How drug addicts have the root of all success.
Ross Jeffries (the wildly successful god father of dating advice) says that Tony Robbins creates people that are addicted to Tony’s work. Ross means well I’m sure, but Tony absolutely needs to create addicts for self-improvement.
Tony Robbins made his customers addicted to him.
Drug addiction illustrates perfectly the main concept of nearly all positive change we have in ourselves.
Only after you’re addicted to something do you get the real effects from it. Self improvement material is not something you learn and are done with it. It’s like weeding a garden that requires constant maintenance to keep your mind clean, usually by listening to gurus repeatedly will allow you to catch the things you missed the last time you listened.
Most people probably think drugs are for losers that need a temporary high, just like self improvement material. Then one bad day happens, and you’re more apt to listen to some guru (or take a drug). Just like someone is more receptive to something on one day more than the other, repeatedly “pushing” the drug / self-improvement stuff will eventually click.
If you try drugs once, probably no lasting changes will happen. Same thing as if you listen to one self improvement video or go to one seminar. You get the results from repeatedly doing it, like going to many seminars (and doing many drugs).
I thought Tony was doing a disservice by making people addicted to his works. But it’s like picking weeds – you can pick all the weeds today and understand how to pick weeds, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pick more weeks next week. And like an overgrown garden, most of the weed picking is at first when you clear them all out, but it’s much faster to maintain a weed free garden.
Self improvement goes in the category of working out, weeding gardens, and doing drugs…there’s no end destination to it, and doing it repeatedly (aka “addicted” if it’s bad, “persistent” if it’s good) is the only way to keep those changes.
You were born to lose (and the hidden curse of Mozart).
Mozart was cursed.
People look for hidden talents in ourselves like we’re all a hidden Mozart with abilities to recall symphonies from memory alone and such.
“If you could just find what you’re good at and born to do, everything else will fall into place!” – Random incorrect guru.
Here’s what you were born to do – lose. You’re not naturally good at anything. You’ve tried lots of stuff, and everything is hard for you.
It just seems like you’re not gifted enough, strong enough, smart enough.
Here’s why that’s a blessing…
When you’re born a savant with ‘natural God given talents’ and such, your pathway in life becomes almost predestined. Your DNA has dictated what you’re going to be doing: composing music.
What if Mozart didn’t like composing? What if he wanted to be a professional dare devil instead?
There’s no chance of the daredevil Mozart. Society would have pushed him SO HARD in ONE direction, he wouldn’t have the chance to consider what he wants to do.
You being a born loser is infinitely liberating.
You’re bad at everything, which nearly everyone else is too, so that puts you on a level playing field with most people. Then you can simply make a decision on what you want to do (instead of having your DNA tell you) with your time.
With time, you will get better at it. It’s just like the person that wants to be a YouTube star and realizes their camera presence is awful at first, you can look at how Ray William Johnson and Rhett and Link looked like at first – awful stuff. They kept at it, got better, and now look like they were ‘naturals’ all along.
Stop looking to be good at everything right off the start to find your path.
You want the balance of seeing both what your DNA could enable you to do (eg. don’t be a computer scientist if you’re the dumbest person in the room) as well as your choices (eg. don’t be a doctor because every generation in your family was a doctor).
When you hear someone say, “I’d love to do X, but I’m no good at it.” You can affirm to them of what a born loser they are…and also why that’s such a blessing.
You determine your path.
How to learn twice as much from every statement.
We’re taught to listen to what someone has to say and that’s how we learn. But if you look at the meta information that’s being conveyed, that usually is helpful.
Seeing “Do what I say, not what I do,” in a different light.
Russ Ruffino from ClientsOnDemand.com says they made all their money without having to the typical blog posting, podcasts, and creating a massive following that others have to do. Meanwhile, they have a huge podcast at this point and instead of “blogging” on a website, they just post frequently on Facebook (that’s just a mini blog).
Kevin David from OfficialKevinDavid.com says he offers a money back guarantee and you should offer one as well, but puts it in his fine print that you can only get the guarantee if you’ve paid full price for his course. But his course is almost always discounted. Therefore, no money back guarantee.
Sam Ovens says he has a joke of website with spelling mistakes on Consulting.com and says he doesn’t care about his YouTube following. He wants to focus on creating the best consulting course ever. But his YouTube channel has nearly 500 videos as of Mar 2019, and his website is beautifully designed currently. Whoops…
Ever wonder why someone would offer a 105% Money Back Guarantee? There is rampant chargeback fraud in America. People buy anything, and then demand their credit card company refund them without even trying to talk to the merchant first. If a merchant offers 105% money back, the fraudsters will go the merchant to get the extra free cash rather than screwing their merchant account over with a chargeback.
Continuing to think about why people are doing things as opposed to just what they’re doing will benefit you. Because I’ve never seen it in any course ever why to offer a money back guarantee like that, but that’s likely a very good guess.
To be fair, probably in all these examples, they all started differently than where they are now.
But you can learn often times just from observing the meta.
