How money is like water

In this issue: what I wish I knew in my 20s, 3-step framework to distill ideas in visual metaphors, what role failures play in your success journey, and how money is like water.

PJ Milani
February 18, 2025

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🤔 INTERESTING

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I wish I knew this in my 20s:

There'll never be a perfect someday.
But there's always an imperfect now.

So how do you start?

With these 3 simple words: “I am doing.”

Not “I will…” (procrastinating)
Not “I should’ve…” (regret)
But “I am…” (right here, right now)

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📐 DESIGN

3-Step Framework to create visual metaphors

Readers often ask how do you come up with visual metaphors, and this short video is as high-level as you can get with your approach in how to think about it.

And if you’re curious to dive deeper, join the waitlist here for Cohort 10 of Thinking in Visual Metaphors 😊

🔮 ENCHANTING

Illustration by milaniCREATIVE.art depicting two perspectives on failure. The top half shows a figure standing at the edge of a cliff, blocked by barricades labeled ‘Failures as Obstacles,’ unable to reach a diamond on the opposite cliff. The bottom half shows the same figure walking across a bridge made from those same barricades, labeled ‘Failures as Lessons,’ demonstrating how failures can be used as stepping stones, bridging us toward success.

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Failure doesn't block the way.
It creates the path.

🧠 ANALOGY

Illustration by milaniCREATIVE.art visualizing the relationship between money and life priorities. The top half shows a single bucket being filled with water labeled ‘Money.’ Next to it are flowers labeled ‘Health,’ ‘Relationships,’ and ‘Purpose.’ The bottom half shows multiple buckets have already been filled with water while the flowers wither, with the caption ‘Most people focus here… but forget why,’ illustrating the misplaced focus on accumulating wealth at the expense of ever getting around to using it for what it was made to do: nourish life’s true priorities.

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This is the biggest regret most "successful people" have.

The reason is simple:

Money is a means to an end (not the end itself).

But often in the pursuit of more, we sacrifice the very things money was supposed to help solve (or at least make easier).

When the bucket is full, nourish your flowers.

Inspired by Sahil Bloom's book, "The 5 Types of Wealth”

People really seemed to like this behind-the-scenes first draft on LinkedIn so sharing it here 😊

🤓 WHAT I’M READING NOW

“Excellent Advice for Living” by Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly’s “Excellent Advice For Living” is full of concise, deep wisdom on how to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life. When Kelly turned 68, he started writing to his adult children what he wished he knew when he was younger, building up to 450 wide-ranging, timeless pieces of advice.

I just ordered it last week and it’s one of the fastest, easiest, and most practical manuals on life I’ve ever read. Here are a couple of my favorites:

“Before you are old attend as many funerals as you can bear and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving.”

“Your passions should fit you exactly but your purpose in life should exceed you. Work for something much larger than yourself.”

And for fun, I’m visualizing a few.

SNEAK PEAK 👀

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