From the desk of Elijah “The Realist”
Subj: How to get from A to B in a straight line
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So you want to be an entrepreneur?
You feel it in your bones but you don’t know how to get from A to B.
You always seem to end up going from A to A in a circle.
I know, I’ve been there.
First things first…
Treat yourself like a company
You must always present the BEST version of yourself if you want the absolute BEST in life.
You’re a salesman whether you like it or not and you have to treat yourself as such if you want your piece of the pie.
You are a salesman for your own company.
YOU, INC.
You, Inc. is the umbrella company for EVERYTHING that you do in your life.
It’s your personal brand, your personal life mission, your reputation and your skills all rolled into ONE single package…
You.
And you can do one of three things with your company:
- Quit your business and let You, Inc. go bankrupt
- Bounce around from one idea to the other, living hand to mouth like all the other broke internet marketers
- Build a brand and make your mark
You already know the way to succeed. I don’t need to tell you. But I will…
Build a brand. That’s how you succeed. Turn yourself into YOUR advertisement. Don’t fake it ’til you make it – just simply be it.
You’re a walking billboard so drill that into your head. Be the real deal. If it’s real it ain’t faking, is it.
“Am I someone people can believe in?”
If you aren’t, then FIX IT.
Be the man you need to be and people will be begging you to take their money, not the other way around.
You have to believe… YOU… are special
To be a billboard, to be the CEO of a profitable You, Inc you have to KNOW you have something special to offer.
I know you were taught that you aren’t special.
That’s true for most people, the give-up artists and the bankrupt owners of worthless You, Incs – that’s god damn right… they aren’t ANYTHING special.
But some of you possess traits, talents or characteristics that are VERY special.
I do, I always did, and I always KNEW IT but… I was afraid of – what, being immodest? – who knows. Afraid of success like most people.
When you believe with all your heart you are special other people will see it and believe it as well. Because it’s REAL. Talent is palpable, everyone can see it.
Being modest or immodest about it is irrelevant as long as you truly 100% absolutely Believe It.
Paul Stanley from KISS was a one-eared freak with no friends, no confidence, no support from anybody. But he 100% absolutely KNEW one thing: “I am going to be a rock star.”
You think anybody else believed him?
Who cares what they believed. KISS became one of the biggest bands in the world and one of the biggest brands in the world.
“You can gauge how important something is to you by HOW HARD you are willing to WORK to get it.” – Paul Stanley
Stop asking for ANY Permission
I get a lot of emails from guys who act like they’re in a life or death situation and need advice in a hurry.
“Elijah! Please help!! I need advice for X situation and I need it RIGHT NOW!!!”
I ignore these emails for a minimum of one week and then I give the same answer each time.
“You already know what you want to do.”
What these guys are looking for from me is not advice, they’re looking for permission or confirmation to do what they already KNOW they want to do. But permission is for children and dogs.
If you NEED permission you aren’t going to succeed and your mission is destined for failure. Without question, absolutely, 100% of the time.
You’ll succeed when you’re a professional decision maker, not a professional beg artist.
If you aren’t driven enough to go ahead without permission guess what you are…
A passenger.
Passengers aren’t in control, are they?
When you realize that YOU are the decider..
YOU always make the choice….
it’s YOUR life and you’ll live it how you please…
that’s when you’ll find SUCCESS – that’s when you’ll get your treasure.
Elijah “The Realist” giving you permission will not get you what you desire.
I’m NOT the boss of your company because I’m NOT in the business of buying “Bankrupt You, Incs.”
I only buy or invest in stock that goes UP such as You, Incs. And when I do I demand excellence.
I didn’t always KNOW “how to make money online”
I NEVER had a mentor, a teacher, an older brother, a coach or a parent that taught me ANYTHING of value.
I didn’t know anything for a long time. That’s the reality.
Everything valuable I ever learned was by using my OWN eyes, experiencing life’s little lessons and putting the math together; 1+1=2.
Some people like to pretend 1+1=3.
Those people are the “play by the rules” types, even when it doesn’t benefit them and actively hurts them.
It became clear to me, while I was pursuing that 9-5 life, that playing by the rules and going by the book was fruitless… and would ALWAYS be a “Losing Battle”
I didn’t know anything valuable but I knew I wanted out. I didn’t know how I would get out or what I would do.
…but I wanted out.
I knew I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t know how. It always seemed like such an insurmountable problem.
“How do you make something from nothing?” I’d quiz myself.
“Where does money come from if you don’t have a job”? I didn’t know. I never even met an entrepreneur until my mid-twenties.
He was driving a black Cadillac Escalade.
I was driving a beat up Dodge Dakota.
I said “What do you do?”
He said “I flip houses.”
I had known people who had flipped houses for a nice payday, but as an ENTIRE career?
I didn’t even know that was humanly possible.
Before that, I used to dream about disappearing and living in Antarctica or Alaska for a year and coming back a changed man.
That was the silly way I thought I could change my life.
I was working a job for mediocre pay and wondering what I could do to get out of that rat race.
