If you haven’t noticed, I am a weird guy who does weird things. For example, I don’t shave until I get on stage speaking, so I go through cycles of looks from professional to homeless. I have a bottomless stomach... I ate 62 pieces of sushi in one sitting the other day.

And I am addicted to 100-day sprints. They have become my superpower.

I found out that I could pretty much do anything amazing in 100 days – from getting into the Duke MBA program, to becoming a famous though temporary YouTuber.

In fact, I just finished a 100-day sprint, which was both a failure and a success at the same time, and launched a book into a bestseller.

100 days is long enough for me to focus on an extremely ambitious project, and short enough that I never get burned out. It’s magical. It feels limitless.

Now I live my life as a series of 100-day sprints.

Pretty weird huh.

The Next 100 Days

I’m now two weeks into my next 100-day sprint.

And my next extremely ambitious, meaningful and world-changing project is…

Drumroll

Build a new podcast called Easy Ambition.

Yawn…

I know I know, everyone and their mom has a podcast nowadays. It’s like “I’m getting a dog, or I’m buying a Model Y.” It sounds good to you, but it’s so boring and no one else cares.

And competitively, podcasting is one of the most saturated markets. There are more shut-down podcasts than beer cans on the side of a California highway. What do I have to say that’s different?

In fact, I have been thinking about doing a podcast for 10 years. These past topics came to my mind:

• A podcast where I interview famous people on how they overcame rejection

• A podcast where I talk to Tracy about how to feel like newlyweds 16 years into our marriage

• A podcast about the worst business ideas possible – Yelp for local banana peelers.

• A podcast about historical counterfactuals – what if Hitler loved anime growing up and moved to Japan; what if JFK were a 7’6” NBA center and he got shot in the collarbone instead?

But in the end, I decided against all of them, because I was not excited about them enough to actually do it.

But now I have found an idea that I am genuinely interested in:

Interviewing English-speaking authors in Chinese

Oh yeah.

Why

There are hundreds of millions of book readers in China. They don’t necessarily speak English, but they love reading translated Western books.

Do you know Ray Dalio’s book has 19,338 ratings on Amazon, but 39,851 ratings on Douban, the Chinese equivalent?

Now authors like Dalio have done a million interviews in English, but none in Chinese.

Well, with me hosting, and the help of AI translation and dubbing, now it’s possible. Chinese readers would have a chance to listen to Ray Dalio speaking to them in their language.

And there is a personal reason too:

I came to America from China at age 16 without knowing a word of English. My uncle told me, learn English like your life depends on it. It’s like training martial arts with your left hand. When it becomes strong enough, you’ll become a two-handed master.

For the subsequent decades, I did everything in English – getting higher education, writing books, giving talks.

As a result, my Chinese has atrophied to become my weak hand. I have no intellectual output in my native language.

But now, that’s about to change. I am building and hosting the only (as far as I know) Chinese podcast interviewing Western authors.

My sprint runs August 10 to November 18. I’m two weeks in, so you’re joining mid-episode.

I will:

• Make a podcast that interviews 10 awesome authors (with 1k+ Amazon reviews). The topic: how they made hard things easy.

• Distribute the resulting English episodes on YouTube.

• Then translate/dub the episodes into Chinese.

• Distribute them on Chinese platforms (such as BiliBili and Xiaohongshu).

My Baby Shower Shout

So why am I telling you this?

This is the trick about doing 100-day sprints – it works best if it’s public. If I tell this to the world, the world will hold me accountable.

I call this the Baby Shower Shout. I once did this, telling everyone who cared about me enough to show up at my baby shower that I was starting my own company. And it worked. I didn’t quit when it got tough.

So now you are in my virtual baby shower, and I’m shouting to you.

Why Should You Care

The answer is: you shouldn’t. So please don’t. Unless:

• You want to be my first audience – I will have an English version of my interviews on YouTube. You listen and tell me if you’ve learned something and how I did. If you think I made a mistake, tell me. If you think I’m boring, don’t hold back. If you think I’m ugly… nah shut up.

  Anyway, your feedback is truly valuable.

• If you have your own thing you keep not starting – an ambitious personal project or business goal, here is your chance to do it in the next 100 days. Join me, starting today.

  Tell me what it is in the comments or reply. Every time I write something, you tell me your progress - the project and your day count.

  You keep going, give your all, and don’t stop until 100 days hit.

The magic of 100-day sprints is that you aren’t shooting to win something forever. You are only testing it for 100 days.

You can do anything for 100 days!

[Day -4,016] – April 15, 2015

The publication day of my first book, Rejection Proof. I was on my “book tour,” speaking in a public library in a city I don’t remember. In front of me were four old ladies in their 60s and 70s. After mustering all the smiles I could fake, I finished my talk and signed their books.

Three copies sold (one lady left without buying).

Earlier that day, my literary agent had called me in a panic. Rejection Proof came out that morning; there was no buzz, no conversation, no sales. My pre-orders were about 200.

It looked like the book I spent 18 months writing was dead on arrival. The low six-figure advance Penguin Random House invested in me looked to be money down the drain for them. I mean, it went to my pocket. That’s how author advances work. But life is not just about money. I felt like the biggest failure and fraud in the world, letting my publisher down. My emotions ranged from never wanting to write again to wanting to change my name and move to Nepal.

In the Himalayas, no one would know I was a failed author.

[Day -655] – June 27, 2024

Well, things have turned out differently from what that day projected. Rejection Proof didn’t die after the putrid start.

Over the years, the book has sold close to 200,000 copies in 15 languages worldwide.

(How? 1. It was a really good book. 2. You will see later in the marketing lessons.)

It did so well that it not only earned back its advance a long time ago, it also landed me my second book deal. This time from Simon & Schuster, another “Big Five” publisher.

The book is called Easy Discipline.

Writing began!

[Day 0] – April 13, 2026

Almost another two years have passed, I finished the manuscript. And I was 100 days away from launching Easy Discipline.

This time, I needed to treat the book launch seriously. No more humiliating book tours, hopefully no more panic calls from my agent, and definitely no more checking flights to Nepal.

I was determined to launch Easy Discipline to become a bestseller (New York Times, USA TODAY, The Tofu Maker Chronicle. I don’t care. Get me on a list.)

