Category Archives: Risk

Are You Selling Out Or Starving?

The Food Truck Of Love

Find The Magic Middle

I watched a pretty good movie on Netflix the other night.

It was a good metaphor for the difference between “selling out” and “following your dreams.”

Many people abhor the idea of “selling out,” meaning ONLY doing something to make a buck.

Anyhow, the main character in the movie was a chef (also the name of the movie.)

He had a job in a pretty popular, high-end restaurant. But he felt he was “selling out” as the owner wouldn’t allow him to “experiment” with different dishes. They had a fight, he quit, and bought a food truck.

Even though he was selling stuff on the side of the road for 4 or 5 dollars a pop, they were HIS creations, and he didn’t have a boss telling him to only follow the money.

Naturally, since it was a movie, everything worked out. He made a ton of cash, got his gorgeous ex-wife back, and reconnected with his kid.

Life, however, is far from a movie. If you follow your dreams, there’s a chance you won’t make a lot of money. (Starving artist.) At least at first.

On the other hand, if you ONLY “follow the money” you might get rich, but you’ll feel empty inside.

Are these the only two options?

Luckily, whenever we’re presented with two complete opposite scenarios, they are really extremes on either side of a continuum.

Which means if you put some effort into it, you’ll find a some good middle ground.

Where you can follow your dreams, AND make a ton of money in the process.

Problem is many people aren’t so patient. It’s easy to “sell out” and get a job you hate, and figure “that’s the way it is.”

It’s also pretty easy to just give up and become a “starving artist” with the attitude that the world just doesn’t “get it.”

It takes real effort to take your passions, and cultivate them into real skills that people will pay real money for.

It’s not easy, which is why you’ll find most people in the “starving artist” category or the “sell-out” category.

You look up the personal history of ANYBODY who made it big, in ANY field, and you’ll find that it didn’t come easy.

In fact, many great creators went through plenty of struggle, in the beginning.

You might consider that to be the very purpose of your life.

To first identify your passions, and then do whatever it takes to cultivate them into something magnificent.

Something people will appreciate.

And something that will generate real wealth.

Get Started:

Prosperity Generator

Unlocking The Mystery Of Money

Wanna Trade?

My Apple For Your Potato Chips

Next time you buy something you want, pay attention to the energy of the transaction.

This is good to do with food, especially when you’re hungry.

Think of the food, and think of the money you’re about to spend.

Instead of thinking of it as a “purchase,” or a “transaction,” think of it as exchange.

A straight up trade. Like back in elementary school.

Take a moment, and imagine whatever you did to get that money. 

If it’s five bucks for a Happy Meal (or whatever) just imagine what it took for you to get that five bucks.

Then imagine trading your efforts for your food, rather than the money.

This can be a helpful exercise for a lot of reasons.

Sure, we all love money, but only because we can trade money for the things that we want.

I used to find it helpful to think of what I could buy with the money I was about to earn when I had a particularly unpleasant job ahead of me.

When the Beatles (John and Paul) would sit down to write a song, they would literally say, “Let’s write ourselves a couple of new cars.”

The truth about money is that it’s only an intermediary step between two actions.

Your action which you trade for money, and the action of somebody else, who is producing what you want to buy with that money.

This seems pretty basic, but it can be easy to drift up into the upper metaphysical atmosphere when talking about “money energy.”

Boiled down into it’s most essential components, money is the potential or stored energy that exists between two people that are making things that each other wants.

So when people talk about “money energy” they’re really talking about human effort.

When people say “resonate with money energy” what they really mean is to resonate with other people.

Both what they’re doing to produce the stuff you want, and what you’re doing to produce the stuff they want.

When everybody is “resonating with money energy” meaning everybody is doing their part producing and trading, based on what everybody else wants needs and appreciates, that’s when society really starts to take off.

This is natural because humans are social creatures. It is deep in our nature to participate in a diverse society with many different people from many different backgrounds.

With everybody making or helping make what everybody else wants, everybody’s happen.

