The modern meaning of work is messed up.
You drag yourself out of bed, get stuck in traffic, trade productive hours in unproductive meetings, for a company you don’t care about, spending weekends in recovery mode—all so you can have the odd annual vacation where you can trick your mind into thinking it was all worth it.
“Finances now, freedom later.”
The mentality that puts first things last, and last things first—and expecting everything to magically work itself out.
This definition of work is no trivial matter by the way.
Definitions set frames. Frames set perspectives. And our perspective impacts everything we do downstream—how we see, how we think, and how we act.
- If you’re the chill type: you clock in your 40-hour work week, do the bare minimum, collect the paycheck, and call it a day.
- If you’re the competitive type: you gun for the promotion, clock 60-hour weeks, and put in extra elbow grease to outwork your competition.
- If you’re the non-conformist type: you opt out of the 9-5 world in the hopes of freedom, but unknowingly clock into the 24/7 grind of being your own boss.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how capable you are, or how much time you put in—working under this one-dimensional premise will ensure you’re forever chasing your tail.
We work as a means to an end at the cost of stripping the meaning out of work.
I truly believe this to be a primary factor for our modern misery— despite living in the wealthiest, most technologically advanced times in human history.
The more a society solves its “physically essential” problems like hunger, water, and shelter—the more it is confronted by its “spiritually essential” problems like meaning, purpose, and values.
The solution or “true meaning” of work is what I want to discuss today, as well as the opportunities the digital world has unlocked for all of us.
The Nature of Work: It’s Just Human
So how did we get here? Let’s trace back to our early school years.
You wake up, drag yourself to school, trade productive hours memorizing textbooks, and wait for the school bell to ring the sound of freedom. Sound familiar?
We’ve programmed our lives around the idea of trading undesirable time for desirable time long before we enter the workforce.
The separation of work and life in our adult years is a natural progression from the separation of learning and play during our childhood years.
I don’t blame anyone (especially younger me) for compartmentalizing work and life as two separate categories. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Work is essential to life.
You don’t work to gain freedom. You gain freedom from the work itself.
One of the greatest assignments we have in life is finding that “thing” you were meant to do—the “task” you were meant to accomplish.
But here’s the thing:
It isn’t something to be found per se—as if it were something outside of us—but rather, to be realized—because it never left you.
Humans are innately problem-oriented. Meaning, the work we do and the business we conduct are fundamentally human. We do it naturally.
Whether you’re aware or not, you already own a business.
If you’ve ever:
- Solved a problem in your life (offer)
- Identified someone in need (marketing)
- Convinced them to use your solution (sales)
- Improved their lives as a result (value)
You’ve engaged in successful business.
This could be something as small as recommending a TV series to a friend, or as revolutionary as inventing the next “iPhone.”
I want you to stop thinking about business as high-rise buildings and dollar signs, and start thinking of it more as an exchange of value.
People “pay” you in all kinds of ways long before they pull out their wallets.
They pay you in trust, likeability, relatability, and other forms of “credit” that get stored in our invisible bank account we call reputation.
Build a strong reputation, and people will happily do “business” with you by exchanging favours, connections, opportunities, and yes—money if you slap a price tag on it.
That’s business in a nutshell.
The product of solving a real problem in your life, and people who use and benefit from your solution. No need to overcomplicate it.
Elon Musk said: “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve”
The more you seek to improve the quality of your life, the more capable you are of tackling difficult problems.
The more difficult a problem, the better the product.
The better the product, the more lives you can improve.
The more lives you can improve, the more you can get paid.
Your income is a direct by-product of the value you bring to the world. But keep in mind, you are not trying to “save” the world. You are saving yourself and bringing others with you.
Selfish selflessness.
There’s nothing worse than an incompetent, self-righteous person who thinks they’re the saviour—but I digress.
If you’re still with me you’re probably wondering:
“Mat, this sounds cool and all but I’ve still got bills to pay. How do I find the right people who’d pay for what I have to offer?”
This is where the internet, social media, and “the creator economy” come into play.
Social media and the “stock market” of value exchange
What is the creator economy?
The best way I can put it is by drawing a direct comparison to the stock market.
In ape terms, the stock market is where you and I can buy and share ownership of a company. They take our money and we take the potential upside (or downside) depending on how the business performs.
If you like Elon and think he’s going places, you could be part owner of Tesla and share the spoils if your prediction is right. If he decides to go rogue and meditate on top of a mountain for the rest of his life, you also share the risk of his decision.
Pretty straightforward forward right?
Now I want you to think of the stock market, but in the context of social media.
Instead of buying and selling shares of Google, Apple, or Tesla, I want you to think about the people you follow on social media like Joe Rogan, Alex Hormozi, or Mat Do (hehe) — and replace “buying” and “selling” with “following” and “unfollowing.”
