Max Simon

I missed this

For the last eleven years I’ve been building an education business in a completely different industry.

It’s an incredible business. It’s a business I’m still deeply proud of and still show up for every day.

But I’ve also missed doing something that I’m very good at.

Sitting with someone directly, and helping them design a business that’s the deepest expression of who they are.

That’s my genius zone.

Drawing out of people what they are meant to do in this world, and then wrapping great business strategy around it so it works and makes real money.

I’ve now build 3 businesses to multi 7 and 8 figures, so I’m not new to this.

Recently, I’ve heard the same thing over and over again from entrepreneurs.

EVERYONE IS IN SO MUCH TRANSITION!

People who’ve built real things, who know what they’re doing, who are good at what they do… now in a place of needing to define what’s next.

Could be because they went through a major life transition.

Could be because their relationships or health broke down.

Could be because AI has changed the value equation.

Or could be because they are in a new state of consciousness that simply wants to do things differently in this next chapter.

The question is the same though:

“what do I do next in my business?”

This is the thing I’m best at, and it feels exactly what so many people need right now.

So that’s the real reason I’m back.

I missed doing this specific kind of work, and the world kept telling me it was needed.

So if you’re in that spot right now, unclear on what your next chapter should look like, I built something for you.

It’s a new FREE course which will help you define the next chapter of your business with clarity and focus.

Link in the comments.

Lmk if this is useful to you.

Lmk if you’re in this place of transition too. Would love to hear from you

Ok friends. New website is live.

Plus I just published a new free course about how to clearly define the next chapter of your business with deep alignment.

That means alignment around your genius zone (what’s unique to you), your tribe (exactly who you serve), and your business model (how you make $).

Link in the comments. Check it out and lmk your thoughts.

Hi, I’m Max, and I’m a workaholic.

As you may or may not know, I’ve built a large cannabis education company that I’ve run for the last 11+ years (we power the cannabis programs of 45+ universities).

It’s a fascinating industry, but that’s for another post.

When I started this business, I felt compelled to study addiction to make sure that I wasn’t doing something harmful to the world.

Turns out the fears about cannabis addiction are wildly overblown, but that’s (also) for another post.

Studying addiction was very useful for my own personal development, because it helped me realize something else important.

I had a work addiction.

That’s because I used to:

- Think only and exclusively about work
- Sacrifice my health and relationships for work
- Spend every waking second focused on work
- Avoid family and friends because of work
- Prioritize work over my happiness and well-being

Yup, totally addicted.

So I started asking myself some deep questions:

“Why am I so addicted to working?”

“What am I really chasing?”

“What will make me feel like I’ve achieved enough?”

That last one really got in there.

“WHAT IS ENOUGH??”

Besides, I had been very successful by most measures:

- Impacted millions of people
- Featured in the media 1,000+ times
- Built a big team of people
- Won a bunch of awards and acknowledgements from my industry
- Raised a ton of capital
- Sold lots of products to huge numbers of people.

But underneath it all… I never felt like I had arrived.

I believed the common business narrative: “GO BIGGER!”

So I kept pushing, all the time, no matter what.

But through this inquiry and self reflection, it dawned on me…

NO external achievement or accomplishment would ever do it.

I could keep achieving more and more, and STILL never feel like I’d done enough.

What I actually needed was an internal shift.

So every day, I started to reinforce this one principle inside:

“I am enough.”
“I am enough.”
“I am enough.”

And slowly but surely, I started to think, act, and feel differently.

Then, to my surprise, a whole new set of desires and identities started to arise inside of me.

Now, I wanted to be a:

- Successful father
- Successful husband
- Successful son
- Successful friend
- Successful at making healthy choices
- Successful spiritual practitioner
- Successful chef
- Successful adventurer
- Etc

Meaning, I started to prioritize all sorts of other things in my life that had meaning and purpose to me.

And this begun a whole new chapter in my life.

Now, just to be clear, I am still very driven to succeed at work.

(Old addictions die hard 😜)

But now it’s only one part of my identity. Only one part of my fuel.

And honestly? I’m much happier. Deeper relationships. Stronger personal practices. A much richer life.

I discovered that this “success thing” I was chasing… was right there inside of me the whole time.

I was just too caught up in my blind ambition to see it.

To close, here’s what I’d say:

Understanding what fuels you, and making sure that fuel is clean and conscious, is mission critical to living a good life.

It’s also what will actually help you achieve the success and happiness you truly desire.

Ok, now back to work 😜

I couldn’t waste any more time

My life changed overnight when I had kids.

I went from having (essentially) all the time freedom in the world to essentially having none.

This was REALLY hard for me…

And as someone who had always seen myself as super productive, I realized something humbling:

Being super productive doesn’t mean anything when you have all the time in the world.

That’s easy peezy.

What’s hard is being super productive when you have a ton of responsibilities to handle, and a bunch of other people counting on you.

So I started paying unbelievably close attention to how I used my time, and discovered some painful truths.

Maybe you can relate?

- I spent a lot of time on social media, scrolling.

- I spent a lot of time staying caught up with the news.

- I spent a lot of time researching what others were doing.

In short, I spent a lot of time allowing other people’s content into my brain.

But now that I didn’t have time to waste, I started to ask myself:

“Was this really a good use of my precious attention?”

I realized the answer was no. My attention was being hijacked.

Yes, I could find some value in it, but for the most part, I was just doing these things out of habit because the content was so good.

I now think of attention like the light of your consciousness.

Meaning, you should be very intentional with where you shine it.

Because SO MUCH content is designed to make you feel emotional. To grab your attention.

…. and we are so easily influenced!!

We get taken over and consumed by other people’s messages, priorities, fears, and outrage.

Especially these days.

So this wasn’t working for me.

Instead, I NOW choose to stay in one of three modes with my attention:

1. Creative mode - where I am creating content that I believe makes the world a better place.

2. Learning mode - where I am very intentionally learning something new that improves the quality of my life

3. Fun mode - where I am engaging with content because I genuinely find it fun, and I am left feeling better than before.

Everything else doesn’t get even a second of my precious time and attention.

This translated into a few specific behaviors:

1. I use social media as a channel to broadcast.

I post what I want to share, then I leave. I spend almost no time getting caught in the endless scroll.

2. I stopped checking the news first thing in the morning.

Instead, I spend that time meditating, creating, or planning my day.

3. Before I click on anything, I ask myself: “Is this creative, learning, or fun?”

Or is this someone else’s agenda trying to colonize my mind?

4. I set specific times for consumption.

Outside those windows, I create.

5. I started noticing how I felt after consuming content.

Anxious? Distracted? Comparing myself to others? That’s a sign it’s not serving me, and I should not keep engaging.

In short, I’ve come to realize that you must protect your attention like it’s one of your most valuable assets.

Because it is.

And too many people waste it on other people’s agendas.

This is what I call “Attention Hijacking”.

And you know exactly what I’m talking about, right?