Boys, it’s imperative to have a mission in life. Let’s forget about this dream business. Dreams are the bullshit you do when you sleep. Your mission is what you fill your waking life with. A dream is by very definition fantasy. A mission is something you have every intention of fulfilling.
You got to think of your goals as missions. You got so say to yourself “I’m going to run 5 miles or I’m going to drop dead and nothin’ in between“. With that mindset there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.
Say to yourself “I’m going to do this even if it kills me“.
Don’t say “I sure would like to do this someday…“.
Nobody needs to know your mission but you.
You don’t need to go blabbing about your mission. You just need to have it firmly planted in your mind.
How to start going on missions
The first step you take is to turn all your short term goals into missions. Give yourself to those missions with a one track mind, a tunnel vision. Transform yourself from everyday John Johnson into the Terminator and get after it.
I can’t even tell you how great it is to be fired up about one thing and then get that motherfucker accomplished. It’s the best feeling in the whole, big, wide world.
It doesn’t matter how big or small the mission is. Just get fired up about that one thing and turn it into overdrive until it’s done. Keep doing it and doing it. Get your ‘to-do’ list out every day and turn each of those tasks into missions.
So how do you figure out what your life mission is?
Hey man, that’s really just as simple as could be. You can do that in three easy steps.
Step 1) Figure out who you are
There are a lot of lost souls in our world but, boy, you got to know who you are. You can’t be no lost soul on a mission. Lot of men in our world emasculated, lot of men raised by single mommy’s, lot of men don’t understand what race they are, lot of men don’t understand their own, lot of men at war with their own thoughts and feelings.
Cut out the bullshit and figure out who you are. If you’re a redneck then stand up and say it loud and proud “My name’s Ronnie Joe and I’m a redneck and damn proud of it“.
You are something, man, you ain’t nothing. Figure out just what the hell that is.
Step 2) Figure out what you stand for
Now that you know who you are you can figure out what you stand for.
You can stand for good.
You can stand for evil.
Or you can stand out of the way.
Choice is yours.
Step 3) Give some of what you got to the world
Everybody’s here for a purpose. That’s what I believe. Your purpose is up to you to decide but your life purpose has got to be something you can be proud of. Now that you know who you are and what you stand for you can give some of that to the world.
The Buddhists say what goes around comes around. They call it karma. Another way of thinking about it is ’cause and effect’.
There’s an internet forum where all the internet guys go to hang out and trade war stories. The stories are always the same, the guys who provide a service and value, are on a mission for success and have the mind of a killer are always getting ahead. On the opposite side are the guys who don’t want to build anything, don’t want to work for anything and just want to scam people out of money and always complain how they can’t find success.
That’s their karma. Their life mission is to be a parasite. They could change it with the snap of a finger but they never do and nothing but despair comes from their lips.
You have to take your pick out of 3 options
I) You can do a little bit of good and get a little bit of good coming your way.
II) You knowingly do evil and it’s gonna eat at your soul, if you even have one, until it’s been eaten away.
III) You can just stand out of the way and let things happen, like all those lost souls you see everyday stuck in traffic. Those people are just along for the ride, you want to be like them? Fuck those people, they aren’t winners. Even those people don’t want to be those people.
And if you think your life has no purpose, boy, I pity you but maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s your fate to be stuck in traffic waiting to die.
For the rest of you killers and real dealers
Forget about having dreams, leave that to the little girls dreaming of becoming princesses, and start focusing on completing your missions.
When your mission is accomplished that’s when you’ll be living the dream.
Years ago I arm-wrestled this 50 year old fella in a bar.
I figured I’d pop his arm off and take it home with me.
They yelled 3, 2, 1, and off we went. I yanked on his arm as hard as I could and can you guess what happened?
His arm did not move a single inch.
His arm didn’t even move a single millimeter.
I was dumbfounded and a stupid look crept upon my face. I asked him, “Do you work out or something?”
He said he never exercised a day in his life, though as a kid he’d worked on a farm.
A few years later I was in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class and I found myself in a similar situation.
I was never great at Jiu-Jitsu but I had strength and tenacity and didn’t like to tap. As I had no real talent, I would often get my opponent to submit using nothing but sheer force rather than skill.
My opponents would use the technique they learned, I’d simply wrestle them into a position to get a guillotine and make them tap.
I’d never win any competition like that but I’d at least be able to tap-out people with a similar skill-set as mine. I’d even made people completely quit and go home in the middle of class.
One day I took on a fella a belt or two above me. I figured it would be no problem, I’ll force my way to a guillotine and he’ll tap.
But that’s not what happened.
Anything I tried to do, this fella simply was too strong. I couldn’t believe it.
A dumb look crept on my face and I asked him, “Why are you so strong?”
He said he lifted a lot of weights, but I wasn’t satisfied with that answer. I lifted a lot of weights and this fella had a different kind of strength.
It wasn’t a muscular type of strength as he was not muscular, to me he felt like he had strong bones, tendons, and ligaments, not strong muscles.
Just recently, I was at a shopping mall in Kyrgyzstan looking for a pair of size 37 hiking boots (that’s US size 13).
I couldn’t find my size anywhere. The whole country seemingly only went up to a size 35.
I was about to leave when I heard someone say, “Do you have any size 37?”
I thought it was a little strange this man was speaking in English and looking for exactly what I was looking for, as this was a Russian speaking country.
It was a 70 year old American fella. We had a little laugh at the situation and we shook hands.
When we did, I was dumbfounded. This fella was about 70 years old but his grip was like iron.
It was the strongest handshake I’d ever felt in my life.
We spoke for a while, he was a Vietnam vet and now he was teaching some class at the local university.
We shook hands goodbye and again I was shocked at how absolutely strong his grip was.