So, I publicly declared to the world (basically my newsletter subscribers) that I would sell 10,000 preorders in 100 days.

[Day 1]

It’s time to get to work. My plan was a series of weekly guerrilla marketing moonshots.

• Following the concept of the Million Dollar Homepage (if you remember it back in the day, welcome to middle age), I commissioned my wife Tracy to vibe-code a Public Wall made of 10,000 squares, where every square can be claimed by someone who uploads a pre-order receipt.

• I would send emails to pitch myself to get on the most popular podcasts in the world.

• I would restart my YouTube channel to talk about my book.

• I would train my kids to play tennis with Easy Discipline principles, so they could win tournaments.

• I would enter and go deep in the World Series of Poker, and wear the Easy Discipline t-shirt at the final table.

• I would panhandle my way to the World Cup Final.

You might laugh, and you should.

[Day 46]

Almost halfway through the 100 days, the wall said 443 copies sold. 4.4% of my goal.

None of my moonshots worked. YouTube sucked. Steven Bartlett and Tim Ferriss said NO. And my bank accounts screamed at my poker performance. In fact, I didn’t even start some of these moonshots. I hated some of the actions so much that they went directly against my own principles: shooting for results without embracing the process is Hard Discipline, the opposite of Easy Discipline.

Moreover, the low number on the wall became an embarrassment. This was exactly the feeling of speaking to four old ladies trying to sell books, except without the confinement of that anonymous library. It was to the world, with a public wall number hanging over my head.

I started imagining all my newsletter readers laughing at me, day and night, before dinner and after sex. I mean, why didn’t they all buy a copy? If they had all pre-ordered, I would have made the number and then some!

Why did I have to make the insane goal public? Did I just commit career suicide as a writer?

For days I didn’t want to get out of bed.

But if there is one action in my life that gives me the most bang for the buck, it’s this: marrying well.

Remember I share a bed with a superwoman called Tracy? She flies with phones, not with capes.

As a person with the extraversion of Oprah Winfrey, the people skills of Estée Lauder, and the heart of Mother Teresa, Tracy loves calling people and making sales.

She saw I was down and said, “OK, let me call someone.” Then she would call one of my past speaking clients, or a former colleague. Thirty minutes of Zoom later, she would say, “I just sold 150 copies to Google.”

“Which Google?” I asked, as if there were 30 Googles running around.

Then Mitsubishi bought 100. And Florida Realtors bought 200. The wall number started to climb.

[Day 100]

Last day. In the morning, the wall said 2,853. What do you write when you are on your last day and at less than 29% of your stated goal, however ambitious?

Should I write a failure post-mortem? Apologize for my folly? Or admit that 2,853 was genuinely good by absolute numbers? (I mean, it was more than 10x Rejection Proof’s pre-order numbers.)

After long thought, I remembered the poem: Do not go gentle into that good night... rage against the dying of the light. So I wrote a piece, “I Will Reminisce When I’m Dead.” It was less of a letter to my readers, and more of a rallying cry to my soul.

I sent the letter at 1pm. (See how bad I was at this newsletter thing? Which idiot procrastinates until the afternoon to send the launch day email?)

Three hours later, Tracy called me. She said, “Something happened. In the past three hours after your email, over 300 copies came in. We just crossed 3,000. You should write another email to tell people your momentum.”

“Well, maybe I will”... and yes I did. I wrote another email titled “You Thought I Was Done. So Did I.”

Nothing works like a deadline and momentum. The floodgates stayed open. At midnight, the wall froze. The number said 4,126.

It was still not 10,000, not even half of it. But 4,126 preorders took the campaign from “genuinely good” to “top 1% of all published books,” according to my agent. (This time there was no panic on his end of the phone.)

But 1,273 on the last day? That’s a miracle! My people finally showed up for me, like Gandalf at dawn with his cavalry.

[Day 107]

A week later, an email from my publisher landed in my mailbox: “EASY DISCIPLINE is a USA TODAY bestseller!”

Indeed, #6 in Self-Help, and #95 in ALL genres: novels, romance, erotica, furniture installation manuals.

11 years later, it was redemption. No more feelings of letting my publisher down. No more wanting to sew myself inside my comforter. I was genuinely happy, for the team and the people who believed in me, who invested in me, who helped me.

[Day 115]

Another email from my publisher. This time they are reprinting the book, with “National Bestseller” on the cover. They wanted me to pick a design.

I like emails like these.

My book launch was a failure, but a beautiful failure.

Now, here are eight lessons for book launches and ambitious goals in general. If you want to fail like me, keep reading.

Lesson 1: Every Marketing Tactic Is Either Fancy or Boring. You Need Both

Fancy – high potential, low hit rate, exciting, making you dream about going viral and starting movements. Examples: social media, guerrilla marketing stunts, big-name podcasts, TED talks, etc.

Boring – safe, behind-the-scenes, day-to-day. Examples: corporate bulk purchases, email lists, speaking engagements, family/friends/community support, events, etc.

I promised earlier I’d tell you how Rejection Proof survived an abysmal launch. Here is how:

Fancy:

• Rejection Therapy videos became a social media trend with 100M views on TikTok. Every time someone does a viral video, it becomes ambient marketing for my book.

• I also gave a wildly popular TED talk, with over 11M views. If 0.5% of viewers bought my book, that’d be 55K copies.

Boring:

• After my TED talk, I became a prolific professional speaker, with over 400 keynotes over 10 years. Every time I speak, I sell books.

Fancy sets your ceiling. Boring sets your floor.

Lesson 2: Build Your Floor Before Raising Your Ceiling

For the Easy Discipline 100 Days launch, I started with the fancy moonshots you just read about.

Big mistake!

Fancy, by definition, is risky. All my moonshots failed, and I could not engineer viral hits with a 100-day deadline.

That’s when boring came to the rescue: Tracy’s phone calls to corporate clients for bulk purchases, my tying book buys to speaking events, etc.

My 4,126 all came from boring.

Yes, you can bore your way onto the bestseller list.

Lesson 3: Ask, Get Rejected, and Ask More

Boring tactics such as corporate bulk buys require lots of 1-on-1 asks. Most people won’t say YES, or even bother to respond. Rejection is the default.

