Fast forward to today, and this character has largely been forgotton.

The current in-vogue persona is the hustler. The entrepreneur. The go-getter-make-it-happen executionists.

The entrepreneur is the opposite of the flâneur. He’s building society instead of observing it, always plotting his next move instead of resting in the now.

These days, it is the thing to be an entrepreneur. Everyone wants to be one. The word is even starting to lose it's meaning.

Those who've walked the entrepreneur path know it is much more nuanced than straight "hustle and grind".

There are people that love building but also observing, working and chilling, moving society forward and then taking a step back to enjoy their creations.

This is the Entreflâneur, a brand-new 21st-century character who expertly merges the dichotomy of work and leisure.

The Purpose Of This Whitepaper

It also provides a framework for becoming an Entreflâneur, should you so choose.

The doc will resonate most with those who already embody certain Entreflâneur traits.

Maybe you’re successful, but feel there are aspects of your identity lying nascent.

Perhaps you identify too much as an “Entrepreneur”...

Maybe too much of your self-worth comes from making money.

What if your business, reputation, and money-making abilities were all stripped away? What would remain?

Maybe you question how much time & energy you should be devoting to “the hustle”...

You see people like Hormozi... he's married to the game and is working his ass off to build Acquisition.com.

Elon Musk is putting himself through hell to make humans multi-planetary.

Should you be doing this too? Are you supposed to be sacrificing it all to build a billion-dollar thing?

Maybe you love business, but also love to party.

The problem is when you focus too much on one or the other, you feel out of balance.

Too much business, and you start to feel stiff and serious… you get in your head.

You lose your carefree flow and can become awkward, especially around women.

Lots of party/socializing, and you loosen up. It becomes easy to connect, be silly, flirt, have fun.

Yet, too much of this and you start to erode your entrepreneurial edge.

These are two sides of you. They are opposing forces. Two characters that like to be at odds.

Do you feel a strong pull towards both? Do you want to elevate each character so you can make a ton of money while savoring every moment of existence?

If so, then keep reading. You’re going to love this shit.

Why The Hell Did I Write This

My name is Graydon Ursel. I’m currently 28 years old, run an online business, live in Medellín, Colombia, and by most standards am living a pretty cool and unique life.

I created the concept of Entreflâneur with my best friends and housemates, Sam Spijkerman & Darryl Evanetich.

Many would consider us “lifestyle entrepreneurs” or “digital nomads.”

I hate those terms with a passion.

“Lifestyle entrepreneur” is cringe. The term has been tainted by biz-opp/crypto gurus posting pics with rented Lambos and DM'ing you on IG. Just terrible.

"Digital nomad" brings to mind broke freelancers struggling to find WiFi in 3rd-world beach towns.

So, what do we define ourselves as?

Well for me, it was “entrepreneur” for most of my 20’s.

After college, I moved home and started an online business while my peers went corporate.

I needed to prove myself. I went all in on the biz.

I started to get traction but also quickly became a one-dimensional loser with no friends.

I also got depressed obsessing about my business all the time.

This doesn’t happen to everyone. Some people are built for 100% business only. That’s totally fine. Society needs these people to build crazy big shit.

Again look at Alex Hormozi. The guy is obsessed with building companies, but I don’t think he ever goes out.

Again that’s fine. His obsession has changed many of our lives for the better.

What’s not fine is thinking you need to be a 100% biz hustler like Hormozi when you're not.

I am not. It took me until age 27 to realize this.

I love business, but I also love to travel, party, and make music.

Same with my housemates. Sam loves to meet important people and DJ, and Darryl loves to travel, compete in body-building competitions, and date women.

Primarily, we see business as a source of energy that fuels our lives.

Businesses are also tools. They are paths for access and connection. They are vehicles for scaling yourself and making a dent. They are catalysts for personal growth.

The Birth Of Entreflâneur

We love our lifestyle and want to continue to expand and grow.

To do this, we decided to first create a framework around the life we had created.

Similar to how clear documentation is needed to scale a business, a clear framework would give us the clarity needed to take it to the next level.

We could then share the framework with others and use it to attract those who are on the same path as us.

By bringing people together who have the same goal and then providing a framework for getting there, you can massively accelerate everyone's success.

Finally, we needed a better word to describe who we were and our relationship with business, so we spent $7.5k to buy the domain name Entreflâneur.com.

The Purpose Of The Entreflâneur

The purpose of the Entreflâneur is to maximize both abundance and presence within oneself and others.

Abundance flows from ambition and compounded focused effort. Entrepreneurs are the primary creators of abundance in our society.

