April 3, 2019

Mike Cernovich and Hardy Haberland: The Complete Guide to Winning in Your 20’s and 30’s – Mike Cernovich Podcast

Key Takeaways

• Advice for young men:
  • Instead of hanging around people who just want to get drunk all the time, find people who spend their free time reading books, exercising, and improving themselves
  • Grind hard in your 20s so that can enjoy your 30s
  • Just like money compounds over time and it’s best to invest it as early as possible, the same is true about yourself – invest in your body and mind as early as you can
  • If you ever find yourself in a bad mood, go spend time alone – you don’t want to spread negativity or take your anger out on someone innocent
• 3 Tips for building a personal brand:
  • Write about a life worth writing about
  • Be open and transparent
  • Be authentic

Intro

• Hardy Haberland (@HardyHaberland) is an online marketing expert and podcaster
  • Check out his website and podcast
• Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) is the author of Gorilla Mindset and Hoaxed
  • Hardy recommends both books

Mike’s Book Recommendations

• Launch by Jeff Walker
• Choose Yourself by James Altucher
• Copywriter’s Crib Sheet by Ben Settle
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Interpreter of Maladies Paperback by Jhumpa Lahiri
• My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson by Sidney Rosen
• How to Argue & Win Every Time by Gerry Spence
• Great Dialogues of Plato by W H D Rouse

Who is Mike Cernovich?

• Mike and his 3 siblings grew up below the poverty line (his father made ~$10K a year), but fortunately, his grandparents helped support the family
  • Mike says he had a tough childhood – he grew up fat, poor, had asthma, and was bullied
  • Since Mike didn’t have much money as a kid, instead of taking boxing lessons, he read books on boxing and taught himself – “I was eight years old and at the library at my school just figuring it out…there’s endless material now that you can learn from”
• Mike describes himself as high in openness and low in conscientiousness
  • This means he’s very curious but doesn’t pay much attention to himself/his surroundings
    • Mike’s openness led him to the field of journalism, a decision he doesn’t recommend because it’s a lot of stress, you become a target, your audience is mean, and you make little money

Fighting Advice

• First, you have to condition your mind to face fear while also conditioning your body to withstand pain
  • But since your mind determines how much something hurts, it’s important to start with the mind
    • “Your mind has to learn how to push through the pain – your mind becomes tougher and then your body follows”

Advice For Young Men

• Mike says his biggest mistake looking back was staying in a relationship that he knew wasn’t going to last – it’s especially hard breaking up with a girl that loves you, but you don’t feel the same way
  • Don’t worry about your ex-girlfriend having trouble finding someone new – it’s a lot easier for women to find a new guy than for guys to find a new woman
• If you ever find yourself in a bad mood, go spend time alone – you don’t want to spread negativity or take your anger out on someone innocent
• Men don’t peak till their late 20s (28-36 are usually a man’s prime)
  • Mike advises guys to not settle down in their early 20s because they have a better chance of finding a higher quality mate later on in life
• When you’re in your 20s, you should seek out people who are ambitious and want to grow
  • Instead of finding people who just want to get drunk all the time, find people who spend their free time reading books, exercising and improving themselves
• In your 20s – “You need to be grinding all the time”
  • Work hard in your 20s and become successful so you can enjoy your 30s, find an awesome like partner, and have a great life
    • Just like money compounds over time and is best to invest as early as possible, the same is true about yourself – invest in your body and mind as early as you can
      • Learning is also easier when you’re younger, your memory is strong and your brain is still a sponge
• Read multiple different genres – philosophy, fitness, fiction, psychology, persuasion, etc
  • Mike has a 5 Book Rule – try to read 5 books in a given category
    • You won’t be the world’s expert, but you’ll be ahead of most people
    • Mike recommends reading Great Dialogues of Plato to improve your ability to think and debate

Improving Your Mindset

• Mindset is learnable – it’s a skill that can be learned
  • There are two main mindsets: Defense and Offense
    • One is about surviving life, the other is about thriving
      • With an offensive mindset, you can always spin a negative event into a positive one – ex. Hard times will make you a stronger person in the future
• Hard work will pay off
  • Creating a film or a book “isn’t fun most days, and overall pretty demoralizing” but in the end, the hard work pays off – even if it takes years
  • Ex. – “It takes 3-5 years to have a really nice body, and that’s if you’re training hard”
• When you become successful, you forget all of the bad experiences from your past
  • All of the hard work, grinding, and tough times from the past will disappear because those negative experiences will become positive since it led you to become successful

Building A Personal Brand

• Your personal brand should be about the things you are doing or know how to do
  • Either become a great writer or live a life worth writing about– as a personal brand, you should be doing both
    • “No one wants to read about a mediocre or boring life, you have to really push and challenge yourself”
      • Also write about your failures, people love “mistake porn” – it’s authentic, honest, and interesting to readers
      • 3 Tips – Write about a life worth writing about, be open/transparent, and be authentic

These notes were edited by RoRoPa Editing Services

Mike Cernovich Podcast :
Notes By Alex Wiec