This time I didn’t ask a stupid question like “why are you so strong”.
I could workout for a thousand years and my grip would never be able to match that old war vet’s grip.
I’m not about to cry about it. I simply recognize that some people are born with this gift or with that gift.
Some people are born with superior physical strength, some are born with superior intelligence, some are born with superior tenacity, and some are born with superior beauty.
It is what it is and there’s no reason to be upset about it.
If you were born with superior strength, you should use that to your advantage.
If you were born with superior intelligence, or beauty, or whatever, you should use that to your advantage.
I see so many people with natural talent wasting it and doing something they are not naturally talented at.
I’ll give you an example…
I know a fella who wants to be a powerlifter and works hard at it. He’s gained some real good strength and made some great progress.
Unfortunately for him he isn’t naturally strong and he never wins powerlifting competitions.
See, a great powerlifter is someone who was born with superior strength. These types are always the strongest in the gym. This is the type of person who excels, and wins, at powerlifting.
The fella I know tries real hard and makes good progress but he will never win.
He will never be the best because he was not born to be a powerlifter.
If you don’t do what you were born to do you will not be a success.
It is really as simple as that.
Haven’t you heard the best of the best say “I was born to do this”?
I hear the best say that all the time. I hear the rest say things like “I work real hard.”
Hard work is good but hard work will do nothing but get you to the middle of the pack.
To get to the front, you have to be born to be in the front.
You should have known by the time you were 12 years old what your destiny was.
When I was 12 I knew I was born to spread the good word. I didn’t think, I didn’t wonder, I just knew.
Like a great strongman or powerlifter just knew what they were born to do.
Those types don’t have to work hard to be strong and I don’t have to work hard on my craft.
I can look at a page of words and the one incredible sentence will jump out to me. A bad sentence will actually make me feel physically sick.
I’ll even wake up from nightmares realizing I’ve created a bad sentence in an old article and I’ll get up in the middle of the night to fix it.
I don’t understand what in the hell is right or wrong with a sentence, I just feel it. I couldn’t teach a class about the technical details of writing and I wouldn’t want to.
Often I hear comments along the lines of “Victor, help! I just can’t find the motivation to ________“.
I have the answer to this dilemma but it may not be the one you’d like to hear.
The motivation is already there, but it’s only there for things you truly want or need to do.
If you have to find motivation externally then you don’t truly want to do it, whatever “it” is.
I can’t find the motivation to eat peas, I can’t find the motivation to live in Little Rock, Arkansas, and I just can’t seem to find the motivation to punch a time clock for someone else.
Because I can’t “find the motivation” I don’t do any of those things and I don’t go looking for motivation to do them. Looking for motivation for something you don’t want to do is a waste of time.
You will either want to do it or not want to do it. When you ask for help “finding motivation” you are just pretending.
“I just can’t find the motivation to get to the gym“.
I can’t find the motivation to stop going to the gym. I’d rather die than stop going to the gym. It would take an act of God to get me to stop going to the gym. Even when I have no energy or “motivation” or my mind is focused on another project I’m still in the gym 3-4 days per week.
And wouldn’t you know it? Each time I’m in the gym I see the same people and none of them have a motivation problem. Each time I walk by a McDonald’s restaurant I see the same “type” of people and they don’t look like they lack the motivation to eat a supersized #2.
“I just can’t find the motivation to do any entrepreneurial work when I get home from my day job“.
Before I left my last real job I couldn’t find the motivation to stop working on my side project. When I was at my “real” job I was spending all my time selfishly working on my side gig and I would continue working on it all through the night when I was at home.
I still can’t find the motivation to stop working independently. Thinking back on the punching a time clock, getting permission to be sick, and dealing with morons daily is enough motivation for me to keep working and making money independently.
Looking at the ridiculous lifestyle I have now, compared to 6 or 7 years ago is just mind-boggling. I’m completely free now and I would rather die than go back to being a wage slave. I can’t fathom how people find the motivation to go to a soul-killing job every single day. To me that is insanity.
Unless you love your work you should not do it. We live in such a special time in history that you are free to do nearly anything you want, I guess it just so happens that most people want to take orders and be given a paycheck. That’s fine for them, but they look like the living dead to me and I don’t need any extra motivation to not be like them.
“I can’t find the motivation to practice playing guitar“.
That’s because you don’t want to play the guitar. Stop pretending.
“I can’t find the motivation to lose weight“.
That’s probably because you’re a lazy slob. I can’t find the motivation to go on daily donut binges, as a consequence I’m not a fatass.
“I can’t find the motivation to wake up early“.
That’s because you have nothing to wake up for. I can’t find the motivation to stay in bed all day.
So how do you find the motivation, really find the motivation, to live your life the way you want to?
#1 Be honest
There’s no need to pretend you want to do something just because other people want to do it. All I want in life is to be jacked, make money, be free and be served by a sexy girl or two.
I don’t need to find the motivation to accomplish these things, I’m driven to do them. I can’t not do them, and I don’t give much of a damn about anything else. You can call me small-minded, I only want a few things in life, I have them, I won’t let them disappear and it just doesn’t matter to me who agrees or disagrees with me.
#2 Go for it
You don’t need permission to go after what you want. If you require permission then you will not get what you want. You’ve got to go for it, you’ve got to take it, and you’ve got to stop caring what other people think.
You’ve got to put a boot to the ass of anyone who is trying to naysay or stop you from achieving. Make your ears deaf to their nonsense.
#3 Don’t quit
What is it they always say? Quitters never win and winners never quit. I tried to do a million entrepreneurial gigs before and I quit all of them. There are only two entrepreneurial gigs that I never quit and I’ll be damned but I have lived off of the income from those two for many years. All the nonsense I tried to do before I didn’t really care about so sooner or later I gave up and quit.
