Caleb Gogela

ABOUT

Thank you for visiting my portfolio! Below is some general information and further is a brief summary of my life and accomplishments.

Age: 17

Location: Manitoba, Canada

Occupation: Online Trader, Buy & Sell, Athlete

Before continuing, I would like to go over my morals and values.

Respect others and make it mutual.

Spread the truth.

Never go back on your word.

"In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act"

-George Orwell

Significant Events Accoplishments and Experiences:

Work Experience:

I taught math to grades 1, 4, and 6-12. I educated in 2 environments, online and in person. I worked as an assistant instructor online to highly advanced learners in grades 1 and 4. I taught grades 6-12 as the school's math educator in person. Being the only math instructor in that school, I designed all programs, materials, and coursework for the learners over the course of the school year. Prior to both of my classroom roles, I did private tutoring. With a mastery of mathematics up to and including calculus, I take pride in sharing my knowledge and passion for math with others. From 2020 onward, I have taken a multitude of freelance graphic design jobs. I've designed restaurant menus, flyers, business cards, brochures, clothing, logos, and other merchandise. Additionally, I have over 3 years of experience practicing digital arbitrage. My methods ranged from digital wholesale, virtual item flipping, global monetary exchange services, and much more. As you will read further, my journey in digital arbitrage is a lot like the paperclip challenge, I started with $50 and scaled to multiple 5 figures in under 2 years. I replicate what I do online in person with physical goods ranging vastly from sports/Pokémon cards to sneakers to cologne (along with many other items). Whether it be holding long term investments in my collectable card portfolio, or making bulk case purchases and selling them within weeks or months, these methods can be transferred to most other areas of arbitrage. In 2024 I started a business selling table tennis equipment. My goal is to make inaccessible products available to everyone for an affordable price. Having connections to China's top table tennis teams, you are guaranteed to get the best of the best quality. My most recent endeavors are diving into the crypto and DEFI space learning how to effectively day trade and make short term investments. More specifically in the DEFI space I've taken to trading real estate. That may sound crazy, but new platforms such as Parcl have made it possible to trade global real estate markets.

Volunteer Work:

Throughout my years, I have volunteered at a variety of places including: seniors homes, homeless shelters/soup kitchens, delivering hampers and various fund raising events, charitable organizations hosting an outlet for youth, free graphic design work for charitable causes. The ultimate highlight for me has been the opportunity to coach table tennis. Especially where I live, the goal is to get as many new people into the sport as possible. Moving that needle forward is fulfilling and a great service to my own education.

Education:

Rather than the traditional path of "schooling", I took an unconventional path. In my early years of childhood, I attended a Montessori school; a hands on, student lead and collaborative deviation of traditional "school". Many of my best experiences came from Montessori, some of which include: Montessori Model United Nations (MMUN), volunteer work, acting and most importantly, leading! Educating others often younger but sometimes older, is a large component of Montessori learning. Past grade 6, I was homeschooled through grades 7 and 8. During that time I worked hard to consummate grades 7, 8, 9 and a portion of 10. Through that experience, I became adapted to online learning and was able to persevere through the result of covid's education alternative. I moved into the University of Winnipeg Collegiate for my freshman year in high school where I was immediately enrolled in grade 10 and 11 enhanced courses. The next year, despite being a consistent honor roll student, I was removed from the school merited my health choices. All sports I participated in ended for the same reason. My life transitioned into a state of limbo leading up to the end of 2022; I discovered Apogee. One consistent endeavor I strived to excel in, is a program called Spirit of Math. It is an advanced math program where I graduated with honors.

Sports:

I've played sports since I was little, although, on and off due to unforeseen circumstances. My two most accomplished sports are hockey (goaltender) and table tennis. From training with the best in the province to preparing for competition, in the Canada Winter Games. It has been a wild ride that came to an abrupt end after finding out I couldn't participate given my personal health choices. I still play hockey recreationally, but not as seriously prior to covid. After a short period of little physical activity, I explored a variety of self-defense methods including wielding a jo staff, and practicing a range of martial arts. Some examples include krav maga, kick boxing, and grappling. Currently, I am training and playing table tennis competitively with the squad and hopefuls for Canadian nationals. At the end of March, I travelled to Montreal, Quebec for one of the largest tournaments in Canada; I had the privilege to represent Team Manitoba. Most recently I played in Canadian Nationals.

APOGEE

Apogee Strong is an online mentorship program founded in 2020 by Tim Kennedy and Matt Beaudreau with the mission to guide the leaders of the next generation. Apogee provides various challenges and projects as an opportunity for its mentees to grow and improve themselves. Apogee serves its leaders by presenting them with world class mentors: military / special operations personnel, successful entrepreneurs, influential speakers, professional athletes and others leading for the same cause.

