Episode 334: One Year of the Opening The Gates Journal

On the 26th of October 2025, I pressed publish on the first edition of the Opening the Gates journal, not even sure anybody would read it. Fifty two Mondays later it has just turned one, and I haven’t missed a single week. To mark the anniversary, I sat down and read every edition back, from the very first to the most recent. What surprised me was how often the same few ideas kept coming back. Seneca in December, Alex Hormozi in September, Tom Panos over lunch in June, an Olympic rowing crew and a snooker player. Different people, different weeks, all telling me the same handful of things. So in this solo special, I’ve pulled out the seven biggest lessons from a year of writing to the estate agency community, where each one came from, and what I think it actually means for you, your branch and your diary. In this episode: How the journal sat empty for three months, and the late nights in Marrakesh, a hotel room and after a stag do in Mallorca that kept the streak going Lesson one: stop waiting for perfect information, plus Alex Hormozi’s two decision hack Lesson two: execution beats education, the forgetting curve, and how Dean Coleman won a £1 million instruction within minutes of a chat Lesson three: consistency and the boring middle, and what Ben Hunt-Davis and the British rowing eight can teach agents Lesson four: making your own luck, from James Clear’s dartboard to Dr James Austin’s four types of luck Lesson five: why the market is never the excuse, from the credit crunch through to permacrisis Lesson six: your fees, your worth and the people you surround yourself with Lesson seven: confidence, and looking after your head Some of my favourite things that made me laugh this year, including Mark from Perfect Property, South Park and a half eaten fry up on Rightmove Why a quote often credited to Bill Gates (no relation, sadly) ties it all together If one of the lessons makes you shift in your seat a bit, write down one thing you’re going to do about it and do it in the next seven days. The journal lands every Monday and it’s completely free. Subscribe at simongates.substack.com, or find everything else I do at linktr.ee/Gatesy91.