And your outsides are the best indicator of your insides.
A slovenly appearance reveals your insides to be the same.
A lazy slob on the outside does the world a huge favor. They show the whole world they are guilty of sloth.
They are holding up a big sign to the world that says “I don’t respect myself. There is no reason for you to respect me either.”
They have proven that they have no discipline, pride or respect. And they don’t even care. Apathy is for the apathetic. And that’s why they are invisible to good fortune.
Two guys walk into a bank. They are the same age and same height. One guy is an out-of-shape office worker. He isn’t a snazzy dresser, he stands with a slight slouch, and he doesn’t make eye-contact very well.
The other guy is an ex-Marine, he has short, kempt hair, his properly fitted shirt reveals his muscular chest, shoulders, back and arms, and is tucked into his properly fitting trousers. He stands up straight and he makes eye-contact. His PRIDE is evident.
The female bank teller to the ex-Marine: Hi Sir! How can I help you?
The female bank teller to the office worker: I’m sorry, my register is closed. I’m going on break.
It is what’s on the inside that counts – and everyone can see your insides and they treat you accordingly. We can all see what your insides look like. When you look like a million bucks people treat you like a million bucks. When you look like a penny people will discard you like a penny.
If you’re wearing that sign it’s time to take it off.
And, friends, if pride is a sin I’ll be seeing you in Hell.
Hey, we need you to come in and work over the weekend again.
No.
Can we watch Sex and the City part 2?
No.
Buy me a drink?
No.
Can you skip the gym and help me do this BS?
No.
Got any spare change?
No.
Maybe you should give up on that and just get a job.
No.
Can you tell me about your future plans?
No.
Let’s just “veg out” and watch TV today.
No.
I know I’ve just met you but can you help me move into my new apartment?
No.
Let’s mindlessly go out to the club/bar every weekend.
No.
Gentlemen, “No” is the most powerful word in the English language. Get to know it. A “No” response need not be followed by a long, drawn out list of reasons why. “No” is sufficient.
(Note: If you don’t understand the latter part this post it is because you have not seen the movie “The Edge”, in which case you should watch it. It’s about two men stranded in the Alaskan wilds being stalked by a Bear. They can give up and let the Bear consume them or they can fight the Bear to the death, his or theirs.)
This life is the only one we get. We will all die. There is no way around it. Knowing this undeniable fact what do we choose to do with our lives?
Winners choose to live it to the fullest, never wasting their precious little time doing mundane work for mundane pay.
Losers (people who live their lives afraid) take the easy way, the irony is that it’s much harder, and choose to work and toil their lives away for nothing.
So there lies the question, can a loser become a winner? The answer is a resounding yes.
It requires nothing more than a change in thought. Choose to stop being afraid. Choose to not live in fear.
When this choice is made an entire world of possibilities open up. After all, what are people afraid of – death? Everybody dies. You will die so why be afraid?
You’re going to eat dinner tomorrow night, are you scared of that too?
There is no reason to ever be afraid of dying.
There is no reason to ever think that other people can live great lives but you can’t.
“Oh, that’s ok for him but I’ve got bills and a house and a car and a million other excuses”. Bullshit.
We say these things to make us feel better about choosing the shitty life.
Don’t for one second think that you can’t do it. That’s a lie. You can do it. If you choose not to it’s cowardice.
Kill the Bear or die trying, but don’t give up before you start.
Even in an emasculated society there are countless testosterone filled men who will not hesitate to snap your neck.
If the shit hit the fan could you defend yourself or your family against a man the same size as you? Against a man bigger than you?
If a man bigger and stronger than yourself slapped you in the face in front of your wife, girlfriend, or kids would you take him out?
Or would you hang your head in shame?
Walking away is always the best option, but what if it isn’t an option? 99 times out of 100 a bar-room altercation will not come to blows, but that 1 time it does won’t end up so well for you if you get beat up.
If another man strikes you you strike back. Even if you do get beat up, when you go down you go down fighting.
The late, great Jack LaLanne tells a story about being a younger man, eating in a diner and 3 punks come in and start making fun of him, calling him “muscles” and ridiculing him.
Jack took the 3 punks into the parking lot and dealt with each of them and went back into the diner to finish his meal. All the patrons in the diner thanked him and clapped for him.
There is a difference in walking away from a silly fight and being a coward who has no pride.
Steps to learning to defend yourself:
Get into shape: a frail body isn’t defending anything. A man in good shape is more intimidating to someone who wants to pick an easy fight.
Learn some form of defense: could be boxing, mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu-jitstu, a self defense class, or you could have a friend teach you some moves. Watch some self-defense videos if you have no other options. The confidence alone from knowing you can hold your own and defend yourself is worth more than money. Walking down the street I am comfortable in the fact that if a bigger man than myself gave me some trouble I can hold my own. I may take a few licks but I’ll give just as good as I got.
Talk yourself out of the fight: If a fight can be avoided, it should be avoided. You never know who’s carrying a knife or a gun, or if he has friends waiting in the distance.