Projects/Challenges

Mentors

Readings

Yes sir no sir

In this operation, the goal is to be gentleman-like. I did this by addressing everyone (where applicable) by sir and ma'am. More examples of focused actions are: handshakes, holding the door, constant eye contact in a conversation, etc. Many times, I found myself unable to determine whether I should address someone as sir or ma'am so I chose to not address them by either. My conclusion for this operation is that it's most appreciated, and easier to apply with seniors.

Family Rules

Family rules are not meant to preponderate one another. The purpose is to set a standard in the household. If the parents are not holding the standard, it is expected for the child or children to respectfully call them out. It is a reminder that serves us as a tool for accountability.

Plan Ahead

The title perfectly describes what the operation is about. Most people are not prepared for a house fire, break-in, even a flat tire. Planning for these rare instances can save you a lot of time, trouble and potentially, a life. I never really understood how important preparedness is until I had to think on my feet. I had an encounter downtown fairly late at night, likely a gang affiliated individual mentioned explicit events were to occur within a short period of time before following me several hundred meters and into a building. Luckily, I had a good idea of what to do. I managed to find a concert hall and convinced my way past security and had the individual removed from the premise until my ride arrived. Be prepared, this could happen to anyone.

First Responder Interview

Much alike the CEO interviews, first responders have an immense wealth of experience and wisdom to share. I had the opportunity to interview use of force instructor and patrol officer within the Maine police force, Kevin Demmons. Some of my key takeaways include a deeper understanding of the involuntary stress response within the limbic system, insights into how people’s perceptions are formed after first interactions, and the importance of considering facts as they appear before leaning on preconceptions.

Paper Clip

The idea of this challenge is that you start with a paper clip and trade up to something more valuable and desirable. Over the past year and a half, I've went from $50 into the 5 figures purely through trades of goods. For me, the most effective money methods are just repeating the same transactions with good margins over and over while making them as efficient as possible. Recently in 2024 I've decided to try it again the traditional way and thus far I've made it to an exclusive Wonder Woman movie poster, and a heated seat covering (very nice to have during Canada's winters if your car doesn't have heated seats).

Board of Directors

Think of a board of directors as your own personal cabinet of counsellors. They can be dead or alive as long as you can properly conceptualize their personality and intuitive advice. Some personalities in my cabinet include Diogenes, for his cynical world view, dog-like virtues, and his clever remarks given a specific situation and William Wallace, to not act in cowardice, to be a man, to do the right thing, a reminder of the greater good. A more recent addition to my board of directors is my own alter ego; sometimes you know the answer, you just need to remind yourself. Lastly, the most important piece being my own moral code. I can look to my morals if something is questionable, that should solve most problems regarding ethics.

Get to Work

Yet again, the title is self-explanatory. In September 2022, I was offered 2 jobs: instructing mathematics in a classroom setting to middle school/high school learners, and as an assistant instructor to an online class of gifted individuals studying math. I took both. I taught a variety of ages from grade 1 to grade 12. Instructing in person was a challenge, as the learners had lost multiple years of education due to COVID-19 restrictions. Getting them caught up proved to be difficult, as many of them found themselves discouraged or abnormally challenged by my material. I loved challenging them with my own word problems. I am grateful to those who pointed out errors I made and helped me learn. The person who learns the most in any classroom is the educator.

Stand up and Speak

This is a challenge to your public speaking ability. I spoke to various groups of learners to educate them about mathematics throughout the entire school year (my job). This might seem not-so-bad speaking to people similar in age to you. In reality adults are more forgiving than tweens and teenagers (the grades 1-4 were the least intimidating to speak to, they were welcoming and happy to see you). Not everyone is happy to hear some guy rambling about math you might not understand, so the challenge for me was keeping the learners engaged. Especially because they think differently than I do, I prefer a lesson strictly about the topic, in detail with all reason and "why" explained. I needed to add some fun into my lessons, an example might be making my word problems about a trending topic, calling each person up to do the question, making the proportions absurd (mike went to the store for 3000 watermelons) or using the individual's names in the questions. I noticed that not everyone craves the full understanding and why something works rather than simply what works. This is a great way to practice speaking in front of a group, though not everyone has this opportunity, you can find an audience elsewhere to talk about what you love.

Philanthropy Undercover

Giving back to others is an important part of life. This can be done through a good deed or some monetary donation. I like to help others learn how to make money online and I have successfully done so. Few people remember that my instruction was what opened the gateway to what they earned. Occasionally I give away virtual items (worth real money) to people online in their favorite video game, but often they give me approval, though it is not the point of this challenge. The real reason behind this challenge is to have it unknown that you did the good deed, without seeking approval. An example would be doing all the dishes while your parents are not home; generally, any good deed without recognition. Through exercising the latter, I still received approval because that kind of work hardly goes unnoticed.