I’m not the smartest or most capable man in the world, I’m not even the 2nd smartest or most capable man in the world. The only thing I have going for me is that when I am fired up I will never quit. I’ll go the edge of the earth for something I believe in. I will go broke for something I believe in.
I will risk anything and everything for something I believe in. Because of this my life is comical in it’s abundance. I look around at everything I have and everything I’m able to do and I start laughing sometimes at what I have been able to accomplish and how I have paid for everything without having a job.
I start laughing thinking about how I used to sit in my tiny apartment with a notepad dreaming up ways to leave the rat race and be as free as I am right now. I’m not a humble guy but it truly is humbling to think about how my life turned out exactly the way I dreamed it would many, many years ago and it’s only because I didn’t quit two projects.
It is only when you have fire for a project that you cannot quit, there is no option to quit. Rather than trying to force motivation you should only work on projects that fire you up. You’ll save yourself a ton of time and heartache. If you’ve got to force motivation then you should just go ahead and say “no”. It’s only when you can’t stop working on something that you are going to get the benefit from it.
When you’re fired up about something, take it to the extreme.
There is no need to “find motivation”. The motivation is already there. Your motivation just may be different to someone else’s motivation. I see a lot of people who are motivated to watch television and eat potato chips all day. Fine for them. Is it fine for you?
From the desk of Victor Pride Location: Dallas, TX —————
After 18 months away I find myself back in the States for a brief visit. Family and friends, hi and bye, that type of deal.
Visiting is fine and dandy but I won’t have any regrets when I get on a transpacific plane and head back out into the wild.
I don’t have any “hard feelings” about America but I find my choice to live abroad to be one of the better choices I have ever made.
I get asked all the time why I don’t live in America.
I’ll tell you why, in the simplest manner I can….
I don’t live in America because I don’t want to.
I live a life of choice and I have chosen to live abroad.
When you have the choice, the ability to do anything, you start to ask yourself questions like “why?”.
“Why do I live here or why do I live there? Why am I working this job I hate?” Etc…
When you answer the “why” question you may realize you have no reason to do what you are doing.
You may realize you have the power to choose.
You may realize one simple fact of life: you can change the things you don’t like. You may realize that you aren’t stuck.
You can take an aspect of your life you don’t like or enjoy and make it an aspect that you do enjoy. Just by making a choice. Instead of letting things happen to you you can choose what you do.
You can live a life of choice, like I do.
Choice always existed but it took me nearly 30 years to realize “wait a second, I can choose my fate. I can live the life I want to live“.
I don’t have to live in America, I can live anywhere.
So I do. Simple as that.
Do you know how many times I’ve heard “I want to do such and such but I’m stuck in this city“?
I’ve heard it many times and I have the answer right here…
Move.
Get in a car or a bus or an airplane and go somewhere else. Complaining about something you can easily change is pathetic.
“I just don’t have any options like you” is what they always seem to say. Like I was born on a yacht in international waters or something silly. I was born in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Population 5,000. I’m from nowhere just like everybody else.
If I have the power to choose so do you.
Maybe you don’t take advantage of the gift of choice, but it’s there. Unless you do something silly like get locked up in jail you’ll always have it.
If you aren’t living the life you want it’s not the fault of the city you live in, your mom and dad, your girlfriend, your employer, or your dog. It’s your fault. All you ever had to do was choose the life you wanted.
All you ever had to do was make the choice.
But hey, beggars can’t be choosers I guess. Can’t all live the dream. World needs office drones. Anarchy. Ditch diggers.
A million other rationalizations and excuses for living the life of a lapdog. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
From the desk of Victor Pride Subj: How to be a lucky man —————–
I don’t mean to brag but I recently realized how great my life is and how “lucky” I am.
Before you call me arrogant pretty please hear me out…..
I have recently returned from 4 weeks in the United States of America.
For the last two weeks of my trip I was in Boise, Idaho at a premier chiropractic/rehab facility doing some intense rehab work on my spine (I’m fine, not weightlifting related).
I did two weeks at the facility, doing rehab work for 7-9 hours per day, 5 days per week. I had to do something I didn’t exactly want to do (it wasn’t pleasant), but I needed to do it.
I’d go in at 9:30 am and leave somewhere between 5:30 pm – 7 pm. I’d be dog-tired when I got back to my hotel at night. So tired I’d just grab a bag of fast food, eat like a pig and basically lie in bed and watch videos until I fell asleep.
It hit me real hard – it was exactly like having a 9-5 job. I remembered that feeling from 6 or 7 years ago, last time I had a 9-5 job.
The difference, this time, is that it only lasted two weeks and then I got to go back to my real life.
For most people it’s the opposite, they get 1 or 2 weeks of freedom per year and then they work like dogs for 50 weeks per year.
My real life is like most people’s fantasy vacation: I don’t go to a job, I get waited on hand and foot, I have money to burn, I don’t have “days off”, I don’t save up “vacation time”, I don’t call the boss and pretend to be sick so I can stay home, I don’t have any debt and I am free to come and go as I please.
Within the confines of the law I can do almost anything I want.
Brash, cocky, arrogant? Guilty.
Stuck in a rut at a dead end job, forcing myself to wake up to a “beep beep beep” alarm clock every day for 40+ years? Not guilty, your honor.
That two weeks in Idaho was a great reminder of why I’ll never sell my soul again for a paycheck.
Easy. I quit my dead-end 9-5 job and then I started working for real. Wouldn’t you know it, 6 or 7 years after working for myself, not others, I’m as lucky as can be.
So how can you be purposely lucky?
Easy. You switch your mindset a little and you take control of your life. Your life isn’t a roller coaster that you have no control of, it’s a one seater race car and you’re the driver.
So you learn to be self-reliant.
You stop seeking approval, instead you start seeking results.
