You know, most people understand the
main quest, right? Build a career, make
money, find a partner, buy a home, raise
a family, and stay healthy long enough
to enjoy some of it. [music] These goals
give life structure, sure, but they
don't necessarily make it interesting
because the experiences that change you
the most are often the ones you never
needed to have. If the main quest builds
your life, here are 15 side quests worth
taking in life that will build the
person living it. [music] Welcome to
Alux, the place where future
billionaires come to get inspired.
Number 15, learn how to fight.
Competence changes your posture and your
presence. Others feel it not because
they see you as a threat, but because
they see someone who's in control of
themselves and the situation. Learning
how to fight has surprisingly little to
do with violence. It teaches you to be
coachable, exposes the distance between
confidence and competence, [music]
and shows you how much repetition
mastery actually requires. More
importantly, it teaches you to be calm
while someone is actively applying
pressure. Fighting deals in reality
rather than in fantasy. And once you
understand what violence actually feels
like, it usually becomes less
attractive. The courage transfers.
difficult conversations, [music] public
failure, and business risk. Feel smaller
after you've learned how to function
while tired, uncomfortable, and under
pressure. It's great fun, incredible
exercise, and as a useful byproduct,
nobody's going to look at you as an easy
victim. Number 14, drive across a
country or a continent. Long-distance
travel is the loading screen of real
life. Airplanes take you places, but
driving or riding lets you experience
everything in between. Distance becomes
real when you have to cross every
kilometer yourself. You watch the
architecture change, hear accents shift,
and eat simple food in places you would
never have searched for online. [music]
It's the best kind of boring, the kind
you willingly enter into because it
gives you enough room to surprise you.
And the moments you remember are rarely
the ones you planned. You remember
getting caught in the rain and searching
for shelter, taking the wrong road,
nearly running out of fuel, [music] or
meeting a stranger who says something
that sticks with you for years. These
moments feel insignificant while they're
happening, but later they become the
stories you tell around dinner tables.
The destination gives you photographs,
the road gives you the story.
Number 13, get a pet [music] and develop
a deep bond. A pet introduces a form of
love built almost entirely through
presence. You can't impress an animal
with your resume, [music] status, or
intelligence. It cares whether you
return, whether it feels safe around
you, and whether your actions are
consistent. The responsibility
reorganizes your life in small but
meaningful ways. [music] You wake up
when you would rather sleep, go outside
when the weather is terrible, and make
decisions for a creature that cannot
[music] explain what it needs. Anyone
who has a dog will tell you how deeply
you feel this bond, how they become a
part of you. In return, you receive
affection without performance [music]
and companionship without conversation.
But the relationship also carries an
imbalance. They might be only one
chapter of your life, but you are the
entirety of theirs. Eventually, you'll
experience the cost of that bond because
everything deeply loved leaves a hole
when it's gone. [music] And even that
teaches you something worth knowing. A
relationship doesn't become less
valuable because it cannot last forever.
[music] No, sometimes its ending is
proof that it mattered.
Number 12, travel specifically to learn.
Most travel is consumption with better
scenery. But what if [music] instead of
collecting photographs, you collected
skills? Learn tango and buenosarees.
Train Muay Thai in Chiang Mai. Or learn
to sail through the Greek islands.
Travel with a curriculum. Find a
teacher, submit to the process, and stay
long enough to move beyond being
entertained by culture. The best version
of this side quest [music] is not simply
visiting a place known for something.
It's allowing that place to change how
you move, think, or work. Leave with
fewer souvenirs [music] and one ability
that didn't belong to you when you
arrived. Travel somewhere that has spent
generations refining a craft, then let
part of its discipline become part of
you.
Number 11, build something with your
hands over several months. Most modern
jobs allow you to pretend you're
competent and get away with it. You
can't restore a car with words, though.
