This morning at 8am, I walked around Highbury Fields in London.

I often do this before starting a day's work. I grab a coffee and ponder life's big questions, while getting some steps in.

As the sun rises on a beautiful day, I think about YouTube, thumbnails, and how no one can be truly happy without 1m subscribers on their YouTube channel.

But one question I grappled with this morning was what are my guiding principles? What makes a happy business and life for me?

Sometimes I crave some kind of life manual to tell me how to live. And in the absence of a religious textbook, I've slowly built my own ideas and philosophies.

But the trouble is, I forget a lot of them. I write down many of my thoughts about this stuff, but day to day it's hard to remember all the things.

But this morning I feel like I distilled a personal life philosophy into 3 simple words which I like.

And they feel relevant enough to the YouTube journey that I wanted to share them with you.

Do not be mistaken, they are far from ground breaking and extremely generic.

But at the same time, I'm not sure there is much else.

Courage

5 years ago back in 2021, I started writing a weekly newsletter. I had no idea where it would take me, but I desperately wanted to start sharing something with the world and to have a creative outlet.

I was terrified, and I wasn't really sure where I was going with it. But I pressed on.

And every big thing I've done in my life since, like starting YouTube, quitting 2 jobs, launching my business, running a marathon, asking my girlfriend out, hiring team members, and letting team members go, I've been scared.

I don't know anyone who isn't scared.

But almost all good things in life are on the other side of something scary.

Something that takes courage to overcome.

The courage to start. The courage to quit. The courage to fail. The courage to persevere. The courage to step up. The courage to dream. The courage to ask for help. The courage to go first.

I don't know why, but just the word "courage" hits for me. It reminds me to be brave. That life isn't supposed to be easy.

Every day, in big and small moments I am tested.

Pitching a client I really want to work with. Awkward moments on the train when I'm debating to offer someone my seat. Publishing content for the world to see.

I must have a go. I must take my shot. I must have courage.

One of my favourite quotes is from the author and life coach (not actor) Jack Black, who said:

“The greatest gift in life is the ability to think great thoughts and have the strength to take action so that those thoughts become reality in this wonderful and abundant world.”

Service

I've spent a lot of my 20s thinking about myself, my career and my future.

I'm at peace with that, and I've tried to be a good brother/son/boyfriend/uncle/friend along the way.

But sometimes I feel like a product of the increasingly individualised, social media driven western culture.

Selling the dream of achieving time, location and financial freedom. It's not what actually makes most people happy.

And I want to re-write some of my internal programming.

To build a life around service and commitment, for my family, my community and those who I work with more.

To give more of my random thoughts throughout the day to them (the irony of today's morning walk 👌).

Another quote I love relating to this is:

“A society grows great when people plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit.”

And this doesn't have to relate to future generations, but doing things more generally where you don't always see or feel the whole benefit yourself.

What gets me out of bed isn't just growing my business because it helps me, but because it means I can help more people. To provide an amazing service to more people around the world in ways that I can't totally predict.

Gratitude

I told you this wasn't going to be groundbreaking.

But my monkey brain always wants more.

A bigger tree to call home, more bananas to feed me, more muscles to fend off enemies and signal high status 🐒

But there are few things that improve my life more than regularly practicing gratitude (for me that mainly looks like writing in my Day One journal).

Whenever I fall off this habit, life gets worse. Whenever I do it more, life gets better.

And what's incredible is my life isn't really changing at all.

Just my perception of it.

I'm writing this email partly because I've gone through a period of a few months where I've not been practicing this, and life has (subjectively) got worse.

So that's it.

This isn't the first time I've tried to crystallise a life philosophy into 3 simple words, but I like this one the best.

Courage. Service. Gratitude.

What else is there?

Except obviously 1m subscribers on YouTube.

Tintin 🫡

P.s.

Tomorrow, I'm doing another free Q&A for YouTubers. You can ask any question you want.

If you'd like to attend, it'll be hosted inside my free community here.

P.p.s

If you're an educational YouTuber looking to build a multi 6-figure business, that's exactly what we do inside The $100k YouTuber programme.

Every single day I work closely with you to scale your business. It's the only thing I do.

You can learn more, see results and apply on this page here.

Join My Next Free Workshop: attend here​

The $100k YouTuber Roadmap: read here​

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