Position yourself for easy defense: If a man is getting in your space you never keep your hands in your pocket, you keep them up to defend your face. Don’t make an overt boxing stance, you can pretend to be scratching your chin or something like that. Your hands always need to be ready to act. When the fight starts always protect your face with your forearms, hold your arms up at a 90% angle, thumbs facing your head.
If it comes to blows: Move quickly. Get your hits in as fast as you can, subdue him as fast as you can, and get away as fast as you can. A hard punch to the throat will take him out. A rear-naked choke will take him out. A hard kick to the knee will take him out. A hard knee to his face will take him out. If you’re trading blow for blow you aim for the jaw. Always keep your hands up in front of your face to protect yourself.
Fight dirty if it’s life or death: If you’re fighting for your life all rules of combat decency evaporate. This is where you kick the groin, bite the nose, poke the eyes, any severe damage you can do.
Never pick a fight: Only finish one if it is necessary. A man has no business not knowing how to stand up and fight for himself.
One of the great things about being the boss is that you aren’t on anyone else’s time.
I was out swimming laps in the cool, morning air and something occurred to me – it’s January 6th, I guess I can post my new years article now.
In the last post I asked you what you wanted to see from Bold and Determined in 2014.
So what’s in store for B&D in 2014? Same thing as in 2013 – Killin’ with a smile.
Below I will respond to some questions, concerns etc.
Comments from readers are in italics, replies from Vic are in black.
I want to see content that gets me fired up but also leaves actionable steps to implement right away or in the nearest future. I want to see some more kicking dirt into feminist’s faces and I want to see the truth about emasculated society laid out even more.
Feminists gross me out, if they would stop emailing me I could be done with them permanently. Actionable steps? Friend, everybody is different. The plan that works for Johnny might fail for Jimmy. Mindset is key, the plan means jackshit without the right mindset. That’s why I always write about MINDSET!
Inspirational is okay, but concrete is more valuable. I need information about e.g. how to protect my privacy more than I need exhortation. Also I think Feminism is the greatest ideological evil of modern history, not excluding racism, Nazism, and rap.
Agree about feminism, the solution is to starve the beast. The only way I know to truly protect your privacy is to never get online and never fly anywhere. I gave up my privacy paranoia.
I’d like to see meditation & other mind building techniques explored.
I’ve never meditated a day in my life and I won’t be starting any time soon. For mind building I enjoy reading books. Something that works for me, along the lines of meditation, is waking up early, taking a cold shower (or swimming laps in the cool morning air), shaving and getting ready for the day before anyone else has even woken up.
I’d like to see more posts on how to deal with those negative issues that can arise: loss of vision, laziness, plateaus, self-doubt.. all that bad shit. Would be cool to hear how you overcome that crap, I’m sure everyone must suffer from time to time.
Like Rocky, take the hits and keep moving forward. JUST DON’T QUIT!
I understand that you are a private man, but I would love to read more of your private life stories. Especially stories of your greatest life struggles and the things that pushed you to become the man that you are today. I myself am motivated by shameful past mistakes and rejections. I now use those feelings of pain and shame to fuel myself to become better and stronger. I would love to know what fuels you from the core.
I would love to see more exercise regimens, more direct responses to people’s bullshit, deff more recipes for cooking meat, and various other diets and fasting routines you have to share.
Nowadays when I’m hungry I say “cook me some eggs” or “cook me a steak” and 15 minutes later the food appears on my desk, as if by magic. I’ve cooked steak the same way for years, pan fried in butter with salt and black pepper. I picked up some himalayan sea salt in Malaysia last year, holy moly that stuff is good. I recommend picking some up for your steak and eggs.
I’d like to hear your views on the concept of “honor” and what it means to you. We all need codes to live by, and a sense of honor has to fit into it somewhere. It would also be great to see more articles on people that inspire you. People that have done great things and made their mark on the world.
That’s simple: I don’t like alcoholics or drug addicts or sex fiends. I like clean people and don’t like dirty people. “But Vic! You live in Bangkok!“. Good point.
I love the fact that you provide quality over quantity. It makes me want to come back and check this blog. Whenever a new article is about to arrive, I get psyched. Why is that? Because I just know that the article is going to be fking awesome. You shouldn’t change a thing. Keep it the way it is, because it’s brilliant.
The most important thing you can do as an artist is put out QUALITY. I use the Metallica Method. Metallica has been around for 30 years and they have only released 9 albums – they’re one of the greatest bands of all time. If it takes me 3 weeks to write a great article then I’ll spend 3 weeks on that article. I will never post just to post.
Going to go with part of what Alex DC said. It’d be nice to see what your take on a more personal code could be like. Rules and regulations that your companions must abide by before being kicked out of your group? Things you won’t tolerate from other people in their habits or behavior?
I don’t have a group. I have friends here, I have friends there, but I don’t have a group. When I do choose friends I want them to be dual purpose friends.
