Month: May 2023

For myself, it all comes down to courage.

How can you encourage yourself more?

The first thought, I think it means to allow yourself to become more ratchet, less civilized, more savage.

The second thought, maybe it means to think to yourself, “I was not born for the basic. I was born and destined to do, attempt, and create great things.” When I think about myself, my greatest benefit is being born in America in 1988, growing up in the open minded liberal bay area, and also, having the most encouraging mom of all time.

Ultimately, I think 99% of a child’s future is predicated on a combination of how they were trained, parented, and the standards. For example, Seneca is only two years old and three months old, yet I treat him like he’s 12 years old. As a consequence, he rises to the occasion.

---

Encouragement and courage for the sake of what?

I think a lot of us have certain dreams, aspirations, and things we would like to do, achieve, make or build. Yet, when we share our ideas with others, other people tell us how we will fail or how our ideas are stupid, rather than actually helping us strategize how to make those dreams a reality.

Therefore, maybe the first step is this: simply edit out people who are naysayers. You know who those people are. Family, extended family, “friends“ etc.

The difficult thing is that to brutally edit out people, especially when they are family members, extended family etc., is seen as evil and immoral. No.

The tall poppy syndrome

One of the most interesting things that my friend Simon taught me when I was in the UK is that there is the notion of something called a “tall Poppy syndrome” in the UK. That is, when you see the guy driving around in the Lamborghini, you try to discount his or her success by saying, oh, he probably has a small dick, or, that’s probably her boyfriends car.

America is interesting, because when you see the person who is super rich and successful on TV, it is mostly an aspirational thing:

Oh wow, if I work as hard as that guy, maybe I could become as successful and rich as that guy.

Think of a Mark Cuban on TV, Shark Tank.

---

Is it good idea to have dreams?

I think so. When you have certain dreams and aspirations is good in so far much as you have something to aspire towards.

For example, myself, I had a lot of dreams. When I was in high school, my friend Eric Moon taught me how to build custom computers, and as a side hustle, I started a side business building custom computers, ordering the parts on Newegg, building them, and selling them to friends family and other people at school for a small profit, maybe around $200 to $300 in profit.

I also had a dream to go to UCLA, it was my dream school. And therefore I hustled hard in school, maxed out all the AP and honors classes, even though I only got B’s in all of them, and also I knew that becoming an Eagle Scout was a good idea, and loading up on extracurricular activities. I think that’s what helped me get into UCLA as an undergrad, even though my GPA was only at 3.9, and my SAT might’ve only been a 1950 out of 2400.

Later dreams

Also, some of my dreams being able to become my own boss, being able to transform my passion of photography into a living, traveling the world, etc.

---

What do you do once you achieve your life goals?

I think the final stage is towards philosophy, and entrepreneurship. Also innovation. Why?

Philosophy is interesting, because it gets to the deeper root of things. For example in America, it seems a lot of people aspire to become more “successful”, but nobody actually has a really critical definition of “success” in America.

---

Health

I think the best way to encourage and motivate yourself is focusing on your health.

For example, sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night, investing your money buying meat and beef at the Costco business center, going to the gym at least once a day, lots of time outdoors in the light, as little time at home as possible.

The point of life isn’t about maximizing your happiness or well-being?

A transformative thought that I had recently; perhaps the point of life isn’t to maximize your happiness or your well-being. But rather, using your life as an innovative tool to simply innovate!

---

INNOVATE WITH KIM

Think new, innovate new, become new:

1. June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE – New!
2. July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
3. Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – New!

---

Other thoughts

1. When we are dissatisfied with our clothes, our possessions, etc., maybe it is us a sign that we are simply dissatisfied with ourselves?
2. If you had infinite money, maybe it is not a good idea to want to have a super flashy car. Why? Too much unwanted attention.

---

Fitness thoughts

1. Buy a Texas power bar, I really like the Texas power bar squat bar, black zinc with chrome sleeves. The best $500 I’ve ever spent.
2. Any type of weightlifting exercise which requires you to sit down or lie on your back is a bad one. Therefore, no more benchpress, no more lying dumbbell press, no for bench press, no seated shoulder press exercises, etc.
3. Farmer’s carries are surprisingly an insanely good exercise. For example, just chalk up, and pick up the 150 pound dumbbells off the rack and see how far you can walk with it.

---

Cameras?

1. Leica Q2 monochrom might have decent longevity.
2. I am still very surprised that my lumix G9 and the Leica Lumix 12 mm F1.4 lens has had such great longevity.

---

Life thoughts

1. A current issue and problem that I’m currently having is that there are just not enough hours in a day. Therefore, I’m still on the quest to ruthlessly prune and subtract the superfluous. To gain more time simply means cutting out more things. Some possible ideas include not going to the gym every day, or maybe building my own garage gym.
2. Hyperthreading lifestyle; also another funny thought and strategy is trying to concurrently do things together. For example, chilling in the car with Seneca, as I’ve vlog or write like on the iPad with IAwriter. Being able to kill two birds with one stone.
3. It still seems that we are happiest when we are around other people. For example, apparently a lot of professional bodybuilders, like Ronnie Coleman, even though they have a full on gym at home, they still prefer to go to an external gym, outside of their house. Why? My theory is that there’s something about a semi public gymnasium, being able to see other human beings which stimulates us.

