Anything is Possible

No one starts out perfect, but no one realizes the journey it took when you've reached the top. 

[millionaire-by-25]

I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal...

- Albert Einstein in a letter to his 11-year-old son

[millionaire-by-25]

The Meaning of Life 

[millionaire-by-25]

Claude Hopkins on Exaggeration

Men whose opinions are effective are men of moderation.

Instinct discounts superlatives. And the discount often goes too far— to the article's injustice. Adjectives callous credulity. Blatancy does not command respect. Over-statement, in reaction, creates commensurate resistance.

Some things may be the best of their kind in the world. But it is pretty hard for finite minds to know it. And harder still for cynical minds to believe it. 

Modesty, by its very rarity, commands attention. And by its fascination wins.

[millionaire-by-25]

This is the most accurate description I've heard of concerning what "trust" is:

"I think of the way my body sits on a surface that's new to me. Unknown, and how my muscles remain tight, anticipating anything, and I'm constantly aware of that surface.

Over time, with familiarity, I can relax and start to lean back.

For many of us, that initial tension exists so much of the time. We expend so much energy watching and calculating, trying to predict, reading signals and people, ready for anything to change suddenly... preparing to be disappointed.

So much energy spent.

We talk about trust as something you build, as if it's a structure or a thing, but in that building, there seems to be something about letting go. What it affords us is a luxury that allows us to stop thinking.

To stop worrying that someone won't catch us if we fall.  To stop constantly scanning for inconsistencies.  To stop wondering how other people act when they're not in our presence.

It allows us to relax a part of our minds so that we can focus on what's in front of us. And that's why it's such a tragedy when it's broken. A betrayal can make you think of all the other betrayals that are waiting for you and things that you haven't thought of in people you rely on.

And you can feel yourself tightening up, bracing, and in the worst cases might resolve to trust no one. But that doesn't really work.. trust is your relationship to the unknown; what you can't control -- and you can't control everything. And it's not all or none. It's a slow and steady practice of learning about the capacity of the world.

And it's worth it to keep trying and it's not easy."

[millionaire-by-25]

Leadership is a not a rank. Leadership is not a position. Leadership is a decision. Leadership is a choice. It has nothing to do with your position in your organization If you decide to look after the person to the left, look after the person to the right of you, you have become a leader.

Simon Sinek

[millionaire-by-25]

"How could I thoroughly screw up my life?"

"Marry primarily for sex. Study primarily for money. Spend primarily to impress. And when it all goes wrong, argue primarily to blame others."

-Stan Hayward

[millionaire-by-25]

"You can be happy because you did things at work, you can be proud because you did things at work, you can be excited because you had a big success at work, but you know how you feel fulfilled at work? 

When you do something for someone else. 

It's the only way we get that feeling."

"Generosity is doing something for someone else and expecting NOTHING in return. At. no. point. ever."

"Do you know why the statistics say that over 90% of people don't feel fulfilled by the work they do? It's not because of the job, it's not because of the pay, it's not because of the benefits, it's cause we don't help each other anymore."

"I don't care how good your product is, I don't care how good your marketing is, I don't care how good your design is, if you don't understand people, you don't understand business."

[millionaire-by-25]

How a password changed my life.

The following events occurred between ☹ and ☺.

Interesting

[millionaire-by-25]

Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time

Tim Ferriss

[millionaire-by-25]

Be suspicious of your success or lack thereof. Vision and tenacity are good qualities when you’re starting out. But there’s a fine line between vision and tenacity and pigheaded foolishness.

Dan Shipper

[millionaire-by-25]

Advice from Steve Jobs

The second thing is, you’ve gotta be, you’ve gotta be a really good talent scout because no matter how smart you are, you need a team of great people.

And you’ve got to figure out how to size people up fairly quickly, how to make decisions without knowing people too well and hire them, see how you do, and refine your intuition,and be able to help build an organization that can eventually just build itself.

  Steve Jobs

[millionaire-by-25]

"How can you overcome your envy of people who are your age but are far more successful?"

Emphatically stop giving a shit.

You have ZERO idea what their personal lives are actually like, or if their outward appearance of success is total bullshit.