I’d like to see some more ideas regarding making money online, I could really use practical information of that sort right now in my life to help me accomplish my own goals.
I’ve actually got 4 reports that I give away for free to people who want to start a blog and open a hosting account with hostgator (see details here).
Oh, 1 more thing – I’d like to see some guest-posts as well, I’m sure there’s a bunch of people eager to contribute and you could easily screen the posts, so you’d get some quality content w/o expending much effort.
If your writing is on fire, if your writing kills, if your writing makes ’em cry or makes ’em buy I will allow the guest post. Otherwise I won’t. Quality content without expending effort? Don’t make me laugh. I’ve allowed only one guest post on the site and I put almost as much work into that post as I do into other posts. Tell Ludvig it’s easy to write for B&D and he’ll laugh at you.
A forum to talk to other wolfs, more pics of your journey.
Here’s a picture of my legs on a journey.
An article about how to juggle/balance health..wealth…relations would be welcome. I have observed many times its difficult to do this as when i focus on one thing others take a back seat
It is difficult to juggle these things. Immensely difficult. When I do something, I immerse myself in it. The solution I have found is to Blast and Cruise. Blast = working on one thing at a time, when you’re at a point where you’re finished (or burnt out) you cruise on that issue and move on to the next one. For example, you work like hell for 6 weeks, then work just a little bit and do something else for a while. Or if you need to get in shape, you work like hell in the gym until you get where you need to be, then you shift your focus to another endeavor while going to the gym just to maintain, or “cruise”.
I was about to ask for the essentials of eating and training when I realized the hallmark of your writing style is very head-on. So that calls for new topics rather then refining already refined ones. Meditation resulting in poise and mental strength + what can we learn from Bruce Lee stuff? Basic self defense in case someone jumps me. How to top physical, mental and economical strength with being a good (non-pussy) person?
What can we learn from Bruce Lee? I met him a few years ago in Hong Kong when I was skinnier, I should have asked him that question…but he seemed a little quiet.
I would love to hear more about your stories, and if you can make videos then that would me more awesome. Thanks to you bro I was a wimp before and became a better man.
and…
Vic we need a Bold and Determined Podcast. Would love to hear you simply talk about your ideas on life, business and lifting for 2 hours or so every other week.
Working on both of these.
From Bold and Determined I would second the common request for personal stories, but also I feel that interviews with verified winners would be good, with winner wolves, men that live the B&D lifestyle and reap the success from it, whether that be in business, sports, positions of leadership or any other aspect of their life, let’s hear what they do and how it has brought them success.
I won’t be doing too many interviews. I’m not a journalist, I’m not a DJ, I’m not an emcee and I never wanted to be.
I would like to see a Bold and Determined forum. I think it would be a much welcomed community of ass-kickers. Bold and Determined, in my opinion, has become more than a website, it’s become a community, it’s become a haven of information that us men NEED. Victor, as I have told you time and time again, without even knowing you, you helped change this guy for the better, and as corny as this may sound to some of you, I am VERY grateful.
The #1 reason I started Bold and Determined is because I used to post my ideas on a forum (long since dead) and 50% would always just want to argue with me. I thought “this is ridiculous”, I will just start a website and the guys who want and need this will find it and the people who just want to cry will stay away. If B&D opens a forum it will be a paid-only forum, I don’t want knuckle-heads signing up. I only want serious men who have something valuable to bring to the table.
I’d like to see more of your ideas against feminism and being masculine. I feel my test running through my veins when I read that stuff, makes me primed for lifting weights.
Act like a man and feminists just won’t be a part of your life (but they will still stalk you online). For more about lifting weights from a no-nonsense bodybuilder check out my man John Doe.
I’d be interested to see how you approach writing a post. Is it a structured approach or more free writing?
and…
I concur.
I’d like to see your approach as well.
I sometimes think my posts are way too long.
‘Saying the most, in as few word possible’ = powerful
I start with an idea. Something that has been burning up in my head for a while, sometimes years, and eventually I have to get the idea out onto paper. I don’t write an outline, I just start writing. I go over and over and over the articles 500 times editing and re-editing. Then, at the end, I cut out entire chunks of text and make the article as concise as I possibly can.
…stuff on copywriting, more on dating maybe? more on productivity? more books, most definitely, more on nootropics, probably have you ever considered running a “30 days of discipline” bootcamp for corporate or public audiences? just a thought…,
To read about nootropics you guys should check out Pill Scout, he writes about all that stuff.
As for copywriting, I’ll give you a little secret: be an authority and be genuine and people will come running to you with money in their hands. My buddy Chris is making a ton of money and he doesn’t do any traditional copywriting, he’s just genuine. Check out his video review of 30 Days of Discipline below:
With that in mind I would like to see more about life as a lone wolf. I want to learn how to enjoy it.
I’m a lone wolf but I’m not lonely and there is a big difference. Living alone and being alone all the time will rob you of intimacy, intimacy is vital for man. If you don’t enjoy being a lone wolf then maybe you aren’t one, or maybe you just need a woman.
