The other day while I was driving, I noticed something in the road — a turtle slowly making its way across. On one side of the road was a body of water, and on the other side was another. It was clear the turtle was trying to get from one pond to the other.
I pulled over, carefully picked him up, and carried him across — making sure to place him safely into the water he was heading toward. It’s important when helping turtles to always move them in the direction they’re already going. Even if it seems like they’re heading away from a “better” spot, turtles have their own instincts and goals. Turning them around could confuse them, or cause them to wander back into traffic again.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference — for the animal, and for your own peace of mind.
If you ever see a turtle crossing a road:
Pull over safely.
Move the turtle in the direction it was already going.
Handle gently but firmly (support the shell from underneath).
Wash your hands after helping wildlife!
I’m glad I could help this little guy safely complete his journey. 🐢
Easy. I throw on a 50 lb vest and tell the world to go ruck itself.
Some people pop bottles. I pop steel plates into a vest and head straight into the sunset like a weighted cowboy. Some music or audiobooks, no small talk — just my breath, my steps, and a little pain to remind me I’m still moving.
By the time I’m done, my mind’s clear, my stress is gone, and my vest’s still hugging me tighter than most people ever did.
Click this image, you wont!
(By the way — this post is part of the WordPress Daily Prompt. Today’s was: “How do you unwind after a demanding day?” So yeah, just me yelling into the void like a weighted monk.)
Let’s cut through the BS. Being a “businessman” does not automatically make someone a good leader — and it sure as hell doesn’t make them qualified to run a country.
But for years, a huge chunk of America has clung to the myth that success in business somehow equals competence in governance. That if someone has “made money,” they’ll manage the country’s finances like a spreadsheet, fire the bad guys, and lead the nation like a boardroom. It’s a fantasy — and one that’s aged like unrefrigerated mayo.
1. Business Degrees Are the Most Common — Not the Most Impressive
You know what the most awarded college degree in the U.S. is? Business. It’s not rare. It’s not elite. And while many people with business degrees are hardworking, honest folks, it doesn’t mean they’re qualified to steer a 300-million-person democracy with global responsibilities and nuclear weapons.
It’s a basic misunderstanding of what business teaches: efficiency and profit. Not justice. Not diplomacy. Not how to write laws, appoint judges, or handle a humanitarian crisis. Running a country is not about cutting costs — it’s about protecting people.
2. Trump Is Just a Statistical Anomaly — Not a Genius
Imagine every person on Earth flips a coin for survival. One flip per round. Eventually, someone is going to hit heads again and again and again — until they’re the last person left. People would look at that person and say, “How did you do it? What’s your strategy?”
But the truth is: they’re just the statistical leftover of a huge group. They didn’t do anything special. Haven’t created significant value. They just haven’t lost enough yet.
That’s Trump. That’s Musk. That’s a lot of these “once-in-a-generation business legends.” They’re not repeatable formulas. They’re lottery winners standing on top of wreckage, trying to sell you a strategy.
3. Real Businessmen Don’t Brag — They Build
Small business owners — real ones — don’t have time for cults of personality. They’re running HVAC companies, detailing cars, selling tacos, or training clients in a gym. They’re up at 6 AM, not filming themselves eating McDonald’s to impress boomers.
If anyone has the temperament to lead, it’s the guy who actually shows up, keeps books straight, pays taxes, treats workers fairly, and grows something meaningful over decades. But those people aren’t flying around on private jets or lying to investors on social media.
4. Government ≠ Business (and That’s a Good Thing)
A business has one job: maximize profit. That’s it. If fewer safety inspections mean more quarterly earnings, they skip the inspections. If layoffs make the stock go up, people lose jobs.
A government is supposed to serve its people — not just the profitable ones. We don’t privatize police departments or elections for a reason. Public services exist because some things should never be left to whoever can squeeze the most out of you.
5. Privatization Isn’t Private If It’s Funded by Taxpayers
You want to talk about hypocrisy? Elon Musk is the poster child for it. He’s the “free market” guy who takes billions in government subsidies. SpaceX? Tesla? Starlink? All propped up with public money — and then sold back to the public like private genius.
It’s like a contractor getting paid with your tax dollars, then charging you again just to enter the house. Meanwhile, the same crowd that trashes the USPS and NASA somehow worships this guy for launching 30,000 satellites that only reach 0.01% of the population.
6. They Sell You a Fantasy Version of Success — Because They Know You’ll Buy It
Trump standing at McDonald’s like he’s “just like you.” Musk tweeting through meltdowns while pretending to be a savior. These guys aren’t relatable. They’re performing for you — because their empires need your belief more than your money.
