What if reading and writing don’t come naturally to you? Can you still succeed as a researcher or a PhD? The answer is yes—but it takes relentless determination. I’ve struggled with reading and writing my whole life. I was undiagnosed with ADHD for years and likely have dyslexia, yet I’ve still built a career in academia. The key isn’t natural talent; it’s curiosity, persistence, and finding strategies to push through challenges. Success in research isn’t just about producing perfect papers—it’s about showing up, solving problems, and refusing to quit. Finding the right tools, support systems, and motivation can make all the difference. If you’re struggling, know that you’re not alone. In this video, I share my personal experience, the real struggles many researchers face, and the mindset needed to keep going—even when it feels impossible.

We only cheer for the winners, but that’s not what really matters.” Most of what determines success—body shape, genetics, where you’re born—is beyond anyone’s control. Yet, we act like effort alone defines outcomes. The truth? Some people work harder than anyone and still fall behind. What if we stopped celebrating results and started celebrating the courage to show up, day after day? Because in the end, showing up is the only thing that truly matters.

Hiring freezes in academia come and go, just like watching the stock market—if you focus on the day-to-day, it creates anxiety, but the long-term trend is almost always upward. The news thrives on fear, but in reality, opportunities exist if you keep taking steps forward. If you’ve lost your position, take a step back and regroup. It won’t feel good, but almost always, there’s a better opportunity out there—it just takes time to find. Whether you stay in research or move into industry, both paths can be equally fine. For most people, the best thing to do is ignore the noise, avoid panic, and keep moving. Stick your head in the sand if you have to. One little step after the other—that’s how progress happens. The world is always improving, and your job is to keep trying, keep going, and keep ignoring the nonsense.

Ever wonder why people don’t ask about your research? The truth is, most people aren’t interested—not because your work isn’t valuable, but because they’re focused on their own world.

After years as a professor, I’ve learned that the best approach isn’t trying to convince others of your research’s importance. Instead, live your life, stay curious, and wait for the moments when your expertise is actually needed.

I break down why research conversations fall flat, how to handle it, and why the most impactful insights are often the simplest.

You make your home. Other places will never be your home.

It’s insanity. The whole thing is insanity. You get rejected. You get ghosted. Nothing works. But you get back up and do it again. It won’t be perfect—it’ll be ugly, messy, awful—but you repeat, repeat, repeat. The people who actually build something don’t talk about success—they talk about the grind, the hard knocks, the struggle. The only force that matters? Repetition in the face of extreme negativity. Keep going. Something will give.

Being productive isn’t about perfect organization, efficiency hacks, or forcing structure onto everything. It’s about letting go of the idea that you need to be productive in a certain way.

It’s embracing the chaos. The disorganization. The messiness of pursuing something without a perfect plan. Productivity isn’t about following a rigid system—it’s about showing up and doing the work, even when it looks nothing like what you thought it should.

Let go of the need for a “proper way” of doing things. Pursue relentlessly. Move forward without needing everything to be neat, structured, or perfect. That’s where real momentum happens.

I realize the futility of what I’m doing. I put myself out there, and people don’t necessarily get it. Every day, I create videos, podcasts, and build this platform—pouring time and money into something that feels futile but important. If you’re listening, you’re probably going through something similar. The reality is, no matter what you’re working on—whether it’s law school, research, or any big challenge—it won’t feel the way you expect. It’s slow, painful, and filled with friction. But the key is to take steps forward every day, even when it feels like it’s not working. Success isn’t the goal—it’s about showing up, moving the needle, and detaching from the belief that it has to ‘work out.’ Because in the end, you do it because you do it.

What if we made research fun and enjoyable instead of a grind? The whole process could be a ‘fun, silly game’—just like how some of the most successful researchers already gamify it in their heads. Right now, the system ‘fundamentally sucks,’ built on the idea that if you don’t make it, you’re just ‘not good enough.’ But that’s not true. The problem isn’t talent—it’s that the journey is filled with roadblocks that make people quit. What if we flipped the system? What if we made research engaging, rewarding, and full of support instead of a brutal endurance test? Let’s rethink how we do this.