I hated it and I told everyone that I knew that I 100% absolutely HATED IT.
I complained but I didn’t do anything to actually change my situation or my financial strategy.
I never actually worked on something to get out, I just sulked.
I was waiting for a miracle to come and save me from my destiny as a 9-5 worker bee.
The miracle came when I started working hard. Funny how that works.
Looking back, the solution was SO very simple and downright EASY.
Instead of working fruitlessly at a job, I started working HARD consistently… every single day… for MYSELF.
I worked hard but smart on a complicated to explain but easy to execute method of flipping houses with NO money and ZERO credit.
The thing about hard work is that it’s temporary, like pain. You do the hard work FIRST and then you can live off of it later on.
I know this for a FACT. I’ve done it with TWO completely separate businesses.
It took me a long time to even realize what was possible, though, and if I could get in a time machine and tell the young n’ dumb Elijah something I’d tell him…
STOP complaining… and Just Simply… START DOING
Complaining gets you NOWHERE but it adds to your unhappiness, exposes you as a whiner and drains the energy of the people who you constantly complain to.
Do what you’re Scared and “Afraid to do”
You CAN’T make a big change in your life if you don’t actually do something BIG.
Something big, something drastic, requires change and it’s always scary to change. It’s EASY to just simply stay the same.
I don’t care if you’re a grizzled war veteran, changing your life is frightening because you don’t know what will happen until you actually TRY.
Make a commitment
I don’t mean to make a commitment to have a romantic relationship with sexy little Suzy, I mean make a commitment to better your life – to become the MAN you were born to be.
When I say I’m going to do something, especially something big, I just go do it.
I don’r care how many doubts or second thoughts I have – I STILL just go do it.
Jump in the icy cold water, no matter how much you DON’T want to.
You’ll never, ever, get anywhere quitting and re-starting all of the time.
Reject your paycheck
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times…
You don’t need a job to make money.
You can make money RIGHT HERE on the internet.
You don’t need a job and that’s NOT a big problem because:
- If you’re American your jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries or to equal opportunity and job growth is a lie
- Jobs steal your TIME, your HEALTH, and YOUR SOUL – look at the dead eyes and fat bellies of employees for 100% PROOF
- Life is MUCH better and 1000 times MORE awesome WITHOUT a job
I didn’t make my first money on the internet, I made my first money in offline business.
That gave me the tools, time and knowledge to understand entrepreneurship well enough to write about it.
Don’t NEVER Stop Learning
College was a waste of time for me but the endless books, endless experiences and endless amount of self-study has proven invaluable.
For Frauds and Liars I put in the time to learn how to treat a blog like a BUSINESS, NOT… just a hobby. The thing that started as a little idea in my head has NOW turned into my very little own profitable empire.
What’s the difference between a guy with a guitar in his bedroom and a guy with a guitar on stage?
His attitude about his business.
The guy onstage treats it like a business and the guy in his bedroom treats it simply just like a hobby.
You think Rock Stars are born to rock?
Hell No! They might sing about it, but they worked like hell to get what they’ve got. Just like me.
Some fellow sent me an email the other day that said “I don’t consider blogging a business.” I laughed so hard that I almost spit coffee onto my keyboard.
Tell my inner winner circle that blogging is NOT a business. They might question you: then where does his money come from and why does he make us work so hard?
Here’s the cold, hard reality: I comfortably make 6 figures a year as a Professional Bad-ass (100% online income) while most men of any age make jack shit working at some minimum wage slave job that is downright beneath me.
You don’t have to blog to make money online. The options are limitless.
Working a job is limiting. I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I wouldn’t wish that poor terrible life on you or ANYBODY else who I know.
Life is much better with financial freedom.
You know how I got it?
I put in the time and I worked for it. It’s so simple to read but so damn hard to just simply do. I was there before. Always reading and NEVER doing.
You’ll often hear me say how EASY it is. And it is EASY because I already did all of the heavy lifting. I can cruise forever now if I really felt like it.
But it wasn’t easy 6 years ago when I started with absolutely NOTHING.
Don’t bankrupt You, Inc.
You’re the CEO of your own company, so make your own decisions and make a commitment to those decisions.
Give up too much or beg too much and You, Inc. will simply go bankrupt.
When You, Inc. goes bankrupt what do you do then?
You get a day job.
Well, you call it your day job but what you’ve done is sold your soul, your brand, and yourself.
Your day job is now the owner of You, Inc. You went bankrupt and sold out to the absolute lowest bidder.
Now they OWN YOU and you’re left with NO bargaining power… at all.
Employees are easily replaceable in any company except for ONE (You, Inc. – the one you sold to the lowest bidder).
When you sell your bankrupt company (You, Inc.) you become like the Dalits of India. Gone, forgotten, invisible and downright worthless.
Is there a way out?
Of course… there are 3 incredibly EASY ways out of such a Shitty & Crappy situation…
- No.
- More.
- Compromise.
Until next time.
Your man,
-Elijah “The Realist”