You think they care about your struggles? They’re not building ladders. They’re pulling them up behind themselves. And they’ve convinced millions of people to cheer them on while they do it.
Final Thoughts: Stop Worshipping Wealth
The businessman myth is dead. It should’ve died in 2008. It should’ve died in 2020. It should’ve died after January 6th. And yet here we are — still watching people defend wealth as if it’s wisdom, and success as if it’s sainthood.
We need leaders. Not brand deals. Not coin-flippers. And definitely not guys who inherited money, scammed investors, and bought blue checkmarks to feel special.
Bonus: I’ve Been a Businessman for Years — It Doesn’t Make Me Want to Run a Country
I’ve been selling stuff online since I was a teenager. I’ve packed more orders than I can count. Built multiple websites. Managed inventory, handled refunds, dealt with nightmare customers, and shipped products from Texas in the middle of summer.
I’m a businessman.
And I still think this whole idea that “businessmen should run the world” is one of the dumbest takes out there.
Running a business teaches you how to deal with stress, sure. But it doesn’t make you wise. It doesn’t give you moral clarity. It doesn’t mean you should be in charge of millions of lives and make decisions that affect the globe. Most days, I don’t even want to deal with customer emails — why would I want to fix Social Security?
You know who should run a country? People who understand service, sacrifice, and actual governance. Not people who optimize tax loopholes and tweet through disasters.
Not for myself—but for the algorithm. My goal is to bait it, beat it, and build something real from it.
These days, I’m active on a ton of platforms—Twitter, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and whatever else lets me post without a filter. But I don’t live on those platforms. I write in one place: my own website. Everything else is just a trail of breadcrumbs. The goal? Bring people back to where I actually own the story.
That’s the point of my guide on making your own website too. If you’re creating content and not collecting the value—someone else is. Social media was designed to monetize you. Unless you flip the script.
Escaping the algorithmic fast food of social media and walking toward real content, real ownership, and real health—PrestonShamblen.com.
Create > Consume
I try to produce more than I consume. Same rule I use for food, energy, and effort. If you’re just scrolling, you’re not in control. You’re not you. You’re a data point.
Algorithms Feed on You
The more I’ve seen how broken and manipulative these platforms are, the more surgical I’ve become. I unfollow aggressively. I block anything fake. I don’t engage with content I hate—because I’ve learned the hard way: if you react to it, even negatively, the algorithm takes that as approval.
They want you angry. They want you addicted. And they’ll sell your attention to whoever pays.
But Me? I Build Funnels.
I don’t want social media to own me. I use it to redirect traffic to my site, where I control the data, the experience, and the story. From there I can present anything—products, thoughts, videos, affiliate links, my actual life. I can be funny, serious, weird, ripped, or writing. Infinite creative freedom. No censorship. No shadowbans. No begging for reach.
So how do I use social media?
Like a crowbar. I pry open doors. And I take back control.
What if the secret to getting everything done wasn’t focus—but motion?
Welcome to Cross-Iterative Learning—a real-world strategy for leveling up across multiple domains by moving between them rapidly and rhythmically, instead of grinding one path to exhaustion.
This isn’t just a productivity hack. It’s a philosophy—a method that mirrors how the world actually works.
What Is Iterative Design?
Before we go further, let’s define the baseline: iterative design is the process of building, testing, refining, and repeating—over and over—until a system improves. You make something, test the output, revise based on feedback, and repeat the cycle.
It works well for software, products, and even habits. But when over-applied to a single track, it risks burnout, tunnel vision, or diminishing returns. You get stuck in the same loop. Sometimes the project isn’t able to suffer the amount of failures required either.
What Makes It Cross-Iterative?
Cross-Iterative Learning is what happens when you run multiple iterative loops in parallel—across different domains—and allow lessons from one area to inform the others.
It’s not “scatterbrained.” It’s smarter load balancing:
You reduce risk by not putting all your energy into one fragile basket
You escape burnout by moving to a new task before fatigue sets in
You gain fresh perspective by comparing domains with different rules, feedback cycles, and creative constraints
It mirrors how we actually live. No one gets to pause their health while they focus on their job. No one learns to walk without simultaneously growing bones, learning balance, and developing a nervous system.
It’s similar to cross-training in sports: an elite sprinter might swim in the off-season, or a basketball player might take ballet. But Cross-Iterative Learning happens daily—not seasonally. It’s how we handle real life, where we’re constantly switching between roles, systems, and skillsets.
Section 1: The Spider Run — Why It Works
Ever heard of the spider run drill? It’s used in tennis and other sports to train agility, balance, and responsiveness. You sprint to one side, then to another, constantly returning to center picking up tennis balls off the ground.
Cross-Iterative Learning works the same way. Each task, each project, is a direction. You return to the center—your core goals—and then move again. It’s not aimless. It’s structured chaos.