But there are also people who want to help. They want to feel like being part of something special. They are the exceptions. And exceptions move the wall numbers.

For example, corporate purchases usually take a long lead time, even 6-8 weeks (I lost 1,500 copies because the timing was too short). But the people who bought were willing to move mountains and move fast. Some even used their own credit cards first and got reimbursed by their companies later. Those people are heroes.

What you need is to ask, however uncomfortable. Give those exceptions a chance to say YES. Give those heroes a chance to save the day.

Lesson 4: An Insane Goal Works, But Might Drive You Insane Too

When I asked my publisher how many preorders would make them dance, they said 5,000 copies. I said, how about doubling that, to 10,000?

Without the insane goal, there would be no wall, no moonshots, no speaking like crazy, and no bulk buys. It took every ounce of energy and creativity out of me.

But be careful: insane goals are a double-edged sword. When the results aren’t showing, the pain of the gap takes over. You are tempted by every distraction imaginable to relieve the pain. Giving up becomes an easy way out.

Go big game hunting! But pack your first aid kit.

Lesson 5: Do Things You Enjoy

Lesson 4 is why you should build your plan based on things you love to do. When you aren’t getting satisfaction from immediate results, you should get it from the actions.

I did not like YouTube and social media; doing them hoping for results made me miserable. But I enjoyed speaking and writing, and doing them made me happy. Tracy LOVED talking and making connections, and she could not NOT call folks.

Whatever you do, start with things you love. (This happens to be the first principle of Easy Discipline.)

Lesson 6: Public Accountability Is Your Friend

Most people hide their goals. If they win, they celebrate. If they lose, they pretend nothing happened. No harm, no foul. And that’s why most people fail.

Making your goals public works amazingly well. The public pressure and your desire to conform to your declared identity will force effort out of you.

In fact, I took accountability to another level by building the live wall. 443 at day 46 was public whipping. And that’s how we did everything we could to get to 4,126 fifty-four days later.

Lesson 7: A Deadline Is Your BFF

If public accountability is a groomsman at the wedding between you and your goal, a deadline is the best man, wedding planner, and photographer rolled into one.

I set my campaign to be 100 days. 31% of my sales came in on the last day, because my readers knew it was now or never, and they rushed to both help me and claim perks while they could.

So whatever goal you have, set an end date. Nothing demoralizes like a forever goal. And nothing galvanizes like a finish line, both for your tribe and yourself.

Lesson 8: You Can’t Schedule Fire. But You Can Build the Machine

I will give you a confession no “National Bestseller” author will tell you. The goal for 100 Days to 10,000 Copies was never just a number, but for the book to have a chance to catch fire on its own. I wanted Easy Discipline to enter the ether, to generate organic conversations, to explode.

So far, it hasn’t yet. Tracy and I generated almost every sale on our own. Three weeks in, there are only 14 Amazon reviews, albeit all raving ones.

I grieved this. But I also took solace.

After all, Inner Excellence didn’t catch fire until a Philadelphia Eagles player read it on the sideline. And Rejection Proof didn’t catch fire until the TED talk 18 months later.

Easy Discipline will have its own explosion.

I don’t know when or how, but one of the moonshots will land.

And before that, I have built a machine.

That machine already printed the National Bestseller badge. And I will continue to sell books – one speech at a time.

If you know an author about to launch, send them this. It’s the post I wish someone had sent me in 2015.

PS. Hey Coach Joe Mazzulla. I know you are busy coaching the Boston Celtics. If you ever feel the urge to show up on ESPN to tell the world how Easy Discipline has helped your coaching philosophy, please don’t fight it.

You are in the book!

This is the recording.

Agenda:

1. Behind the scenes stories of 100 Days to 10,000 Copies

   1. The good

   2. The bad

   3. And the ugly

2. Lessons and insights

   1. What worked like magic

   2. What I will never do again

   3. What surprised me the most

   4. What cost me $33K

   5. …

Read more

Time:

7/28/2026 5pm PT / 8pm ET

Agenda:

1. Behind the scenes stories of 100 Days to 10,000 Copies

   1. The good

   2. The bad

   3. And the ugly

2. Lessons and insights

   1. What worked like magic

   2. What I will never do again

   3. What surprised me the most

   4. What cost me $33K

   5. What is the most danger…

Read more

But behind the scenes, it’s a success, wrapped in a failure, inside a miracle.

More importantly, it’s a list of lessons in sales, marketing, influence, and human psychology. If you are interested in launching products or writing books, these lessons are raw and bloody.

Zoom Livestream:

Time:

7/28/2026 5pm PT / 8pm ET

Agenda:

1. Behind the scenes stories of 100 Days to 10,000 Copies

   1. The good

   2. The bad

   3. And the ugly

2. Lessons and insights

   1. What worked like magic

   2. What I will never do again

   3. What surprised me the most

   4. What cost me $33K

   5. What is the most dangerous

3. Your turn

   1. Advice on your goals

   2. Q&A

How to Join:

This livestream is part of an ongoing monthly series available only to the Ambition Circle, a group of paid subscribers and book buyers.

If you're not in the circle yet, here's how to join:

Option 1: Become a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Option 2: Buy a copy of Easy Discipline and email me a receipt. I’ll add you manually.

Buy a Copy

Zoom Info:

Read more

It's the #6 bestselling book in the Self-Help genre, and #95 across ALL genres: novels, romance, erotica, furniture installation manuals! Easy Discipline is on the list!

I want to hug each one of you. Champagne! Toast! Kimchi fried rice! Let’s go nuts!

When I proclaimed the 10,000 copies goal 100 days ago, did I think the book would make it to the bestselling list?

Of course I did! How could I not?

But when, on day 46, I was staring at 443 copies sold, did I still think it would land on any list?

Hell no! I wasn’t stupid!

But I never gave up.

• When, between posts, not a single copy was added to the wall, I didn’t give up.

• When I tried YouTube, poker, and other moonshots, nothing worked. I didn’t give up.

• When a 1,000+ copy deal fell through, I didn’t give up.

• When I didn’t want to get out of bed, I didn’t give up.

And YOU never gave up on me.