The good news is that with the whole world kind of linked together, economy wise, it’s easier than ever to get in and get some.

Get Started:

Prosperity Generator 

Why You Shouldn’t Follow ALL The Rules

You Know Which Ones to Break, Right?

Some Were Made To Be Broken

When I was a kid, me and my friends loved to “sneak” into the movies.

This was a long time ago, when they had color coded ticket stubs, AND guys standing at the door to each theater to check your ticket.

We’d save our stubs, and after a while we would have all the colors, so we could “re-use” them to see a couple movies in one afternoon.

I don’t know about you, but many of my fond memories from my youth revolve around trying to “break” or “bend” the rules.

Being about to sneak around authority without getting caught is always pretty fun.

Especially when the “authority” is some kind of puffed up guy trying desperately to get people to believe in his “authority.”

Of course, we did go too far a few times. Once my buddies and I were into collecting bicycle air caps.

Those things that screw on the top of the air stem on your bicycle tire.

Once we saw this really cool motorcycle, with these really cool chrome caps on the air stems.

I reached down to “feel it,” being a kid I wanted to “touch” everything I wasn’t supposed to.

Then this big scary biker dude (at least from a kids standpoint) came out and accused me of trying to let the air of his tires.

I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I DO remember that I ran away quickly after that.

The truth is that some rules ARE meant to be broken, and some rules ARE meant to be obeyed.

One powerful skill as an adult is to know the ones that don’t really matter, and have the courage to step over the line to see what happens.

Now, I’m sure you’ve got an idea of what “rules” are REALLY ones you simply can’t break.

On the other hand, there are other “rules” that people “make up” not because they are important, but because they make the person saying the rules FEEL important.

I don’t have to tell you this, because you already you know it’s NOT your job to make others feel important.

It is your job, however, to figure out what you want, and get it.

No matter how big, how matter far out there.

Your dreams belong to you, and nobody else.

If somebody tells you that SHOULD behave in a certain way, and that would keep you from achieving your dreams, while only make THEM feel important, well, screw that!

Your job is to break as many as THOSE rules as you need to, in order to make your dreams come true.

It’s not easy. But somebody’s gotta do it.

Why not you?

How To Trick Yourself Into Easy Action

Reach Higher!

Expand The Potential Positive

I remember a few years ago when Michael Jordan decided to try baseball.

Now, this guy is arguably one of the best basketball players in a generation, but he absolutely SUCKED at baseball.

Even on a medium level minor league team, he still struggled.

On the other hand, there’s been a few athletes who excelled in many sports.

Musicians (or artists) are the same.

There are some that can play a whole range of instruments, and some that can only sing.

Often times in life we find people that are super skilled in one area, but absolutely suck in others.

Plenty of excellent entrepreneurial types, for example, are horrible in other areas. They are great at building a thriving business from the ground up, but not so great at holding a romantic relationship together.

On the other hand, some folks are GREAT a building wonderful relationships, but absolutely suck at anything related to finances.

The trouble with us humans is we get too focused on “content.” On the surface, it seems like building a business is completely different than starting a relationship.

But in reality the two are very, very similar.

So is pretty much anything else you’d like to create.

It’s just that because we have more experience in some things, and not others, it seems like some things are easy, while others, not so much.

Nevertheless, the structure is the same.

We look out into the world, decide what we want, and take action.

Then we measure the results, and see if we got any closer.

If we did, we do more. 

If we didn’t we do something different.

So long as you continue to take action, and accept any feedback, you simply can not fail.

The trouble comes when we talk ourselves out of taking action. We imagine some negative outcome as bigger, and more likely than any positive outcome.

This makes it seem like it’s safer to stay where we are. But it’s really all in our mind.

The truth is we can imagine anything we want.

Even stuff you’ve never done before can seem easy, if you imagine the future in the right way.

If you’d like to learn how, check this out:

Self Confidence Generator

Why More Failure Means More Success

Time Waits For No Man

Action Is Everything

In dating they’ve got this thing called the “three second rule.”

