Podcasts about favorite success quote you

Gordon Miller is, without a doubt, one of the “realest” entrepreneurs I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing. Unlike the myriad of “Influencer-preneurs”, Gordon is a relatively unknown mogul who has generated multiple 9-figures across several highly technical industries and landed dozens of 7 and 8-figure government contracts. If you want to learn how to grow a business the right way, his raw, no-nonsense style will put you on the fast track to success and teach you what it really takes to build $100 million in value. Who is Gordon Miller? Gordon Miller has devoted more than 30 years to the pursuit of excellence in design and innovation. An accomplished designer and engineer in his own right, Mr. Miller first focused his attention on K-12 and higher education solutions and then corporate websites, decision support systems and now mobile applications and data aggregation. As CEO of G3 Systems, Inc. since 1993, Mr. Miller has developed a rapidly expanding base of mission-critical government projects including efforts for the US Dept. of Defense, US Navy, US Army, US Dept. of Education, US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, US Dept. of State and US Dept. of Homeland Security. As CEO of G3i Ventures, LLC, Mr. Miller has co-founded, launched or funded a total of 8 companies. Gordon’s Favorite Success Quote “You are the average of the five people that you surround yourself with most” ~Jim Rohn Key Points from my Interview with Gordon Miller 1. Your Network Determines Your Networth  Do you want to know how to really “get rich quick”? Do you want to know the fastest way to achieve massive amounts of wealth and success? It’s actually pretty simple… Level up your network. That’s it. The quickest way to exponentially increase your results in your life, your bank account, and your body is to hang around people who already have what you want and more.  When you are constantly spending time around low caliber individuals who are worried about making rent, have fixed mindsets, and who let you rest on your laurels, you will eventually become complacent and begin to stagnate and die. There’s no way around it. But if you are around people who are playing the game of life at a higher level than you are, if you are around people who are true hustlers and game changers, they will start to rub off on you. You will begin to see the world through the lens of the player instead of the spectator. More importantly, you will have access to deals, opportunities, and investments that the general public doesn’t even know about (let alone know how to take advantage of). You’ll get objective eyes on your business, no-holds-barred accountability and proven systems from men who’ve been “in the trenches” for decades. So I want you to commit right now, that no matter what happens this year, you will find a group of men who are playing the game of life at a higher level than you are and get around them. Your success depends on it. 2. Fall in Love with the Process One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they are outcome-oriented, not process-oriented. In this moment, you might think that you will find satisfaction by purchasing that big house, the yacht, or the car. But what happens after you are done? What happens when the transaction concludes and you have your “dream”? You are left to your own devices once again and asked to find fulfillment and joy in yet another set of goals and outcomes. You are constantly chasing something that you can never catch, because there is always another goal to achieve, another benchmark to hit, and another level to breakthrough. But what if I told you that you could achieve all of the joy, happiness, and fulfillment that you desire right now in this very moment? Well, you can. All you must do is learn to love the process. Learn to love the hustle and the grind as you work towards your dreams. Learn to love the work, not the rewards and your life will change forever. In my own business, I discovered long ago that my passion for writing amazing content, interviewing badasses, and changing lives supersede any financial reward or acclaim that this work offers to me. There is no tomorrow, the only time that you have is right now… So make damn sure that you are enjoying it. 3. Live Below Your Means and Put Money Away  One of the biggest mistakes made by most people in their 20’s is spending money like they will live forever. Statistically speaking, if you are under 30 reading this right now, you will likely live well past 90 years old. Do you really want to be working your ass off and hustling like a college graduate at that age? If the answer is “No” then you need to start saving and investing money, immediately.  Do whatever you need to do to set aside at least $500 a month every single month and invest it into a money market account or low-risk index fund. If you can do this, then you will be a millionaire by the time you are 60. Period. 4. Get Out There and Do It In our age of social media and hyper-connection, everyone loves to talk. They love to talk about entrepreneurship, about how they are going to start a business, about how they are going to quit their job, or how they are going to make it big. Here’s a revolutionary idea… Stop talking about it. Get out there and do it! The world belongs to those who do.  So stop running your mouth and start moving your feet. As Nike says… Just DO IT! 5. Own Your Mistakes and MOVE ON You are going to make mistakes. That is simply part of the human experience. You aren’t perfect and you shouldn’t expect to be. Mistakes are not only normal they are necessary. So learn from your mistakes and move on. Don’t dwell in the past, wishing that you could have done it differently. Decide to do it differently today. You only have the present moment, don’t waste it wishing that things could be different. They aren’t. What is done is done. All that you can do is learn from it and move on.