You stop using loser phrases like “it’s not fair”.
You don’t “share your feelings”, you tell what you want or need.
When something goes awry you don’t complain, you fix the problem.
You put the goal in your mind and you envision it everyday, always. You obsess over it.
You never take the blame, you take responsibility.
You start your own business and you build and you grow and you build some more. If you aren’t building something you are withering.
You be the man instead of giving your money to the man.
You be the man the buck stops with.
Go to the mirror right now: Right here and right now the buck stops.
And when you say it you’d better mean it. When I said it I meant it and I ended up lucky as can be.
You have all the opportunities that ever existed in the entire world and you don’t even know it.
You’ve been too busy complaining, playing video games, and masturbating to cuckold p*rn to open your little sissy bitch eyes.
So here’s what you’re going to do…
You’re going to make some money. Work at Starbucks, work at McDonalds, borrow some money from mommy, get the money wherever you can get the money.
You’re going to get a passport, you’re going to buy an airplane ticket, and you’re going to sit your faggot ass on an airplane bound for Vietnam, The Philippines, Colombia, or Brazil.
You will go anywhere 3rd world, and when you get there you’re going to hang out in the poor areas.
Come to me in person and say “I just don’t know what I want, I can’t succeed because of XYZ..” and I will slap your stupid face for you, free of charge.
Everyone on earth knows exactly what they want: money, power, women, freedom.
So now that you know what you want you simply work backwards.
4) Be consistent, don’t stop.
Success don’t happen overnight. It’s the result of days, months, and years of consistency.
My good pal Mike Cernovich and I were at my dinner table one night and he asked me, “when did B&D start paying you real money?”
@victor_pride 30 Days of Discipline changed my life, I feel alive again. Next step, BOAS and eat like a horse. Thanks Vic. — Chris (@entertheelite) October 2, 2015
Writing Location: Makati City, Metro Manila, the Philippines
Subj: How to get rid of imaginary limits ———————–
I recently met a rich lady at a private airport in the Philippines. A nice lady.
We were waiting for our airplane, which in the Philippines always seem to run late, so we chit chatted about this and that.
She told me about her home on a private island, I told her about my home in Bangkok.
We chit chatted a bit about Texas where she lives full time and where I used to live full time.
She asked me what I do for a living and I gave her the standard vague response, “I work on the internet”.
She said to me: “Can I ask you a personal question? Do you live well?”
To which I responded “Yes”.
I live well because I do not place limits on myself.
The average man’s life can be summed up into 3 words: Limit without benefit.
The average man limits himself, he isn’t limited by external forces. If a man was born in the he west has no real time limits, geographical limits, relationship limits, job limits, or monetary limits.
Free men of the west are free to go anywhere, do anything legal and make as much or as little money as they want. Instead of realizing this potential, they limit themselves.
These limits are all self-imposed. You truly are free to do as you please as long as you follow the rule of law. You can go anywhere, you can make all the money you want, and you can have the relationship you want.
But what does the average man do?
He limits his earning by taking a 9-5 job. A 9-5 job puts a limit on your earning ability and robs you of your youth. The man with a 9-5 job always says the same thing, “I don’t have time”. That’s because it has been rationed away. The “free” time of the average man is spent in front of the television or at the local watering hole. The average American watches 5+ hours of television per day. That’s a part time job. In these 5+ hours per day a man could be building a business.
He limits his reality by pretending he will live well after retirement, pretending that when he is old and decrepit he will finally live like a king.
He limits himself by putting himself into massive debt for a house, cars and “education”.
He limits himself by getting married. Western marriage is a one sided benefit for the woman. For the man there is no benefit, for the woman there is only benefit yet the average man will still get married to an aging, fattening harpy with attitude and baggage.
The average man puts all these limits without benefits onto himself and then he complains of the outcome. Well when you limit yourself there is no other outcome but shit.
The good news is that it can all be turned around. The change can happen tomorrow morning. I used to be limited as well. I “didn’t have the time”. I had “bills to pay”. I “didn’t have the right piece of paper on the wall to get a ‘good’ job”.
I sold my soul too, but I bought it back. I put in the time, I built businesses, I eliminated debt and I created freedom.
Comically I get a bunch of rude comments from broke as a jokesters who accuse me of being born with a silver spoon. I wasn’t, but to these “people” being born to smart parents who looked after you is a crime.
I can trace my ancestry back two hundred years. Two hundred years of blue collar workers who never rose above or left wealth behind.
If you come from average or poor parents it means nothing about your future. My own family has chosen to time waste and rot. What means everything is your attitude, will and spirit.
The rich have a “can do” attitude and aren’t afraid of money. The poor have a “can’t do” attitude and are afraid of money.
The rich have boundless energy and are always working and building something. The poor give away their time and then rot away doing nothing productive.
Creating money and freedom is little more than a mindset. It takes nothing more than the will to achieve and the action to follow the will. Erase the limited mindset and develop a limitless mindset. Anyone who can read can become successful monetarily.
Attitude and action is for the doers. Complaints and time-wasting is for the dreamers who are “waiting for retirement”. To me it looks as though they are waiting to die.
Frankly, I couldn’t care less if someone wants to waste their life. I only associate with other achievers. Over-achievers help bring you up a level, under-achievers help to take you down to their level and they should be cut out.
Over-achievers know that it’s about attitude, will and spirit. If you truly want it, well, you’ll go and you’ll get it. It’s there for the taking, waiting for you.
The achiever will take it and live well. The under-achiever will watch television or surf social networking websites instead. Hey, whatever.
A lot of people work their entire lives so they can retire to the beach or to the mountains.
The life goal of many men is to be free enough to live clean, healthy, happy and free.