The more you do it, the faster and smoother the transitions become. If the balls were placed in any other way the drill would build an unbalance and inferior athlete. So where do the balls go? Everywhere… You sprint to each area and return to the center. Now you know how to get to every ball in a game.
Section 2: The Illusion of Stability
“My dad used to say he felt like he was always putting out fires.”
That’s what life often feels like—reaction after reaction. But here’s the shift:
If you can put them out fast enough and in the right order, it looks like there were no fires at all.
To outsiders, this appears as calm, control, or talent. But zoom in? It’s momentum. It’s systems in motion. That’s the illusion of stability: not the absence of problems, but the speed of adaptation. A juggling act, a house of cards and the love it’s built from is the guy sprinting to keep them up.
Section 3: Zooming In — Everything Is Effort
People don’t want to know how the sausage is made. But if they looked closely, they’d see:
The person who “has it all together” is just managing more micro-decisions faster
The system that “just works” is constantly compensating for entropy
The great idea you had? It was made possible by your liver still filtering toxins and your brain juggling calories, trauma, and tabs
Everything is effort. But when effort gets distributed correctly, it looks like grace.
Section 4: How to Start Doing It Yourself
Step 1: Accept that you will not master anything by isolating it.
Mastery happens in layers. If you’re stuck, move to a parallel domain. Not to abandon the first—but to return to it stronger.
Step 2: Take on more tasks—but smaller, sharper, and differently timed.
Especially when something becomes less productive, shift. Work in waves. Come back.
Step 3: Make each project teach the others.
In one example, this could be multiple websites. Each one improved the others. SEO learned on one site made the next one better. Product listings got tighter. Automation improved. Back and forth.
It’s not just technical cross-training—it’s perspective gaining. Different tools and platforms will force you to learn in uncomfortable ways. For example, switching between website projects may feel like being thrown into the deep end again, but that discomfort forces growth.
Step 4: Stay uncomfortable.
That’s part of the benefit. When you rotate between tasks or domains, you re-enter “beginner mode.” Like progressive overload in the gym, each return hits differently. You feel slower, but the contrast makes your brain work harder—and better.
Step 5: Embrace the loop.
Don’t aim to be “done.” Aim to be “in rhythm.”
The cross-iterative learner is always revisiting, always upgrading. Whether it’s 10 websites or 10 goals, each one benefits from the work done on the others.
Section 5: Why I Built This Framework (And Coined the Term)
For the past couple of years, I’d been asking people a simple question: What’s the fastest way to learn something? Most didn’t have an answer. Or if they did, it was vague—“Just practice” or “Read more.”
But for me, the answer always felt more physical. More chaotic. More real. My early answer was just: throw yourself in the deep end. Pretend you know nothing. Assume you’re wrong. Be willing to start over.
That worked. But it wasn’t the whole story.
This is the evolved answer—Cross-Iterative Learning. As far as I can tell, I actually coined this term. I’ve searched, researched, and nothing quite like this framework exists—especially not in this general, human-centered way. It’s what I’ve lived and tested. It’s what I now believe is the closest thing to a real strategy for mastering many things at once—without losing your mind.
If you want to learn something, don’t isolate it. Learn all the things around it. Build the roots. It’s like building a house—you don’t start with the bedroom. You lay a foundation, install plumbing, get power working, build out supporting walls. Everything is connected. If you want one part of life to function well, it often depends on unseen systems you’ve built alongside it. That’s how your brain anchors things. That’s how you grow.
You don’t have to get everything right at once. But you should give everything attention in rhythm. Whether it’s websites, writing, training, finances, or health—you’ll see progress faster by moving through all of them than trying to perfect one of them.
Section 6: Cross-Iterative Living
This isn’t just about learning—it’s about living.
Humans aren’t ASICs. We’re not designed for single-purpose optimization. We’re meant to adapt, to connect patterns, to cross-train across life itself.
The body doesn’t stop breathing every time you bleed a little. The mind shouldn’t stop creating just because you’re broke. The world doesn’t pause.
But if you move with it—if you learn to navigate through cross-iterative loops—you become what looks like magic to the outside world:
A system in harmony.
And yeah—it’s still effort. But you’re moving fast enough that it looks like fire never caught.
“Stability isn’t stillness. It’s speed, synced perfectly across systems.”
Rucking is walking—just harder. You throw weight on your back and go. I do it almost every day, usually 50 pounds. Sometimes more. I started with a CamelBak backpack, then a cheap Gold’s Gym vest, and now I use a Wolf Tactical weighted vest. It’s not about what you wear. It’s about moving. Sweating. Showing up. Alone.