Presence is the ability to be here now. How intensely can your awareness penetrate this moment, without distraction?

The more presence you have, the more you can appreciate the abundance you have created.

Many people with abundance lack presence. Many people with presence lack abundance.

This plays out both on an individual and societal level.

Americans live in an abundant society. Yet, many are trapped in a never-ending metronome of thought, swinging between past and future.

Glimpses of the present moment are few and fleeting. Many Americans are anxious and depressed.

Now let's look on the individual level…

The creation of abundance can often be the thing that robs you of presence.

The 50-year-old Wall Street hustler may be filthy rich but unhappy because he wasn't there for his kids growing up and has a bad relationship with them.

Mastering both abundance and presence is difficult. That’s why so many people have one without the other.

I think it's a worthwhile pursuit... one that can lead to infinite satisfaction.

The Magic Combination Of Abundance + Presence

One translation of the word “appreciate” is "to go up in value".

This is why stocks are said to appreciate when their price goes up.

When the price increases, the stock market has "appreciated" the stock's worth. The price then goes up to match that level of appreciation.

It's the same with all areas of life. When you appreciate something, its inherent value is increased.

A flower on the side of the road may seem insignificant…

… But what if you take some shrooms, pluck the flower, and then deeply gaze into its petals for the next hour?

The insignificant flower will become an infinite well of contemplation and enjoyment.

Your awareness transforms the value of the flower without changing the flower itself.

With deep presence and appreciation, even the smallest things can bring you joy.

Now let's look on the flip side...

You have all the abundance in the world. You have the money, the best food, the best women - but you grow accustomed to it. The value of your abundance goes down.

Dan Bilzerian knows this deeply. He's ascended the Mount Everest of hedonism, but it still didn't make him happy. That's why he loves taking shrooms.

Now, think of this...

What if you combined ever-increasing abundance with an ever-deepening appreciation for that abundance?

You always have more, and you're always becoming more gracious.

You now have positive multiplying forces that coalesce into a pillar of infinite satisfaction.

This is the default setting of the Entreflâneur. He constantly creates more while sinking into ever-deepening gratitude for what he has.

He’s like a child seeing for the first time, and what he sees is of his own creation.

How To Spot An Entreflâneur

Entreflâneurs maximize abundance and presence by:

1. Creating wealth.

2. Improving the self.

3. Providing social value.

Creating Wealth

A key characteristic of the flâneur was economic independence. It allowed him to roam the city without financial concern.

Flâneurs' funds often came from family wealth. Some were artists who made a living through patronage.

Money was not a concern to the flâneur. He had enough, and consumed little.

Entreflâneurs have a similar detached attitude around money. The only difference is they are actively involved in making more.

They love to make money but have fun doing it.

The best way to describe their businesses would be with Joe Polish's ELF/HALF framework.

ELF businesses are Easy, Lucrative, and Fun.

HALF businesses are Hard, Annoying, Lame, and Frustrating.

Entreflâneurs are masters of prioritization, delegation, and automation. They create businesses that work for them instead of the other way around.

They also play games where if you wait, you win. They focus on one thing for a long period of time and become the best in their field.

This is how they are able to be so relaxed in their wealth creation. They combine clear intention with focused effort over the long term.

Improving The Self

As men of leisure, traditional flâneurs were not considered to be “self-improvers”.

They were outward-focused, relinquishing their egos to allow for unadulterated observation of their city.

In contrast, the industrious modern-day Entreflâneur is dedicated to constant improvement of his body and mind.

Entreflâneurs take a common-sense approach to their health. All the best info is already available online. They simply follow the most common-sense and robust health recommendations.

Body: Eat mostly whole foods and avoid processed crap. Prioritize sleep. Exercise regularly and get a sweat in at least once per day (gym, sports, sex). Move and stretch often. Heat & cold exposure.

Mind: “Unplug” at least once per day (meditation, sauna & ice bath, walking w/o headphones, sitting on a park bench doing nothing.) Always learning at least one new skill (language, dancing, instrument, martial art). Avoiding the news. Regular reflection and re-orientation of goals to keep feedback loops tight. Reading, writing. Solving problems. Socializing.

All the Entreflâneur's self-improvement activities create higher levels of presence. This, in turn, leads to higher functioning, which leads to more abundance in their lives.

Providing Social Value

The flâneur was a detached societal figure - a part of the crowd yet apart from the crowd. He preferred to observe rather than engage.

An Entreflâneur does both. He first observes to identify where he can create value. Then, he participates to provide that value.

