The Sickening Truth of “Whatever It Takes” ACTUALLY Means

It took me longer than it should have to realize that my friends weren’t calling me as often as they used to.

Some of them even completely disappeared from view, and I was too deep into “Monk Mode” to notice.

Working 12– to 16-hour days, hammering and chiseling away at my Vision, some days recording a dozen YouTube videos and Instagram reels in a row, other days spending an hour nearly crushed under a heavy bar, refusing to leave until I had given everything.

Some days it seemed as though “everything” was damn-near inexhaustible.

Oh man, I’m getting all jacked up just thinking about this — doing whatever it takes. I love it so fucking much. Just the energy of knowing that no one else is doing this!

Who would do this to themselves every single day without being forced to?

Who would commit this strongly to a Vision and refuse to compromise by allowing almost literally anything else into their lives?

To most, this sounds constricting, like terrible deprivation, some horrendous punishment to endure on their way to something they only vaguely want.

But to me, giving everything — really being willing to do whatever the fuck it takes — means everything.

It allows for insane clarity and focus, an unrelenting inner pressure to build up that must be expressed in terms of sickening self-discipline and psychotic work ethic.

Nowadays, only my obsessed friends call me, and they call me to discuss business; to talk about making it; to discuss how we’re planning to win and what we’re willing to do to get there.

Whatever it takes. That’s what it takes!

It can mean 16-hour days. It can mean performing enough squats that you can’t move for 6 days afterward — just in time for another leg day. It can mean letting everything else fall away from your life except that which is indispensable to its Ultimate Meaning.

Am I making myself clear?

I’m sitting here, long after any sane person would have stopped and gone away to do something else, and I’m still getting after it because I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make my Ultimate Vision a reality.

Most people aren’t strong enough to do this. But I suspect, since you’ve read this far without being offended by my utter disregard for polite society, that you are.

I suspect that YOU might be willing to do whatever it takes as well. And I have to say:

I’m excited for you! If you commit, and stay the course, and recommit and recommit again when it seems impossible to go on, you will probably win. There’s not much outside that can stop you when there’s no governor restricting your forward motion on the inside.

This attitude, this drive, this relentlessness is what separates you. It’s your competitive advantage, your unfair advantage over the mediocre masses.

I honestly don’t mean to alienate those who simply want a “normal” life — to exist on this Earth, maybe have a few comforts and an exciting vacation or two and call it a life.

There’s nothing “wrong” with living like that — it actually sounds kinda nice.

You may be surprised to hear me say that, but it’s true. I’ll never be one of “those guys” who says that the way I live my life is the way that everyone needs to live theirs.

Or that you need to “hustle” all the time. I don’t fucking “hustle.” I create art from the pieces of my very own life.

And my kind of life is just one option among many. By design, it’s pretty much the hardest option imaginable. But again, that’s what it takes.

Up until now I haven’t really told you what I do that’s so hard. Well let me fill you in.

For starters, I’ve read 100+ books a year every year for the last ten years. I’ve started two businesses (one of which failed spectacularly, and caused my own mother to regard 10 whole years of her life “wasted” after she had lent me so much money that took her that long to get back), and became a fitness model with hundreds of thousands of followers online.

That’s pretty much 16 hours a day right there.

I’m not complaining whatsoever, but it’s a heavy commitment. It’s exactly what I want to be doing, but not much about such massive success comes easy. And what it took to get there? Oh man.

The decade of working minimum wage security jobs so that I could have enough time “on the clock” to read and build my business(s).

The late nights and early mornings I worked the front door of the bar checking IDs in the freezing cold, only to stay at the bar long after everyone else had gone home to mop the floors for an extra $14/hour that I could use to put towards my Vision.

Then I’d go to the gym. I’d train to failure, pushing past every perceived limit, stretching my mental muscles just as far as my physical ones, demanding every last drop of effort I could possibly summon forth.

All in the service of my Vision.

Even today, I routinely work 16-hour days: reading, writing, connecting, speaking, editing videos, working out at the gym. Building my Vision.

That’s what it takes. That is what “Hard” feels like. Nothing that most people ever get to experience ever comes close. And that’s why they have shitty, depressing lives, full of nothing and contributing nothing.

Not everyone, of course. Again, by no means am I saying you’re not “worthy” or whatever if you don’t push as hard as I do.

It’s just that I know what it takes. I know what “whatever the fuck it takes” actually means. What it actually means to chase down a huge Vision and make it real in the external world of daylight and possibility.

Listen: I went from not having a car, to driving my parents’ car, to buying my own “nice” car, to buying my first Porsche, all the way to this year, where I’m now shopping for Lamborghinis.

Not a new Lamborghini, mind you. It’ll most likely be a 2010–2012 Lamborghini Gallardo, somewhere in the $125,000-range.

But it’s a fucking far distance from mopping floors for $14/hour…and the unwavering commitment to doing whatever the fuck it takes is what brought me here.

You may not want to work as hard as I did. Like I keep saying, that’s totally fine. My life is my life and yours is yours alone. We can both have fantastic lives, regardless of how close either of us get to “whatever it takes” territory.

But one of the best ways to get what you want in life is to deserve what you want, and the only way that happens is by making a commitment to doing whatever the fuck it takes to deserve what you want.

And so you have to ask yourself…

What’s it going to take? What’s the price of YOUR success? And are you willing to pay it?

Whenever you’re ready, you can find me on Instagram, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Facebook — basically everywhere — and I’ve got newsletters called The Stairway to Wisdom, The Competitive Advantage, and The Reading Life that will help prepare you for the road ahead.

But always remember: I want you to win. You CAN win. But you have to be willing to do whatever the fuck it takes to get there.

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Live “The Reading Life!”

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