Compounding Wisdom
The Jewel of Serenity: A Legacy of Wisdom
You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.
James Allen - From Passion to Peace, 1910
In 1903, James Allen published As a Man Thinketh, a short book on Thought and its effect on life that has transformed millions of lives for over a century.
I used to listen to the last chapter, Serenity, recited by my mentor Bob Proctor, every single day.
Then, on a call with Bob, he challenged me to write down Serenity for 90 days in a row.
At first, I was perplexed. Why spend all that time (it takes around 20 minutes) writing it when I could listen to it in 3 minutes? It's only 7 paragraphs long.
Bob's answer was profound:
"Because writing activates all parts of you - your body, thoughts, emotions and spirit."
That truth struck me, and I said, "Yes, I will do it."
He asked me to let him know how it changed my life after I completed the task.
By day 45, I had the passage memorized as I wrote it. From then on, every morning I recited it aloud as I wrote it. I then asked my executive team to do the same. We had lots of internal issues. Some grasped it. Others did not. My older brother said he could not possibly memorize it in a million years. I then asked him to recite it 100 times a day. First, I told him to just recite the first sentence 100 times, record it, and send it to me daily until he had memorized the first sentence.
"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom." Imagine him reciting that 100 times a day. Then moving on to the second sentence, "It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control," and doing this until he completed the chapter--even if it were to take him a million years. The recording was eventually so large he couldn't text it to me. He knew Serenity very well by the end of this exercise. I had another person on our team who also said the same, saying he had dyslexia. I gave him the same task. He was also able to memorize it.
On that call with Bob, he had actually quoted the second sentence of Serenity but I didn't recognize it. I realized then that memorizing or listening was not akin to understanding and seeing and so I tried to connect every sentence and word in Serenity to my life and the world.
My other great mentor Mr. Yoo said it's not that we can't memorize, it's the belief that we can't and the lack of attempting to do so. He said if someone swore at you, you would not forget. Leave the same impression on the things you wish to memorize.
At strategy meetings, I'd ask a random person to recite the first sentence, and then we recite it as we go around the room. This became our creed, especially when the storms of business hit, and instead of panic, we met them with calmness.
Treasures from Serenity
“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good.”
“Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding master; He does but sleep. Wake him.”
“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.”
As A Man Thinketh in His Heart So He Is
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.
James Allen - The Path of Prosperity, 1907
The Serenity chapter is the crown jewel of the book, but the whole book As a Man Thinketh is a gem. James Allen took a proverb from the wisest king in history, King Solomon, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7) and wrote an entire book based on this proverb.
I urge you to read, reread and perhaps even memorize and live it. It will be life-changing. I guarantee you, just as Bob knew it for me. Here are a few key lessons and big points from each chapter, along with an unforgettable quote you can memorize.
1. Thought and Character
You are what you think — character is Thought made visible.
Noble thoughts build strength; base thoughts weaken.
Thoughts cannot be hidden; they shape destiny.
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”
2. Effect of Thought on Circumstances
Circumstances don't create the person; they reveal him.
The outer world mirrors the inner world.
Change your thoughts, and you change your life.
“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
3. Effect of Thought on Health and the Body
The body obeys the mind.
Disease and health both have roots in Thought.
Cheerful, pure thinking preserves vitality.
“The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed.”
4. Thought and Purpose
Thought without purpose leads nowhere.
Purpose provides direction, focus, and discipline.
To succeed, you must sacrifice drifting.
“Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.”
5. The Thought-Factor in Achievement
Achievement is born in Thought.
Victories are mental before they are visible.
Dreamers are the builders of progress.
“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.”
6. Visions and Ideals
Cherished ideals shape destiny.
Vision lifts or drags us depending on its height.
Ideals fuel progress and reform.
“The dreamers are the saviors of the world.”
7. Serenity
Calmness is the crown of self-mastery.
Serenity earns trust and respect.
The serene person steadies others in life's storms.
“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”
Epilogue
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
James Allen - Byways of Blessedness, 1904
Earl Nightingale — often called the father of personal growth — always listed As a Man Thinketh among the top three books he recommended.
In 1956, he recorded The Strangest Secret, which went on to sell over a million copies and became the first spoken-word recording to earn a Gold Record. It ignited the modern personal development movement.
Earl mentored Bob Proctor.
And Bob mentored me.
On February 1, I completed my 90th day of writing Serenity. I thought about calling Bob, or sending him a note of thanks. Instead, I told myself: why not go for 100 days?
But on February 3, 2022, I received the news: Bob Proctor had passed away in his late 80s.
I was crushed. I never got to thank him.
So I'll say it here:
Thank you, Bob. And thank you, Earl. May you both rest in heaven.
Reflection
Calmness, gentleness, self-possession, sweetness of spirit, are the beautiful fruits of self-conquest.
James Allen - Above Life’s Turmoil, 1910
The true legacy of wisdom isn't just in the words written on a page — it's in the lives they transform. What began with James Allen's pen in 1903 was carried by Earl Nightingale's voice in 1956, passed through Bob Proctor's mentorship until 2022, and now lives on in the practices we choose each day.
Wisdom multiplies when we don't just consume it — but embody it.
If self-control, anger, and emotional volatility reside in you, will you write out Serenity every day for 90 days in a row? Will you commit it to memory and practice it as you live in this turbulent, tempest-tossed world?
Life-Changing Questions
Circumstances and events are the outward expressions of inward thoughts and aspirations.
James Allen - The Mastery of Destiny, 1909
If my thoughts today are quietly shaping my character, my circumstances, my health, my achievements, and my destiny…
What one thought will I choose to live out my future?
What one thought will I let go of to let go of my past?
Next week—
Knowing in a world of infinite data and noise
How to keep thinking while leveraging AI
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
The 7-Self Framework: From Inputs to Outputs
The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
Joseph Campbell
I often wondered how great people became great. Abraham Lincoln, despite his difficult youth and many political failures, demonstrated wisdom during the Great Civil War. I read biographies, books on how to be great, and how to be successful. Rockefeller, Disney, Jobs, Frankl, Campbell, Covey, and my favourite, the Bible, which depicts so many great men and women.
I believe 7 to be a very significant number. Our lives are depicted in stages of 7 years. A person of 70 years has typically gone through 10 stages of life. Some merely physical, others journey through the soul and some rarely journey these stages through the spirit.
But in general, there are the seven stages of self, the soul, that we go through, and I have thought and pondered a lot on what these seven stages might be, as I have now lived almost 55 years, nearly eight stages. There are more as we seek to live a wholly transformational life. We see this in nature with seeds becoming plants and trees. Eggs become caterpillars and then transform into butterflies. Humans, too, must transform into the depths of their soul and spirit.
Last time, we looked at the three core inputs that shape your self: self-perception, self-talk, and self-environment. We also looked at the three outputs everyone seeks: Self-confidence, self-actualization and self-transcendence.
But how do we get from these three inputs to these three outputs? How do we transform influence into identity and identity into impact?
We move through the 7-Self Framework- a tapestry of threads that weave your inner transformation.
Your 7 Selves: A Transformational Journey
Each self-journey is a thread in your being that weaves a multi-dimensional you.
1 Self-Awareness
You must know where you are before you can choose where to go.
Joseph Campbell
Self-Awareness: To see yourself so clearly that you no longer live by default but by intention and design. This is your inner mirror. Awareness is the light and self-reflection that breaks the cycle of unconscious living.
Practice: Track your patterns, habits. Journal your triggers. Build consciousness and awareness.
2 Self-Honesty
What is to give light must endure burning.
Viktor Frankl
Self-Honesty: Speak to yourself the candid truth so you can stop pretending and start transforming. It’s having the courage to speak the truth to yourself. Growth begins with unfiltered truth.
Practice: Name one truth you are avoiding and write why it matters now.
3 Self-Acceptance
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor Frankl
Self-Acceptance: Accept yourself as you fully are with grace and compassion instead of criticism and insults. Let go of your past and start anew where you are right now.
Practice: Starting anew and whisper to your heart, “This is where I begin.” And commit to you.
4 Self-Discipline
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Stephen Covey
Self-Discipline: Build a structure for yourself so that your vision has a vehicle to drive in. Discipline is how you build trust with your future self by committing to yourself and keeping your promise.