It’s a shame that by the time most men have retired, their bodies are damaged beyond repair, their minds are damaged beyond repair, and their retirement income isn’t as much as they thought it would be.
They worked so hard for that dream, only to never be able to realize it.
I have that same dream.
My goal was always to “retire” somewhere in the mountains.
However, I am different in one very important way…
I don’t have to wait until I’m 65 years old and physically and mentally shot.
I’m young, free and financially secure.
But that doesn’t mean I’m in prime, tip-top shape.
One of the nasty drawbacks to working online is you have to sit in front of the computer for hours at a time.
This is no good for the human body!
We’re supposed to walk, run, stand, jump, play, hunt, wrestle, fight, fuck etc.
We aren’t meant to sit hunched over all the time. If you do sit hunched over all the time you will damage your body.
I have done some damage to my body chasing my purpose.
Ironically my body aches from sitting and typing, not from deadlifting or squatting.
My wrists, hamstrings, shoulders and lower back hurt not from any strenuous exercise, but from stationary office work.
Lifting weights for 30-60 minutes per day simply isn’t enough to reverse the damage. It helps but it doesn’t cure.
Thankfully, though, I am in a position where I can fix any issues that come from sitting and typing.
Unlike most people who work in an office and let their body degenerate to the point of no return, I am free to do as I please.
And I’m pleased to live a green life in 2016.
Before you think I’m a hippie kook let me explain, man…
Living abroad has taught me things I would have never learned if I had stayed in America.
In fact, it taught me the extreme importance of 4 things:
Clean, good, fresh food (It wasn’t until I lived in a place where the food was awful that I realized just how important food is to overall well-being)
Clean water (Not just clean water, but you need to drink enough water. I was chronically dehydrated for years and didn’t realize it. You need 3 liters of water per day, minimum! My acid reflux was cured simply by drinking enough water)
Clean air (The air in SE Asia is polluted beyond belief, a few minutes walking can have you wheezing and coughing)
Clean sunshine (Bangkok is a tropical, sunny climate, but the pollution is so bad it blocks out the sun. I personally tested for low Vitamin D and now supplement it)
Yes, we all know those things are important but until you don’t have them you cannot know just how important they are.
Those 4 things can make or break happiness.
So it is my mission in 2016 to live clean and green.
Clean food, clean air, clean water, clean sunshine. As much as money can buy.
Towards the end of 2015 I spent some time in America and loved the cleanliness, the fresh air, the cool breeze.
But, to save 30K in taxes, I came back to Asia to spend 3 months until the start of the new year.
To be perfectly honest, that 3 months felt like a prison sentence. It was like doing time until I could go back to the green life.
Thailand is a lovely place, but the pollution is unbearable. There is no green life in big city Bangkok, it’s more like brown life.
So I have decided to get rid of all of my possessions (yet again) and, for lack of a better term, walk the earth and live the green life.
I’m going to spend a good deal of my time on the beach or in the mountains, exercising in the open air and letting my body and mind heal after years of damage.
What I’m most looking forward to in 2016 is:
Waking up at dawn and catching the sunrise on the beach while doing some stretching and cardiovascular exercise.
Catching a cool mountain breeze on a cool, misty morning while drinking a cup of strong Red Coffee.
Building RED Supplements (The purpose of RED is to create supplements that actually work. Many supplements are junk trash and exist to take money from gullible people. Our supplements work.)
Creating many videos for the B&D YouTube channel (I will be filming my travels and you can all see the journey in real time).
There it is in black and white, my no-nonsense goals for 2016. Those are the very simple things that motivate me.
Green and clean.
But still mean.
Until next time.
Your man,
-Victor Pride
PS – I don’t pay attention to the news or current events. The only “news” I will pay attention to in 2016 is the presidential election. And I’ll make a promise right now…
If Donald Trump wins the Presidency, I will have a Bold & Determined BBQ in Los Angeles, California. Each and every B&D reader will be invited. See you then.
From the desk of Victor Pride Subj: A sermon from the mountaintop
I tell you boy, my poor little feet used to hurt if I stood or walked too long.
If I was in the shower for ten minutes they’d start to hurt. If I had to walk around the city for an hour I’d spend the rest of the night on the couch.
If the walk was 10 minutes I just wouldn’t make the walk. I’d take a motorbike or a taxi everywhere I went. My poor little feetsies hurt too much.
I was a real damn weakling because of my feet.
So you know what I did to toughen up?
I went to Bishkek and started walking for five hours per day.
Every day.
Anywhere I needed to go, I walked there. I took no taxi, no motorbike, no bus, no bicycle. Nothing but my own two feet and a pair of hiking boots.
I walked everywhere.
And you know what happened?
My feet toughened up.
They got used to the pain of walking.
Before I toughened my feet up, I’d get maybe 45 minutes walking time before my feet would start hurting. Soon it was 2 hours until they hurt, then 3 hours, then more.
When I’d walk 5 hours a day they hurt, boy, that’s for sure. Instead of resting when my feet hurt, I kept on walking.
At first it’s painful, but pain is temporary.
Soon you toughen up and realize that the real pain only starts after you stop walking and start resting.
If you just keep going, the pain goes away. But if you stop and rest for too long, woo, the pain comes for real.
So I just decided not to stop.
After I toughened my feet up I rented a Jeep and went to the mountains so we could sleep under a thousand stars, instead of sleeping in a 4 star luxury jail cell called a hotel.
We were driving out on some hard mountain road outside of Karakol, using the 4 wheel drive.
When the driving became impossible because of fallen boulders we got out and started walking.
When we got bored walking, we looked up at the mountain and said “let’s climb that” and that’s what we did.
We walked right up and down that son-of-a-bitch. It wasn’t no easy trail, there wasn’t no trail at all.
It looked easy from the bottom but, boy, it sure wasn’t as easy as we thought.
