Monthly Achievement Report: May 2023

Publishing my progress to keep myself accountable as I launch my career, build my body, and read all the best books.

June 17, 2023

Note to the Reader: The first 4 sections of this Monthly Achievement Report don’t tend to change much from month to month, so if you’ve read last month’s Report, you’ve already read them. By all means, read them again if you want, but the “real” monthly updates start in the Audience Growth Goals section below. Now let’s get into it…

I’m back with this month’s Achievement Report!

Everything I’m doing to build a massive social media audience, grow my business to $100k/month, read all the greatest books ever written, and develop a world-class physique - it’s all here.

One of the purposes of these reports, naturally, is to help you achieve your goals by showing you how I’m achieving mine.

I love to motivate people by my example, and I love to be a great resource for ambitious people like you who don’t want to live like everyone else.

That’s what I’m good at. That’s what I can do for you. That’s what I can help you with.

So let’s get into it!

Each month, I’m going to lay out exactly what I’m doing to actualize my biggest dreams - my craziest vision for my one and only life - and I’m going to invite you to work alongside me as we make astounding forward progress together.

(Note: I say “alongside me,” but I also mean separately - you know, supporting each other from afar. If you do want my personal help making progress on your biggest ambitions, though, click here or reply to this email and let me know. We can talk about it.)

If there’s one thing I want you to believe, though, it’s this:

Most people will never get to where they want to be in life.

They will never even come close to doing their best or actualizing what’s possible for them in their lives, and many of them will wind up depressed, purposeless, and unmotivated - beaten down by Life.

They will stay exactly the way they are: lazy, ignorant, apathetic, and defeated.

And why is this?

Specifically, they don’t make an effort to learn from and apply the greatest, most transformational wisdom found in the world’s most incredible books, and they don’t even see that their futures could be any different than their present.

Wildly different.

I absolutely, positively, categorically, do NOT want that to happen to you, and so I will be pushing great books into people’s hands - your hands - for as long as I’m physically able to.

It’s what I’m here for.

Because look, you’re a reader of The Competitive Advantage right now, and so you’ll never be like them.

You and I are winners (or at least winners in the making), and we can alter the entire trajectory of our lives by reading and applying the epic wisdom found in the best books.

That’s what I earnestly and steadfastly believe, and that’s what my career is all about.

I am obsessed with sharing the magic of books and reading, and I am obsessed with helping you to become everything you ever thought you could be but were afraid to even attempt.

Okay, I may have gotten a little carried away there. But I stand by it.

Reading is important.

Supporting each other in our ambitions is important.

And making life better and easier for the people with whom we share the planet is important too.

If you’re with me on all that, let’s get into this month’s Achievement Report…

I’ve got a few different projects on the go, but for the most part, they all fit together under “Writing and Publishing,” “Reading Books,” and “Working Out.”

It may seem like I’m going off in several different directions, but as you can see, most of what I do informs and impacts the other stuff.

Here are the most important things I’m working on right now:

The Stairway to Wisdom: A collection of book breakdowns for people who actually like to read, not just for “busy” people who want cheap, 5-minute book summaries.

This is for people who actually LIKE to read, and my book breakdowns respect both the reader’s time and their intelligence.

I’m dedicated to steadily growing this membership site and I have a great team behind me too. You can check it out here.

Reading: This is basically what I’ve made my life about. I love reading — I love books and literature almost as much as life itself. To me, they are life itself, and I read between 150–200 books every single year. You can find my full reading list here.

Writing: Again, this sort of fits in with the Stairway to Wisdom above, but here I’m also talking about writing on Medium.com, writing on my own site, on other websites, writing my first book, etc. A lot of what I do falls under “writing” - even scripting YouTube videos!

Social Media: I recently hit 100,000 followers on Instagram, but I’m also working on growing my presence on several other platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Plus, I use my following on social media to grow my business, attract new readers to my website, etc. So, it all works together!

Fitness: Don’t make me choose between books and barbells! I refuse! Working out is just one of those things that my life is about, and I give my all to building the greatest physique I possibly can. If you want or need help developing your own body, send me an email and we can talk about it.

Charity: A life lived solely for yourself isn’t much of a life, and I’ve found that money can buy happiness — when you spend it on other people.

My favorite charities are First Book, a children’s educational charity, and Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian relief organization. I donate regularly to both — as well as a few others — and I plan to increase the size of my contributions very soon.

“Long-term,” for me, means my entire life. These are my current lifetime achievement goals, and this is basically what I’m going for in my life. I don’t care how long it takes me — I will succeed.

In no particular order:

  • Raise $1,000,000,000 for Doctors Without Borders

  • Raise $1,000,000,000 for First Book

  • Live on just 1% of my yearly income and donate the rest

  • Travel to outer space (and back!)