When a guy sees a girl, he’s supposed to walk over and start a conversation within three seconds.

Now, some say this is because all girls are super confident and are always in control of their emotions, which means if they send a “signal” to a guy that it’s safe to come over, and he doesn’t, then she’ll lose interest, within three seconds.

This, of course, is utter nonsense.

One thing most guys are shocked to find out is that girls are just as clueless as guys when it comes to finding, meeting and creating relationships.

So that’s not the reason for the three second rule.

What is?

If you expand this back a bit, and consider ALL desires, then the three second rule makes more sense.

I remember a long time ago I was at this goofy real estate seminar. The instructor, (in a clever ploy to “train” the audience to take action) pulled out a hundred dollar bill and just held it out.

About one or two seconds passed by, until one person got up and ran to the front. Soon after she did, about twenty other people did the same thing.

Since she was first, she got the $100.

Everybody else that was waiting to make sure it was “safe” didn’t get squat.

(As an aside, that same guru did that a few times during this “free” seminar before the big “pitch” which meant that by then many of the attendees were “well trained” to dive right into his multi-thousand dollar course.)

The bottom line is that when you see an opportunity, it’s a good idea to take it.

Not wait around for confirmation.

Not wait for somebody to give you clear instructions

Not wait until other people take action so you know it’s safe.

Hence the three second rule.

If you could train yourself, to AUTOMATICALLY take action, without thinking, within three seconds, what would you do?

In the dating community, guys that do this are called “approach machines.”

See somebody cute, walk up and start talking BEFORE you get a chance to talk yourself out of it.

What if you could do this with ALL opportunities?

Sure, you’d strike out a bunch.

But so did Babe Ruth.

AND he also hit WAY more home runs than anybody else, at the time.

He didn’t wait for an OK or a signal from his coach before he swung.

He saw high fat one and instinctively swung with all his might.

(He also lived large off the field as well).

Would you like to do the same?

This will teach you how:

Self Confidence

Are You Playing it TOO Safe?

Embrace Risk For Massive Success

The Magic Of Balanced Risk

Sometimes being able to unlearn something is more important than learning something.

Often times when we want something we think we can’t get, we imagine that we need to do something that we’re not doing, or learn something that we don’t know, or think something that we’re not thinking.

(huh?)

Sometimes though it’s what we STOP doing that will get us what we want, rather than what we START doing.

As we move from childhood to adulthood, this idea shows up a lot. We stop depending things “outside” of us, and start depending on our own, self-generated actions and decisions.

You stop depending on the training wheels, and start depending on your own sense of balance.

You stop expecting free money in the form of an allowance, and get a part time job.

You stop feeling the need to ask for permission (which also means if you mess up it’s not really your fault) and start trying things out on your own, just to see what will happen.

Now, it’s pretty clear that some people are better at this than others. Some people take to risk and trial and error based behaviors like a duck to water.

Others are terrified of leaving the safety of authority and conformity.

Neither one is “better” than the other, since “better” can only be determined by what you value.

If you’re content to take what you’re given, and happen to be in a situation where you’re given some pretty good stuff, then you’ve got it pretty good.

On the other hand, if you want a lot more than what other people decide to “give you” then you’ll need to take some risks.

A lot of people shy away from that word. They imagine taking a risk, failing, and ending up homeless, or shunned by society.

This can lead to overcompensation. Taking no risks at all. Only playing it safe.

But not all risks have to be huge. Not all risks entail putting your life’s savings on a one time stock tip.

Every time you talk to a stranger, you’re taking a small risk. They might like you, they might ignore you.

Every time you call about an ad for a job, you’re taking a small risk. They might hire you and think you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, or they may laugh at you and hang up.

If you believe that any risk is dangerous, and even the smallest rejection will destroy your ego, it will.

But if you believe that all risks comes with rewards, either getting what you want, or getting you more information that will help you get what you want, they will.

To feel comfortable with risks, and see opportunities where others fear to tread, check this out:

Belief Change