Stop focusing outward, focus inward.  A preoccupation with the success of others is taking time away from tending your own internal garden.

Believing in common measures of success (money, position, family) is believing in a ready-made lunch box of meaning that society is opening up and shoving down your throat.  WHO CARES.  Figure out what success is for yourself and then just focus on pursuing that.

You are in your 20s, so be prepared to witness some epic personal collapses of those whom you are currently envious of. 

You can't do anything besides what you can do. If you're giving it your all and staying focused on your values, then your life is progressing exactly as it should be.  Did you hear that?  EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD BE.

When you have an episode of crippling self-doubt, picture each doubt as a single sheet of paper.  Then crunch all of them together and throw them into the toilet of your mind.  Now angrily kick-flush that toilet with your foot.

Actively work to express gratitude for what you do have every morning.  The happiest people I know are full of gratitude, and they are profoundly in touch with their innate talents.

Before you read number nine, think of at least one person who thinks you're awesome.  Try to think of yourself as that person does.

Isn't the universe so vast, so deep, so incredibly amazing?  Who could possibly worry about a 3200 dollar difference in salary when there are stars supernova-ing right this very minute? 

It's a marathon, not a sprint.  Near the finish line, you'll realize you've only been racing against yourself.

- Courtesy of Quora.com

[millionaire-by-25]

The Sunk Costs Fallacy

[millionaire-by-25]

To the Novice Entreprenuer

Here's something that I just learned the hard way about a month ago...

As a noob, I felt like everyone else around was an expert. So it made sense to one degree that I assume everyone else's expertise. The implication of believing that is that you are quick to trust people without really screening them. 

There was a guy that I struck up a relationship with months ago to potentially lend on one of our projects. It was pretty cool, he seemed like he knew what was up, he spoke the language...

So in the middle of March, when I came to him with our first deal, he seemed solid still. There were a few curveballs in the structure of the deal, it wasn't something you'd see everyday, but we knew how to pursue that route because we were in a coaching program. 

Anyhow, the month progress, we're pretty set on this deal, set to close, and set to start up the construction on this house. As we are nearing the closing date, I'm starting to get frantic because I had not heard from our lender, he was sort of MIA and I didn't have an update on his progress. 

The 24 hours before we were supposed to close, I called this guy 7 times, never returned any of my calls. The closing day arrives and I end up calling the title company and the seller asking if we can delay the closing date. 

It was a go, so I got some breathing room. The next day, my lender finally TEXTS me essentially saying, "Hey.. this project is a little over my head, it's beyond my experience.. I think you should find a different route of financing."

OVER TEXT.

After 7 calls. OVER. TEXT.

As nicely as I could, I replied something to the effect of, "Hey, sorry it's come to this, but it would have been nice if you filled me in about this earlier."

What I actually learned:

Whenever you are seriously going to partner with someone when it comes to business, you need to CLEARLY establish means of communication. Consistent communication helps create a sense of trust, reliability, and transparency. 

With this particular lender, I almost always tried calling him, and I would say 50% of the time he would pick up. So I always felt like I couldn't reliably reach him. That should have been a red flag. 

Lesson learned the hard way...

[millionaire-by-25]

Networking is Priceless

About 3 weeks ago, I connected with someone who is now mentoring me. 

This guy used to manage multiple 3-6 million dollar development projects in Vegas. In one conversation, he mentioned he was making 200k a month at one point. But he lost most of that in the 2008 bubble burst.

But that's the guy that's mentoring me.

Took me on board, he's having me help grow his business and investments, and return he's teaching me from the mistakes he's made. So now I'm getting hands-on experience from someone who has been-there-done-that for the last 15 years.

That is priceless.

I get to learn in 3-6 months what someone took 10-15 years to learn. I get the same wisdom, and at this point, because he's mentoring me, I get the same resources he has. 

The middle class mindset is often, "I'll do this all myself, whatever it takes," and it's not necessarily "wrong." It certainly isn't the most efficient. Granted, that mindset was what got me to where I was when I met my mentor, I just had to recognize and capitalize on the opportunity in front of me. 

See, some people trip themselves up over how much someone else is making instead of being happy with what they make. That actually keeps us from working with some people because they don't like that we make more than they want us to. 

