Structure

Imagine being able to wake up every day being able to do whatever you want.

You might call that pure freedom. The life that everyone dreams about, and even you might too. We all want it. That's why we're all in the “rat race.”

And then once you get it, then what?

I’m there right now.

Every day I wake up with no boss, no one to answer to, and no deadlines. I know what you’re thinking. That sounds like the dream. I see the same thing happen with my friends who go nomadic for months. You can travel wherever you want, whenever you want, and live wherever you want.

That will never work for me. I once went on a two-week vacation to Morocco and I got antsy and wanted to start working on something while I was there.

Back in 2015, there was a guy running through the streets of New York with a camera in his hand. Every single day he'd record a video and post it. If I saw him on the street, I'd probably think, "this guy's crazy, does whatever he wants, recording videos and posts them on the internet." (That's probably what people are thinking about me right now.)

Guess what? That guy I'm talking about is Casey Neistat. And his schedule was fucking absurd. Up at 5am. Edit until 8am. Film all day. Edit all night. Repeat for over a year.

That routine led to over 500 consecutive daily vlogs, billions of views, and one of the biggest careers YouTube had seen at that point. He was one of the first founder-creators that we’re seeing pop up all over now. Because of that absurd consistency and routine, he built an audience that became the user base and marketing engine to grow his company, Beme, to where he was able to sell the company for $25m to CNN in 2016.

He only got there because he had wrapped his life into structure.

Right now, I have the freedom everyone wants. But freedom without structure is chaos dressed up as choice. I need to point it at something.

Tomorrow I could be working from Mexico City, Buenos Aires, or Colombia if I really wanted to. Instead, I'm choosing the (second) most expensive city in the country because I want to be surrounded by people building businesses with urgency and high agency.

I have to create the guardrails and structure myself. I have a shiny object brain, and I know how easily I can get distracted. That's why I force structure into my life.

• 6:30 AM workouts during the week.

• A strict 10:00–10:30pm weeknight bedtime (unless I procrastinated on this newsletter).

• No-work Saturdays.

• My “big-ass” wall calendar where I map out the year.

• Monthly peer group meetings with my friends building companies.

• A weekly Friday check-in with someone who’s also building his business from scratch.

• Monthly “investor updates” to people who have invested in me.

Most of you would call us neurotic or excessive, but for me, I love it (and need it).

For me, freedom isn't about floating around and doing whatever I want. It's about building what I want. And without structure, I'm going to be floating around for 6 months with nothing to show except “plans.”

For me, structure isn’t the opposite of freedom.

It’s the freedom to build the life I actually want.

That’s real freedom.

Love Ya,

Jared

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Things Worth Clicking

A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• Jesse Itzler encouraging you to think irrationally

• The purple cow approach and why it works from Shaan Puri

  

• A nugget from my friend Steph Smith who shared a big trend we’re all missing on dietary fiber. (spoiler, we’re not getting enough). Here’s the pod she’s referring to.

  

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

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