🧟‍♂️He's Alive! But Barely...

How this newsletter got to this size...

Feb 24

3 appropriate responses to seeing this email in your inbox:

Oh crap, he’s published one?? It’s been a while…
Who the hell is this guy, and what’s this about again?
This is literally the first email I’ve ever got from you.

All very warranted, all have an answer that starts with the origin story. How did I get a couple of thousand subscribers? Why did people subscribe? When did this start? What the hell did they subscribe for?

This newsletter started before Substack did, and it was off the back of an article I wrote - my first Medium article, actually.

It was about procrastination, and it went viral. This spelling error-riddled, clunky sentence, meaty paragraph, adverb-heavy article went viral. And after that, I wrote about:

Self-improvement
Marketing
Business
Fitness
Travel

I wrote about absolutely everything - the textbook case for the worst way to build a blog. Hence the name, The Professional Generalist.

I like everything, so I wanted to write about everything.

So you, you handsome devil, you subscribed to me for one or many of those topics. You just wanted to get better overall, and maybe, in particular, one of those dimensions.

That answers the What and the Why, and here we go; this is the first out of 3 times during this email that I’m going to ask you to Unsubscribe. Yes, you heard right. If you’re not interested in any of those topics, please unsubscribe now before I continue ranting here.

👨‍🏫 Me and The Problem

So now it’s time for the Who.

My name’s Sah, and it’s pronounced Shah, like when someone’s talking very loudly, and you’re thinking “SHUT THE FUCK UP” in your head, and you almost let it slip, saying “Shhhuuuh…” while clenching your fist in anger.

I’m a 27-year-old guy living in Australia and rigorously trialling-and-erroring the shit out of life.

I’ve traveled to about 25-ish countries
Have run a successful blog
Worked full-time in a corporate environment
Worked full-time as a freelancer
Written code, written words, got a couple of bachelor’s degrees
Dated quite a bit (so many hilarious stories here)

Essentially, I’m well-rounded and “experience-chasing” enough to let you know the pitfalls and cuckery (a word I invented) of the 20s. From career, to meaning, to feeling lost, to having a good time.

What I can’t help you with is parenting, adulting, and the life of someone in their 40s. I’m not going to pretend to have the life experience to give you a step by step play of everything to do and not do, and for the record, I don’t think any of the oldies have it either - everyone’s different, and 20-years-ago is a hard time to remember.

What I’m giving you is a “right fucking now” approach to what I’m dealing with. Reality TV without the editing. And now, this is the second time I’m going to ask you to Unsubscribe.

If you’re not looking for my perspective on the challenges of the 20s, if you’re not interested in dealing with some of these problems, hell, if you think your issues are not the same, there’s no use in sticking around.

🖐 You and What You Want

Your email inbox is ass - all of us live this reality all day, every day. Think about your favorite YouTuber, a vlogger maybe, someone you’ve “hit the notification bell” on, and think about how their videos appear on your front page; they do, right? But it’s surrounded by a bunch of crap you’re not interested in - I don’t want this to be that; I want you to look forward to these.

So if at any point you think, “Shit, I actually cannot be arsed to read this thing.” Please, please, please - Unsubscribe.

⏳ The Future

I haven’t decided, but it’s definitely going to be revolving around experiences, learnings, and a whole lot of creating. I think I’ll turn The PG into a lovechild of a blog and journal - I’m not too sure yet.

At the moment, I’m interested in two things.

Creating things and helping others create things too - from software to digital products, to businesses; and,
Helping people figure out their lives and goals.

All while I do the same for myself.

If you learn something that’s valuable to you, or you’re entertained at my expense - then that’s a job well done for me.

So don’t be shy, like or comment on the posts, reply, give me feedback. The more I know, the more I can do better. Stay tuned and watch this space, friends.

🔗 Link Dump

Oh yeah, the link dump is here to stay.

I launched my first digital product recently, so I wrote a
step-by-step guide on how I chose the services, products, payment gateways, and marketing tools to do it.
I’ve released a cool method for figuring out how to take action with goals - it’s all about putting rules around it.
Here’s a tweet that I enjoyed - applicable to a lot of people. And here’s a profile that’s applicable to solopreneurs. And while we’re here, follow me too, I’ll follow you back if you’re into writing, creating, productivity, or travel.

I’ll catch you guys and gals later - I’ve got a lot coming up, so stay tuned for some 🔥content.

Sah out.

The Professional Generalist