– Personal training / coaching business etc – your experience, advice, your failures / mistakes – More about developing real friendships – Big Government and how it is fucking up peoples lives – School – Government surveillance (I know you have mentioned this a little bit, but it would be interesting going deeper and wider into this topic)
I’ve never been a personal trainer but if I were I’d follow these two guidelines – 1) You should be in great shape and 2) You should be a good listener. It really doesn’t matter if your clients get in shape or not, a personal trainer is more like a therapist.
Developing real friendships? These things just happen. School? Waste of time for most. Government surveillance? What can you do, live in the forest like John Rambo?
For B&D I like the idea of adding a forum and maybe more on social skills, like knowing who to trust, how to gain the upper hand in a negotiation, etc.
Podcast/video would be awesome. More articles about making money through internet entrepreneurship.
Below is an example of a guy who is doing it pro from the get-go. This guy has done the best review for Body of a Spartan I have ever seen. For all you guys trying to get started making money online THIS! is how you do it. Pro from the get-go. The website looks fantastic and the writing is fantastic. After reading the review I even want go back and buy my own book!
I would like to see 3 things: First, a forum where fellow wolves could share stories/ideas and have discussions. Second, a post from your perspective about joining the military/being in the military. And third, a post that puts together a list of some of the baddest wolves (past or present) you think we should be emulating. Thanks and Merry Christmas. Forget about that politically correct ‘happy holidays’ bullshit.
The military I have two opinions….
It can be great for a young man to develop discipline and pride in himself.
Why would you ever want to go fight for people who hate you. Why do you want to fight to make them rich while they continually shit on you?
A post about specifically what goes through your mind when you work. Do you have a very specific game plan for the next day, with a time, duration, etc? Or just sit down and blast through until you’re done with a post or whatever you’re working on? What kinds of things help you with your mindset to be productive during that work session?
I sit down to write every single morning, without fail. I never eat food first thing in the morning, I like coffee, sometimes I take modafinil – but I always have the same goal in mind. I want jaws to drop to the floor when I publish an article. You may see one blog post per week, or one post per two weeks but the amount of work that goes into those posts is not small, I can promise that. I spend 8 hours minimum on each post, and sometimes up to two or three weeks. For every post I publish, 15 more are in the unfinished draft state because they weren’t good enough.
I wish you would have some AdSense banner so I could click on it every time I read something :)) That would make some solid income alone 😀 Wish you all the best !
I will never have AdSense banners here, I don’t care if they would make me 20 grand a month. They are ugly, phony baloney and they hurt my message. But I appreciate the thought.
Visit Eastern Europe and write about your experiences! In most places, you can find girls who look like professional models and will admire you like no other. Don’t believe it? Go to Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia etc. So many girls have great bodies, cute faces (w/o make-up even!) and are great company. If 2014 is planned for you already… well, it’s my goal as soon as I will deal with other things which planned for now.
I haven’t been to Eastern Europe but you guys should check out a guy called Maverick Traveler, great writer and he’s killin’ it over there.
I would like to see some insight into the history of Bold & Determined. Specifically, I am referring to events and/or posts throughout its three years that caused profit and audience to grow significantly.
The magic T word is what grew my audience – TIME.
Hey Victor, could you elaborate on how you manage relationships? You talk about how your girlfriend treats you really well and gives you proper respect. But what about American girls? They have been indoctrinated by feminists and can be quite sassy and demanding. Is there any way to handle them?
Pick the right girl and not much management is needed. I don’t like American girls, they simply can’t compete with foreign girls. They can’t cook, they can’t clean, they are good for only 3 things: sex, arguing and drinking. They act like “just one of the guys”, but I’m not a homosexual and I don’t want one of the guys, I want a girly girl.
How to handle them? Ignore them, try to find yourself a recent import. Now I know a bunch of fatsos will come out and say “you just can’t get American girls“. Don’t make me laugh, I was a player before playin’ was cool.
I would also like to note that the percentage of users who are intelligent, motivated, and articulate (or trying to improve in this regard) on B&D far exceeds that of most websites (as you most likely know) so incisive content is most welcome.
I agree, but! for every 20-30 great comments I get one comment from a retard that I delete. Comments here add up, so I get quite a bit of retards leaving retarded comments. It’s enough to make a man want to turn off comments (don’t worry, boys, I won’t).
At B&D, you’ve done a great job with the mind and body. In 2014, I wish to see you shift more towards the soul. I once watched a Thai kickboxing match, it was bloody and violent. Ironically, it began with a long prayer session, with priests and incense! I believe there is a great relation between success and spiritual growth. Being in Thailand may actually help you into reaching the logic of oriental religions: Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam etc…
I won’t be doing that, I’m white. White Buddhists are so phony baloney they make me sick – like the dirty, dreadlocked white hippie I saw on the skytrain the other day. But I do want to tell you about the funniest thing I have seen in several years…
I was at a Thai kickboxing match, and in the middle of the match a man went into the ring with a snake. He was a “snake charmer” trying to kiss the snake. He was doing his little trick when all of a sudden the snake bit him on the face, hard! The sound he made when he was bitten on the face by a snake was so funny I’m laughing about it one year later. It was a real wimpy, defeated sound, like a whining dog – imagine a sound effect from the Simpsons of someone getting bit in the face by a snake. The sound he made was straight from a cartoon.
