What I Would Tell My 18 Year Old Self | Modern Wisdom Podcast 131

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Seth, what were you…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      Seth, what were you 10 years ago?

   2. YUYusef0:02

      Religious. Spent a lot of time in the mosque, was celibate, didn't drink.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:05

      Would you tell 19-year-old Johnny to, um, not dye his hair? This is the question that the internet has tuned in to hear.

   4. JOJonny0:12

      Buy Bitcoin, buy Facebook, buy Netflix-

   5. YUYusef0:15

      Ugh.

   6. JOJonny0:15

      Buy Amazon. And don't bother with uni.

   7. CWChris Williamson0:17

      You need to stop drinking and focus on personal development. You need to focus on yourself first and not on other people. You don't know as much as you think you do. Stop getting into relationships with girls that are bad for you. No, I really mean it, stop getting into relationships with girls that are bad for you.

   8. JOJonny0:30

      You think you know it all, don't you, when you're 19? You think you've got it figured out. You haven't got a (censored) clue-

   9. CWChris Williamson0:35

      (laughs)

   10. JOJonny0:35

       ... until you're, like, at least 28. And I would say probably 39-year-old me-

   11. CWChris Williamson0:40

       Exactly.

   12. JOJonny0:40

       ... would be saying the same thing.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:42

       I can tell you the equivalent of, "Mate, you're going to get hit by a car in 10 years time," and you won't believe it until you get hit by the car.

   14. JOJonny0:48

       Wherever you are giving people the most advice is probably where you need the advice the most. All this stuff that we've just said is all advice that we all need right now.

   15. CWChris Williamson1:01

       Podcast time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.

   16. JOJonny1:04

       (laughs)

   17. CWChris Williamson1:04

       I'm joined by Johnny and Yousaf from propanefitness.com.

   18. JOJonny1:07

       Johnny and Yousaf.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:08

       Yousaf from Johnny.

   20. YUYusef1:10

       And Johnny.

   21. CWChris Williamson1:10

       And Johnny from Yousaf.

   22. JOJonny1:12

       From Yousaf.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:12

       Uh, Yousaf's got rid of mustache. He's back now with a beard.

   24. YUYusef1:15

       (sighs)

   25. CWChris Williamson1:16

       It's better, though.

   26. YUYusef1:16

       Thank goodness.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:16

       It is better.

   28. YUYusef1:17

       So much better.

   29. CWChris Williamson1:17

       Less pedo-y. What?

   30. JOJonny1:19

       Just you didn't mention that in the last one.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) …

   1. CWChris Williamson15:00

      social circle. (inhales deeply) And, um, yeah, I, I just had sort of found my feet with that. And then it becomes like this self-perpetuating cycle of like party more, l- know more people, become more popular. Party more, b- know more people, become more pop- da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then you can always justify it because it's like, "Well, it's my job."

   2. JOJonny15:19

      (laughs)

   3. YUYusef15:20

      (laughs)

   4. CWChris Williamson15:20

      Like, my job is to know people.

   5. JOJonny15:21

      Mm-hmm.

   6. CWChris Williamson15:21

      The more people that know me, the more come to my events, the more money we make. Um, so yeah, that would've been that, and then rolling it forward for me, there was quite an important period between 21 and 24, which was when I started to properly become a businessman with regards to events, run, started running weekly Saturdays. And anyway, I think a lot of my time, again, there was fitness.

   7. JOJonny15:39

      Mm-hmm.

   8. CWChris Williamson15:39

      Was quite bothered about, um, my training. Uh, was about to go, so in six months time I would've been going to go and do a season in Ibiza. I fell in love with a girl out in Ibiza and went and had this like crazy holiday romance thing out there, which was like a really interesting, like beautiful experience actually. Like even 10 years on, still like a lovely, a lovely thing to look back on. Um, but yeah, I think that was, that's kind of probably a pretty good landscape to do that. So to give it a headline, right? We can get into some nuance and stuff in a second, but you've got 30 seconds. You can phone yourself 10 years ago from now and you've got 30 seconds-

   9. YUYusef16:16

      (laughs) Oh, like that?

   10. CWChris Williamson16:17

       ... to speak to them and I'm gonna time it on here. Um, so you can-

   11. JOJonny16:21

       Oh.

   12. CWChris Williamson16:22

       ... have, you can have a minute to prep. Um, I actually got asked this, um ... Oh no, it was in, it's in the Six Minute Diary. It's in the Six Minute Diary and it's like, "You've got 30 seconds." So I just wrote it out. Um, so I think I can probably afford to go first if you want. Okay. Right.

   13. JOJonny16:39

       Do you want me to time you?

   14. CWChris Williamson16:40

       It's, I can watch it on here. I can see it.

   15. JOJonny16:42

       All right.

   16. CWChris Williamson16:42

       Okay, so ring-ring, ring-ring.

   17. JOJonny16:46

       Hello?

   18. CWChris Williamson16:47

       Hi, mate. It's Chris. Don't ask.