Build a table, fix a motorcycle, or grow
a garden. Choose something physical that
takes months and refuses to be rushed,
no matter how good your pitch is. This
side quest reconnects effort with
visible progress and teaches you the
patience of correcting mistakes instead
of deleting them. It also makes you an
explorer. You learn basic things that
make you feel great. You buy tools and
develop real competence. When you build
something with your hands, you also
build emotional value. Every time you
look at it, you feel a kind of pride
that you won't get with anything you
bought off the shelf, even if it's not
perfect. Here's the important part. You
have to do it for yourself. Once you
find something you like, resist the urge
to monetize it. Not every skill needs to
be a business, a personal brand, or a
second income stream. Keep one activity
protected from optimization, where being
mediocre is allowed, and enjoyment is
enough. Don't let the world extract your
happiness in exchange of deflating
value. Having a hobby that remains
financially useless is an act of
freedom. If on the other hand, you want
to build wealth faster and get your
first million, go to alux.com/app right
now. Every path to wealth that we've
explored has been deconstructed and
broken down into frameworks for you to
apply starting today. Our app is free
for 7 days, so you have nothing to lose.
Try it out at alux.com/app.
Because once we solve wealth, you'll
have more time for side quests like this
next one. Number 10, design your home.
Most people spend years inside of spaces
they never consciously chose. The space
is already there, so they fill it with
stuff until it becomes a storage unit
for previous versions of themselves. But
our environment shapes us. Just as a
seed grows stronger in fertile soil, we
become better in places that feed the
soul. Designing your home forces you to
care about details that appear
insignificant, but they compound daily.
the light, the materials, the sounds,
the objects you keep, and the ones you
finally remove. Do not design it to
impress people who visit twice a year.
No, design it to support the people who
live there every day. There's something
deeply meaningful about building the
house your children will remember
growing up in, the backyard where you
sleep beneath the stars, the driveway
where they learn to ride their bikes,
and the kitchen where ordinary evenings
quietly become family history. These
rooms will contain more of your life
than almost [music] anywhere else. So,
be intentional about them. Build a home
that makes you smile when you open your
eyes and give everyone inside of it a
place where they're always grateful to
return.
Number nine, run a marathon. Now,
running a marathon is less physical than
it is mental. You probably didn't know
that 98.5% of people who sign up for a
marathon finish it. [music]
The hardest part is signing up. Once you
do, you realize you're going to need
some training, so you start training.
Then race day comes and something
happens. The first quarter is manageable
and you're able to push yourself and
your body to the halfway point. That is
when your brain jumps in and tells you
you should quit, that your body is not
meant to do this, that there's snacks
and comfy couches back at your
beautifully designed home. The voice in
your head grows louder, telling you to
stop, that you're a winner even by
making it halfway. And that's where you
[music] discover there's a switch inside
of you. A switch where despite all of
those voices, you keep going for another
mile and then another mile and one more.
You walk if you have to. Yes, it hurts
everywhere. Your feet are killing you,
but you keep going. You keep putting one
foot in front of the other. You want to
do this. You want to prove to yourself
that you are not a quitter. This isn't
about anybody else. It's you versus that
whiny little voice inside of your
head and the decision to not let it
control you anymore. Not only will you
show the voices who's the actual boss,
but anyone who manages to finish a
marathon will significantly lower the
lifetime risk of dying from
cardiovascular disease, including heart
attacks and stroke. Plus, I mean, there
is a medal at the end that you can show
off. And building on the last side
quest, there's this one. Number eight,
see your body in its best shape. Get
into the best shape of your life once
just to see how differently the world
treats the same person. People notice
you sooner. You can buy the peptides,
the plastic surgery, but you cannot fake
a strong body. People will assume
discipline, confidence, and competence
before you've even said or done anything
to prove it. Some of that comes from
appearance, but much of it comes from
the way your body changes your posture,
clothing, eye contact, and willingness
to occupy space. You fall in love with
who you see in the mirror. and this
version of life that you get to live.
You also establish a benchmark for the
rest of your life. You'll know how your
body feels when training, sleep, and
nutrition are aligned, plus how far
you've drifted whenever they are not.