-How to maintain youth, staying healthy and looking young, vitamins skincare etc.
-how to counter feminists and those who think like them or pretend to
-how to deal with coworkers…or bosses or people that take advantage of you and how you can defend yourself from them or fuck them over (ideally be your own boss but if you don’t quite have the funds yet, not all of us have made it quite yet)
You don’t need to counter feminists just like you don’t need to counter people with schizophrenia or down’s syndrome.
How to deal with coworkers? I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, my suggestion is to quit and start a new job – it’s called Create-a-job. What you do is the same thing you do now, only you leave your company, you call yourself a consultant and you make a lot more money and have a lot more freedom.
As for looking young, I have always looked young for my age and I don’t do anything special – soap and water.
I just finished University, am now looking for a job until my business is snowballing. How do I do this, without lying to the HR-ladies and HR-wussies? Victor You opened my eyes, but I can never say it during interview. Do I need to lie? Is that honorable?
I haven’t been to a job interview in 5 or 6 years but should you lie? Yes, of course. That’s the only way you get past Bitchy Becky, the new HR recruit. Is it honorable? Selling your soul to work a job and lowering yourself to be interviewed by an unqualified interviewer isn’t honorable, so who cares if you lie.
Vic, it would be fantastic to see your views on time management and how to do as much of the things you love doing, along with the necessities.
If you can’t manage your time there are a few reasons why. A) You have a job taking up your time B) You have the time, you just don’t have the energy or C) You truly don’t have the time because you work so much. In case of C the best thing to do is to hire someone to do the work for you.
I hired a guy a few months and it allows me to get a lot of things done that I can’t or won’t do on my own.
Of course I didn’t take a paycut to hire somebody, that would be dumb. Instead, I planned a way to increase income to cover the cost of my right hand man. How? By setting up websites for people who don’t know how to do it. If you want to start a blog but don’t know how click here.
From this website I’d love to see posts like the one you have on projection of power. Anything that provides real advice concerning everyday life that won’t turn me into a bitch is something I’m willing to read. Also, posts like “The #1 way to get what you want” are a great addition to the site and I’d love to see more work like that in the future. Perhaps even, if you feel like it’s worth it. A post or two that gives everyone more insight into who you are and the experiences you’ve had.
Bold and Determined has already given a lot . You should sell some stuff . t-shirts, hats ,supplements whatever I guess . Spread your message make a bit of money . With the name Bold and Determined there really is nothing stopping you from creating a real brand there. I could see it on t-shirts , weight lifting clothing , supplements .MMA gear.
A Bold and Determined store is in the works. I’m waiting on the t-shirts to arrive to me in Thailand to check their quality. We’ll eventually add baseball caps, gym shorts and some other things.
So, you are starting a website, you are doing well but you hit a creative block or a shit like that, instead of the ideas and the confidence you use to have all you have now is reasons in your head why you will fail and not a single good idea comes along, what do you do? No confidence for the project when 2 weeks ago I was on fire, no motivation for going to the gym and no job. My girlfriend broke up with me in the process, so that could be one of the reasons, shit, even modafinil isn’t working and just giving me headaches.
Imagine running into your ex-girlfriend one year from now. How do you want to appear then? Rich and successful, or broke and lazy? I’d want to be rich and clean so I could have a good laugh at her and not vice versa.
————
I know you guys keep wanting video, video, video – try not to get hypnotized.
What you see above is the product of two things: 1) Tons of bench pressing 2) Letting a Thai cut your hair. They think every white guy wants to look like Forrest Gump.
Oh, and if you’re curious that shirt I’m wearing is Thai size XXL. If I get any bigger I won’t have clothes to wear. I even stopped training legs so I can fit into my pants. If you come to Thailand to bodybuild make sure you bring big clothes with you!
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled killin’ in T-minus whenever it feels right.
The damnedest thing about having a job is that when I had days off, I inevitably found myself bored. How ridiculous, huh? I’d whine and complain about how much I hated my job, but when my two precious days off came I didn’t do anything with them.
I lazed around surfing the net. “One of these days, when I get my own gig going…” and here I was with free time and doing nothing with it.
How many of you are like that? Spending the weekends doing nothing of importance. Sure, you may do yard work, clean the house, hit the gym, grab lunch with friends or family and all that other baloney.
That isn’t productivity, that isn’t accomplishment. That’s minutiae and it only momentarily takes your mind off of the intense boredom.
It wasn’t until I started my own business, and working 24/7, that I stopped being bored. Building something is time-consuming and time-consuming activities leave little time for boredom.