Ryan Stewman is a high-performance sales coach and trainer who went from spending two stints in federal prison to building a multiple seven figure income. He is the author of several best-selling books including Kick-Ass, Bulletproof Business, Elevator to the Top, and Hardcore Closer.  Favorite Success Quote “You gotta take action before you can take over” Key Points 1. Action not Knowledge Leads to Success If you have been involved in the personal development world for any appreciable amount of time, then you have inevitably come across the people, shall we call them “Pathological learners” who are voracious consumers of knowledge. They know all of the latest market trends, are well-versed in the high-performance practices of characters like Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield, and can tell you how to start and grow a business from inception to 7-figures. And yet, when you look at the results in their lives, what do you find? Nothing, nada, zilch. They live in a 400 square foot apartment, are overweight, and in a relationship that looks like something out of a bad soap opera. Yet they know all this information! The problem is that they do not apply it. You have to realize that knowledge without action is useless. Only applied knowledge is power, and if you have spent years devoting your time and energy to learning without taking the proper proportion of action, then it is time to get off your ass, leave the theory on your nightstand, and get in the game. 2.Suffering is a Temporary But Essential Part of Life When was the last time you experienced suffering? I mean true suffering. Not the “My dog is sick” or “The 49ers lost their last game”, but real, visceral suffering, the kind that keeps you up at night, deprives you of joy, and makes you question your purpose on this planet. Perhaps you lost a family member or a friend, underwent a nasty divorce, lost your home, job, and family in bankruptcy, or even suffered from a life-changing disease or injury. Whatever that suffering was (or is) you need to internalize one of life’s great truths, spoken over a century ago by Abraham Lincoln. “This too shall pass” No suffer, no matter how devastating and debilitating it may feel, is permanent. And what is more? It is necessary to build you into the man that you need to become. I am not telling you that your pain will be easy to bear, but I am telling you that it will be worth it. 3. Ignore the Haters and Embrace the True Players One of the greatest tragedies of the modern world is that men with unlimited potential and unimaginable abilities allow themselves to be smothered by the advice and criticisms of unambitious, underachieving, and jealous peers. Every time you go to the office look at the men to your left and to your right. What do you see? Do you see men embracing their true potential, taking control of their lives, and creating an incredible future full of freedom and joy? Or do you see men who have allowed the doubts and misgivings of society, family, and friends to hold them back from their dreams and desires? On your path to success, you will be faced with many, many, many haters, doubters, and naysayers. They will tell you it cannot or should not be done only out of their own insecurities and fears. But if you want to unleash the giant inside of you and reach your full potential, you must ignore these people, whether they are bosses, life-long friends, or even family members. Only take advice from those who are achieving what you want to achieve, and ignore the rest. End of discussion. 4. Education not Schooling is What Separates the Winners from the Losers There is a fallacious belief circulating the modern world that tells all young men the only path to success is through higher education. And while college can be a great choice for some people, it is not the ultimate road to massive achievement. I want you to think back to your highschool and college years. If your experience was anything like mine, then at some point, you inevitably came across two different types of guys: The learner and the hustler. The learner was someone you would describe as the stereotypical nerd. He was smart, worked hard in classes, and did everything right. He made good marks, graduated with honors, and probably had several high level job offers waiting for him upon graduation. The hustler however, is a different breed. This was the man who spent his days building something that he believed in, working towards his dream, and focusing more on his practical education than his education. Sure, he still applied himself to his schooling, but, as Mark Twain said he “Never let his schooling get in the way of his education.” Which of these two men do you think ultimately achieved more? Who became more successful? Who was able to create something that would last and create freedom for themselves and their families? Hint, it’s not the guy with all A’s. 5. Your Past Does Not Determine Your Future Imagine, if you will, a man who spent his whole life as a criminal, stealing, lying, and terrorizing his way to “success.” After being arrested for one of his many crimes and spending nearly half a decade of his life behind bars, he is released back into the world and left with a choice. He can either allow past decisions, events, and circumstances to determine his future, or he can lift a middle finger to mistakes and decide to create a different life for himself, to rebuild himself, and create a new identity as a man of honor, integrity, and love. Most people don’t believe that you can ever overcome your past. And quite frankly, most people are full of shit. Every single day, you are faced with the same decision as the man above, you can either bend a knee and supplicate yourself to the flaws and mistakes of your past self, or you can start anew and recreate yourself into the kind of man you would be proud to be. Which decision will you make?