We all see it—inequalities in every system, from global politics to office dynamics. The solution seems obvious: even the playing field. But when you try, you quickly realize the resistance isn’t random—someone benefits from the imbalance. Change is slow, and the fight to maintain unfair advantages is relentless. So how do you move forward? This is a deep dive into the hidden incentives behind inequality, the forces that resist fairness, and the mindset needed to keep pushing for a better system—one step at a time.

Don’t believe the magical thinking that doing anything important in your life is supposed to be easy.

Don’t believe the magical thinking where people tell you this is a simplistic way or how you’re supposed to experience success.

Realize that the journey of doing anything important whether it is a PhD building a businessis a journey. It’s difficult and you will not want to do it.

But you do it regardless of how it feels because it’s important to you.

The rational choice model makes it seem like decisions are clear, alternatives are obvious, and we simply select the best option. But in reality, decisions are rarely made that way. Most of the time, there aren’t even real alternatives—things appear and disappear before you can fully compare them, and people don’t always know what they want.

There’s a fiction that choices are neat and structured, but real-world decisions are messy. You’re often pushed into something as much as you voluntarily choose it. Even when you do make a decision, the environment shifts, and suddenly, everything is different.

Instead of expecting certainty, the best approach is to embrace the ambiguity. Give yourself grace, keep moving forward, and recognize that no one really has it all figured out.

Know that you manage moments in your life, you don’t balance it. It’s knowing to take a step out when you need to, and knowing to not internalize the outside world.

I’ve seen this play out in two ways:

1. For retirement, I invest broadly. No single stocks, no market timing—just slow, steady growth.

2. With the R3ciprocity Project, I went all in. And I’ve learned the hard way how risky and unpredictable entrepreneurship really is.

The business press sells you the wrong message—that there’s a formula for success, that you can outsmart the market, or that entrepreneurship is a surefire way to wealth. But the truth? It’s mostly luck, survivorship bias, and a lot of failures you never hear about.

Feeling behind? You’re not alone. The one thing you need to know is that you’re doing better than you think. Every person feels lost at times, but progress is happening—even if you don’t see it yet. Keep going. You’re smarter, stronger, and more capable than you realize.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a perfect choice. You can strategize, analyze, and try to predict the future, but the reality is that most big decisions—whether it’s starting a PhD, switching careers, or taking on a major project—are leaps of faith.

You will never have enough information. You will always feel like you might be making the wrong move. And sometimes? You will make the wrong move.

But here’s the thing: once you make a choice, the only thing left to do is commit to it. You learn, you adapt, and you deal with the outcomes as they come. The worst thing you can do is stay stuck, waiting for certainty that will never come.

The truth is, most successful people don’t have a perfect plan—they just keep moving forward, even when they’re unsure.

In a world that feels increasingly polarized and chaotic, it’s easy to believe that things are falling apart. But is this really new, or are we just more aware of it? This reflection challenges the idea that innovation is dying or that society is uniquely divided today. Instead, it argues that we’re simply witnessing long-standing tensions more clearly in the digital age. Looking at history, we see that past generations faced immense hardship, yet people rebuilt, forgave, and moved forward. So maybe, as Taylor Swift reminds us, we need to “calm down” and listen more—both to others and to history.

Most of life is pretty boring. And that’s the problem. We chase distractions, looking for the next exciting thing, while ignoring the slow, unglamorous work that actually gets us somewhere.

I’m here to tell you the truth no one wants to hear: success isn’t about making a ton of money overnight. It’s about making small, painful decisions every single day—decisions that most people won’t make. Like saving before spending. Like planning 30 years ahead when everyone else is living paycheck to paycheck.

And here’s the kicker: even when you do everything right, you’ll feel guilty when you finally get there. That’s the paradox of success.

I don’t believe a lot of research now that I understand how it’s actually made. When you realize when you get into it is how challenging it actually is and how uncertain and frustrating it actually is. You’ll also realize that there’s no right answers.

You will tun into many people at all walks of life that will not want to learn from you. The only thing that you can do is say, bless your heart and move on.