I didn’t have a mentor or sibling, nor did my parents truly know the way of the modern world we live in.

Back then I had to rely on online resources to figure out how to make money, learn copywriting, make videos, etc.

I’d created about half a dozen YT channels that found some form of success, but then quit halfway.

As a teenager, I didn’t realize the fact that I should purely focus on long term goals, instead of short form successes.

I thought getting 5k views per YouTube video was too little.

I thought learning how to verbally communicate was too slow and meaningless.

I thought it was hopeless to read finance-oriented books cause I couldn’t even open up a bank account in my name.

I thought I had to wait until I was in my 20s to really start making a change in life.

But I if I could go back in time, I’d teach myself the importance of the compound effect, and the concept of thinking in decades, instead of months.

You don’t need a moonshot when you’re 16. You don’t need 100s of thousands in the bank when you’re 16.

You just need to spend that time trying and learning new things and concepts that will compound into that moonshot after 10 years. And trust me those 10 years will fly by pretty quick, so might as well focus on the right things.

Now you may be wondering, what advice would I give to myself 10 years ago, and what are the things I would beg me to do. Cause it wouldn’t be something unrealistic, only something EVERYONE should be able to do.

I’d say:

• Start creating content and documenting your life. (Not the private aspects like family, etc)
  Doesn’t have to be a specific niche or anything, just raw, authentic content that sits within the legal and moral boundaries of society so you don’t get in trouble. The risks can be taken later. Just start posting 1 video a day, and keep improving. In 10 years you’ll probably own a private jet or something lol (if that’s what you desire).

• Learn the skill of communicating like a professional. Understand tonality, persuasion, delegation, and humility while being assertive.

• Get in the BEST shape possible, eat clean and never stop going to the gym. Alongside that pick a combat sport like MMA or Boxing or even Jiujitsu and spend time training with friends if you can’t afford to go to those gyms. Those skills boost confidence tenfold.

• Create a habit of praying. Without a constant sense of gratitude and spiritual protection, you will end up with a soulless body and no true fulfilment in life. Stay connected to God as all credit flows to the creator. As long as that dynamic exists, you will be okay with everything.

• Try to sell things to people, be it your own friends and family. The best way to get started with sales, is obviously, to sell. It doesn’t have to be anything big or original, just flip items, make sandwiches, sell old stuff, etc. Once you get in the habit of transacting, you’ll also learn to value things the way they deserve to be valued. And that skill will take you a long way.

• Chase opportunities to meet new people, travel, and get outside your comfort zone. This doesn’t mean you fully befriend everyone you meet, you should always keep your circle tight, but it’s very useful to have as many connections and positive relationships as possible. And travelling, man do I even need to tell you why that’s important?

• Read every book related to manifestation, subconscious reprogramming, and self image. That stuff will take you places.

• Last but not the least, chase experiences and greatness, money will follow.

Many of you are in your 20s and still haven’t started doing some of these things. If that’s the case then don’t worry. You still have the next decade.

Love,
Dan.

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P.S.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to connect deeper.
Join my free Discord here, it’s a small community of people focused on thinking differently, growing, and building better lives.

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your time and presence more than you think.

We think “boring” means dull, slow, and unworthy of attention, something to avoid at all costs.
But nowadays, being boring simply means you’re focused, consistent, and not distracted by cheap dopamine or peer pressure.

If being boring means you don’t party every weekend or keep up with the latest memes, then I’m all for it.

Because here’s the truth nobody wants to admit:

Being fun feels good in the moment, but it destroys you slowly.
You wake up the same person you were last year.
Same habits. Same routines. Same excuses.
Five years disappear, and you have nothing to show for it.

That’s the cost of fun.
And nobody talks about it.

Meanwhile, the bar is so low today that if you can stay consistent for long enough without getting distracted, you’ll stand out, and eventually win.

It’s okay to skip the weddings, the coffees, the weekend plans.
If boring is what’s moving you closer to your goals, then stay boring, proudly.

Here’s the part nobody wants to hear:
Most people in this country are fun.

