I got an email yesterday with a very simple question:

Yo Uncle Shaan!

I’m 27 years old, and my life is going… “good”. I’ve got a good job. Good family. Good apartment (I live in Nashville).

But “good” isn’t great!

I really wanna do more - but I’m not sure what that even means.

Yea more money/success is part of it - but also just feels like I’m wasting my potential. I think I can do more.

What’s 1 action I can take to do that?

- Abram from Nashville

Well Abram, I’ll give you an answer in 1-word… “move”.

The funny thing about self improvement is this: sometimes the easiest thing to do is change your surroundings.

If you want flowers to bloom, plant your seeds in great soil.

When I was 23, I was living in Australia, making a very cushy $120k/year. Easy job. Good money. Beautiful city.

But I moved.

I quit my job and moved to Gotham City (aka San Francisco) - where I had no job, and didn’t know anybody.

Why? Because I wanted to build a startup, and that’s where the best soil is for startups.

I remember sitting in a coffee shop that first day.

The table next to me was a founder pitching a VC. All day, the VC sat there and took 30-minute pitch meetings.

I eavesdropped on non-stop pitches for 4 hours. The ideas were terrible. (Uber for masseuses!)

Later that night, I went to a meetup. I hate meetups, but sometimes a boy’s gotta meet world, ya know?

So I go and it’s a room full of founders. Everyone’s got their ‘billion dollar idea’ (aka, dipshit idea).

Except this one guy, Craig.

Craig worked at Deloitte (that’s a good job). But when he introduced himself, he had to apologize and made excuses for why he was working at Deloitte.

I realized that SF is the only city in the world where startups are normal, and jobs are weird. The high-status thing was low-status here. That’s a powerful motivator.

Paul Graham once wrote that “every city whispers something in your ear”.

• LA whispers “you’re not beautiful enough”
• NYC whispers “you’re not rich enough”
• SF whispers “you’re not ambitious enough”

(sidebar: I wonder if Idaho whispers, “your potato’s suck”)

The whisper isn’t always healthy, but it’s always motivating.

This is why actors move to Hollywood. Why startups move to SF. And why really nice people who like sweaters move to Minnesota.

So back to your question. It sounds like you’ve got a very comfortable life. Which is great, if that’s what you want! (...but sounds like it isn’t what you want.)

So — since I don’t know anything else about you. My advice is: “move”.

Moving will shake up your routine. It forces you to re-think your routines.

Moving will shake up your social circle. Your pace. Your thinking. Your lifestyle.

Where do you move? → Go where your nerds are.

Whatever the thing you’re nerdy about - where is the highest density of like-minded nerds?

If you want to build muscle - go live in a house with a bunch of gym bros. Soon enough you’ll have a gym routine, drink pre workouts, and guzzle protein.

So Abram - my advice: Move.

Because proximity is power.

–Uncle Shaan

P.S. - studies show that the smartest people ignore advice from internet bro’s. If that’s you, I encourage you to hire talent as far as possible. To do that, use Somewhere.com to get the best talent overseas.

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