Well, it wasn’t easy for the lungs. For my feet, it was a breeze. Training them for 5 hours per day really paid off.
We were out in the wild and I would not call it a “fun” hike. But then again, I’m not here for fun. I’m here to walk through the pain and persevere.
Speaking of persevering, people always tell me they wish they could stop living the life they are living and start living the life they are dreaming.
But for some invisible reason they just can’t.
These people are called dreamers. They dream of sleeping under a night sky with a thousand stars in view so they could make a thousand wishes.
Instead of actually doing it, they go back to their luxury jail cell where they have no stars and no hope.
Why don’t they just do it?
When I sleep in a yurt in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, under a thousand night stars, they say: “I wish I could do what you do.”
I say: “Listen here, fella. Wishing upon a star does not work unless you are actually underneath a star. Get your feet walking to where you want to go. It ain’t no matter of “goal setting”, it’s a matter of walking there and doing the damn thing.”
Speaking of this nonsense called goal-setting, someone recently asked me this: “Vic, what are your thoughts on goal setting?”
You want to talk about goals but, boy, I don’t have no real goals.
I don’t believe in goal-setting like these college educated fools believe in goal-setting.
I believe in being OBSESSED beyond all reason. Being obsessed to the brink of madness. Being obsessed to the point of being selfish.
It is not a matter of setting goals, friend. It is a matter of being singularly focused to the point of obsession. Focused on ONE THING ONLY!
It don’t take no genius, boy, it takes only an unnerving desire.
Hell, I’m beginning to realize that only an idiot can become successful. I did not say even an idiot could do it, I said only an idiot could do it.
Smart people listen to other people and that is their downfall. It takes a real moron to do the exact opposite of everything they say to do.
And this, my friendly friends, is the hidden secret of success.
DO THE OPPOSITE!
Do the opposite of everything they tell you to do.
When they go left, you go right. When they say go up, you go down. When they say “tone it down” you crank up the volume. You zig where they zag.
Where they’re weak you be strong. And you stay strong in the face of everybody in the world telling you to be weak just like them.
Do the opposite of everything they do.
Success is the easiest thing in the world and only “idiots” take the easy way. Smart college people take the hard way and get nowhere again and again.
A smart doctor once told me, “Don’t spend to much time on your feet. Rest them, don’t stand or walk too much.”
You know where that got me? Nowhere but the damn couch.
I had to do the stupid thing and walk on them for 5 hours per day to get my desired result.
All these years on the road have taught me one valuable lesson…
Goal setting is pointless if you are not willing to give all of your time.
I told you a thousand damn times I do not have goals! What I have is time.
I spend the required time it takes to achieve the desired result.
When I wanted to change my poor little feetsies into rough and tough feet, I spent the time required to do it.
The path is never-ending, and a never-ending path is the only path you should ever take.
On my endless travels I learn this and I learn that, but what I never achieve is closure and I don’t want it.
Closure is doom, friend. This is what happens when you achieve a goal you have set for yourself: stagnation.
When you stop walking for too long your feet start to hurt too much when you do walk forward.
So I don’t have any goals. None. I have killed my goals like so many Buddha lovers try to kill their egos.
Now it just is what it is, boy. Nothing else.
And what’s true for me is true for you.
In front of you is nothing but a long and winding road through the mountains. Hard road, no easy road.
When the road gets too hard for the Jeep to pass, you will get out and you will walk.
If there is a mountain in front of you, you will climb it. After that, you will continue forward.
There is no end to this journey because when you stop, that’s when the pain starts.
On this long and winding road you cannot veer because you have places to go and promises to keep.
Like Robert Frost said, “The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”
You hear that, boy?
You have promises to keep and miles to go before you sleep.
So You Had Better Not Let Me Catch You Sleeping
Else there will be hell to pay and I will come collecting.
I will come to you in your nightmares and show you what could have been.
I will show you the life you could have been living. I will show you the life you should have been living. If only…
“WAKE UP!” you’ll be screaming to yourself.
“Please, please, please wake up! I shouldn’t be asleep anymore! Please God let me wake up from this hell!”
But I will show you clearly…
Hell is no place you go when you die, it’s that moment in life you realize you could have been alive.
If only you could wake up and get after it.
“If only I could sleep in a thousand star hotel instead of my 4 star luxury jail cell. If only I had the balls to wake up and get after it. If only, oh, if only…”
As honest men of good faith, we take it at face value that other men also act on good faith.
We give out a simple courtesy of trust and belief that other men will stand by their word. After all, we would stand by our word so everyone else must too. Right? Not quite.
Fairness, honesty, and integrity are all fine traits for men to possess, if only all men possessed these traits.
The honest and fair man makes a critical error in thinking and lives under a childlike spell, as if by voodoo magic, that every man is good, honest and fair. The honest man believes that any man who does not operate under the same code as the honest man is a cheater.
This childlike spell causes the honest man to be more concerned with fairness over results, but fairness isn’t worth a hill of beans if results do not follow.
As the failures continue to grow, the honest man will come to believe that all success is the result of cheating and results are only allowed to cheaters. Eventually he will believe that failure is what it takes to be an honest man and he will unconsciously self-sabotage his efforts in an attempt to remain fair.
To the honest man, only a cheater gets ahead and in an effort to not appear to be cheating, he well and truly avoids success. The honest man is stuck in a never-ending cycle of failure. His belief causes his failure which again reinforces his belief.
How To Conquer The Fear Of Cheating And Start Winning At The Game Of Life
Ladies and gentlemen we told you the honest man was under a voodoo spell, we did not tell you the honest man cast his own spell. The honest man thinks to himself “Success comes only to the cheaters, never to the honest and fair such as myself. Therefore, I cannot try so very hard to produce success because that wouldn’t be fair.”