   19. JOJonny16:48

       (laughs)

   20. YUYusef16:48

       (laughs)

   21. CWChris Williamson16:48

       Right. Um, you need to stop drinking and focus on personal development. You need to learn to, um, eh, focus on yourself first and not on other people. Confidence comes from within. You don't know as much as you think you do. Stop getting into relationships with girls that are bad for you. No, I really mean it. Stop getting into relationships with girls that are bad for you. Um, you need to spend time around other people. You need to travel more, and you need to let go of the feeling that you are not good enough. (fist slaps) There you go.

   22. JOJonny17:17

       Nice.

   23. CWChris Williamson17:17

       That's 20 seconds.

   24. JOJonny17:19

       Oh, but I- I ... Mm.

   25. CWChris Williamson17:22

       Cut the hair.

   26. JOJonny17:22

       (laughs)

   27. CWChris Williamson17:23

       Cut that hair.

   28. YUYusef17:24

       If, if you got that phone call, you'd just be like ... (fist slaps)

   29. JOJonny17:28

       Be like Kelly Serhat in the plane.

   30. YUYusef17:30

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mm-hmm.…

   1. JOJonny30:00

      there is a light week, medium week, heavy week, deload, and it focuses on core lifts, big, big lifts, and it's, it's built in progressive overload that can last a very long time. So if you just go to the gym and just try and lift more weight, you'll hit a roadblock pretty quickly. If you try and hit more reps then more weight, you'll last a little bit longer, but again, hit a roadblock pretty quickly. If you just stick with five-three-one, you start off so light. There's so much longevity built into the way it's programmed, and it's so simple.

   2. CWChris Williamson30:27

      Mm-hmm.

   3. JOJonny30:28

      You, you also learn, the nice thing about it is, so many people spend all this time in the gym, they don't really know what it's like to, to approach a barbell and be a bit worried about it. Or even-

   4. CWChris Williamson30:39

      But that forces you into it.

   5. JOJonny30:39

      ... absolutely terrified about it.

   6. CWChris Williamson30:40

      With 5-3-1?

   7. JOJonny30:41

      Yeah.

   8. CWChris Williamson30:41

      It forces you into it.

   9. JOJonny30:42

      It forces you into a level of, of progression that you wouldn't access through, like, chest and back.

   10. YUYusef30:46

       The, the problem is, it's very butterfly effect, because if had Johnny and I just (clears throat) done 5-3-1 from the age of 17 and not really thought about it and just let fitness blend into the background, and then five years later, both be very, um, in very good shape-

   11. CWChris Williamson31:03

       Uninjured.

   12. YUYusef31:03

       ... competitive lifters, uninjured, we wouldn't, we wouldn't have generated the insight to create a fitness website or-

   13. JOJonny31:10

       Yeah.

   14. YUYusef31:11

       ... a fitness pa- with loads of content and loads, and richness of experience to be able to create content with and-

   15. JOJonny31:15

       You also don't know, do you, whether or not doing all that stuff created results even better?

   16. YUYusef31:22

       Ah.

   17. JOJonny31:22

       That's the real...

   18. YUYusef31:23

       (laughs)

   19. JOJonny31:24

       Because you can't ... We talk about this all the time, like if only you could split test it.

   20. YUYusef31:27

       Can't split test it. Oh, I'd l- if you could split test yourself, that would be the number one superpower, hands down.

   21. CWChris Williamson31:32

       Yeah.

   22. JOJonny31:32

       But you'd have to be able to rerun it though, wouldn't you?

   23. YUYusef31:34

       Like, if you-

   24. JOJonny31:35

       'Cause if you were just concurrently split testing.

   25. CWChris Williamson31:37

       You d- you can't get to go back, so it doesn't matter if you-

   26. YUYusef31:39

       If it was A, B, versus, like, m- hundreds of parallel split tests, and then you could just-

   27. JOJonny31:43

       Oh, yeah.

   28. YUYusef31:44

       Ooh.

   29. CWChris Williamson31:44

       Um, so training, we've said the ethos for whoever is listening is find a program which has progressive overload built in. Is that the key thing with 5-3-1?

   30. JOJonny31:54

       So, I think the bigger thing, which is what I was saying with Jesus quote is, whatever you do, you're going to have to do it for a long time for it to work. So, pick something that-
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   (laughs) …

   1. CWChris Williamson45:00

   2. JOJonny45:01

      (laughs)

   3. YUYusef45:01

      And, uh, he said, "No, probably not, because it's not... It, it's not a good y- Like, it's such a big learning curve, and it's not a good use of your existing skill set."

   4. JOJonny45:09

      Mm-hmm.

   5. YUYusef45:09

      "Just pay someone to code and do the things that you do best."

   6. CWChris Williamson45:12

      One of the things that's interesting, I guess, as you get older is that the groove that you have greased is increasingly difficult to get out of.

   7. JOJonny45:21

      Mm-hmm.

   8. CWChris Williamson45:21

      It's like, "Okay, I have this amount of time, and the-"

   9. JOJonny45:24

      Sorry.

