Life update email :)
A few wins, learnings, and what’s on the horizon:
Hello friend,
It’s long overdue for a life update email.
I’m currently on a 10-hour flight back to Chicago (from Greece), so I figured now would be a good time to give ya a quick download.
A few wins, learnings, and what’s on the horizon:
1. Wins
We crossed the pre-order goal for my 2nd book! I can’t wait to get this book out (Sep 30th). Also, thank you to everyone who chose to donate books to students. I have a few ambassadors set up around campuses so every donated book gets into the right hands.
I’m working on a new book! I know, I know, I just finished one and it isn’t even out yet. But I couldn’t help myself. Don’t worry, this book is completely different from my first 2 books. It’s a daily passage book curating the top wisdom from startup founders (Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, etc). I’m working on it with Dylan Kurt (who’s writing an Almanac of MrBeast). More soon, but if you’d like to follow along, you can join the newsletter here.
I started a YouTube channel. And my latest video (a FREE copywriting course) just came out this Friday! If I’m being honest, I was a bit nervous to start it. I thought people would judge or make fun of me. But I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive feedback.
Big family trip. Got to meet and see many of my relatives (yay!)
Made 2 new angel investments. Will this make me super duper rich? Probably not. But I like the access, network, and information advantages it gives me. What’s my investment thesis? I invest in obsessed people working on inevitable missions.
Got to celebrate my friend’s wedding in Greece! Brought my dad and we explored a ton (vlog coming soon on the YouTube channel).
Launched a writing cohort (Publish30). I had a ton of people ask to join my LinkedIn accountability group, so I figured, “Why not productize this?” We have over 50 students and so far it’s been a blast. If you missed out and want to get info about joining the next cohort, you can join the waitlist here.
Iman Gadzhi followed me. For those who aren’t familiar, Iman documented his journey from going from broke 14 year old kid to multi-millionaire all on YouTube. I used to watch his vlogs when I was in high school, so it was a cool full circle moment.
I’ve been building a business in stealth for the last few months. It’s my “big swing”. The business, that if executed well, can create generational wealth. I’m not publicly launching it yet, but you can peep the website here. What’s the offer? We install our written media systems into your business so you can scale with repeatable written content. Will share more soon.
2. Learnings
Focus. Ugh, I’m so bad at this. If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything. What’s the ONE thing that if successful would make everything else feel irrelevant in comparison? Why not just do that?
The ability to make yourself “oversubscribed” with opportunity is a superpower. I feel like such a weapon because I spent the last 5+ years apprenticing underneath the top online entrepreneurs and studying marketing. Now I feel like I can go into a business, install my marketing systems, and help them scale.
Nothing happens, then everything happens.
Scheming is super underrated. All my most successful friends scheme.
I spent the first half of 2026 with not many public things to talk about. Now this 2nd half of 2026, it feels like I have a lot going on. It’s a mirage. The real work was done in the dark.
I’m seeing this quote go around right now: "An idiot in motion goes further than a genius at rest."
I get the sentiment. Action produces information. But at the same time, not all motion is productive. Beginners focus on speed. Masters focus on velocity (speed with direction). Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is step away and scheme.
Consistency for the sake of consistency is overrated. You can be consistent about taking the wrong actions and never get the result that you want. You must be consistent about reflecting, iterating, and evolving the actions you take.
Push the pace
If we had to hit our 12 month goal in the next 3 months, what would we do differently?
I wholeheartedly believe the reason I've been able to compress decades into the last few years is because I refuse to settle for the average pace.
If you think something will take a week, try to get it done today. Shoot, get it done right now.
PUSH the pace. PUSH THE pace. PUSH THE PACE.
Treat others the way you want to be treated. I always ask the people I work with, “What do you want out of this?” I believe if you join my team, you’re on a rocket ship with me and I expect equal dedication and commitment. But at the same time, I genuinely want you to win. I play long-term games with long-term people.
Environment dictate standards. Standards dictate decisions. Decisions dictate your life. A few years ago having a $10k/mo online business was “making it” The bar keeps raising.
Get on Twitter. Block sports, politics, news. Mute words. Follow who I’m following. It will change your life. This is one of the only career “hacks” there are. How can you not be inspired when you’re exposed to ideas like this?
Starting to see a bunch of full circle moments. People I looked up to reaching out to me. Goals I wrote down when I was younger being achieved. Becoming friends with people I used to study. The easiest way to design a full circle moment is to stay in the game
Everything is easier because I like what I do. I don’t have to force myself to work hard, wake up early, stay up late, spend off hours learning and reinvesting in my craft. The reward for good work is more work. The lesson isn’t to not do good work, but to find work you enjoy being good at.
Ambition
“You either work up your 20s or live em up.”
Says who? Are we really so low agency that we can’t learn to work hard and have fun? Juxtaposition makes for a great tweet, but usually bad advice.
Two thoughts on ambition:
The idea that ‘you can’t have it all’ feels like law. But is it?
“You can’t achieve a lot and have fun.”
Says who?
“You must sacrifice your youth to build a big business.”
Why?
If you truly were high agency, you’d figure it out.
These false dichotomies are dangerous to listen to blindly.
~~
2.
It’s dangerous to believe you must ‘sacrifice everything for success.’
I don’t want to be a billionaire.I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder.
I don’t want to be mainstream famous.Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
Call me soft, but I believe one of the most ambitious things you can do is define the limits of your ambition.
Sure, if you don’t work weekends you may not get ahead.
But get ahead of who? Get ahead for what? To be alone at the top of the mountain?
It’s easy to be reckless in your pursuit of more. It takes wisdom to realize when you’re sacrificing the greater war to win the smaller battle.
Not all growth is good. There’s a reason why we have signals in our body that tell us to stop growing taller.
3. What’s on the horizon
Book 2 (got some fun launch plans, stay tuned)
This new business (will share more soon)
New York September 16-23 (if ur around, hit me up. May do a meet n greet or fun event)
Potentially renting a house in Laguna Beach with a few friends in January to lock in
Still single 🙂 hi
Bringing on FT teammates, scale time!
Idk if you can feel it, but I’m riding on a lot of momentum. And the first rule of momentum: if you have it, don’t let up.
Last thought: Winners win because they decide they’ve already won and let reality catch up.
Until next week,
Jay “Life Update” Yang
Author of You Can Just Do Things & Work With The Best
Ps. The J word
Pps. I created a free marketing course (3,000 word essay). For my business owner friends, this is worth your time.
Shaan Puri’s metaphor for building a startup:
"Remember, we stood in line to get on a roller coaster.
Why are we surprised when there are highs and lows?
That's what a roller coaster does."
For some reason I found this incredibly profound…
Successful people don’t do different things, they do things differently.
Shoot Your Shot September
Everyone here can think of one person, one conversation, one ask that they know if done well will fundamentally change their life.
Go take that shot. Be unapologetically shameless about asking for what you want this month.
Few things are a greater waste of time than defending your actions to strangers on the internet. As the saying goes, "if you wrestle with a pig, you'll both get dirty... but the pig likes it."
Forgot who said this, but this is great cold outreach advice:
“Treat rockstars like regular humans and regular humans like rockstars.”
Can pretty easily slide in my DMs if you just act like a normal, helpful person instead of trying to pitch me before I know your name.
You can grab your copy here.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Stanley
Ok this is objectively super cool…
Stanley (my AI content agent) now proactively creates IG tweet pics for every tweet that I publish.
So so awesome. Try it for free
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