Practice: Choose and commit to one non-negotiable keystone habit- and honour it daily. This allows you to respect yourself as you do the thing you promised yourself.
5 Self-Compassion
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell
Self-Compassion: Embrace all your imperfections and love yourself with each of these. Forgive yourself and do not disqualify yourself because of them. Compassion softens the sharp edges of transformation..
Practice: Forgive yourself for one regret- and reframe it as a teacher going forward. Embrace it. It’s your judo move, turning weakness into strength.
6 Self-Giving
The more one forgets himself- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love- the more human he is.
Viktor Frankl
Self-Giving: Shift your focus from self to others. You begin to live from abundance, not scarcity.
Practice: Serve someone today without seeking credit or recognition.
7 Self-Renewal
Sharpen the saw.
Stephen Covey
Self-Renewal: Return to your core so you don’t lose yourself in your service. You protect the well so the water never runs dry.
Practice: Schedule in your calendar a weekly reset-renewal ritual for body, mind and spirit. A time for solitude, review and rejuvenation. The deeper into yourself you go, the better. Fasting helps you in this journey. This is the reason many spiritual faiths have days or times of fasting, so you can go beyond your physical self into your soul and spiritual self.
Life-Changing Question
In the final analysis, the question is not what we expect from life, but what life expects from us.
Viktor Frankl
What am I becoming through how I live today?
What will I be like in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years if I live like this?
Final Thought
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
Abraham Maslow
The 7-Self Framework is not about achievement or performance. It’s about full alignment between your spirit, soul, body and life.
When your inner self is strong, your outer impact becomes effortless.
Start with your core roots.
Live through each of your Selves above.
And you’ll grow and transform into the person who doesn’t just rise, but lifts others up with you.
Next week—
Stillness Within: Practicing Serenity in a World of Noise
How Practicing Serenity helped me go from Anger to Peace
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
Live or Die? That is My Question
Our outward appearance can only hint at the true inner state of our heart. Knowing yourself from the inside to the outside requires wisdom, prudence, discernment and grace.
Dr. Kevin Ham
Just three months ago, I thought to myself, ‘I am in the best shape of my life. My heart is so fit and strong.’ My resting heart rate of 42 and an even lower heart rate at sleep of 31 was astonishing to me. I was struck by how little my heart had to pump to supply blood flow from head to feet. Blood pressure 105/60. My max heart rate of 195 and able to withstand average heart rates of 172 for 2 hours 38 minutes during a cycling event, and a VO2 Max in the 50s, put me in the top percentile, one of the best indicators of longevity. With 12% body fat and an active cycling lifestyle and an ancestral diet, I felt and looked cardiovascularly strong, fit and healthy.
After Anita, a medical doctor and wife of my late dear friend Rob Thompson, who passed away of a sudden heart attack earlier this year on February 10th, asked everyone at his celebration of life to get a calcium heart scan, I became aware of the silently growing disease in my heart vessels. A calcium score of 500 indicated major calcified coronary disease on May 5, 2025. I received a CT Angiogram on June 17, which showed blockages in every vessel, with the most severe being a blockage in the first diagonal branch (D1) of my left anterior descending artery. A 55% blockage in my ramus intermedius, a rare branch off the left main coronary artery, that overlapped somewhat with my D1. Then several moderate blockages of 45%, 29%, 28% and many more mild obstructions under 20%. Health can only be as strong as our biggest constraint, and in my case it is my 77% blockage. To put it into perspective, one major blockage can lead to a heart attack and potentially sudden death.
This is an in-depth digest of my monthly heart journey. I pray that it helps save many lives, prevents unnecessary heart attacks and the progression of heart disease. May you take this to heart.
Patient and Medical Doctor
I’ve been blessed with a medical education and also multiple diseases so I can walk the journey of life understanding human suffering and grace, disease and relief, staring death in the face of life as both patient and doctor.
Dr. Kevin Ham
Every year, the US shows us a picture of the grim realities of heart disease.
805,000 heart attacks occur each year
605,000 are first-time heart attacks
356,000 people die from sudden cardiac arrest with minimal or no prior warning.
The average age of heart attacks in men is 65, and in women, it is 72. Women follow men by 7 years due to the protective effects of estrogen and menses. But women have a higher mortality rate of 70% from their first heart attack.
I have been duly warned and made aware that this could be me. Unaware, I could likely die of a heart attack by 65, conceivably on a hard climb while biking.
So, when did this disease start in my heart? I knew in medical school, after reading the Korean War Study on American soldiers, average age 22, that 70% of them had atherosclerosis on autopsy. I guessed that in my mid-20s, I had about 50% blockages, but later in life, I assumed my improved diet and active lifestyle would keep that all at bay. I had no risk factors other than a high LDL cholesterol of 168. I never smoked, my blood pressure was good, I had no family history, no diabetes, was lean and fit, and was not sedentary. My recent inflammation markers hsCRP (0.25) and Homocysteinewere low. I felt great and so healthy.
What I am not sure about is how much of my atherosclerosis has progressed over my life or whether it is getting worse, stable or better, but even though the numbers do not look good, I now have a baseline to measure and improve from.
My Mission: To Reverse Heart Disease
My mission: to reverse my severe blockages to 0 or no significance so I am not constrained by any plaques that can potentially rupture to cause a heart attack or impact coronary blood flow.
Then help others become aware if they have any heart disease and how to reverse any blockages through lifestyle changes. I feel like I’ve been born to do this, and feel very grateful and blessed for this opportunity. I decided to become a doctor at age 14 because an autoimmune disease hospitalized me. I dreamed of helping people afflicted with pain and suffering from disease. I could not help my own mother for her own autoimmune disease as a son or a doctor, nor from her demise from cancer. But I know I can help people with macular degeneration to stave off blindness and those with heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes from ever succumbing life to them. I dream of helping prevent and relieve pain and suffering from cancer, which is the deadliest of killers.
My Cholesterol Cut in Half
Never underestimate the power of food and the resilience of the human body to heal and become whole again. We only need to know the simple path to life.
Viktor Frankl
For years, my LDL cholesterol was 168 mg/dL (4.34 mM). Someone with my level of heart disease should have a value under 80 mg/dL (2.0 mM). I knew my doctors would highly suggest the standard of care of a statin (cholesterol-lowering med) plus baby aspirin.
I had read Dr. Esselstyn’s book, “Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease,” over 10 years ago, so I knew that there was a diet that could reverse 100% blocked arteries in under 3 years. It seemed extreme, but his patients were patients with severe heart disease, many resistant to standard of care therapies, including bypasses, stents and medications.
I determined, after staring at my calcium score, to start the next morning on the Esselstyn diet, a radical whole food plant-based diet that was low fat, restricting all oils, fats, animal foods, fish, dairy, eggs, nuts, most seeds and even avocados to reduce dietary fat to 10% of calories. I wrote my plan the next morning for my next six months--the remainder of 2025. If I could half my LDL within 6 months to 80 mg/dL (2.0 mM), then half it again to 40 mg/dL (1.0 mM) within one year, I would be on the path to reverse my plaques.
I told my plan to Anita, and she, being a doctor, said I would need a high-dose statin, and diet wouldn’t do. My doctor friends were very concerned and suggested I get a stent. I see a sports cardiologist August 18 with a scheduled stress test. I suspect I will pass that, but I surmised that if I don’t, I would consider a stent. But my mindset is to resolve my disease by the first principles of health. With a stent, it will get clogged in 10-15 years, and I have been blessed with the mind to research and figure out the disease process and pathophysiology, with a degree in Biochemistry and medicine.
On June 17, I went to San Francisco and did a full-body assessment at Human Longevity, Inc. My heart MRI and heart echocardiogram were normal. My CT Angiogram of the heart revealed all my blockages. My calcium score was 475. It could be a difference in the machine but my May 5 calcium score was 505.
But what shocked me most was my cholesterol numbers!
My LDL cholesterol had dropped from 168 to 84. I was so excited. I had anticipated my dietary strategy to take 6 months to reach this level, but it dropped by 50% in just 5 weeks. Wow! And ten of those days were travel days where I had some ‘cheat meals’.