In the final days, you showed up like Gandalf at dawn with his cavalry, charging into the army of orcs that was about to overwhelm and sack Helm’s Deep, and saved the day.

The result?

4,126 copies!

I shot for the stars, and indeed landed on the moon. And the moon is beautiful. And the journey was damn breathtaking, because you were there with me.

Just like the words USA TODAY Bestseller will never be erased from Easy Discipline, your names will never be erased from the Easy Wall, and your support will never be erased from my heart.

NEVER!

If you bought a copy, told a friend, or just supported me throughout, this USA TODAY list is also for you. Feel free to brag.

For You

Now, I never want this to be about me and the book. An author selling books and making the bestseller list, whoop-dee-doo.

I want it to be about you. Because, like mine, your ambitions are also calling you, and your dreams are flashing at you, and your ideas are whispering to you.

Don’t give up on them. No matter how hopeless it seems and how embarrassing it feels, don’t give up.

Don’t you fucking give up!

(PS. I usually don’t swear like this. But today, let me.)

(PPS. And if you have your version of the 10,000, the goal you’re not giving up on, tell me in the comments or reply to this email. I read every one.)

You pre-ordered Easy Discipline during my 100 Days to 10,000 Copies book launch campaign. As an author, I know how difficult it is to sell books in the age of doomscrolling and social media. I can’t appreciate you enough for the trust and support.

First, a secret:

Because of you, yes you, Easy Discipline just made it to the USA TODAY Bests…

Read more

What???

1,273 copies in one day? That’s insane. That’s a miracle. I wish we could have 100 “last days.”

According to my literary agent, the final number put Easy Discipline in the top 1% of all book pre-sale campaigns.

Who made it happen? YOU!

For those who bought, thank you for your trust. You will be getting the alternative introduction and ending, plus 1 year of “paid subscriber” status for free. Moreover, you will forever be my friend. And forever on the Easy Wall. If you need encouragement, advice, or a kidney from me, just drop me a line.

And even if you didn’t buy, if you were here just cheering me on throughout the 100 days, thank you too. You being here means a lot to me.

But more importantly, I hope this public campaign has fired up something in you:

Proclaiming an impossible ambition, turning it public, living with both the dream and the embarrassment, and through it all, having the time of your life.

You too can make your own version of a miracle happen, whether it’s 10,000, 4,126, or 1,273 in one day.

But since I sent my last newsletter 5 hours ago, the wall number went from 2,853 to 3,100. Today alone, you bought 247 copies, the biggest single day of the entire campaign, and it’s happening in the final hours. Thank you!

Then I did an interview with Amantha Imber’s How I Work podcast, which will air soon. It was raw. It was real. And it was fantastic. Amantha opened her interview with: “Hey, I read your Substack. How do you feel about making a crazy public goal, 10,000 copies, and landing at a third of it?”

Other than myself every night, no one had asked me this directly before. My answer was simple: it was never about the number. It’s about writing an epic story, with a number attached.

At the end of our lives, no one will care whether we reached our own version of 10,000, or $10M, or a big house. We won’t write those numbers on our graves. But we will remember what kind of stories we wrote, and what kind of lives we lived.

How do you close a story? Dylan Thomas said:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I’d say it differently: as the Easy Discipline guy, I don’t do rage. I go nuts with a smile. Push your rock like you love it, because you do. But on one thing Thomas and I agree completely: do not go gentle. I didn’t. You didn’t. Look at the Wall.

So before this day ends, here is my last invitation: let’s write a great story together.

Buy Easy Discipline before midnight, get on the Wall, and our stories are joined forever.

Get on the Wall

Jia

Well, I didn’t make it to the top. The Wall now says 2,853.

But look what happened in these 100 days:

• A book that made the Next Big Idea Club must-read list, picked by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink.

• An audiobook that became an Audible Editor’s Select.

• An idea featured on Forbes and dozens of podcasts.

• A book event that instantly sold out from one email.

• Parties in two cities where a reader asked me to sign my first book next to my second.

• Over 20 corporate deals that Tracy closed.

And 2,853 of you who bought the book before the world decided if it was good. That was 5x what Rejection Proof did, and better than 93% of all traditionally published books.

You bet on me first. I will never forget that.

Tonight at midnight, the Wall freezes. Whoever is on it stays on it. Whoever isn’t, isn’t. After tonight, Easy Discipline becomes a book anyone can buy. Until midnight, it’s still something you can be part of.

So this is the last call. Get your copy today and:

1. Get on the EASY support wall before it freezes at midnight

2. Get a paid subscription to this newsletter for free, where I will make special content and monthly videos

3. Receive the alternative opening and ending of the book. They cover two angles that are not in the book: why most self-help books don’t work, and how to use Easy Discipline to become a great parent

Get On the Wall

Podcast:

I have been on many podcasts this past week. Start with this one from The Art of Manliness. It’s one of my favorites:

What’s next:

I’m not done. In the next few days, I will share my biggest learnings from the 100 days, the good, the bad, and the ugly, with real numbers, including the ones that made me proud and the ones that embarrass me. Some of them fundamentally changed how I see publishing, marketing, and myself. If you ever want to launch anything, that post is for you.

Day 100. 11 hours. Let’s finish this.

Today, the War on Grind starts.

Throughout history, there have been two schools of achievement: the Mechanics and the Artists.

The Mechanics are goal-oriented. They start with the end in mind, then build their path back to where they are. They ask, “How much pain can I take?” Then they start swallowing pain, one task after another, like Pac-Man eating dots. Throughout the process, they keep their eyes on the prize, hoping to reach the goal before their willpower and toughness run out.

They represent Hard Discipline.

The Artists, on the other hand, do none of that. They also start with the end in mind, but when the work starts, they forget about the goal and melt themselves into it. The process is so satisfying, the craftsmanship so intoxicating, they get lost in the work. When they wake up, they find they’ve gone far beyond their initial goal, landed in a place no one thought possible, long past the point where any Mechanic would have given up.

They embody Easy Discipline.

For a long time, the world has worshipped Hard Discipline. Navy SEALs like David Goggins and Jocko Willink preach the 4:30am alarms and hundred-mile races on broken feet, and tell you to “declare war on yourself” so you can win. And here’s the honest truth: it might work in the short term. But after a while, what’s left is a trail of burned-out people who hate themselves.

