by Michael | Nov 11, 2017 | Entreprenuership, Featured Blog, Inspiration, Motivation, success
Over-thinking will always inflate your fears, taking action will deflate them. By now you’ve heard countless times of the effect fear has on us. Everybody fears something, and this includes people who do amazing things in this world. We are visual beings living in a physical world so the way our brain keeps us alive is by warning us of what can kill us. If we see a tiger, our brain screams RUN!! If we see a fire, our brain screams RUN!! If we see a crowd we are supposed to speak in front of, our brain screams RUN!! Everything we think about doing is analyzed for it’s greatest risk. “Will this kill me? Will this embarrass me? Will I lose all of my money?” I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in my right knee years ago while playing football. It hurt like hell when it happened and it hurt much worse for the next few months to come. I hoped my problem would go away by ignoring it because I was afraid to get the surgery required for my knee to work properly. I thought I was fine until a basketball game months later where my knee buckled and the pain was much worse than when I originally tore it. I knew right then, surgery was inevitable. Never having surgery before, I began to imagine all of the things that could go wrong. What if I died while under anesthesia? What if I woke up during surgery? What if the doctor operated on the wrong knee!? What if the surgery didn’t help? These are all irrational thoughts and may sound stupid but that’s what fears are....
by Michael | Oct 26, 2017 | Entreprenuership, Featured Blog, Inspiration, Motivation, success
If the biggest dream you currently have can be accomplished in one year, you are NOT dreaming big enough. If you know exactly how to achieve your biggest dream, you are NOT dreaming big enough. If achieving your dream does not require you to massively invest into yourself in all aspects of your life, you are NOT dreaming big enough. 3 years ago I came to a point in my life that required some huge changes for me. I was living with little direction and had a very vague idea of what a life of “purpose” might look like. I needed change and achieving a few goals was not going to bring that to me. It wasn’t more money, love, friends, muscles, or relationships that I needed. For a long time I had neglected to challenge myself or to allow myself to grow. My choice of “career” was pulled out of a hat, because well… you have to choose something, and I figured I was pretty much set up for success after that. What a miserable miscalculation that was. That lack of challenge, growth, creativity, and meaning killed me. I became dead inside as I withered away in my work space made of carpeted, inch-thick aluminum. Also known as a cubicle. There are “basic human needs” and there are “Not-so-basic human needs” Our “basic” needs are things we need to do every day. Eat, poop, sleep, and eat again. The “Not-so-basic” needs are the ones that truly keep us alive. These are the things that pull us out of bed every morning, these are the needs that...
by Michael | Oct 5, 2017 | Entreprenuership, Featured Blog, Inspiration, Motivation, success
My success happens over nights. That’s not a spelling error and I don’t mean it happens over one night. I mean that my success is cultivated over many nights where the urge to relax or go to sleep pulls at me and yet, I choose to empower my ambition instead of giving in to leisure. Through many evenings and late nights, when others go home, and mentally check out of building their dream, I stay consistent. I stay faithful to my ‘Why’ of retiring my parents, and not just to retire them with enough money to survive. But so they could live like they’ve never dreamed of living! Find your “Why” You see, my parents came to the United States more than 20 years ago as political refugees. With great risk, 7 children, and a small amount of money in their pockets. They were determined to give us a better life than what we would get back in the Soviet Union. My parents put every second of every day into caring for us, making sure we had everything we needed, and raising us to walk with Jesus. After these two angels raised us into teenagers, they opened up a business so that they could provide for us on another level. When I think about my selfless parents, working 7 days a week, nearing the age of sixty, doing manual labor that I myself couldn’t fathom, it pisses me off and it breaks my heart. Yet they continued to pour into this business so that we may be fed, and have comfortable lives. I told myself that I was...
by Michael | Aug 23, 2017 | Entreprenuership, Featured Blog, Inspiration, Motivation, success
Have you ever had someone try to congratulate you but you somehow knew they weren’t truly happy for you? I once had someone slap me on the shoulder and manage to squeeze out a big “so happy for you man,” to which I responded just as sarcastically, “Thank you… man,” with a shoulder slap in return. I immediately sensed the lack of authenticity. Why is that? Why is it so obvious? Well… because only a well-practiced bull-sh**er can look you in the eye and say something they don’t believe without blinking. 🙂 but… The rest of us are usually pretty bad at hiding our thoughts with our words. Our entire body gives us away. The words we use, our tone of voice, body language, eyes, and facial expressions are usually a pretty good indication of the way we feel. We can’t walk confidently when we are scared and insecure inside. We can’t speak confidently in a sales meeting when we don’t believe in our product. We can’t encourage someone to persist when we ourselves are discouraged. We can’t inspire, when we are uninspired. Our words will always reveal outwardly what we are feeling inwardly. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” Sure we’ve gotten pretty good at disguising our feelings but not as good as we would like. This is why, if you pay close attention, you can tell what a person believes about themselves. Simply listen to the way they speak. Why is this important for you to notice? Years ago I had an idea for an online business and told a co-worker about it....
by Michael | Aug 7, 2017 | Entreprenuership, Featured Blog, Inspiration, Motivation, success
Have you ever watched a motivational video and got so fired up that you were determined to kick down every door standing in your way and go earn $1,000,000… only to drop back to the same desperate thoughts with a very vague idea, and hope, of how you might actually achieve that prized goal, a few hours later? That’s how “Motivation” typically works. We see an Instagram meme, or video with a screaming Rocky, or soft words from Steve Jobs as inspirational music plays in the background, and we get fired up. “Enough is enough,” we say and we swear to make major changes in our lives right then and there. I don’t mock. I benefit from these videos and memes every once in a while, and honestly… they CAN make you feel like drawing a line in the sand which we often do. The only problem is, this never lasts. Motivation: the ticking stove-starter Motivation is a great tool. Motivation can be likened to the ticking of a gas-stove flame-starter. It’s a jolt of electricity, a spark of fire that, if fueled by the release of propane or gas, can start a very hot flame. It’s a reminder, a thought, an idea, that allows you to lift your eyes from the daily grind. And that is why we constantly seek it. We love the way it makes us feel, even if it’s for a few hours. Just the thought of success will actually release endorphins to our brains and change our mood immensely. It allows us to dream of other possibilities again, to not feel like such...
by Michael | Jul 30, 2017 | Entreprenuership, Featured Blog, Inspiration, Motivation, success
Myth: “If you do what you love you won’t work a day in your life” They say that following your passion is effortless, requires no work, creates no stress and is otherwise easy. No they don’t normally say that word for word but there’s some insinuation, isn’t there? You’ve all heard it before, the cliche statement. The one that says “If you do what you love, you won’t work a day in your life. If you’re like me, (and you probably are to some level,) you’ve fallen victim to this myth. Allow me to explain. You find something you love, something you’re “passionate” about. You go in head first and begin chasing that passion. Almost instantly you run into trouble, an obstacle or an issue. That of course leads to stress, which leads to anxiety, which removes the joy from your “passion,” which finally leads you to the conclusion. The conclusion that you no longer love doing what you’re doing, that you are no longer passionate about it. This will likely result in a departure from your passion. I have been here before, many times! So what happens here? Did your passion fade? Do you conclude that you are evolving, and due to this evolution your dreams change and your passions come and go? Maybe it’s because you found that passion was hard. Doing what you love was work after all. Not only would you have to work but you would have to sacrifice for it! Reality: “If you do what you love you will work every minute of your life” Now that we’ve...