My total cholesterol of 158 was now lower than my LDL a month ago. Astounding! I was worried about my lipoprotein a level, which lifestyle changes cannot modify, but that was low at 40, and my apoB was reasonable at 75. Ideally, I want this below 55 to reverse plaque. I knew at that moment that it was possible for me now. Tears of joy like victory resounded in my heart! Esselstyn was right. He was the head of the Cleveland Clinic in the 1980s and is still active at age 92. He was a cardiac surgeon, and as I listened to dozens of interviews by him, I grasped all the mechanisms, health principles and reasons he spoke about, and I did my own research daily. I have many more strategies to reverse my heart disease, and I’m thinking through each one before experimenting, trying to figure out how to measure its effect going forward.
My target LDL is to be in the 40s by the end of the year. I will do monthly lipid blood tests to monitor. My two-month LDL is about 75, as my doctor only got me a total cholesterol, HDL and non-HDL level. I am going to take matters into my own hands and get full lipid profiles like the one above each month. LDL at 80 stabilizes heart disease, and below that, soft plaques get remodelled and resorbed. My goal is to get a HDL higher than LDL. My friend Raz has already accomplished this with a HDL of 129 and LDL of 84. And I plan on reviving the health of my endothelial cells, the inner lining of my blood vessels.
I had let my medical license lapse in 2015, because I was so busy with my entrepreneurial pursuits, but I am going to apply to reobtain my medical license. I plan to do health more as philanthropy rather than as a livelihood, as I’ve been blessed beyond measure by God and those around me. Thank you dearly!
Eyes are Getting Better Too
When your heart is pure, your sight is clear.
Dr. Kevin Ham
Two Sundays ago, I was listening to a sermon, and usually I have a hard time seeing the small print on the screen. But this time, it was clear and vivid, and I was so amazed that I closed one eye, then the other, to check if it was one or both eyes. Clear. I was so excited again. I wasn’t even thinking about my eyes. I then did a home eye test and found both eyes at 20/16. I learned also that my retinal pigment epithelium had drastically decreased in thickness due to my two years of receiving eye anti-VEGF injections in 2020-2022. I stopped the eye med injections over two years ago, thankfully. My good left eye RPE was only 153 now and no wonder my visual acuity is affected. I had felt the world looked less technicolour and muted. But now things look much more vivid, colourful and clear. I started thinking about what caused my macular degeneration, and I started studying the layers and cells of the retina, Bruch’s membrane and vascular layers. I then had a hypothesis. The same process that caused disease in my eyes was also happening in my carotid arteries and my heart vessels, and likely my hearing vessels.
Could I also possibly stabilize or reverse my eye and neck vessels with my heart protocol?
My Fractured Bone Analogy: How a Fractured Heart Heals Like a Broken Bone
A fractured heart can become whole again.
Dr. Kevin Ham
When you break a bone, you don’t walk on it, nor do you medicate endlessly. You immobilize it with a cast, remove any more insult or damage to the injured area, give it rest for your body to heal, nourish it and then rehabilitate it back to strength. But with the heart, that is not the current standard of care. Medicine ignores solving the root causes and tells us to pop a statin and baby aspirin until stents and bypasses are required.
The arterial wall- the endothelium- heals in much the same way as a fractured bone, in principle.
You stop any and all insults to the endothelial cells.
You protect the vessel.
You give it the necessary nutrition, time and conditions to regenerate.
You rehabilitate the bone, muscles and blood flow.
And that’s what I’ve done with my C.A.S.T. Protocol.
The HAM Heart Protocol: A 10-Step Science-Backed Healing Blueprint
The body follows the natural laws of health and breaking from these results in progressive disorder and disease. We have built a civilization of immense health debt, repayable but not through mere drugs that treat only the outward symptoms but only by treating and removing the root causes.
Dr. Kevin Ham
C.A.S.T. = My healing cast for the heart
C = Cut all oils and inflammation
No added oils
No processed fats
Whole foods only - extreme version is Esselstyn diet
Reduces endothelial damage and inflammation
A = Achieve LDL <50 mg/dL, HDL>60 mg/dL (LDL/HDL < 1)
Removes the root cause of plaque progression
Mimics lifelong low LDL found in native populations with no heart disease, and also cholesterol levels in teens and 20s
Sleep > 7 hours daily. Restores hormonal balance, reduces CRP, and promotes nighttime endothelial healing and rejuvenation. Deep sleep of 1 hour and core sleep of 4 hours makes me feel 100% REM might be 2 hours.
S = Strategic Nutrition
Whole foods, high fibre, high antioxidants
Essential nutrition to help reverse atherosclerosis that has been scientifically proven with consideration of models based on first principles of health that can be further tested and proven
Reverses atherosclerosis by reducing oxidized LDL and improving nitric oxide, which expands blood vessels
T = Time-restricted Fasting and Training
High intensity interval Training (HIIT) + Zone 3 fitness for shear stress and metabolic flexibility, collateral circulation improvement with plaque remodeling and increase HDL, lower LDL, VLDL and triglycerides and increase eNOS (more nitric oxide) and endothelial health, increases VO2max (oxygen utilization)
physical therapy for the heart vessels
24 hour weekly and 72 hour monthly fasts to lower inflammation and promote autophagy, to resorb plaque
lowers insulin, triglycerides, LDL
autophagy cleans up cancer cells, damaged cells (aka plaques)
Increases HDL
This is like rest and sleep and rejuvenation for the arteries
I’ll outline the 10-Step Heart Protocol more later when I am certain of reversal rather than just lower LDL levels.
Triple Strategy maybe even Handful Strategy
Heart vessels are complex and the center of human life. Why not approach a multi-prong lifestyle cure for not only arresting progress of heart disease but to actually reverse and cure it for all blood vessels?
Dr. Kevin Ham
I thought, “Why just have one strategy? Why not employ a Force Multiplier, like they do in cancer therapy: Chemotherapy (often triple chemo strategy), Radiation and Surgery, aka poison/burn/slash. Or in warfare, strike by air, navy, and ground at once.”
I surmised that I would need something that would act like the osteoclasts that drive osteoporosis, where my immune system would go and remodel my calcified plaques and resorb them by taking the calcium and lipids out. There are macrophages in the heart that can do this, but they need to be incited to do so. Calcification is an overly protective mechanism in the face of continuing damage to the endothelial vessels of the heart, eye, brain to reduce the risk of rupture and subsequent death. What could do this, short of injecting osteoclasts into the heart vessels?
Fasting is one mechanism in which to induce autophagy along with utilizing our more efficient fat energy system, which less than 10% seem to have the ability to do well, as most people are glucose dependent, giving rise to a cancerous environment, as cancer cells can only use glucose for energy, but not fat.
Vitamin K2, along with HDL, might also help, as Vitamin K2 keeps calcium out of soft tissues like the arterial walls and into bone and teeth. HDL carries cholesterol from the blood to the liver.
So my Triple Strategy is:
Healing diet protocol
Exercise protocol
Fasting protocol
Thinking about how to implement my 4th strategy for the Sleep protocol.
Top 3 Heart Superfoods to Reverse Plaque
Reverse soft plaques first, then attack the more difficult seemingly impossible calcified hard plaques.
Dr. Kevin Ham
There are three types of plaque: Unstable, soft and hard.
Unstable plaques cause 70% of heart attacks, otherwise known as Low Attenuated Plaque (LAP), as they can rupture into the lumen of the artery and cause a full blockage of the artery, resulting in a heart attack. These plaques are typically smaller and rupture without warning.
Plaques that are calcified and obstructing the artery, while limiting blood flow, typically do not rupture and present warning signs like angina (chest pain) or shortness of breath on exertion.
In six months, I can reduce the volume of my soft plaque and focus heavily on this.
Here are my Top 3 Heart Superfoods that have the power to reduce soft plaques:
Pomegranate juice. Just 50 ml per day can reduce up to 36% of carotid plaques. Easily measured via CIMT ultrasound of the carotids.
High dose EPA of 4g/day. This is an omega-3 fatty acid that is important in the cell membrane of the endothelial cells, as well as reducing inflammation and helping endothelial cells produce nitric oxide, which helps expand the blood vessels. This is recognized in traditional medicine, and you can get a prescription for it.