We’re still “trading” assets but instead of paying with our wallets, we are paying with our attention.
Think of every single creator, channel, blogger, influencer, podcaster, streamer, artist, author, singer, comedian—every single person you follow or consume regularly—as a “company” you’ve invested in.
Don’t limit your pool to one platform either. Think about where you’re spread across:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- X (Twitter)
- Spotify
- Twitch
- Medium
- Etc.
These all make up the diverse mental portfolio you’ve invested in over the years.
The more people “buy” or “follow” someone, the higher their market value. The same goes if everyone were to suddenly hit unsub—their “stock price” plummets.
Yes, in a weird and somewhat superficial way, the follower count is an indication of the creator’s market value, the same way the stock price is an indicator of a company’s worth.
It’s why you’re more likely to get a hit of dopamine if someone with a blue checkmark and 2M followers sent you a DM, versus someone with 2 followers, no profile picture, and zero online presence.
We are all superficial. It’s baked in our instincts to survive. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Ok, so why is this important to know?
Because, unlike the stock market where you need a team of killers, angel investors, and a unicorn idea, there is zero barrier to entry if you want to participate in the creator economy.
While companies raise capital by selling shares on the stock market, creators raise capital by selling their ideas, content, videos, podcasts, blogs—whatever it may be—on the digital market.
Remember: payment is not exclusive to trading money—but includes the mental investments you make such as following, subscribing, liking, sharing, etc. that can ultimately lead to a financial decision.
The biggest trap most people fall into is viewing social media as just an app on their phone to kill time and laugh at memes, when in actuality, it’s an entire marketplace at their fingertips.
Every day when you scroll social media, you are actively trading in the online market.
How to unlock the business inside of you: The Three P’s
I’ll be delving deeper into the one-person business model in next week’s letter. For now, I want to leave you with three things to reflect on to get that business inside of you unstuck.
- Problem
- Process
- Pain
Reflection 1) The Problems you’ve solved in the past (or are solving right now)
Marcus Aurelius said: “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
This isn’t something you quote to your friends to show how much you read.
This is genuine, practical advice on how to live profitably by paying attention to the only thing you can actually profit from.
Problems. Problems. Problems. You run away from your problems at your peril.
As I mentioned earlier, business is nothing more than a solution to a specific problem.
You don’t have a business if you don’t have a solution (product/service), and you don’t have a solution if you don’t have a problem.
Grab a notebook and ask yourself:
- What was a BIG problem that I overcame in the past, that I would have paid money to solve back then?
- What is the BURNING problem(s) I’m facing right now, that I would dedicate all my resources to overcoming?
By getting crystal clear on the problems in your life—the ones you’ve already solved or the ones you’re solving right now—you have the essential seed to a profitable business.
Reflection 2) The Process you took to overcome the problem
There’s a reason step-by-steps, tutorials, and beginner’s guides never fail to grab your attention.
The work has been done for you. It’s been organized and packaged neatly so that anyone with zero experience can pick it up and immediately benefit.
Every product or service is a transformation, and within every transformation is a specific step-by-step process that takes you from point A to point B.
By reflecting on problems you’ve already solved and reverse-engineering the process you took, you’re engineering a viable solution that can benefit someone who is two steps behind you.
You aren’t inventing something from thin air and gambling on its utility. You are basing its utility on the evidence that it has helped you in the past. You are your own customer avatar.
Remember: if you can help one person you can help a million.
Grab your notebook and ask yourself:
- What were the exact steps I took to overcome my problem and achieve my goal?
- How would I organize, package, and teach it to somebody who is in the same position as I was?
Reflection 3) The Pain you felt that motivated you to change
So you have a “niche” which is the problem you’ve solved (or are solving right now), and you have a viable product (or the seed of a viable product).
The final piece is getting in front of the right people.
What qualifies as “right”? Someone who would benefit from your solution the most.
How do you lure/attract a person of this nature? Persuasive communication
What is at the heart of every persuasive argument? Pain.
Oh yes — another big reason you shouldn’t avoid or numb yourself from pain. Pain is nothing more than marketing firepower to the business-minded.
And no, this isn’t some fear-mongering tactic cults use to find new recruits. It is about understanding the fundamental motives of why people seek change.
If you know somebody’s pain more than they do, you hold a lot of power.
The power of relatability. The power of trust. The power of competence. The power to do good. And the power to do evil (cough politicians cough)
Grab your notebook once again, and ask yourself:
- What was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the unbearable pain that forced me to change?
- What are the benefits now that the worst is over? How have I transformed for the better?
Remember: The problem is the business. The process is the product. The pain is the message.
Burn that in your brain.
That’s all for today folks.
This is the start of the solopreneur series— a weekly deep dive into the one-person business, the quest for meaningful money, and personal autonomy. I hope you enjoyed reading and stay tuned for next week’s issue 😊