He understands that value is contextual. A glass of water is more valuable in an arid desert than in a restaurant.

That's why he adjusts his approach according to what he perceives.

For example, if at dinner with wealthy business types, the Entreflâneur would never try to provide value by covering the entire bill.

That would be unnecessary and seen as a weird move. Paying the bill isn't valuable because money is abundant for the group.

Instead, he would get to know the group during dinner and find out what is valuable to them in that moment.

They might be new to the city and looking to have a great night out. One might be looking for a certain type of business contact. One of them may be looking for a good barber or chef.

The Entreflâneur figures out what is valuable in any given context and provides it.

Giving without expectation

Flâneurs wandered the streets of Paris with expectation, unlike a tourist who hopes the city and attractions live up to their hype.

The Entreflâneur adopts this same attitude when providing value to others.

His giving is completely void of expectation. He expects nor hopes for any reciprocal action.

He knows how reality works and knows that the more you give, the more you tend to receive.

So there is no need to keep tabs. He focuses on giving, and the receiving takes care of itself.

2 Year Medellín Case Study

At this point, we’ve established the purpose of the Entreflâneur is to maximize abundance and presence. This is accomplished by engaging in 3 core actions:

1. Creating wealth

2. Improving the self

3. Providing social value

What does this look like in practice?

Well, there are infinite paths one can take. It's only limited by your imagination and will.

Below, I will share the path I took, along with my housemates Sam, Darryl, and Omer.

It comes down to the following steps:

Step 1: Establish Team

Your team is your core group of 2-5 friends who:

1. Are on a similar path as you

2. Want you to succeed

It took me 5 years to find mine. Here’s how it happened…

From 2017 - 2021, I lived an incredibly boring existence.

In 2017, I started a marketing agency with my brother from my parent’s basement.

I went to bed at 9, was up at 5, ate clean, exercised, got a bit stoned sometimes then went to bed, watched movies with my parents on weekends, never went on dates. No social life.

I was in “the grind” - the “Rocky cut scene”. There’s nothing wrong with this phase, and I believe it's necessary when you’re starting out.

This period is when you go all in, become obsessed, and embrace your mundane life. If it's your first go at business, you usually need 1-3 years of this to get the required traction.

By 2020, my business was succeeding. The problem was that I was a 1-dimensional loser.

My whole identity was wrapped up in being an underdog entrepreneur. My confidence came from the fact that I was “the boss”.

This is a bad place to be. If I didn't have the business I was nothing.

During my Rocky Cut Scene, I didn't make any new friends. I had weak, atrophied social-skill muscles. I even stopped playing my beloved saxophone to make more time for the business.

A lot of it sucked, but this chapter created one huge capability in my life: location freedom.

Just like the flâneur had the freedom to move around his city as he pleased, the Entreflânuer has the freedom to move around the world.

So, on January 1, 2021, I packed my shit and moved to Tulum.

I was a confused spiritual unemployed Tulum gym bro.

I lived there for 3 months and discovered it was a terrible place to run a business.

However, I had lived more in that 3 months than I had in the past 3 years living in Canada.

I was flâneuring - taking in a new environment and living more in the moment than ever before.

My soul flourished in Tulum, but my business suffered. I was maximizing presence, but not abundance.

This seemed to be the case for a lot of others living there. Lots of hippies with lofty dreams and little follow-through.

I needed to move. I arrived in Medellín September 2021.

I knew only 2 people there and they left shortly after I arrived. I was starting from scratch.

For about 9 months, I remained a lone wolf with no close friends or deep connections.

It wasn’t until May 2022 when I would finally start forming my team.

Again, your team is your core group of 2-5 friends who all:

1. Are on a similar path as you

2. Want you to succeed

When you have a team, you can do bigger, bolder things.

For example, in October 2022, we hosted a business mastermind/Halloween party in the Envigado hills of Medellín.

It was a huge success, and I would not have the confidence to pull it off myself.

Going at it alone sucks. Doing things in a group makes everything easier. This is why your team is key.

Whether you have your team or not, you may want to see the path I took.

1. On January 1st, 2021, I paid $12,000 for one-on-one executive coaching with a guy named Aurimas Juodka. This was right before moving to Tulum.

2. Aurimas (AJ) recommended me a men’s group in Tulum.

3. The facilitator of the men’s group recommended I check out Medellín.

4. In Medellín, I paid another $12,000 to join Cole Gordon’s Closers.io program. The dude who sold me (shout out to Temple Nailor) was also in Medellín and invited me to an entrepreneur’s dinner.