Natto contains high amounts of Vitamin K2 and contains a significant amount of nattokinase. 6000 to 12000 FU (fibrinogen units) can reduce plaques in the carotids up to 30%. I am eating natto twice a day and also plan to supplement with nattokinase to get to 12,000 FU. Vit K2 amounts from natto twice a day are ~500 mcg.
Notables:
Red Grapefruit. Once a day. Be careful if you are taking statins or medications, as grapefruit affects the liver enzymes and can alter medication dosages.
? Vitamin C high dose plus lysine and proline. Will explain the proposed mechanisms after I do more research.
My Next Month
It’s my ‘rest two weeks’ as I return from Korea today, having done my weekly fasts and I only did strength training with weights (squats, leg extensions, leg press, bench press). I did a colonoscopy to rule out the #1 cancer, Colon cancer. No polyps. Just three diverticuli in my right colon. Whew!
Labs:
Aug 18: Exercise stress test
Aug 19: CT Heart Flow to measure blood flow obstruction in my main heart vessels to see how much my plaques affect blood flow. I assume I have a lot of natural bypasses in the form of collateral blood flow due to my decades of cycling, but this will tell me for sure.
Aug 19: CIMT to measure carotid intima-media thickness (carotid plaque in the neck)
Aug 19: Monthly lipid panel
Lifestyle Prescription:
Fast:
29 hour fast on the plane ride back home tomorrow
72h fast a week after my Sept gran Fondo
Exercise:
Train for my 140 km Gran Fondo next Saturday with a block of solid riding (490 km in 11 days including 4 rest day)
Continue 2.5 week block exercise training of 600 km Aug 18 - Sep 3 for Whistler Gran Fondo: 122 km with 2000m elevation September 6
Diet:
Add 4g EPA to my lifestyle modification
Add nattokinase supplementation
Sleep:
Try and sleep 7 hours+. Go to bed by 11:30 pm latest.
Life Questions
I have a few friends who did full-body physicals this summer. My dear friend found a small brain aneurysm and is pre-diabetic, although she seems so healthy. Another found three colon polyps, with one large one that needs a referral. Another friend had eight colonic polyps removed. I’m convinced that anyone eating the western diet of processed foods has some degree of atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome (eg. insulin resistance that can lead to diabetes and other metabolic diseases).
What silent disease has started to take root in your body that you might be unaware of?
What baseline tests can you do to catch it early and be aware of it, especially if you are in your 40s or older?
I’ll check back in with an update on my heart journey next month. In the meantime…
Next week: The 7-Self Framework: the Transformational Journey of Self
From Self-Perception to Self-Transcendence
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
What Shapes the Self?
Our soul is not reflected through our body without deep intention. Let your soul be master of your body and do not let your body be your master.
Dr. Kevin Ham
The road to self-confidence, self-actualization and self-transcendence, the Fruits of Self, come from three Self Inputs, the Roots of Self.
Every self is shaped by three foundational inputs. I lacked these three self inputs and only saw myself through the lenses of others’ and my environment. I was the second shortest in my grade, a minority, feeble-minded although bright, and didn’t have any dreams or purpose in my life. That started to change when I started asking myself important questions about life and my role in it. It changed even more when I made my misfortunes take on meaning and purpose. When I was bedridden in the hospital with an autoimmune disease, I decided that I was going to be a doctor of medicine to help other unfortunate people like myself.
These three Self Inputs started to reveal the deep core of my soul and spirit in my diseased and weak body.
Self-Perception
The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
Joseph Campbell
Self-perception is how you view yourself. It is the story you believe about yourself and it dictates how high you dream, how deeply you love and how boldly you live.
Where Negative Self-Perception Comes From:
Most of your negative self-perception comes from:
Childhood labels, experiences, especially traumatizing ones and early conditioning. These play in repeating patterns both silently and actively with dependency, neediness, blaming, complaining, excusing, compromising with situations and peoples.
Unresolved failures mistaken as identity. Failures do not equal who you are. They are a byproduct or process on the way to learning and figuring you out. With every failure a seed of growth can be planted and redemption and wisdom gained. Edison said he failed 10,000 times before he could find the way to invent the light bulb.
You should ask yourself some important questions about your Self-Perception and understand the deep fundamental truths about yourself.
Do I align with my potential or with my past? In other words, do I constrain myself because of my past or can I have limitless possibilities because of my future?
What truth about myself do I believe? What lie about myself can I live with?
Practices:
Clarify who you are and who you wish to become. Write a “Who I Am Becoming” vision statement.
Reframe your past, good and bad, including the hardest failures, as preparation, learning rather than disqualification and unworthiness. Be honest with yourself.
Self-Talk
Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.
Viktor Frankl
Your self-talk is the words you speak about yourself and believe. What you say, you reinforce. These repeated words then become your self-identity, which dictates how you think, speak and behave. This is then reflected into your outer world.
Negative self-talk comes from unclosed loops and perceived gaps between your present critical self and your future aspired self as well as what others tell you about these seemingly large gaps.
The criticisms from your esteemed ones, authority figures or peers echoing in your head like a perpetual pinball machine.
Subconscious repetition of old emotional scripts and trauma that has not healed.
You should ask yourself:
What stories am I repeating and living that no longer serve me?
How would I speak to myself if I truly believed I was becoming who I was meant to be?
The purpose of questions is to explore, to provide clarity and hopefully define you, your true deeper self more fully.
Practices:
Begin each day with a truth-based affirmation about yourself. All things are relative and there are only levels in every direction.
Interrupt internal criticism with compassion, clarity and curiosity. Explore its deep roots and see if you transform or transplant them into healthy soil for purpose or meaning or learning.
Self-Environment
We must let go of the life we have planned so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell
Your environment is not neutral. It either nurtures your self-actualization to become who you are or normalizes your excuses and binds you to your past, preventing your future.
Your negative self-environment comes from staying in environments out of habit, familiarity rather than alignment to your purpose. It is the city or country you grew up in, your friend groups, your families, your language, your customs. It is also bound by your cultural, familial, religious and social systems that resist non-conformity, that do not let your soul stand out as unique.
You should ask yourself:
Who consistently reinforces my highest identity?
What do I need to step away from in order to be freely me?
Practices:
Deeply curate your content, community and commitments. This is 80% elimination and 20% addition.
Design your mental, physical and relational space to support your future self.
Roots to Fruits
You alone determine and establish your roots. And your roots determine the fruits you share with the world.
Dr. Kevin Ham
When your three Self Inputs (Roots) align:
Clear Self-Perception
Consistent and authentic Self-Talk
Supportive Self-Environment
The three Self Outputs become your Fruits:
Self-Confidence
Self-Actualization
Self-Transcendence
One Life-Changing Question
In the final analysis, the question is not what we expect from life, but what life expects from us.
Viktor Frankl
What does the future You expect you to allow in today?
Final Thought
We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey
Dr. Kevin Ham
You don’t just shape your habits. You shape your Self and your Self will shape the world you touch. Shine and Smile.
Choose your three Self Inputs with deep intention.
Next week: The 7-Self Framework: the Transformational Journey of Self
From Self-Perception to Self-Transcendence
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
From Self-Actualization to Self-Transcendence
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
Viktor Frankl
Last week, we explored the top of Maslow’s pyramid to Self-Actualization — becoming your highest self. But later in life, Maslow realized that there was a level even higher, broader and deeper to your soul and that is Self-Transcendence.
You don’t become your highest and best self on this earth until you give your self-actualized self away to others.
It’s not the next step or level after success, but it is the purpose for your success and self-actualization. It’s not the mountaintop. It’s the mirror.
That’s why so many people who climb the summit of success to self-actualization only have a brief glimpse of victory and celebration before they feel empty, down and alone on this summit as the celebration fades.
The mirror of transcendence reflects who you are — not when you look into it, but when others are changed by what they see in you.
Self-actualization is your calling. Self-transcendence is your contribution, your gift to the world.
Begin with the End in Mind
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein
Everyone sets personal goals, but wisdom says to begin with legacy. Ask not “What do I want?” but “Who do I want to become for the sake of others?”
When you begin with who you want to serve, everything you do and build is sacred and purposeful.