The honest man’s thoughts become his reality and he is paralyzed into inaction over the fear of being labeled a cheater. The honest man has essentially blackmailed himself into a cycle of failure, paralyzed himself into inaction, and built in himself a terrible hatred of success and of the successful.
Dear reader, this is not an indictment of the honest man, rather it is an attempt to cure him of self-sabotage. We look deeply into the soul of the honest man not to mock him, as many in business will do, but to understand how to break the spell that keeps the honest man poor.
This article aims to give the honest man the one quick mindset switch that will allow him to break out of the “fairness cycle” and into the winner’s circle.
As you continue reading you will find that the honest man makes critical 3 errors in judgement keep him from success. These 3 errors in judgement build his foundation of failure.
You will be very glad to know that one simple mindset switch can negate a lifetime of errors in thinking.
#1) The “Honesty Excuse”
The biggest error in thinking that honest men make is thinking that all men are honest. These men feel disappointed when other men are proved dishonest. This could have been totally avoided if honest men simply understood this one fundamental rule of human nature:
Not everyone thinks the exact same way. Not everyone shares the same morals, belief and codes of conduct. The world is as it is, not as we wish it to be.
The error the honest man makes is in thinking that all men share the same virtues equally and with vigor. Not everyone thinks honesty is a virtue. Many groups of men laugh at the gullibility of men who believe in honesty.
People will be honest when it benefits them. But never forget — men will also be dishonest when it benefits them. Relying on honesty is a fool’s errand and expecting honesty from every person is childish.
Not everyone is honest and not everyone even cares to be called honest. Honesty is a virtue in a select few but not in everyone. Believing honesty is a virtue in everyone leads honest men to be taken advantage of by people who do not share the same honesty beliefs.
Earnest belief in honesty and virtue of all peoples requires a total blindness to the reality of the world. In fact, belief in the virtue of other men is self-sabotage and you’ll soon see how otherwise honest men use the “honesty excuse” to accept failure.
The “Honesty Excuse” allows a man to fail while not taking responsibility for his failure because it allows him to say “It isn’t my fault I didn’t succeed, it is their fault for being dishonest with me”.
The honest man uses the honesty excuse as a reason to fail. If a man wished to succeed, he would simply do away with the notion of honesty in business and get rid of the honesty excuse for good. He would accept people as people rather than as angels and he would do business accordingly.
Another terrific error in thinking is the belief that being earnest, honest and forthright is how a man becomes a success in the first place and that “cheating” only gets you success faster. You’ll soon see why both of those assertions are wrong.
#2) Doing the “right thing” when it’s the wrong way to achieve success
The 2nd fundamental error the honest man makes is his steadfast belief that his way is the right way, in spite of overwhelming evidence that it is not, and that all men must follow the same set of rules to achieve the riches and results that every man truly desires.
Many an honest man has the conflicting belief that if he just does everything “the right way” he will become successful.. even though he only seen the opposite bear true. Many honest men have found themselves saying “I’m doing everything the right way, but I’m not getting any results.”
The man of good faith believes the key to riches is by being honest, earnest and playing by the rules, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. The honest man’s error is not in doing things “the right way”, his error is in continuing to do things in the so-called right way even when it’s not working.
The honest man has so thoroughly convinced himself that honesty and fairness is the best policy that it may take him years to realize that success does not come from playing by the rules. When he realizes the truth he will make a tactical error by continuing to work in the same manner he has always worked; By playing by the rules and getting nowhere, in spite of knowing that it does not work.
Even after faced with the truth, the honest man is still blinded my his own perceived honesty and morality, which leaves him paralyzed to action. He is so grounded in the thought of doing things the “right away” that he continues to do them against his own best interest.
The honest man, again, is making a critical error in thinking and with one simple mindset shift he would be able to let go of his misfortune, increase his knowledge and learn to enjoy real success. With help from Victor Pride, the “honest man” can turn himself from a can’t-do man to a can-do man.
A can’t-do man will play by the rules seemingly forever, he will assume every other man is also playing by the rules, and he will call all men who do not play by the rules “cheaters”. Eventually he will come to believe that the game is rigged, success is only for “cheaters” and that “the honest man” has no chance of success and no way to opportunity.
A can-do man will play by the rules only long enough to realise that the game is rigged and playing by the rules brings only failures. A can-do man will open his eyes to certain realities of the world and he will play to those realities and no longer play to childish dreams of fairness.
Both the can-do man and the can’t-do man will reach the same conclusion: The game is rigged, success is only for cheaters and that “the honest man” has no chance of success and no way to opportunity.
The difference is that the can-do man will do away with the rules and he will find success. The can’t-do man will continue abiding by the rules and continually repel success. He will focus his energy less on business and more on the “cheaters” whom he feels stole success from him, the man who is doing everything “the right way”.
#3) Equating all success with “cheating”
The 3rd big blunder the honest man makes is in equating all success with cheating. When all success is the result of cheating, the honest man develops a bad taste for success. If the honest man were to accidentally stumble into success, he would find a way to sabotage it and get out — because he doesn’t like the feeling of being a cheater.
In spite of the evidence suggesting that the game is rigged and that the only way to succeed is by breaking the rules, the honest man is stuck in a “fairness cycle”. To an honest man, and to a child, success is not fair. To live a fair life, the honest man develops an unconscious fear of success; because he has linked success to cheating.
When the honest man equates success with cheating he builds artificial walls around his ability to accomplish. These walls act as self-sabotage to keep the honest man from success. This gives the honest man yet another excuse to not find success. If an honest man is bound by his moral duty then surely failure isn’t his fault, after all he was simply doing the right thing and those other people only found success by breaking the rules and cheating.