Of course, after you have built your business or your foundation the boredom can and will come back.
Cut to a couple of years later, I had made a few bucks and had no real need to work very much. I got bored again. To combat the boredom I up and moved to China. That certainly cured the boredom. At least, temporarily.
Lately, it has occurred to me that I rarely get bored. I’m so not bored that most of the time I turn down social invitations. I just can’t be bothered when I’m busy.
What has changed?
I have occupied myself with several projects and endeavors. I don’t work on all of these at the same time, that’s multi-tasking lunacy. I work on one at a time, I give it all my energy and then I move on to another one.
Working this way, there have been many days when I work morning to night, not even eating. It certainly doesn’t feel like work. It’s a learning experience. It’s a building experience. It’s time-consuming, energy-consuming and leaves no time for boredom.
When I do have a momentary lull in work that’s when I take time off and go to the gym.
Working the way I do, I have found one extremely effective method for curing any boredom. Using this method, I have not felt bored in months.
I call the method Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.
The looking down the barrel of a gun method involves two steps:
1) Working on a project
2) Setting a deadline, or date of completion, for the project
It is very easy to work on a project and never, ever finish it because you don’t have a deadline to meet. Working this way, it could take years to finish something – if you even finish it at all. When you set a deadline you must complete your mission. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. You’re looking down the barrel of a gun.
When you have a deadline you are under pressure. You know that a deadline is approaching and you know you must complete your mission at all costs. I have found that it is much easier to work when you are under the gun than when you have no specific due date.
For reasons unknown to me, creativity is enhanced when you are fast approaching a deadline.
Writers are notorious for speaking of deadlines. “I had a deadline fast approaching and I hadn’t even started yet”. If it were not for deadlines, most of the books in the world would have probably never been released.
Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I will leave you to judge. One thing I can guarantee, those writers were not bored in the days leading up to the deadline.
So, friend, if you are bored perhaps it is time you looked down the barrel of a gun.
You’d hear it if you cared. You’d hear it if your ears weren’t deaf to bullshit.
They’ll say things like:
I’ve never heard of anything like that.
That’s not how it’s done.
That’s not what people do.
I don’t think that will work.
I’m not sure you can pull it off.
Their words don’t matter. They may as well be speaking underwater.
You can ask the obsessed millionaire working on a task what time it is but his ears can’t hear you. He’s miles away standing right next to you. He’s got plans to put into action. He can’t be bothered with trivialties like hearing people.
People who cannot articulate how to be successful will sell you “do what you love“.
Well I love getting my dick sucked by beautiful blondes.
I love taking a shit and reading a book in the morning.
I love playing with my dogs.
Those are hobbies. When you’re obsessed your hobbies disappear. There’s just no time for them.
You do what you’re obsessed with so you can afford your hobbies.
Hobbies are what you have when you don’t have obsessions. Hobbies are what you try and accomplish. A hobby is manufactured just to have something to do.
A hobby is a time-killer in between obsessions.
Obsession is what you absolutely cannot stop doing until it’s finished.
When it’s finished then you can play the hobby game.
The starving Wolf is obsessed with eating. The Lamb has a hobby of surviving.
The guy holding the trophy didn’t get there because he loves his sport – he got there because he’s consumed with obsession.
The amateurs love what they do and do it for fun. The pros are obsessed.
When you’re obsessed you drive home and walk in the door and think to yourself “how the f*ck did I just get home?”. The idea in your brain was too consuming to even notice driving.
When you’re obsessed you turn on some high adrenaline music. You play a whole album and before you even hear it the whole thing is over.
When you’re obsessed you start working on something at 6am and the next thing you know it’s 5pm – you haven’t eaten, you haven’t gone anywhere, you haven’t been to the gym, you haven’t showered, and you haven’t heard the phone ringing. And you keep doing it.
Someone: You want to come to dinner tonight?
You: Nope, gotta work.
Someone: But it’s Friday night!
You: Uh-huh. Gotta go! Bye.
You talk to me when I’m obsessed and baby we’re on a different planet. My ears are deaf to you.
Obsession is the key to turning nothing into something. If you can be obsessed with it for long enough you can turn it into money.
Money buys you freedom. The freedom to obsess over anything you want.
The difference between the guy who woke up 5 minutes before he has to leave for work and the guy who woke up at 5am because he couldn’t waste time in bed anymore is the difference between night and day.
The 5am’er has seen the light of his personal heaven.
The debt slave hauling off to his early afternoon HR meeting is stuck in the dark of his private hell.
From the desk of Victor Pride Subj: The Taxi Driver, The Schlub, The Winner and the Ghost ————
In the taxi, the Vietnamese driver was complaining to me about how corrupt the Vietnamese government is.
“We work so hard and we make so little! How can we live like this? Everything is expensive and we make so little, our money is worth nothing. A new Toyota Camry costs $80,000, how can we buy that? We work so hard and every month we make $250.”
