Entrepreneurship Is The New Matrix (How To Avoid Becoming A Clone)
Resist the new slave mind
When I was growing up, the matrix was the world of 9-to-5 jobs and water cooler conversations.
If you wanted to escape, you had to break out of jail.
No cookie cutter roadmap existed.
To illustrate:
I remember when the thought of making money online first made love to my young and naive brain. So, I did what anybody would do aka I Googled:
“How to make money online”.
Or put another way:
“How to get out of jail”.
And the results I got back?
Not pretty or useful.
The top option was:
Go to ABC survey site (shout out NeoBux haha), spend 30 minutes clicking and viewing ads, and maybe you’ll make 10 cents.
“BRUH… 10 CENTS?!”
But there was no other option (or so I thought).
So I went to the survey sites, traded 30 minutes of my life clicking and viewing ads, and made 10 cents.
A few weeks later:
I had ~$2.00 in my account (I was pretty stoked).
So I withdrew it, walked to the convenience store beside my school, and bought a slice of pizza for $1.25.
“Hmm… this is the good life.” I thought while eating the overly cheesy pepperoni pizza slice.
Then I finished the pizza and reality struck aka my stomach growled demanding more pizza.
But I didn’t have enough coins to rub together to buy it.
So my next thought was:
“Man, this way of life isn’t going to cut it.”
So if I wanted to make it, then I couldn’t rely on external guidance (aka Google in this case).
Instead:
I would have to open my eyes, study the market/landscape, reverse engineer what I saw, and find what best resonated with my unique skill set, mindset/life experiences, and work ethic.
In other words:
I had to take sovereignty over my life and make my own calls.
And live and die at the fate of my own hands.
So I did. Or at least… I tried…
Throwing anything and everything against the wall (whatever businesses I could start with essentially $0) and praying that something stuck.
From record companies to apps to blogs to clothing brands to service businesses. And everything in between.
The results?
Not pretty (well to be fair to my teenage self all the above did actually make money and were positive ROI, but I’m talking like couple hundred positive ROI, nothing crazy), but I always gained something:
Maybe an idea, maybe a lesson, maybe some confidence, maybe a few hundred dollars that I could roll into the next thing.
So again, I would.
Over and over again.
Through this process, I learned a lot.
About myself. About business. About the market.
As a result:
I eventually had an epiphany moment. “Man… the reason I’m struggling to cash flow heavy is because whenever it comes time to sell/market and step on the gas… I go ghost. Why? Because I’m a poooooosy who is too scared to actually deal with/talk to people.”
So with that bitter truth stuck in between my teeth, I had a choice to make. Either confront my fear head on and get good at sales/marketing/dealing with people (business is nothing more than dealing with people). Or make some excuse, throw in the towel, and punch a clock for a living.
I chose the former (thank God).
This eventually led me down the world of direct response.
And the rest is history.
But the reason I mention all that isn’t necessarily for the story (although it makes for a good lead to this email), but for the following insight:
Back then:
Online entrepreneurship/internet marketing was the wild, wild, west.
If you wanted to make it, you had to figure it out and actually develop the skill set of standing on your own two feet. And making your own decisions. Fucking up and learning from your mistakes was the norm.
Nowadays:
Online entrepreneurship/internet marketing is the new matrix.
With the rise of content creators and external guidance, you are no longer forced to develop the skill set of standing on your own two feet. And making your own decisions.
Instead:
You can plug your umbilical cord into your favorite guru or podcaster or YouTuber and let him/her choose your life path for you.
If he tells you to become a copywriter, you become a copywriter.
If he tells you to become a solopreneur, you become a solopreneur.
If he tells you to become an agency owner, you become an agency owner.
And so on and so forth.
This ultimately means:
Most people nowadays are approaching online entrepreneurship not with the quintessential entrepreneurial attitude of: “You don’t understand… the rules don’t apply to me. I can make ANYTHING happen” but with an employee mindset: “Please tell me exactly what to do. Please tell me exactly how to do it. Please tell me who to call if it doesn’t work.”.
And the consequences of this are threefold:
#1) It doesn’t fucking work – The nature of entrepreneurship is problem solving and making order out of chaos. If you have an employee mindset, you’re going to get wrecked. Not because you don’t have what it takes to succeed (you do), but because you’re trained to avoid fire (and play it safe). Instead of running towards the fire and taking it out for profit (what an entrepreneur does).
#2) It turns you into a clone – When you trade internal guidance for external guidance, you risk being turned into a clone. This is what you see with the newbie market at large.
