded this message? Sign up here.
