Built Not Bought: 7 Hard Lessons I Learned Writing a Book at 60 (That Have Nothing to Do With Writing)

Harder to Kill launched this week.

It’s not a book about theory. It’s a blueprint for execution. Inside, you’ll find a QR code that unlocks bonus tools to help you apply the principles—tools built for men over 50 who are serious about reclaiming their strength, focus, and edge.
Details at the end of this newsletter.

Today’s newsletter isn’t about the concepts inside Harder to Kill. It’s about what comes next—after you become harder to kill.

Reinvention.

My belief is simple: you can’t optimize your life until you’ve taken control of your health. Not the other way around.

Until your bloodwork is in range, your body composition is dialed in, and your strength and fitness are working for you instead of against you—reinvention will always feel out of reach.

That’s why I wrote the book. It’s the foundation.

But once you’ve built that foundation—and many men in Argent Alpha already have—it naturally leads to a bigger question:

What’s next?

It’s rarely about squeezing out five more pull-ups or dropping a few extra pounds of body fat. You’ve already gotten the juice from that squeeze.

Once you’ve shifted your identity—evidenced by sustained body composition, increased strength, improved health, and an upgraded mindset—the next chapter demands something bigger.

But here’s the trap: once you’ve arrived at that new identity, it’s easy to let your guard down.

What used to take motivation now happens by habit.
That’s progress.
But you’re not immune to drift. No one is.

Reinvention means building on what you’ve earned—not watching it fade.
The work doesn’t stop. It compounds.

That’s where a quote from Earl Nightingale comes in.
He was one of the earliest voices in personal development—a former Marine, radio broadcaster, and bestselling author.

He defined success as:

That quote has been a guiding mantra for me for years.

• Progressive — You’re moving forward. Daily.

• Realization — You’re making it real. Turning vision into action.

• Worthy — It’s good for you, stretches you, and improves your life or the lives of others.

• Ideal — The vision you’ve chosen. But it only counts if it’s worthy.

You decide that.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself if it is worthy.
If the answer is hell yes, go for it.
If it’s just yes, keep working on it.
If it’s no, you know what to do.

(Derek Sivers said it best: “If it isn’t a hell yes, it’s a no.”)

That’s why I committed to writing this book.

But let me be clear: I’m not done.
This book marks a milestone—but I’m still in the process.

It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t first become harder to kill myself.
Not just physically—but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

The transformation started with me.
Then a small group of men.
Then dozens.
And now a movement.

Only after that foundation was built—after the body fat dropped, the strength came back, the mindset shifted—did the book become possible.

And it’s from that foundation that reinvention began.

Writing this book didn’t complete the reinvention—it marked the next phase of it.
It showed me that the real work doesn’t end. It just evolves.

So what I’m sharing here isn’t the end of the journey.
It’s what the journey is revealing along the way.

Here are 7 hard-earned lessons I took from writing Harder to Kill—
and none of them are about writing.
They’re about execution, identity, and reinvention.
They feel universal. And I think you’ll see yourself in them.

Lesson 1: Resistance Is Always There. You Just Get Better at Beating It.

I never thought about quitting. But I did think about delaying.

That’s how Resistance shows up—quiet, reasonable, and disguised as logic.
“You’ve got a lot going on.”
“You can start tomorrow.”
“You’ll be more focused next week.”

Bullshit.

Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and Turning Pro gave me the language to recognize it. He nailed the mindset of the amateur—someone who lets life dictate when they act, instead of showing up like a pro.

Resistance isn’t loud. It doesn’t scream.
It whispers.

That trap almost got me. It gets a lot of men.

What saved me was a principle we talk about all the time inside Argent Alpha:

Something > Nothing.

Even when I didn’t feel like writing, I wrote something.
Even when it wasn’t great, I stayed in motion.

That’s how you beat Resistance. Not once. Not with a big dramatic act.
Daily. With reps. With discipline. With presence.

It’s the same with your health.

You’ll never feel like going to the gym every day. You’ll never feel like prepping meals, skipping drinks, or going to bed early. That’s Resistance too. And the only way through it is to act anyway.