Self-transcendence doesn’t diminish you or your dreams. It highly amplifies them. It gives your growth and success meaning beyond just you and your name.
The Three Lenses of Self-Transcendence
Maslow: The Final Step Most Miss
Transcenders are consciously motivated by values which transcend their own self.
Abraham Maslow
Maslow describes the highest level of self as Self-Transcendence: “the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature and to the cosmos.”
This is when we:
Seek truth, beauty, and righteousness not for status or personal gain, but because they are fundamental values
Serve without recognition
Align with something larger than ourselves
It’s about giving and serving on your way down from the summit of success.
Frankl: Meaning Through Others
Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself.
Viktor Frankl “Man’s Search for Meaning”
In the holocaust camps of WWII, Frankl found that survival often depended not on strength, but on purpose.
People transcended this personal suffering and hell by living for:
The person they loved
A mission they needed to complete
A vision that outlived pain and perhaps incorporated this pain into the marrow of their souls to give it meaning and purpose
You transcend by offering your pain, not but hiding or running away from it.
Campbell: The Hero Returns to Give Wisdom
The hero’s journey ends when the hero returns to serve.
The Hero’s 12 Step Journey ends when he returns to the Ordinary World from which he came, transformed by an insight in the New World and offers this wisdom to his Ordinary World. He returns not to claim victory or to take, but to share. Not to shine, but to reflect and uplift.
You become the medicine you needed and offer it freely to all those who need it.
My Moments of Transcendence
It only takes a moment of insight into yourself to transform you.
Dr. Kevin Ham
The Hill For Elliott
As my good friend Elliott lay dying from sarcoma at age 28, I decided to do a charity ride to conquer cancer, a two-day ride with each day 100 km. That was in 2008. I was very afraid of the hills on that ride and I had this insight that this fear paled in comparison to the hill that Elliott had to climb due to his cancer. So each pedal up that hill was symbolic of the fight each cancer victim had to take where the summit was likely death. Now I embrace each hill climb in honour and in memory of Elliott, my mother and everyone who has and is fighting this fight to conquer cancer. I am helping my good friend Dr. Azra Raza with her life mission of preventing, detecting and eradicating this vicious self-immortalized cell we call cancer.
Practices to Awaken Transcendence
Begin every day and meeting with Gratitude
My team meetings start this way. It opens the heart.
Give Without Credit
True giving leaves no mark
Ask Who, not What
Who can I serve today?
Let Pain Become Your Path
Embrace it and transform it with meaning
Build What Will Outlast You
Principles, wisdom, systems, people. Seed the future now.
Life Questions:
Answer these questions and write them down.
Am I living to be seen- or to serve?
What pain in my story could become someone else’s hope?
What would it look like to live as a mirror and not as a monument?
Final Thought
“Self-Actualization says to become your best self. Self-Transcendence say to give your best self to others.”
Dr. Kevin Ham
Your light was not meant to be buried deep in you. It was meant to shine through you to others.
The mirror of transcendence is clearest when someone else sees themselves more clearly because of how you lived.
Next week: The Three Core Inputs That Shape Your Self — Self-perception, self-talk and self-environment.
See you next Thursday!
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The Paradox of the Pyramid
Begin with the end in mind.
Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
To Begin with the End in Mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.
Begin with the End in Mind" is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.
At the top of Abraham Maslow’s Pyramid of the Hierarchy of Needs sits Self-Actualization, the end point we all strive for.
We often think that self-actualization is the world’s image of success, whether that world be your family, your friends, your peers, your workplace, your community or the media. Those are self-imposed expectations based on other’s conformed ideas of success.
Do we really strive to self-actualize and burst out of the seeds planted in our hearts, nurtured by plowing of the heart through the valleys of hardship, sorrow, and despair polarized by the heights of joy, recognition and pleasure?
But if you begin with self-actualization as the end in mind, you start on your journey to self-reflection, self-discovery and self-awareness.
This is what I started to realize in my 20s and became ever so aware in my 30s. All my years of darkness, hardships, sufferings, trials and tribulations were the cocoon that fostered the seeds deep in my heart to sprout and bear fruit in this world.
The End starts when you have a dream, a vision of what you want to do with your life, no matter how unseemly grand or small your vision may be. You can become that self-actualized person now as you need to first create the mental image of yourself and then the physical creation of yourself will come in due time.
I saw a grand vision, mission, values for myself that were somewhat clear but also somewhat vague. It was hazy but I started to take a step in that general direction. I have a much clearer vision and mission of my life now as I reflect on my many foolish missteps and mistakes.
The 3 Models of Self-Actualization
I realized I only have a relatively short time on this earth. How could I live and fulfill my dreams? So I asked, I searched, I knocked diligently upon this question for decades. I have read and been inspired by these three powerful models and contemplated how I could apply them in my heart and in my actions.
Maslow: Self-Actualization Through Growth
What a man can be, he must be.
Abraham Maslow
At the bottom of the pyramid, Maslow postulated that you need to fulfill your basic needs in succession, like food, safety, love and belonging, esteem before self-actualization. But later, Maslow revised his model when he realized that self-actualizing people often grow before their lower needs are fully met. Why is this?
How many stories have you heard of those without such basic needs rise up and grow up despite those deficiencies to do things that seemed unlikely or even impossible?
They saw a vision or a mission of who they could become in that moment they stepped forward into that void between lack and fullness. A purpose beyond just themselves. A vision of how they could transform themselves, like the caterpillar embracing its own cocoon to later emerge as the butterfly.
Your Hero’s Journey: Self-Actualization Through Trials
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
Joseph Campbell
In his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” written in 1949, Joseph Campbell inspired George Lucas to write the trilogy Star Wars. Campbell saw that the principles of life in religion, myths and legends all had a common journey for the Hero.
He outlined 12 Stages of a Hero’s Journey, which can further be simplified to 3 broader Stages. He saw these as the transformation of the ordinary person into that extraordinary hero.
The Call - an invitation in your ordinary world calling you on a journey
The Trial - crossing the threshold into a new world of uncertainty, loss and fear
The Return - wisdom brought to others as you have a transformation from the inside out
Self-actualization does not happen in your ordinary life. It’s when you hear the calling in your heart to cross the threshold into the unknown, into the deep, into that dark cave you fear. Remember Luke Skywalker as he accepts his call to join the Rebels, as he faces Darth Vader in Yoda’s World first in a dream and then battles him losing his arm? He had to lose himself spiritually then physically in order to be reborn, resurrected, transformed.
This is the wilderness journey of Moses by himself for 40 years and later with his 600,000+ people from Egypt to Israel together.
This is Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness and being tempted three times by the devil in private and then carrying his cross and being crucified to it in public.
Note: You are that hero. Go find your journey.
Viktor Frankl: Self-Actualization Through Meaning
Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.
Viktor Frankl
If you have not yet read Frankl’s book, “A Man’s Search For Meaning,” make it one of your top books to read this summer. Frankl details his life in the Holocaust camp and what he saw. He was a psychiatrist, but on his arrival to Auschwitz, he was stripped bare of all that he was, all that he and instead of Dr. Frankl, was given a number for his name.
“I can see beyond the misery of the situation to the potential for discovering a meaning behind it, and thus to turn an apparently meaningless suffering into a genuine human achievement. I am convinced that, in the final analysis, there is no situation that does not contain within it the seed of meaning. To a great extent, this conviction is the basis of Logotherapy.”
Frankl saw that those who had meaning despite the torture, depravity and horror of the concentration camps, increased the chances of one’s survival. So he saw who he would become because of his experience and gave and encouraged others with what little he had in the camp. One morsel of bread daily.
Meaning gave him strength and hope. He believed that each person is the only one who could decide about the meaning of their life and that he has to take responsibility for creating and deciding his own personal unique meaning. S/he can also decide the meaning of a situation individual is the only one to decide about the meaning of their life and that the individual has to take responsibility for creating and deciding its unique meaning. The ability to decide the meaning of a situation has the power to create a positive outcome from the worst of situations. The worse the situation, the more profound the meaning and personal transformation.
How to Start Self-Actualizing Now
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Aspire Your Full Potential now
Write out your Self-actualization Identity Statement:
I am a person who is _________ (write out at least 3 or more things you aspire to be and do).Tape it to your bathroom mirror or by your bedside to read each morning and evening. Memorize it.