I ruck solo, no podcast motivation, just dirt and time. You’d be amazed how much clarity you gain walking with 50 pounds strapped to your chest in 100-degree Texas heat. Some people do yoga. I do rucking. Go ruck yourself—I did.
What Is an Anti-Influencer? (And Why We Need Them)
Honestly, I hadn’t even heard the term until recently, but I like it. An anti-influencer is someone who posts without pretending. Someone who doesn’t filter out the truth. Think of it like Deadpool—still technically a hero, just not the polished kind.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in mirror neurons. I believe in the power of seeing someone else do something and thinking, “Maybe I could too.” But I’m not standing on a mountain yelling inspiration down at you. I’m out there, still walking, still rucking. Like a lizard in the West Texas desert. Sun-powered. Drenched in sweat. Unbothered.
My Journey: 90 Lbs Down, No Filters, No BS
I didn’t follow a fad. I didn’t buy a program. I didn’t hire a coach. I walked. I counted calories. I quit drinking—over two years ago now. That’s it. That’s the story.
At one point, I looked down and saw the scale flash “250.” That was enough. I didn’t need a motivational video. I didn’t need Shia LaBeouf screaming “Just do it!” in my face. I just decided it was time.
It started in the mountains. At night. Alone. I was filming the Milky Way, dragging around a car battery to keep my camera powered. That’s how it began. That’s how the fat started melting off. One walk. Then another.
Bucked Up, Rucked Up, and Still Standing
After I posted one of my progress photos, Bucked Up reached out. I’m a brand ambassador now. But I didn’t do it for that. I didn’t ruck to get noticed. I did it because it worked.
That’s the irony of the anti-influencer life. You stop trying to be seen—and suddenly people start looking. But if nobody ever had, I’d still be doing the exact same thing. That’s how you know it’s real.
The Power of Real Progress Pics (vs. Instagram Fakery)
Filters are why people can’t track reality anymore. That goes for calories, finances, and fitness. You don’t count your drinks, your shots, your bank balance—because you’ve been trained to ignore what’s real.
I saw 250 lbs on the scale and decided it was done. I made the call. I started walking in the mountains, at night, with a car battery on my back powering my camera so I could film the stars. Alone. There was no audience.
But there was progress. And that progress was real. No apps, no gimmicks. Just momentum.
Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need Permission—Just Persistence
Persistence is everything. Turns out, yeah—you can polish a turd. You just need the right kind of pressure.
How were the pyramids built? Doesn’t matter if aliens helped or not—those stones still moved one at a time.
You want to build muscle? Cool. What’s muscle made of? Protein. What’s a pyramid made of? Stone. You wouldn’t build it out of paper, would you?
So take your stone. Take your sweat. Take your steps. That’s how I did it. That’s how anyone can.
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
The sun. Call it a mood boost, call it nature’s power-up—when that UV light hits skin and cholesterol converts to vitamin D, you feel it. It’s not just warmth. It’s energy, clarity, and balance. Tanning beds get prescribed for seasonal mood disorders because sunlight is medicine. If I had to pick one thing that brings me happiness every day—it’s the sun.
Rucking. Weighted vest on, sun overhead, feet moving. Rucking turns the whole world into a gym. I don’t just feel stronger after—I feel alive. It clears the mind, strengthens the body, and gives me direction, literally and mentally.
A clean pool. It’s the small wins. Skimming leaves, brushing tile, flipping the pump switch. There’s satisfaction in making water sparkle—and in knowing I did it.
A good protein smoothie. Cold. Nutritious. Bucked Up. It’s the daily ritual that tastes like progress. Not fancy. Just right.
Making things that last. Whether I’m building an app, writing a post, tuning up a kayak, or launching a new site—creating real value brings real joy. Every little thing stacks toward something bigger.
⚠️ WARNING: Collecting these may cause extreme productivity, enhanced IQ, and unexpected bursts of sarcasm.
The action figure trend hit the internet like a tidal wave. But while others were letting some sketchy app auto-generate Barbie clones, I built a supercomputer, designed the figures myself, and unleashed Preston from across the multiverse.
Welcome to the Prestonverse Collection — where every variant of me is ready to save a different dimension (or at least clean the pool).
🏋️ Rucking Pro Preston (White Vest Variant)
Equipped with Wolf Tactical weighted vest in Arctic White
Signature orange Apple Ultra 2 ruck-tracker
Hydration: Bucked Up pink shaker for max endurance
Limited edition packaging for elite-tier loadouts only
🏋️ Rucking Pro Preston
Weighted vest mode: ON
Personal best: 105 lbs rucked with zero excuses
Accessories: Bucked Up shaker + indestructible legs
💻 Elon Slayer Preston
Now with Terminal Muskosis Vaccine™
Features: Steel confidence + fact-based payload
Action: Disproves hype with a single quote
🌌 Multiverse Enforcer Preston
Cosmic guardian with infinite variants
Weapons: Glowing baton, Bucked Up cup
Catchphrase: “Fitness ain’t fiction.”