Chris Winfield is an entrepreneur and productivity expert in New York City. With the use of simple systems, techniques and the power of true focus, Winfield teaches business owners how to get 40 hours of work done in 16.7 and much more. Favorite Success Quote “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward” ~Steve Jobs Key Points 1. Stop Postponing Your Happiness  One of the greatest diseases afflicting modern men is something I like to call “postponitis”. This sickness has ravaged mankind, depriving hard-working men of their happiness, fulfillment, and liveliness for decades. And it all starts with the seemingly innocuous word, “then”. It goes something like this… “I am going to work my ass off, make lots of money, then I will be happy.” “I’ve just got to get this promotion at work, then I will have time to prioritize my health, family, and personal growth.” “Once my startup hits $100,000/month in recurring revenue, then I can relax and enjoy my life.” It’s always “then” and never “now“. Men are living their whole lives in pursuit of some arbitrary goal that somehow gives them permission to live their lives, love themselves, and enjoy their time on this planet. And frankly, it’s complete bullshit! Life happens in the now. It doesn’t happen later. It doesn’t happen when you make your first million. It doesn’t happen when you finally get that promotion. It doesn’t even happen at IPO. Life happens now. And if you are constantly living your life in pursuit of something in the future (something that may or may not happen), then you will miss out on life’s most precious moments and end up on your deathbed, wishing that you had a chance to do it all over again. But you don’t. You have one life, one shot, one opportunity. Don’t waste it living for someday. 2. Money is a Magnifying Glass  Tell me if you have ever heard this phrases before? “Money is the root of all evil.” “Rich people are greedy.” “Money can’t buy happiness.” If you have been on this planet for any appreciable amount of time, then I’m going to assume that these sayings have been drilled into your head since the womb. Can I let you in on a little secret? They’re all a load of crap! Money is nothing more than a magnifying glass. If you are a miserable, unhappy, and stingy person, then becoming rich will do nothing except make you a miserable, unhappy, and stingy person with a big bank account. Conversely, if you are a happy, generous, and loving person, then becoming rich will do little to change your life other than giving you assets that allow you to be more generous, happy, and loving. Money simply makes you more of what you already are. So instead of focusing on earning money to attain happiness or believing that money will make you immoral or “greedy”, accept the fact that money is nothing more than a tool that will amplify who you are. 3. Build Your Foundation and the Tower Will Follow  Most men set out to achieve success in a way that is completely backward. They start by focusing on their goals instead of themselves. They are more than willing to hustle and grind on their business for hours on end, but spending an hour in the gym? Not a chance! They will drop $10,000 on a business consulting package, but spending $2,000 on a new mattress to improve their sleep and energy? Not going to happen! But here’s the problem… All of your success, whether it’s in your business, relationships, or social life, stems from one thing. You.  And if you are not operating at the highest levels, if you are not taking care of yourself, if you are not cultivating habits of excellence, then you are not going to succeed in the other areas of your life (and if you do, then it will not be sustainable). Therefore, creating a strong foundation of health and high-quality habits is the first step to achieving lasting success. Start with your body. Hit the gym at least three times a week, follow a diet that consists of 80% real food (organic if you can afford it), and sleep at least 7 hours a week. Then, with your body in prime condition start building routines and habits into your life that will expedite your success. Feed your mind daily, journal, practice gratitude, and recite affirmations. With these habits in place and your body in an optimized condition, you will be able to achieve your goals at a much faster pace while enjoying your life and feeling fulfilled. 4. The Fastest Way to Recieve is to Give The best kept “secret” for success that almost every millionaire, billionaire, and wildly successful entrepreneur knows is this: If you want to receive tremendous value from the marketplace, your relationships, your network, or your career, the first step is to give tremendous value without expecting anything in return. Let me give you an example from the interview. Since Chris lives in New York, he has a phenomenal proximity to incredibly powerful and affluent individuals. And while this might seem like an advantageous situation, you must remember that most successful people get asked for a lot of shit. They are constantly getting pitched by individuals who are looking for a handout or a handshake and at the end of the day, it can feel exhausting. Luckily, Chris understood this and decided that he was going to take a different approach. Instead of hunting these people down and asking for something, he hosts regular dinners and meet-ups where he asks one simple question “How can I serve you?” He doesn’t ask “What can you do for me?” instead, he flips conventional wisdom on its head and offers value for free. And guess what? It has driven more deals, knowledge, and value to him than any marketing tactic of sales pitch ever has. Why? Because people love and trust people who are willing to give value. Just think about this from your perspective. Imagine you have two friends, one who is constantly asking you for loans, pitching you on his new network marketing products, and pressuring you to join him in business, and one who gives you value in the form of advice, connections, and services… All without expecting anything in return. Both of your friends are excellent copywriters and you have a client who needs a referral for a six-figure copy contract. Who would you recommend? The