You should have seen me when I went to Los Angeles as a late teenager/20-year-old kid from Bangkok, Thailand.

Baggy jeans, basketball shoes, earrings, awkward-sized graphic tee from my beloved “MBK” mall (Bankok’s version of a multi-tiered pawnshop), and my sexy spiky Asian fro - hold the facial hair….

I was comprised of an identity that had been cultivated from past experiences, intertwined with my inherent personality. Every time I left the house, I ticked off a mental checklist of my style.

Wearing items that assured me I looked damn good before I hit those mean streets.

I was dead wrong though….

My old wardrobe:

• Classic fit oversized baggy tee with an inappropriate graphic at the front (for maximum “coolness”.)

• Earrings (it’s the proud Indian in me)

• 4+ rubber wristbands on one hand (basically men’s jewellery)

• Spiky hair (more spikes= more chicks)

• Baggy jeans (all jeans are the same)

• Basketball shoes (for comfort and to look sick in the “club”)

You cringe yet? Same here.

But to be fair I was young and didn’t know when I’d grown out of my teenage era.

But this was my default wardrobe and my default state of mind. These clothes didn’t even reflect the real me per se. Because I didn’t even know who the real me was.

But this style reflected a sense of someone I thought I naturally fell into (intentional or unintentional.)

I didn’t dare go exploring for who I actually wanted to be. That thought never even crossed my mind.

The point is that we all fall into circumstances that happen to us (good or bad.) But most never stop to question the path already set out for them.

They just “go with it.”

My spiky-hair identity at the time influenced my dress sense, and my dress sense influenced my identity. Therefore all my actions in my daily life corresponded to that identity.

It wasn’t a “bad” identity by any means. However, it wasn’t one that could have aided me much in life. Because the identity that I fell into (inherent or circumstantial) guided me into just “chilling” through life, with bits of drive sprinkled in here and there.

Some kids have their identity moulded by various factors into overachieving/getting at life from the very beginning. Others are moulded into an identity that subconsciously takes over their life…without direction.

None of these are necessarily bad things if you pay attention to them before it gets out of hand.

But most don’t.

I didn’t.

After a while, you get so used to playing out your preassigned identity that you go on autopilot. And from here, your limited identity influences your thoughts. Your thoughts then become limited, and your dreams and what you think you can achieve become limited as well. From the small things to the big things.

This is when it becomes a HUGE problem.

I fell into this problem as a late teenager, and it was only getting worse.

In order to change and “get shit done” I needed a huge change to happen.

And this huge change happened unintentionally when I went to LA.

Witnessing The Style Epoch: The Moment that Changed it All

Without praising or denigrating LA, one thing is for sure.

A lot of people there look damn good. It’s ridiculous.

The moment this insecure kid landed in LA, seeing all this absolutely shattered my idea of what I thought looked good.

To be clear, however, I was in a very specific part of LA. Areas where you couldn’t throw a rock more than 2 feet without hitting a creative bastard with a product to sell and a dream to buy.

(I too have become one of those bastards, forgive me.)

The people in LA (within the limited areas I saw) looked better than what I was used to. At least I thought so.

Fit and dolled up. Camera-ready, basically.

But the thing that caught my eye was HOW they dressed. Their style on average seemed more congruent with their expressiveness.

More congruent with their identity (or at least the one that they were trying to convey.)

Their wardrobe wasn’t a mishmash of random things thrown together. Nothing seemed out of place. And if something was, it seemed intentional.

They knew what they were doing, whether I thought it looked good or not.

The most common looks in LA that I saw were:

• The Classic

• The Creative

• The Dramatic

• The Elegant Chic

• The Feminine

• The Natural

• The Rebellious

Without me going into detail - you already have formed an assumption of what these people look like.

And from that assumption, you also have already imagined the types of lives these people have led.

Now, whether you’re right or wrong - you made all these assumptions from a style identity.

This is the power of the mind, and the secret to alter your life’s circumstances.

Adopt a Style to Adopt a New Personality

Meditation and breathwork are two things that have very real life-changing applications. Yet they still get underrated looks from the average uninformed person who undermines their potential.