Today, we rally around the Artists: the Steve Jobses, the Roger Federers, the Warren Buffetts, and the Lin-Manuel Mirandas of the world. They lead with their passions, lean on their talents, and dig into their imaginations to create history. They work as hard as anyone, but they don’t destroy themselves.

That’s a battle worth having.

If you are an Artist at heart but keep failing with Hard Discipline, join me. Reverse the grind, find your talent, build your love, and bend the universe with your gravity.

And we’ll do it with EASY.

The Book

Today, Easy Discipline officially came out. If you’ve been reading along and waiting for the right moment, this is it. Launch day is the single day a copy counts most, for bestseller lists and for Amazon rankings.

Get Easy Discipline Here

And if your name is already on the wall, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

In two hours - 5pm Pacific Time / 8pm Eastern Time, I will host my first ever Substack Live. You, your mom, hairdresser and dogs (especially if it’s a golden retriever) are all invited.

I will hug you through air, talk through the main ideas, behind the scene stories, and answer all your questions.

Join the Party

Today is 7/12, 2 days before the official launch day of Easy Discipline (7/14). And 9 days before the end of my 100 Days to 10,000 Copies campaign.

Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

I love that quote. That’s why I live the way I live, and do the things I do. I try to turn my life into a story worth writing about. And that’s why 91 days ago, I built a public wall and set out to sell 10,000 copies.

But let me also share with you my biggest fear: what if the story of my life is mediocre? What if I try hard but fail?

Well, guess what. I didn’t have to wait for that fear. The feeling is here now.

As of today, there are 2,637 confirmed copies, 7,363 short of my 10,000-copy goal.

How do you process this gap? I have two colliding thoughts:

Thought 1:

• When you accomplish only a quarter of your goal, that’s a failure.

• When you do it publicly, that’s self-inflicted humiliation.

• When you are a writer and plan to spend the rest of your life writing, that’s career suicide.

I could have just secretly done the work without telling anyone, then popped champagne and toasted with my publisher. Why did I have to tell the world? Why did I have to set such a high number?

When I was learning English as a teenager, I learned the word “masochist.” I was confused. Who derives pleasure from pain? That word made no sense.

Well, today I learned why that word exists: for someone like me! But no, I have no pleasure, just pain. I’m a painochist.

Thought 2:

Well, let’s look at this quote: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” (I don’t know who wrote that quote, but definitely not an astronomer.)

I set out to do 10,000 copies, an impossible goal. My effort pushed me to 2,637. It’s already better than what Rejection Proof did when launching. And Rejection Proof is still selling after 11 years.

But in the end, this feels like rationalization more than anything. This feels like “well, you tried” after the United States lost to Belgium 1-4 in the World Cup.

So which one?

One of the lessons from Easy Discipline is the power of storytelling. Not telling other people stories, but telling ourselves. Every day, we encounter things: successes, failures, acceptances, rejections. They are just events.

But it’s the stories we tell ourselves afterward that really count.

So which one of these stories should I tell myself at this moment?

After eating my favorite meditation snack, kimchi with Coke Zero Sugar, I came to this conclusion: none of them. And stop thinking!

Speaking of the World Cup, a week ago, I watched a game I would never forget. Quarterfinals, Argentina vs Egypt. The heavy favorite Argentina was down 0-2. At the 75th minute, the game was as good as over.

As a long-time Argentina fan, I left the room and walked upstairs, bitterly disappointed that I would never see the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) Lionel Messi on the international stage again.

But just a couple of minutes later, I heard screaming downstairs. I rushed down and found out Argentina had just scored.

• At the 78th minute, Messi made an amazingly accurate cross into the box for his teammate to score a header, and thus the screaming. 1-2.

• At the 82nd minute, Messi made yet another great pass, and his teammate couldn’t finish. The rebound was passed back to him, and Messi said “fuck it, I’ll do it myself” (I’m sure in Spanish) and delivered a world-class volley to tie the game. 2-2.

• Then, at the 91st minute (stoppage time), his teammates finally helped him out by scoring a go-ahead goal. 3-2.

• Final: 3-2. Argentina escaped with a win after an all-time comeback.

At one of the darkest moments of his career, one guy didn’t quit: Messi, the 39-year-old GOAT.

He could have spent the last 10 minutes of the game on these stories:

• I had a great career. Let me reminisce on its highlights.

• Now it’s coming to a close. Let me contemplate its meaning.

• Here is what I will say to the world at my last post-game interview.

Instead, he chose this story:

• Let me turn into a beast and score the next goal. Then the next. Then the next.

Scoring he did. Victory he achieved.

That’s the power of storytelling.

We can all learn something from Messi. I certainly can.

My Story

So, here is the story I choose to tell myself: I still have 2 days before the launch, and 9 days before the end of the 100 days. I’m down big when there are 9 minutes left in the game. So, let me turn into a beast. Let me score the next goal. Let me sell the next copy.

I’ll reflect when it’s over.

I will reminisce when I’m dead.

I like that story.

Now, what story will you tell yourself today with your goals? Are you looking back at what could have been? Are you dreaming about what would be?

Don’t.

Just score your next goal.

And,

You can help me score mine by buying a copy below then getting on the wall.

Buy a Copy

Your job title might not say it, but if your life involves persuading someone, whether to buy a product, adopt your proposal, or pick the restaurant of your liking, you are in sales.

But are you good at it?

If you aren’t, you are not alone.

I used to hate sales.

When I started in my speaking career, I would get on a lot of “pre-decision calls” with potential clients. It’s like an interview, but instead of getting a job, it’s for a speaking gig. The potential clients would fire off a bunch of questions, getting to know me, and trying to predict if I could own the room and get a standing ovation, or pee my pants and crawl off the stage.

I LOVE speaking. But I hated, HATED these calls.

Because the stakes were high - between getting paid five figures to inspire like a superhero, or watching Game of Thrones in my underwear that night.

Before the calls, I rehearsed everything like a doomsday prepper. But during the calls, my nerves would seep through my veins. To say the right thing, I would watch their Zoom faces for every nod or frown, hoping to contort myself into something appealing.

