Monthly Achievement Report: February 2023
Publishing my progress to keep myself accountable as I launch my career, build my body, and read all the best books.
They’re back. The Monthly Achievement Reports. Everything I’m doing to build a massive social media audience, grow my business to $10k/month, read all the greatest books ever written, and develop a world-class physique - it’s all here.
One of the purposes of these reports, naturally, is to help you achieve your goals by showing you how I’m achieving mine.
I love to motivate people by my example, and I love to be a great resource for ambitious people like you who don’t want to live like everyone else.
That’s what I’m good at. That’s what I can do for you. That’s what I can help you with.
So let’s get into it!
Each month, I’m going to lay out exactly what I’m doing to actualize my biggest dreams - my craziest vision for my one and only life - and I’m going to invite you to work alongside me as we make astounding forward progress together.
(Note: I say “alongside me,” but I also mean separately - you know, supporting each other from afar. If you do want my personal help making progress on your biggest ambitions, though, reply to this email and let me know. We can talk about it.)
If there’s one thing I want you to believe, though, it’s this:
Most people will never get to where they want to be in life.
They will never even come close to doing their best or actualizing what’s possible for them in their lives, and many of them will wind up depressed, purposeless, and unmotivated - beaten down by Life.
They will stay exactly the way they are: lazy, ignorant, apathetic, and defeated.
And why is this?
Because they don’t read books.
Specifically, they don’t make an effort to learn from and apply the greatest, most transformational wisdom found in the world’s most incredible books, and they don’t even see that their futures could be any different than their present.
Wildly different.
I absolutely, positively, categorically, do NOT want that to happen to you, and so I will be pushing great books into people’s hands - your hands - for as long as I’m physically able to.
It’s what I’m here for.
Because look, you’re a reader of The Competitive Advantage right now, and so you’ll never be like them.
You and I are winners (or at least winners in the making), and we can alter the entire trajectory of our lives by reading and applying the epic wisdom found in the best books.
That’s what I earnestly and steadfastly believe, and that’s what my career is all about.
I am obsessed with sharing the magic of books and reading, and I am obsessed with helping you to become everything you ever thought you could be but were afraid to even attempt.
Okay, I may have gotten a little carried away there. But I stand by it.
Reading is important. Supporting each other in our ambitions is important. And making life better and easier for the people with whom we share the planet is important too.
If you’re with me on all that, let’s get into this month’s Achievement Report…
I’ve got a few different projects on the go, but for the most part, they all fit together under “Writing and Publishing,” “Reading Books,” and “Working Out.”
It may seem like I’m going off in several different directions, but as you can see, most of what I do informs and impacts the other stuff.
Here are the most important things I’m working on right now:
The Stairway to Wisdom: A collection of book breakdowns for people who actually like to read, not just for “busy” people who want cheap, 5-minute book summaries.
This is for people who actually LIKE to read, and my book breakdowns respect both the reader’s time and their intelligence.
I’m dedicated to steadily growing this membership site and I have a great team behind me too. You can check it out here.
Reading: This is basically what I’ve made my life about. I love reading — I love books and literature almost as much as life itself. To me, they are life itself, and I read between 150–200 books every single year. You can find my full reading list here.
Writing: Again, this sort of fits in with the Stairway to Wisdom above, but here I’m also talking about writing on Medium.com, writing on my own site, on other websites, writing my first book, etc. A lot of what I do falls under “writing” - even scripting YouTube videos!
Social Media: I recently hit 85,000 followers on Instagram, but I’m also working on growing my presence on several other platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Plus, I use my following on social media to grow my business, attract new readers to my website, etc. So, it all works together!
Fitness: Don’t make me choose between books and barbells! I refuse! Working out is just one of those things that my life is about, and I give my all to building the greatest physique I possibly can. If you want or need help developing your own body, send me an email and we can talk about it.
Charity: A life lived solely for yourself isn’t much of a life, and I’ve found that money can buy happiness — when you spend it on other people.
My favorite charities are First Book, a children’s educational charity, and Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian relief organization. I donate regularly to both — as well as a few others — and I plan to increase the size of my contributions very soon.
“Long-term,” for me, means my entire life. These are my current lifetime achievement goals, and this is basically what I’m going for in my life. I don’t care how long it takes me — I will succeed.
In no particular order:
Raise $1,000,000,000 for Doctors Without Borders
Raise $1,000,000,000 for First Book
Live on just 1% of my yearly income and donate the rest
Travel to outer space (and back!)
Own at least part of a space tourism company
Own at least part of a successful nightclub
Publish at least 10 books
Read at least 10,000 books
My definition of “short-term” is much different than most people’s. I think in decades, so I’m more interested in playing the long game and becoming wildly successful over time, rather than settling for something smaller than I know I’m capable of achieving.
I’m only 32, and with the ridiculous advances in medical technology and everything, it’s not unreasonable to assume that I’ll live to be well over 100. So, what’s “short-term”?
If I accomplish the following “short-term” goals in 5–25 years, that’s a good start:
Reach 220lbs with less than 10% body fat
Reach 1,000 Patreon supporters
Reach 1,000,000 followers on Instagram
Reach 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube
Reach 1,000,000 followers on Twitter
Build an email list of 1,000,000 readers
Earn $10,000,000 in a single year
Invest $10,000,000 in the stock market
Model for an international agency
Sign with a literary agent for my first book
This is an exciting time for me, as I’m starting to gain a lot of traction online and build up momentum. I actually have, like, an audience now, and that’s pretty damn cool.