Momentum isn’t built with perfect days.
It’s built by refusing to break the chain.

Lesson 2: You Think It’ll Be Linear. It’s Not.

Everyone starts out thinking progress will be a straight line.
You map it out in your head: clear milestones, clean execution, steady wins.

Then reality shows up.

Writing this book exposed just how many steps have nothing to do with writing.
Reviews. Revisions. Design. Edits. Doubt. Delays. Logistics. Launch prep. Marketing.
You don’t see all of that at the beginning.

Same thing happens in health and fitness.
You sign up for the program, buy the supplements, hit the gym—and expect the scale to drop and energy to spike in week one.

It doesn’t work like that.

The longer the timeline, the more valleys you’ll hit. And one valley shows up like clockwork:

The Valley of Despair.

That’s the part no one talks about.
You’re far enough in to be tired—but not far enough to see the finish line.
That’s where most guys drift. They stall out, self-sabotage, or tell themselves they’ll “get back on track next month.”

So many guys start over at uninformed optimism and chase the next bright, shiny object.
Why? Because the promise of something new feels great.
But every path—if it’s worth anything—leads to the valley.

You have to anticipate it.

When I hit the dip with the book (I should say dips, plural), what pulled me through wasn’t willpower.
It was why I started. It was my Future Self.

My Future Self includes writing five books before I turn 65.
In a crazy way, setting an unreasonable goal like that made book #1 easier to execute.
How do you write five books in five years?
You start by finishing the first one.

And that same principle applies to your second half.
If you don’t have a reason that pulls you forward—
you’ll quit the moment progress gets inconvenient.

Lesson 3: You Become a New Man by Doing New Work

I started this process as a founder and operator.

But writing Harder to Kill is turning me into something else—
A writer. A creator. A communicator. A man who influences others to pursue excellence in life.

Those weren’t roles I claimed. They’re roles I earned by doing the work.

Most men over 50 start playing defense. They’ve already had some success, built a reputation, maybe sold the business or hit the income goal—and now they coast. They stop evolving. They chase comfort.

That’s not reinvention. That’s slow decay.

Doing hard, creative work in your 50s or 60s forces identity growth. It makes you sharper. More dangerous. More clear on who you are and what you’re here to do.

You don’t become someone new by thinking about it.
You become someone new by doing something new.

This is why we say: your Future Self isn’t found.
He’s built.

And the tool to build him is the work itself.

Lesson 4: The Pack Goes Further Than the Lone Wolf

I didn’t write this book alone. And I wouldn’t have finished it alone either.

I had a publisher. A team. A process.
But more importantly, I had the men of Argent Alpha.

They’ve lived this with me.
Their stories, struggles, and results are what gave the book real weight.
Their feedback sharpened the message.
Their presence made it clear I wasn’t just writing—I was building something for us.
For every man over 50 who believes he has more in the tank.

Writing a book looks like a solo project from the outside.
It’s not.
It’s a pack experience.

So is getting in shape. So is building a business. So is staying married, staying focused, and staying in the game when most men are checking out.

You can’t outsource the work.
But you also can’t do it alone—not if you want to go the distance.

The lone wolf might start fast.
But he burns out.
The pack moves with purpose—and makes it through the valley.

Lesson 5: Say It Out Loud. Lock the Date. Do the Work.

I made a decision early on:
I told people the book would launch July 17.

Not “I’m thinking about writing a book.”
Not “I’ve started working on something.”
I said it with a date attached. That changed everything.

Once it was out there, I had two options:
Deliver. Or make excuses.

That’s the power of a public commitment.
It creates pressure. Good pressure.

Men perform differently when there’s something at stake.
You raise your standard. You eliminate the wiggle room. You get serious.

It’s the same with health.
If you tell people you’re hitting 15% body fat, or signing up for a ruck event, or doing our A³ fitness test in 30 days—you act differently.

You’re not just interested.
You’re in.

So if there’s something you need to build—say it out loud.
Pick a date.
Then go earn it.

