Interview Special: “What’s The TEA, Amy?” Host Says These 16 Life-Changing Lessons Are “Absolutely Fantastic”

Recently, I sat down for an interview with British actress, influencer, and podcast host Amy Jackson Westwick.

In our interview, we discussed…

16 Life-Changing Lessons

I wish I had known these lessons (and what REALLY matters) earlier in my career.

Giving back is my true passion (and what makes all the hard work worthwhile).

When it was all said and done, Amy had this to say:

“Tim, I love the way you see the world.

“I love the way you talk about the world. I love the LOVE you have for the world.

“Thank you for sharing all of your inspiration. Come on…

“Absolutely fantastic.”

Enjoy the full interview…

My Full “What’s The TEA, Amy?” Interview

I hope you enjoy this interview with the one and only Amy Jackson Westwick (she’s amazing).

It’s true, I chased money for years before I realized the truth.

Here are the big life lessons I learned along the way…

1. Cut Losses Quickly In Trading and In Life

This industry is full of failure and bitterness. The answer?

Rule #1: Cut Losses Quickly. 

Too many people fall in love with penny stocks.

Once upon a time I fell in love with a penny stock and lost $1M (my heart was broken).

I was dead on about home printed ticketing technology. But I was dead wrong about the company.

If you do it the wrong way, you’re going to lose.

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It’s no different than driving a nice sports car and ignoring the road signs. If you go through red lights, you’re going to crash and burn.

2. Obsession and Dedication Beats Talent and Intelligence

I was self-taught (it was the early days of the internet).

In high school there were computer blocks with 10 computers in the library.

And because the internet was so slow, I would load one web page on one computer.

Then, while it was finishing, I would go to the next.

So, I had an early 10-monitor computer setup, but it was really just the library at my high school.

I skipped class (sorry kids).

Many people come into the market every day (whether they’re trading penny stocks or crypto or anything else) with the wrong mindset.

“Give me something to buy…”

That’s gambling. It’s no different than going to a casino. You don’t have the odds on your side.

But if you prepare…

• Study hard
• Study on weekends
• Look at charts
• Look at trends….

You CAN get the odds on your side.

Many of my top students are not the smartest at math.

They’re not book smart. They just want it bad enough.

It might not be 100% of the time, but I win roughly 70% of the time (which is pretty good).

3.  Money Is a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself

My purpose initially was to travel, to retire my parents (because they worked hard) and to take care of family.

Done.

Then I wanted to make $1,000,000 because I thought that I could (and I did).

It wasn’t easy, but I did it.

Then I wanted to teach. So far I’ve created roughly 50 millionaire students.

Coming up on 18 years of teaching, it’s been a WILD journey with thousands of students taught, but here are some of my top millionaire https://t.co/occ8wKmlgm students — all of them prioritized their education first and built their small accounts up to seven figures, and some… pic.twitter.com/jiyVnNUtW7

— Timothy Sykes (@timothysykes) March 17, 2026

One goal at a time.

But after all that money, all that luxury, all that travel, you want more.

And that got me into charity.

Now I want to build 1,000 schools. My charity Karmagawa has built 130 schools in 32 countries.

Roughly 33,000 kids go to our school every day.

The cool thing is, because we have so many schools, some of the kids have graduated.

They have jobs and they’re supporting their families.

4. Success Feels Empty Without Purpose

A lot of wealthy people, especially traders, are set in their ways.

For a while, I was the same.

I did the luxury hotels, the sports cars, and all the materialistic stuff.

It gets boring…

I remember the last time I spent too much money at a nightclub (STORY in Miami).

I had this giant table in the front of everything and it was $22,000 for the night.

At the end of the night I walked home. It was a three hour walk.

All I could think was “what am I doing with my life?”

I was feeling empty, so I started to travel, to learn about the world.

On a trip to Bali, I convinced my driver from the Viceroy Bali to take me to his village.

I met his family. It was so different and so beautiful.

We tried to build a school there, but village politics got in the way.

That inspired me to start building schools.

5. Education Is High-Leverage

A lot of people in the Western world take education for granted.

“School? Whatever, I don’t need that. I’m not going to learn that much.”

In third world countries it can mean the difference between life or death.

If you can’t read or do basic math, it condemns you to poverty.

So we’re trying to teach kids just the basics.

It’s my obsession.

6. Fake Information Causes Real Damage

There’s a myth that eating pangolin scales or rhinoceros horns makes you strong.

People kill these animals for keratin. It’s in our FINGERNAILS.

Eating pangolin scales has ZERO scientifically proven benefits.

We’re killing animals because of myths. And it goes beyond the animals…

For example, an adult pangolin can eat 15,000 ants and termites in a single night.

When pangolins get killed, the insects live (and destroy the forest).

So, based on a myth we’re destroying the forest by killing the protectors of the forest. It’s crazy.

7. Travel Helps People Move Past Fear and Prejudice

Many people don’t get to travel. They don’t appreciate other cultures, especially with what’s going on in America.

Once you learn about other cultures, you learn to appreciate them. You find that we’re not so different.

Even though we might have different beliefs, we’re very similar. It’s pretty amazing when you go to other countries.

I encourage you to go beyond the typical vacation spots when you travel.

Get out of your comfort zone.

Go to a third world country, see what the world is like (you might be surprised).

8. Be Real In a World Full of Fakes

I believe in full transparency (it’s good to be real in an industry full of fakes).

That’s why I show all my trades (wins AND losses).

And it’s why I show all the donations we do with Karmagawa.

When we donate to a charity, they don’t know how much we’re going to donate.

