
December 23, 2019
The Importance of Online Friendships, Strength Training, and Advice for Men – Alexander Cortes on The Bobby Dino Podcast
Key Takeaways
- The internet enables you to make friends with people from all corners of the world (and if you take it seriously, you can develop meaningful connections for life)
- If you have a personal/online brand, you can’t take every comment to heart
- “You have to love people and appreciate the people that look up to you, but also, at the same time, you have to almost hate people and not give a f**k about any of them” – Alexander Cortes
- A great quote from Clarence Thomas: “Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot”
- Learn social skills and manners so you know how to interact properly with people (when people like you, they’ll go out of their way to help you)
- When it comes to bench pressing: Incline bench >>> flat/decline bench
Intro
- Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes (@AJA_Cortes) is a personal trainer and health writer
- Check out his website
- For more Alex, check out the Podcast Notes from his appearance on the Modern Wisdom podcast
- Host – Bobby Dino (@RealBobbyDino)
Books Mentioned
- Gorilla Mindset by Mike Cernovich
- The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football by Bill Starr
Make Friends Online
- For most of human history, your friends were limited to your geographical location
- Now, the internet enables you to make friends with people from all corners of the world (and if you take it seriously, you can develop meaningful connections for life)
- There are two types of friendships: Ascending and descending
- Ascending friendships are friends who push you and make your life better
- Descending friendships are friends who drag you down and make your life worse
- “You’re never going to beat your environment” – Alexander Cortes
- That’s why it’s so important to change your environment for the better, and carefully choose the people you spend your time with
- No matter who you are, eventually you’ll hit your level of competence and be forced to meet/learn from new people to get to the next level in life
Ambitions of Entrepreneur
- Being an entrepreneur will force you to learn dozens of important skills:
- How to gauge website traffic
- How to write
- How to sell
- How to speak in front of large groups
- How to tell stories
- Social media
- SEO
- And the list goes on…
- If you want to become more ambitious, become dissatisfied with your current life
- “If you’re one of those people who can be comfortable anywhere, that kills your sense of vision. It kills your sense of desire to go after anything.” – Alexander Cortes
Online Brands & Mobs
- Alexander has been mobbed (online) by social justice warriors several times
- Once you hit a certain threshold of followers, it’s almost certain you’ll have people who disagree with you and/or hate you
- It’s a shock at first, but if you’ve been attacked more than once and you’re still around, you become bulletproof
- “There’s nothing you can say to me now online that I’m going to get upset about” – Alexander Cortes
- Alexander estimates he’s gotten over a thousand messages telling him to kill himself
- “There’s nothing you can say to me now online that I’m going to get upset about” – Alexander Cortes
- The takeaway: All publicity is good publicity
- Getting attacked online just leads to more followers for Alexander
- If you have a personal/online brand, you can’t take every comment to heart
- “You have to love people and appreciate the people that look up to you, but also, at the same time, you have to almost hate people and not give a f**k about any of them” – Alexander Cortes
- You need to have a solid foundation of self-confidence if you’re going to have an online brand
Advice for Men
- It’s okay to show weakness to a close friend or your partner, but don’t show it outwardly to the world
- A great quote from Clarence Thomas: “Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot”
- Learn social skills and manners so you know how to interact properly with people (when people like you, they’ll go out of their way to help you)
- Going further: “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you… You need other people to get to the next level.” – Bobby Dino
- Learn social skills and manners so you know how to interact properly with people (when people like you, they’ll go out of their way to help you)
- Today is both the best and worst time to be a man
- Every market (job, dating, etc.) is now a global competition
- If you’re competent, you will be greatly rewarded
- If you’re unskilled, you will face tough times
- “You have to hold yourself to high standards and embody those standards. You are not going to have a high standard of life with low standard living.” – Alexander Cortes
- “You are not going to tame greatness by being average” – Bobby Dino
- Every market (job, dating, etc.) is now a global competition
Lifting Advice
- When it comes to bench pressing: Incline bench > flat/decline bench
- Tall individuals should avoid the flat bench because it hyper-extends their shoulders, which may result in injury
- In general, most everyone should avoid the decline bench – the downward slope pushes your shoulders back, which can also lead to shoulder injuries
- If you want to train your lower chest, just do dips or push-ups
- You should be able to do bodyweight exercises with ease
- If you can’t move your own skeleton, that’s an issue
Alexander’s Superpowers
- Brutal consistency with work
- Being able to write
- Being confident
- Confidence = Victories x Time
- Building your body is an excellent way to gain victory (and thus confidence) – Stronger people are tougher, more resilient, harder to kill, and more useful in general
- Confidence = Victories x Time
Additional Notes
- Eastern European countries are nice places, but don’t expect special treatment there just because you’re American
- Women in Eastern Europe tend to prefer masculine men
- Alexander’s plan for 2020 is to live in South America and learn Spanish