I think the same can be said for adopting a sense of style, in order to adopt a new personality.

A personality that can take over your driver’s seat and lead you to the life that you want.

A life worth living - whatever that is for you.

In my last newsletter, I mentioned how I got into bodybuilding and overall fitness around the same time I moved to LA. Long story short, fitness improved my style.

Adopting a win in my life by seeing my body change motivated me to change other aspects, starting with my style, and then everything else.

I still think the best way to improve your sense of style is through fitness.

However, trying to change your life through style FIRST could also change your trajectory in life.

Because changing your life through fitness takes time. Changing it through style does not.

Here’s why I’m confident that I know what I’m talking about.

Growing up, I loved watching movies and TV.

I LOVED that shit.

I loved this one activity so much that I never used the internet for anything other than basic necessities…and watching movies.

When I went to LA, in my spare time I would watch movies.

In LA, I would wake up 2 hours before work just to have ample time to watch movies.

I liked movies so much that it dominated my life.

Meanwhile, as I developed my fitness (while watching movies in the background), I never asked the internet once for advice on anything style-related. But this wasn’t because I thought I was so smart.

It was because I literally thought the internet existed just for me to watch movies. I had questions about style, but I never once thought to Google any of this.

And this is where I think I have a very unique perspective when it comes to developing your style.

I didn’t Google anything on style or fashion. Everything I learned for the first 3 years of my style journey (70% of my TOTAL results) came from this “natural progression” method.

Completely by accident.

While I do recommend getting in shape as basic core advice, upgrading your style can work just as well. Because the results are instantaneous.

Focusing on my style was the catalyst that prompted a change in my life. Due to my lack of internet usage, my change through style (and not fashion) allowed me to develop a new identity and a new set of life-changing habits that happened without distractions and in a much much more stress-free and "holistic way.”

Your Mind is Powerful (and that’s a problem)

How much easier is life with the internet?

Easy.

How much HARDER is life with the internet?

Information overload.

My less strenuous internet-free method into style wasn’t perfect by any means. But it was a very peaceful way to become competent in style. It got the ball rolling and allowed me to embody a new identity, and with it…new habits to change my life.

What I accidentally fell into made me realize that I am more in control of my life than I realized. And change was easier than I thought.

Why is this important?

You want to feel good about yourself. Obviously…

And one of the “easiest” ways or paths of least resistance is to set yourself up in an environment, in which your actions and thoughts will have cascading effects downstream (into other areas of your life.)

But dramatic change first starts with what you see every day in the mirror - your perception of yourself.

Common thinking states that you must first be motivated internally to invoke change, to commit action. And through this mechanism, you will generate outward (and long-term) change.

But if finding motivation from within is non-existent or painfully difficult to muster… then nothing will ever happen.

Or you will have days of motivation followed by days of inactivity.

This is not sustainable, very tiresome, and not appealing at all.

Why do you want your life to be so difficult?

Millionaire and health enthusiast Bryan Johnsonon has been trending recently as the man trying to reverse ageing. Spending his own self-made fortune on himself, he has been using himself as a guinea pig to test out longevity theories still only found in scientific papers.

He wants to live forever and thinks the science is available right now to do so (hidden in research papers.)

His argument is that we are ruled by the mind. The mind makes us commit bad choices and drives us to form long-term self-destructive habits.

These self-destructive habits harm our bodies in the long term. And this is what causes the plague of disease and human decay.

Bryan Johnson proposes a future where we are ruled by an autonomous system designed to make our life decisions for us - what we eat, when we eat, what time we go to bed etc.

He thinks we shouldn’t rely on the mind to make our choices for us.

His theory is that by focusing on working with the body exclusively, we can hack our greatest weakness that prevents us from reaching our true potential - the mind itself.  

“1984-esque” vibes aside, I agree with him.

The trick to invoke rapid change in your life is to bypass the mind, by focusing on the body.

In this case, you should start with your self-image. Because it’s one of the easiest things you can do as a first step.

And the first step is everything.

