Knowledge For Men

Olaniyi “Niyi” Sobomehin is a former American football fullback. He played college football at Portland State. He was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2008.

After being cut from the NFL due to an injury, Olaniyi decided to begin coaching and from there, in addition to being a full-time firefighter, he has built a coaching company imnotyou.com to help young athletes be successful at an elite level. You can connect with him and learn more here, imnotyou.com

Favorite Success Quote

“People wish to be settled but only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Key Points

1. You Must Have a Vision 

Before you can achieve any goal, you must first set that goal.

Before you can arrive at a destination, you must know what destination you wish to arrive at.

Before you can live the life of your dreams, you must have a vision for what that life looks like.

So many men today walk around aimlessly, without any real vision or purpose to their lives. Maybe they have some arbitrary goals that they set because society told them to, but they lack a visceral purpose and vision that pushes them forward in life.

If you hope to live a great life, a life of meaning, a legendary life, then you must start with your vision.

Who do you want to be? What do you want to achieve? How do you want to show up every day? How many lives do you want to impact?

Until you know the answers to these questions, you cannot achieve the life you were born to achieve.

2. Reverse Engineer Your Vision and Treat Failures as Opportunities 

Once you have a vision, you have just gotten started.

With your vision clearly written down, you must reverse engineer the steps that are required to achieve that vision until you have a long list of small steps that will help you achieve your goals in the coming years.

Once you know what steps you need to take and when you need to take them (this will take you a long time to figure out), you must take daily massive action and learn from everything you do.

You must remember that failure doesn’t mean you’re out of the game, it means you have a chance to learn.

For example, if you sit down to work and have a completely unproductive day, instead of viewing this as a failure, ask yourself “What did I learn?”

Maybe you learned that your phone needs to be on airplane mode throughout the workday. Maybe you learned that you need to have your days planned before you begin them. Or maybe you learned that you just need to get some extra sleep because you’re too damn exhausted to work.

Whatever you learn, write it down, tweak your approach, and continually learn from the process until you achieve your goal.

3. Stay Hungry and Focus on Growth 

One of the biggest traps into which many men fall is the trap of success and complacency.

You see, many of us start with relatively small visions that we achieve early on in life.

Maybe you’ve sold your business, finally earned the 6-figure salary, or married the woman of your dreams. That’s great, but you’re not even close to finished.

In fact, you’re just getting started.

Life is all about expansion, it’s about growth, it’s about constantly striving to be, do, and achieve more.

Instead of resting on your laurels, you must stay hungry.

Even when you are enjoying the fruits of your hard work, you must set your sights on the next milestone, the next goal, and the next vision.

Because if you don’t, if you settle in your current circumstances, you will eventually atrophy and die, leaving this world with so much potential left on the table.

No matter how successful you are or how much success you achieve, you must remember the famous words of Steve Jobs and “Stay hungry, stay foolish”.

4. Commit Yourself to Discipline Every Single Day

Most of you have probably heard our interview with Jocko Willink where he echoes his infamous statement that “Discipline Equals Freedom”.

And most of you treat this statement as a convenient war cry instead of an ethos by which you live your life.

Most men commit to discipline sporadically and as a result, they make great achievements and breakthroughs sporadically as well.

They are disciplined when they need to be but they aren’t disciplined when they should be.

And this reality is clearly reflected in their success and failures.

If you want to be one of the greats, if you want to be a legend, if you want to be the kind of person who people remember, then you must be willing to discipline yourself daily.

You must make a commitment to discipline every day that you wake up, you must stand strong in your values, and take massive action towards your goals even when you don’t need to.

This is the only way to achieve lasting success and it’s the only way that you will leave a dent in this universe.

5. Surround Yourself with the Right People 

When you have created a vision, reverse engineered that vision, committed yourself to discipline, and begin learning from your failures, there is only one final step towards ultimate achievement.

Your network.

Who you surround yourself with is one of the single most important factors in anyone’s journey.

If your five closest friends are millionaires, high achievers, and grounded men, then you will be the sixth.

Conversely, if your five closest friends are slobs, party animals, and lost boys then you will become the sixth.

You are the average of your five closest friends so pay careful attention to the company that you keep… It can literally make or break your success.

Direct download: Nee_Sobo_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Dan Millman is a former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor.

After an intensive, twenty-year spiritual quest, Dan’s teaching found its form as the Peaceful Warrior’s Way, expressed fully in his books and lectures. His work continues to evolve over time, to meet the needs of a changing world.

Dan’s seventeen books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior, have inspired and informed millions of readers in 29 languages worldwide. The feature film, “Peaceful Warrior,” starring Nick Nolte, was adapted from Dan’s first book, based upon incidents from his life.