5. I moved in with Omer Bloch, the guy who was running the entrepreneur dinners. He knows all the dudes in Medellín but sadly no women.

6. I met everyone else through hanging out with Omer and hosting events.

Lesson: spend money on programs and good things will happen.

Seriously though, a lot of my friends got connected by joining programs as well.

Step 2: Establish Base

I’ve lived in about 10 different Airbnbs during my 2 years in Medellín.

I've lived in places of all shapes and sizes, alone and with people.

It was fun, but it wasn’t until May 2023 when the magic started to happen.

This is when me, Sam, Omer, & Darryl pooled our resources to rent a penthouse here in the middle of El Poblado. We had established our “base”.

One of the biggest benefits here is cost. We pay $1500/m each to live in a 4000 sq ft penthouse in the middle of Poblado with a private concierge and daily cleaning service. If you were to go at it alone you'd pay a minimum of $6K/m.

We pool our resources into everything we do. We have a great deal for our chef because he is cooking for 4 instead of 1. We always split on the biggest palco when we go to a concert. We split on house purchases like a home-gym, Christmas tree, random props like oversized stuffed animals, studio equipment, etc.

The best benefit is the magic that comes from proximity. It's just like a business. Remote teams are great and convenient, but they can't recreate the culture that is built when everyone is in the same room.

Establishing Your Base Can Take Time

You'll have to move a lot. You need to experiment with different combinations of people until it clicks.

I went through this process at University. Each year I lived in a different house, but the magic didn't happen until 4th year when I moved in with my 8 best friends.

It was a huge 150 y/o house with an insane location right across from campus.

It was the all-star team, and it took 4 years to find out who those friends were.

In Medellín, it took about 1 ½ years and a bunch of Airbnbs to find my group.

The key is to not stagnate. If you’re not 100% satisfied with your living situation, move into different places with different people until you’re happy.

For Those Who Would Rather Live Alone

Some people would rather live alone because living with people can be distracting. It can be hard to find time for yourself.

That's fine. But consider that if you pool your resources, you can get a BIG place with big rooms and a lot of privacy.

You can then invest in equipment to maximize presence. For example, we built a gym on our rooftop so we can work out in the sun while saving 1 hour of commute to the gym every day.

We also invested in an ice bath. Every day at about 6:30 pm, we all get into the steam room and alternate between steam and ice for about 60 minutes or 3 cycles.

Everyone in our house looks forward to this time because we disconnect from our work & phones and just chill for an hour. We feel incredible after, and it's a great thing to do before going out.

Here's the flywheel: Regular steaming and ice bathing with your friends makes you feel great. You're more relaxed, more focused, and have better performance all-around. This will make you more money. You can then reinvest that money into better equipment and facilities to engage in these types of routines at an even higher level. The cycle continues.

Step 3: Host Events

In my experience, hosting events is the #1 most fun and effective way to provide social value.

If you’ve ever hosted an event or party before, you know what I mean. You are “the man” because you are the one creating a positive experience for the group.

Hosting parties is fun, but they’re not always easy. You have to manage logistics, invite the right people, make sure the vibe is right, deal with noise complaints, etc., etc.

It takes effort, and that’s why you’re rewarded for it when you do it right.

Since moving to Medellín, I’ve hosted:

• A Hollywood-themed birthday party for my friend Omer

• A penthouse welcoming party for my friend Sam

• A mastermind/halloween hybrid party

• Many pre-games for concerts and festivals here in Medellín

• Many impromptu events like our Christmas tree decorating party last week

• A Christmas charity party complete with tattoo artists, caterers, etc.

Now, you don’t have to host events to provide social value. You can attend other people’s events and provide value there. You can do this by bringing girls, DJ'ing, taking photos, helping set up/clean up, or just being a fun person to be around.

Most of my connections here in Medellín are either from hosting or attending events.

At the time of this writing, we just finished hosting the Entreflâneur launch party.

All proceeds went to charity, and we raised $13,575 to buy Christmas presents for kids in Medellín.

You can view the donation page here.

Step 4: Document & Share

Phones & social media have created insane opportunities for flywheels.

What is a flywheel?

You create a flywheel through feedback loops. It’s when the output of a system feeds back into the input to create exponential increases in output.

Businesses create flywheels to grow exponentially and even create monopolies.

Facebook has a network effect flywheel. The more people on the platform, the more valuable it becomes. More of your friends are on there to share content and communicate with.

More users -> better experience -> more users.

Here is how you can create a flywheel for hosting events:

You host an event and hire a videographer/photographer (will call a “Documentor”).

You post the content on social media.

The content makes it easier to invite more people to your next event.