Program or be Programmed

Most people think change is hard. Change IS hard… unless you start with yourself. Then it’s easy.

Because people want to change their lives but see it as a great task that can only be overcome by great steps, they do not take into account the snowball effect.

A situation in which one action or event causes many other similar actions or events to occur.

Your life is a series of actions. Your actions are tied to your identity. The “why” behind what you do.

We attribute our habits as a result of our identity.

• I must have a cup of coffee in the morning

• I must always keep a beard

• I must play games online before bed.

• I must check social media every day

Does this sound familiar?

People worry about how to change the world and think that worrying about surface levels things like your appearance are too trivial.

But worrying about surface-level things like your self-image is how you’ll change the world by creating momentum for yourself and progressing faster in life because of this.

Because your commitment to your old identity is holding you back.

Being identity fluid and willing to adopt better habits (beneficial to your future) while dropping bad ones will speed up your progression in life. This will allow you to get ahead and skip some of what life throws at you (not all.)

People think you shouldn’t worry about the small things, like your visual appearance. But the devil is in the details. At the end of the day momentum is what you need, something to ignite the desire to change.

You can get at life with sheer grit and determination if you want to start on hard mode.

But why would you wanna do that?

Unless you’re the top .05% of the population who can kick ass and take names anywhere, anytime, no matter the obstacles, day in and day out - unless you’re THAT guy…I don’t see how that’s possible.

Because my way is one of those "work smarter not harder” type methods that you should consider if you think you need it.

I’m not an elite Pro Bodybuilder who can go through elite levels of conditioning to reach a shredded physique (yet). I’m not a David Goggins who can push through the pain (literally) and never have an off switch (yet.)

That doesn’t mean I’m not trying to be like these guys now (many years later.)

But when I started my journey I was just a directionless kid. Sheer grit and determination wouldn’t have worked for me. Not because I didn’t have it in me, but because my past identity would have prevented me from seeing my potential. This would have prevented me from starting and committing to the process long-term.

Therefore my advice is applicable for those just starting out, for those who don’t think they can, or for those curious to tackle life another way. To see what works and what doesn’t.

Because there are many ways to skin the cat, in most things.

This is why tricking your mind into believing what you want it to is your best bet. Because relying on your past lazy self (identity) to help your future self in the beginning and/or long term is a bad bet for most people.

Move Away from Comfort and Default Thinking

Because of my background, I am deeply invested in the fitness and biohacking realm, as the concept of altering the human machine fascinates me. Due to this, I am also enamoured by how Performance-Enhancing Drugs (steroids) work for the same reason.

PEDs’ are dangerous, but they are dangerous because they disrupt and cause havoc in the body by throwing its finely tuned system out of whack.

Change one thing in a complex system designed to keep you alive, and everything goes haywire if you don’t know how to compensate for it.

Your body is trying to keep you alive and only spend resources on things that contribute to that goal. If you are not in physical danger then your body doesn’t care. If you struggle to take action, then you must force change through your environment, on you and around you. This is where style comes in.

Like the human body, your environment is finely tuned to your habits, as a result of your actions. Change one thing and the effects will bleed into other areas of your life in the best way possible - if you do it right.

The problem is you are lazy by design and so am I. Because of this, we like to make things hard for ourselves and underestimate most things that have the potential to truly help our lives.

We think it’s easier to be one-track-minded, to shut down any potential.

This is lazy man’s thinking.

Examples of “lazy man thinking”:

• “Oh this therapy won’t work.”

• “Cleaning my room won’t help my thinking.”

• “Working out won’t do that much to help.”

• “Eating healthy won’t solve my mood issues. Even though I haven’t tried it and eat like total shit anyways. I already know the answer.”

Before you dare to change, you must dare to go against your default state of thinking. Just because you think something won’t work doesn’t mean it won’t, but it doesn’t mean it will.

Either way, you must take action before you get your answer.

To take the first step, you must dare to be curious. Dare to ask “what if”.

In the spirit of “working smarter, not harder” we must counter our natural tendencies, and not resort to laziness.