Much of Dan’s time is devoted to writing and speaking. His keynotes, seminars, and workshops span the generations to influence men and women from all walks of life, including leaders in the fields of health, psychology, education, business, politics, sports, entertainment, and the arts.

Dan and his wife Joy live in Brooklyn, NY. They have three grown daughters and four grandchildren. You can connect with him and learn more at peacefulwarrior.com

Favorite Success Quote

“Success is making progress towards a meaningful goal”

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”

Key Points

1. Seek Excellence Not Success

One of the most common mistakes that people make in their pursuit of happiness is that they seek success instead of seeking excellence.

Let me break down what this means…

Most people, especially the kinds of people who listen to this podcast and read this blog, are future and goal oriented.

We are laser-focused on the attainment of something, on the accomplishment of something sometime in the distant future.

But what we often forget is that these accomplishments for which we are striving are made up of individual pieces.

For example, no one can “Build a Business”.

A business is built by doing hundreds, maybe even thousands of small things well.

You don’t “Build” your dream body by doing one thing once. You build your dream body by doing thousands upon thousands of reps with perfect form.

And that is where your focus should be.

Yes, you must have compelling goals that push you forward and encourage you to perform at your best.

But you must always remember that every worthy goal is comprised of thousands and thousands of micro-actions that you must take in the present moment.

They are the product of committing to excellence in the present moment and maintaining that commitment year after year after year.

Focus on doing things with excellence and success will inevitably follow.

2. The Quality of Your Moments Becomes the Quality of Your Life 

In the same way that many people mistakenly pursue success instead of pursuing excellence, many of us devote our lives to the pursuit of the “Good Life”.

We hustle, grind, and sacrifice so that, one day, we can finally be happy and enjoy a high quality of life.

We give up the things that are most important for an uncertain future that may or may not bring joy and fulfillment into our lives.

And by doing this, we forget to live our lives as they are happening.

We fail to realize that the “Good Life” is nothing more than a life filled with “Good Moments”.

If you want a good life, you must have good years. To have good years, you must have good months, weeks, and days.

And to have good days, you must have good moments.

You must learn to embrace where you are right now and enjoy the moment for all that it is.

Because the present moment is everything.

It’s all that you have.

There is no future.

There is no past.

There is only now.

So live in the now.

Cultivate those small moments of joy, happiness, and excellence. If you do this, I promise you that you will look back on your life with a smile, knowing that you lived it well.

3. Trust the Process of Your Life Unfolding 

This if the 400th interview that I’ve conducted on the Knowledge for Men podcast and, after almost 4 years of interviewing top achievers, thinkers, and performers, I’ve noticed an interesting pattern.

Success, happiness, and fulfillment almost always exist on the other side of pain.

Grant Cardone was struggling with a drug addiction, broke, and unemployed before he found his future in sales and real estate.

Ryan Blair was involved in the most dangerous L.A. gangs almost sentenced to a decade of incarceration before he fell in love with entrepreneurship.

Bedros Keulian was literally digging through dumpsters to find food before he created the 8-figure fitness empire that he now owns today.

Yet these men trusted the process (admittedy they may have done so unconsciously).

They were willing to take a leap of faith and trust the process of their life unfolding.

They were able to accept that, as Steve Jobs said, “You will never connect the dots looking forward, only looking backward. So you have to somehow trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

And you must do the same.

Trust the process of your life unfolding.

Live in the present moment.

Have faith in yourself and in the universe and realize that life is an adventure that is meant to be lived… Not avoided.

4. Anticipation is One of the Greatest Sources of Suffering 

One of the most sinister and seemingly innocuous sources of suffering is anticipation.

Think about it like this…

Imagine that there is a co-worker whom you cannot stand. The kind of person who makes your skin crawl and your stomach turn into a knot.

Imagine that later today, you have a meeting and you know that this particular co-worker will be in attendance.

In anticipation of the event, you imagine all of the possible outcomes in your head, forcing yourself to live in an unpleasant and mentally exhausting reality that hasn’t even happened yet!

You bring yourself into a state of dissatisfaction and discomfort because you are living in future pain even though the present moment is completely tranquil!

How differently could this scenario be if you simply allowed yourself to live in the moment.

To know that you will have to face your peer but… Not yet.

To give yourself permission to say “I am not in that situation in the present moment so I am going to live life now and cross that bridge when I get there.”

5. We Are All Just Humans 

At the end of the day, we are all human beings on this journey together.

We have different views, beliefs, personalities, and desires, but we are all people.

We all experience deep emotions, we all have dreams and desires, and we all have struggles to overcome.

Even the seemingly invincible characters like Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, or Bradd Pitt have problems.

We are all humans.

No one person is inherently better or worse than anyone else.

We are all in this race together.

So why can’t we start acting like it?

Instead of judging others and blaming them for their shortcomings, seek to understand and empathize with their struggles.