Align With Your Full Identity
Think and Act from this identity today
Don’t wait until you are ready or confident.
Start with one thought and action that reflects who you are actualizing.
Actualize
Notice in the word actualize is the word act.
Thoughts become actions. Actions become words. These become your character.
Life Questions:
Answer these questions and write them down.
What identity do I want to start self-actualizing now?
What is preventing me or constraining me from starting now?
Solve that obstacle or constraint
Final Thought
Start today with who you wish to become. Embrace hardship, failures, obstacles, fear and make them the fallowed ground to plant the seeds of your heart.
Dr. Kevin Ham
Next week: Back to How to be Self-Transcendent: How Serving Others Transforms You to Your Highest Self
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
Your Sixth Sense
This is your intuition, the silent voice that whispers WISDOM.
Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.
Jonas Salk (1914-1995)
Do you recall the first 11 Secrets of Success?
A Desire or a goal that you envision to be real. A dream you deeply desire.
Faith in the attainment of that desire beyond all doubt.
Use Autosuggestion to deeply embed the faith in your desire into your subconscious.
Specialized knowledge allows you to master what aligns with your purpose—the cornerstone of your impact.
Imagination allows you to build your desire in the workshop of your mind, creating a blueprint with all the details.
Organized Planning organizes this living blueprint, bringing each step closer to reality.
Decision empowers you to take swift unwavering action. It sets you in motion from the inside out.
Persistence gives you the resolve to continually pursue your goal, even when the obstacles seem insurmountable.
The Mastermind principle is about surrounding yourself with individuals who challenge and uplift you, creating a synergy that elevates everyone in the Mastermind.
Your Subconscious Mind is part of your soul (psyche), where your beliefs, desires, and actions converge. It stores every thought and ultimately guides your actions and reactions.
The Brain is not just a physical organ but a transmitter of thought. When you harness it, you can connect with the collective ideas of others, drawing inspiration from the world around you.
These final two secrets complete and make everything exponential.
12. The Sixth Sense
The Door to the Temple of Wisdom
Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007)
The sixth sense is intuition, the "inner knowing" that guides decision-making beyond logic. It's the silent voice that whispers wisdom.
Jobs often spoke of intuition guiding his best decisions, from product design to company culture. His gut instinct was a silent but powerful force behind Apple's success, enabling him to innovate in ways others couldn't anticipate.
Application: People think I lead and make decisions based on data, but I only use data to give credence to my deep intuitions, which have faithfully guided me most of my life. Data allows you to tell the story of your intuition to 'unbelievers.' Some people call these pipe dreams pie in the sky, moonshots. But even without such data, faith in intuition has led to marvellous inventions and discoveries of humankind. I believe this intuition is what connects the soul (psyche) to the spirit. When in tune, intuition whispers the secrets of wisdom into your heart and soul and drives you to act on them. You waver between reason and logic and intuition. Follow your intuition. Looking back on life, you'll see that intuition has always been a faithful steward.
Wisdom: Trust the whispers of intuition, for they often reveal the most profound insights. Let your sixth sense guide you, seeing truths beyond the visible.
13. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
Channeling Physical Energy into Creative Energy
Sexual energy is the creative energy of all geniuses.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
This one is often censored or omitted due to the word sex. But it is a very real and necessary part of our success. Sex transmutation involves redirecting powerful physical and emotional energies into creative and productive outlets. Harnessing this intense energy can fuel creativity, focus, and productivity.
For innovators like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Walt Disney, this principle means transforming intense passions into artistic or entrepreneurial pursuits. Jobs, for instance, channelled his energy into designing products with almost obsessive attention to detail, creating devices that are both functional and beautiful. Musk similarly channels his intensity and drive into world-changing ventures, from electric cars to space exploration.
Application: When soldiers go into war, if they hold and channel their sexual energies into physical and mental combat, it can mean the difference between life and death. When athletes channel the sexual energy within and around them, they can be in the zone and perform at the highest level. Fans and cheerleaders fuel this energy. Sexual energy is not just in the realm of sex but also adoration, and loving support. This energy transmutation is one of the most powerful energies in the world. Kingdoms rise and fall by this. For the love of a woman. For the love of a person. For the love of a nation. For the love of a gold medal or championship.
Wisdom: Learn to recognize and harness intense energies within yourself. Redirect them into pursuits that align with your highest aspirations, turning primal energy into creative power that drives you toward greatness.
My Life Question:
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
What is Success to me? (ask yourself and answer wisely)
This answer will change how you view yourself and live your life.
I believe success is not a "what" but a "who" or many "who's".
Success is how you have impacted people, not how much you have in things.
I devote my life to the well-being of others. In the 'ministry' given to me, I wish to help relieve humanity's suffering. That is, as a doctor, a father, an entrepreneur, and a Christian.
My Life Lessons:
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Developing your sixth sense, i.e. your intuition is listening to your heart.
Leveraging and practicing these 13 principles of success will make you grow as a person. It requires you to fully develop and understand who you are and who those around you are.
Vibrate at the highest frequency of truth and faith in your mission and vision, anchored well by your values and virtues.
Next week:
The Power of the Compound Effect
Become great with small steps and actions over time
Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
See you next Thursday!
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The First 3 Success Principles
Let’s 80/20 Success
The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.
John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960)
How many piano keys make up all the melodies we hear? Just 12. Seven white keys and five black keys.
And how many principles determine Success? Just 13. According to the teachings of Andrew Carnegie and the great successful people of his era, like Henry Ford, who democratized automobiles, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and many others. Carnegie challenged Napoleon Hill to find the principles of Success and introduced him to all the successful people he knew.
Hill defined the principles of Success to just 13 in his book, 'Think and Grow Rich'.
Think is the keyword here. Think deeply and connect many deep thoughts together. Hill created much more wealth through his book than Carnegie did through his business empire, and he was one of the wealthiest people of his time ($310 billion in today's dollars and the fourth richest of all time).
Do you know and employ these 13 principles of Success?
Can you name them?
I'd like to delve into them each week, starting with the first three keystone principles of Success.
1. Desire
Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Success begins with a strong desire for a definite goal. It's not just wishing but a deep, burning desire that propels one to take laser-like focused action toward achieving something significant or meaningful. It's a force so strong that it pushes you to continue striving, even when challenges arise.
When I decided to become a medical doctor at age 14, it was my number one desire. When I was 24 in 1994, I desired to be part of the fabric of the Internet. I envisioned owning four key domains: God.com, Heaven.com, Religion.com, and Jesus.com. There is just one left. When the time is right, it will be granted to me.
These were two of my strongest desires in life. They pervaded my heart and mind incessantly. I knew nothing would stop me in my quest to fulfill this deep-seated desire.
What is your desire?
Perhaps it's a mission, a thing or, more importantly, a person.
2. Faith
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
You learned about 80/20. Only a few things have a high impact. One thing gives you half your results.
"What is that one thing that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?"
Faith is the unwavering belief in the attainability of a goal or desire. Faith is the act of seeing the invisible and trusting in oneself or a greater power in the seemingly impossible. It is the belief that, despite lacking evidence, something greater is guiding you toward your purpose. Faith has the transformative power to make the invisible visible.
Even though I did not get into medical school immediately after I finished my Honours Biochemistry degree, I was not only more determined but still fully believed that I would eventually get in. I also believed it was providential, as it was my 'one wish' to a greater power that I had not yet known when I was hospitalized at age 14. I thanked God when I was accepted into UBC and the University of Calgary's medical schools.
And for the four domain names, I believed it would take 20 years or more to get all four:
God.com took 4 years
Religion.com took 5 years
Heaven.com took 7 years
I believe Jesus.com is coming within the next decade.
I also have a desire to help cure cancer and educate people on what is causing a lot of the world's epidemic of chronic illness. I believe I know some of the major root causes.
What do you believe in?
Sorrow looks back. Worry looks around. Faith looks up.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
3. Autosuggestion
Be not the slave of your own past- plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
"Keep the Faith." The world around you has a way of making you doubt your desires and their attainment. As we age, we become 'unlike' the child who believed everything was possible and asked, "Why not?" and "Why?" We start to limit our beliefs as we stumble and fall, fearing to fail and look bad before others.
