3 pivotal lessons I've learnt at 33 — #4

Hey good looking 👋,

I turned 33 this month.

Not sure if I'm aging like fine wine 🍷 ... but I'm definitely vibin' with where I'm at right now.

So, I thought I'd spill the tea on 3 major lessons from my 33 years on this rock.

I'm breaking it down into 3 stages:

1. 🏕️ Basecamp: The start of my career

2. 🧗🏻 Summit Push: The intense grind years

3. 🏔️ Peak: Where I'm at now…

With a surprise stage right at the end.

🏕️ Basecamp Lesson: Go fast alone, go far together

Between the ages of 16-23, I was kind of an overachiever. Creating Bebo skins, running affiliate marketing campaigns that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars, designing and flipping websites to launching Facebook apps - you name it, I did it.

But the biggest lesson? It wasn't about what I did solo. It was when I jumped out into the industry, learning from industry experts way smarter and more experienced than me.

One of the biggest mistakes newbies make today?

They want to freelance or work on their own terms ASAP.

I get it, but hold your horses!

When you pass up chances to learn from people who are absolute rockstars in their field, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot.

Think about it - these folks have already been there, done that, and probably written the book on it too.

By not tapping into their knowledge, you're basically putting a cap on how far you can go yourself.

So, missing out on learning from the best? It's like leaving money on the table, but the currency is your own future success.

✅ The lesson:

Do your time in the industry.

Find a company with crazy smart people. Get in that office. Breathe their air. Learn EVERYTHING.

So when you do decide to do your own thing, you're like Kirby from Mario Smash Bros - you've absorbed everyone's superpower.

🧗🏻 Summit Push Lesson: Athletes need coaches

From 24-30, I was deep into the business world. Freelancing to agency life, generating mid-high 7 figures. I was laser-focused and had no plans to slow down.

But there were so many mistakes I made and so many things I could've done better but…

I didn’t know how.

And I didn’t know any better.

✅ The lesson: 

Get. A. Business. Coach. 

Not the scammy ones with zero real-world experience. Find someone you look up to, who's done what you want to do, and incentivise them to coach you through the tough times. This could be in the form of equity, cash or simply mutual respect.

Just like pro athletes; founders and anyone that’s hustling in their career need coaches too. If you've hit your limits and can't break through to the next stage, it might be time to learn from someone that’s been there, done that.

Today I spend thousands a month on personal coaching. Everything from business, Muay Thai and even Mobility! I’ve learnt that trying to do everything on my own is never the most effective way.

If only I had someone guide me through the pivotal points in my early business years, I’d be in a totally different place right now.

The best investment you can make, is in yourself.

🏔️ Peak Lesson: Realisations after the [first] peak

Growing up in a Chinese migrant family, I always feared not being able to provide.

That fear? It fuelled my 20s hustle. The more money I made, the more secure I felt.

Now after a decade in business, I’m forever grateful to have generated 8 figures in revenue.

After taxes, COGs and expenses, I’ve gotten myself to a point where you could say I’m ‘financially free’. I can treat my parents on annual holidays, support them financially, give back to a few causes I believe in and can work on my own terms.

But here's the kicker - what used to drive me no longer drives me the same way.

Over the last decade, I was all about abundance and speed. More, faster, bigger - that was my mantra. But recently something felt off, and I couldn't figure out why.

After doing a bit of self reflection, I realised I've done a complete 180. These days, I'm all about sustainability and quality. It's not about how much or how fast anymore, it's about how good and how long it'll last.

Since embracing this new mindset, it's feels like everything is playing at 1x speed again.

I'm appreciating everything more from a whole new perspective - my work, the people around me, just life in general. It's wild how much we can change over the years!

✅ The lesson: 

Always re-evaluate yourself. You are constantly growing and changing as a person. What use to work, might not work anymore. There will be a time when you will feel lost and a little conflicted with your own points of view. That’s maturity and growth.

The other day I had a quarterly catch-up call with my book keeper and she said “I can feel the change, I’d be worried if you were still the same as the Mizko 8 years ago” 😂

Just remember, everyone is at a different stage in life, with a different set of goals.

You do you.

