If you’ve been hanging around our LWL (Life Without Limits) community for some time, one of the obvious value-adds to you should be that:
We don’t endorse stuff (or people) just because it’s the cool or popular (in-crowd) thing to do.
We actually speak out against marketers who have no clue HOW a product, service, or person can help their readers.
We see too many people — way too many people — ONLY (emphasis on ONLY ) promoting pedigreed teachers (probably for some repressed desire to be accepted or seen), incessantly recommending books they haven’t read (for no other reasons than to get subscribers from their bonus offer), and just mindlessly passing along the ‘usual suspect’ information about life, business, entrepreneurship, self-growth, etc.
We do what we do here — interview, research,write, create — because we like provoking thought, questioning the way things are, and, yes, recommending people/products that are, from our view, different, unique, and created with the right intentions.
Now, we’re NOT saying that in order for somebody to ADD value and richness to your life that they have to be an unknown / independent contrarian, rebel, or maverick.
‘Cause there are, indeed, a handful of people we know who march to a different drummer while being well-liked and popular.
The person we’re asking you to pay attention to on this post was one of the first guests, in 2006, to be profiled on Heather’s Internet Marketing Unwrapped (IMU) tele-show (teleseminar-talk show).
He’s one of the most respected, legit, and results-producing online marketers around, and became a millionaire at a very young age.
Editor’s Note: OMG, how eerie that I wrote this the day before Billy Mays died.
Although I wasn’t a fan of his pitching style, I grew to admire and respect what Billy does as an entrepreneur, as this article tells.
He’s a one-of-a-kind, so he’ll be missed, and our condolences go out to Billy’s family.
A follow-up post on life, death, and the sudden passing of several celebrities this week will be forthcoming.
Okay, I know a lot of people think it’s cool to say, “I don’t watch TV.”
I first found this out over 10 years ago, doing “streeters” (on-the-street short interviews with passersby). Whenever I asked, “What’s your favorite TV show?” I got “I don’t watch TV!” more often than any other answer.
Somehow, I don’t think they were telling the truth.
Or, at least, most of them weren’t.
But I’d believe them if they said, “I don’t watch a lot of TV,” because Barry and I don’t watch a lot either.
And when we do, we try to watch something entrepreneurial (like The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch), or inspiring (like something on the Travel Channel, whether it’s Samantha Brown or her alter-ego, Anthony Bourdain), or entertaining in a quality way (like Entourage, a great study of human nature and the roller coaster of life).
A little over a week ago, we found a new show that’s both entrepreneurial and entertaining… and, in a way, you could say it’sinspiring too…
A couple of days ago we told you about a SPECIAL REPORT that ties right in with the passion-filled commentaries that have been pouring in on our blog post about formal education…
But it’s much more than that!
This report contains some things that would make the average college graduate’s jaw drop, and their head shake in disbelief.
See, there are some things that “they” don’t want you to know about… and often those are the things that, if you knew you didn’t know them, would be the things you’d choose to learn first!
(But how can you know, right?)
Well, in this case we’re just gonna tell you about it!
Speaking of things that will make people’s jaw drop and their head shake, Robert Scheinfeld — the author and speaker who used to talk about manifestation, but now has gone beyond that with his teachings of Phase 1 and Phase 2 in the Human Game — has just come out with a new book called Busting Loose From the Business Game.
Of course, as expected, what he’s written about is completely unexpected!
See, if you’re an entrepreneur or business person, or you’ve been working in any capacity, you’ve been playing what Robert calls “The Old Business Game”.
Just like a lot of “old ways” of doing things (like mentioned in the report above), that’s a losing way to play.
Robert’s new book is about finally winning, by playing “The New Business Game“.
> It’s rooted in metaphysics… likely on a different level than you’ve experienced before.
> It will shift your paradigm and your beliefs about what’s possible.
> It will help you out if you’re currently struggling.
> It will guide you do better if you’re currently doing okay.
> It will allow you have more fun if you’re currently doing well.
Basically, however you’re experiencing the Business Game now will become a much better journey after you read Robert’s book.
And if you buy the book this week only, you’ll get some extra tools from Robert that will support and guide you even more as you approach this New Business Game, and start playing to win.
