Sign up to unleash your creativity with the help of AI and start building valuable digital assets using media and code.
A few months ago, Tara and I had a budget airline sketch go viral, and this week we’re pitching a TV series based on it. It’s a real-world example of how permissionless leverage works: build something online first, then use that momentum to attract permissioned leverage later. This is how we turned a sketch into proof of concept, an audience into an asset, and views into a defensible TV pitch.
Creative burnout usually isn’t about working too hard. When you’re the CEO of your own life, the hardest part isn’t execution, it’s constantly wondering if you’re working on the right thing. This piece is a reflection on what burned me out, and the small mindset and scheduling shifts that help lower the stakes and make the work sustainable again.
Growth rarely feels like growth in the moment. Most of the time, it feels like confusion, ineptitude, and your brain struggling to keep up. I felt that firsthand on the first day of directing our rom-com series, when my brain completely broke and taught me what real growth actually looks like.
Instagram has an authenticity problem. The average person can’t tell the difference between a video made by AI and one made by a real person, which means the value of a single video has basically dropped to zero. In a world where anyone can pump out content nonstop, the only real advantage left is making work only you can make, work that comes from your point of view and requires real judgment, taste, and stacked skills.
Every piece of content you send into the world is a free lottery ticket. You don’t know which one will hit. You just know most won’t. But the internet doesn’t work in a straight line. Growth is nonlinear. You can publish dozens of videos that do almost nothing, then post one that explodes and creates more growth than everything before it combined. And the videos that didn’t go viral weren’t wasted. They were training data for the algorithm, proof you were still here, and the reason you were ready when the spike finally came.
One viral sketch is luck. Two in a row is a signal. We doubled down on what worked, and this one spread even further.
For the longest time, how people built wealth was a mystery to me.
I remember hearing friends talk about owning “equity,” building “leverage,” and creating “assets.” I would nod along, pretending I understood what they were saying. I didn’t. But I wanted to learn.
So, I started researching the mental models of wealth creators, and I found something startling… the secret to getting rich was actually pretty simple.
This is it, in a nutshell:
Build assets that work for you after you’re finished working on them.
And so, that’s what I’m doing.
My name is Thomas Waschenfelder. I’m a writer and creator who is fanatic about learning and executing ideas that improve my life. I’m not a financial planner. I’m not an investment adviser. And I’m not wealthy (yet).
I’m simply here to share the best of what I’ve learned about how to use your creativity to build assets that disconnect your inputs (time) from your outputs (value).
And the best place to build assets is right here, on the internet. You’ll discover how to harness AI tools to unleash your creativity and build digital assets that compound over time. You’ll carve out a piece of internet real estate to call your own forever.
How do you start? It’s easy. Sign up for my newsletter and join thousands of others who want to build assets on the internet to buy their freedom in the real world.
The Four Kinds of Luck: How To Make A Habit Of “Getting Lucky”
The Longer It Takes Do, The Larger The Competitive Advantage In Doing It
Build An Audience, Then Sell Them The Product Or Service They Want
Success Is Nonlinear: Why Most People Give Up Before The Rewards
Why You Should Expose Yourself To Positive “Black Swan” Events
