people who are just starting out ask really great questions. And those questions can be incredibly inspiring and insightful. They force you to re-examine your own decisions, processes, and beliefs—and

And when you’re first starting out, you don’t need the most experienced, most insightful, most successful person on planet earth to be the one answering your questions. You literally only need someone who is a few steps ahead of wherever you are, right now.

I took that answer, applied the knowledge, and then went back and asked another question. And then another. And another. And as long as they were willing to keep answering my questions, I kept taking the knowledge they gave me, applying it, improving, and returning with my next, more advanced question.

The more you give away for free, the faster you learn, the faster you grow. The people with the steepest growth curves are always the ones who end up on top—and the people who settle for short-term rewards are the ones who stop growing as quickly.

When new clients asked why they should work with us and not another company they considered a competitor, all I had to say was, “Everything we’re recommending, I’ve done for myself. I’m not going to tell you what works in theory. I’m going to tell you what works based on the 3,000 articles I’ve written on the internet for myself.”

gave myself a rule that I couldn’t check my phone and start work until after I’d gotten out of bed and gone for a walk down the street to grab my morning cup of coffee. I tried journaling for at least five minutes each day—in the morning, if I had time, or before bed.

despite the fact that I was succeeding externally, I was suffering internally and severely depressed.

Because after experiencing that rejection, I didn’t want to feel my emotions anymore. And instead, I wanted to become so externally successful, so rich and “protected” that I would never have to experience hurt like that again.

As a rule of thumb, ask yourself: what do you need to wear to feel good? What’s going to make you feel most comfortable in the moment?