Get your copy of Busting Loose From the Business Game, your “Busting Loose Fast Start Toolkit”, and more by reading Robert’s message here.
Your Partners in the Quest For
Living a Life Without Limits,
(( Life Design Consultants,
Agents of Higher Learning &
Catalysts For Change ))
Even though I was intentionally setting out to dive into some more intriguing areas of AskMen.com, I couldn’t help but notice this conveniently located (didn’t have to scroll the page to see it) and bolded question asked to Robin Leach:
Which houses took your breath away?
“Well, the house in Germany with 365 rooms and a room map so you would not get lost. The house in Australia that was so large, they had a chauffeur driving you from one room to another. A 50,000-square foot house that was on the Pacific coast in Mexico. An all-gold house in Hong Kong. Celebrities are nowhere as rich as some people think they are. It is usually people in the money business, finance, and international trade that are really rich. You generally find that the number of very wealthy [celebrities] is not more than a couple of handfuls.”
Mr. Leach reminiscing about these houses reminded me of all the times, when I was living in Virginia Beach for 12 years, that I’d hop on my mountain bike, head down to the boardwalk, and cruise on into a residential area of the beach called “Croatan”.
It was through this away-from-the-computer time that I’d immerse myself into the culture, richness, and vicariously live through the extreme “vivid” experiences, of the Rich & Famous…
In this post, we’re gonna do something radically different — something so shocking, something so… so… well, anti-Barry and Heather that you’ll either smile big or frown in frustration.
Okaaaaaay, here it goes:
WE’RE NOT GONNA RIDE IN ON *OUR* SOAP BOX ON THIS TOPIC.
Instead, today we just want to pass along something that we saw in our new favorite magazine, The Week.
But before we do, we’ll first say that one of our Renegade Growth Pak teachers emphatically asked, on our live call with him, to anybody who feels they’re owed one: “Who are you to think you’re entitled to an education?”
And, ya know, his explanation for that stop-in-your-tracks question made what good ol’ Farmer John would call “some damn good horse sense.”
So, Dear Reader, what do you say?
Let us pepper (stimulate) your noggin first with what Michael Moynihan, a columnist at Reason.com, has to say:
Hey, cool… technology at its most interactive and personal.
A shout out to Harris Fellman (aka Santa Sal’s Cousin) for passing this video on.
By the way, if you’re the least bit curious about HOW to create profit-pulling QUALITY content through the power of conversation, don’t miss the Interviewing Unwrapped “Live” Simulcast with Harris and Heather on June 8th, 8pm EDT.
Life is part of a continual process of exploration with not just ourselves, but with “others” too.
And when you strip away all the fluff, hyperbole, and timid behind-the-computer communication, you’re only left with fresh, candid, uncensored conversation.
That basis is the root for nearly everything we do !
If you missed the INTRODUCTION to our Hidden Heroes series, you can read it by clicking here. Otherwise, continue below to read about Hero #3…
It was just over 10 months ago.
I read a passage in a book, by an author who is undoubtedly the most controversial thinker of our time. An author that has been vilified by the media ever since he started exposing the dream world we believe to be real, in 1990.
David Icke wrote (and this caught my eye in a big way):
“People can quote all the mystics and crossed-legged people they like, but this guy understood as much, if not more, than most of them…”
Fun stuff — ironic actually — coming from a guy who, well, is not too shabby himself when it comes to taking people into the unknown area of life that leads them down some pretty dark (yet truth-infused) rabbit holes.
The guy David is referring to was the most legitimate (uncensored and raw) social critic of the 1990s: a renegade thinker who tried to make people laugh, but usually ended up pissing them off, or drawing blank stares.
Well la-di-da, how ’bout that: another guy speaking out against mediocrity, incompetency, and the proliferation of so-called leaders getting in their own way… yet, because they (the masses) associate intensity and biting language with negativity and unenlightenment, Hero #3 figuratively caused most to “run for the hills.”
When I mentioned the name Bill Hicks to Heather, she immediately responded with:
“Hey, I actually think somebody we know wrote an entire book about him!”