The person who regards his heart more than the opinions of others will have the courage to live his dreams.
Autosuggestion is the practice of repeating affirmations or mental images to affirm and visualize your goals by internalizing them and profoundly embedding them in your subconscious mind to keep your faith strong.
Autosuggestion is a bridge that gets you close to your desire, but you must still take that leap of faith where faith is 100%, not 1% less. Pure faith.
Society and our conscious and logical mind tend to negate anything it cannot 'see.' It asks for proof, logic, and reason. The visionary and intuitive mind sees things before they manifest. Visionaries, we call such people.
What do you envision? Over and over again until you see it in your mind's eye, strong and sure? With not even 1% doubt?
I asked myself why I pray so much. O you of little faith.
"The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
But victory comes from the Lord." (King Solomon)
I have prepared my mind, heart, and body, but prayer is the hope that a greater power beyond myself, my Lord and Creator, will bless and bring about my desires.
I define prayer as the request in full faith to God that the hope I desire be blessed and accomplished by His mighty hand through me.
This hope is not seen physically through my eyes or logically by my mind but through my heart. This is the gift and secret power I have learned.
My Life Question:
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
What do you really desire?
What is your one true desire?
Remove all the shadows of this deep-seated desire. Mine away all the dirt that buries this true desire and let it shine. Have the courage to dig deep into your heart.
Or, a better question is, for whom do you live? Are you willing to sacrifice everything for that one person?
Life Advice
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Know the principles that govern Success. They are like laws following cause and effect, input leading to output.
Most people are defined by one thing. Most people are complete by one person.
Seek your one thing and your one person. If you are blessed, you may have two things and two people. And if really blessed, then more things and more people. This is the love of your life. What do you love to do, and who do you love to do it for?
When you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone else is crying.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Next week:
The Next 3 Principles of Success
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
See you next Thursday!
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The One Thing That Really Matters
The “F” word that has F, U, C but no K
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.
The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
I like to multitask so I can get a lot done. I have a lot on my 'To Do' list. But I realized that I don't do things as well or as fast by trying to multitask.
I learned a powerful concept that all successful people do very well. It's the F word, but it's five letters. It has a 'U' and 'C' but no 'K'.
What is that F word?
FOCUS.
Yes, focus, focus, focus. Like "Location, location" for real estate.
Focus is the key to exponential growth and returns.
1. Focus on Your Strengths
Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden (1910–2010)
Sometimes, we focus on our weaknesses to improve ourselves. It's valid. We all start in a position of 'unknowing,' 'weakness,' or 'inability' until we practice enough to become great at something. But most of us are gifted with something that comes naturally, that we love, or that we have done enough times to do well. Lean into these.
I have the gifts of creativity and problem-solving. I love surprises and magical moments, which may be why I love Disney so much and go there every year.
What are your key strengths? List the Top 3 now.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Bruce Lee (1940-1973)
2. Focus on High-Impact Opportunities
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
You learned about 80/20. Only a few things have a high impact. One thing gives you half your results.
"What is that one thing that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?"
This is the focusing question from the book, 'The One Thing'. Ask yourself this question each day.
The other focus should be on what is constraining the goal. This constraint, sometimes called the bottleneck, slows or even anchors the goal from happening. You must use your resources or abilities to remove this constraint. A series of constraints must be identified, and the biggest one must be focused on. This is from Dr. Eli Goldratt's book, The Goal, a Top 50 Best-Selling book of all time.
So, there are only two things to identify:
The goal (the one thing that will give you up to half your results)
The constraint (that blocks you from flow or your goal)
And remove all other 'distractions'.
Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944)
3. Focus on the Long-Term
Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.
Stephen Covey (1932-2012)
Align short-term goals and decisions with long-term goals. Line these up like dominos to increase compounding effects over time. This is the most powerful system you can think of and develop.
We call this leverage by leveraging every goal into moving bigger goals.
We have a land, Camp Howdy, that is only accessible legally by boat. We needed to attract people here, so we bought Dining Domes. People came. Then we added lights we could program on these domes so that we could do light shows after dinner. This attracted more people. Next, we set the lights to music and expanded the light show to include the buildings. See 123Festivals.com. We sold out October's GloFest. Now we are doing Christmas Tea Lights. Next, I want to leverage this for corporate retreats.
List your 5-year and 10-year goals and then each yearly goal from now to then to accomplish them. What constraints prevent these annual goals? Remove them. Prioritize them.
My Life Question:
If you only had one wish, what would that one wish be?
I ask this to everyone I interview.
If there is only one goal you want to accomplish in your life, what is it?
We call this your mission in life. We see this as our vision.
You know Christopher Columbus, for one thing.
You know Abraham Lincoln, for one thing.
You know Charles Darwin, for one thing.
You know, Martin Luther King Jr, for one thing.
Some people have the rare gift of being known for two things or three.
What are you known for or will be known for?
Life Advice
The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
Robert Byrne (1928-2013)
Life is fractal, just like 80/20 is fractal.
The key in life is to find that one singular thing that is your Magnum Opus, your "great work," and build up toward that crescendo in your life to complete what you are destined to do, your mission if you choose to accomplish it.
Beethoven's Magnum Opus was his symphony #9 when he was deaf.
John Milton's was his Paradise Lost, even when he became blind.
What is your Magnum Opus?
Next week:
The 13 Principles of Success. That’s all you need to know.
Let’s start with the 80/20 of these Principles of Success (the first 3)
“The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.”
John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960)
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
The One Thing that Skyrockets Your Success
The secret of all the most successful people in history
The 80/20 principle states that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of efforts. Focus on the few things that truly matter, and success will follow.
Richard Koch (1950-present)
This principle changed my life. A lot.
This important 80/20 Principle, or Pareto's Principle, was taught to me, but I didn't really understand it until decades later. Do you?
The results speak for themselves. If you applied 80/20, you would be in the top 1% of whatever field you applied the 80/20 Principle towards. You would be in the Top 1% quite easily and naturally. Yet most people rarely apply the 80/20 Principle, even if reminded time and time again.
1. Most things are not equal.
Just 7 companies (Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, NVIDIA, Google, Tesla) account for 50% of the market (NASDAQ). If you had invested early in any of these companies, you too would be extremely wealthy. That is one easy way to get wealthy. I invested early in domains, Google and tech stocks and crypto. And NVIDIA in 2018.
80/20 math says that 20% of the inputs give you 80% of the results. This results in 4x or 400%. This is remarkable in a world where financial returns of 25% are 'great.' This is why Buffet buys stocks of 'companies' and not the stock index of the Top 500 companies.
In 2018, I sold 80% of my Google stock (which had 10x'd) and bought NVIDIA at $60. It has increased 25x in 6 years. Now, I am pondering what my next 10x stock will be.
There are 2,781 billionaires worth $14 trillion. The top 10 billionaires account for $1.6 trillion or 11.3%. The top 100 account for ~33%. The top 500 (20%) account for 70%. Close to 80/20. What do they do uniquely? 80/20 focus.
In terms of longevity, 2.5% of Americans (3% of females, 1% of males) will reach the age of 100. Of those who do achieve this century milestone, 0.02% will live another ten years. Less than 1 in 100,000 centenarians will make it to 115. Almost no one makes it to 120.
Longevity only matters if you are healthy. Otherwise, life will just get harder for longer. Health principles also follow 80/20.
Don't treat your 'to-do list' 'and 'not-to-do list' equally. Life operates on a logarithmic scale.
Don’t confuse activity with achievement.
John Wooden (1910-2010)
2. A very few things have the most impact.
Success is a few disciplines practiced every day.
Jim Rohn (1930–2009)
Very few things have tremendous value and impact. Finding and focusing on these vital few will leapfrog you ahead.
Warren Buffet played his financial game by limiting his financial decisions to 10 big bets, and Quentin Tarantino played his movie game by limiting himself to just ten movies.
80/20 means 20% input gives 80% output = 400%. If good is 25% returns, then 400% is 16x greater than good at 25%. Therefore, 80/20 results in greatness. Focus on 80/20 to be great. It's that simple but hard to do consistently. Focus on 80/20 consistently each day.