The results? I counted my closing rate. It was about 18%. I should have just karaoked throughout the Zoom, the result would have been the same, and probably better.

That was until I learned and mastered the Artist’s Mindset, the “A” in EASY Discipline.

There’s a story I put in the book that explains it better than I can. It’s about a circuit board, of all things.

In 1981, a team of Apple engineers finished the circuit board for the original Macintosh. They’d been working day and night. Steve Jobs walked in to see it.

He picked up the circuit board, but instead of turning it on, he turned it over in his hands and stared at it silently, the way a jeweler might grade a stone.

Finally, he said, “This is ugly.”

“What do you mean?” a brave engineer asked.

“It looks messy. The wires and chips all look uneven. It needs to be redesigned and needs to look beautiful.”

“Beautiful?” the engineer said. “Nobody’s going to see the circuit board. It’s inside the product.”

Jobs replied: “I don’t care. When you’re an artist, you care about every detail. Even the ones that no one will see.”

Months later, when the team came back with a version that satisfied him, Jobs hosted a signing ceremony and had every engineer sign their name, to be engraved inside each machine. Because “real artists sign their work.”

Steve Jobs is one of the most studied and quoted people in modern business. He reached the top of three industries: computing (Apple), animation (Pixar), and yes, public speaking (check out the most famous speech ever given by a businessperson).

But what catches me is not his accomplishments, but his mindset.

The word he used when describing himself, again and again, was “artist”. The story above shows his Artist Mindset in action: doing something for the beautiful process that delights himself, not just the customers. In this case, the customers couldn’t even see his work. He did it anyway, because HE cared.

The Artist Mindset completely changed how I conduct business, whether on stage speaking, writing, or doing these “pre-decision” calls. I started seeing myself as a conversation artist, not a salesperson.

Instead of trying to find the words that delight the potential buyer, I aimed to delight myself first. I asked:

• Am I saying things that inspire me?

• Am I being the real me, the crazy and fun guy?

• Am I having a good time and cracking myself up?

With these questions, my sales calls turned from 30 minutes of word salad disasters into pieces of art made of voice and laughter.

I no longer worried about the words. I no longer feared the result. Because an artist leans into the moment and has no fear.

What’s my new closing rate for these calls? I am still counting. 94.4%. (I did just lose a deal because of budget. Otherwise it would have been 100%.)

When you no longer fear the result, you get better, much better results. That’s the paradox of the mind. That’s the Artist Mindset.

So, for the next “sales” effort you are doing, asking for a raise, making a sales pitch presentation, or simply striking up a conversation with someone in your office, try this.

Lean into the moment, think like an artist, and aim to delight yourself. See what happens.

PS. My email yesterday blew up the Books Inc. webpage. The launch party in Mountain View, California is sold out. But, the guy who did Rejection Therapy can’t let it go. I’m asking them to add more room and tickets, either by rearranging the furniture or buying a bigger store in 6 days. If you want to come but can’t get a ticket, stay tuned!

We are officially 7 days away from the book launch for Easy Discipline: 7/14/2026. I am so excited. Here are my invites for you:

Party Invites

Virtual Book Launch Eve Party

• 7/13 (Monday) at 8pm Pacific Time.

  Link

You, your mom, and EVERYONE is invited to join and celebrate with me.

During the party, I will read you my favorite passage of the book, share behind-the-scenes stories of how I generate ideas, and offer insights on developing a writing and speaking career. I will also share one of the biggest findings I’ve discovered AFTER writing the book.

Physical Book Launch Parties

(come if you live in NYC or the San Francisco Bay Area)

1. 7/14 at 6pm Local Time (Pacific), Mountain View, CA.

   Ticket

2. 7/16 at 6pm Local Time (Eastern), New York City, NY.

   Ticket

   I will do book signing, reading, story sharing, Q&A, and free-style hugging and dancing into the night (or until the bookstore kicks us out).

Updates

I have been off for the past month doing a lot of things: family reunion in Asia, the World Series of Poker, and watching the World Cup (more on that tomorrow).

But more importantly, I’ve been promoting the book like crazy. It wasn’t easy. In fact, I had lots of rough moments and took lots of hits. For example, a deal with a famous tech company for 1,500 copies fell through. It felt like missing a penalty kick in the World Cup, then learning your home has been ransacked on the flight back.

Yet, there is good news. I got on a bunch of podcasts: The Art of Manliness, Mentally Stronger, Something You Should Know, and many others. They will come out next week.

Moreover, Easy Discipline made The Next Big Idea Club’s must-read list for July 2026, curated by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Daniel Pink, and Adam Grant, four of my favorite authors.

And the audiobook version was selected as an Audible Editor’s Select for July!

The Wall

Now, the wall. It stands at 2,377. That’s more than four times what Rejection Proof had at the same point. But it’s also 7,623 short of my goal. That’s the curse of a big ambition, and I knew it when I chose the number.

But it’s not over yet. I still have one week until publication day, and two weeks until the end of the campaign. We are firing on all cylinders and trying everything possible.

And in a couple of days, I am going to try something even crazier. Stay tuned!

Tracy is getting really serious. Her effort has gathered commitments for over 2,000 copies from companies!

I’m getting serious too. I want to invite you to be part of history: the first-ever public 100-day book launch campaign.

Here is the deal, you can become a:

EASY Backer – 1 copy, $29

• Secure your square on the forever EASY Wall.

• Hidden chapters and material that got cut by my publisher for being too personal.

• Invitation to the virtual launch party on 7/14/2026.

EASY Believer – 5 copies (for you and your friends and family), $145 ($29/copy)

• Everything above, plus:

• My premium Substack community, with monthly group coaching calls for a year. (Companies pay me $15K for a one-hour Zoom speech. You get me for 12 hours over a year.)

EASY Evangelist – 50 copies (for your team, class, or book club), $1,250 ($25/copy)

• Everything above, plus:

• Your organization’s name on the Wall.

• A virtual call with your team ($5K value).

And beyond – if you want to have me physically come to your company/school/church to deliver an in-person speech, it requires a lot more copies. Contact me. I have a few spots. (And don’t tell Tracy).

How:

1. Buy the copies from a major website (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Porchlight for bulk)

2. Upload your receipt and get on the EASY Wall

3. Get the goodie email from me

If you’ve already bought, thank you! I’ll include you in the launch party.

