My Father Had a Whole Other LIFE Before I Came Along

YOUTUBE  📚 THE READING LIFE  📚  PATREON

Read on The Competitive Advantage.com | Read Time: ~5 Minutes

📚 Hey, good morning! Time to win.

I told this same story in my other newsletter tonight, so I apologize if you’ve already seen it, but I had to share.

So I’m 33 years old and my dad is turning 86 this year.

And today I just watched an old, grainy, hard-to-see family video where he's laughing - in 1957!!

33 years before I was born, which is just…

It was very surreal.

And oh man, the red hair! (His hair is white now). The old cars! My grandparents - whom I've never met!

I mean, obviously he had a whole other life before I came along - he was 52 when I was born - but seeing that video caused some sort of…shift inside of me.

Plus, in the video, my hometown actually looks like that photo of Dubai you may have seen, with the 26-year difference side by side:

It’s just incredible how things have changed between 1957 and now, and it’s got me thinking that I should take a LOT more videos from now on.

I want to be able to remember my parents and the rest of my family 67 years from now...in 2,091! I'll be 101, and it will seem like yesterday.

I’d hate to miss it, you know?

In my other newsletter, I used that story to introduce the book, The Second Mountain, by David Brooks, and I’ll recommend it again here. It really is worth reading, and I’ve done up a complete breakdown with all the Key Ideas and such that you can read for free.

But to wrap this up, I want to say that even though I am extremely, irrevocably, permanently set on achieving my biggest goals and taking everything I want in this life…

When I’m much older, I’d give up every material possession or accomplishment I have for just one more perfect day with my family.

I wouldn’t even hesitate. Probably neither would you.

So don’t get all caught up in this “win at all costs” mentality where you drive away everyone you care about, ruin your health, and miss out on what could have been your most precious memories in exchange for some pat on the back from the external world that will never love you as much as your family does.

I felt it was important for me to make that clear.

But that’s it for today.

As always, at the bottom of this email I’ll lay out everything I did today to move closer to my Ultimate Vision. This is to keep me accountable and to show you that I’m working as hard as I’m encouraging you to work…

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Selling From Your Comfort Zone, by Stacey Hall

If sales is one of the highest-paying professions in the world, then why are so many salespeople stampeding to the exit and leaving the field entirely?

Yes, sales can be an extremely lucrative profession, but if it costs you your SOUL, then the price is too high.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to, and if you were taught that you had to be pushy, aggressive, or downright slimy in order to succeed in business, then your sales trainer obviously wasn’t Stacey Hall.

Her book, Selling From Your Comfort Zone, is one of the latest book I’ve finished this year, and now I’m recommending it to you! Simply put:

Add this book to your reading list if you want to make more sales and feel GOOD about yourself while doing it!

See, too often, people view sales as this competition between salesperson and customer. Us versus Them. I win, I get the sale, they lose, they hand over their money.

When the reality is that that model never really worked in the first place.

Sure, you can make a few sales that way, but it’s not sustainable in the long term, it won’t make you feel good about yourself while you’re on the job (or trying to get to sleep at night), and it’s not going to carry you through those times when you want to quit.

Honestly, the more people start reading sales books with positive messages like this one, the sooner we can all adopt a healthier approach to sales that will also make all of us a lot more money at the same time.

It won’t take you long to read, it’ll take you a little while to practice and implement, but your customers (and your balance sheet) will thank you for it. Consider adding this book to your reading list!

​ You Can Find More About the Book  ​ Here

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Woke Up: 11:30AM (this is the week I get back to a regular schedule, I swear!)

Sleep Quality: 51 (I know, I slept horribly - really weird day in all)

Pages Read: 27 (probably the fewest I’ve read all year)

Workout: Chest + Triceps (with even more snow shoveling!)

DB Press - 65lbs, 65lbs, 60lbs, 60lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)

BB Bench - 145lbs, 145lbs, 145lbs, 145lbs (6 reps, last set to failure)

DB Incline - 40lbs, 40lbs, 40lbs, 35lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)

Assisted Dips - 40lbs, 55lbs, 55lbs, 70lbs (12 reps, last set to failure)

Triceps Pushdowns - 50lbs, 50lbs, 43lbs, 43lbs (12 reps, last set to failure)

Work Completed:

Worked on Preparing My Upcoming Paid Community

Worked on the Next Book Breakdown

Worked on the Next Stairway to Wisdom Newsletter

Attended Workshop About Growing My Business on LinkedIn

Published The Reading Life Newsletter

Posted to My Instagram Stories

Posted 1x on Facebook

Posted 2x on Twitter

Posted 1x on Threads

Posted 1x on LinkedIn

Very strange day. I’ll just say that.

I did some higher-level thinking/strategizing about my business and where I want to take it, but I didn’t do much writing or creating today. Which will make the rest of the week harder for sure, but yea, today was…different.

Again, I place a lot of the blame on not getting enough sleep and sabotaging myself for the next day, which is one of my worst habits.

I just want to stay up and work, or read, or do something - but I need to think more about how those choices will affect my productivity the next day.

My workout was solid though, I got all my meals in, had a great visit with my sister today, got tons of new ideas to blow up my LinkedIn presence and all that. I’m also very excited about the direction of my business in 2024.

I just need to sleep more!

So until next time…happy reading!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

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