If I thought like that, I wouldn't work with my mentor, because I could actually make him a LOT of money, but only see a small percentage go back to my pocket. But that is short-sighted thinking. 

In the world of business, it really is all about relationships. If you look out for the people around you, they will look out for you. If you only look after yourself and even at the expense of others, be prepared to work by yourself. 

In the long run, I can probably make 100x more money if I spend my time partnering, creating win-win scenarios with those around me because businesses partnerships are often synergistic. 

The only thing left to do with that in mind is to learn to choose those partnerships wisely.

It's been said that your network can be determined by the 5 people you spend the most time with, or allow yourself to be influenced by. 

Networking is definitely priceless. 

[millionaire-by-25]

Understanding Confidence

What most people don't understand is that confidence is a byproduct of mastery. Bravery, balls, guts, and adrenaline, in my opinion, is confidence without mastery. It's not bad to have confidence without mastery, but it seems like that is culturally valued over having confidence with mastery.

 A lot of people struggle with not having confidence or feeling like they're chronically nervous (this used to be me). But what I've realized is that it is completely natural to be nervous if you are doing something you have not mastered. 

I overcame public speaking because I got good at it, not because some crazy adrenaline took over. It was a journey, but I got good at it before I got confident in doing it. I used to be scared as heck to speak in front of people because I didn't know what to say, I didn't know how to perform well in front of people, I was nervous about what other people thought, etc etc.

But when I started getting good at it, I realized that speaking about something you don't understand very well is very daunting, and that confidence is natural if you are speaking about something that is a part of who you are, something you deeply understand, and want to share.

How hard is it to publicly speak about something you're a master in? Sure, you might not be articulate and concise, but that's another issue that can be overcome.

Here's a general outline: Noob --> Amateur --> Getting the hang of it --> Competence --> Proficient --> Excellent --> Master

  Noob:  mostly nervous, feel completely over your head

Amateur:  a few aspects are getting familiar, still mostly nervous, little confidence

Getting the hang of it: mild confidence, still feels daunting at times, you begin to recognize the basic factors of doing well

Competence: Solid grasp of the basics, perform well more often than not, mild hang-ups

Proficient: good consistent performance, you get "in the zone" often, learning the little idiosyncrasies of your craft

Excellent: everything is completely natural; cruise control

Master: Cruise control AND innovating and pioneering because you understand all the ins and outs of the craft

I totally just made all that up based on my experience. This can range anywhere from breaking habits, learning piano, learning guitar, learning a new computer game, learning a language, learning a new trade, learning a new career, etc etc.

So for me, because I understand that confidence is a byproduct of mastery, I'm pretty confident even when I start out something new. I'm not confident in my current performance, I'm just confident that I'm going to get really good at it if I keep doing it.

So I never get into something new thinking, "man this is gonna suck cause I have no clue what i'm doing," I always go in thinking, "I'm going to learn this, and I'm going to get good at it." 

Failure is now the quickest way to learn and move towards being a master instead of an embarrassing result of being new at some daunting task. 

[millionaire-by-25]

A Nobody

I am a nobody. 

Just a 22 year old kid that believes he can do anything. 

It's not because I've succeeded at it already, I just think big and I'm surrounded by people think big as well.

I have a few things going for me though, I've learned to network very well in the last 3 years. I've learned a lot about myself, my limits, my strengths, my weaknesses, how I function as an introvert, how to be intentional with relationships...

I have a good handle on myself, and I think that's one of the most important things to figure out. If I can't take care of myself, how will I be able to manage a business or someone else if I get into a relationship?

That's always something that's bothered me. There are tons of young people (my age) that get into serious relationships without ever having learned how they are as individuals. If you don't know who you are, what you stand for, and what you're about, you'll find yourself being defined by the people around you, the circumstances your in, and the decisions you've made. It's better to figure that stuff out when you're by yourself, not when you're doing life with someone...

That's a rant. 

Anyhow, we'll see how long this blog thing lasts. Hopefully I'll have the persistence to tough this out because I've never been too keen on consistently writing. 

The point of this blog is as the description says. It's me sharing my journey of learning and growing, I hope that whoever comes across this blog will be helped in some way or another. 

Peace.