Instead of acting superior to your fellow man, remember the times in which you acted and behaved in unscrupulous or unsatisfactory ways.

Instead of pretending that you are on this journey alone, remember that we are all in this together.

Man, woman, black, white, gay, straight, republican, democrat… We are all in this together.

The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will unlock our specie’s true power.

Direct download: Dan_Millman_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Mastin Kipp is the #1 best-selling author of Daily Love: Growing into Grace and his latest book Claim Your Power and has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey on her Emmy-award winning show Super Soul Sunday as a “spiritual thinker for the next generation.”

He is the founder of Functional Life Coaching (TM) and has appeared alongside Tony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Brene Brown and others as a part of Oprah’s Super Soul 100, a collection of awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity.

He leads sold-out seminars and retreats all over the world, and collectively two million people in over 100 countries have been influenced by Mastin’s work. You can connect with him and learn more at mastinkipp.com.

Favorite Success Quote

“Unless you’re in mortal danger, fear is a compass showing you where to go.”

Key Points

1. You Always Have a Choice Between What is Easy and What will Lead to Your Dreams 

In every person’s life, they will come to a hallway, perhaps many hallways where they will be presented with a simple choice.

Will they take the first door on the left, the door that leads to ease, comfort, and safety?

Or will they take the second door, the door on the right that exposes them to danger at every corner but allows them to live their lives fully and completely?

When you take the first door, you make the decision to play safe to avoid doing the uncomfortable things that will drive you towards your dreams, and eventually, you become so bitter and jealous of other’s success that you begin to sabotage yourself and your goals.

When you take door number two, you take a bold step into uncertainty.

And it’s terrifying.

But it’s also worth it.

2. What’s Really Going On? 

If you have found yourself stuck in a rut, unable to break free of the habits and tendencies that have kept your life where it is today, then you need to take a step back and ask yourself, “What’s really going on?”

Peel back the layers of the onion and look beneath the surface.

Maybe you are terrible at relationships and no matter how many beautiful women you bring into your life, they all seem to leave faster than they show up.

Are you really terrible at relationships or is there something in your past, some sort of unresolved trauma or experience that is causing you to subconsciously sabotage yourself?

Is there a deeper reason for the struggles that you are experiencing?

A common one that I see with many men is the problem of laziness and procrastination.

I know so many men who are powerful, excited and motivated about life, but when it comes time to actually go to work, they drag their feet and fail to accomplish even the most basic tasks.

Are they lazy?

Maybe.

But I think the real problem is that their subconscious is telling them that there is an incongruence.

Maybe they are working a job they aren’t passionate about, maybe they are in a business they don’t really love, or selling a product they don’t truly believe in.

Whatever the case may be, you will never be able to fix your biggest problems until you understand the root of the problems themselves.

What’s really going on?

3. Don’t Just Use Your Pain… Transcend It 

Your pain is a powerful motivating force, but it must be used for good.

I see so many men who are burnt out and struggling simply because they’ve spent the past decade of their lives fueled by pain.

Pain is often the spark that can start a fire in your life. But if you aren’t careful, it can also be the fire that consumes and burns your life to the ground.

Therefore, we must learn to transcend our pain and trauma.

Use it to ignite the fire you need to make bold moves and step forward in life and then… Let it go.

Come to terms with your pain, let go of your suffering, and forgive whoever and whatever hurt you.

Pain is a powerful ally.

But it can be an even more powerful enemy.

4. Start with What You Have Where You Are

If you are broke, struggling, and depressed, then this is one of the most powerful pieces of advice that you will ever hear.

You cannot win the marathon that is life until you start running.

And the only way to start running this race is to start where you are with what you have.

You might be living in a 400 square foot apartment with no running water and $50,000 in debt.

Great. Start where you are with what you have.

You might be living a great life but you know that you can do better if you just knew how.

Great. Start where you are with what you have.

There is no better time to start moving towards your dreams than today.

No matter what you have or don’t have. No matter what you lack or need.

Start where you are with what you have.

5. Your Purpose is Based on an Emotional State and Nothing Else

I often hear guys who will tell me that they are unsure of their purpose in life.

But what’s funny to me is that no one seems to have agreed upon what purpose actually means.

In the same way that 30 different people can all believe in “God” but they all have wildly definitions of who/what “God” is, thousands of you reading this will all have different definitions of what purpose is and how you pursue it.

But here’s the thing.

Purpose is extremely simple.

Your purpose is nothing more than an emotional state that matters to you and your ability to express and cultivate that emotional state.

Purpose is the feeling that you get when you are acting in a way that is congruent with what you want.

Purpose is the emotion that you feel when you are expressing yourself at the highest level.

Purpose is a fluid emotional state that can change and shift on a daily basis.