You don't need to stay at your physical
peak forever. The point is to meet that
version of yourself at least once. The
marathon shows you how far your mind can
push your body, but this one shows you
how much better life is for strong and
healthy people.
Number seven, volunteer in a really poor
country. Our understanding of pain,
struggle, and blessing expands only as
far as our exposure allows. If you grew
up surrounded by comfort, someone
telling you no might register as a level
10 crisis because your mind has nothing
worse to compare it with. Then you
travel somewhere people are dying
because they can't access food, clean
water, or basic medicine. You meet
children running barefoot, not as an
aesthetic choice, but because they don't
own any shoes. You see families carrying
water for kilometers while you complain
about the pressure in your shower. The
experience doesn't make your problems
imaginary, but it puts them back into
proportion. Gratitude stops being
something inspirational people tell you
to practice and becomes an involuntary
response to realizing how much of your
ordinary life would be considered
extraordinary somewhere else. You
realize how the life you're currently
disappointed by is somebody else's
ultimate dream. Don't confuse this with
traveling or voyerism. Exit the resort.
Be with regular people. Touch dirt.
Don't be afraid. Work with people who
understand the community. Let them take
you in. Contribute where you actually
are needed and allow the experience to
change what you consider to be
essential. You return home to the same
life, but your scale has changed. That's
why we built the Alux International
School in Uganda. And this year, we just
finished the first Alux International
School in India. Alux School in India
opened in 2026. When you subscribe to
Alux or pay for the Alux app, you're a
part of these projects, too. And we'll
do a dedicated video on the India school
coming up pretty soon.
Number six, live in another country for
one year. Don't confuse travel with
immigration or what it's like to really
live in a place until you try it. One of
the most liberating things you can
discover is that people are living
happy, meaningful lives in places you've
barely considered. The world is far more
accessible than it appears from home.
There are cities where your money
stretches further, your values [music]
fit better, the weather suits you, and
the life you want is easier to build.
Living abroad expands your understanding
of what normal life can look like. You
see different ways to organize work,
family, friendship, ambition, and
leisure, and realize your country never
had a monopoly on doing life correctly.
More importantly, you learn that your
current location is not a life sentence.
[music]
If things collapse, if you choose the
wrong path, or if the place you live no
longer feels like yours, you could begin
again somewhere else. You can build new
routines, make new friends, and become
part of a world that once felt
completely foreign. Living abroad
teaches you that starting over is a
choice. Sometimes the life you're trying
to force into existence at home is
already waiting for you somewhere else.
Number five, make art and display it
publicly. Art is how something invisible
inside of you enters the physical world.
This is uncomfortable because most
adults have spent years neglecting the
creative part of themselves. [music] We
become excellent at consuming other
people's taste while becoming
increasingly afraid of revealing our
own. Art is [music] not supposed to
appeal to everyone, and the work that
tries to offend nobody usually moves
nobody either. The more you create, the
better your chances of making something
worthwhile are. You begin noticing
proportion, rhythm, light, silence, and
small details that previously
disappeared into the background. Soon
the world starts offering material
everywhere. [music]
Art changes the object, but it also
changes the observer. Then display your
work publicly. Allow people to see a
part of you that competence, clothing,
and conversation could never reveal.
Leave behind evidence that you
contributed something to the world
instead of only consuming what others
made. Art is not a vote on whether
you're worthy. Now, it is evidence that
something inside of you was alive enough
to demand a form. Number four, write a
book. You don't need to be famous,
scholarly, or unusually wise to write a
book, but you do need to develop a
perspective and articulate it. That's
why the side quest is so valuable. Most
of us carry thousands of unfinished
thoughts, memories, and beliefs that
feel coherent until we try to place them
[music] on a page. Writing forces you to
decide what you actually mean. Over
months of work, you begin discovering
connections, contradictions, and parts
of your own story you had never properly
examined. It's difficult because a book
cannot be finished through occasional
inspiration. You have to return to it
while bored, uncertain, and quietly
afraid that the final result isn't going
to be good. That discipline changes you.
