Generating Alpha
Welcome to your go-to place for ideas, resources, and education on multiple ways to increase your alpha. If you think investing in the stock market is the only way to get ahead, you’re missing out on many other opportunities. While investing in stocks is a popular path to compound wealth, and will likely will be part of your journey, it’s far from the only one.
Askesis asks: Where are your natural talents and abilities to produce? What skills could you learn to broaden your opportunities and increase production? Are there setups, deals, or opportunities you just haven’t thought of yet?
Askesis Alpha Ideas
This is where alpha can come from, outside of traditional investing. These aren’t the only ways to generate wealth, but they’re enough to get the financial mental juices flowing.
Entrepreneurship & Small Business
Starting a privately held business can create substantial wealth. Value creation occurs through disciplined grit and growth. Successful entrepreneurs persevere, utilize smart capital allocation, and obtain operational excellence.
Key Concepts: Business Planning, Cash Flow Management, Scaling, Exit Strategies
Resources
Real Estate
Real estate investing includes rental properties, commercial buildings/developments, and REITs. This alpha requires heavy due diligence, market understanding, and long-term discipline. Success in real estate equates to steady cash flow and capital appreciation.
Key Concepts: Property Valuation, Zoning and Land Use, Leverage, Rental Yield, Tax Advantages
Resources
Private Company Investing
The average person would be best suited to start their own business but sometimes you get the chance to invest in someone else’s great idea. Startup and private equity offers high return potential with high risk. Due diligence and risk management are critical skills.
Key Concepts: Venture Capital, Private Equity Funds, Valuation, Exit Events
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Intellectual Property
Owning or investing in patents, trademarks, copyrights, and royalties and niche and often overlooked. Protecting and monetizing intellectual property requires extensive legal knowledge and strategic management.
Key Concepts: IP Types, Licensing, Royalties, Valuation
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Land Production & Agriculture
We’re not talking about mega farms with commodities, micro farming, aquaculture, specialty crops, and various niche markets exist that can survive and be profitable on smaller scales.
Key Concepts: Pricing, Market Demand, Regulations, Certifications, Utilization, Sustainability, Resource Management
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Infrastructure
& Energy
A critical sector that powers and supports modern life. The simplest way to invest in this sector is through related stocks, bonds, and funds. Niche businesses exist that support these industries and are worth researching.
Key Concepts: Energy Markets, Renewables, Regulatory Environment, Funding Cycles, Diversification
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Specialized Skills & Services
Key Concepts: Professional Development, Education, Personal Branding, Consulting, Scalability, Marketing, Training
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Capital Structure & Taxes
You won’t care about taxes until you have to care about taxes. By then, it’s most likely too late to best optimize. Lower taxes, higher alpha, it’s that simple. Don’t be afraid to ask advice and research this upfront when starting a business or investing.
Key Concepts: Tax Efficiency, Debt Management, Legal Structures
Resources
Askesis Alpha Strategies
No matter your means, there’s always a place to start. Here’s some strategies to turn potential into progress.
Start from Scratch
Askesis View: Begin with nothing but discipline, time, and a willingness to all out grind. Trade sweat, service, and results for ownership or experience.
Why it Works: You reduce the need for capital by making your skill or effort the currency.
Examples: Owned sweat equity, partial or full ownership of a startup, learn a trade, profit-sharing deal
Value-Add Approach
Askesis View: You don’t just hold assets, you can improve them. Increase income, efficiency, or desirability through intentional upgrades.
Why it Works: You manufacture alpha instead of waiting for it. Reduce expenses and/or increase income.
Examples: Renovating a rental property, reorganizing a business, improving monetization
Bootstrapping
Askesis View: Build from what you control and have right now and reinvest the profits instead of taking on debt or dilution.
Why it Works: This keeps you disciplined, resourceful, and in control. Let compounding work in your favor after getting your operation off the ground.
Examples: E-commerce store, small service business, build a SaaS, niche manufacturing, rental assets, local food producer
Partnership & Sweat Equity
Askesis View: Partners with capital can be valuable. You should bring something intangible to the table. Research legalities of arraignment.
Why it Works: You exchange operational skill, expertise, or time for a share of ownership.
Examples: Managing for a stake, revenue sharing, operating businesses for investors
Micro-Investing & Scaling
Askesis View: You should start where you can, even if it’s a small project or fractional shares. Scale profits into bigger plays.
Why it Works: You build discipline, market familiarity, and a portfolio without over extending early on.
Examples: Stocks, crowdfunding, flipping small local projects
Leverage Expertise
Askesis View: Turn your skillset into equity instead of just a paycheck.
Why it Works: Skills are often more valuable than capital, especially when applied to growth-focused startups and ventures.
Examples: Rebranding a business for shares, coding an app for equity, marketing in exchange for equity
Creative Financing
Askesis View: Deal structures exist to control productive assets without tying up heavy capital.
Why it Works: Leverage without over leveraging. Deals are structured to protect cash flow.
Examples: Seller-financed real estate, lease-to-own agreements, joint ventures where your management replaces a down payment
Incubation
Askesis View: You can test small, refine relentlessly, the expand only when the model proves itself.
Why it Works: Reduces risk, builds confidence, and ensures growth is rooted in real results.
Examples: One rental unit before scaling, piloting a service in a test market, pop-up shop, one customer deep dive, side hustle to brand
Askesis Alpha Truths
If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Do It
If you want alpha, you’re going to have to work for it. Simply doing what everyone else is doing is not enough. You’re going to have to work harder, be smarter, more efficient, more productive, and think outside of the box. Every challenge you overcome removes competition and builds your edge. Askesis teaches that you don’t chase the path of least resistance, you choose the path that compounds your skills, resilience, and capacity to accelerate your journey to financial freedom.
The Market Rewards Persistence, Not Perfection
Waiting until you have the perfect plan, everything in order, or flawless execution is another form of inaction. Inaction is the cancer to progress. Momentum, even messy, compounds over time. Show up, and then keep showing up, refining, adjusting, all without quitting. Askesis expects mistakes, but progress should be so relentless that mistakes become the growth fee, not a terminal loss.
Sacrificing Now Multiplies Freedom Later
Every dollar you can save, every skill you can build, every hour you can put towards production is a multiplier on your future options. Sacrifice is not deprivation, it’s a trade. Askesis reframes “giving up something” as “buying future control.” The more you invest today in your capacity, the less you’ll need to compromise tomorrow (think of that analogy in years not days).
Ready for the Next Level?
Do you have a positive and growing net worth and want to accelerate your path to financial freedom? Book a free discovery session to see if Askesis is the right fit for you.
Not there yet? No worries. We strongly encourage you to dive into all of the free Askesis resources to start minimizing expenses and boosting your income today.
Because Askesis isn’t for the weak. It demands discipline, sacrifice, and relentless action. Our coaching works best for those who deliver results, not excuses. Show us, don’t tell us. Askesis are the ones who get shit done.
Disclaimer: Askesis Mindset and Askesis Finance LLC provide no specific buy/sell recommendations or endorsements of individual securities. We do not act as a broker, registered investment advisor, or financial planner. This content is for educational and informational purposes only. Most investing involves risk, including loss of principal.