#135 – Best of 2025

Merry Christmas everyone! ✝

I hope you all have a wonderful day surrounded by your loved ones.

As has now become tradition on the last Thursday of every year, I’ve compiled the Top 5 things I’ve learned from the past 52 newsletters into a single email.

Thank you all so much for your ongoing support… it means more than you know.

Merry Christmas once again and I’ll see you all bright and early on New Year’s Day.

Take care,

Dimi ❤️

P.S. please let me know if there are any learnings that were your personal favourites from the newsletter this year (of course predicated on the assumption that there was in fact at least one)!

Would really love to hear them.

read online on my website 

read time 8 minutes 

#135 at a Glance:

• Quote: The lever that will move people.

• Podcast: Life lessons from a modern cowboy.

• Deep Dive #1: What impresses me most about Dana White.

• Deep Dive #2: 3 levers young people can pull to get ahead.

• Question: Are you qualified to govern yourself?

Quote of the Year:

Taken from Newsletter #100:

The first step in any task is to align the incentives of those involved.

It transforms any undertaking from an uphill climb to a downhill jog.

Podcast of the Year:

Taken from Newsletter #089:

Modern Wisdom #869 – Dry Creek Dewayne – Life Lessons From A Modern Cowboy

In a recent episode of Modern Wisdom, Chris Williamson engaged in an incredible conversation with Dewayne Noel, a seasoned cowboy and founder of the Dry Creek Wrangler School.

Full of timeless life lessons that resonate more deeply than ever in our modern world.

Key takeaways for me:

• Balance as service. This is the essence of true masculinity. It is only when we are physically, spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and financially balanced that we are in a position to most effectively serve those around us.

• Whether it’s in business or personal relationships; clarity, patience, and empathy can build bridges faster than force ever will.

• It only takes 1-2 generations of bad fathers in society to ultimately cause the downfall of an entire nation.

• Give yourself more credit not only for the things you do, but the things you don’t do. Sometimes, “I didn’t stuff anything up today” should be celebrated just as much as “I exceeded all of my goals for today”.

There’s a reason why this was the highest-ranking podcast episode across the US in one of the weeks in December last year.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

[Duration: 1 hour 54 minutes]

Deep Dive of the Year (#1):

Taken from Newsletter #091:

What Impresses Me Most About Dana White 

Dana White will likely go down as one of the most effective and prolific entrepreneurs of our time.

Founder and CEO of the UFC, multi-millionaire, husband, proud father, motivator, health ambassador, and role model.

His career achievements, whilst incredibly impactful and extremely admirable, are not what impress me most about Dana.

What impresses me most is this: He has effectively structured the UFC by leading a team of incredibly competent individuals who manage all aspects of the business so that he has the mental clarity to contemplate the big picture whilst strategically inserting himself at the heart of the action when necessary.

What do I mean by this?

He almost entirely avoids the day-to-day in a way that grants him the breathing space to craft the branding of the UFC from the eyes of the everyday consumer and showcase the events using the most desirable and exciting means possible.

I recently listened to Dana’s podcast with Mark Bouris and Chris Minns, recorded just days before UFC 312, and it really struck me as to the way that Dana has curated his time so that it allows him to completely avoid the the tireless work that goes into the coordination and production of a globally televised sporting event.

I mean, think about some of the businesspeople that you may know.

I’m going to take a guess that the scale and size of their operation is wildly less complex compared to that of the UFC, but they probably work harder than Dana White.

Why do we think that is?

This is where I truly believe Dana’s brilliance reveals itself: his ability to hire, delegate, and communicate.

He has created a brand that allows him to hire the best talent in the world (the fighters are also clearly world class but here I am speaking strictly about those who work in the front office as part of the business). The UFC is a brand that people want to be associated with, putting him in the position to hand-pick top-tier performers.

Not only has he recruited these all-star players on his team, but despite being the founder of the company, has relinquished complete control to them through effective delegation and structured the organisation to ensure maximal output and impact.

This has provided him with the opportunity to communicate and position the UFC as the premier living sporting event in the world, leaning on the success of the events themselves, the popularity of the fighters, and Dana’s own personal brand and influence.

Now, the obvious rebuttal to this line of thinking is, “Oh, that’s easy to say now that he has made all of his money, when he was more actively involved in the day-to-day he was probably doing everything himself.”

Sure – point taken and you’re probably right.

However, the business world is littered with tonnes of examples of founder CEO’s who struggle massively with not only letting go of the reigns, but structuring their organisations to maximal effect without losing the essence of the brand as they began to step away from the operations.

It is for this that I believe Dana deserves immense recognition.

There’s one more point I’d like to highlight, specifically in relation to how Dana has been able to accomplish this.

We’ve all heard people say things like “Elon Musk has the same 24 hours as you” or “Donald Trump only has 24-hours in a day”.

In my opinion, people often tend to misconstrue these messages, believing that these top operators are simply ‘doing more stuff’ than you or I are managing to do each day.

But it’s not that people like Elon, Trump, or Dana are DOING more; they are simply ACHIEVING more.

This is where I believe the power of LEVERAGE really comes to the surface.

For every unit of time that they invest in their work, there is an incredible multiplier applied in the process of generating the the final output.

Only part of this can be attributed to productivity. The rest comes down to leverage.

Their businesses have been constructed in a way that allows their decisions to be magnified through the compounded efforts of others.

The people in life who move faster aren’t actually running quicker, they’re just getting more from every step.

