Welcome + Introduction

Welcome to Four F’s Sake - Background.

In 2017, I started writing daily. Mostly micro-journaling (3-5 bullets/day) and self-reminder emails, to start. These have evolved to more longer-form. Although the mediums have changed, the focus on self-improvement and curiosity remains constant. However cringe it feels, I'm taking the leap to share more of this content, and what better time to start than on Father's Day.

The working title is 'Four F's Sake.' A bad pun mixed with four areas I'm passionate about: fatherhood, fitness, founder life, and frameworks.

The world is full of distractions and challenges. My goal is to share the tools, concepts, workouts, and techniques I've incorporated into my daily routine, at some point. These tactics will not be universal in terms of results. But if one concept sticks and you're marginally better across one axis in your day-to-day life, that's a win.

Cheers to all of us being more open and learning from each other's experiences along the way.

Expectations.

I’ll cover each content bucket with each subsequent post. Some might be more in-depth than others, but a key theme is consistency here. So I’ll do my best to follow suit. 

Some key questions I'm always wrestling with:

Am I being a good father? 

Am I gone too much, mentally and/or physically? 

Am I being a good leader and teammate?

Am I being a good husband? 

Am I sleeping and recovering enough? Or am I always operating at a deficit? 

Am I challenging myself physically knowing that physical health is mental health? 

These questions lack definitive answers or checkboxes. Instead, they offer opportunities for ongoing improvement across multiple aspects. The key lies in maintaining consistency and intentionality, rather than fluctuating between progress and regression.

Now that we have some background, let’s dive-in.

Fatherhood.

On August 20, 2022, my son Mac was born, bringing immense joy to our family. Like any first-time father, it's an immediate whirlwind of emotions. Life changes in a flash. New challenges emerge. But all part of this program called 'life.'

Many of my friends have also become first-time dads this year. Based on the reactions I've received when sharing this idea, the best advice I can offer is to create an email address for your baby the day they're born.

The initial days and weeks can be a complete blur. Sleep deprivation and living your live in 45 minutes increments. By utilizing the email address, you can document and share your feelings, pictures, and your baby's developmental milestones, creating a time capsule of these precious early moments. The days are long but the weeks and months are short. Give yourself materials to reflect back upon.

Note: It's never too late to start, whether your child is 7 days or 7 years old. Plenty of runway ahead.

Toss them to the proverbial keys to that email later in life – assuming email is still a thing, of course – and revisit those memories together.

Parenthood is not without its difficulties, but it is undeniably the most rewarding experience I've ever had. To all the dads out there, Happy Father's Day! You're doing a fantastic job. Enjoy this special day.

Fitness.

The famous $64k interview question: what unwavering truth do you hold that others might disagree with?

Mine is simple: physical health is mental health. They're inextricably connected.

My fitness journey has evolved over time. As a former college football player, weight training, HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and running are all important ingredients to my fitness routine. I’ve done traditional strength training. I did CrossFit for almost 12 years. And I’ve run 4 marathons (note: all world records are safe).

The goal of this section is to help inspire you to charter your own fitness journey. Or, if you're already on that journey, to double-down on the routines and training styles that work. 

If you're not yet on your fitness journey, just get started. Or, if you've started but stopped, get back on the horse. Find what works for you and make it a priority. A misconception in today's fitness influencer-fueled world is the amount of prerequisites required to get started. You do not need the fancy clothes, the latest shoes or the expensive membership to look the part. I can promise you that a 5 minute workout of max burpees will trump any 90-minute trip to your local globo gym. You need two things: a watch and the right mentality. Both are free. Both are accessible, if you want.

If you've established a routine that works for you, keep at it. Experiment with new forms of fitness and challenge your body. If you're not typically a runner, mix in runs. If you refrain from strength training because you don't want to get bulky, mix in a HIIT workout. I promise you that workouts incorporating strength training 2-3x/week will not make you bulky. Challenge your body and its limits and, more often than not, it will respond positively.

Whether you're in the early innings of your journey or are a fitness pro, I wanted to share to share a PDF that my college roommate Mat compiled. There are 50+ workouts meant for limited-to-no equipment – great for travel or working out from home. See the workouts here.

(Co-)Founder Life.

Like Fatherhood, this is a new journey for me. I’m the co-founder and CEO of Huron, a men’s personal care company that makes performance-based products that smell amazing (yes, I'm biased). 

Personal care? Why personal care? As a kid growing up, I had awful skin. Like, really bad. I tried everything under the sun to address the acne, blemishes and breakouts. From wandering the aisles of CVS and Walgreens to taking Accutane (twice), it was not an enjoyable journey. 

I even had a boss tell me ‘hey, we can’t take you to any more management meetings until you get this fixed.’

‘This’, he referenced, was my face. Not a great mood booster. 

After 20+ years of searching, I finally found products that worked for my skin. But they were overpriced and didn't resonate with me as a consumer. I felt awkward just being in-store. 

And that’s how the idea behind Huron was formed. 

We wanted to create a line of performance-based products that offered the same quality of clean, efficacious ingredients and cutting-edge technologies, but at a fraction of the cost of the more ‘premium’ players. 

I’ve learned so many things over the past four years. And look forward to sharing more about our journey.

Frameworks.

In 2015, I became obsessed with researching and testing mental frameworks and techniques to drive self-betterment. This is not a one-size-fits-all category. I wanted the sample set to be as large as possible.  

I bookmark Tweets. I email myself LinkedIn posts. And I review on a bi-weekly cadence. I’ve put many of these into practice with varying degrees of success. But I'm forever experimenting and tweaking.

Two concepts that are top of mind for me:

1. Eisenhower Matrix

2. First-Principles Thinking

I first learned about the Eisenhower Matrix from a friend, Sahil Boom. Sahil does a masterful job of covering a breadth of topics — health & wellness, frameworks/techniques, and more — and would encourage you to follow him. 

The Eisenhower Matrix is a sorting/filtering technique that allows you to organize projects and decisions by urgency and importance. In short, what you should be focusing on, what you should delegate, and what you should’ve even allow the time of day. 

First Principles Thinking is a tactic to break down the most complex thought exercises or problems into their most fundamental, irrefutable inputs and create original solutions.

Two good coverage pieces on First-Principles Thinking:

https://jamesclear.com/first-principles

https://fs.blog/first-principles/

Closing Thoughts.

This original post is a big more longer form than I expected. But the format, length and subject matter will continue to evolve over time. Feedback is always welcome and thanks for reading.

That's a wrap! Have a great Father's Day to all of the Dads out there!
- matt