What are they actually doing (eg. blog posting, working nonstop)? Why are they doing it? What do all of them have in common (eg. all presenters make a joke every 7 minutes to keep audience attention)?
Why pay for a funnel course when you can just go through the funnel itself and watch them try to sell you? Many of the answers we’re seeking are right there in the meta. You have to block out what they want you to see and instead just see things for what they actually are and follow that.
Close your eyes and see for the first time.
How to know if the answer is within or if you need to go find it.
“Still the mind, the answer is within you!” – Random Guru.
Often times, you don’t have the answer and you can sit in a corner for hours on end and it will never come. You’ve got to read, learn, confer, etc to find it – the answer is everywhere but within.
But sometimes the answer IS within. But what good is knowing that if you don’t know whether it’s within or outside of you.
An easy thought experiment can usually give you a hint. Imagine there was an all knowing, super successful person that could possess you and make you do whatever they wanted. If nothing comes to mind as to what those things that you’d do, then the answer is outside of you.
But many times, you know exactly what would happen in that possession. That means, the answer is likely within.
I also use “possession” and not “advice,” because the advice of “Get up earlier and work on that business,” may have you saying, “Oh, I just can’t do that. That’s not me.”
Or advice of “Tell off your boss and quit,” being met with, “Oh I could never do that, what other advice do you have that’s easier…that’s more like something I’d do?”
We already know what “you” would do – it’d get you to the point you’re at right now. If you wanted something different, you’re going to do something that your current persona wouldn’t do. So, you want to think of being “possessed,” not some advice that you wouldn’t take.
Think about how you could change someone’s life that’s doing much worse than you if you could possess them. If you can imagine what you’d do for that person, the same can be said for you by someone that’s much more successful than you.
What things are you not doing that you know a superior version of yourself would immediately make you do?
How to know who’s always right – Ed Mylett vs Gary Vee vs Grant Cardone
You need patience – Gary Vee
You need to not be patient – Ed Mylett
You can’t be broke and happy – Grant Cardone
You can be broker and happy – Ed Mylett
Who’s right in these battles? The answer is they’re all right.
Gary Vee’s idea that you need patience is true.
Many people try something, it doesn’t work, and they give up. Gary is saying to “not give up” more so than he’s saying to be “patient” as in “to wait.” But with patience means persistence, which means not giving up, which usually means success.
Ed Mylett’s idea that you should stop being patient is true.
In the gym, a lot of new comers warn of “over training” and talk of “you grow when you rest” and other ideas (excuses?) that make them feel good for not going full throttle. A new comer is going to experience no where near enough exercise to truly be in jeopardy of overtraining. Many bodybuilders spend hours every day in the gym.
Restated: Stop worrying about overtraining if you’re new to the game – you’re likely not going to come anywhere near close enough to overtraining.
In the same way, you should stop worrying about being patient. You’re no where near moving fast enough that you need patience. You need patience to buy a billion dollar sports team, but you may not need so much patience to build a skillset that allows you to work a job you love and quit the one you hate.
You should absolutely be impatient for that.
Patience allows you to not give up and Gary is speaking to his crowd full of people just starting out that feel that it’s easy to quit or feel angry that they’ve “put in 1 year of work and wondering why they’re not filthy rich yet.”
Patience allows for planning, perspective, and drops the sense of entitlement that a lot of people have.
Lack of patience allows for getting moving faster, not being content with just giving a tiny bit of effort and saying “the rest will come with time.”
You need balance between both these ideologies.
Next…who’s right about money and happiness – Ed or Grant?
Grant Cardone says you need money to be happy. Ed says you don’t need money to be happy in this interview on YouTube.
Grant is saying you can’t be dead broke, meaning no money in the bank account such that your basic needs aren’t taken care of (eg. you’re homeless, scared on the streets, hungry, filthy, etc).
Grant’s right – you need enough cash (or control) to not be in fear of your survival to be happy.
Ed’s saying that you don’t need to have tons of cash to be happy, his definition of broke is probably making $20k a year, and/or not making anything but basically having the benefits of cash (eg. other people take care of you, like Mother Teresa). Also if you’re rich and your health is terrible, you’re less happy than if you were “broke” (eg. making $20k a year) but healthy.
Ed’s right – you don’t need a ton of cash to be happy.
People often want a guru to be right all the time, but it’s very unlikely that we see that usually due to 1 problem that plagues most conflict:
The definitions of the words they use are different depending on who they’re speaking to (someone just starting out on their journey needs to hear that patience is a good thing, vs someone that’s succeeded a bit needs to hear that patience is a bad thing) and the words themselves mean different things to the person saying them.
“Broke” to Ed Mylett is $20k a year,
“Broke” to Grant Cardona is $0k a year (and no one is helping you either).
“Patience” to Gary means more “have perspective and don’t give up,”
“Patience” to Ed means more “start accomplishing as much stuff that you can, as fast as you can.”
Therefore, consider 2 common points of conflict:
1 – The meaning of the words wasn’t the same.