Deep Dive of the Year (#2):

Taken from Newsletter #107:

3 Levers Young People Can Pull To Get Ahead

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the predicament that young people (specifically 18-35 year-olds) find themselves in here in Australia:

• The median house price in Sydney is sitting at around $1.6 million, with the average house price across all of Australia surpassing $1 million for the first time in history.

• National rents have increased by 28% since 2021

• Real wages for 21-34 year-olds grew by just 1.3% in the last year, barely keeping up with inflation

• Roughly 16% of young people with post-school qualifications are underemployed (working part-time but wanting more hours)

Unfortunately, I don’t have a silver bullet to offer you.

However, being one of the people (along with many of you reading this) confronted with this economic outlook, I’m also searching for answers myself.

How can I best navigate these circumstances and put myself in the best possible position to financially succeed?

I’m probably as far from being an expert on this topic as you can get, but after reading books, listening to podcasts, and speaking to a lot of people smarter and more experienced than me, there seems to be a few critical levers that we as young people can pull in order to get ahead.

These appear to be 3 of the most significant:

1) Network

Who we surround ourselves with. This spills over into literally every area of our lives. From access to opportunities, things we learn, and even the way that we make decisions, all stem from the people within our circle.

Opportunity ultimately moves through people. The right nudge, intro, or piece of advice can completely change one’s trajectory. If success is built on the broad shoulders of others, it might be helpful to know a few giants…

2) Geography

First off, we need to recognise that the value attributed to a thing is not absolute; it is relative and circumstantial. To illustrate this: if the value of a bottle of water can vary dramatically depending on location and context (e.g. in a city versus in the desert), then why do we think the same doesn’t apply to skills and jobs?

Why is it that corporate roles in the same department of the same company doing the same work and working the same hours but in different cities or countries can yield a significantly greater wage in real dollar terms?

Geography really matters.

Geography is also an important consideration when it comes to tax rates. Doing the same job in Sydney (50% tax rate) versus in Dubai (0% personal income tax), assuming the same salary in real dollar terms and holding all else equal, would effectively provide one with double the take-home pay.

Now, this is not an advertisement to pack up and move to Dubai (at least not yet) because with geography comes a host of non-financial considerations. But I’m merely trying to illustrate the point that geography can make a huge difference to one’s personal financial situation.

On a micro level, assuming one were to stay in one of Australia’s major cities, decisions about which suburb to live in, the cost of rent, how long it takes commute to work, digital infrastructure, job opportunities, as well as the local networks one can access (going back to my first point), should realistically all come into consideration.

3) Additional Income

A ‘side hustle’ or essentially any form of income which can supplement a traditional wage whether it’s through a business or some form of investment strategy. Massively important according to almost every person I’ve spoken to with a degree of authority on this matter.

Aside from the fact that this is likely a necessity for the majority of people due to the affordability crisis we find ourselves in, there are some massive structural factors to think about as a young person which would make it handy to have a side hustle in the back pocket.

It’s no secret that due to the digitisation and globalisation of business, we find ourselves in what is globally the most competitive job market that there has ever been. Employers are no longer choosing between ‘Graduate A’ vs Graduate B’.

The choice is now something more like:

Graduate Applicants
vs
Contractor
vs
Outsourced Overseas
vs
Artificial Intelligence

It probably doesn’t hurt to have a Plan B…

***

Again, none of this is intended to be advice. I have just had the privilege of speaking to lots of clever people about this issue and felt compelled to share it with you all since, as I said, many of you reading this are probably in the same boat.

Hope it helps.

Hit reply and let me know what you think.

Question of the Year:

Taken from Newsletter #122:

Are You Qualified To Govern Yourself?

While I was away, I took the opportunity to pick up a book that I have long wanted to read but never properly grappled with: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121–180) succeeded his adoptive father as emperor of Rome in A.D. 161.

Arguably one of the greatest works of existential reflection ever written, Meditations is essentially a collation of Marcus’ notes to himself that he made as a way of better making sense of the world around him.

In the first section of the book, Marcus is reflecting on the lessons that he has picked up from some of the most influential figures in his life.

Everyone from his grandfather and first teacher to friends and colleagues.

When citing his learnings from his adoptive father and former emperor, Antoninus, he describes the following:

That idea of being qualified to govern oneself has been playing around in my mind for the last three weeks since I first read it.

It was one of those lines you seldom come across where you put down the book without hesitation and attempt to fully comprehend the essence of what you’ve just consumed.

“Qualified to govern himself.”

There are so many ways to unpack that idea and to be honest, I’m still attempting to do so.

Here are some of the places my mind tends to shoot off to when I reflect on this concept:

What are the attributes of one who is qualified to govern himself?

What does it mean to effectively govern oneself?

How does one practically govern oneself?

Is it a prerequisite that one must be able to govern himself before governing others? If not, should it be?

And obviously there is the irony that one need not a licence to govern oneself; one simply just governs. It is a birth right in the modern world.

But to be qualified to do so.

That’s a whole other story.

Beyond powerful and so beautifully written.

As I continue to contemplate these ideas myself, I thought I’d pose the same question to all of you:

What makes someone qualified to govern themselves and do you feel adequately equipped to do so?

Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡

If you enjoyed this newsletter, it would mean the world if you could forward it to a friend or send them my website.

This goes a long way to helping me reach more people :)

See you in the next one,

Dimi

(P.S. the best ways to get in touch with me are via email or LinkedIn).