Living on Air Mattress
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Shaan tells a story about the year he decided to be "strategically broke" after college to learn how little money he actually needed to live on.
"That year strategically broke was about learning how little you need to live on. We were sleeping on an air mattress. We didn't even have a garbage bag - we just hammered a garbage bag onto the wall with a nail, just hanging there. We would drink out of this Gatorade cooler that we had gotten for free from some gym.
To make some side money, I would coach basketball at this school for autistic children and I would tutor kids and college students nearby in stats. I was making $25-30 bucks an hour, but I calculated the minimum amount I need to earn in order to have max freedom.
I realized that money was some sort of tool for freedom. Instead of trying to just stack as many dollars in the bank account when you're young, the better thing to do is optimize for freedom, optimize for learning, optimize for adventure and fun, and just calculate the minimum amount of money you need to be able to do that."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.