---

Suburban thoughts

Funny enough, the more I think about the suburbs, the more appealing it is to me. Why? The possibility of building your own home gym, also being able to set up that fast home charging thing for your electric car Tesla etc.

Maybe the ideal life and approach is being able to use your money and resources to build property and build things, not to simply rent from a slumlord.

Why are people so anti-suburbs? Certainly life in the suburbs is 1 trillion times more boring than life in the city. Yet the nuance, I think it actually takes more skill and creativity to live a virtuous life in the suburbs, rather than live an exciting life in the city.

---

Entrepreneurial thoughts

1. If you want to maximize your ability as an entrepreneur, I believe that your fitness and exercise is critical. I believe that the best exercises for entrepreneurs essentially is powerlifting 2.0, the Eric Kim school of one rep maxing. This means, no boring repetitions, no benchpress, no exercises in with your sitting or lying on your back.
2. Also, I think your diet as an entrepreneur is actually critical. My theory is towards a 100% organ meat diet; organ meat is a natural steroid and testosterone booster.
3. Also, to maximize your productivity, intermittent fasting is good. I think as entrepreneurs, we are seeking every sort of hack and approach to maximize our productivity. I have been religiously following intermittent fasting for the last 5 to 7 years, and it is simple; no breakfast no lunch, only one massive dinner a day. Ramadan every day. And when you break your fast, try to eat at least 4 to 5 pounds of beef. And no, chicken is not meat. Also pork is bad because pork is white meat. Fish is not anything.

---

Consult with EK

ERIC [at] ERICKIM.COM

---

Now what?

It looks like tech is dead. Is AI even tech? Not really.

I think still, the next frontier is media. Let us consider all the people who went bananas for John Wick 4, how Michael Bay keeps coming out with new transformers movies, and how everyone is not hooked on Netflix and Disney+. Our appetite for media is insatiable.

Then I say as an entrepreneur, media is a good idea. Why? You’ll need to know how to code. Anyone could produce media, as long as you have a GoPro, an iPhone, an iPad etc.
And what is the best platform? You.

---

Forward the turbo!

If you feel that this sparked even one creative idea with and you, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK NEWS LINK >

---

New? START HERE.

Fortune favors the insanely (crazy) and bold!

EK

---

BOOKS // WORKSHOPS // SUPPLY

---

Essentially the diet which maximize your testosterone. That means organ meat; beef heart, beef liver, beef kidney, beef large intestine etc.

I have a funny theory; I believe that the higher your testosterone, the better you are for entrepreneurship.

This is for the billionaires and entrepreneurs out there:

0. The guiding principles

The overall guiding principles for weightlifting for entrepreneurs is simple:

To hype yourself up so much, and get into such an epic zen zone, that you feel invincible and you feel like you could do anything.

1. Rack pull

What is a rack pull? Imagine like doing a deadlift, except you could use your legs as leverage, pushing up the barbell with your thighs, and as a consequence, you can lift more. For example, I just hit 810 pounds, and I feel amazing!

Why the rack pull?

First and foremost, it is “safer“ then just doing a deadlift off the floor, whether you use conventional or sumo style. A lot of people apparently talk about how the injure their backs by doing that lift off the floor, whether conventional or sumo. This lead people to do selling things like use weightlifting belts, which I actually think makes way more dangerous.

I think the ultimate purpose of weightlifting for entrepreneurs is to be able to put yourself in such an epic zen zone, in which you feel like a demigod. Rack pull allows for this.

---

2. Atlas lift

The next exercise is the atlas lift, which I actually think is the new emperor of all this. Why? You could just lift far more than any other lift. Remember, we call it weight lifting, not weight pressing.

I just did 920 pounds and I feel amazing.

The funny thing is that a lot of people look at this lift, and they are confused, and I’ve had at least half a dozen people telling me to “be careful“. However, once again, this might be one of the safest lifts out there, because there is a binary; either you could lift it up or not. Therefore in terms of “safety“, you’re not going to “hurt“ yourself.

3. Using the most effective means to lift the maximum weight

The principles are simple; just think to yourself, which method, technique, or approach can I do which allows me to move the maximum amount of weight.

4. Farmer’s Carries

For example, let us consider farmers caries, in which you just literally lift up the heaviest dumbbell you can at the gym, whether it be 150 pounds, etc., and just see how far you could walk it out.

This is a simple thought, because it is easier to lift up 150 pounds, and farmer walk it, then press it upwards off your chest. Also easier than a shoulder press.

5. Preventing critical injuries

Where do 99.99% of injuries happen in the context of weightlifting at the gym? Not the knees or the back, but actually, the shoulders, the rotator cuff, etc.

Essentially any sort of pressing motion, whether it be bench press, shoulder press, seated shoulder press, overhead military press, clean and jerk, snatch, etc.

The gym or working out or weightlifting is one of the best ways for ideation, and coming up with creative ideas. Therefore it is intelligent to strategize in such a way that you won’t get injured.

6. What is not the point of weightlifting for entrepreneurs?

Most people at the gym who lift weights, they do it for bodybuilding, to build up a big chest, shoulders, deltoid etc. But, if you’re an entrepreneur, ultimately your strength and power is in your legs, not your chest or shoulders.

7. Every day is leg day

Also, I believe that the more testosterone an entrepreneur has, the better.