The Fun Pakistani:

• Parties every weekend

• Vapes, drinks, or experiments with substances

• Stays up till 4 AM gaming or scrolling

• Watches every trend, meme, and celebrity scandal

• Spends hours on TikTok laughing at pointless content

• Says “I’ll start tomorrow” at least five times a week

• Lives for stimulation

• Has nothing to show for it after years of “fun”

The Boring Pakistani

• Wakes up early

• Works out every day, even if it’s just bodyweight training

• Reads books instead of doomscrolling

• Studies skills that actually pay off

• Prays with intention

• Creates content or builds something consistently

• Cuts off the people holding him/her back

• Makes slow but real progress

Boring people win because they do the things nobody else wants to do.
Fun people lose because they avoid the things that actually matter.

The same people who call you boring today will call you lucky tomorrow.

The world has changed.
Discipline, routine, and consistency used to be normal.
Today, they’re so rare that having them makes you look boring.

Good.
Let them think that.

While they’re at shaadis, night-outs, and Quetta chai…
you’re building skills, income, health, and a mindset that compounds.

And let me be honest.. I wasn’t always boring.
I used to desire the same temporary highs.
It cost me years of my life.

Nothing changed until I chose to be boring.

This isn’t to say you can’t have fun.
You should, just not at the cost of your future.

Prioritize the right things.
And surround yourself with people who make even the boring things feel fun.

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P.S.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to connect deeper.
Join my free Discord here, it’s a small community of people focused on thinking differently, growing, and building better lives in Pakistan.

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your time and presence more than you think.

See you next week,

Danyal.

That was my thought process every single day.

But it didn’t matter that his content was sh*t, what mattered was that he was successful, and I wasn’t.

That realization hit hard. It made me start posting content just to prove to myself that anyone with discipline and consistency can win online.

The truth is, most people won’t even try. They’ll talk, complain, and make excuses, anything to avoid the discomfort of actually doing the work.

For the sake of simplicity and to get the message across, let’s call the lazy people ‘Bots’ and the readers of this newsletter ‘Initiates’.

Pakistan (along with the rest of the world) is full of blind bots who have no original thoughts, will accomplish nothing in their life, and get carried by their friends and family, leaving no legacy behind.

Luckily, this isn’t you, cause you’re an Initiate, and I’m about to tell you exactly what you need to do to stand out and never become a bot. On top of that, I’ll also tell you what NOT to do, as that’s more convenient, and also cause I love you (like a brother).

The section below is an example list of what a Bot does versus what an Initiate does, so you can understand the areas of your life that are botted, and try to change that in order to become someone who takes action.

BOTS vs INITIATES

Bot: Wakes up at 12 PM, doom-scrolls, then eats leftovers from the previous night before getting to work.

Initiate: Wakes up at 5-6 AM, hydrates, works out, then spends 2 hours doing deep work, getting all high-priority personal tasks done before leaving for work/uni.

Bot: Plays video games all night, has fast food right before going to bed at 3 AM.

Initiate: Puts aside all blue light emitting sources at least 1 hour before going to bed, reads a few pages from preferred book, sleeps early.

Bot: Formulates opinions and belief systems based on what people around them say, without doing any research. Has a lot to say about things they aren’t fully educated about.

Initiate: Realizes that there’s a lot to learn and everyone is programmed to think a certain way. Does research regularly to form objective opinions based on facts and evidence. Keeps their mouth shut if they aren’t educated on a certain topic.

Bot: Gets offended without trying to understand the other side’s perspective and is a fan of victimizing themself to win an argument.

Initiate: Takes comments on the chin and asks questions to come to a logical conclusion without letting emotions get in the way.

Bot: Makes fun of people who are working on themselves and trying to escape mediocrity by doing new things like making content or starting a business.

Initiate: Pushes people to think outside the box and take strategic risks to level up. Makes a regular effort to build a business and create content without worrying about what other people say.

Bot: Talks about doing the thing, never does it.

Initiate: Does the thing that needs doing, talks about it later.