But if you haven’t, let’s make history together!

The Wall

First, A Correction

Before today’s post, here is a correction. Yesterday I wrote:

“Will corporate purchases alone get us to 10,000? Probably. But I don’t want them to.”

That’s a typo. What I meant to write was “Probably not.” In fact, the realist in me should write “definitely not.” Because:

1. We can probably get companies to buy 2-3,000 books. 10,000 would be insane.

2. If I could, I wouldn’t want to. I want my readers to be a combination of companies and people.

Theoretically speaking, I can just buy all the books myself just to achieve a goal. There are consulting services that do just that to get authors on the New York Times bestseller list. But that would be cheating and meaningless. One of the most important principles for a self-imposed goal is integrity.

When it comes to personal ambitions, no one else cares. Everyone has their own thing to worry about, and no one is interested in some guy trying to sell books, or trying to build a company, or have a good life.

That’s precisely the reason I, not anyone else, need to care. I can fudge the numbers or take shortcuts. But it defeats the whole purpose.

In life, you are ultimately the only person holding yourself accountable. And that’s why I make a personal point to never lie, especially to myself.

What I Did Didn’t

OK, on to today. Yesterday I wrote about a channel that’s working: corporate purchases. Today I want to tell you about a channel that flopped: YouTube.

Why should you care about my failures? After all, I bet you aren’t trying to launch a book, much less sell 10,000 copies of one. So you can’t apply my lessons directly.

But you’ll see the reverse demonstration of one of the most prominent principles of Easy Discipline. So whatever insanely ambitious goal you’re trying to accomplish, this will tell you what not to do.

13 years ago, I became one of the most prominent YouTubers on the Internet by starting the 100 Days of Rejection Therapy series. It was a crazy time: collecting NOs in the morning, handling media inquiries in the afternoon, and champagne and Peking duck at night.

But when I was done, I was done. I had no idea what I wanted to do next, but I knew I didn’t want to do YouTube anymore beyond the 100 days. I knew I wasn’t going to be MrBeast or Mark Rober, not because I couldn’t have kept going and growing, but because the act of making videos was energy-draining.

When my work and my inner core being aren’t aligned, the pressure of success and the relentless requirement of time will burn me out.

So I quit YouTube, wrote my book, started speaking, and built another tech company.

Looking back, I should have just kept writing books and speaking instead of going back to being a tech bro. Because I eventually found out that the startup founder’s life, just like that of a YouTuber, was equally energy draining to me.

But you know what was the opposite? Writing! It brought me endless energy and joy. I would do it for free. And if I must, I would pay to do it. That’s how addicted to writing I am. And that’s why after all these years, I gave up my tech dream and became a full-time writer, author and speaker.

My life is really rainbow and sunshine nowadays. Not because of the success, but because my work and inner core being are finally aligned.

And that’s why when I tried to do YouTube again after 10 years to market my book, I felt soooooo much resistance.

I filmed one video after another, trying to make the perfect video that’s storytelling, educating and drives sales.

I tried regular YouTube videos that are 12 minutes long, and YT Short videos that are shorter than 1 minute. But none of it felt right. The lighting wasn’t right, the format wasn’t right, my body-fat percentage didn’t look right. Nothing was close to the perfection I wanted. In fact, they all sucked. I hated both the action and the result.

Here’s what I learned the hard way: you can’t manufacture hits on the Internet. The things that are hits are often messy, bold and spontaneous, because authenticity plus craziness are what sell, not planning and perfection.

EASY DISCIPLINE PRINCIPLE - Easy Over Hard

When you have no interest in the action itself, only the result, you fall into one of the biggest traps of human achievement: Hard Discipline.

It means to succeed, you force yourself to do things you hate.

Can Hard Discipline get some people there? Sometimes. But it always costs more than it pays. Burnout, resentment, broken relationships, lost years.

The people who hit the highest peaks long-term don’t grind their way there. They build a life where the work itself is the reward.

Those people use Easy Discipline: they align their work and their actions to manufacture long-term enjoyment and artistry, not the result. The result is often the consequence, not the sole focus.

Could I figure out a way to make YouTube enjoyable again, so I can do Easy Discipline instead of Hard Discipline? Yes. Eventually. But this is a 100-day campaign, not a 2-year project. Speed matters more than completeness. Time was running out.

So I gave up YouTube and moved on to my next move.

This is the thing about a 100-day project. You are hair on fire. There is no time for agonizing over spilled milk. One thing didn’t work, there is always next.

So, there it is: my failed YouTube saga to market my book. I don’t feel an ounce of badness. In fact, I am glad to have experienced my own principle.

You see my writing? It’s spontaneous, messy and la;sdfslfjkasdfles. It feels good.

And that’s what I will continue to do and feel.

For You

Do you want to win, have a hit, and become a star? Is perfectionism killing you? If so, stop it.

Stop trying to make the perfect thing that’s soulless and meaningless. Make art that’s authentic, fun and most importantly, you.

A real hit is not what speaks to an avatar, but to real people, starting with yourself.

Stop shooting for what works. Shoot for what moves.

And asd;lfadslf;a;ldsfjjgr!!

The Wall

What We Did:

The whole idea of publicly declaring the 10,000 copies goal to the world is that it forces me and my team (mainly Tracy) to come up with unconventional ways to achieve it.

2,000 pre-orders is normal. 5,000 is ambitious. 10,000 is impossible.

To do this, there is no one way to achieve it, but a collection of different methods. Some are moonshots. Some are old reliables.

So… how are we doing?

I’ll start with what didn’t work: YouTube. While narrating my book, I wanted to restart my YouTube channel. It made me famous more than a decade ago, and I wanted to revive it for my 100 Days to 10,000 Copies project. However, it has proven to be ineffective. I’ll tell you why tomorrow.

But here is the good news: another channel started shining. Corporate bulk purchases. And this is all Tracy. Holy smoke, my wife is amazing! Every time I see her, I see a combination of Juliet as a lover, Mother Teresa as an inspiration, and Estée Lauder as a businessperson.

