Build A Board Of Life Advisors

Hey everyone, in this post I want to talk about building a board of life advisors.

So some of you might know that I’m building a company.

And right now I’m in the process of assembling my board of advisors.

These are early-adopters who want to support the company & can bring specific knowledge, assets or skills to the table. 

And what I’ve realized as I’m going through this process is that I’ve already built a board of advisors for something else:

designing my life intentionally.

My board of life advisors include people who I look up to in one or more aspects of their lives. 

I might look up to one person because of their physical health, and another person because of the quality of their relationships.

Or I might look up to someone who has both of these things and more. 

Whatever the case may be, there’s something that I admire about this person’s life, and I want to understand how they were able to cultivate it so that I can do the same.

I think this is powerful because different people can contribute different things. 

And collectively, this gives me all the information I need to intentionally design my life through the choices I make. 

Because at the end of the day, it’s all in my hands. 

I’ve learnt that no one’s going to have all of the answers for my life except for me. 

And that’s why the most important person on my board of life advisors is the ideal-version of my future-self.

Because this is the guy that I strive to be every single day!

So my board of life advisors is such an incredible asset because I can learn from people in real-life who’ve already done something that I want to do. 

Then, I can put myself in the shoes of “ideal future-me”, who understands my long-term vision, and can help me apply what I’ve learnt from my other advisors. 

As a result, I’m able to intentionally live my life knowing that every day I’m making progress on what matters to me long-term, which are my big 3 priorities:

my health, my meaningful relationships, and my work. 

So hopefully my rant has convinced you to build your own board of life advisors so that you can live your life more intentionally, regardless of your age.

But how do you actually do that? 

Well, here’s how I’m doing it: 

I include 3 types of people on my board of life advisors: 

First, are people that I’ve met organically.

So think:

• relatives

• family friends

• friends from school/university

• teachers

• colleagues

• gym bros

• my basketball squad

• sparring partners

• etc.

These are people who just came into my life as a byproduct of my environment, and I’ve chosen to actively maintain relationships with some of them. 

Second, are people that I’ve met intentionally.

So think:

• conferences

• networking opportunities

• private communities

• LinkedIn

• cold email

• etc. 

These are people who I learned about before connecting with them. 

I also made it a point to provide value to them upfront, so that they would reciprocate that by allowing a relationship to develop. 

And the value that I give them often isn’t the same kind of value they give me.

For example, I might connect with an older person who’s done very well financially, but needs someone to hold them accountable to exercise. 

Since I take great care of my health, the value that I provide them is accountability health-wise, and they provide me with business and financial insights. 

And I get that it might seem shallow, but relationships are a two-way street - they need to be mutually beneficial to work long-term.

The only exception that I know of is the unconditional love that a good parent has for their child. 

But hey, I could be wrong.

Maybe there are other exceptions, and I’d love to learn about them if you’re willing to share.

Third, are people that I’ve actually never met before.

So think:

• people with a large online presence

• authors

• even those who’ve passed away but contributed something to society. 

I might not have access to actually speak to these people, but I can still learn a lot from consuming their content. 

I find this more challenging than the other two because social media is a promotional tool.

It’s very rare to find someone who’s authentically representing themselves online, but I have found a handful who I think are genuine. 

The two that I look up to the most, based on what I can assess about their lives, are Sahil Bloom and Ryan Serhant. 

The reason is because both of these guys appear to take fantastic care of their health, have great family lives and are really successful in the work that they find meaning in. 

I work towards all of those things every single day, so their lives and their values appear to align with mine, which is why I consider them a part of my board of life advisors.

Now, as I’ve gone through this list it might seem like I have a huge network of people, but in reality it’s fewer than 15. 

I’ve told you about three of them in this post:

• my ideal future-self

• Sahil Bloom

• Ryan Serhant

Another two would be my parents because I look up to them in many ways.

That’s more than a third of my entire board!

And I’m not disappointed by that; I think quality matters a lot more than quantity when it comes to relationships. 

How I learnt that deserves its own rant in a separate post, so I’ll put that out in the future. 

But I hope that what I shared with you here today was valuable.

As always: Take care of your health and it will take care of you!

Your Internet Siblings,

The Healthy Kangaroo Team ;)