Category: Uncategorized

Don’t play with matches

Be careful with knives

They can hurt you

Wound you

Stop you from living a full life

Often times, we are so worried about getting hurt/feeling pain

That we don’t:

Play with that skateboard

Move to that city

Take that job

Date that friend

We refuse these “risks” all in the name of pain.

We rather stay comfortable.

But we were not made for comfort, we were made for greatness.

We need to take those leaps, make the jump, and go for it.

For it’s better to die on the battlefield

Than in a closed room alone

What Will Other People Think?

This acronym is a killer.

We hear it all the time, particularly from likes of business CEOs like Gary Vaynerchuk.

We can’t let others dictate our life, our dreams, and our ambitions.

We can’t let others’ opinions drown out our own inner voice.

We can’t let them stop us from doing what we love.

But like everything, there are two sides to the coin.

Just as we can’t let others stop us from executing/going for it, so can we learn from asking the question:

WWOPT – What Will Other People Think?

What will they think about our product?

What will they think about our service?

What will our competitors think? How will they respond?

It’s also a good way to measure the ethics/morals of our decisions.

What will other people think if all our actions were on the front page of the newspaper/internet?

How would our actions change if this were the case?

How can we use WWOPT to our advantage in our business and personal life?

When we were looking down, they were looking up

When we turned left, they went right

When we stopped, they moved

When we ran, they walked

When we biked, they swam

When we took the train, they rode the bus

When we talked, they thought

When we thought, they were doing

We are the majority.

They are the exceptions.

These exceptions are those that do not heed “normal” advice.

They don’t break the rules.

They just don’t see any.

They do what others believe they can’t.

They swam towards the current

Ran towards the fire

Marched towards the field of battle

And it is because of this, that we (the majority) admire them.

Because they change things.

Not just for themselves.

But for everyone.

What’s the ROI?

This is one of the most common questions asked in business.

The answer?

It depends.

Typically, ROI (Return on Investment) is defined as the additional return/value received for a action/project after a specified period of time.

The last part is the catch.

How do you label the specified time period?

Often times, there is no definitive period.

No knowing, when, if at all, we will see a return.

We are all using measuring, calculating, pondering, strategizing, estimating, debating, predicting, wondering…

Hoping that the seed we planted will grow into a large and fruitful tree.

But we can’t force it.

We can continue to put in the work and water the ground around it.

It’s overwhelming.

Thinking about life.

There’s so many options.

Countless problems.

More than one solution.

How do we tackle it? What’s the game plan?

We create one.

Then it changes.

Create one again.

This is life.

We are the authors.

There’s never going to be a “final copy” for our book we write.

So don’t stop writing.

Let’s tell as many stories as we can.

 

 

I’m at a crossroad.

Literally.

Like actually as I write this I’m at the train station.

The analogy, “at a crossroad in your life” naturally comes to mind. It describes the moment we realize that the decision we make will affect the future.

But something I am noticing, is that everything is a crossroad. We are always on the brink, for in any moment we can decide to go south instead of north, west instead of east.

Don’t like the direction you are headed?

Get off at the next stop and change your direction.

How is it, that when people buy shoes, they only look at Nike?

Or if they are buying laptops or phones, they only look into Apple?

Clothes, they only look at Banana Express?

Because before their purchase, they have already bought.

They bought into the companies a long time ago.

These companies have established a medium, they have placed themselves in the customer journey, they have wedged themselves in the lives of thousands of people. They are so ingrained in us, that we take them along for our next journey.

It does not matter if the person changes their sport or style, Nike and Banana Express will be there to support it. And whenever these companies issue new products/services, even it might be expensively priced, (ahem..iPhone X) these people will buy it.

How can we get other people to buy into us, like they have bought into these companies? How can we help these people along their journey?

 

I was working on my laptop in my backyard, getting super frustrated…my webpages were taking forever to load.

I look at my wifi connection: fluctuating between 1-2 bars.

10 minutes later: I got to the point where all my pages were refusing to load..Finally I moved four feet closer to my house..instantly 4 bars go up and my pages load in miliseconds.

It seems in life I sometimes put myself in situations where I start waiting, praying that something good will happen

When in reality, all I need to do is move my laptop and myself a couple feet, change my perspective, and new opportunities will arise

How can we blueprint our life? How can we create an all encompassing network for everything?  Completely personalized for oneself?

This is something I have been thinking about for the past three years. Unfortunately, I do not have a photographic memory, so I cannot remember or recall everything that I have learned in my life. Often times, I have to reteach, reresearch, or relearn various skills. What if we had a blueprint for all of this? What if we had a set of steps as a go to for all life’s problems, so once we solve something, we never have to worry about solving it again?

The internet and Google have been helpful and can solve the majority of our problems, but I believe that nothing can be used as effectively as evernote, or just case filing all types of problems/interests/projects. Thus, to do this effectively, I need to document. Everything that has been of value. Then I need to structure a way for ease of access. Time to get to work!

So you want to get into a club.

There are different ways in.

The First Door: VIP entry. This is for the celebrities, the stars, the big shots. No waiting time, they walk in whenever they want to and instantly get their place in the club.

The Second Door: Main entry. This is for the commonfolk. They bought their tickets or are waiting in line to see if the club has room for them.

Then there’s the door no one is talking about. Its The Third Door. It could be an open window, through the kitchen door, from a back alley, ect..but its a way in.

It may be hard to find, but its always there. It’s just up to your perseverance and grit to find it.

When you enter this door, there will be no attendants waiting for you. There is no waiting line at all. Your dress/suit may get ripped while squeezing through bushes, hopping over a fence. You may be nervous. You might even get caught and kicked out sometimes. Its risky and dangerous business.  But its worth it.

Bottom line: People will say: “well at least you got in.”

I’ll go a step further: I believe this third door is way more than just “getting in.” By taking the harder, lesser-known path, you have learned so much more on the journey.