   10. CWChris Williamson45:24

       "... opportunity cost of spinning back around-"

   11. JOJonny45:27

       Starting from zero.

   12. CWChris Williamson45:28

       "... to go and go like, 'Okay, I'll code. I'll start coding now.'" It's like, well, hang on, you have all of these skills, all this experience, all this renown, all of this platform, what- whatever it might be that you have, and you're going to choose to no longer leverage any of that.

   13. JOJonny45:41

       Yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson45:42

       So, there has to be this acceptance of like, "Look, where am I now? What is the position that I am in right now, and what are the skills that I have moving forward?" 'Cause I think all of the things that we've chosen that we've said there, like, um, already leverage on stuff that we do. So for me, it was like, "Look, stop thinking about what other people think." That would've made me a better club promoter. I already was a club promoter.

   15. JOJonny46:01

       Mm-hmm.

   16. CWChris Williamson46:01

       Um, focus on yourself and indulging in the things that you genuinely care about. That, that was something that I was massively lacking in, so that was getting rid of something I didn't need, and-

   17. YUYusef46:10

       So, what is an extra skill you can bolt on that won't just nullify all the previous experience that you've got?

   18. CWChris Williamson46:15

       Mm-hmm.

   19. YUYusef46:16

       So, in learning to code, I think if you have the skill of selling, and then you add learning to code on top of that, then you've got a combination that most salesmen or coders don't have the opposite of. And I think the people that do best at m- at the moment, like, at big tech companies, because they can sell and code, they can build something-

   20. JOJonny46:37

       And then market it.

   21. YUYusef46:38

       ... and match it to the market and sell it.

   22. CWChris Williamson46:40

       Mm-hmm.

   23. YUYusef46:40

       Whereas a lot of good coders don't think about front end or user experience or co- or, um, sales, and they're just focused on, like, the product and end up having this gap, or they create something that the ma- market doesn't need.

   24. CWChris Williamson46:54

       Mm-hmm.

   25. YUYusef46:54

       So actually ha- m- marrying those two skills would work really well. But-

   26. JOJonny46:59

       It's trying to find the...

   27. YUYusef47:00

       What's easier, teaching a salesman to code or a coder to sale?

   28. JOJonny47:03

       I think they're two-

   29. CWChris Williamson47:04

       Who knows, like-

   30. JOJonny47:05

       ... they're two contrary things, aren't they? They're so far apart-
5. 1:00:00 – 1:05:30

   I remember you used…

   1. CWChris Williamson1:00:00

      anyone needed an explanation of the sort of arsehole that I was ten years ago- ... you go for Party Chris in full flow.

   2. JOJonny1:00:06

      I remember you used to eat, um, tins of chicken.

   3. CWChris Williamson1:00:10

      Why, uh, chunky chicken?

   4. JOJonny1:00:11

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson1:00:11

      Still in there.

   6. JOJonny1:00:13

      (laughs)

   7. CWChris Williamson1:00:13

      (laughs) That's ama- Do you still eat it? That's real-

   8. JOJonny1:00:16

      Is it, like, back up stuff?

   9. CWChris Williamson1:00:17

      ... desperate, yeah.

   10. JOJonny1:00:17

       Yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson1:00:18

       "Fuck, I've got no food."

   12. JOJonny1:00:20

       Yeah.

   13. CWChris Williamson1:00:20

       Like ...

   14. JOJonny1:00:20

       Chunky chicken with rice.

   15. CWChris Williamson1:00:22

       With rice, yeah. Good meal though.

   16. JOJonny1:00:23

       And you, I remember your reasoning for carb backloading was it was a reason that you had to go the gym, 'cause if you didn't train-

   17. CWChris Williamson1:00:29

       Couldn't have carbs.

   18. JOJonny1:00:29

       ... you couldn't have carbs.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:00:30

       Yeah.

   20. JOJonny1:00:31

       So it was like burger and cheese and an egg for dinner.

   21. CWChris Williamson1:00:33

       Clever way to do it. Um, okay.

   22. JOJonny1:00:35

       It's just calories. Boring.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:00:37

       We're coming to the end. Uh, uh, uh, what are some of the things that you've realized during this conversation, Johnny?

   24. JOJonny1:00:44

       Uh, that wherever you are giving people the most advice is probably where you need the advice the most. That's something I hear a lot at the moment.

   25. CWChris Williamson1:00:53

       How so?

   26. JOJonny1:00:54

       Like, I think the stuff that you-All this stuff that we've just said is all advice that we all need right now. And like, if you think about all the stuff you tell your friends, all the advice you're giving to people, like, look at that area of your life yourself-

   27. CWChris Williamson1:01:08

       Mm-hmm.

   28. JOJonny1:01:08

       ... 'cause it's probably the area that you talk loads about but you don't actually do much in.

   29. CWChris Williamson1:01:13

       Well, we're fantastic at f- talking a good game-

   30. JOJonny1:01:16

       Yeah.

Episode duration: 1:05:30