giver or the taker? Now ask yourself another question. How can you give value without expecting anything in return this week? Who can you help? How can you serve others? As weird as it might sound, the universe has an uncanny way of providing for those who provide for others, so I want to encourage you to be on the lookout for ways that you can bring more value this week. The results might surprise you. 5. The Enemies of Fulfillment are Ego and Expectation Since personal fulfillment is a subject that is unique to every individual, I cannot tell you how to achieve fulfillment in your own life. But I can tell you how to eradicate fulfillment from your life. Allow your ego to control your actions and your expectations to control your relationships. Ego and expectation both have their uses, and in moderation, they can be used as effective motivators and filters to ensure success. However, they become problematic whenever you are the slave, not the master in the relationship. When you allow ego to rule your life and become your sole motivator, you will find yourself pursuing goals that aren’t aligned with your purpose and acting in a manner that is disingenuous and inauthentic. When you allow your expectations to control your interactions, you will find yourself loathing people that you should love for indiscretions that you shouldn’t have noted. The more that ego and expectation run your life, the more you will find yourself at the whims of others instead of captaining your own ship. Learn to curb your ego, swallow your pride and develop some humility. Give others some breathing room, only set expectations that you yourself can live up to, and be forgiving in the face of failure. If you do this, I can promise you that you will live a life that is richer, more productive, and ultimately, more fulfilling.

Charlie Brenneman is a former UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) competitor in the lightweight division with an overall fight record of 19 wins and 8 losses. After leaving the UFC two years ago, Charlie has devoted himself to helping other people achieve the success that they desire and deserve through professional coaching, speaking, and entrepreneurship. Favorite Success Quote “You are what you repeatedly do, excellence is not an act but a habit” ~ Key Points 1. Success is About Giving Everything You Have In our materialistic and results driven society, it is easy to get caught up in this idea that success is all about making a certain amount of money, winning every competition, and reaching every goal. But the truth is much deeper than that. While accomplishment should certainly play a central role in every man’s definition of success, the missing piece of the puzzle is the effort that you devote to achieving your goals. If you put everything that you have into the attainment of a goal, if you are relentless and driven to a point that many people consider you insane and you still don’t achieve your desired outcome, then guess what? You are still a success. You showed up, you put in the work, and you did everything that you could do. Sometimes despite your best efforts, the stars simply don’t align. And it’s times like this where you can look at yourself in the mirror with pride, knowing that you gave it your all and are still a man of success despite the perceived failure. 2. A Life of Fulfillment Comes from the Habit of Pursuing the Uncomfortable  So many people believe that fulfillment will come whenever they reach a certain goal. Whenever they have seven figures in their bank account, are married to the model wife, or driving the Ferrari. In reality, however, as men, we derive our true sense of fulfillment from constantly pursuing a life of “uncomfortability.” A life where we don’t know whether we will succeed, a life of struggle and triumph, a life, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, “In the arena, with your face marred by blood, and sweat, and tears.” If you want to be fulfilled and live every day with a smile on your face and joy in your heart, then get out of your comfort zone. Get uncomfortable and start pushing the boundaries of what you think is possible in your life. 3. Humility is a Hallmark of the Greats  No matter how successful you become, there is always someone out there who is better than you. And if you want to truly succeed at any endeavor, then you need to have the humility to learn from others and devote yourself to constant improvement. If you look at any great man in sports, business, or life, you will notice that no matter their stature, they were always willing to take criticism and look for ways to improve their craft. From billionaires like Sam Walton to All-Stars like Kobe Bryant, they all approached their field with a deep and genuine humility, accepting that they did not know everything and had plenty of room to improve. If you truly want to be one of the greats, then you need to take the same approach to your life. 4. Accept the Struggle  Whenever you start out at anything, whether it is a business, a sport, an instrument, or improving your social skills, you are going to suck. It’s not pretty, it’s not nice, but it is the cold hard truth. You are going to suck, and you are going to suck for a long time. The quicker that you can come to terms with this and accept that the journey is part of the joy of mastery, the sooner you will be able to overcome your own egotistical nature and truly become an expert in your craft. So embrace the suck. Don’t take yourself too seriously, and get ready for months or even years of fumbling through until you become proficient in your field. 5. Surround Yourself with the Best  The quickest way to accelerate your own growth is to surround yourself with people who are playing the game of life at a higher level than you are. Find people in your field who are performing at a level 10X your current level and get around them. Figure out what habits, tactics, and mindsets are separating them from the 99% and putting them into the proverbial hall of fame. The sooner that you can build up your circle of friends and mentors who are playing at a higher level, the quicker you will achieve your own goals and truly embrace your own potential.