But the finished book becomes a window
into how you saw the world at a
particular moment in time. Photographs
preserve your face. A book preserves
your humor, fears, convictions, and the
way your mind connects [music] things.
Your kids and grandkids will read it,
maybe even some strangers. And although
almost everything has been said before,
it has never been said through your
particular combination of experiences.
[music] And that's what makes it
special. An idea that failed to reach
someone through a scholar might finally
reach them through a story only you
could tell. It doesn't need to be a
bestseller to be a success. Simply
finishing it is a [music] success. The
world doesn't need another book. But you
do, right? Because part of you will
remain unfinished until it has been
given a form. And because the person who
reaches the final page will not be the
same person who began the first.
Number three, go on a religious or
psychedelic journey. Now, most people
inherit their understanding of reality
before they're even old enough to
question it. So, at least once, step
outside of that framework deliberately.
[music]
Walk a pilgrimage, attend a silent
retreat, study a faith seriously, be
religion fluid, take the trip, do DMT or
Iawaska, meet God, the guides, and the
machine elves. The method matters less
than the interruption. See who you are
when you're out of your body and don't
get banned from the realm. See the code
and the simulation. [music] You might
discover that identity is less solid
than it feels. This is what a side quest
is meant to do. The value isn't in
seeing something strange or believing
you decoded the universe. No, a
worthwhile spiritual journey doesn't
answer every question. It just makes
your old answers feel too small.
Number two, have a best friend [music]
and do things together. After your
partner and children, a best friend
might be the most important relationship
in your life. A best friend [music] is a
rare form of escapism. Around them, you
can step outside of the roles of parent,
[music] partner, boss, or provider and
briefly become the version of yourself
that existed [music] before life became
so serious. There's someone you can call
when things fall apart and someone who
can call you. There's a value in being
known, but also in being needed. Some of
the best memories of your life will
happen with this person. You'll take
trips that go the wrong way, stay up
talking until sunrise, and laugh until
your jaw hurts over something nobody
else would even understand. There's an
internal universe and lore that has
value only to the two of you. They
remember versions of you that no longer
exist and notice when you're drifting
away from yourself. What a blessing it
is to have someone you can call your
best friend. And number one, make a
video now for your children or for
yourself to watch in 20 years. Now, this
might be the highest return side quest
on [music] the list. It costs nothing,
takes less than an hour, and it may very
well become priceless. Record your home,
your voice, your mannerisms, and
ordinary day. Just vlog it. Talk about
what you love, what worries you, and
what you think the future will look
like. Then speak directly to your future
self or to the children who may one day
watch it. It'll feel awkward and trivial
in the moment, but memories compound in
value, and the mundane becomes
extraordinary once it's gone. [music]
That's why we all like seeing photos and
videos of what cities used to look like.
Photos preserve your face. Video
preserves what it felt like to be you.
any one of these side quests will make
your life more interesting. And we're
curious to know [music] which of these
side quests do you plan to do this year.
Let us know in the comments. And as a
bonus, let's do something kind of spicy.
All right, today's bonus. Explore
sexually. Now, who had this on their
Alux bingo card? Probably not you.
Everything in life is about sex, [music]
except sex, which is really about power.
This isn't about collecting partners or
turning intimacy into some kind of
scoreboard. No, step slightly beyond
what is familiar and discover what is
genuinely yours, like eating an oyster
at a restaurant. You might find that
some fantasies should remain fantasies,
that novelty is easier than being deeply
known, and that the quality of your
intimate life is limited by the
conversations you are willing to have.
So explore safely, define your
boundaries, and stop pretending about
what you want. It'll make you a more
complete person. But we get it. You
know, we're all different. [music] There
are people who want a simple and
predictable life, and there are others
who treat life like an amusement park.
So, for this Sunday, we want to see in
which camp you're from. Write [music]
either vanilla or oyster in the
comments, depending on how comfortable
you are with exploring [music] life in
general. All right, my friend. That's a
wrap for today. Thanks for spending some
time with us and being a true Aluxer.
We'll see you back here next time. Until
then, [music] take care.