Becoming a Man of Thought & Action with Joseph C. Wells

I wanted the first podcast episode of 2020 to be special. So I upgraded my equipment for an enhanced audio experience, flew to New York City and invited back on the show a listener-favorite. Joseph Wells’ first appearance, Buying Time-Freedom Before the 4% Rule with Joseph C. Wells, was very popular.

Since having Joe on in early 2019, he has become a prolific writer, developed an app called Blogcastr and was accepted into the Write of Passage Fellowship. Not to mention he’s completed a half-Iron Man and written a guest post for ManOverseas.com. How to Become the Richest Man in Babylon BY GUEST WRITER JOSEPH WELLS, is an excellent summary of the first book I read after finishing school—the book completely changed the way I think about money.

In this episode, I ask Joe about being robbed at gunpoint, we dive deeper into topics previously discussed and each of us shares how we would invest $10,000 tomorrow. (Disclaimer: Every person’s financial situation is different—do not make important investment decisions based on a Man Overseas podcast episode.) We also talk about two great articles written by our favorite online writer, Morgan Housel (linked below).

Topics we discuss:

The story of Getting Robbed at Gunpoint
Online people he’s met
Upside of social media
Write of Passage
Blogcastr
Importance of physical fitness
Benefits of writing online
Doing what you love
Obtaining financial freedom
Playing with FIRE Documentary

Days in the Life

Exercise as a warm-up for mental workout
Committed to publishing once a week
Been writing over a year
Has written over 50 articles
Feels immense joy when he hits the publish button
Improving his information collection system
Joe’s relationship with Ashleigh (his girlfriend)

Benefits of online writing

Writing opens a lot of doors
Thinking through his ideas
Clarifying his thinking
Demonstrated work ethic
Writing about courage

Meeting Online Friends

Alex and Books (from Instagram)
Meeting with David Perell (from Twitter)
Biggest takeaway from meeting with David
Deep thinking
Paradox of specificity

The Questions

Did you keep your job [after being robbed at gun point]?
You must have friends that spend a lot of money [living/working in NYC]?
Do you have any friends on the financial independence track?
You avoid the news, correct?
Are you conscious of the inter-relatedness of the body & mind?
Do you think that physical activity has an impact on clear thinking?
The dude you mentioned, David Perrel is a genius. I’m curious, what did you take away from that meeting?
You have become prolific in your writing in recent months. What are you doing differently?
Can you compare a runner’s high and flow state experience when writing? Is it similar [for you]?
What has writing done for you?
What are the advantages of writing online?
Do you think blogs are becoming obsolete?.
Do you have any thoughts on niching [your writing] down?
Morgan Housel says the 5-day, 40-hour work week is outdated. Do you agree?
Do you have a favorite biography?
Are you gonna write a book at some point?

Fun questions

If someone dropped $5,000 dollars in your lap, what would you do with it?
If I forced you to invest $10,000 dollars tomorrow, how would you invest it?
If you could meet anyone from twitter, who would it be?
If you achieved financial independence and retired in March 2020, how would you spend the first 3 months in early retirement?
What is your favorite book on writing?