By now, you probably know which side you fall on. Maybe some parts of your life still look like a Bot’s routine, and that’s okay. Awareness is the first step to change. The good thing is, you now realize how easy it is to not become a bot.

I know some of you reading this are in your late teens or early 20s. Maybe your schedule isn’t perfect yet, maybe you can’t wake up early or stick to a routine. That’s fine. The point isn’t perfection, it’s progress.

Your goal should be to optimize your life, to go the extra mile while everyone else stays comfortable. Find discipline in your habits and start doing the things you’ve been avoiding. That’s how you separate yourself from the bots.

The people you admire online didn’t start because they were special, they became special because they started. Every post, every attempt, every small act of discipline compounded into them becoming someone worth following.

This is your window. Start building your brand now, not after you’ve figured everything out, but through figuring it out. Share your journey, your lessons, your progress. Use the same discipline that separates Initiates from Bots to separate yourself from the meaningless influencers online.

The bar has never been lower, you can make it to the top.

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P.S.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to connect deeper.
Join my free Discord here, it’s a small community of people focused on thinking differently, growing, and building better lives in Pakistan.

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your time and presence more than you think.

See you next week,

Danyal.

That belief alone is the reason we are at the bottom of the food chain. Talent? Fairness? Potential?

Is that what creates success stories?
Or is that what keeps us lazy and comfortable?

If there’s one thing we as Pakistanis are talented at, it’s running away from accountability.

We hide behind how unfair the government is.

We hide behind religion.

We hide behind family expectations and “log kya kahenge.”

Every human being on Earth has potential. Talent and fairness can only get you so far. So why are we so behind if we have so much potential? What does it truly take to succeed in life?

One word. Ownership.

Own your actions. Own your decisions. Own your thoughts.

You are responsible for the work you put in.
You are responsible for leveling up mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially.

Who are you to complain when you haven’t done the work across those four pillars?

F*ck potential, f*ck fairness, and f*ck talent. Get after what you want and give it everything you got. You can complain all you want once you’ve exhausted all your options. But guess what, you won’t, cause you’ll have made it.

Arshad Nadeem wasn’t privileged. He just chose to take action instead of crying about his circumstances. That’s what made him an Olympic gold-medalist.

May you never be praised for potential again.
May you be known for work, for integrity, for results.

Start today. One rep in each pillar.

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P.S.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to connect deeper.
Join my free Discord here, it’s a small community of people focused on thinking differently, growing, and building better lives in Pakistan.

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your time and presence more than you think.

See you next week,

Danyal.

A test to see how easily you can get offended.

If you didn’t, good. You passed.

If you did, this newsletter might not be for snowflakes like you.
Because that defensiveness is part of the curse I’m talking about.

The Elements of the Curse

We’re raised in a society that hides outdated values and control systems under the mask of faith.

We’re told to memorize instead of understand, to ratta our way through school rather than learn how to think.

We’re humiliated for bad grades, pushed into doctor or engineer tracks and mocked for dreaming differently.

We’re taught that success comes via sifarish, not merit.

We’re trained to care more about “log kya kahenge” than what our own conscience says.

We’re told it’s haraam to ask about complicated elements in our own religion.

The result?
A generation with shallow personalities, borrowed opinions, and zero intentionality.

We’ve confused tradition for religion, mistaken compliance for morality, and built identities that were never ours to begin with.

What we need is a cleanse, one that washes away the mental programming we inherited and replaces it with consciousness.

The Cure

Ask yourself this:

Are your political views truly your own, or just hand-me-downs from your parents?

Do your religious practices come from genuine understanding of your scriptures, or are they just rituals you perform to fit in?

How much of your “identity” is yours, and how much is a collection of unchallenged beliefs?

This self-interrogation is where your liberation begins.

Because the truth is harsh:
Most people here are programmed robots, living, breathing, existing… but not thinking.

To break free, you have to do something almost impossible:
Unchain yourself. Then rehumanize yourself.

Start by becoming brutally aware.

You’ve already taken the first step, reading this with curiosity instead of taking offense.

Now comes the real work:
Thinking for yourself.