Jennifer Noel Taylor is the “Chief Magical Officer” of Quantum-Touch, Inc. – A community dedicated to Spiritual growth. Quantum-Touch helps people facilitate their physical, emotional and spiritual healing through energy medicine. In her debut book, Love Incorporated: The Business of Doing What You Love, she shares her journey as a young professional, feeling extremely depressed at her 9-5 job, to finding her true calling and living the life of her dreams! Favorite Success Quote “You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance doing what you love.” ~Jim Carey Key Points 1. Taking Time Away is Not the End Often times in life, we need to separate ourselves from our current situations. Whether it is a job, a relationship, or even just a physical location that it tying you down, everyone will have a point in their life where they need to “escape” to uncover more about themselves to truly become their best selves. But we are scared. We are afraid that it will result in catastrophic failure if things don’t pan out. But the truth is, even if we don’t achieve the goals we had set, the lessons you learn while away will equip you to achieve more when you come back to your old life. If you take a sabbatical from work to travel, you will return more grounded, more focused, and more passionate, and employers know this. If you take some time away from a relationship to focus on your own personal growth, you will come back as a more present, conscious, and compassionate lover, and most women know this. Don’t be afraid to take time away from the good so that you can return to the great. 2. Be Authentic Life is short, so why would you waste it being anyone other than who you are. Almost all of us live our lives behind a mask. We perform on the stage of life to impress people and show them that we are like everyone else. But the hard truth is, the world doesn’t need more cookie cutter people. It needs more people who are fearlessly embracing their authentic selves, people who are pursuing a life of excellence and uniqueness. Forget about being like everyone else. The world has plenty of copycats. Be yourself, be authentic, and allow the universe to use that for greatness. 3. The Universe Will not Hand You Anything So many of us believe in the “Secret” that if we just write down our goals and put them out to the universe that we will achieve every dream that we have, but the truth is much more different. The universe will conspire with you to help you achieve your goals, but you must put in the work. You have to grind and hustle and sweat and bleed. There is no other way to achieve success. Put your goals out to the universe and then work your butt off to achieve them. Then and only then will the universe open up to help you. 4. Trust Yourself  One of the hardest things in life is to trust yourself, to believe in yourself, and to stick to your values even when the rest of the world steers you in another direction. But if you want to succeed and live the most fulfilling life possible, then you must learn to trust yourself. Trust your gut, trust your intuition, trust yourself. If you feel called to do something, then do it, no matter what other people say. And remember, you can fail doing something that you don’t like so go ahead and take a chance on something you love. 5. Challenges are An Opportunity for Growth  So many people view challenges as a bad thing. They think that challenging situations are a curse. But the thing is, challenges are an opportunity. They are an opportunity for you to grow into your strongest self, to prove what you are made of, and to overcome obstacles that others deem as impossible. Never view challenges as a negative thing. They are what makes this life worth living and what separates the boys from the men.