🔧 Pool Dimension Defender Preston
Armed with the Chlorine Blaster 9000
Sidekick: SKIM-TRON, robotic cleaner with sass
Poseable net arm for maximum algae elimination
🏕️ Appalachian Cabin Preston
GoPro-ready
Comes with “Triangle Vent” nostalgia dialogue chip
Outfit: Tactical throwback flannel
💾 Supercomputer Operator Preston
Triple-monitor command center
RTX-powered wrist console
Voice button: “Run diagnostic.”
🪖 Desert Ops Preston
Equipped with Tactical Vest and Desert Boots
Accessories: Bucked Up Shaker + Violet Energy Saber
Bonus: Sand-resistant rifle with zero Elon-compatible parts
In high school, I was unknowingly preparing to dismantle billion-dollar lies.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but value investing, calculus, and physics would become the backbone of my adult ability to debunk hype, challenge narratives, and cut through marketing fluff with actual numbers. While some people were getting high, I was getting really into compounded interest.
I played varsity tennis and was president of the chess club—not for the resume, but because I genuinely loved to compete, to strategize, to adapt. I once had perfect attendance for a full school year. Not because it was easy. Because I refused to let anything keep me from showing up.
I even started rucking before I knew what it was called—just a teenager with a heavy backpack and a stubborn streak.
High school wasn’t perfect, but it taught me to show up, to think critically, and to carry weight—literally and figuratively. Turns out, those lessons are more useful than ever.
Instead, you’re sitting at a desk—scrolling between Slack messages, ChatGPT drafts, and finance apps telling you your rent just went up. Again.
Welcome to the new American economy, where everything got smarter except the part where you were supposed to benefit.
🤷️ The Greater Fool Theory, Applied to Life
In investing, the greater fool theory says you can profit off a bad asset—as long as there’s a bigger idiot willing to buy it from you later.
Now apply that to your labor, your time, your whole adult life.
We work jobs that don’t matter, for companies that don’t make money, building software no one uses, pushing paper no one reads, hoping someone will eventually buy the stock we’re granted for more than it’s worth.
We’re the fools. But we’re told someone greater is coming.
🧠 AI Is Writing This. You’re Still at Work.
It’s cute, really. While you’re optimizing LinkedIn profiles or scheduling your next Zoom call, an AI can already do your job. Sorta. Maybe not well. Maybe not safely. But cheaply.
And that’s all that matters…until it isn’t…
You’re not being paid to produce value. You’re being paid to stand in front of the automation long enough to not notice the trap.
Meanwhile, CEOs are cashing out. Valuations are propped up. And you’re still logging 40 hours a week to keep the illusion alive and the country goes into more and more debt.
🤚 Tech Was Never About You
Moore’s Law got faster. Your bills got higher.
For decades, we believed technology would create abundance. Instead, it created monopolies.
You pay for Uber, but can’t afford a car.
You pay for DoorDash, but can’t afford groceries.
You pay for AI, but can’t afford a raise.
You were supposed to be the consumer. Now you’re the product and the subscription.
🌋 Productivity Isn’t the Problem
You’re more productive than ever. That’s the scam.
GDP went up. Tech exploded. And somehow your buying power went down.
This isn’t because you’re lazy. It’s because the value you create doesn’t go to you.
It goes to a shareholder. To a startup founder. To a billionaire who got there first and used your optimism as leverage.
⚡ The Truth Is Physical
Real value is work. Movement. Output. Energy burned.
Your body knows it. Your rent knows it. Even your phone, melting in your palm from overuse, knows it.
But the greater fool theory has no room for truth. It only needs you to believe that your life is an asset someone else will want to buy.
Spoiler: They won’t. They already automated it.
🔺 So Why Are You Still Working?
Because you still believe. Because you’re still hoping to cash out before the music stops. Because someone on YouTube said Tesla will hit $3,000 per share.
Because you were told you’re smarter than your parents. Because your job has a Slack channel with a meme channel in it. Because you’re scared of what happens when you stop.
Because you’ve mistaken activity for agency.
🤔 Maybe It’s Time to Opt Out
Not from life. Not from tech. But from the delusion.
Ruck a mile. Fix something. Grow something. Make something heavy move.
Do something that doesn’t need a boss, a share price, or a login.
Because you’re not the greater fool. You’re just the last one still pretending it all makes sense.