Bigger & better events create better content. Better content attracts more people to your next event.

… and the cycle continues.

Hiring a Documentor is a perfect case for how an Entreflâneur maximizes both abundance and presence.

An abundance of content is created without having to sacrifice your presence to capture the content.

I never have my phone out at parties because I know the moments are already being captured. I can relax and enjoy every moment fully.

Step 5: Connect People

Hosting events will create a wealth of connections in your life.

You can then provide more value by becoming a “connector”.

Sam does this very well and is fast becoming one of the most well-connected dudes in Medellín.

Omer is also a natural connector and introduced me to most of my early contacts here in Medellín.

I am not as much of a natural connector as Omer or Sam. That’s why it’s so valuable for me to live with them.

This is the beauty of having a team and a base. It’s rare for a single person to have ALL the traits required to build an incredible life in a new city.

Combining your team's complementary traits and skills makes you unstoppable.

Going Out Can Make You More Money

A lot of people view partying & going out as something that takes away from their business and the ability to create abundance.

However, some of our best connections have been made going to events. For example, during Ritvales - the biggest techno festival in Medellín, we pooled our resources to get the biggest and best palco in the entire venue. The palco happened to be next to the owner and creator of the entire festival.

Our entire group provided a huge amount of value to the owner that night, simply by having the time of our lives and showing him how much we enjoyed the spectacle he had created.

Sam instantly made friends with the owner, and now our whole group benefits from that invaluable connection.

The thing about people of high value and status is that most of them like to party and go out as well. If you don't know how to have fun, you'll miss a lot of opportunities to connect with these types of people.

This one connection creates a flywheel: High-level people you meet at events are most likely attending other events with access you have not reached. They can get you that access, creating an opportunity to meet more high-level contacts at those events. The cycle continues.

Step 6: Improve City

It’s amazing. It’s also easy to take for granted, forgetting what makes it possible.

What makes it possible: Abundant, dirt-cheap labor in a poverty-stricken country with a very wide wealth gap.

In Colombia, other people’s lack becomes your abundance. That’s the truth.

This is why it’s important to maximize your levels of presence in a country like this.

Presence is appreciation. As we discussed earlier, appreciating something increases its value.

There’s nothing sadder than an expat moving to Colombia and complaining.

It’s a privilege to visit, and if they don’t like it, they can leave.

Yes, tourism does bring money into the city and stimulate the economy in positive ways.

It also has bad effects, like gentrification, raised prices for locals, and fueling of the drug and sex trades.

That’s why the Entreflâneur works to improve their city and surroundings.

The Flâneur was a connoisseur of their city. They knew every street, alleyway, and dead-end. They knew the city's rich history and were in-tune with its seasons, rhythms, and daily cycles.

They connected so deeply with the city to become an inseparable part of it.

The Entreflâneur becomes part of their city through contribution, not just observation.

One of the most common ways is through local charity.

If you shake enough hands, you're gonna meet someone in your city who does charity.

For us, it is Steve Cha. He’s the founder of Empower the Barrios, and they help impoverished Medellín communities with food and education.

As an Entreflâneur, you can either give privately or combine your giving with the events you host.

For example, for our Christmas party coming up on Dec 9, 2023, we’re giving 100% of the ticket sales to Empower the Barrios.

Don't be that douche who leaves a wreck in his wake.

Flâneurs were neutral societal figures, while Entreflâneurs strive to be net positive.

Next Steps If You Want More

If you like what you just read and want more, here's what to do next:

Step 1: Join the email list

This is where we share our findings as Entreflâneurs. Expect case studies, stories we can’t share elsewhere, failures, and weirdly-specific tactics to maximize your life as an Entreflâneur.

Click here to join.

Step 2: Apply for mastermind

We’re building a paid Skool community to bring together the world’s top Entreflâneurs. It will be a strict application process consisting of a video submission and interview. If accepted, you'll be charged $100/m to be in the community. We’ll be capping the group at 100 members.

Do the math, and you can see this isn’t a money-maker. This isn’t a high-ticket guru transformation course.

We’re charging mostly to get commitment and then reinvest the funds into growing the Entreflâneur brand.

We host Zoom calls once per week.

Criteria we’re looking for in applicants:

1. You should already have an established income, either through your own business or through a job. We're not here to teach beginners how to make money online.

2. You should be willing to change cities if you're current city isn't best suited for entreflâneurs.

3. You should have something to contribute to the group. The value of a Mastermind comes from the the members, not courses or content.

4. You should not be a douche. You should be trustworthy and have a good heart.

Click here to apply