“Yeaaaaah, baaaaaby” I said while smiling, “now, this is getting fun. Tell me more.”
So, I heard about how our friend Ben Mack — the marketing genius credited with having sold a quarter-billion-dollars in yo-yo’s in two years — produced a Bill Hicks fan page which was turned into a book.
The site asked…
“If Bill Hicks were alive today, What Would Bill Hicks Say?“
I immediately told Heather that there was no need for us to be the trumpeters for Bill’s legacy, when somebody we know (and magically enough, somebody who is also endeared to marching to a different drummer) already has.
Candid Camera was a popular television program in the US in the 1960s.
The program used real-world experiments in social psychology as the source of its humorous scenarios.
The resulting programs were not only entertaining, but also instructive.
For example, how independent is the average person when confronted with the all-powerful “consensus of the group?”
Not very.
This is the very reason (one main reason, anyway) that the warm and fuzzy side of personal and spiritual development continues to be perpetuated by NEW marketers entering this area!
Not only do they think it’s the cool, hip, in-crowd thing to do, they actually think (without a lot of authentic, honest self-talk and contemplation, by the way) that their recycled, surface-level, me-too content actually serves a purpose beyond spoon-feeding the masses the very “fix” that treats the symptoms and NOT the cause.
World-famous copywriter, Bob Bly, recently commented on how this phenomenon — of being enamored with fluff, fads, and molding your personality to “crowd mentality” — applies to marketing:
“…blogging, social networking sites, bulletin boards, forums — all that is well and good. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to sell something or you’re just wasting your time.”
Yup, we hear ya, Bob… it’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? As we’ve been saying in a hard and heavy way over the past year on this blog:
When it’s your belief (your self-identity) that you’re always or mostly one way (i.e., loving, caring, enlightened); that you’re put here to be a messenger for something profoundly intangible (i.e., like bliss, happiness or love); that you’re supposed to always socialize or give away things BEFORE you can sell something you have of value… you go into cognitive dissonance when your behavior doesn’t fit the self-identity.
Yet, the majority, regardless of how personally unfruitful or non-productive it is, will always protect their self-identity at all costs.
Several days ago, we started our first post about “happiness” — how when you use your common-sense and ground your fluffy emotions, you’ll realize that not only can you not strive to find it around you, but it’s really something else you’re after. Many “Thank You’s” for everybody in our community who participated.
However, there’s one community member, Azam Khan , who we feel said it best, as it applies to what THIS post is about:
Being transparent, holding yourself accountable for what you experience (or don’t experience), and not pretending to be something you’re really not.
“It is refreshing to hear a clearly defined distinction between superficial happiness and true fulfillment. I have known many people who go through life wearing fake plastic smiles to make themselves appear more pleasant or personable, but are emotional wrecks inside, or totally numb.
“I believe the whole spectrum of the human emotional experience needs to be felt and acknowledged in order to be genuinely whole. And that is to never repress the shadow of our anger, resentment or negativity, but to truly feel and acknowledge them, and in some cases where appropriate, express them.
“It is true that the pursuit of happiness is something that can cause unhappiness. We live in a world which can generally be an awesome place too… but we are also subject to an infrastructure of forced social adaptation that is governed by advertising and collective trends. As human animals with an inherent need to belong and be part of a collective, it is easy to fall prey to socio-cultural definitions of happiness and success, and aimlessly pursue them to maintain appearances and status.”
And, this is a perfect transition to the event I’m leading off on June 6th. Kinda like Bill Hicks (we’ll talk about him soon) warming up for George Carlin, I’ll be starting off some rants and giving my direct, let’s-keep-it-real commentary to a “Personal Development Raw” event.
At the end of yesterday’s post, “The Pursuit of Pleasure,” Heather briefly mentioned (via the P.S.) a RESOURCE that’ll show you how to EXIT the rat race and become a “Mobile Entrepreneur” with the ability to live, travel or work anywhere.
The owner of this resource, ExitMyJob, wrote a very synchronisitic (similar in thought) article about “Happiness.”
While Heather’s post, from yesterday, talks about the “pleasure” of external places and things vs. the true “happiness” that comes from within, Bryant’s article looks at a more superficial definition of “happiness”. He equates “happiness” with Heather’s definition of “pleasure”, and “fulfillment” with her description of “happiness”.