So stop worrying about finding your purpose and realize that it’s your responsibility to cultivate your purpose.

Direct download: Mastin_Kipp_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Noah Kagan was #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint.com, and is the Chief Sumo (founder) of SumoMe, a company which offers free tools to help grow website traffic. He has built 4 products that each generated 7-figures and become one of the leading marketing experts in the world

Favorite Success Quote

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease”

“You’re not important and no one cares”

Key Points

1. Just Do Things You Enjoy 

As far as we know, we only have one life. We only have one opportunity to live, laugh, and love.

So why is it that so many of us waste our precious time doing shit that we don’t like?

Why do we work jobs that we hate, stay in relationships that we don’t enjoy, and force ourselves to spend time with people who suck?

It’s absolute insanity.

Although there’s no “One size fits all” approach to happiness or living the good life, everything starts by doing more of the things you enjoy and less of the things that you hate.

So start today.

Find a way to cut out activities that you don’t enjoy and that don’t serve the bigger picture and a way to add in more activities that light you up and put a smile on your face.

2. No One Gives a Sh*t About You 

This sounds harsh, I know.

But if you think about things objectively, you will quickly realize that it’s true.

Outside of your immediate family and maybe a handful of close friends, no one cares about you, no one.

People don’t care whether you succeed or not, they don’t care if you’re happy, and they don’t really care if you carry on living.

Although it sounds morbid, this is actually good news.

The fact that no one cares gives you permission to screw up, it gives you permission to fall on your face, to fail, to lose, and to try things that might not work because, at the end of the day, no one really gives a shit either way.

So stop worrying about other people and focus on yourself.

If you don’t, you will live your life trying to make everyone else happy without ever taking a second to think about your own happiness and well being.

3. Learn to be Empathetic 

Even though no one really cares about you, this doesn’t mean that you should go through life constantly ignoring others, acting like a narcissist, and screwing people over to achieve your goals.

You must develop a certain level of empathy so that you can successfully maneuver through the world.

The people that you encounter in your everyday life have their own goals, their own struggles, and their own problems.

When you can learn to identify with them and consider things from their point of view, you will become a social powerhouse.

4. Define Success for Yourself 

One of the biggest mistakes that anyone can make in their life is striving to achieve a version of success that isn’t truly congruent with their deepest goals and desires.

Noah has made millions of dollars several times over but his lifestyle is pretty modest.

You won’t see him posting on Instagram about his new McLaren or bragging about his new private jet.

He’s content to live in a 700 square foot flat and drive his scooter downtown in search of the city’s best tacos.

Because that is his version of success. He enjoys what he does and has a simple life.

For other people, however, this would be a living hell.

People like Gary Vaynerchuk need to be in constant motion to enjoy their life and feel fulfilled, they need the rush of the deal and the job in order to feel successful and fulfilled.

Neither path is wrong.

It’s simply a matter of what works for you.

So I want to challenge you to take some time to think about what success really means to you. What do you really want? What would it take for you to be happy and fulfilled?

Once you have your answer, go do that thing, and ignore everyone else’s opinions and ideas.

Because your definition of success is the only thing that matters.

5. Stop Complaining and Start Looking for a Solution 

For the next 30 days, I want you to do something.

It sounds simple, but I promise it’s not as easy as you might assume.

I want you to quit complaining.

That’s it.

For the next 30 days, I want you to consciously quit complaining about anything in your life whether it’s your job, your spouse, your kids, or just crappy weather.

Stop complaining and start looking for solutions.

If something bothers you, instead of bitching about it, find a way to change it.

It might sound simple, but I promise that it will change your life.

Direct download: Noah_Kagan_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

In today's podcast I'm tackling one of THE most infectious diseases affecting men today...Oneitis. 

In other words, the belief that ONE specific woman is the ONLY woman who can complete you and make you happy. 

I'll be destroying common myths, giving you powerful exercises to reframe your mindset, and giving you tactical action steps to overcome oneitis for good and build the dating life of your dreams. 

Let's dive in. 

Direct download: Oneitis.mp3
Category:Dating and Relationship Advice -- posted at: 1:14pm EST

Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of six books including his most recent Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.

For over 20 years he’s helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose, Staples, and the Dave Ramsey Team. Most recently he’s spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at conferences, colleges, companies and churches. Featured regularly on national media, Jon has been seen on CNN, Fox News, Good Day LA and several other key outlets.

In addition, Jon is also a big proponent of social media with blogs that have been read by 4 million people and almost 300,000 twitter followers. In 2010 he used his influence with his tribe to build two kindergartens in Vietnam. Jon lives with his wife Jenny and two daughters in Franklin, TN.

Favorite Success Quote

“Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers.”

Key Points

1. Starting is Fun But Success Belongs to Finishers 

Do you remember the last time that you started a new workout program or online course?

