Master the Basics First

I was thinking about my upcoming Health, Wealth & Relationships workshop. I thought to myself—“Well, I definitely know the basics of each category.” I’m not an expert who’s dedicated their entire life to just one of these areas. But I’ve nailed the fundamentals of what I call the wheel of life: finances, health, family and friends, romance, work and profession, spirituality, personal growth, and contribution.

I know those foundations are solid because they’ve carried me through everything—successes, failures, pivots, and all.

That made me think back to a moment in middle school. I had the opportunity to take honors algebra in the summer after 6th grade. I ended up getting a D. Needless to say, I didn’t pass, and I had to take the class again during the regular school year in 7th grade.

At the time, I was disappointed. I felt like I wasted my summer, only to have to repeat a class I had already worked so hard on. But looking back, it was one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned.

As I continued with math, I realized algebra was the foundation for everything else. Understanding it deeply gave me the skills to succeed in AP calculus, differential equations, statistics, physics—and eventually, to become a biomedical engineer. I truly believe my success in math came from having to retake algebra. Because I understood the fundamentals so well, I could derive complex formulas and solve problems from the ground up.

So often in life, we want to move fast—we skip the basics and try to leap ahead. But the truth is, without mastering the fundamentals, we build on shaky ground. It’s those fundamentals that give us a strong foundation to rise from, fall back on, and rise again.

That’s how I view the wheel of life. I’ve nailed those core areas, and now I want to teach others how to do the same.

In my early 20s, I tutored everything from 4th grade math to AP calculus. I always focused on whether the student had a strong grasp of the basics—especially algebra. Every student I worked with ended up improving by at least two letter grades, and many of them grew to love math. Years later, some of them would still tell me that because of me, they found confidence—and even joy—in a subject they once hated.

Why? Because they nailed the fundamentals. They built on a solid foundation. And that gave them the confidence to keep going.

Just like calculus didn’t come out of nowhere—it was built on basic math, algebra, geometry… layer by layer until it became what some call rocket science.

Seed Question:

Do you have your fundamentals of the wheel of life nailed down?