So the semantics are different, but the sentiment is similar…
I was in a conversation with a friend a few weeks back about the Exit My Job program and we got on the subject of being “happy”. My friend quickly pointed out that as humans, it is not in our nature to want to be happy. “WHAT?” I said… he went on to explain that most of us chase being “happy” as the end goal in life, but that is not what we really want. How could this be…?
I had never heard a such a crazy statement. But I was curious about what he meant…
Well as we talked I found out it was true, I don’t want to be happy.
I have a feeling you don’t really want to be happy either. And it maybe the VERY pursuit of happiness that has you unhappy and stuck in life.
So if I don’t want to be happy I must want unhappiness, right? WRONG! Here’s what I really want… and what I bet you really want…. ready…
I want to be fulfilled, that’s right I want fulfillment in my life. Think about it, if we humans REALLY wanted “happiness” over anything else, why the hell would we go to a sad movie, or listen to a sad song? Does that make you “HAPPY”? No.
Would we ever go on roll-a-coasters and have the crap scared out of us? Does being scared make you happy? No. How about having kids? I have four and I can tell you I was NOT happy with the experience of raising my kids a lot of times – but I WAS fulfilled in being a father.
Now I focus on those things that fulfill me, and I want to help you do the same. So the next time you are looking at some area in life, don’t ask yourself “what would make me happy?”, ask yourself “what will give me fulfillment?”.
I bet you have a dream deep inside that you know would fulfill your very soul and I bet chasing all those “things” that are suppose to make you “happy” have you denying your dream. Am I getting through to you here?
I am saying that you very well might be chasing happiness and denying yourself REAL fulfillment. Why the hell would you do that? Because you are conditioned to do that, you are conditioned to MAKE people around you happy and to be happy yourself.
Think about this, as a society most of us are conditioned to believe that we BETTER be happy and if we’re not happy that “something is wrong”. And, that part of being happy is making OTHER people happy (which is impossible by the way).
So, we all start playing our “roles” in order to make others, and ourselves happy. We try to make our spouse happy. We try to make our kids happy. We try to make our boss happy. We try to make our parents happy. We even try to make total strangers happy.
We buy all the “stuff” that will make us happy. The new car. The new boat. The new house. We buy all the “stuff” that will make other people happy too. You get the point…
And then comes along banks, big corporations and the media. Here’s how they fit in the mix and make it even harder on us to follow the “Pursuit of fulfillment”.
The banks say “I will loan you some money”, so then you can go to the big corporation and buy some more “happy making” stuff. Then the media steps in and reminds you how UNHAPPY we all are… but wait – here’s a commercial break to sell us some more stuff to “make” us happy just in time! You see the cycle?
So I say screw being happy – I want TRUE fulfillment. Leave me a comment and let me know what you want….
A few days ago, my Dad (a retired history professor and current archivist and heritage expert) emailed me an article called “A Footprint of Delight“.
At first I was confused as to why; his explanation was:
“I thought this might be of interest. It came to me in connection with a conference… We are trying to tie the idea of heritage and culture as components in city planning, and in the making of creative communities… However, I thought you would see much more in it, and some of the references are in the spirit of what you and Barry do.”
Hmm… he had my interest and I started reading.
At first, it seemed to be about environmental sustainability. Certainly a past interest of mine, but not really in the spirit of what Barry and I do.
After all, when we’re talking about the environment from a spiritual stance, we have to ask ourselves one huge paradoxical question…
“Well, the house in Germany with 365 rooms and a room map so you would not get lost. The house in Australia that was so large, they had a chauffeur driving you from one room to another. A 50,000-square foot house that was on the Pacific coast in Mexico. An all-gold house in Hong Kong. Celebrities are nowhere as rich as some people think they are. It is usually people in the money business, finance, and international trade that are really rich. You generally find that the number of very wealthy [celebrities] is not more than a couple of handfuls.”
No. How about having kids? I have four and I can tell you I was NOT happy with the experience of raising my kids a lot of times – but I WAS fulfilled in being a father.
