Welcome to Launch Pad.

Before we begin, I want to ask you something that might sound philosophical — but it's actually the most practical question you'll encounter in this program:

Why Do We Suffer?

How do we get the things we want in our life? We can often times buy it, get it from somebody, or with luck it just falls on top of our laps. It seems like these are plenty of options already. In that case, why do we constantly live in a state of non-resolution? Why do we keep yearning for more, why do we feel incomplete — and in other words: why do we suffer?

What good is a gold medal if I got it because all the other competitors forfeited? What good is a successful business if I just inherit it from my father? We all have a deep yearning for something that doesn't come naturally to us, because that is naturally where we feel the most deficient. Incomplete.

It's the mechanism of suffering. We get used to the pleasures and resources we have and we take them for granted. We start noticing other deficiencies because we remember how it felt to have our needs fulfilled in the past. So we keep striving to fill our lacks. Some lacks are contextual and time-bound. But what about the lacks that are so deeply personal to us, bound by something you might even think is "fate"?

But you are not "most people." You're here.

What This Program Will Ask of You

When you work with me, I'm always going to challenge you in a way that builds up your answer to suffering. Throughout this program, three questions will keep coming back:

1. Why do you want the results you want?
2. What do you need to do to create the results you want?
3. Why didn't you do the work to get the results you want?

These questions don't seem like much, but they demand a lot of you — because they have you looking at somewhere you never really look: inside yourself.

Throughout the program you'll meet my wonderful students who have been at this work with me for a while, and I would hope that they would tell you two things: how difficult this work is, and how rewarding this work is.

A Clarification

All of this sounds super hardcore. I know. But this is where I need to clear something up: though my approach is difficult, I am not punishing you. I am not torturing you. I am not pressuring you.

When you don't do something, I am going to insist on you finding the real reason you didn't do it. I don't ask you to admit to your shortcomings to make you feel bad. I don't ask you to stress you out. I'm asking you to look beyond the reason you are so used to taking for granted as the truth — and see the actual truth.

The Zero Exception Philosophy

With that understanding, here is the single most important rule of this program:

Now — you're going to resist this. You're going to want to skip days. You're going to have days where life genuinely gets in the way. That is not the problem.

The problem is what happens after you miss: the spiral of shame, the justification of further inaction, the quiet decision to quit.

When you miss a day — and you will — here's what I want:

1. Own it. "I didn't do it because I genuinely did not have the capacity."
2. Learn from it. "What do I need to manage differently?"
3. Move on. No shame. No guilt. Just a plan.

Your First Mantra

The first mantra of the week when we start is: "I will say yes and do first."

This already triggers feelings of deep resistance — and I completely understand why, because believe it or not, I've been on the other end of inaction as well. But resistance, looking into its eyes and looking past it... that is where the work is.

What You'll Build

Launch Pad is the literal launchpad that rockets are built on top of and then launched from. We are going to build it by doing exercises every day and understanding how we react to the things that we do.

When your business slows down, when life gets unstable, when you have zero clients — you will have something to return to. A practice. A foundation. Your launchpad.

Let's get to that work.