She started calling our friends and contacts who work in organizations, one by one, and just asked them to buy my book for their teams. And many said YES! If you look at the Wall, most of the names are from companies. In fact, there are quite a few more companies that have committed, and the Wall will climb in the next week or so.

Will corporate purchases alone get us to 10,000? Probably not. And I don’t want them to. I want this campaign to be a combination of individual readers and organizations. Still, corporate buys are effective. That’s why you see corporate sponsorship everywhere.

More importantly, it shows that when you have an impossible goal, you try everything. Some of it will fail. Some of it will succeed unexpectedly.

By the way, if you can organize your team/organization to bulk purchase books, let me know. Not only will your team thank you for an awesome read, but your organization's name will forever be etched on the 10,000 Copies Wall.

EASY DISCIPLINE PRINCIPLE - You Do You

Why is Tracy so good at getting people to buy books? The answer is simple: she loves people, and can talk all day. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE, loves her back and wants to help her.

I call Tracy the Zoom Queen.

For me, getting on the phone and talking all day is like removing a broken toenail. (I literally did that this week. The toenail was more fun.) But for the Zoom Queen, it’s heaven on earth. She LOVES it.

The same phone call that drains me fills her up. That’s the whole point. The method that works isn’t the best method. It’s the one you actually love doing.

And that love is the most important weapon in achievement.

Not ambition. Not discipline. But love.

That’s the essence of Easy Discipline.

For You

Hey, what do you love to do? Writing? Drawing? Coding? Chatting with people? Whatever it is that you love to do, that you’d do over and over for free, or even pay to do.

Figure out a way to use it to achieve your goal! Whether it’s a deep passion or a casual affinity, use it!

That’s your David’s slingshot, your King Arthur’s Excalibur, or your Tracy’s Zoom.

Oh, and if you want to figure out what that is and how to use it… buy the book.

And don’t forget to get on the Wall. I’d love to see you there.

The Wall

Claim your square on the wall by pre-ordering Easy Discipline.

What I Did:

It’s been a bit since my last update. You might be wondering why. The reason is simple: I threw myself into narrating my book for the past two weeks. If you buy the audiobook version of Easy Discipline, you will hear my voice instead of some professional actor’s (more on this later).

Narrating a book is not an easy task, nor is it glamorous. You sit in a little dark room in a studio, wearing headphones, facing nothing but an iPad and a microphone. On the headphones is my director, who sits thousands of miles away, alternating roles of an actor coach who tells me when to speed up or slow down, an English teacher who tells me I’m pronouncing the ‘s’ at the end of “months” wrong, and a therapist who consoles me when I am agonizing over the book I just wrote.

(Danna, you did great.)

And I do it for 6 hours a day for 7-8 days. By the end, I was an exhausted impala, sipping water while staring into the sky.

That said, narrating my own book has been an extremely unique and fulfilling experience. Seeing the words on the screen, pondering the meaning I am trying to convey, then opening my mouth to perform the voice acting, is very therapeutic. It reminds me of telling bedtime stories to my little kids, only in this case to thousands of future listeners.

When I was done, I knew I didn’t just finish a task. I performed an art.

Here is what it looked like.

But this wasn’t the case with my first book.

When I wrote Rejection Proof in 2015, I gently floated the idea of narrating my own audiobook. But the publisher said NO. I don’t blame them. At the time, I had no experience nor confidence for book narration. Moreover, I was very self-conscious about my Chinese accent.

This is the immigrant’s biggest fear: not being able to fit in, and thinking you are different from others. The idea that someone would laugh at my reading bothered me so much that when my publisher pushed back, I agreed with them right away.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t protest in my own way. When my publisher sent their choice of narrator, a fellow Asian American (it’s funny they had to get an Asian guy for fake authenticity, but not the real guy for real authenticity), I said NO. He was a good voice actor, but I didn’t feel his style connected with my emotions.

In the end, I asked the publisher to hire Mike Chamberlain, the voice actor who narrated one of my favorite books, The Power of Habit.

That decision bothered me to no end, even years later.

It wasn’t because Mike wasn’t good. In fact, he was great, everything I could have hoped for. His high-pitched voice even resembled mine in some way. And the book was an Audible bestseller, with thousands and thousands of reviews.

It was because I was afraid of my own voice and my own flaws. I let my fear and insecurity overrule my own desire to perform and be authentic.

The Rejection Guy succumbed to his fear of rejection. So ironic.

I have always wondered what could have been. Every time I sold an audiobook, it was a lost chance of someone hearing the real voice of the person who experienced and wrote the story.

But luckily, there was a chance for redemption.

Last year, because Rejection Proof was still selling well ten years after it first came out, the publisher wanted to release a new edition of the audiobook, and asked me if I wanted to narrate the book myself this time.

I said, Hell Yeeeeaaaah!!!!

This time, I had accumulated 2,452 gallons of confidence from ten years of public speaking, plus 7,349 gallons of regret for not pushing harder the first time. I was going to do it, no matter how much I needed to learn, how much work I needed to do, and how imperfect the resulting product would be.

I don’t care if listeners wince at the Chinese guy occasionally mispronouncing “leisure” or forgetting to say the ‘s’ at the end of plural nouns. It’s MY voice! It’s not perfect, but it was also the imperfect guy who experienced and wrote everything that happened in the imperfect book.

And the result?

Not bad! 4.6 stars on Audible. (I did lose over 5,000 ratings gathered over 10 years, though. Oh well.)

And this time around, when the publisher asked me if I wanted to read Easy Discipline, I repeated the same “Hell Yeeeeaaaah!!!!”

EASY DISCIPLINE PRINCIPLE - Your Voice Matters

OK, this sounds like a cheap campaign ad where corrupt politicians ask for your vote and pretend it’s you who matters, not their own ambition. But when it comes to presenting your idea to an audience, your team, or the whole world, your voice really matters.

Don’t strive for perfection. Don’t hide behind representation. Go for authenticity. If the idea is really yours, express it the best way you can, even if it requires training, preparation, and labor.

This is especially true as we enter the age of AI slop. In a world where anyone can generate something polished and logical in seconds, polish is no longer the thing that wins. It’s the crazy, the ugly, the imperfect, the unmistakably human that cuts through.

Your voice doesn’t just matter. It might be the only thing that does.