Alter Ego

Often seen in sports or other competition, one's dark side, their killer instinct comes out, this is an alter ego. Some of the world's greatest users of an alter ego include Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. This isn't easy for everyone to utilize. For example, in sports I find myself in a different mindset, not a different version of myself. Something like trading (situationally) might require me to use an alter ego and be perceived in a certain way to secure a deal or influence my competitors.

Man Skills

These are skills you might deem essential to qualify as a "man". Well, that depends on your definition of a "man" as most men in our current society don't know how to do a lot of these things. A few essential skills include: CPR and first aid, tie a tie, tie utility knots, basic auto-mechanic skills, changing tires, oil etc, gardening, using hand and power tools. There are too many skills to name here and no man can master all of them but in any world, a jack of all trades is always useful. It is always good to go back and review these skills, use them or lose them.

CEO Interviews

Interviewing can be a hard skill to learn for many but my development is only pushed further with this challenge. I reached out by email and Instagram to various successful business owners for an interview. Thus far, I have had 2 successful interviews with Shea Ritchie (Founder of restaurant chain Chaise Cafe, real estate and crypto investor) and Brad Johnson (Co-Founder of the wealth management firm, Triad Partners).

Food Tracking

This month was about tracking my food intake. Though it is tedious to track each and every thing you eat, it reveals important information about yourself. I felt better on the days I ate more, especially protein rich foods. I was more tired towards bedtime after eating lots throughout the day. I felt lazy and sluggish more often with small calorie intake. This can be incredibly important in many situations. Some examples include: if you are an athlete, someone trying to lose weight or even a parent planning on having their first child.

Mentoring

Mentor: a trusted counselor or guide. I believe this is what I did for a particular individual. I enjoyed guiding them and helping them given a situation. It gave me a sense of fulfillment. Our conversation often lasted longer than I planned but I enjoyed talking. This challenge isn't a one-month commitment, it is an action to carry out in perpetuity. Through 2024 I've started my own weekly calls to help and serve other young men along their own journeys. With the main purpose being to help young men through whatever challenges Apogee related or not, I also like to bring up different Socratic conversations (thinking exercises) each week.

Kim's Game

Kim's game is a tool to practice your situational awareness. The premise of the game is to observe a scene or view and have someone slightly alter it and you need to figure out what was changed. I put a large quantity of random objects from my desk onto a cutting board and had someone change the configuration. I found that to be extremely challenging to start. Remember those I Spy books when you were younger? The board looked like one of those photos. A book shelf is another great place to practice. I found the bookshelf to be the most fun. You will eventually start to pick up on metrics such as height, width, color, etc in patterns. In a real-life situation, this game can elevate your senses to notice if a common situation might seem off or potentially dangerous.

Old-school

In modern day society, electronics can take up a lot of our time, but how we chose to use that time determines their worth. This month I limited my phone use to 30 minutes per day or less with no TV or computer other than for work purposes. This was especially difficult for me and I did go over the 30-minute time allotment multiple times. There are many other things to do than sit on your phone or computer passing time. Over the course of the 30 days I read several thousand pages of books, the most I'd ever read in a month by far.

Volunteer Work

Throughout my lifetime, I have always been involved in volunteer work. It is immensely important to give back. Many people believe life is a zero-sum game. Each time you take an opportunity or receive help, it is often the giver balancing the scale. It is your responsibility to even out that scale in your own life. Despite those facts, there are many valuable, even life changing lessons to be taken (again zero sum), from the simple action of giving.

90 Hard

Heard of 75 hard? Apogee raises the bar to 90 days rather than 75. I decided to go the extra mile and do 100 days. The challenge is outlined here. I faced 3 major challenges throughout the 100 days: tearing my MCL (major functioning tissue of the knee and leg), getting sick to the point of not being able to walk with assisted stability, and going on a 15-day road trip across the USA. The MCL tear resulted from a BJJ heel hook maneuver, it hurt. I couldn't walk on crutches without high pain levels for about 2 weeks and couldn't fully extend or retract my knee for a month. Getting outside in cold Autumn weather on crutches to complete a workout was not easy, but I managed to push through and do it. Doing physical activity while sick is just harder. Doing 100 hard while on a road trip was certainly not convenient and ended in many 2, 3, or 4 am nights in the hotel gym or walking/jogging outside at night. The most difficult technicality was finding food that matched the parameters of my diet, (whole foods or foods derived directly from whole foods) especially on the road trip. While on the road I found myself operating on one banana throughout a whole day because I couldn't find healthy food while sticking to schedule. Living up north in Canada can make the outdoor workouts difficult in winter. For all reading this, the challenge is about consistency and habit building rather than simply making life harder for yourself. One should not finish this challenge and go back to old habits; this is a lifestyle change.

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