Hard Work - Part Deux

I don't know why I'm on this "hard work kick", but while I'm here I figured I might as well blog about it.

THE TRAINING WHEELS ARE OFF
I think people actually forget that it takes hard work to reach your goals...the more amazing your goals are the harder you will have to work to achieve them. I say we forgot because once upon a time we knew this. We lived it, and we are where we are because of it. You are where you are today either from the lack of hard work, or because of your hard work.

The problem is, now, there is no structure to guide you through the “work toward your goals process” which could be good or bad. Good because there are no boundaries and bad because there is no coaching. The training wheels have been taken off and your dad has just removed his hand from the seat post; it's all up to you now.

When you're out with your child or someone younger and you see someone who is not doing well in life; maybe a homeless person or a pan handler, you immediately say, "That person did not work hard in school" or “See what happens when you don’t work hard?” Exactly!! …..but it was easy to work hard in school for a few reasons:
One: You were surrounded by people doing the same thing as you, which always makes things a lot easier (like going to the gym, it's always easier with a partner).

Second: You fail many times in school and don't give up. You get C's, D's and sometime F's and you are pushed to do better and of course with hard work, you do improve and do better. These should be life lessons not just classroom lessons.

Once you are in the real world with no boundaries, if you fail, no one is pushing you to try again. In school the mindset is....

Working Hard? No one cares until you are a Success!

Sometimes I would like to think that I work hard. Sometimes I would like to think that I work harder then the normal guy; that guy who thinks he wants to be rich. At the end of everyday, I go to bed when I can't even think straight. I barely brush my teeth, and then I pass out. I wake up the second,….. no the milli-second that I think I have enough sleep and again try to out perform the entire world.

As I talk to people, I start to hear things like, "I'm just sooo busy", or "I just had a 12 hour day".

What does that mean?

These people are actually sincere and do believe that they have worked hard. In their minds they have just killed it. They have done more then the average person, and have "left it all on the court" as they say in basketball.

Then I look in the mirror at myself. At the end of the day, you turn to yourself, because only you know what is real and what is not. I ask myself, " Self......are you like all of the other people who think they were so busy". Am I really working that hard? Do I really give my all, everyday, or have I just gotten so accustomed to saying so, that I actually believe it. You tell yourself you are skinny long enough, you start to believe it, until someone shows you a picture from last summer. Am I like a rapper who rants and raves he’s the best and richest when he knows the record company owns his cars, his jewelry and his girl.

I'm no longer going to say how busy I am, or how hard I work. People will never understand, and it's only frustrating to explain. There are certain things that can not be captured in words: passion, aggression, greed, anger. You can not get anyone to feel these emotions by just telling them how you feel. The worse thing to hear after you have gone through something is for some insensitive idiot to come and say, "Yeah me too, I have been working real hard lately too". Agghh!

I say, do what you have to do, and your results will speak for themselves. I am tired of justifying why I can’t go places or do things with my money. I am tired of trying to explain what s-a-c-r-i-f-i-c-e means. I’m either going to do something or not. Go to an event or not. No one cares what I have to do or how busy I am. No one cares if my money is tied up in investments or business ventures. No one cares if my businesses are losing money. So besides my blog, and the short list of people who actually do care, keep it to yourself. Only once you are rich do people care how you got there, that's why the Road to Riches is not only lengthy and filled with many perils; it's lonely as hell!!

If someone tells you that they have been working really hard, and are really busy, pull out a stack of $100 bills and smack them in the face and yell, "MEEE TOO"!


-MJL

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Fuel for Success: Disgust??

I’m often asked two questions, “What motivates you?” and the second question is “Why do you call yourself insane”.

And the answer is simple, my insanity is what motivates me and my disgust makes me insane. As I delve into and post about the complexities that will be involved with launching project X I am hoping that you will get to see a more in depth analysis of what make me tick. My insanity and my disgust, but of course it all revolves around money and success. When people meet me they are blown away with my upbeat attitude and zest for life, but that is all fueled by this weird sort of disgust. I’m disgusted by all things I want to be and all things that I am not.

For instance, when I see someone driving a new Range Rover, I’m disgusted. They have one I don’t. When I’m trying to get to work, because I have to be one of the first people there, and there is a sweet dear old man, cruising in front of me. I’m disgusted. At that moment I don’t want anything more then to be at work with my first cup of coffee, kicking ass and taking names. Instead I’m behind Grandpa who’s cruising to the CVS for a pack of Depends! As cruel and harsh as that sounds, it’s honest, and that’s how I’m thinking at that time. I want nothing more then to take a shoulder holstered bazooka and blow his damn PT cruiser out of my way. I’m that bastard that blows by you during rush hour. That’s me, I am disgusted with myself because that’s me, but it is me. One day I will be that old guy and need adult diapers, but the difference is, I will be rich, a millionaire and my Huggies will be super absorbent Gucci diapers! I have a kind gentle heart but that is often over shadowed in my mind by my will to be the best at everything. That is the insanity. My compassion is overshadowed with my passion; my passion to be better then great.

When I go to the gym in the morning, I’m disgusted by how many people were able to get there before me. I’m disgusted at the fact that there is a guy my height my build, that can out lift me. WTF!!! How can this “muscle head” out lift me? Bastard! That in turns makes me lift harder. Maybe he can out lift me, but he won’t be as intense as I am and I will train harder then him and in a month he will be playing catch up to me. That’s how I think about everything. It even disgusts myself, but that’s what makes me tick and therefore I embrace it. The more Mark Zuckerberg's, Larry Page’s, Sergey Brin’s and Jeremy Schoemaker’s of the world the more disgusted with myself I am on a daily basis.

That’s the crazy man fuel that allows me to sleep 3 hours a night, get up and go to the gym at 4:45 and work 16 hours per day 7 days per week and still have a great attitude. I’m disgusted with myself, with what I don’t have and with those that have done more. People don’t want to embrace their disgust but I embrace it, nourish it, and attack it.

EMBRACE YOUR INNER DISGUST
I suggest looking at yourself in the mirror when you get a chance, look in your own eyes at everything you could be, and everything that you want to be and are not. Take responsibility for that, because you are the person responsible, nothing or no one else. Do you feel that? That’s disgust. Embrace that, don’t ignore it like you have been doing. Promise yourself that each time you look in the mirror you will be less and less disgusted with yourself, Start now. To wait is disgusting.

I just re-read this post and I’m disgusted with myself!
-MJL