By Matt Doan · Oct 18, 2025 · 3-min read

From Wage Work to Life Leverage

That’s not just ancient wisdom. It’s a modern advantage.

Let’s talk about what’s changed...

In the Old Economy, leverage was reserved.

You needed permission to thrive.

A degree. A gatekeeper. A boss.

Someone to let you in. Validate you. Promote you.

Today?

As Naval Ravikant says, we’ve entered the age of permissionless leverage.

You no longer wait to be chosen. You choose yourself.

Life Leverage is the new freedom.

You’re Sitting on a Goldmine (But You’re Ignoring It)

You’re sitting atop a mountain of value.

But you’ve discounted it. You’ve never credited it. You’ve never shone a light on it.

So you doubt it’s even there.

But it is.

The problem?

You’ve never been in the right environments or around the right people. The kind that helps you mine your value. Draw it out. Polish it.

You’ve never done a dedicated excavation to unearth what’s hidden beneath the surface.

Until you do, you will not have leverage—and therefore, you’ll be stuck in limited systems. Playing wage work games and tolerating mediocrity.

But once you uncover the frameworks, skills, and perspective you've built—often in the trenches of your personal story—you can begin to shape them into something that scales. Something that creates demand, authority, and ultimately, freedom.

That’s Life Leverage.

Old Economy vs. New Economy

Let’s draw the contrast clearly:

Old Economy:

• Time-for-money trade
• Wages, roles, and ladders
• Geographic limitations
• Safety through sameness

New Economy:

• Leverage via ideas, IP, brand, and media
• Authority replaces credentials
• Scalable, personalized business models
• Ownership over employment

As the author and entrepreneur Daniel Priestley explains:

Even a small personal brand with 5,000 followers and a simple, elegant business model in a well-defined niche can generate seven figures rather quickly.

This isn’t about being famous.

It’s about being specific, useful, and trusted in a way that scales.

How I'm Applying Life Leverage Right Now

This isn’t theory.

Over the last year, I’ve been ruthlessly focused on building Corporate Graduation™—not just as a coaching experience, but as a category of one.

Our team has developed deep frameworks and structured intellectual property (IP), while personally testing every element with our clients.

But this is just the beginning.

For example, we plan to exponentially extend this IP through software on a domain we have waiting in the wings: corporategraduation[.]ai (more to come soon).

This will help us go from impacting dozens of people at a time… to actively changing the lives of hundreds of thousands.

This is how Life Leverage works:

You validate in close proximity, then scale with precision.

When your IP is tested, your audience is clear, and your systems are ready—you can multiply without burning out.

You don’t just build a business.

You build infrastructure for freedom.

Everyone Starts Uncertain

No one starts this journey feeling fully ready.

(And if you wait for “ready,” you’ll be waiting forever.)

No one has it all figured out on Day 1.

You don’t learn the Founder-CEO skillset until you dive in the deep end—to do the work and become that person.

But here’s the good news: you’re already sitting on a mountain of value.

That’s because you’ve already overcome many hard things, which positions you to help others navigate similar challenges.

You’ve earned credibility, navigated chaos, and solved problems most people will never understand.

(But you’re just not giving yourself credit for it yet.)

Your lived experience is your edge—if you know how to leverage it.

And no, you don’t need to leave your job tomorrow. You just need to start compressing it. Use it as your short-term runway, not your long-term plan.

Remember: clarity doesn’t arrive before action—it follows it.

Only once you're in motion does the fog begin to lift.

Hundreds of thousands of people just like you are already moving forward… so why not you?

This Is About Influence—Not “Influencing”

This isn’t about becoming an influencer.

It’s about becoming a person of influence.

A person who can:

• Package lived experience
• Create transformational impact
• Build a scalable system of value

That’s how we unlock a future ripe with money, meaning, and freedom.

That’s what Life Leverage gives you.

That’s what the New Economy rewards.

The Summary: Life Leverage in Motion

Let’s distill it:

Life Leverage is about turning your raw experience into refined assets.

It means:

• Turning ideas into intellectual property
• IP into products or programs
• And those into freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment

It’s about using your corporate job strategically while building something you truly love alongside it.

It’s about stopping the drift and choosing to design a life at the intersection of:

• Great money
• Deep meaning
• Genuine freedom

This is the essence of Corporate Graduation™.

This is your moment to choose.

To mine what’s inside you.

To build something only you can.

To put yourself in an environment where it becomes inevitable.

To melt the thick wall between work and life—and experience real harmony.

Because the world isn’t waiting.

And neither should you.

—Matt

​
​

PS - On November 4th, I’m hosting a private workshop where I’ll teach the tactical system behind Life Leverage.

You’ll learn how to extract your core genius, turn it into IP and frameworks, and build a premium business that finally makes corporate optional.

This is built for Directors and VPs ready to create outsized money, meaning, and freedom—on their terms. Apply here to join us.

See how deep the rabbit hole goes:

🎧 Dive into our podcast for bold strategies on Corporate Graduation™ and how to build your next chapter. (Don't miss the one on Deferred Freedom.)

👀 Scan the feed. Get inspired.

​