Do you remember that warm fuzzy feeling you got in the pit of your stomach while you were starting a journey towards your goals?

Now let me ask you another question…

Do you remember the last time that you actually went through and completely finished a book, workout program, online course, or anything else of importance?

Most of you don’t…

And this doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t make you lazy, it makes you human.

You see, as people we are wired to start things.

Whether we are starting a new diet, a new business, a new book, or whatever else it is, we love starting.

It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it makes us feel important.

Finishing, on the other hand, sucks.

To finish something, you must endure small failures and setbacks, you must persevere even when you don’t feel motivated, and you must keep pushing through the parts that don’t feel particularly exciting or fun.

But success belongs to finishers.

No one became successful by starting something.

They became successful by following it through to the end and finishing. 

When you realize this, when you truly internalize this principle, everything will change.

2. Perfectionism will Break You 

Nothing will wreck your goals, limit your potential, and destroy your plans more than perfectionism.

Nothing.

Perfectionism is merely an alibi for inaction. It’s an excuse to do nothing.

Whereas the non-perfectionist says “I know that I can’t do xyz perfectly with my current resources, what can I do to move things forward anyways.”

The perfectionist says “I know that I can’t do xyz perfectly so why even bother doing it at all?”

When you operate from this framework, you are setting yourself up to fail.

No one succeeds when they have a commitment to perfection.

Because, quite simply, perfection cannot exist.

There will always be something that prevents you from achieving true perfection which means there will always be something that prevents you from finishing your goals, no matter what they are.

If you want to live a great life and have a lot of fun doing so, then I challenge you to eradicate the word “Perfect” from your vocabulary.

Focus on getting things done and finishing.

Because success belongs to the finishers.

3. Slow it Down and Cut it Back

Once you have committed to being a “Finisher” and not a perfectionist, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

You have all of these goals and big dreams that you want to achieve, but they just seem so daunting and scary.

Take a deep breath, relax, and realize that it’s going to be ok.

Instead of stressing yourself out and killing yourself to achieve arbitrarily set goals that don’t have any real significance in your life, slow things down and cut back.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say that your goal is to lose 15 lbs. in the next month.

While it’s admirable that you want to lose weight, it’s also a foolish goal.

You are simply trying to do too much too quickly.

Why do you need to lose so much weight in the next 30 days? What’s so significant about the next month that you are willing to starve yourself to death in order to hit an arbitrary weight goal?

Instead, let’s take the finisher’s approach.

Cut the goal in half and double the timeline.

Now, instead of 15 lbs. in 30 days, it’s 7 lbs. in 60 days.

That means you need to lose less than one pound a week!

That’s doable right?

Some of you reading this might think, “No! I’ve gotta push hard, I’ve gotta go crazy and lose this weight”

And I get it, that’s what you’ve been conditioned to think.

But let me ask you something…

If this approach works, then why haven’t you lost the weight already?

4. Examine What Has Worked in the Past 

Whenever you set out to achieve any new goal, start by looking at what has worked in the past.

For example, if you take stock of your life and realize that you have mastered your physical health but you’re struggling to get a grip on your finances, simply look at the habits and routines that helped to become physically fit and apply them to your life so that you can become financially fit.

When you examine the habits that helped you become healthy, you might realize that the first step you took was to clear out your pantry of all junk food, thereby eliminating 90% of the temptation you felt.

This can be applied to your finances.

Call your bank and setup an automatic savings transfer that will draft out of your account every time you get paid. The next time your paycheck hits your account, you will automatically have a small portion of your income going directly to your savings account. You don’t realize it’s gone, you can’t touch the money that has been transferred, and you have no temptation to spend that money on things you don’t need.

Success leaves clues.

If you have achieved success anywhere in life, you can achieve it everywhere in life if you are simply willing to look at what has worked, pick out the patterns, and apply them to all areas of your life.

5. Have Fun with the Process 

At the end of the day, life is supposed to be fun.

It isn’t supposed to be a rat race, it isn’t supposed to be a drag, it’s supposed to be fun!

So start acting like it.

Enjoy the goals that you set, enjoy the things that you pursue, enjoy every moment that you can because life is precious and it’s meant to be enjoyed.

Direct download: Jon_Acuff_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, The Happiness of Pursuit, Born for This, and The Art of Non-Conformity.

Chris travels the world and writes for a small army of remarkable people at ChrisGuillebeau.com, or you can listen to his daily podcast, Side Hustle School, at SideHustleSchool.com.

Favorite Success Quote

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” -Alan Keightley

Key Points

1. You Don’t Have to Live the Way You Are Told 

Go to school, get good grades, attend college, find a cushy job with nice benefits, buy a house, get married, have 2.5 kids, die.