“In my heart I love Vietnam, but our Government is very corrupt, very bad“.
Well, in my heart I love America, or what America was once. America is the land of opportunity and anybody born there has been blessed.
Americans can do anything. There are no real rules or limits.
Could I be Vietnamese and travel the world and kick ass just from writing words? No. When I try to explain to Vietnamese people what I do for a living their eyes light up like they’ve just met a space alien. “Wow!” is usually what I hear.
If you’re American, or live in any non-communist country, you can do anything you put your mind to.
You just have to sacrifice for your goals!!!
Ok, that was just a little joke. See the whole “sacrifice” bit is a lie that the big dogs tell the little dogs. They’ll tell you this lie so you think highly of them. They don’t want to tell you it was actually easy.
I make a lot of money and I don’t work hard. I work a lot. I do the work. I barely sleep. But there’s nothing else I would rather do.
I would rather die today than be condemned to be a working schlub until I “retire“. I have made the decision, I will never go back. Now I know what it’s like to fly like an Eagle, to go back would be a fate worse than death.
And since I’ve made the decision to never go back my life has been easy.
Now I will tell you why it’s not hard.
This is the one secret to living a life of ease and I’m going to use big boy words so pretty please don’t get offended….
DON’T FUCKING SACRIFICE!
You’ve heard all the big dogs tell you about all the hard work and sacrifice they endured. Don’t make me laugh.
It’s not a sacrifice to rise above or become something great. There’s no sacrifice in making great music, there’s no sacrifice in writing a book, there’s no sacrifice in starting a million dollar company. These people are doing exactly what they want! They’re following their mission in life.
Do you know what real sacrifice is?
Driving a taxi cab for $250 per month.
Following the path laid out for you is the real sacrifice, not vice versa.
The American version of the taxi driver is the guy who works a job he hates to make post-tax money so he can live a life as a debt-slave, like a schlub. Like a nudnik.
The American schlub is worse than the Vietnamese taxi driver because the American schlub has options that don’t exist for a lot of people around the world. The schlub sacrifices to get less, not more.
“Here’s your money. By the way, we took a bunch of it and gave it to the government. They’re going to keep a lot of it and they’re going to give some of it to parasites who don’t want to work. Enjoy your scraps, schlub. See you tomorrow at 8:59 am, don’t be late”.
The calm before the storm (pretend sacrifice)
There’s a period of time where you struggle a little financially, but you don’t really notice it because you’re focused on the achievement. You’ll look back later, fondly, and laugh about how poor you truly were but it wasn’t a sacrifice any more than paying for your dinner was a sacrifice.
See the real sacrifice, the only sacrifice, is not trying in the first place. That’s what leads to the “what ifs” on the deathbed.
Sacrifice is what happens when you don’t succeed. Sacrifice is something that losers do.
I always have to chuckle a little when I hear office drones say they couldn’t “sacrifice what they have” and “take a chance”. As if being in debt up to your ears and being a good dog to a corporation isn’t a sacrifice.
Working for someone else is the only sacrifice you will ever make. If you never do that you will never sacrifice anything.
I don’t sacrifice, anything, nothing, never. My life is easy. I can do anything I want.
Q: Can you tell me how much I sacrificed to be able to do that? A: Nothing. I didn’t sacrifice anything.
Will you struggle?
If you’re working towards a goal, building something, you may find money tight at times. Or you may not.
Why? I lived like no one would and I had no debts or bills to pay. It’s easy to pay in cash or go without, it’s hard to make interest payments for luxuries each and every month.
Even if you do struggle it’s not a big deal. Struggle is not sacrifice! Struggling is just part of the process, it’s what happens before your avalanche of success comes in. So you have to drive an older car and your friends have fancy cars, so what.
Live like no one will, so you can live like no one can
I have not sacrificed anything in the past 3 years. What I have done, instead, is live like no one will. Since I lived like no one would, now I can live like no one can. Three years ago anyone could have lived like me, today almost no one can live like me. Sacrifice? Yeah right. Blessing is a better word. Blessed am I, for I have seen the light.
For 3 years, THREE YEARS!, I didn’t buy one luxury. Sacrifice? Ha! Not according to the numbers on my bank account screen.
But I did sacrifice, a long time ago. I leased an expensive apartment, I “purchased” a truck on a loan, I got student loans, I got a job as a bank teller and I completely gave up on my art. It took me 5 years to undo that sacrifice. FIVE YEARS! I spent 5 years in debt consumer limbo. What did I have after 5 years? Nothing.
It took me 5 years to go in a circle and end up with less than what I started with.
That is the exact path that is laid out for everyone and it’s a path to failure and extreme unhappiness.
Think in terms of “I”, not “we”
If you want success, real success, you have to make your own way. No two ways about it. The path laid out for you is a path of sacrifice and struggle.
What’s the meaning of life? What gives your life purpose?
The coward and the hero both have the same feelings, the only difference is that the hero acts in spite of the fear and the coward runs away.
