013 – Week of April 19
Reading Time: 8 minutes Got Me Smiling Like I Won the Lottery?
14-year-old CEO turns $178 clothing empire and retires his mom in the process. That is one hell of a captivating title don’t you think. Well, this more than just a title but a reality for Trey Brown ?the creator of SPERGO. We live in a world where people are always saying the youth are lazy, [insert any negative comment], etc. Here once again is an example of the next generation showing the exact opposite. Filling up my newsfeed with stories like this is one of the ways I keep my positivity meter filled up. Keep that meter filled is what keeps being Relentlessly Optimistic.
Despite all the old people complaining I will always have faith in the next generation no matter what! Peep out his full interview on YouTube.
Feeding My Curiosity?
This one came about me being in yet another Youtube Rabbit Hole. If you think about it how cool would it be for your 9-year-old self to be able to ask any question you want and get an answer through video?
I know that most of you just as myself spent much of their time as a kid looking through encyclopedias, National Geographics, watching Popular Mechanics for Kids, and finding any other way to understand how things work. High 5 if you were just like that✋?.
The video going in on how elevators coming to a free fall like in action movies, by design will never happen in real life. Like did you know that elevators are safer than escalators? Well, now you do.
If I think about, I have heard stories, people, laces getting stuck in escalators and hurting themselves at the top or bottom. You can learn more about that in the video. The part that really has me going is how Hollywood has played on our fears of elevators (sounds silly saying it). As they mention it goes against our human impulses, we voluntarily pout ourselves into tight spaces, heights, and lack of control.
If we zoom out and just view the fear of height and how we can conquer that easily by standing in an elevator. Imagine what other fears we can overcome by shifting our perspective. Here is an example riding an elevator vs rock climbing. In the red corner, we have riding elevators that include being in a tight space, going to insane heights, and a major lack of control. In the blue corner, we have rock climbing(indoors) that comes with open space, climbing to moderate heights and complete human control. If we break out down like that it’s obvious the clear winner of the least scary is rock climbing ?.
It’s as clear as a freshly Windexed window on a clear summer day that changing our point of view on something can affect how we react. Granted when being in the midst of things it can be hard to get perspective. If we are able to zoom out we can then see the full picture. I believe that is a major skill to learn in life.
Clearly I went off on a tangent, what started as a cool video about elevators turned into a Socrates like thought process on perspective. Here is the video
Is There a Better Way??
I am going to start off by saying I am a fan of Gary Vee and believe his story speaks to a particular demographic of people. Like my mentor, Bruce Lee says “Take what is useful and get rid of what is useless”.??♂️ That is my rule of them when looking at anyone for example. Being a Hip Hop fan this holds true for Kanye West. if you have followed him since College Dropout you understand how hard it can be to defend an artist. Everyone has a message and we take away from it what we choose.
Gary Vee came up in an article I read about Struggle Porn (I know such a great title you can see why I clicked it). The author of the article Nat describes Struggle Porn: a masochistic obsession with pushing yourself harder, listening to people tell you to work harder, and broadcasting how hard you’re working. All our lives we are told two conflicting messages. One being “you have to work hard to succeed” the other “work smart, not harder”. Imagine being 18 years old trying to decipher the two opposing views.
We do live in a society that congratulates people for how hard they worked. I can’t help but think about athletes and scientists. Being the best at both takes tremendous hard work that’s without a doubt, and no knock to any other profession I’m using the two for simplicity. I think what is more important than hard work is the transition that is made to working smart.
To break it down at the beginning of anything we do in life, we need to spend time learning the fundamentals. During this stage when you want to work hard. This is where you hone your skills. Then to become great you need to work smart and work on creating systems. Without systems, you are forever stuck in amateurville. The system is where you put your skills into action and away from the practice. For many people taking that step is scary. This involves us leaving our zone of comfort. Then again an eagle can never fly the skies if it never leaves the nest?.
If you manage to transfer that energy you put for practice and put it into creating systems you would then no longer need to participate in Struggle Porn. This comes off the tail of me finishing the book Company of One.
Ask yourself what can you do tomorrow or in the next few weeks/months that can turn your current work into a system that gives you less stress.
Finished Reading?
Company of One by Paul Jarvis is the perfect book to read during Quarantine. Honestly, it’s just a good read no matter the time. We are living in a time where living a Nomadic life is all the rage. I think at that root of the appeal in that is having freedom. To be honest it is what captured my attention. Thoughts of being able to travel, meet new friends, and work at the same time, that’s a major win. Living the Dreamlife baby!?
As I look deeper into what I wanted from more freedom, it mostly came down to being able to the things I enjoy without interruption. Like being able to read a book for as long as I feel like it instead of having a 30-minute timer set at 4:30 am (pre-COVID life) or being able to say I want to snowboard every day for 1 month out of the year or being able to take an intensive pilot lesson class. These blocks of time are one of the ways that I enjoy doing things.
I remember the day I went from thinking about Nomadic life to thinking about blocks of time was when I met a new client. This particular client spends the winter months in Vancouver skiing. You’re probably asking yourself how does one afford to do that yearly. I’ll give you a few hints he’s old and semi-retired. Does this mean I have to wait until I am old and almost retired to start enjoying these activities to the fullest? Hell nah!!!! ??♂️
I refuse to believe that, but then again if you were to take a poll of the people who go on several vacations a year, have the disposable income to enjoy many activities. There is a high probability that they are 50+ in age and retired. Like in the above section we are told to work hard and then when you are old you can enjoy the fruits of your labour.
Refusing to believe that those rules apply to everyone fate would have it that the next book in my reading list was Company of One. in the Prologue on page xiii the author has a conversation with his accountant friend while surfing. I will quote this next part as this is the reason why I was able to finish the book in a week. “We were sitting out there, waiting for the next decent wave, and he turned to me and said, ‘I’m stocked! I’ve just about made enough to take the rest of the year off to go rock climbing.’ It was August. Puzzled by what he said I missed the next few waves…” Now I am not sure if it’s the fact dude was doing two activities I enjoy greatly ????♂️ or if it’s that he had the freedom to do as he wished for the Fall & Winter season. Here is another excerpt that helps explain the point.
“Past that, he didn’t need any more money… he hit his ‘enough’ amount and travel for the rest of the year. He didn’t want to grow his accounting business into a bigger company with employees and offices in every city. If he did, his ‘enough’ number would also grow, from having to manage more employees and a bigger business. He wouldn’t be able to spend as much time rock climbing (or surfing). His focus in his business was being better, not growing bigger.”
Finishing this book has my mind racing at 100 Mph ?. For those interested, it doesn’t give you a blueprint in saying follow this business model, etc. It is more about changing your point of view on being a solopreneur. I am sure by now you see a recurring theme, Perspective.
Take a look at what I’ve read in 2019 & books read in 2020.
Music Got Me Vibing??
If Spotify was a person I would say it is my best friend. When I am not learning or exploring, you can always find me listening to music. For 3-4 minutes you get whisked away in melody and sounds to take part in the story the artist has penned together. I can break down my listening to percentages. R&B accounts for 50%, Hip-Hop 25%, and everything else 25%. The song that has my head bouncing like a bobblehead is I Got Money Now by Deante’ Hitchcock & JID. It’s a classic come-up story from how they made it through difficult upbringings and now doing better.
Memorable line:
“Remember my mom bein’ broke as a joke, pay the rent with the light bill, shawty
They cut off the lights, it was dark at the house
But I knew I was bright still, shawty”
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That’s it for this week. Speak to you guys next week.??♂️
Peace out Family✌?