And it’s also a big responsibility!
The way I think about it is that every single follower is a real person (obviously), with real goals and struggles and challenges, and interests — everything that makes them who they are.
So yes, I’m building up a massive following online, but I never lose sight of the fact that I’m talking about real, infinitely valuable people who deserve to get my absolute best each and every day.
Here I’ll give you current web and social media stats, with the total growth from last month in brackets:
Average Monthly Website Visitors: 743 Visitors (+641)
Stairway to Wisdom: 345 Members (+33)
The Competitive Advantage: 265 Members (+40)
My Email List: 1,690 Subscribers (+95)
YouTube: 570 Subscribers (+48)
Instagram: 85,958 Followers (+15,285)
Facebook: 1,094 Followers (+52)
Twitter: 2,485 Followers (+657)
And here are my goals for the next month on each platform:
Average Monthly Website Visitors: 1,000 Visitors
Stairway to Wisdom: 400 Members
The Competitive Advantage: 500 Members
My Email List: 3,000 Subscribers
This month is going to be insanely busy with going all-out on social media, updating a few back-end things, releasing my new reading course, etc. It’ll be a lot of work, but by the end of it, I’ll be in a much better place in terms of productivity.
By the end of the month, I will:
Launch the new sales page for the Stairway to Wisdom
Get ahead on my weekly book breakdowns for Stairway
Release my new reading course
Appear on a few book podcasts
Update my Patreon page
Update my social media profiles
Outline my new marketing funnel and lead magnets
Stay up to date with my content schedule
Go on a short vacation to recharge
I finished reading 10 books last month, including one book that gave me a “book hangover” that I still haven’t recovered from! Maybe you can guess what it is by reading my descriptions below!
My full reading list is here, and my complete notes from all of these books will be made available on my Patreon:
►►► Govt Cheese, by Steven Pressfield: Amazing memoir from the patron saint of writers everywhere, and author of classics like The War of Art and Turning Pro.
►►► Bruce Lee: Artist of Life, edited by John Little: Personal essays by the master about life, discipline, and self-actualization. Highly recommend!
►►► The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation, by Mike Matthews: I haven't been this impressed by a fitness book in a LONG time. Perfect for beginners, or people who need a little extra (supportive) kick to master their fitness. Highly recommend!
►►► The Rational Male, by Rollo Tomassi: A VERY good dating book that should be essential reading for any man, but especially those under 30. Slightly dogmatic in tone, but still an excellent, interesting read!
►►► The Bezos Letters, by Steve and Karen Anderson: A breakdown of Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters and why he was able to build such a spectacularly successful company. Essential for business owners!
►►► Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming: The first James Bond novel! So good! A little heavy on the 1950s sexism haha but overall, pretty damn good.
►►► Play Bigger, by Category Pirates: A book full of BIG ideas about how to separate yourself in business by dominating your "category." Seriously essential reading for ANYONE in business. Their other book, Snow Leopard, is excellent as well.
►►► The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas: READ IT! READ THIS BOOK. RIGHT TF NOW! IT'S AMAZING. Full stop.
►►► The Productivity Project, by Chris Bailey: One of the best productivity books I've ever read. I listened to the audio version, read by him, and it was perfect. Highly recommend.
►►► The Quest for Character, by Massimo Pigliucci: Perfect book for anyone interested in ancient Greek history and philosophy! I'll instantly buy any book that Massimo puts out - they're always great.
Watch the full review on my YouTube channel!
…More is usually said than done. That’s the reality. Most people will talk about all these things that they want to do, and then they’ll do…nothing.
But you and I are not those people.
We have made a commitment to excellence, and we know that nobody succeeds alone.
We all travel further together, and that’s one of my main motivations for starting The Competitive Advantage, and for writing these Achievement Reports.
I’ve developed an extremely effective system for achieving my goals and reaching the kind of success that I want for myself, but your system will undoubtedly look different than mine.
However, I want you to remember that the absolutely “perfect” system that you never even look at again is never going to be as effective as the perhaps-slightly-imperfect system that you actually use.
“Action! Action is the only salvation that exists!”
A little Nikos Kazantzakis there for ya…
Anyway, I like to err on the side of taking massive action, and doing whatever it takes to hit my targets. I never reduce those targets; all I do is increase my level of action.
That’s the key.
So I hope that all of this was helpful and/or enlightening for you, and I’ll be active in the comments, so definitely let me know how you’re going to apply some of what we talked about in your own life! I’d love to hear about it.
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are two more ways I can help you apply the wisdom found in the greatest books ever written to your life:
I have one spot left open for personal mentoring, and the first choice always goes to the people on my email list. Simply reply to this email if this is something you're interested in working with me on, and I'll let you know more about it, answer all your questions, etc. It's not cheap, but it will be extremely valuable for you if you're willing to work as hard on yourself as I'm willing to work for you.
I've released 50 complete, in-depth book breakdowns on the Stairway to Wisdom that respects both your time AND your intelligence and will help you become the person you've always known you were capable of being. Read them for free here.