They show us their mission and then we surprise them with a donation.

People sometimes ask why we post them online (usually the toxic haters).

We post them online to inspire crowdfunding more donations. And it works.

When Amir Zakari did our Save the Reef documentary, it actually bombed on Instagram.

But it got 15.3 million views on YouTube and raised roughly $1.5 million.

Take that, haters…

9. Turn Negativity Into Fuel

The world has a lot of big issues.

For example, we’re not going to stop climate change anytime soon. Palm oil in Indonesia is another big problem.

But there’s also potential to fix a lot of the problems with new technology.

If you look at the plastic problem around the world, it’s terrible. But new technologies have the potential to get rid of the plastic.

That’s going to change people’s minds.

Right now there’s all this negativity and people believe there are no solutions.

As technology grows (and AI gets better) it’s going to be amazing.

10. Find Your Motivation

Some people ask “How can you live luxuriously and then donate schools?”

One is for me, one is for them (a little of everything).

For some people, it’s all charity. For others, it’s all luxury.

I think that the world is much more fascinating when you start to open your mind to different possibilities.

You can be a little selfish and unselfish, too.

It’s all about having a purpose and a mission.

Kobe Bryant had the Mamba mentality.

More people need to find what they’re obsessed with.

It’s not just about working hard.

If you don’t really love something, you won’t fine tune it. So find your purpose.

In ancient Japan, the samurai were only samurai.

All they did was practice for battle (they were obsessed with the mission).

11. Fall In Love With the Process

Here’s another thing we can learn from Japanese culture…

There’s no tipping in Japan. Why?

Because service is already supposed to be perfect, so why would you tip?

There’s a certain beauty in that. It reminds me of some of the best chefs.

They might have a restaurant with six or eight seats.

They don’t look to franchise (and if they’re sick, the restaurant doesn’t open that night).

To become a sushi chef in Japan… It’s crazy.

You have to spend seven years just cutting fish and putting it on the rice. There are all these nuances. Who would do that?

When you focus on your craft and try to be perfect, whether or not you succeed, you fall in love with the process.

More people need to do that.

I fell in love with the process of trading (not just the money).

Many people get into trading because they want to get rich.

But they don’t want it bad enough to really educate themselves.

12. Stay Open-Minded and Adapt, Adapt, Adapt

When I got into trading, I was a tennis player. But then I couldn’t play tennis (due to an injury).

I was successful, but trading got old after a while so I got into teaching.

Then teaching led me to traveling more.

Then I got tired of luxury and was open minded enough to get into charity.

There were a lot of missteps along the way, but I was a philosophy major in college (that helped).

The beautiful thing about the internet is that you have access to endless information, videos, photos…

The world is at your fingertips.

But a lot of people just stick to what they love right now and they’re not willing to change.

Always be willing to change.

You might be surprised what motivates you.

If you told me that I’d be teaching or into charity as a kid, I would have said “shut up, I just want to get rich.”

You always have to challenge yourself.

NEVER just say, “okay, this is my life, I’m pigeonholed into this.”

You can literally do anything.

And the cool thing is, with all the new technology, you can make money on anything.

13. The Traditional Path Isn’t Always the Best Path

Most of the best people I know are street smart. They’re not book smart.

I get it…

If you want to be a doctor or lawyer, you need those degrees. You need to stay in school because it’s required.

But in the future?

It will change as AI takes over.

AI can program websites. You shouldn’t learn to program any more.

Think about where we are historically.

There are SO many different jobs out there where you can make more (and be financially free while doing what you love).

14. Stay Humble or Life Will Humble You

You always have to stay humble, especially in the stock market.

If you ever get too cocky, you’ll get humbled (and it can be VERY expensive).

Mistakes are a vital part of your journey.

They’re not a fun part of your journey, but they ARE vital.

Even after you’ve learned (or think you’ve learned) every lesson life has to offer…

Stay humble.

Because when you start to think “look at me, I’m so good…”

You’re standing on the edge of a cliff.

15. Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

When Mat Abad and I started Karmagawa, our goal was to build 1,000 schools.

We have a ways to go, but there’s so much opportunity to help.

If you keep going you get to that level where there’s hockey stick growth.

So, we’re also doing libraries and computer labs.

We have two now in South America where kids are learning to type, learning basic computer skills…

These are really tough neighborhoods (a lot of these communities don’t have much).

They have a negatively skewed view of the world, where nobody is coming to help them.

We’ve given musical instruments to kids.

It’s just a saxophone to you and me, but for a child with no hope, it’s night and day.

Another child in Bali was grateful that we’d opened a school and helped build a home for his family.

But it wasn’t until I’d met him for the third time that he told me he was sad because he couldn’t learn to read.

He couldn’t see the words and he was embarrassed by it.

We spent $50 on a pair of glasses and it changed his life forever.

Another child wasn’t studying because he was always tired from sleeping on the ground.

We bought him a mattress for about $100 so he could sleep and study.

It’s crazy how far a little compassion and obsession with helping can go.

Finally…

16. Focus On What Is In Your Control

People underestimate technology and how fast everything is changing.

Other people are scared of AI and robots. I get it.

But there’s also nothing we can do about it.

Don’t worry about things that aren’t in your control.

This is a very Buddhist way of thinking.

Why are you worrying? What are you going to do?

All you can do is control your own journey, your own actions.

Ignore all the dystopian future negativity out there.

Get Inspired and Take Action NOW

You have all of these tools at your fingertips that no civilization, no generation in the past has ever had.

We can do amazing things with it.

You just need a little push…

Apply for My Trading Challenge Today 

Cheers,

Tim Sykes