Tom Woods changed the way I think about work

Tom Woods’ newsletter shifted my writing voice and the expectations I made for myself. And guess what? That won’t be ending anytime soon.

If you spoke to me when I started writing for a living six years ago, I’d have pointed to Ron Harris as my top influence. Harris, famous for his A Bodybuilder is Born series written between 2002 and 2007, was conversational, first-person, and his style bordered on what some critics would’ve called too casual. The latter was something the micromanagers at my old day job routinely accused me of.

Two years ago, I shifted gears when I started listening to the Tom Woods Show and began devouring his emails. His writing voice is confident, no-nonsense, straightforward, and analytical, just to throw a few adjectives at it.

Best yet? He doesn’t care if what he says offends a reader. Nor should he. Before the 2024 election, Woods hosted an episode on his podcast that broke down the psychology of some of the most successful people alive today.

If there’s one common denominator between everyone in the top one percent, it’s that they’re constantly subjected to scrutiny in one way, shape, or form. But you know what? Whether you respect those people or not, they keep plugging away, regardless of what millions of people are saying about them.

So, what started as a shift in tone for me after getting introduced to Woods’ style eventually became a shift in trajectory.

Adopting a Tom Woods type of mentality has worked wonders

Not only is Woods a good, straightforward writer; he also knows a thing or two about making money online. If it wasn’t for him sharing his own online creations, like the Liberty Classroom, School of Life, and even his Mastermind—I spent six months in his Jr. Mastermind and learned more about starting and running a freedom-based business than I would’ve learned across four years in a business school—I never would’ve puckered up the courage to secede from a dreaded day job in my own life.

In other words, I’d still be pumping out 120-plus pieces of ultra-beige prose every month on NHL topics with short lifespans unless it happened to be August when evergreen content becomes a thing. That means I’d have been a drone to the system with my earning potential limited to the salary that company would’ve decided I was worth.

I didn’t want to get complacent in that mentality, one that every single lineage in my own family got complacent in. It’s mind-boggling how it sometimes takes just one person—with assists from people like Paul Counts, John and Alex Thornhill, and Randy Smith—to prove that yes, you’re worth more than what your employer is telling you that you’re worth.

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