  • Own at least part of a space tourism company

  • Own at least part of a successful nightclub

  • Publish at least 10 books

  • Read at least 10,000 books

My definition of “short-term” is much different than most people’s. I think in decades, so I’m more interested in playing the long game and becoming wildly successful over time, rather than settling for something smaller than I know I’m capable of achieving.

I’m only 32 years old, and with the ridiculous advances in medical technology and everything, it’s not unreasonable to assume that I’ll live to be well over 100.

So, what’s “short-term”?

If I accomplish the following “short-term” goals in 5–25 years, that’s a good start:

  • Reach 220lbs with less than 10% body fat

  • Reach 1,000 Patreon supporters

  • Reach 1,000,000 followers on Instagram

  • Reach 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube

  • Reach 1,000,000 followers on Twitter

  • Build an email list of 1,000,000 readers

  • Earn $10,000,000 in a single year

  • Invest $10,000,000 in the stock market

  • Model for an international agency

  • Sign with a literary agent for my first book

This is an exciting time for me, as I’m starting to gain a lot of traction online and build up momentum. I actually have, like, an audience now, and that’s pretty damn cool.

And it’s also a big responsibility!

The way I think about it is that every single follower is a real person (obviously), with real goals and struggles and challenges, and interests — everything that makes them who they are.

So yes, I’m building up a massive following online, but I never lose sight of the fact that I’m talking about real, infinitely valuable people who deserve to get my absolute best each and every day.

Here I’ll give you current web and social media stats, with the total growth from last month in brackets:

And here are my goals for the next month on each platform:

This month is going to be insanely busy with going all-out on social media, updating a few back-end things, releasing my new reading course, etc. It’ll be a lot of work, but by the end of it, I’ll be in a much better place in terms of productivity.

By the end of the month, I will:

  • Launch the new sales page for the Stairway to Wisdom

  • Get ahead on my weekly book breakdowns for Stairway

  • Release my new reading course

  • Appear on a few book podcasts

  • Update my social media profiles

  • Outline my new marketing funnel and lead magnets

  • Stay up to date with my content schedule

  • Go on a short vacation to recharge

I finished reading 5 books last month. Way fewer than usual, but it was still an enjoyable month of reading!

My full reading list is here, and my complete notes from all of these books will be made available on my Patreon:►►► Hyperfocus, by Chris Bailey: https://amzn.to/3NilWVU

►►► The Pathless Path, by Paul Millerd: https://amzn.to/3CiyPcb 

►►► The Every, by Dave Eggers: https://amzn.to/43KaYxK 

►►► Message from the Middle of Nowhere, by Gunnar Andri Thorisson: https://amzn.to/43QufxH 

►►► The Essential Wooden, by John Wooden and Steve Jamison: https://amzn.to/43MPbWnWatch the full review on my YouTube channel!

…More is usually said than done. That’s the reality. Most people will talk about all these things that they want to do, and then they’ll do…nothing.

But you and I are not those people.

We have made a commitment to excellence, and we know that nobody succeeds alone.

We all travel further together, and that’s one of my main motivations for starting The Competitive Advantage, and for writing these Achievement Reports.

I’ve developed an extremely effective system for achieving my goals and reaching the kind of success that I want for myself, but your system will undoubtedly look different than mine.

However, I want you to remember that the absolutely “perfect” system that you never even look at again is never going to be as effective as the perhaps-slightly-imperfect system that you actually use.

A little Nikos Kazantzakis there for ya…

Anyway, I like to err on the side of taking massive action, and doing whatever it takes to hit my targets. I never reduce those targets; all I do is increase my level of action.

That’s the key.

So I hope that all of this was helpful and/or enlightening for you, and I’ll be active in the comments, so definitely let me know how you’re going to apply some of what we talked about in your own life! I’d love to hear about it.

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you apply the wisdom found in the greatest books ever written to your life:

  1. I have one spot left open for personal mentoring, and the first choice always goes to the people on my email list. Simply click here or reply to this email if this is something you're interested in working with me on, and I'll let you know more about it, answer all your questions, etc. It's not cheap, but it will be extremely valuable for you if you're willing to work as hard on yourself as I'm willing to work for you.

  2. I've released 50 complete, in-depth book breakdowns on the Stairway to Wisdom that respects both your time AND your intelligence and will help you become the person you've always known you were capable of being. Read them for free here.

  3. Join The Competitive Advantage to be surrounded by a healthy and happy community of winners and high achievers. Weekly insights and ideas on building a strong mind, a fit body, and a healthy bank account. Sign up for free right here.