How to Reprogram Yourself (start lifting the curse)

Awareness is the first step.
But awareness without action is just mental masturbation.

Real change begins when you start reprogramming your mind, consciously replacing the default settings you were born into.

1. Observe

Your first instinct will be to dislike everything around you.
You’ll start noticing how fake people sound, how lazy the culture is, how broken everything feels.

Don’t let that turn you bitter.

Observation is purely about understanding your habits and patterns.

Start small:

• Notice your emotional triggers.

• Notice when you act out of fear or pressure.

• Notice which of your beliefs are rooted in guilt, shame, or tradition instead of truth.

You can’t change what you don’t see clearly.

This step is about learning to see.

2. Question

Once you start observing, the illusion cracks.
Now it’s time to challenge it.

Ask why, over and over again.

• Why do I believe this?

• Who told me this was the right path?

• Does this belief align with my purpose, or with comfort?

• If I were born in a different family or country, would I still believe the same things?

Every answer will reveal another layer of conditioning.

This is where you start becoming your own person.
Not your parents’ extension.
Not society’s puppet.
You.

3. Rebuild

Once the false layers fall off, you’ll feel lost.
That’s normal.
It means the old version of you is dying.

Now you rebuild, consciously.

Start designing your new identity from scratch:

• Choose values based on principles.

• Choose goals that align with your vision, not anyone else’s.

• Choose habits that make you proud of yourself, not just accepted by others.

Every action you take from this point should answer one question:

“Am I doing this because I believe in it, or because I’m scared to disappoint someone?”

When you start living from that place, with clarity and intention, you become the architect of your reality.

Final Thoughts & Clarifications

Being born in a flawed system/culture isn’t your fault.

You and I were handed a country full of problems, corruption, extremism, dependency, and a lack of real opportunity.
But here’s the truth: change doesn’t come from the government, or some savior.
It starts with you.

With your habits.
Your thinking.
Your decision to stop complaining and start acting differently.

If everything around you sucks, why not be the one who makes it better?

Lifting this “curse” isn’t about hating your country or rejecting your culture.
It’s about transcending it, becoming someone who raises the standard instead of lowering it.

I want you to think deeply.
To question everything.
To escape the system instead of feeding it.
To create more than you consume.

That’s why I started this newsletter, to help you break the mental chains holding you back, so you can rise above mediocrity and become the person others look up to.

It all starts in your mind.

Each week, I’ll share ideas and lessons that help you think differently, grow faster, and build the kind of life you actually want, not the one society expects from you.

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Bonus Content

In my latest video, I discussed proven ways to build a successful business in Pakistan, and mentioned that I’ll share two important concepts in this email. So here they are:

1) Blue Oceans vs Red Oceans:

Most people jump into red oceans. Overcrowded markets full of clones all selling the same thing, fighting for the same customers, and bleeding each other dry.

Think of every new clothing brand, café, or agency that looks identical. Everyone’s fighting for the same small piece of attention. That’s a red ocean.

Your job is to create a blue ocean, a new space where competition doesn’t exist yet.
That’s where you stand out. That’s where profit lives.

You do that by differentiating yourself, by building something unique to your skills, style, or story.
Build the thing nobody else is building but everyone actually needs.

That’s your blue ocean. That’s where you swim freely instead of fighting for air.

This concept was taken from the book titled ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim - a must read for any entrepreneur.

2) 1000 True Fans:

This one’s based on a concept by Kevin Kelly, but the principle applies perfectly to Pakistan (and anywhere else).

You don’t need millions of followers to succeed.

You just need 1,000 real supporters, people who deeply believe in what you do, who buy what you offer, and who tell others about it.

If each of those 1,000 fans supports you with even a small purchase every year, a course, a service, a product, you can build a sustainable business and never depend on viral luck.

A loyal tribe of 1,000 will always beat a distracted crowd of a million.

P.S.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to connect deeper.
Join my free Discord here, it’s a small community of people focused on thinking differently, growing, and building better lives in Pakistan.

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your time and presence more than you think.

See you next week,

Danyal.