Most “entrepreneurs” in our space:
Think the same thoughts
Speak the same words
Have the same interests
Read the same books
Take the same courses
Watch the same YouTube videos
Listen to the same podcasts
Follow the same gurus
Learn the same skills
Pick the same business models
Choose the same niche
Design the same offer
Cook up the same copy
Etc.
This ultimately turns them into:
A clone.
Problem with being a clone?
All benefits are claimed by the original thinker, not the follower.
“Don’t dig for gold, sell the shovels.”
You’ve heard this before.
But what you may not have heard is:
The content creator who sells you on x idea (use this shovel) makes all the money. The follower who implements x idea (using the shovels to dig for gold) makes the least money.
To illustrate:
Take the rise of Andrew Tate.
He is an original.
But through his rise and influence, he has indirectly built an audience of followers (this is what happens inevitably).
People who speak like he speaks.
People who use the same hand mudra he uses.
People who smoke cigars and act like he acts.
In other words:
Andrew Tate duplicates.
By definition, duplicates don’t make it.
Nobody wants a replica of the Mona Lisa, they want the real thing.
So when you fall into somebody else’s funnel/world and you let them indoctrinate you into giving up your uniqueness, you become a clone aka a copy.
This limits your earning potential.
(The original gets rich and rightfully so. But the follower stays poor or fights for scraps because he’s living in somebody else’s world.)
Another example is:
Alex Hormozi.
Again, he is an original.
But through his rise and influence, he has indirectly built an audience of followers (this is what happens inevitably).
People who make the same type of content.
People who employ the same strategy.
People who use the same framework for launching offers.
In other words:
Alex Hormozi duplicates.
By definition, duplicates don’t make it.
Nobody wants to jump on a sales call with a salesperson and have him go through the same templated sales script you’ve heard a gazillion times before.
So when you fall into somebody else’s funnel and you let them indoctrinate you into giving up your uniqueness, you become a clone aka a copy.
This limits your earning potential.
And ultimately gives rise to the third consequence:
#3) It disrespects your real potential – You are a unique person and hidden inside your heart is a life only you can live out. But when you let what your senses see over take you, you become a product of your time. Instead of becoming who and what you truly are:
A timeless creation with infinite potential.
The big downside of this is you never get to truly meet yourself. You never get to discover who you truly are. You never get to experience the life that is uniquely your own.
This is a shame because you could’ve taken your raw uniqueness and used it to put a dent in the universe.
But instead you settled and conformed.
WITH THAT IN MIND:
It’s useful to pause right now and ask yourself:
“Am I a clone or an original?”
“Am I living in someone else’s world or building my own?”
“Am I taking cues from the voices of society or my intuition?”
Be sincere and honest.
Chances are…
If you’ve been lost in consumption mode, you’ve probably let content creators turn you into a clone.
This doesn’t mean content creators are to blame.
They’re doing what they’re supposed to do: Generate leads and indoctrinate leads into taking on a new identity that is in alignment with the product or service they want to sell you.
Nothing wrong with that.
It’s the nature of the game aka good marketing.
What this means is that YOU are to blame.
In other words:
“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.” ~ Dostoevsky
Now this isn’t something you want to beat yourself about.
It’s something you want to accept and come to terms with because once you do, you can actually see the error in your ways. And correct course.
So with that covered, the question now becomes:
How can you unclone yourself and become an original again?
I don’t know (only you know), but here’s three steps I applied in my own life to actually make this happen (when I too found myself becoming like everybody else):
Step #1) Unplug your umbilical cord
It really starts and ends here.
When you plug your umbilical cord into somebody or something else, you experience dirty electricity. When you take back your umbilical cord, you experience clear electricity.
So with that in mind:
It’s wise to remove the voices of society from your psyche.
From the obvious ones such as:
Mom
Dad
Girlfriend
Friends
Teachers
To the not so obvious ones such as:
Your favorite writers
Your favorite artists
Your favorite creators
Now this isn’t a forever action (external information is great and very useful).
But it is a starting action because most people don’t have a strong sense of self, so they let external voices shape who they are and their life path (you want external information to amplify you, not change you).
In order to avoid this, you need to unplug (temporarily) from the external noise so you can start to hear your own voice again.
I admit:
This sounds cheesy AF, but it’s extremely important.
After all:
If you read the biographies of billionaires, artists, adventurers who put a dent in the universe, you’ll often see a similarity where they kind of went through a ‘loner’ phase in their early life. To the outside world they looked like they were up to nothing. But this phase of unplugging gave rise to the seeds that grew into everything.
So with that in mind…
What are the best ways to unplug?
I don’t know what will work best for you, but what you’re aiming to experience is clarity by becoming bored again.
Why?
#1) Clarity gives you a strong sense of self.
#2) Boredom is the garden in which clarity grows.