That is also why it is easier to make fun of or to see the flaws in someone than it is to give compliments or to see the beauty in things.

Don’t be lazy, don’t be a nihilist.

What if you could change your life through style?

What if something as simple as wearing nicer sexier clothes made you feel better about yourself, and this made you act better towards yourself?

And what if by doing this one thing (style) you changed everything in your life for the better?

Being physically lazy is one thing. But to default to lazy thinking is to default to a life given to you, whether you like what it offers or not.

The cool benefit about relying on style is that it will help counter these natural lazy tendencies by almost tricking your mind into acting differently.

Simply put, clothing enhances abstract cognitive processing. According to Heidi Halvorson’s book, “No One Understands You and What to Do About It”, a simple change from casual clothing to business clothing will alter your way of thinking.

For this one example (out of many), her studies found that people who put on business formal clothing made people subconsciously feel more powerful.

This feeling of enhanced power caused the subject’s brain to shift to a state where they began to think in a more abstract way - basically, they got better at “big picture” thinking. They also got more creative, and on average were found to be better at problem-solving.

She argues that the way clothing affects us has everything to do with what we feel that clothing means.

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology helps illustrate this point further:

In this study, 2 groups of test subjects wore a plain white coat, and they were then asked to perform a task where they had to notice the tiny detail in things.

Group A was told that they were wearing a coat belonging to a doctor, whereas Group B was told that they were wearing a coat belonging to a painter.

According to the study, group A (doctor’s coat) performed much better and their ability to pay attention increased sharply once they were they were told they were wearing a doctor’s coat.

This is due to the fact that we generally associate critical thinking and attention to detail more with being a doctor, over a painter. Even if this isn’t necessarily true.

You feel good when you think you look good. So leverage this manufactured feeling to help you get ahead.

Opting to let style be a part of your life can help influence our internal systems by working from the external first.

In a way, this “hack” is similar to strategies employed through breathwork used to directly influence and reduce heart rate BPM - in order to bring down stress.

In this case, you are directly manipulating your body from the outside to force calm down. You are not using your mind to tell it to calm down (because when has that ever worked?)

In the case of employing style strategies in your life, this will allow you to let outside factors influence how your mind operates, by dressing in a way that will inevitably force you to think differently.

To instil a seed of change inside your stubborn ass mind, without your mind getting in the way. This can only be by force.

If we go by my anecdotal experiences. I relied on style and not fashion to invoke change in my life. Developing and relying on style was a low-effort way to gain some momentum in my life, and allowed me to find certain timeless things that worked for me, without me having to worry about following trends (that’s fashion.)

And due to the fact that I never used the internet when this transformation happened, relying on basic style made my transition from “0 to hero” way less frightening.

In a way, my self-development was almost peaceful.

I was not following any type of dogma, I was not relying on the outside world much to dictate HOW I should be progressing in life (I was mostly self-reliant.)

Over time, looking better than usual made me naturally want to work on other things in my life. From stylish clothes, to face grooming, hair grooming, clean closet, clean/more organized room, clean/more organized life etc.

And so on and so on.

The thing that I really want you to understand (that most don’t) is that most people are most people.

Most people don’t try much, in much.

I’m not judging. Again…most people are most people (it’s to be expected.)

But most pay little attention to what they do in MOST things.

Most pay little attention to how they dress.

And this is where you can gain a HUGE edge.

Proof I know what I’m talking about: A while ago I met a new group of friends for the first time. After the initial encounter, one of them later revealed to me that she thought I looked like a douchebag because of how I dressed.

I asked her specifically what she meant. And she told me it was because of my clothes. She thought I dressed better than the average person, therefore I looked like a douchebag.

To be fair, I do have a very douchey face.

But here’s the thing: Douchebag part aside, that day I was only wearing a well-fitted white shirt, dark blue jeans, and some black loafers. I basically threw on a nice shirt (fitted) and threw on some jeans in the process. Took me 5 minutes to put all this on.

That’s it.

But that was enough to make me stand out.

Why?