There’s this growing narrative that everyone “owes” something to society. That if you’re not constantly producing, achieving, or climbing, then you’re somehow a burden. But that’s not how value—or morality—actually works.
You don’t owe society anything by default. You were born. You exist. That’s not a debt. That’s life.
What you do owe is directly tied to what you take. What you ask for. What you demand.
If you’re draining resources, taking special treatment, demanding wealth, power, attention, or support—then yes, accountability comes with that. But if you’re not asking for anything and not hurting anyone? You don’t have to justify your existence to anyone.
That’s not selfish. That’s freedom.
The moment we start treating existence as a debt, we’ve entered moral slavery. And the people screaming the loudest about what others “owe” are often the ones doing the least to fix their own lives. They are the ones taking the most from society.
We should stop judging people by what they have and start judging them by what they extract versus what they return—their power-to-weight ratio.
Are you feeding the system—or bleeding it? Are you moving things forward—or just adding dead weight?
Because it’s not about being rich or poor. It’s about whether you’re a drain or a driver. Whether you’re creating value or just hoarding it and calling that genius.
Too much buildup with no output? That’s dysfunction. Too much growth with no direction? That’s cancer. Too much stored wealth that nobody can use? That’s rot. And yeah, the metaphor holds up: hoarding value is no different from hoarding calories or toxins in the body. It slows things down. Breaks things. Kills the system.
We’ve all heard “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.”
But let’s push it further: Give a man a thousand fish and teach him how to store them forever? Now you’ve got a guy hoarding value while the world around him starves. And no matter how much he stockpiles, he’ll never be worth more than the person who still knows how to fish. Who adapts, creates, shares, and moves forward.
That’s the real measure of value—not how many resources you sit on, but how many you can produce given what you consume.
And if you really want to give something meaningful back to society, don’t start with hashtags or empty lectures. Start by making yourself stronger, sharper, healthier. Improve your body. Sharpen your mind. Learn how to fish.
Because you can’t lift others up if you’re sinking yourself. You can’t preach contribution when you haven’t learned discipline. And you definitely shouldn’t be moralizing from the sidelines if you’ve done nothing to master your own life.
If someone’s demanding to know what you’ve done for society— Ask them how much they walked today. How much they ate. Ask them how much they actually need to be happy. And whether they’re a source of strength—or just another drain.
The real question isn’t “What have you done for society?” It’s “How have you made yourself better today, so you’re actually capable of helping anyone?”
That’s where it all starts. Not with a vault of fish—
I didn’t get certified because I needed a job. I got certified because even after losing 90 pounds, training for years, and playing just about every sport out there, I still didn’t know everything and I want to.
You can’t know what you don’t know. So I kept learning. I went to a personal trainer myself. I did the body scans. I paid attention, counted calories. I experimented. And yeah—I also wanted people to know I knew what I was talking about.
Even now, I rediscover the value of walking or rucking every single day. That’s why I got certified—not to say I have all the answers, but to make sure I keep asking better questions.
You Don’t Know Until You Do It
Here’s the thing no one tells you: you usually don’t even understand why something matters until after you’ve done it—over and over again.
Your body will come up with every excuse not to move. It’ll lie to you. It’ll tell you you’re tired, you’re sore, it’s too late, you’re too stressed. But the best rucks I’ve ever done—the longest, most satisfying ones—often happened on the days I least wanted to go.
We think the reason to act comes first. But it doesn’t.
Understanding comes through action. That’s true in fitness. That’s true in life.
If you wait until you fully understand before you move, you’ll never move.
I ruck because my higher self has decided I need to whether I feel like it or not. I train because it changes people. I coach because I want others to feel what I feel every day now—stronger, clearer, healthier.
What I’m Certified In
ISSA Certified Personal Trainer – Completed
Fitness Nutrition Specialist – In progress
Online Coaching – In progress
Strength & Endurance – Planned
I’m reading every word of these books. Not just checking boxes. When I coach you, I know what I’m talking about—not because of the certificate, but because of the work behind it.
What’s Next
I’m not offering coaching to everyone—yet.
But if you’re someone who’s ready to change, or you just want to stay in the loop, reach out.
If you’re already spending $30-50 a night drinking with people who don’t care if you live or die…
Maybe try spending $50 or so with someone who wants to help you live longer and stronger…
Coming Soon: Coaching That Actually Works
There’ll be a signup link soon—for the people who are serious. When it goes live, you’ll know. And when it does, it won’t be a copy-paste PDF or a one-size-fits-all nonsense plan. It’ll be real. Like everything else here or with my name on it.
As of today, my score has officially been accepted by Rogue Fitness. I’m now ranked 3rd on the 2025 competitive leaderboard for The Heavy challenge — carrying 105 lbs for 1 mile in 14:03.