So do whatever you can to become bored again.
In the modern age, this probably means:
Not watching YouTube while you eat
Not listening to podcasts while you walk
Not blasting your senses with music every moment of the day
Not having high screen time
Not doomscrolling
Not stimulating the life out of you
Etc.
And instead replacing all that with the way of the old man:
Early morning wake ups – There is magic in the early morning hours. If you don’t know what to do in life, simply wake up early and marinate in the stillness of the hours between 4-6 am. And all will be revealed to you (in due time). This is one of the best ways to actually get back in touch with yourself because the world is still asleep. And only you are awake. So it makes it easier for you to hear your own voice again.
Sit on a park bench midday and do nothing – Your best friends in a period of unplugging are going to be: The woods, the forest, the parks, the trails, the beaches, the mountains. Choose what makes you come alive and get lost in nature. You will find yourself through losing yourself in the openness of nature’s loving embrace.
Early evening bed time – Between 8pm-9pm. This gets you off the rhythm of the world. And puts you back in touch with your own rhythm.
This again isn’t a forever action.
But it is a temporary action to reignite the flame.
So run it for a few days or weeks and then add the second step.
Step #2) Schedule free-flowing curiosity time
Once you execute the above step, you will start to experience boredom again. And this, in return, will start to give rise to clarity:
Clarity over who you are
Clarity over what you value
Clarity over why you’re here
Now it’s time to convert clarity into curiosity.
You do this by:
Scheduling 1-3 hours (or whatever you can swing if you’re living a busy life/working a normal job) of free-flowing curiosity time.
This means:
ZERO AGENDA.
You simply allow your curiosity to guide you. The purpose of this time block isn’t to move in a linear way, but in a nonlinear way.
It’s to get messy and find your love for life again.
So fill this time (daily) with whatever stimulates your curiosity.
It could be exploring physical locations you’ve never been to. It could be reading long books that nobody has heard of. It could be studying industries outside your main field. It could be learning the skills of tomorrow. It could be reading research papers. It could be adding new interests to your study diet. It could be going on walks with people from different walks of life.
It doesn’t matter.
The point is you are a unique being with a unique mission and when you give yourself open space to be curious (without imposing any limitations), you are beginning to open the door to your heart’s true purpose.
By extension:
This time and space will give you the room to actually develop the skill(s) required to achieve that purpose.
In other words:
This “messy time” is where you find and cultivate your edge.
What makes you curious is what makes you money.
(Side note: This free flowing curiosity time is what essentially saved my life. I started running it in my college days and it’s what led me going down the rabbit hole of direct response. Without actively cultivating this time, I would’ve been fucked and just lived out a cookie cutter existence.)
Then there will soon come a time when you’re ready to add the following step to your life:
Step #3) Create and build your own world
First comes clarity. Then comes curiosity.
But we don’t stop there.
After you’ve reignited your curiosity, it’s time to now convert the curiosity into the third C aka creativity.
This is important because:
The nature of entrepreneurship is to create and build a world for other people (aka your targets/niche/market) to live in.
So with that in mind, it’s now time to become a world builder.
Why?
Because the original makes all the money.
Not the duplicate.
And the original is what you have now become (by reigniting your clarity over who you are and curiosity over what makes you come alive)… so it’s time to channel all your curiosity into creativity by:
Creating a new world for other people to live in.
Maybe this means:
Building a product
Building a brand
Building a YouTube channel
Building a movement
Building a work of fiction
Whatever.
The main thing isn’t so much about what medium you pick. The main thing is that your creation arises from your own curiosity.
(The most successful people are world builders. Apple is not a company, it is a world for creatives to inhabit. Harry Potter is not a book of fiction, but a world for people to travel to without leaving their home. Mr. Beast is not a YouTuber, but a world made up of characters, inside jokes, and specific language).
Once this occurs, you are now officially walking in alignment with your own path and NOW COMES THE TIME to add the world BACK to your life.
So:
Add back external content.
Add back external information.
Add back external voices.
Why?
Because you’ll need them to build and grow your world (i.e. learn the required skills to succeed), but the difference now is they will amplify who you are…
… instead of changing/shaping/choosing your direction.
And this, my friend, is what makes all the difference.
–
So if you’ve been living in clonehood for far too long… maybe just maybe… it’s time to hit eject. And become a 1-of-1 again.
Maybe just maybe…
It’s time to become a world builder and build the world that only you can build?
This, after all, is what it actually means:
To be an entrepreneur.
That’s all for me.
Thanks for reading.
Your friend,
/tej
P.S. To summarize: Active the following flywheel to escape clonehood..
Clarity → Curiosity → Creativity.