Because most don’t bother trying to find clothing that fits them well. Most just buy/throw on whatever. They don’t put in effort.

Why?

Because most people are most people.

Don’t Be “The Most” to Get The Most out of Life

Unlike Instagram, reality is much more “average.” The bar in reality is LOW, so you should take advantage of it.

Most people act how they feel and feel how they act. And you don’t have to “dress to the 9’s” to enhance your sense of being. Again, if I go by my anecdotal experience, upgrading my gym clothes into something sexy makes me feel more sexy.

This makes me excited to go workout, this makes me feel stronger, this makes me go harder at the gym, kick-ass, and take names.

It’s not hard or complicated to explain, but it does take some effort.

It takes effort to not resort to lazy man’s thinking when it comes to leveraging style to leverage your life.

That night when I wore my crisp white shirt, I felt amazing, and I felt like I was embodying an identity that was confident, upscale, cheeky etc. This directly influenced my actions, my cadence in how I walked, how I talked, and how I just “was.”

In a sense I was playing “dress up”…and it worked.

And it has been working for the past 5 years.

Like magic.

Fix Your Style Then Save The World

Don’t overthink your lofty goals. Think in increments.

Meditation? Gym? Finding your true purpose? All worthy endeavours to pursue and explore.

But all these things take time, and most won’t follow through if they don’t have some intrinsic drive to sustain this level of long-term change.

No one ever took over the world by focusing on their style. But they did commit to a series of steps to help them get them to their goals. They achieved their goals through a mindset and identity conducive to reaching this.

They either worked hard, were extremely lucky, or really smart (maybe all 3.)

Are you any of these things? Maybe. Maybe not.

I wasn’t.

BUT I wanted to get ahead by being lazy in a really smart way.

I managed to get ahead by leveraging style to leverage other habits that helped contribute to my future success.

Have you ever worn a suit and tried just chilling out in it? That would be weird.

It would be weird because the association you make with a suit is not someone who sits around and does nothing, it’s someone who gets shit done (whether that is factually true or not.)

Dressing better (doesn’t have to involve suits) helps you feel better by looking better. Seeing yourself looking good, and perhaps others validating your assumptions - all give you real-world positive feedback that helps feed your ego (not always a bad thing.)

This is one way (out of many) to generate and/ or inspire internal change if you need it.

Through feeling better about yourself, you’ll be more likely to go after life, kick ass and take names - with the aid of style.

Allowing you to change your identity and what you think of yourself into being someone/something that actually benefits you.

Let’s get real about my looks (hot take)

Yes I am tall.

Yes I look objectively attractive.

The point you could argue is that style only helped me because I had inherent advantages to begin with, and by leveraging style this only further highlighted my innate advantages.

But even if this is the case, I can’t help the cards that I was dealt, just like neither can you.

If you think you have it harder than me or that you’re starting from a worse-off position - then wouldn’t you have to put in twice as much effort as I did?

Maybe.

And if you don’t want to put in the effort and just complain, then what is the other option? Give up before you even try?

Don’t be lazy. Don’t be a nihilist.

If you think are a 2 overall, then employing these style tactics could potentially bring you up to a 3 overall if not WAY more. And that’s still progress. And this could help inspire and drive change in other areas of your life.

Having a nihilistic/lazy man’s mindset isn’t conducive to anything.

But even if what I’m saying doesn’t work, you have to start somewhere. So why not TRY the easiest way first?

Be lazy (and smart) like me.

Just remember to NOT have a lazy mindset.

The Style Gameplan

Regardless of what you think about anything, self-experimentation is the only way to solve your problems for good.

Self-experimentation is how you avoid following advice that doesn’t work for you. Advice is general for a reason. You must take something and iterate it to fit your life.

You must try something first and hold yourself accountable.

Otherwise, nothing will ever work.

Don’t take life too seriously, but make wise decisions. Make the wise decision to be curious and try something - anything - to help you progress forward without worrying about judgment (in yourself and from others.)

Below is my simple 3-step game plan I would recommend for beginners and people who don’t wanna faff around with their clothes and spend the least effort possible to look better than most.

