This was a fun episode. A friend, Matt Yao, reached out to see if he could interview me about my recent book, Good Work.

We first connected when he called me in the summer of 2022. He was in the middle of my book and knew he needed to quit his job.

Over the last few years, he's been on a transformational journey, experimenting with writing, coaching, and several other side quests.

Hope you enjoy this conversation.

You can learn more about Matt here: Matt Yao

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You can follow Abel's podcast here: Abel James Show

📘 GOOD WORK: LIVE! => Learn More
📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold): The Pathless Path
😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community

📲Connect + Follow Paul

• Twitter: @p_millerd
• Instagram: @pathlesspaul
• Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People)
• Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe

🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast:

• Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective
• Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth
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Check out and purchase Good Work here: https://pmillerd.com/goodwork

Or from Amazon directly: https://amzn.to/4gwRSCN

Cate seemed to be fully entrenched on the default path — she had graduated from Yale and became the Supreme Court advocate on her way to becoming a partner in her law firm. But she didn't want to live the lives of the people around her. She pivoted hard, you could almost hear car brakes squeaking as she made the turn, and over a year she became the number one female poker player in the world. She later started art and perfume companies and led operations at Avlea — a pandemic medicine company. One might think she's simply a superhuman, and what she did is beyond the grasp of mere mortals, but Cate claims that agency is learnable and joins the podcast to tell us how.

🎥🍿 YOUTUBE: WATCH HERE

Links:

• X (Twitter): @catehall
• LinkedIn
• Cate's Article — How to be More Agentic

⌛TIMESTAMPS

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:07) - The scripts that Cate grew up with
• (06:32) - Doors-opening credentials?
• (10:23) - Leaving law for poker
• (18:37) - Developing agency, learning form the others
• (23:42) - Deterministic vs probabilistic economy
• (26:53) - Risk and the diminishing prestige of the traditional paths
• (31:10) - Burnout
• (37:20) - Asking dumb questions
• (41:59) - Defining ambition
• (43:39) - Seeking actual feedback and how everything is learnable
• (50:11) - The surface area of luck
• (57:45) - Closing remarks

📘 GOOD WORK: LIVE! => Learn More
📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold): The Pathless Path
😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community

📲Connect + Follow Paul

• Twitter: @p_millerd
• Instagram: @pathlesspaul
• Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People)
• Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe

🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast:

• Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective
• Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth
• I use Transistor to host this podcast. It rocks. Launch Yours Here
• I record high-quality videos using Riverside: Sign Up Here

This is from Sky King's podcast: https://skmp.supercast.com/

Guest info:
Nat: https://www.nateliason.com/

Nat also has an amazing book coming out which I highly recommend, "Crypto Confidential": https://amzn.to/44BJ74I

📘 GOOD WORK: LIVE! => Learn More
📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold): The Pathless Path
😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community

📲Connect + Follow Paul

• Twitter: @p_millerd
• Instagram: @pathlesspaul
• Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People)
• Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe

🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast:

• Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective
• Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth
• I use Transistor to host this podcast. It rocks. Launch Yours Here
• I record high-quality videos using Riverside: Sign Up Here

Justin is a former startup executive who helped build two startups past valuations of $1B, teams of 150+ people, and raise over $300M in venture capital. Now he’s building his one-person knowledge business toward $5M in annual profit.

🎥🍿 YOUTUBE: WATCH HERE

Links:

• Personal website
• LinkedIn
• X (Twitter): @thejustinwelsh
• The Creator MBA
• The Saturday Solopreneur

⌛TIMESTAMPS

• (00:00) - Intro
• (01:34) - The scripts that Justin grew up with
• (09:59) - Attention and social media
• (11:43) - Liking your job, the interest curve & having goals
• (15:55) - Justin's burnout, finding a new path & taking ownership of your time
• (25:30) - Not starting earlier & struggling with a results oriented mindset
• (31:46) - Creativity, non-monetary success & business as a creative act
• (38:09) - Being the nr. 1 LinkedIn influencer
• (42:30) - Income goals on the solo path
• (47:09) - The Creator MBA & Brennan Dunn
• (52:09) - Not making the solo career a job & fears around money
• (57:47) - Avoiding emotions, confidence
• (01:02:17) - What's Justin excited about
• (01:03:58) - Closing remarks

📘 GOOD WORK: LIVE! => Learn More
📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold): The Pathless Path
😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community

📲Connect + Follow Paul

• Twitter: @p_millerd
• Instagram: @pathlesspaul
• Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People)
• Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe

🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast:

• Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective
• Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth
• I use Transistor to host this podcast. It rocks. Launch Yours Here
• I record high-quality videos using Riverside: Sign Up Here

Henry is a writer, speaker and brand consultant. He joins the podcast to discuss his upcoming book — Second Act — in which he analysises the phenomenon of late bloomers and what we can learn from them.

🎥🍿 YOUTUBE: WATCH HERE

Links:

• Personal website
• Substack: The Common Reader
• X (Twitter): @HenryEOliver
• Second Act

⌛TIMESTAMPS

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:49) - Guest introduction
• (01:35) - The scripts that Henry grew up with
• (05:48) - John Stuart Mill
• (08:19) - Samuel Johnson
• (15:01) - "The common reader" & Why we shouldn't dismiss Gladwell
• (18:19) - Writing
• (22:03) - His book about the late bloomers
• (28:48) - Penelope Fitzgerald
• (34:16) - Is it too easy to share your writing?
• (37:17) - The importance of finding the others
• (41:20) - Conversations, talking to yourself and writing
• (43:52) - Getting disappointed early
• (48:30) - There is no actual average person, the importance of taking variability into account
• (53:07) - How writing a book changes people
• (55:48) - Tyler Cowen and the power of the internet
• (58:25) - What Samuel Johnson would be working on today?
• (01:00:14) - The lessons from Audrey Sutherland
• (01:05:31) - Closing remarks

📘 GOOD WORK: LIVE! => Learn More
📕 Buy Paul’s Book (50k+ Sold): The Pathless Path
😁 Join Hundreds On Unconventional Paths: Pathless Path Community

📲Connect + Follow Paul

• Twitter: @p_millerd
• Instagram: @pathlesspaul
• Paul’s Newsletter: Subscribe to Pathless (23k+ People)
• Paul’s YouTube: Subscribe

🙏Further Ways To Support The Podcast:

• Accounting, Taxes, And Payroll For Your S-Corp (Ideal for $60k+ income): Collective
• Looking for alternatives to traditional health insurance in the US? Check out Crowdhealth
• I use Transistor to host this podcast. It rocks. Launch Yours Here
• I record high-quality videos using Riverside: Sign Up Here