How many conflicts have you been involved in where what you heard said wasn’t what the person meant? If Ed asked “What exactly do you mean by broke,” he wouldn’t have discovered he didn’t disagree with Grant.
2 – The statement heard may not have been intended for us specifically.
How many times did we hear advice that sounded “wrong” but really was wrong for us specifically because they didn’t know precisely our situation?
It’s hard to ever be fully right, and hard to ever be fully wrong.
The truth doesn’t always set you free.
There are certain true beliefs that are very empowering. But sometimes the truth is actually very disempowering.
“It all works out in the end.” – A great belief, but it’s totally false.
It doesn’t always work out, but it’s a good way to think of things that keeps you moving forward.
“There’s always a silver lining.” – Many times there are, but not always.
Sometimes there is a silver lining, and sometimes the downside far outweighs that silver lining “benefit.”
The one thing that’s better than a silver lining, is not making bad decisions in the first place that makes you have to find a bit of goodness embedded in it.
Inaccurate beliefs are helpful to keep you progressing without giving up.
“Life is short.” – A true belief that sounds bad but helps get you moving before it’s too late.
Finding a silver lining sounds like a “good” belief, however sometimes having a good belief such as that can be terrible for you if it allows you to accept a snail’s pace of progress.
What “good” beliefs are actually hindering you?
Why the future best economy is a dying one.
Right now there’s a drive for:
business leaders to create jobs,
employees to continue to remain employed,
entrepreneurs to make money,
and governments want to increase GDP.
Entrepreneurs have goals like creating wealth for others (via jobs) or creating wealth for themselves. These are noble goals, but I’d like to see a future where the goals are different. What if we had goals like:
Reduce profits, create massive layoffs, and lower the GDP.
People fear AI and robots taking their jobs. But why do we need any jobs if the robots do everything for us? We can all live like kings if everyone has 10 robots working for them.
I don’t need to work late at the office anymore to afford the premium cable channel TV line up of HBO / Cinemax. Netflix / internet has 100,000x more entertainment than the old $200 a month cable TV used to cost.
We don’t need:
- $1500 for a hip new computer, they’re dirt cheap now.
- $300 for long distance bill, because Cricket is $35
- $200 for gas, b/c you have a Tesla.
- $200 for the electric bill, b/c you have solar panels.
- $50 for organic veggies, b/c you’ve got a backyard urban farm.
We’re already headed towards the end of work.
People will create their own shows, and invent things without profit motives in mind. Instead they’ll share inventions for others to build upon it. Inventors wouldn’t care about selling anything, because they can basically have almost everything as is. When we can finally invent for the betterment of mankind without having profit motives, there will be a true paradigm shift.
If the cure to cancer was mixing salt and vinegar in a magic ratio, there’s almost no way to profit from that discovery. But what if you were motivated to just be better without profit motives, imagine what things may be discovered.
We’re already getting closer to this point as is, as charities are growing.
Stop fearing losing your job to AI and be happy that your job is no longer needed. The trend is that to achieve the same thing, less people are needed (eg. take a look at how many farmers it took to create 1000 lbs of corn in 1950 vs now).
I’d like to create a business that makes people not have to work but instead just do whatever valuable thing they’d like to do and contribute to the planet.
A business like this would cause the GDP to drop because my customers will have what they need so much that they don’t find themselves needing to spend nearly as much money.
When all the jobs of drudgery are gone, and living great becomes “free,” people will have the time to do things that matter, and build better, bigger, cooler things. And then we will see the ultimate exponential rise in achievement.
Imagine on a small level, that you put a bunch of highly motivated, healthy, intelligent, successful people in one place like Puerto Rico. If you came and looked in a year, they will have fixed it up significantly. The barter system would start to rise up a bit, where the strong guy cleans up the fallen trees, the smart guy gets the power back, and so on. They’d make their lives better by not littering – not because of some government clean up plan to create jobs, but just because no litter simply makes their life better.
This isn’t communism which needs everyone to create value. This is about not needing to create additional value at all. Want to sit on your ass all day and no nothing? That’s super cheap, and now you can.
Seem impossible? VR is the thing that pushes us in this direction more than anything else. You don’t need a high rise condo if you feel like you’re in one by using your VR headset. You don’t need to travel across the world if you feel like you’re instantly there with VR. You don’t need plastic surgery if everyone sees you as your avatar. You don’t need a job anymore, because you don’t need to spend money on anything besides the basics to live.
Maybe the richest person in the world in 100 years has no money, and that’s a good thing.
What is this site?
Self improvement for smart people.
I follow business leaders, gurus, and philosophers and note things others missed that I’ve found valuable.
This site is my precious treasure chest of ideas on business, philosophy and life. And hopefully during your pillaging here, you get your mind blown.
My life’s goals are to help summarize the human knowledge base, dispel self improvement myths, and achieve a resultant and unrelenting state of 24/7 euphoria. I’m kidding, but we’ll still try!
Follow along on my journey!
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