No Limitation's Only Innovation's
November was INSANE! - Here's my 101
Sup ya’ll! Welcome to my newsletter, my name is Rayan, and I’m an energetic, emoji-loving, 🙃 ultra-ambitious teenager, chasing some huge dreams. In this newsletter I will be as transparent as possible about my growth, as I take on new challenges, learn new skills, and even endure failures from time to time.
Going to the 2022 IBM Tech Conference 🌐
On last minute notice, I got free tickets to check out this super cool tech conference, so I said hell yeah and missed 3 days of school to join some fantastic friends in Toronto. Between networking with speakers, attending workshops, and learning about the future of the “Metaverse”, I took away tons of value from this opportunity.
What is the Metaverse? - EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THIS
At this event, I met many metaverse developers and learned why the metaverse is becoming so valuable. For many people, when they hear the term “Metaverse’ “they instantly think of VR… although not wrong VR is only one aspect of the metaverse.
The Oxford dictionary defines “Metaverse” as; “a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.”
What makes the metaverse so incredibly valuable? 🤔
In many ways, the metaverse is our future. It will change the world in the way the internet changed the world in the 2000s. Even today, google defines the internet as; “a worldwide system of global networks.” But would you say that definition fairly represents all the value the internet has brought? Nope!
Metaverse Exploration Project
In 1997 Netflix was created, and because of it, just over 10 years later, Blockbuster disappeared off the face of the earth. 🤭 With the rise of Web 3 and the Metaverse, companies today have begun fearing the same disaster.
Designing IKEA’s Future ✨
The future prospects are endless between augmented, virtual, and mixed reality. The rise of these technologies will demand companies to adapt to stay relevant and not become a “Blockbuster” case. So that’s what my team and I have been working to develop for the past three weeks. GenZ is taking the business world by storm, and the boomer IKEA execs need young minds to point them in the right direction. ⭐ My team and I are still in the midst of this major project, so I will give a more detailed update in my December newsletter once it’s concluded.
To be Continued…
November’s Growth Insight
Leadership & Work Ethic
In my last newsletter I spoke about growing as a leader during a high pressure hackathon, well now I’ve been chosen as the project manager for my project for IKEA, and it’s brought another wave of Major growth between leadership, delegating tasks, and organization.
the definition of leadership;
noun
the action of leading a group of people or an organization.
What leadership means to me;
skill
Being respected, understood, and relied upon… → Empowering your team with the tools & direction to accomplish a task to the highest calibre.
How I’ve grown as a decision maker.
When I began my journey, I was under a lot of pressure to make the right decisions. It’s scary, constantly thinking what If I make the wrong decision? What If I lead my team down the wrong path? I overcame these worries with just one powerful insight… Being a leader isn’t knowing the right decisions to make — but being trusted and respected by your team to make the best decision to your knowledge and for your team.
How I cut my 100-Hour work weeks in half. 💤
For the first 2-3 weeks of my project, I was working insane overtime. Between multiple daily meetings, organizing tasks, and figuring out action plans, I worked every waking hour yet still fell behind. A loop of working insane hours and being behind forced me to think I just needed to work more. But when I got to the point I didn’t even have 10 minutes free I realized I was going about it all wrong. I thought being a leader meant knowing what needed to be done, so I was constantly working trying to be ahead of my team.
The Lesson: A leader isn’t meant to have it all together and have it all figured out. Instead, a leader empowers their team and gives them the tools and freedom to figure sh*t out as a team.
The Unhealthy Affects of Overworking.
When I was working 7 AM to 12 PM, 5 days a week, It wasn’t the work itself that tasked me. It was the mental strain of going to sleep after working 15 hours, knowing my end goal was moving further away regardless of how much I worked.
Before this unhealthy work schedule, I went to the gym 5x per week. But when you have a pile of work and nowhere to fit it into your plan, a workout session was the last thing I was worried about.
The Lesson: Acquiring success takes patience. It takes a long motherf*#king time to become ultra-successful in any part of life. That’s why when chasing that success, what’s important isn’t how hard you’re working… 100 hour work weeks… etc. But what matters is consistency. As I learned from last month’s read “Atomic Habits”- The small 1% gains matter, they compound. Don’t underestimate their importance.
“The greater the ambition, the slower you need to go.” ~ Gary Vee
Book of the Month 📚
This month’s read was the most entertaining to read lol… Last month’s read “Atomic Habit” had some very activating takeaways. But in contrast, this month’s read was - deactivating.
My Takeaways
Why you can’t be successful without Truly Loving the Process.
Everyone says they want to be an entrepreneur. No surprise. Who wouldn’t? You pick your own hours, work for yourself, and make $$$$. Yet most people still fail. Why is that? Because all those decision makers, lots of money, free hours, and being your boss are the result of success. But you don’t get that for a long, long time, and until then you’re going to need to appreciate the struggle, repeated failures, and insane hours devoted to something that may earn absolutely NOTHING.
To truly love something you must love everything that comes along with it. Every struggle risk and downfall. So ask yourself, do you like the climb or the summit? Because if all you’re interested in is the summit, you’ll be disappointed to find out that it is a mountain you can never succumb to. The joy isn’t at the summit. It’s in the climb itself.
Are you improving yourself or over-optimizing?
In life we often try to find ways to wake up earlier, get more work done, read more, exercise more, this more - that less etc… but we forget to ask ourselves, Why? What is the value of this extra suffering? Because most of the time it is without purpose and makes our lives Overall, less optimized. As humans, we do this because no matter how optimized we become, we adjust, and we feel the same sooner or later.
Podcasts of the Month
The Iced Coffee Hour has been my favourite podcast for a long time. Whether it’s starting my day or going for a run, Graham Stephan’s podcast is my go-to listen.
The most challenging feat will always be mental, no matter how successful you become or how ambitious your goals may be. Mastering your mind is at the heart of every outstanding achievement, and nobody teaches this better than the legend David Goggins.
No one will care if you have a great message but don’t know how to communicate it. Jordan Peterson is a master of effective arguing, a skill I think more people need to learn.
In December I’m going to be intentional about…
Every month I write down key mindsets I want to train throughout my next month actively. This keeps them in the back of my head so I can take action and apply them.
Getting Sh*t Done
I value self-discipline above all because if we can’t control our actions, we can’t control our lives. If your boss told you to stay late and complete a report, you’d probably be outraged… But you’d do it. Right? Because although you may not like it, you respect the command.
That same concept applies to your own decisions. If you tell yourself you’re going to wake up at 5 AM, then sleep in because what’s an extra 10 minutes right? You’re building a habit of self-disrespect. Not because you slept in, but because you went against your command to wake up at 5 AM. To train this mindset, in December I’m going to be intentional about planning realistic goals with specific guidelines, deadlines, and consequences. Respecting my own goals to the same calibre of importance as a boss would when assigning you a task.
Challenging My Mind
Many people take their thoughts for face value, believing “I am what I think.” I don't see it this way. Through this month’s read, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*#k”, I’ve learnt to take each thought with a grain of salt. Switching my initial reaction to challenging that thought, questioning it. This has allowed me to explore a deeper belief within myself. But It’s difficult to challenge your thoughts when thinking is simply second nature. In December I’ll train this mindset by extending my belief’s beyond myself, stepping back and being an observer of my thoughts, not a reaction.