Hey there!

Today I’m not gonna talk about how to:

• Outrun your past (and your dog).

• Discover muscles you forgot you had.

• Improve memory (so you stop walking into rooms and forgetting why).

I started posting on Threads daily in mid-January. 2 weeks later, I launched this newsletter. Now it’s only April, and I’ve gained almost 14k thriends and over 1,600 newsletter subscribers — which is absolute insanity. Massive THANK YOU to every single one of you! 🙏 

To put things into perspective: back in January, I set myself a goal to hit 10k followers on Threads and 1,000 newsletter subs by the end of the year. Which leads to an important question I’m still trying to figure out: What the hell is going on?!

I believe part of the answer is that I’ve never done anything in my life that I was as passionate about as this. I discovered my love for writing through a series of rather unfortunate events:

A childhood of quiet desperation

I was born in Iraq but grew up in a rural area of Germany. I had to endure a lot of racism. On top of that, there was a huge culture clash between my parents and me — which led to maaany issues in our household. So yeah, it’s fair to say my childhood wasn’t the best. I was also a very unreflective kid until I was like 25. I repressed all my feelings and never talked about anything with anyone. Because at the time, my stupid mantra was: “Showing emotions as a man is weak.”

In my teenage years, I became depressed. And since I never dealt with it, I ended up developing a binge-eating disorder in my early 20s. 2 years later, I was morbidly obese — I had gained over 70 lbs. That made my mental health even worse and took a serious toll on my body, too. At some point, I just knew: If I don’t turn my life around, I won’t be here for much longer.

Out of desperation, I started reading books about mental & physical health, and self-development. Science-based books are often dry, dense, and way too complicated. I have a Master’s in Medical Engineering and a PhD in AI & Data Science for Health Research — so my education helped me understand things faster. I’ve read 150+ books, listened to 1000s of hours of podcasts, and watched countless YouTube videos.

(And I’m not even counting in cute dog compilations or travel vlogs)

I took notes, tracked my progress, and started journaling. I had always underestimated the power of journaling — until I actually tried it. It was a total game changer for my health. One day, I took some of my journal notes and turned them into some longer pieces of writing. I showed them to a few friends and posted them on Instagram — and got a lot of great feedback. So, I started doing it more regularly. That’s when I fell in love with writing.

Writing healed me. I practiced writing and started applying the concepts I had studied to turn my life around. Today, I’ve lost all the excess fat, built muscle, and got rid of every health issue I was dealing with. I’m in the best shape of my life — physically and mentally.

The “silly” guy

The feeling writing gives me is something I’ve never felt before while “working.” Probably because it finally allowed me to be myself. I like to make jokes. I like to be silly. I don’t take myself — or the world — too seriously. But that kind of vibe isn’t exactly welcomed in academia, where I spent over 10 years. “You’re not taking your studies seriously, so why should I take you seriously?” was the undertone. Having fun and being successful are often seen as opposites. Fortunately, I never took that to heart — I just kept doing my thing. And in the end? They were all wrong. I got my Bachelor’s. My Master’s. And last year, I finished my PhD.

I’m not saying this to brag or to be like “I showed them”. I’m saying it because I genuinely believe we don’t have to be so serious and negative all the time. You can goof around and still do great things. I don’t have many hills I’ll die on, but this? This is one of them. What’s the point of anything if we can’t enjoy ourselves along the way? Humor is a big part of who I am. And I promise you: there will be zero newsletters without at least one silly joke. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea — and I totally respect that. But that’s me. And if you’re still here... brace yourself for some lit memes.

How my business was born

At the beginning of last year, I asked myself: How can I find a profession that truly provides value to people — while also leveraging my education (Health Research), allowing me to follow my passion (writing), and reflecting my personality (humor)? That’s when I decided to start writing online — translating complex science into simple, actionable blueprints. Funny enough, that’s exactly what I was already doing for myself when I started tackling my binge-eating disorder and excessive body fat. Which is probably part of the reason why I grew so quickly.

I want to prove that boring and difficult topics can — in fact — be entertaining and easy to understand. And because I love writing so much — and truly believe in the immense value it provides — I’ve decided to teach the art of turning confusing academic content into engaging texts that actually get read. So, if you’re interested in 1:1 mentoring, just reply to this email with “mentoring” and I’ll get back to you.

But I’ll be real with you: Every week, I’ll send out emails to all newsletter subscribers for free, where I break down how to skyrocket your online writing skills and growth. If you apply what I share here step by step, you could get amazing results on your own. I don’t hold anything back in my newsletters. But for those interested, here’s what my mentoring will do for you:

• SAVING TIME: You’ll learn & grow much faster. Everyone makes the same mistakes when they start out — including me. I’ll help you skip months of aimless trial & error.

• FEEDBACK: I read all your Threads before you post and give you feedback — so you get the maximum impact out of your content.

• CALLS: You’ll have 24/7 DM access to me + weekly calls where I’ll answer all your questions, share tips & help you plan your next steps.

• BOOST: I’ll like, share & comment on each of your posts to give you a big boost. And my community will see your posts, too.

And if you don’t need any of this — totally fine! You’re more than welcome to just hang around and (hopefully) enjoy reading my newsletters 🙂

That’s it for now. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on Instagram @husseinnaji_ or email — my door (aka inbox) is always open. Just reply to this mail☺️

Much love,

Your kiwi-with-the-skin-on-eating friend

Hussein

PS: If you want to see more content, check out my other channels:

• Threads

• Medium

• Bluesky

• LinkedIn