The Spark
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Some personal news...

Some personal news...

I'm running a marathon

Jay Yang
August 10, 2025

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3 Thoughts

Lonely isn’t being by yourself.

It’s being surrounded by people who make you feel alone. It’s trying to share your vision with people who don’t have one. It’s having a thousand contacts but no one you want to call.

Real lonely isn’t about where you are, it’s about who you’re with.

II.

Successful people are consistent. Those that aren't, don't last long.

III.

I don't know who needs to hear this but you can just lock back in.

Right now. Today. This moment. You don't need a new beginning. You don't need permission. You don't need to wait for inspiration to strike. You just need to decide that mediocrity tastes worse than discipline feels.

Stop negotiating with your potential. Stop playing small because playing big might mean you could fail. Stop pretending you're okay with being less than you know you could be.

The only thing standing between you and the person you want to be is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself. So drop it. Lock in. Make the rest of this year count.

Because the truth is, you've always known what to do. You just haven't done it yet.

2 Quotes

Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) on why you should work hard at the beginning of your career:

“One more thought about working hard: Do it at the beginning of your career. Hard work compounds like interest, and the earlier you do it, the more time you have for the benefits to pay off. It's also easier to work hard when you have fewer other responsibilities, which is frequently but not always the case when you are young.”

II.

French writer Victor Hugo on timing:

"There is only one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come."

1 Game-Changing Idea

Some personal news:

I just signed up for the 2025 Las Vegas Marathon in 75 days.

Why? Because I hate myself.

Joking 😂

In all seriousness, I was talking with Author Sahil Bloom and he said:

“There are two types of people:

Salesmen of an idea
Products of an idea

You want to be the latter. Salesmen only get so far. If you’re a product of your idea, you can do it forever. Make sure you’re actually just doing things, and don’t fall into the trap of just tweeting about just doing things.”

So in the spirit of just doing things, I decided to sign up for something hard.

—

After I posted about signing up for the marathon, I had a friend reach out and share an encouraging message (shoutout Stetson) which I wanted to share with you as well.

Reminder:

It’s fun today. It’s gonna be fun tomorrow. It gonna be fun for a few days while you tell your friends and family “I signed up for a marathon.”

It’s a romantic idea…

But soon, it’s not going to be so fun…

In a few weeks - when everybody’s done congratulating you, when you’re sore, and when there’s seemingly no end in sight - just remember, this is what you signed up for - hard.

You wanted hard.

Hard isn’t sexy. Hard is unsexy.

The temptation to quit isn’t going to show up as tired legs and fatigue.

It’s going to show up as chronic stomach aches, having “too much going on at work,” a rolled ankle, sickness, and chafed nipples.

Hard sucks. Hard is unsexy.

But you asked for hard. So here hard comes.

Let’s gooooo!!!!!

- Stetson

Mic drop, am I right?

So good.

Anyway, below is my training plan for the next 75 days. I haven’t run in several months, so gonna start slow and easy, and ramp up from there.

If you have any tips, feel free to reply to this email.

Remember: You can just do things.

Until next week,
Jay “Guess I’m A Runner Now” Yang

Ps. My brother made a free website to help you write banger cold emails

Pps. We’re almost at 100 reviews on Amazon!

It still feels surreal how many people have left a review with their feedback.

Whenever I’m feeling down or discouraged, I open up Amazon and read the reviews.

If you left a review already, thank you. Seriously. I appreciate you.

And if you haven’t grabbed a copy or left a review, you can do so here :)