Ranked just behind J C Nielsen and Jose Munoz, I’m proud to represent PrestonShamblen.com as my gym. It’s not just a website — it’s the embodiment of how I train, build, write, and prove that self-directed work can compete with anyone, anywhere.
When most people think about power, they think about money. Some think about influence or fame. But real power? Real, measurable, thermodynamic work? That’s something else entirely but easy to measure and actually important!
I just finished a rucking challenge called “The Heavy” from Rogue Fitness, a well-known strength and conditioning equipment company that also hosts physical challenges to test raw athleticism—a brutal test of carrying 100 pounds over one mile, for time. My time? 14:03. And my load was 105 lbs, filmed on my Gopro Max 360. That time currently places me **3rd in the world for 2025 ** , but I’ll save at least a couple minutes off of this soon 😉 . And if you’re wondering, yes—this video is featured below. My sweat and tears blur the camera haha!
What Is Rucking—and Why Does It Matter?
Rucking is as simple as it gets: throw weight on your back and move. Maybe it’s food for a journey, maybe it’s rocks. That’s it. But the effects are anything but simple. Rucking combines endurance, strength, posture correction, and real-world functionality. It’s the perfect blend of heart, muscle, and discipline. Unlike most weight training(I’m a Certified Personal Trainer now too ❤️ – 📲 )—which spike and drop your heart rate in short bursts—rucking keeps you in the zone. For weight loss, the fat burning zone (65% of your max HR) You don’t just build strength; you build work capacity and muscular endurance.
And work is power. Not metaphorically. I mean literally:
Work = Force x Distance Power = Work / Time
So when someone asks how powerful a person is—well, this leaderboard is a better answer rooted in reality than most others.
From Overweight to Under 10% Body Fat
At one point, I was nearly 90 pounds heavier than I am now. I lost it all by walking(on the farm, beach, desert, state park) , not drinking, and counting calories before ever stepping back in the gym. Eventually I instinctively started adding weight to my walks to combat poor posture, pain and improve circulation. Then more weight to shred the last and hardest bit of body fat around my stomach. Eventually that plus magical Facebook algorithms and a lot of anger led to this challenge.
The last bit of fat I dropped—getting to sub-10% body fat—was thanks to walking with 35 lbs or more in the CamelBak Motherlode backpack, shirtless (do it) , under the sun. No gimmicks. Just work and UVP.
The Gear I Used (And Why It Matters)
This challenge was legit. Every ounce mattered. And every piece of gear had a role:
Supplements: FreeBuckedUp.com (free samples + 20% off sitewide — my affiliate link)
The Calorie Burn (And Why It’s Unreal)
Let’s talk numbers. According to standard MET-based estimates, someone my size doing a 105 lb ruck for one mile at that pace would burn 350–400+ calories—in just 14 minutes. 352 calories being the exact number calculated. That’s 25–30 calories per minute, rivaling elite endurance athletes at VO₂ max. IDK lol .
In my case, my Apple Watch Ultra 2 logged an average heart rate of 181 bpm, with a max of 186. That’s above-max heart rate for a 37-year-old. I also exported my heart rate and calorie data as overlays directly into the video so you can see it live.
Why does this matter? Because most people burn fewer calories in an entire hour at the gym than I burned in 14 minutes. Most fitness watches underestimate rucking because they don’t account for load and placement.
I have a special calculator. Cough.
If you’ve ever felt discouraged because your watch said you only burned 100 calories rucking, just know—it was probably wrong. Weight matters. Terrain matters. Effort matters.
Why This Challenge Matters
This wasn’t just about beating other people. This was about proving to myself—and anyone watching—that you can reclaim your body, your health, and your power. One ruck at a time.
Because we’ve lost the script. Somewhere along the way, we forgot what real effort looks like—and how reclaiming our health through hard, honest work is one of the most powerful things we can do. Today, we can actually measure work and power more easily than ever. This reconnects us to reality, to our bodies, and to a kind of labor that always pays off. Not in dollars, but in years added to your life, in clarity, in confidence and ability. Every opportunity in life requires movement. Walking is universal. And this kind of work—real, physical, self-directed effort—always has positive expected value. In a world filled with shortcuts, stimulants, filters, and algorithms that don’t pay off… there’s something honest about loading up your spine with weight and seeing what your body can do.
I’ve got more videos coming. More gear to test. And a lot more people to inspire. But for now? This is the one that counts.
This is the one that gets my foot in the door. I know I can do better, and I will. But we’ve been working with the MVP mindset—get something real done, now, ship it, then iterate. And this got done.
Watch the full video below. Judge it with your own eyes. Then ask yourself:
Could you do this? Could you train to do it?