🌄 Beyond the [first] Peak: Seeking new heights

Since we’ve only got one chance at this life thing, why not make the most out of it?

At this point in my life, I think I’m off onto my second peak now.

I’m taking all the lessons I’ve learnt from the previous decade and I’m hoping to climb the next peak a little smarter and more efficiently.

My visions and ambitions are a little bigger than before.

But I’m definitely approaching the next decade with a new set of values.

I’m excited about taking my time and doing great work that my team and I are proud of.

I’ll keep you posted with how things go.

So that’s it.

Once again, trying to summarize 33 years into three key learnings was much more difficult than expected.

Hit me up and let me know what resonated (or didn't). Your feedback means the world to me.

Your boy “man”,

— Mizko

Bite sized learnings

1. 🔇 Sick of excuses: As you get older, you will hear a lot more people around you say “Ah, that’s because we’re getting older”. This year, I told myself “getting older” shouldn’t be an excuse.  ↳💡 Learning: I noticed my hips were becoming more restricted in recent years. Instead of thinking “it’s because I’m getting older”, I decided to challenge it. I’ve radically changed up my lifestyle from sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day to running, training Muay Thai and Mobility couple times a week. The private coaching has also expedited the progress. As they say, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

2. 👀 Contrarians see the invisible: Our beliefs, views, and perspectives are shaped by the diverse moments and experiences we've lived through. However, these personal interpretations don't always align with reality or the truth. I’ve found it so valuable to seek out contrarian views, as they can offer entirely new perspectives and broaden our understanding of the world. ↳💡 Learning: Remember to be selective about who you listen to, such as seeking advice from trusted individuals with proven expertise. When their opinions differ from yours, think deeply about it because you might just be missing something.

3. 💸 Track everything: Over the last few months, my fiancé has been building me custom dashboards to track all the operations in my businesses and to also track my net worth in Google Sheets. It’s been a game changer to finally see everything in one view. The fact that I can see how everything is performing, I’ve been able to make much better and more strategic decisions!  ↳💡 Learning: I always say, it’s not about how much you make, but how you manage what you have. When I was 15 I would head into the local bank with my mum. I remember the lady working at the counter had built a real estate portfolio of 10 properties. If I had to guess, she was on a $70K salary.

Useful lil links

• POV: Real UX project case study - An end-to-end walkthrough of a project.

• Shipfaster UI - My favorite Figma UI kit and design system.

• Curve Text - Create arc-like text in Figma.

• Claude 3.5 - Seems to write better than Chat GPT.

• Perplexity AI - Great AI for sourcing data.

Things I’m vibin’

🥊 Consistent training regime: I use to hate running but over the last 18 months, I’ve committed myself to endurance training. It’s a nice change of pace as weight lifting felt a little stale after many years. As a bonus, I love the social aspect of run clubs. Also tracking my activities on Strava has helped me stay motivated.

💻 Custom Google Sheet dashboards: I’ve always struggled to find a service that could aggregate all my custom data and present it in a dashboard. I wish I could show you these, but there’s just way too much detail in them.

How can I help you?

Here are a few ways I can help you crush your career goals (just like me):

💼 Build confidence in end-to-end UX/UI design (10 hours) - You’ve mastered the tool and UX research and now you want to learn how to lead, design and manage a project end-to-end. Dive deep into every little step alongside me with a real-world project.(200+ designers — New course ✨)

🖥️ Master Figma (10 hours) - Become an expert in Figma so you can get more done; faster and better. This isn’t just a technical course about features, it’s an end-to-end course on how Figma fits into a real-world project.(7,400+ designers)

🔍 Dive-deep into UX Research & Strategy (10 hours) - Learn how to run UX and business research to make more strategic and data-informed decisions for larger scaled projects and improved stakeholder management.(800+ designers)

⚡️Design 10X faster with 8,000+ pre-designed components - We just launched v.2.7.1. If you’re starting every project from scratch, you’re probably wasting a lot of time. Leverage Shipfaster UI to speed up your process dramatically.(3,400+ designers)

That’s it for this month’s newsletter!

Let me know how you found this month’s edition; what did you love or dislike?

It means a lot to me.

Mizko