The honest man’s sees other people who succeed and calls them cheaters, at the same time celebrating the morality that “does not allow him to cheat”. The honest man does not get very far in life, but at least he kept his moral integrity, right? Not quite.
The honest man uses “moral integrity” as a way to not strive for success and he uses the honesty excuse to make excuses as to why he has not succeeded. As you will soon see, the honest man made a terrible mistake and wasted a good deal of life as a self-saboteur. It was never truly morality that kept the honest man from succeeding, it was his self-sabotage that kept him from succeeding.
The biggest error that the honest man makes is in believing that everyone has agreed to the same set of rules he has agreed to. But they haven’t. The honest man has paralyzed himself with the honesty excuse and he can’t break free simply because he doesn’t try to; instead he pours his frustration and anger onto the cheaters who cheated their way to success.
Dear reader, please let it be know that outward anger at “cheaters” is really inner anger at self-sabotage. When good and honest men realize that the fear of cheating is actually a fear of success, they will then be ready to move on to the #1 mindset switch that makes the fear of cheating a distant memory and success a reality.
This One Simple Mindset Switch Will Change Your Ideas About Cheating
Results and success come from one thing and one thing only. You’ll soon see what that one thing is. But first, let’s look at what cheating really is. What is cheating? Cheating is agreeing to a set of rules and then breaking those rules.
The honest man has the rules firmly implanted in his head, but there is one problem that keeps the honest man poor and impotent…
Not everyone plans by the same rules. Not everyone even knows what the same rules are, nor does every man care. Even if a man knows what the rules are, he may not have agreed to them quite so vigorously; if he even agreed at all. After all, there are no rules for life, only laws. A man must make his own way and to find success there is no time to shackle oneself to a set of rules that limit his success ability.
The honest man has shackled himself to the rules which prevent his success. The honest man must make this one mindset shift if he ever wishes to break free of those chains and live life the way God intended; rich, free and happy.
The honest man must let this following sentence burn into his brain, he must allow this paradigm shift to penetrate his psyche if he ever wishes to find success, contentment and fulfilment.
In The Game Of Life There Is No Such Thing As Cheating
What is the one mindset shift that will allow a man to stop worrying about cheating and start winning? The honest but unsuccessful man must realise that there is no such thing as cheating in the game of life. There are simply ways that get results and there are ways that don’t get results. There are methods that work and methods that do not work.
The honest but unsuccessful man has spent so long believing in methods that don’t work it may be hard to achieve the paradigm shift, but he must if he wishes fortune.
When a man says “I’ve been doing everything the right way and I’ve not seen any results” he must come to the honest conclusion that he was not doing things the right way. If it were the right way, his endeavours would have been successful. Instead, he was doing everything the wrong way and blaming cheating.
If a man wants a result and he gets the result, how could that possibly be cheating? It cannot be. If a man wants a result and he does not get the result, how could that method possibly be the right method? It cannot be. As you will see, dear reader, cheating is simply the word used to describe methods that actually work.
Cheating Is The Word Use To Describe Methods That Actually Work
Cheating is the word used to describe methods that get results. An honest but unsuccessful man must make the paradigm shift from believing success equals cheating to realizing that cheating is actually the only way that works to achieve results.
Now that you know the mindset shift required to think like a winner, you are ready to know the #1 thing that every single person can do to stop worrying about cheating and start winning right now.
The Real #1 Rule Of Success That Anyone Can Follow
Successful men do not follow the rules laid out by unsuccessful men. But successful men do follow guidelines. You can look at the most successful men in any field and it’s a guarantee that they will all follow this #1 rule for success.
If results are what you’re after, you must do what it takes to achieve those results and that is in fact the #1 rule of success that all high-achievers follow: DO WHAT IT TAKES TO GET THE RESULTS YOU’RE AFTER.
Yes, unsuccessful men will label it cheating and you a cheater But remember, there’s a reason they are unsuccessful. When a success self-saboteur calls your methods cheating, you know you are on the right path.
Instead of worrying if others will react negatively, you must imagine how you will feel in 1 years, 2 years and 5 years time. Was the immediate reaction of negativity enough to stop you building your future? Of course not.
Successful Men Do What It Takes To Succeed Not What They Think It Takes To Remain Fair
Winners do what it takes to win. It isn’t a matter of cheating and it isn’t a matter of morals — it’s a matter of being #1 and getting real results. Instead of thinking “is this good or bad” one must think “will this get me my desired results?”
A man who does not achieve results is a failure. But thanks to this helpful guide, the man who was once a failure can raise himself from failure to success by following these 3 simple principles, 1 mindset shift and 1 iron-clad rule:
The 3 principles each can-do man must follow:
Treat the world as it is, not as you wish it to be. Our reality is just that — reality only for us. In our reality we may despise “cheaters” but cheaters don’t live in our reality, they live in theirs. In their reality they do what it takes to win.
Do away with the “honesty excuse” – you either succeeded or you didn’t. Eliminate the excuses to focus on success rather than focusing on failure.
Instead of doing the “right thing” do the thing that works. There are methods that work and methods that do not work. Often the methods that actually work are thought of as “cheating” and methods that don’t work are thought of as “the right way”.
The 1 mindset shift each would-be successful man must make:
There is no such thing as cheating in the game of life. The right way gets results, the wrong way doesn’t get results. There is no such thing as cheating – there are results and there are failures.
The real #1 rule of success that each and every can-do man follows:
The #1 rule of success is “Do what it takes.” If you wish to be a winner and not a loser you must do what it takes to win.
Dear reader, you may freely take these principles of success and use them to achieve results in your own business endeavours. When an honest man calls you a cheater you may rejoice in the fact that you are getting results.
If you wish no harm to the honest man, if you wish to enlighten him instead, you may point him directly to this article so that he too may learn how to stop worrying about cheating and start winning, just like you.
