In Progress: 40 under 40
40 Under 40 goals
I don’t just want to experience more things; I want to do more epic/triumph things and crush it on a whole ‘nother level.
These are improvements to a successful completion of my 30 under 30.
I completed this prior to having Evie, so this new 40 under 40 will include some aspects of Family Goals and Dadding. Some of them overlap with higher numbers, while others are just new and would include Evie’s story.
(Italicized ones I’m actively working on)
Be worldly, educated, and well-mannered
(1) Visit 50 countries – In progress at 45! Full list of countries with travel advice
(2) Do a cross country road trip – In Planning – I’ve always wanted to rent an RV and go coast-to-coast. Perhaps I will do this when I retire and I won’t need to do the driving.
(3) Break into the AI space – Completed! – So far I’ve written a post about AI every month since April 2023. A success would be a title like “Lead AI Evangelist” (completed for 6 months in 2024, but rejoined Solutions Architecting for a more stable position)
(4) Publish 30 Episodes of a Podcast – Completed! 30 Podcast Lessons Learned
(5) Record an Audiobook – In Progress – Reading “My Life in Lists of 30“ and “Our Life in Lists of 30”
Challenge yourself constantly
(6) Cook 150-days – Completed! There was a lot of time during COVID quarantine
(7) Participate in 5+ Hackathons – Completed and On-going – Submitted for EUvsVirus, ETH Mexico City 2022, 4 internal Cypherpunk hackathons. I’ll still do some fun hackathons.
(8) Build an AI chatbot prototype that is trained on my writing – Completed! I could clean it up a bit, but this is a part of Clembot.
(9) Build a full video (5 minutes) off of AI generation software – In Progress – I’ve created 1-2 minute videos with D-ID, HeyGen, RunwayML, and others. I did a 30 day challenge with Clembot interviews. Perhaps I will do a full one about my 40th birthday.
(10) Build a mobile app involving NFTs – Prototype Completed! This was a hackathon project where I used Unity Augmented Reality to create an easy way to showcase different NFT attributes and stick them to a virtual wall.
(11) Build a full Clembot for digital legacy – Completed! – Chat with me from the grave! I’ve added it to the established Trust and a part of Clembot.
(12) Explore 5 streams of income projects – In Progress – I wrote 30 Streams of Income that would likely be closer to passive income strategies for retirement. I’m going to earnestly try a few of these before 40 to collect better data.
Share knowledge and experiences
(13) Publish a second book – Completed! - Published “Our Life in Lists of 30” and now writing “Her Life in Lists of 30”
(14) Make profits from selling books – Completed, but not that profitable – Need to find a route using all my personal knowledge (e.g. NFT special access, AI chatbot, Marketing assets)
(15) Create a reputable blog – on-going! I’ll never stop writing. I’m glad I have this space to brain dump.
(16) Publish 30 Video Workshops / Lectures – In Progress – Currently I have a “Clemens Wan talks” playlist of 25 public workshops (probably completed 200+ internal ones)
(17) Reach 2000+ subscribers or connections – In Progress - The Lists of 30 newsletter is around 300, but I haven’t done any marketing. I imagine this could grow in lock-step with book writing.
(18) Join 5+ companies as an Advisor and Investor – Completed! I haven’t written enough about this, but it has been fun working with VCs and Startups on a regular basis to diversify.
Be a good person
(19) Stay meaningfully connected – on-going (message a blast from the past every week)
(20) Volunteer with Evie’s school – on-going – So far just helping out with event planning and the 5k runs. This is pretty good.
(21) Special gift for parents – In planning – Need to do this soon
Have fun
(22) Learn 5 fun dances (e.g. Moonwalk) – In Progress – I feel like my dancing game needs work.
(23) Play a full two-handed piano song – In Progress – I’ve always wanted to do this and I don’t think it’s too late.
(24) Perform 5 card magic tricks – In Progress – I’d love to learn a few. I certainly have enough saved on my Instagram reels list.
(25) Attend 20 weddings as a guest – In Progress (currently around 7) – This is a hard one because you can’t force friendships (plus a large number of my friends are already married). I just hope to be in people’s minds.
(26) Table tennis 2000 player / ElevenVR Table tennis 3200 player – In Progress – My virtual table tennis game is at 2900 and my physical one is probably terrible because of the VR one.
(27) Brew my own beer – Completed! This was a fun dad thing to do with some neighbors.
(28) Do a handstand – In Progress – This has been a goal for a long time and requires a lot of other steps, but it’ll be a good physical challenge for maintaining enough strength to lift Evie until she’s 10.
(29) Start a profitable company – Completed! (Wanessa Labs, Inc)
(30) Maintain a profitable company – I don’t know what this means yet 🙂 Wanessa Labs has crossed the $100k income mark, which is pretty cool.
(31) Do a “Taskmaster”-like competition – Maybe this is an idea for a 40th birthday party? It would be awesome to have this.
Family Goals
(32) Own and Maintain a House – Completed! This was a great goal for a Millennial in their 30s.
(33) Evie to visit 5+ countries – Completed! Marvel Disney Cruise in 2023 brought her to Grand Cayman and Bahamas. She’s gone to Switzerland, Portugal, and London in 2024. Canada and Mexico could be easy trips. She’s already gone to more countries than I have at that age.
(34) Teach Evie how to cook a meal end-to-end – In Progress – She’s interested in cooking, but I need to make it an event. Let’s start with some cooking classes and maybe have her make scrambled eggs or instant ramen noodles?
(35) Eat as many meals at the dinner table together as possible – On-going – This is a great family tradition goal. There’s a whole list:
(36) Enjoy Evie’s Childhood – Always! – Maybe this is a throwaway one, but I think about the Lasts with Evie (I’m not crying, you are)
(37) Build a loving community and neighborhood – On-going – I love my friends out here in Colorado. The Northend Beefcakes rock. There’s beer tasting, poker nights, disc golfing and no shortage of party ideas.
(38) Setup and Maintain a long term Strategic Investment and Portfolio Management solution – Completed! This does need more description and automation. See my existing plan.
(39) Start a Trust and Estate Plan – Completed! Definitely worth doing this
(40) Stay Happily Married – In Progress, but still takes work
~See Lemons Work Towards 40