1.) Pick the style and the basics of that style (Beginner LVL)

Before you do anything, think of what type of person you want to portray. Even if you think you can’t pull it off.

Like the 7 styles I came across in LA, imagine who you want to embody. There are no rules to this.

Picking a style identity first will give you clarity and direction on where you want to go. From here, begin to drown your mind with information related to that style. Look at Quora and let your feed slowly learn what type of things you gravitate towards, then it’ll send you more of that.

Picking a style identity first will help give you clarity and direction on where you want to go (gotta start somewhere.) After you’ve picked an identity, begin to drown your mind with information related to that style. Learn what type of things you naturally gravitate towards. I recommend Quora first, as their feed will quickly learn what you like and send you more of that. Then try Google etc.

After, try to identify what you are looking at. Once you find a common theme of what you like, try to find the most accepted name of that style that people are calling it online (as best you can.) Then begin searching for that style with that name specifically.

In psychology, there is something called the Default Mode Network. The DMN is a series of interconnected sections that activate as soon as people stop concentrating on external tasks, and shift from outward-focused to inward-focused cognition.

Long story short: Your brain still works on a problem even when you stop actually working on it. After a period of flooding your brain with styles you like (and then resting), your brain will continue to form and make connections to do with the styles you see. Do this often enough, and you will naturally begin to see and understand the combinations and patterns in the styles that you like. 

You will also begin to understand the mindset of that style (this will be important in helping you understand the mindset behind that style.)

Let’s use me as an example: For the longest time I have been going for the “Miami Drug Dealer” style. It’s not an actual style (I don’t think), it's just something that everyone associates the style with. So that’s what I started looking for, I didn’t think too much about this.

Again, there are no strong rules with this.

Go for basics

Once you figure out the style you like, then get only the base colours of that style. Keep it simple.

If I wanted to move into “Quiet Luxury” for the first time then I would only pick those colours that make up that style. This would consist of neutral tones within the colour palette. Things like:

• Beige

• Brown

• Beige

• Camel (light yellowish-brown)

• Black

• Charcoal (different to black)

• White

• Navy Blue

(There might be similarities between these colours and that’s fine. Don’t overthink it.)

Sticking to only the basics of the colours to do with the style you pick will allow all your clothing to be interchangeable. This way you can literally just throw on any colour combination from here and be good to go.

In this case keep in mind though, that Quiet Luxury is also about fit as well as neutral colours. I know this because I’ve begun looking into the mindset of what makes up this specific style. Just to note.

2.) Intermediate level (LVL2) - Go for Texture:

Once you have picked your style, gotten your basics of that style and have begun to understand that style (holistically), then you can move on to this step.

Only advance to this if you have:

• Picked you style

• Understand the mindset behind your style (holistically)

• Have the basics of that style already (core colours)

The general simplest guideline when you want to upgrade from the basics is to begin adding in different textures.

Now pick the same core colors you did in step 1, but this time pick textured pieces of those colors. Whatever texture you like.

A black shirt on black pants might look odd, but a black shirt on black textured pants (or vice versa) will work.

Texturing your wardrobe as the next step will allow you even more flexibility with minimal effort because you can pair things of the same colour if there is enough contrast in texture. It’s honestly amazing.

3.) Advanced Level (LVL 3):

You’ve studied the fundamentals and have played with the tools you’ve been given. Now it’s time to add a little flare.

This is probably the easiest step, since part of grabbing risky pieces is that you won’t need too many of them, and/or you won’t need to rely on these.

They should act as the cherry on top of whatever you already have.

Go wild for this step (at your own risk.)

Keep these pieces minimal, however.

If you can see the design from a distance…it’s too much.

Unless you already hail from some rich Hollywood family who already has life made, you’ll need to act like every other un-privileged slimeball aching to get ahead in the film business, and in life. By using whatever edge you can get in order to reach your goals in the smartest way possible, without mercy.

Leverage what is immediate to seize momentum, seize momentum to seize opportunity.

Become an opportunistic pathogen in order to seize what others never will.

Stay Rogue.