What ten bets will you place in your lifetime? I like to think of one big bet every decade.
I applied this to one of my businesses, BlackFriday.com. We reduced 1500 affiliate retail companies to 300 (20%), giving us 90% of the revenues. Sixty companies of these gave 70% of the revenues. Twelve companies gave 50% of the revenues. We eventually reduced it to just 60 companies, reducing our work of managing 1440 companies. We created new revenues by offering sponsorship placements to the top 12 companies. We did 90% less work but made 4x more money.
3. The 80/20 Principle is fractal.
Big doors swing on little hinges.
W. Clement Stone (1902–2002)
I learned from 80/20 Sales and Marketing, written by a good friend, Perry Marshall, that 80/20 is fractal. This means that inside every 80/20, there is another 80/20.
So out of 100 things, there is only one thing that matters a lot:
1st 80/20 Fractal:
20 things give you 80% results.
2nd 80/20 Fractal:
Twenty percent of those twenty things (four things) will provide you with 80 percent of the 80 percent results (64%).
I.e. four things give you 64% of the results.
3rd 80/20 Fractal:
Of the four things that give you 64%, 20% of those four things (1 thing) will provide you with 80% of the 64% results (50%). I.e., one thing will give you 50% or half the results.
Bingo. Secret.
Confused or crystal clear? Read it again.
So, find that one thing and focus on it. Or the four things that give you 64%. Or the 20 things that give you 80%. The key is to focus on the few things or (better yet) the ONE thing that gives you 50%.
Forget or ignore all the rest.
You are not programmed or taught to think or behave in this way.
You will remain ordinary without 80/20.
You can become extraordinary and fantastic with 80/20.
My Life Question:
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
Lao Tzu (601-531 BCE)
What do you want to be great at?
What is the one thing that would give you half your results?
Focus on that daily.
Make your list of possible ten that can be 80/20. Figure out the vital few.
Revise this list daily in the morning as you learn and experiment.
Find at least one 80/20 a month.
Imagine what your year will look like. Wow.
My Life Lesson Then (from my younger self):
Find your purpose in life. You do have one. It’s deep in your soul, buried under the layers of the scars of your heart. Unravel it and give it all your heart and soul.
Life is fractal, just like 80/20 is fractal.
When you find your 80/20 purpose, visualize it and find the one thing I call the domino you need to knock down for even bigger dominoes in life. You can apply this to your career/business, health, and relationships.
Write your goal and then draw five dominoes that would knock your goal down. You can knock down the first domino today, this week or this month—maybe this quarter.
Life Advice Now (from my present self):
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha (563-483 BCE)
Relationships are 80/20 but don't do 80/20 transactions in your relationship. Relationships aren't transactional or about efficiency. Love fully and unconditionally. Forgive and forget. Love and cherish. These things can not be fully measured but are felt to be truly valuable.
Some people think their lives are about wealth, while others believe they are about health. As you get older, you realize your life is about deep, meaningful relationships and purpose. We call this love and legacy.
My Magnum Opus I envision is:
Health and Wellness Retreat with the world's healthiest restaurant and fitness centre with people I love and people in need of wellness
A Gospel Media Network with God.com, Heaven.com, Religion.com, and Jesus.com is leveraging technology and media to touch hearts and souls for eternity.
Next week:
The One Thing That Matters
The “F” word that has F, U, C but no K
“Do that which you fear to do, and the fear will die.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
The 3 Things That Make You Unique
What are you a triathlete of? Explore your blend of abilities that make you truly unique.
Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
- Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)
Have you ever wondered what made you unique? Special?
I pondered this as a child. I loved reading, numbers, dreaming, and riding my bike. I wanted to prevent and cure disease. I wanted to share God's love.
But I wasn't exceptional at any one thing.
The best triathletes aren't the best at cycling, swimming, or running, but they are really good at each of them, and when woven together, they excel. If they only competed in cycling, swimming, or running, where fractions of seconds decide whether you matter or not, they would be quickly forgotten.
So, what are your unique abilities and dreams, and how can you weave them together to be especially unique? See this, and your whole world will change!
1. Your Experiences are Your Key to Unlock Your Greatness
The only source of knowledge is experience.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
I've always been a generalist, not a specialist. I've been a Family Doctor, CEO, and generalist. I thought that was a weakness. When I read David Epstein's book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, I realized I was uniquely positioned to combine my love for health, wealth, and wisdom.
When you lose something, you can despair or fight to rise again.
I lost my health when I was 14 and vowed to learn about health so that I could help others. I became a doctor at 30. I don't teach health in hospitals or clinics but at community events, Bible and business conferences, and food festivals (and in the future via newsletters, social media, and books). I teach health as philanthropy. I learn so much more in these diverse settings and communities.
But to do that, I asked above for the wisdom to be an entrepreneur, a purveyor of wealth principles. My specialty is online startups intersecting with tech and the real world while bootstrapping.
I learned from my wise mentors that I should always seek wisdom, walk with wise people, and immerse myself in books that unlock wisdom.
The ability to connect seemingly unrelated fields allows for more insight and connections — making one exceptional in a special class. Don't limit yourself to a single narrow path; instead, cultivate a wide array of experiences that can give you unique perspectives.
2. Trial and Error is the Way
Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce (1882-1941)
Since I had not taken any business courses when I started my entrepreneurial ventures, I applied what I knew — the Scientific method:
Form a hypothesis, a list of assumptions.
Design an experiment.
Gather the data and get results.
Then iterate upon your hypothesis and assumptions until you discover ‘truth’.
Trial and error were the norm. But in school and business, you are taught you should not fail. Failure and learning are part of the process to discover truth. Don’t shy away from this, but lean deeper into trial and experimentation, designing and conducting the experiments to disprove your hypothesis (way of thinking) and assumptions (false beliefs) as quickly as possible in order to unearth truths.
Rather than sticking rigidly to one way of doing things, people who excel are often those who experiment and learn from their failures. The most successful people often take a winding path, testing different interests before finding their sweet spot. For personal growth, being open to making mistakes and iterating on lessons learned is key to standing out.
3. Thinking in Decades
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
- Bill Gates (1955-present)
Reading the stories in the Bible taught me to think long term. When God promised something, it often took decades, centuries, or millennia to be accomplished. But our natural inclination is to expect to realize our dreams quickly. We then give up too easily on our dreams.
What are your goals for each decade of your life? Your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s…80s, 90s, 100s? Work backwards from 120 to your present age.
I've done this exercise often. At 100, I would like to:
ride my bike 100 km and do 10 pull-ups
recite the book of Proverbs and
have donated 100 million dollars to health and church
These are subsets of the impact and measures of health, wealth and spiritual health for me.
While specializing early might give you a short-term advantage, you position yourself for better long-term success when you take time to explore and learn more broadly. Developing a range of competencies helps you be more adaptable and prepared to innovate or pivot when necessary, making you more resilient and exceptional in the long run. Play the long game.
Your Life Question:
You are most special but somewhere along the way, you forgot just how special. Remind yourself daily why you are special.
What are your 3 unique abilities?
List them now.
Then, a metric that will measure your progress for each of them, both a quantitative and qualitative metric.
For my health, I focus on VO2Max (a measure of oxygen utilization) and my 122 km bike ride to Whistler once a year. Ten years ago, it took me 5:07. This year, I did it in 4:01. Next year, my goal is 3:45.
My Life Lesson Then (from my younger self):
Dreams are meant to come true but we often forget to even dream, let along believe that our dreams can come true.
Dream and ponder.
I loved reading fantasy and science fiction books when I was young. The stories allowed me to travel across the universe and time, to imagine what life could be, and why not?
Life Advice Now (from my present self):
People dream of heaven, but we often don’t realize that heaven starts within us.
Let heaven come to earth. All dreams to become true must manifest while we walk the earth.
How do you pull the spiritual realm of the heavens into you and onto this earth? You pray and seek wisdom, networking with those who have similar dreams and align with you. Even the Son of God had 12 disciples.
Next week:
The One Thing that Skyrockets You to Success
The secret of all the most successful people in history.
The 80/20 principle states that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of efforts. Focus on the few things that truly matter, and success will follow.
Richard Koch (1950-present)
See you next Thursday!
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.