The Philosopher's Stone

Alchemy is an old branch of philosophy & science practiced in ancient and medieval China, India, Arabia, and Europe. 

But this is not a letter about alchemists so I won’t bother you with details about their world.

Today I want to introduce you to an idea that enabled alchemists to essentially become the fathers of modern science as we know it.

It’s the idea of the Philosopher’s Stone.

The alchemist’s main concern was to craft that stone. 

The Philosopher’s Stone was seen as a magical object that could turn ordinary materials into gold or silver, cure all diseases, provide divine bliss, and enable immortality.

The process one undergoes when attending to craft this stone is called alchemy. 

Why did people do alchemy? (Ultimately, this is history, not some fairy tale right?). 

Well, they were individuals in the pursuit of truth and maximum positivity.

If you’re also such an individual, continue reading.

In last week’s letter, I concluded that eliminating pain is the most effective method for seeking truth and producing a maximally positive life.  

The question that naturally arises is: 

„How do I eliminate as much pain as possible?“ 

a.k.a 

„How do I live life in the best possible way?“

The answer to that question would be the Philosopher’s Stone because you would need the exact powers this stone provides to be entirely painless.

So how do you go about it?

It’s easy to be inspired by such ideas but a few minutes later you’re in reality again, facing your actual problems.

Maybe you’re someone who gets motivated from time to time and does some productive stuff, but you don’t seem to escape being lost, broke, and confused.

Usually, nothing changes.

However applying this idea to my life enabled me to overcome my addictions within a few months, get incredibly disciplined, improve my health, and finally got me to stick to a plan that I dedicated myself to.

So to explain how this works I need to tell you a bit about who I was approximately 1.5 years ago.

I was addicted, lost, and nihilistic. 

Every week I was changing my business plans, never really getting started with anything. 

Cigarettes, weed, social media, and sugar consumption were my daily protocol. 

I rarely went to the gym and didn’t put much effort into self-education.

I was what you would call, an idiot.

Constantly would I dedicate me to a business model, design a self-improvement protocol - a daily to-do list, and declare in front of my friends that I wouldn’t smoke for X amounts of weeks/months/etc…

I failed every time, always breaking my word, and never seeing some real progress.

Knowing that nihilism happens when you don’t progress towards a big goal, it was obvious why I couldn’t win.

I had too limited goals.

But being an idiot was also my biggest blessing because it opened me up to incredible optimism.

I didn’t stop my madness and would craft plan after plan after plan.

At this point, I already knew a bit about the Philosophers Stone but the concept wasn’t an idea I was entertaining that much.

So when I stumbled upon it again, it made me think.

All I was searching for was something I could dedicate myself to. Something that would increase my health, my wealth, and my wisdom, and something that would be incredibly useful to humanity.

During this time I also started playing around with Skool a bit (the online community platform). 

I had created my community because I was thinking about getting into the info-product world.

And then I realized. 

If I simply put all the energy that I put into overthinking things and crafting plans into improving this community every day, until the day I die, I couldn’t lose. 

I was convinced that if try to build this community as well as possible, I also couldn’t lose.

Now the problem is that Skool communities are info products and I had no skills or proof of competence to present to the world.

But that could be changed.

So when I started building this community I thought: „What if I intend to build this community into the Philosopher’s Stone?“ 

The open-ended nature of this project, and my optimism got me dedicated to it. 

But I needed something to teach. Knowledge, and more importantly: proof.

So I quickly overcame my addictions. I quickly figured out how to stick to a plan. And I quickly picked a solid business model (ghostwriting for coaches & consultants).

I’m now free from my addictions. Entirely. 

I’m not telling you this to brag but I’m also able to consistently eat healthy, go to the gym, and work on my business.

All thanks to building the Philosopher’s Stone.

If your mission is to produce this stone, and you need to prove its effect on your personal life, you will improve a lot, fast.

Trying to build something as good as possible is an infinite project, and that’s why it will give you insane amounts of meaning.

So to deliver on my statement in the headline of this letter: „why alchemy is the answer to everything“, let me ask you this question:

If you would start building something with the intention of it eliminating as much pain as possible for as many people as possible, what would you build?

I want to leave you with that question. 

If you want to live a good life, try to answer it. 

Every day.

-Ömer

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