That’s the script that most of us have been told to follow.

We’ve been fed a steady diet of lies and misinformation that make us believe that there is only one way to approach life, that there’s a select set of goals and ambitions that are acceptable and the rest are heresy.

Luckily for you and me… There’s more to life than what we were told growing up.

Since the inception of the internet, it’s easier now than it’s ever been in human history to create a sustainable income doing something that you love.

It’s easier than it’s ever been before to shrug off the expectations and “should’s” of society and to go about life in our own way.

You don’t have to do what anyone else tells you to do.

If you want to go to college, get a job, get married, and buy a house in the hills, then great!

If you don’t, if you want to drop out, travel the world, start an online business, and live the expat lifestyle, you can do that too.

You have the power to decide who you want to be and what you want to do.

You have the ability to decide for yourself what kind of life you want to live.

Make the most of it.

2. What One Man Can Do Another Man Can Do 

In a world that glamorizes the end result without giving so much as a second thought to the process, it’s easy to look at the successes of others and believe that their accomplishments are out of your reach.

But they were people just like you.

Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk, and yes, Chris Guillebeau are all just normal people who have done extraordinary things.

There’s nothing special about them, they didn’t have any unique advantages that you don’t have, they were just normal everyday guys who applied proven principles and tactics to achieve extraordinary results.

Whatever it is that you want to achieve in this life, it’s possible, and the first step on your path to making it happen is to acknowledge that it’s possible.

What one man can do, another man can do. If it’s been done before it can be done again.

Always remember this and always keep your head up.

3. A Side Hustle is an Asset 

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to building a side hustle is to think that a “Side Hustle” is the same thing as a part-time job.

There’s nothing wrong with freelancing or working part-time, but at the end of the day, these endeavors all require the same thing… Your time.

No matter how highly paid you become, anything that directly requires your time to make money is a part time job, not a Side Hustle.

A side hustle is an asset, it’s something that can make you money while you sleep, it’s something that you can set and forget.

It’s something that generates revenue without consuming your life.

4. Your Hustle Isn’t that Big of a Deal 

I know countless individuals who work jobs that they love.

They decide to build a side hustle, quite simply, because they want the extra cash.

After weeks of brainstorming and agonizing over potential paths they could take, they eventually collapse into a puddle of nerves and anxiety.

Not because the task ahead of them is so monumental, but because they have put their side hustle on a proverbial pedestal. They turned it into something that it wasn’t.

A side hustle is nothing more than a fun project that you work on in your spare time to generate extra revenue.

That’s it.

You don’t have to be passionate about it as long as you enjoy it.

You don’t have to make 6-figures with it (unless you want to).

You don’t have to turn it into anything of significance.

It’s just a way to make extra income doing things you like.

So don’t worry about finding your “One Thing”. Make a list of 10 different side hustles, try each one for 2-3 weeks and if you don’t like it, throw it in the garbage and start the next one.

This is an experiment, treat it as such.

5. Just Get Started 

No matter what goal you are pursuing, whether it’s to travel the world, find your dream job, or simply start a side hustle to earn an extra $2,000 a month, the first step will always be the hardest.

You will always second guess yourself, over analyze, and eventually, give up if you don’t take the first step and dive into the water head first.

Just get started.

As simple as it sounds, it’s the key to about 90% of success.

Just get started, take the first step, write the first word, buy that domain, talk to that girl, do whatever it is that you need to do to move towards your dreams.

Get started today.

Because tomorrow you will wish you had started yesterday.

Direct download: Chris_Guillebeau_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Lewis Howes is a lifestyle entrepreneur, high performance business coach, author and keynote speaker. A former professional football player and two-sport All-American, he is a current USA Men’s National Handball Team athlete. Lewis hosts The School of Greatness podcast, which has received millions of downloads since it launched in 2013.

Lewis was recognized by The White House and President Obama as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the country under 30. He is a contributing writer for Entrepreneur and Yahoo.com and has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Men’s Health, The Today Show and other major media outlets.

Favorite Success Quotes

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care”

Key Points

1. Show that You Care 

As men, we have a pathological need to feel important, to feel special, to feel powerful.

To fill this need, most of us walk through our lives searching for ways to make other people see how important we are.

We work ourselves to death at jobs that we hate so that we can afford to buy things we don’t need.

We stay in relationships that we should have left years ago because the person that we are dating is attractive and popular.

We live our lives for the approval and validation of others while forgetting one obvious truth.

No one cares.

Seriously… No one cares about how much money you have, how hot your girl friend is, or how many horsepower your car has.

The people in your life are struggling with plenty of trials and struggles as it is, do you really think they’re going to care that you bought a “Luxury Class” Mercedes instead of a Standard?

What people want and desperately need isn’t another person who’s caught up in their own lives.. What they need is someone who cares, someone who listens, someone who is real.

