Need you

My friend is on his way to becoming a billionaire.

Successful businesses. Smart investments. Living his dream life. Great person.

He's adamant he doesn't want to be any more known for his work.

I'm adamant the world could benefit from knowing more about him.

We've been going back and forth on this.

Here's what I know for sure. And what I said to him.

If you have information or a way of living that can help people, you owe it to the world to share it. Keeping your magic to yourself is a disservice to everyone who could use it.

The positives far exceed the negatives. A personal brand increases your surface area for luck. And I believe that is exponential.

Being known for your work opens doors you didn't know existed. Investors, collaborators, customers, friends. They find you because you showed up. My friend says he doesn't need more introductions. I say he can't know what he's missing.

Many of the problems people fear from being known are ones you can pay to make go away. Security, privacy, managing attention. These are solvable. The cost of staying invisible is not. The cost of wasted impact is not.

Part of this game (because it's all a game) is positioning. Packaging your knowledge and stories in a way that changes other people's lives. That's a skill worth developing. And it starts with talking to people.

I think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs daily. Self-actualisation used to be at the top. In Maslow's later years, he put self-transcendence there instead. Success is less about achieving your highest potential and more about helping the world achieve theirs. There is more to you than you.

But you can't help people who don't know you exist.

When it comes to my friend, I'm curious about something specific. How does someone who puts joy and living first approach visibility on a bigger scale?

You could look at famous entrepreneurs. Elon will quite happily sacrifice health, happiness and relationships for his business missions. But that's not interesting to me.

I want to learn about people who... refuse to compromise on living their best life while simultaneously achieving Elon scale of impact or greater. Where are the people who practice and preach this?

The personal brands of the future will be demigods. Because we want more from the people we follow. We want success without the sacrifice.

We want people who show that's possible

Last year a street video I filmed with a friend went viral. Over 3 million views. The messages were nonstop. People recognised me in the street. I had some trolls. It was a practice run at being world famous and after an initial weird hit of dopamine, it was fine.

The more you know who you are, the less what people say bothers you.

And then you can do your thing on a greater level. New opportunities come through exposure.

So to my billionaire friend, and to anyone else sitting on brilliance in silence:

The world needs your voice. People are counting on you.

Show up.