My 40 Under 40
Keep making things
Random Observation/Comment #822: Writing lists tends to slow down time. In the game of life, the one who perceives the longest life wins.
//Faceswapped myself onto the Mona Lisa using Insight Faceswapper – Full Faceswap Guide
In my 20s, I lucked out in having a solid career, adventurous friends, and a healthy curiosity for cryptocurrencies. It lead to a lot of travel and unforgettable triumph moments (all fairly well documented in my year end reviews). I successfully completed my 30 under 30 and I still use these desires as my North Star compass toward living a successful life.
Be worldly, educated, and well-mannered
(1) Visit 50 major cities – Completed!
(2) Visit 30 countries – Completed! Full list of countries here.
(3) Visit all continents – missing Antarctica (which would cost around $10k) – I’m okay with not getting this done by the time I’m 30…
(4) Speak more languages fluently – improve in Mandarin (from watching movies and speaking with more friends), German (from studies in Hamburg), Spanish (from MS/HS classes), and Japanese (from studies in Osaka) – still working on this (DuoLingo)
(5) Learn to cook well – Completed! (Thanksgiving challenge, hosting a party, and cooking healthily)
(6) Learn to speed read – pretty good! Try this
(7) Add meditation to the daily routine – continuous, but I can reach my happy place in 1 minute
(8) Learn how to make a memory mind palace and map – Completed!
(9) Special gift for parents – Super secret!
Challenge yourself constantly
(10) Complete an epic 30 day challenge – Completed!
(11) Complete a healthy 30 day challenge – continuously trying without exception days (more difficult than I thought)
(12) Complete a 30 day cooking challenge – Completed!
(13) Complete a 30 day drawing challenge – Completed!
(14) Build a blockchain application – Completed!
Share knowledge and experiences
Improved public speaking – on-going (see tag)
(15) Give a TED talk – Completed!
(16) Give a humorous speech – Completed!
Be a photographer – done
(17) Create portfolio – on-going, but mostly Completed
(18) Sell photographs – Completed!
(19) Cover 50+ events – Completed! (iClick Photography)
(20) Publish a book – Completed! (and writing Our Life in Lists of 30)
(21) Create a reputable blog – well… whatever this is
Be a good person
(22) Stay meaningfully connected – on-going (message a blast from the past every week)
(23) Start a fun side project – “You’re Pretty Fucking Awesome, Keep That Shit Up”
{24) Philanthropy and Teaching – FIRST, MOUSE, Junior Achievements, and Prep for Prep – on-going
Have fun
(25) Learn to lucid dream – Completed!
(26) Scuba diving certification – Completed!
(27) Table tennis 2000 player – currently 1750, but getting better (this is getting tough!) – maybe just play better
(28) Skydiving – Completed!
(29) Start a company – Completed! (Photography and Pre-Incubator)
(30) Get Married – Completed! Do grown up stuff (Hopefully!)
Now that I’ve procrastinated through some of my 30s, I mostly put my 40 under 40 on a break because I was so focused on the hectic schedule of growing a family, moving cities, owning a house, and surviving a pandemic. Thew whirlwind never stops, but let’s have fun along the way.
Here’s the updated list for my 40 under 40 (Bolded ones I’m actively working on):
Be worldly, educated, and well-mannered
(1) Visit 50 countries – Completed 42! Full list of countries with travel advice here.
(2) Do a cross country road trip – In Planning – I’ve always wanted to rent an RV and go coast-to-coast
(3) Break into the AI space – In Progress – So far I’ve written a post about AI every month since April 2023. A success would be a title like “Lead AI Evangelist”
(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“
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, 3 internal Cypherpunk hackathons
(8) Build an AI chatbot prototype that is trained on my writing – Completed! I could clean it up a bit.
(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’ll do this for my book release.
(10) Build a mobile app involving NFTs – Prototype Completed! This was a hackathon project where I used Unity Augmented Reality
(11) Build a full Clembot for digital legacy – In Progress – Chat with me from the grave!
(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 – Currently writing “Our Life in Lists of 30” and “Her Life in Lists of 30”
(14) Make profits from selling books – Planning – 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 also have www.listsof30.com
(16) Publish 30 Video Workshops / Lectures – In Progress – Currently I have a “Clemens Wan talks” playlist of 19 public workshops
(17) Reach 2000+ subscribers or connections – 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
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
(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
(25) Attend 20 weddings as a guest – In Progress – 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
(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
(27) Brew my own beer – Completed! This was a fun dad thing to do
(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
(29) Start a profitable company – Completed! (Wanessa Labs, Inc)
(30) Maintain a profitable company – I don’t know what this means yet 🙂
(31) Do a “Taskmaster”-like competition – Maybe this is an idea for a 40th birthday party?
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 – In Progress. Marvel Disney Cruise in 2023 brought her to Grand Cayman and Bahamas. We have Switzerland and France planned for 2024. Canada and Mexico could be easy trips.
(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.
(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 of 30 Traditions we want to form
(36) Enjoy Evie’s Childhood – Always! – Maybe this is a throwaway one, but I think about the Lasts with Evie
(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, 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
And so, I’ve got my work cut out for me. In the bigger perspective, this will all take time and I’m just staying curious and maturing my wisdom through the journey. We’re all in a simulation.
I’ll keep the 40 Under 40 Page updated with my latest.
~See Lemons Live Towards 40
Originally posted on seelemons.com