The people in your life are dying to connect, they are dying for someone who is real, they are dying for someone who genuinely cares about them and is willing to listen and be present.

If you really want to impress someone (which shouldn’t be your focus to begin with), then show them how much you care, don’t show them how much you have.

2. Vulnerability is the Key to Freedom

If you are reading this right now, then chances are good that you’ve been hurt. Some of you have been hurt so deeply and so profoundly that you have never shared your pain with another living soul.

And it sucks…

When you’ve experienced trauma and pain in your life, it’s easy to get stuck in your head, to become isolated and believe that you are alone or that no one would love you if they knew the truth.

In an effort to protect yourself and others, you put up a wall between yourself and the people that you love, closing yourself off from the people who care for you the most.

And then you let the pain sit inside of you and simmer.

Until one day, that simmer turns into a boil and you find yourself exploding in ways that you never thought possible.

Until one day, the wounds have become so deep and so painful that they change who you are.

This is the path that most men take…

Most men refuse to seek help, guidance of support in times of trauma and suffering. They think they have everything figured out and do their best to act the part.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret…. You are killing yourself and you are killing your relationships.

The past only has power over us so long as we allow it to.

When you are willing to embrace vulnerability, trust the people in your life, and open up about your deepest fears, regrets, and experiences, your whole life will change.

For Lewis, this meant opening up about the sexual abuse he experienced as a child.

For nearly 25 years, he’d kept the pain bottled inside until one day, it all came out on a basketball court and he got into a vicious fight with another player.

The encounter shocked and humbled him and made him realize that he needed to talk to someone and he needed to get help.

And so he did, he opened up to a select group of people about what had happened to him as a child and, much to his surprise, the response he received was nothing but love.

People told him that they could trust him more, that they felt more connected, and that they respected him on a deeper level because of the pain and trauma he experienced.

As time went on and he shared his truth with more and more people, he eventually arrived at a point in his life where he could share his story without feeling the pain in the same way.

Through sharing his authentic truth and being vulnerable, he healed the wounds of the past.

But what about you?

What are you holding onto that you need to let go? What pain has been keeping you back and weighing you down?

I want you to write that thing down right now and commit that before the day is over, you will find someone to talk to, even if it’s a professional.

I promise that if you are willing to take this scary leap, your life will never be the same.

3. Why Are You Doing What You’re Doing? 

One of the biggest mistakes that we as men make is that we detach our what from our why. 

We spend all of our time pursuing goals, dreams, and opportunities but we never really know why we do any of the things that we do.

We hustle and grind all day long and for what?

For most men, it’s for the paycheck or the status, but as many of you have already realized, this is never enough.

You must have a strong and deep why for what you are doing that extends beyond yourself.

If you want to live a truly extraordinary and exceptional life, then you must live your life for the greater good and not just yourself.

Find ways to serve and love and improve the lives of others and your own life will be filled with joy, and love, and opportunities that you could never imagine.

It might seem cliche and worn out, but there’s a great deal of truth to the adage that “Living is giving”.

So let me ask you… What are you giving and why?

4. Pause, Breathe, and Smile 

You can read all of the books that have ever been written on the topic of emotional control, masculinity, and mastering yourself and, unfortunately, there will still be instances where you want to explode and rip someone’s head off.

It’s just human nature.

While you cannot control the initial flood of emotions that happens in these circumstances, you can control your reaction.

When you start to feel these negative thoughts and emotions creeping into your mind and body, take a step back and notice them.

Acknowledge them and be aware of them… Don’t try to fight them.

Once you are aware of the internal dialogue and the reason for your emotional response, take 10 deep breaths and mentally detach yourself from the situation, doing your best to look at things through the lens of an objective observer.

Then, once you have regained your center, look around you and smile.

You are blessed and you have a lot to be grateful for. Smile and remember this.

5. It’s All About Finding the Balance 

In a world that seems to be driven by the “Hustle and Grind” mentality, it’s easy to lose balance and start living a life that is completely and utterly consumed by your work.

When this happens, it’s important to take a step back and regain your inner balance.

Life is seasonal.

There are times where you will need to hustle, grind, and push forward.

There are times where you need to take a step back and rest.

Learn to differentiate between the two and your entire life will transform before your eyes.

Direct download: Lewis_Howes_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

Timothy Sykes is a stock trader who turned his $10,000 Bar Mitzvah money into $4,000,000 through exposing the losing game of penny stocks. He then went on to found Profit.ly a community of 84,000 traders, and run a leading trading coaching program called Millionaire Trader

Favorite Success Quote

“Be patient be dedicated and realize that it’s a marathon not a sprint.”

Key Points

1. Challenges Make Life Worth Living

You will often hear personal growth gurus and “enlightened” philosophers espousing the belief that “Life is a journey not a destination.

