The #1 Money Making Skill

Hey guys,

I’m currently looking for what to learn next. It’s been a while since I had an intentional, intensive learning period of skills. However, I felt a little unsure of what direction to go. I keep setting a goal of re-learning to code but I never do it.

So I thought - let me ask people I personally respect and see what they would say and I had a lot of great suggestions. So I’m going to leak my WhatsApp conversations to 45,000+ people. (They wouldn’t mind right? 😂)

For Ryan, making money outside of full-time employment comes down to providing high-value freelance services that solve practical business problems. “Creating Webflow websites for clients can earn a few thousand dollars per site, which can be done relatively quickly,” Ryan explains. Reusable components make each project even more efficient.

Beyond that, he highlights the demand for process optimisation through tools like Airtable and other business development systems. “The sweet spot is custom coding,” Ryan adds. “AI helps, but if you can go beyond the tool’s limitations with coding, it sets you apart.”

This one was a lot more practical and focused on hard skills which I really liked. The rest were more high level skillsets that could be applied anywhere but equally as important.

Next I spoke to my friend Bill at Athyna. Bill argues that the ability to tell a compelling story is the #1 skill for making money. Whether it’s to candidates, employees, leads, clients, or investors, storytelling is what drives action. He emphasises that within storytelling lies a critical sub-skill: writing. “By far, writing is the most important skill for making money online,” he says.

Crafting narratives that inspire and motivate, whether you’re pitching your business, selling a product, or rallying a team, is what sets successful people apart.

P.S Athyna works with people all across the world to get hired at amazing companies. If you meet the skill requirements it could be a great fit for you. Check them out here.

Pasha points to the concept of obliquity—the idea that goals are often best achieved indirectly. It’s the skill of understanding that sometimes the path to success is not straightforward. This skill helps you remain flexible and open to different approaches and perspectives, ultimately leading to better decision-making and more sustainable financial success.

If you want to dive deeper, check out this concept in the book “Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly”.

This was definitely the strangest answer I received. However Pasha has found immense success in his career and someone I look up to a lot so I’m taking it all on board. I haven’t read this book but it’s definitely peaked my interest. I’ll have a read and report back to the level up squad!

Justin who started Pushas, a successful sneaker marketplace, believes the key to making money is thinking long-term. It’s all about decisions and relationships that aren’t just quick wins but that build real, lasting value. “In a short-term world full of noise, where the quality of your decisions and relationships is what gets you far, having a long-term perspective is crucial,” Justin shared.

Why? Because focusing on long-term gains builds trust with business partners. You’re not always chasing the immediate payoff but are maximising the relationships, which will yield a greater return over time. “In the short term, you might not see huge financial gains,” he admitted, “but framing your decisions and relationships this way has helped me make money in the long run.”

This is so true. I often find the most successful people can delay their rewards and think long term. Those who are always trying to get immediate gratification tend to do poorly in the long term.

I hope these tips are interesting to you and it’s worth me exposing my WhatsApp conversations! Please let me know if you like this as it will motivate me to do more of these. That way when I learn from great people, I can share these learnings with you.

P.S Want to learn how to run companies like me? (for free)

Hey guys,

Firstly, I made an operating system for startups. So if you’re a founder or looking to be really smart in front of your boss with ideas on how to run the company better - this is for you.

It is my exact framework for running companies from meeting templates, product documents and anything else you might need!

Cheers,

Ajay