Lesson 6: Action Raises Your Floor—and That Raises Your Ceiling

Many men—especially high performers—spend years chasing a higher ceiling.
More output. More results. More momentum. More wealth.
That mindset served them well. It’s how they built their first success.

But something shifts after 50.

The fire’s still there—it’s just not burning as bright.
The urgency drops.
They coast on what they’ve already built.

And you’ve heard me say it before:
You can only coast when you’re going downhill.

Here’s the shift I’m making—and what this book is teaching me:

Real growth now comes from raising the floor.

Not the ceiling. The floor.

When I made this public commitment and started executing daily, I became the kind of man who finishes what he starts.
Not perfectly. But consistently.

That raised my default operating level.
And when your floor rises, so does everything above it.

Same thing applies to your fitness.

If your floor is 10,000 steps, 40g of protein by 9am, and three strength training sessions a week, you’re not starting over every Monday.
You’re living forward.

I’ve heard this from more than a few men inside Argent Alpha:

“My bad days today are better than my good days a year ago.”

That’s what raising your floor does.

It’s not about chasing peak performance every day.
It’s about building a baseline so solid that even your off days move you forward.

That’s the new game:
Raise your floor—and watch your ceiling rise.

Lesson 7: Stay Dangerous by Starting Over

Writing this book forced me into unfamiliar territory.
Publishing. Launch strategy. Building traffic. Funnels. Audience growth.
I’d never done any of it.

I’ve run companies. Built teams. Trained hard.
But this was different.

I was back at square one.
No team to rely on for these particular skills.
No playbook to follow.
So I had to start over.

I had to learn new things.
I had to find new “whos” so I didn’t get buried in the “how.”
And I had to learn that lesson through experience—not theory.

That’s how 10x growth works.
It demands you eliminate what no longer serves you…
and rebuild with intention.

Most men hit their 50s and coast.
They stick with what they know.
They avoid being a beginner again.

But the longer you stay comfortable, the softer you get.
You lose your edge.
And when you lose your edge, you stop leading your own life.

Ego kills growth. Curiosity fuels it.

If you want to stay dangerous, stay humble.
Be willing to suck at something again.
Ask dumb questions. Try. Miss. Adjust. Repeat. Learn. Grow.

That’s how reinvention happens.
Not by standing on what you did—but by building something new with who you’ve become.

Built Not Bought. Still in Progress.

As I mentioned earlier, Harder to Kill launched this week.

But the deeper value of this book isn’t just what’s inside it—
It’s what writing it exposed about reinvention.
Not just for me—but for any man serious about building what’s next.

Writing it forced me to test the very principles we live by inside Argent Alpha—consistency, identity, mindset, execution, accountability.
This wasn’t theory. It was lived experience.

And every lesson I’ve shared in this newsletter comes from that process.

Reinvention doesn’t show up by chance.
It shows up when you take full ownership of the next chapter.

So ask yourself:

• Where are you coasting?

• What have you been putting off?

• What’s your next worthy ideal?

You don’t need more time. You need a reason.
Something that pulls you forward.
Something that demands your best.
Something you’ll look back on and say, “That changed everything.”

If you’re ready for that—good.
You’re not done. You’re just getting started.

Get the 5 Bonus Tools Used Inside Argent Alpha

🎯 If you registered for the Zoom launch but couldn’t make it—or you haven’t picked up your copy yet—those 5 bonus tools are still available.

These tools aren’t in the book. They’re real-world resources we use inside Argent Alpha—built to help you train smarter, prepare better, and stay focused in every environment.

When you purchase both the paperback and Kindle edition of Harder to Kill, you’ll get access to:

✅ Health Screening Guide
✅ Optimal Blood Labs
✅ 30-Day Pull-Up Plan
✅ Solo Retreat Guide
✅ Travel Protocols

You won’t be entered in the giveaway (launch attendees only)—but the 5 bonus tools are yours.

Step 1: Buy the book ($0.99 offer on Kindle ends today)

Step 2: Complete this form to get access to the 5 bonus tools

Thanks to everyone who helped us launch on the right foot…in under 24 hours we made multiple best seller lists on Amazon!