As cliche as it sounds, anyone who has ever achieved “real” success in life knows it to be true.

Achievement is incredible. Reaching your goals is exhilarating. Finally feeling like you are “Making It” gives you a buzz that no substance can compete with.

But it doesn’t last…

Because as human beings, we have evolved to constantly seek new challenges and accelerate the old status quo.

Challenges are what make us come alive, they are what give us meaning, and they are, when it’s all said and done, what life is truly about.

You were not meant to earn a million dollars and then retire on an island in the sun.

You were meant to innovate, to find new ways to stretch yourself and progress your life.

And when you understand this… Everything changes.

You will no longer see challenges as a “Bad” thing. You will no longer view hardship as a problem.

You will realize that overcoming challenges is ultimately what will give your life meaning and purpose.

2. Money Might Make You Happy but it Won’t Keep You Happy

When you take the previous point a step further and apply is specifically to money, you will realize that the age old adage “Money can’t buy happiness”, while technically untrue, has its merits.

Money can buy happiness and pleasure.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has never actually had any money.

Knowing that you never have to work again, knowing that you have absolute freedom, knowing that you can do what you want, when you want, with who you want will make you happy.

But it isn’t enough to keep you happy.

Eventually, you will get bored.

Regardless of how much money you have, if you are not growing and challenging yourself on a daily basis, you will eventually feel stagnant and depressed.

This is why most successful entrepreneurs who take a few years off after a big I.P.O. (thinking that they’re done for good) return to the game almost as quickly as they left it.

Money might make you happy, but it won’t keep you happy.

You need to use it to help others, explore new challenges, and push yourself to grow and evolve.

3. Stretch Yourself and Shoot for Big Goals 

When I was surfing through Quora the other day, I saw a very generic question asking “How can I make a million dollars by the time I’m 30?”

Personally, I felt that this was a ridiculous and arbitrary question.

However, when I started looking through the answers, I saw a response that caught my eye.

The most popular answer in the entire thread started out by posing a counter question, “Why are you playing so small? Why not shoot for something bigger?”

During my conversation with Timothy, he shared a very similar belief.

Over the past few years, Tim has been building schools with a charity called Pencil’s of Promise and he’s already donated in excess of $1,000,000 helping fund 30+ school builds.

However, for Tim, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

His goal is to build over 1,000 schools in the coming years… A $35,000,000 undertaking.

While we were talking about this project, he admits that this is a huge goal and that it’s entirely possible that he will never reach it.

However, it’s the thrill of having something so big to shoot for that keeps him going.

In your own life, how can you 10X your goals to push yourself and get excited?

How can you set a vision and a dream so big that you are thrilled to jump out of bed every morning and pursue it?

Remember, if you aim for the moon you may hit a stump.

But if you aim for a stump… You might miss.

4. If You Don’t Know what You Want to Do, Do Something 

We live in an age of such unprecedented opportunity and possibility that our society has succumbed to something called “Analysis by paralysis”.

Basically, people have so many freaking options to choose from that they can never choose one thing.

If you recently graduated high school or college and had only a few thousand dollars to your name, you could realistically dive into about a dozen different businesses in hundreds of different niches.

For the first time in human history, just about anyone who lives in the Western world has the ability to be and do whatever they want (if they put their minds to it).

The only problem is, most of us don’t know what we want.

So we wander aimlessly, afraid to take action and step into the unknown.

But I’m here to tell you… Just take action.

Just do something even if it’s the wrong thing.

As long as you are making moves, you can pivot and change later down the line to ensure you are making the right moves.

But if you are standing still… You’ll never get anything done and you will never achieve the success you are looking for.

5. The Game Isn’t Over Until It’s Over 

One of the most common questions and concerns that I see on the Knowledge for Men Facebook page, in my Quora feed, and even in the inquiries that are sent to my inbox is this…

Andrew, I’m [insert age]… Am I too old to start a business, meet the woman of my dreams, achieve my ideal body etc. etc.?”

The answer?

Of course not!

If you still have breath in your lungs, then you still have time to pursue your dreams.

Some of the most successful and prolific entrepreneurs didn’t get started in business until their 50’s, 60’s, and even 70’s.

Many more didn’t achieve the success that they truly wanted until a few years before their death… But they did achieve it.

The game isn’t over until it’s over.

It’s never too late to go after your dreams and do the things that you truly want to do.

And it’s never too early.

So step up and embrace this.

Go for the things that you want in life regardless of your age or experience.

If you are on this planet and you are still alive, then you’ve got time to make it count and achieve your dreams.

The only question is, will you take action or not? 

Direct download: Timothy_Sykes_main.mp3
Category:Success and Life Advice -- posted at: 3:00am EST

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