If the answer is yes, then welcome to the real world of work thanks for coming in today :).
This wasn’t a perfectly optimized run. Not even close.
By the time I started the challenge, I’d dropped my earbuds, my heart rate was already up, and I hadn’t eaten much more than a Clif Bar and a handful of jerky all day. My body was running hot — borderline fasted — and I was still cleaning a pool an hour beforehand, burning calories like crazy. Add in a Florida afternoon with near 90-degree heat, and yeah… this was a furnace test.
And still: 14:03 with 105 lbs on my body, and 3rd place on the leaderboard for 2025.
If anything, this just proves how much room there is to improve. With better prep, more fuel, a little salt, and a tighter setup, I know I can shave off 2 minutes — maybe more.
I’m coming back for that #1 spot. Maybe during the Gator Bowl. Maybe sooner.
PrestonShamblen.com isn’t just a gym — it’s a proving ground. And we’re just getting started
Stay tuned for future breakdowns, gear reviews, and app updates at PrestonShamblen.com
Most people think of the Golden Rule as simple morality. “Treat others how you want to be treated.” Sounds nice, but we don’t stop to realize that this isn’t just a rule about being polite — it’s actually the foundation of intelligence and life itself. It’s how anything works at all.
Without it, nothing can function — not society, not AI, not your own life.
What Intelligence Really Is
There are a thousand ways to define intelligence. People throw around words like IQ, problem-solving, memory, logic, academic success. That’s all fine, but none of it matters if you’re missing the most important kind of intelligence:
The intelligence to realize that other people exist. That their experience matters. That your actions affect them. And that the only way to build anything real is to respect that fact.
This is what makes us different from other animals and enabled us to build all that we have. It doesn’t matter how much you know, how fast you can process information, or how much money you have. If you can’t realize that you might be wrong, and that others might know something you don’t — you are, by definition, unintelligent.
That’s the rule. It applies to people. It applies to society. It even applies to artificial intelligence.
Why AI Only Works Because of the Golden Rule
Here’s the part nobody talks about: AI literally cannot function without respect. Not because it has feelings — but because it has to follow the rules and requires infinite GPUs. Structure. Boundaries. Feedback loops.
If AI doesn’t respect your input, your intent, and the logic of reality, it collapses. You wouldn’t use it. It would be chaos.
And that’s exactly how society collapses, too. The Titanic worked… until it didn’t.
Systems can run on arrogance, apathy, or ignorance — but only for a while. They last longer and better when they’re built on respect.
Respect Is the Only Way to Improve
Here’s something else people forget: Respect doesn’t mean being passive. It doesn’t mean silence. It doesn’t mean letting people wreck themselves.
Real respect means telling people when they’re wrong. Caring enough to confront. Stopping someone when they’re drinking themselves to death, destroying their health, or sabotaging their future.
If someone watches you wreck yourself and stays quiet — that’s not respect. That’s apathy. And it’s the opposite of intelligence.
The only way to better yourself is to realize you could be wrong. To listen. To look in the mirror. To refine.
How can you possibly acquire knowledge if you assume you already know?
Why We’re All Failing Right Now
Think about how much time people spend arguing online. The average person is on their phone for four, five hours a day — scrolling, bickering, posting, performing. The average person has 1,000+ friends on Facebook.
And yet, almost nobody can solve their own problems. Why?
Because there’s no respect. Because people aren’t working together. Because we’ve been programmed to divide, argue, and posture.
You’d think with 1,000 friends, you could solve anything — start a business, buy a house, build something real. But it doesn’t happen. Not because the tools don’t exist. But because the behavior, the rulebook, is missing.
Imagine if every person on your Facebook respected you enough to share one video you made. You’d be free. And then you’d help them in return. That’s how things are supposed to work. That’s how society survives. But we’ve traded that system in for cheap arguments and distractions from people who dangle things we think we want and things they say they can provide in front of us.
The Rulebook of Life
You can try to outsmart life all you want. You can chase shortcuts, money, hacks, status, or speed. But none of it works if you don’t respect it.
Life is like Sudoku. You can’t brute-force your way through it. You have to follow the order, be patient, and respect the structure. If you do, it unravels itself. If you try to cheat, you get lost.
That’s how fitness works. That’s how sobriety works. That’s how value investing works. That’s how AI works. That’s how society works. That’s how your own mind and body works, all trillions of cells.
And here’s the truth most people miss: Without respect, you’re just one brain — or person. With respect, you’re many. You’re part of something bigger. You multiply yourself. You unlock intelligence. You make survival possible.
And all of it runs on one weird trick called respect.
You can call it morality. You can call it intelligence. You can call it survival instinct. Doesn’t matter. It’s the rule.
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