Remember these words: self-confidence, self-reliance, initiative, enterprise, optimism.
Forget “we”, forget group-think. Group-think is for the inferior.
The superior take the initiative, take responsibility, take action!
“But Victor, there’s no “I” in team!”
Do you know what that saying is? It’s propaganda for the dumb.
There is no “I” in entrepreneur either. But there’s an “I” in win and there’s an “I” in elite.
There’s a “we” in weak.
The “we”-thinker, the group-thinker, doesn’t have confidence in himself and he needs approval from the group.
“We” is for the weak and meek. You can’t build a meaningful life by being weak and meek. You build a meaningful life by being self-reliant, self-determined, self made.
Don’t play by the rules
The people who make the rules don’t follow the rules.
Why not?
Winners don’t follow the rules because we don’t have to. The rules are for the meek and the weak.
Rules aren’t laws and the rules don’t apply to everybody.
The rules are designed for you to put your life and purpose on a deferred payment plan.
Just do as we say now (and make us $$$) and you will be richly rewarded later.
If you’re simple minded enough to fall for such a scheme too bad for you.
Get fired up
I get some form of this email all the time “…After reading Bold and Determined I’m super fired up. The problem is I don’t know what I want to do“.
You don’t know what you enjoy, you don’t know what fires you up? What are you, an apparition? A drugged up zombie?
Or are you just trying to fool yourself?
Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is an elitist club and not everybody can join the club. If that fire isn’t there it isn’t there.
But that doesn’t mean your life is pointless and meaningless and it doesn’t mean you should be a meanderer, a wanderer. Everyone has a skill, everyone has a passion, everyone has a fire they mistakenly put out too early.
When I was 18 years old I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I just didn’t do it. I did what everyone said I should do, I sacrificed for the “good life” and spent 5 years paying off that bill.
Don’t make the same mistake I did, and don’t lie to yourself. If the fire is there, keep feeding it.
Everyone has something they excel at. So concentrate on being excellent. And don’t ever quit being excellent.
Fight Club is a very famous movie and book. But it is not a movie or book I take inspiration from.
You could call Bold and Determined the anti-Fight Club.
There’s one line in the movie that goes something like this: “Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction…“, as if to say improvement is baloney and rotting is much better.
I look around, I look around and I see a generation of men rotting. Taking inspiration from this garbage like Fight Club. “Opting out” and accomplishing nothing.
But….
And here is the big but. There is a future. You will have a future. And in that future you won’t want to rot, you will want to live well.
In that future you will wish you had the 3 best things in the world: health, wealth and relationship happiness. You will also want the time and freedom to enjoy it all.
I get a lot of comments along the lines of “But Victor! Money isn’t everything“. Bullshit it isn’t.
If money weren’t everything there would be no 5pm traffic. There would be no mad 5pm rush of people escaping, if only for a few hours, the nightmare that is their life. There would be no office jobs, people would be too busy smiling with their loved ones to rot away in a cubicle for a few peanuts from the boss’s boss man.
Money is everything because money allows you to be as you wish to be. Being poor allows you nothing except the thought that you are morally superior to the wealthy.
I have seen a lot of weblogs written by these type of “opt out” characters. Obviously they have taken a lot of inspiration from Fight Club, a nihilistic book written by a homosexual.
Comically, their version of opting out is always a) work a job and b) go try and pick up bar sluts on the weekend. Slow self destruction I call it. Fine for them, but Bold and Determined demands more from life.
There is a way to opt out and win, but it’s not the same as the Fight Club, anti-success, mediocrity posing as superiority style of opting out.
Opt out of the baloney life. The go to college, get a 9-5, party on the weekends until you are 30, then marry some ex-slut who won’t cook or clean, have a kid or two and be in debt up to your eyeballs and pray for the retirement fairy to come and save your life. No thanks.
Instead: Don’t work a job you hate for a limited income, don’t eat a baloney sandwich diet and get fat and sick, don’t date women who won’t cook or clean or remain trim. Yes, be selfish and, gasp, make a great life for yourself.
Make yourself better. Hell, make yourself the best. What’s so doggone hard about that? Nothing.
The one word I would use to describe my personal life is not “easy”, the word I would use is “better”.
Better than 5 years ago, better than 2 years ago, better than last year, and better than yesterday. It isn’t “luck” that got me what I have. It was my mission, so I did my duty and got what I wanted and continue to do so.
Nate the Nihilist will try and “take you down a peg or two”, and that’s because he’s a loser.
Losers can’t or won’t try to make themselves better but they will try to make other people worse.
Willy the Winner will be too busy working to be infected with the nihilist’s sickness.
And yes, you will have to work but you don’t have to rot while doing it. The decision is yours, enrich yourself or enrich others. Seems obvious to me which one to pick.
There is a future just around the corner. Hope yours gets better by the day, friend.
All you’ve got to do is the opposite of the Fight Club mission statement: Embrace self-improvement, disavow self-destruction.