Known as”The CEO Whisperer”, Cameron Herold is an entrepreneur, highly paid speaker, author, and business coach. He was responsible for taking the company 1-800 Got Junk from $2 million in annual revenue to over $106 million in annual revenue in only 6 years. He works with and coaches some of the most prolific individuals on the planet including multi-millionaires, politicians, monarchs, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Favorite Success Quote “You’ll never be smart enough to figure this out on your own. Your R&D should stand for be rip off and duplicate. millions of companies have already spent millions of dollars figuring out virtually every problem and every opportunity you will ever encounter. Just do what they’re doing. Instead of trying to sit down and figure it out for yourself, you already have the cheat sheets, just go ahead and use them” Key Points 1. Always be learning always be growing  If you want to have an exceptional life, not a good life, but an exceptional life, then you must commit to constant and never ending growth. Cameron recently attended an event in Las Vegas with dozens of other high profile entrepreneurs including Cole Hatter, Grant Cardone, and Tai Lopez, and he noticed that every single one of the speakers was actively listening and taking notes while the other individuals were on stage. Many of these people already had 7, 8, and even 9-figure businesses. However, despite their success, they were still attentive and engaged in the event, constantly seeking to learn something new. And if you want to create the best life possible for yourself and your family, then you must have the same voracious appetite for knowledge. Never ignore an opportunity to learn and improve yourself, never assume that you already know something, and never take the wisdom of other’s for granted. 2. If you can control your time you control your world  Many people think that entrepreneurs only care about money. And sometimes, this is true. However, most people who delve into the world of entrepreneurship do so because they understand one important thing. When you control your time, you control your world. When you are at the beck and call of your manager, supervisor, or boss, you will never truly have control of your time. When you are dependent on active income for your livelihood, you will never truly control your time. When you give control of your financial destiny to others, you will never have control of your time. Entrepreneurship allows you to change all of that. Sure, entrepreneurship can be even more stressful than working for a business because everything depends on you. But because everything depends on you, you have absolute control of your schedule and your life. You are able to say “No” more, work on your own time, take days off when you want, and live a life that most people dream of. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. If you can find a way to create a lifestyle in which you control your schedule (even if you technically work for someone else) then you have achieved one of the ultimate successes in life. 3. Being “Messed Up” Can Be Your Biggest Asset  Most entrepreneurs are ADHD, bipolar, and suffer from some form of Tourrettes. And guess what? They often succeed because of these so called “disabilities”, not in spite of them. Having severe ADHD allows you to juggle countless projects simultaneously, engage in moments of hyper focus, and constantly be bouncing from idea to idea. Having a manic-depressive personality is what allows you to persuade people to join your team and work for you even when things aren’t going as well as you had hoped. Tourettes, a.k.a. thinking out loud is a hallmark of some of the greatest geniuses and businessmen in all of history. The point is, being “messed up” or “disabled” isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, if you know how to leverage them, your disabilities can often become your biggest strengths. 4. Good Enough = Success  So many of you reading this are being held back by your own perfectionism. You are so focused on making everything that you do perfect, that you never embrace “Good Enough” and actually get it done. Being good creates momentum. Being perfect keeps you stagnant. Think about Apple. Techniologically, they are one of the most inferior companies on the market. But because their product is good enough and they have an incredible marketing team and millions of raving fans, they are one of the most successful tech companies in the world. Think about McDonald’s. Their product is inferior to just about any other burger on the planet and it’s actually been linked to serious health problems. b But because it’s “good enough” and backed by incredible marketing and culture, they continue to succeed as one of the highest grossing fast food chains in the world. If you want to be great, focus first on being good. Once you have achieved “good”, market the hell out of it, rinse and repeat. 5. Understand that Your Network is Your Networth  Nothing will accelerate your results and happiness or keep you mired in mediocrity as much as your net work. If you are surrounding yourself with grade A+ players who keep you on track and inspire you to do great things, you will find yourself breaking through to new heights and achieving goals that you never thought possible. If the company that you keep regularly engages in low caliber behavior and holds low caliber attitudes and mindsets, you will quickly find yourself sinking further and further into a pit of failure. Possible the most important thing that you can do on your quest for the good life is to be intentional about who you allow in your circle. You are the average of the five people you spend your time with most. Ask yourself, “Who are my five people and do I want to be anything like them?”

Kenneth Shamrock (born Kenneth Wayne Kilpatrick; February 11, 1964) is an American mixed martial artist, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer, and retired professional wrestler. He emerged as one of the biggest stars in the history of mixed martial arts, headlining over 15 main events and co-main events in the UFC and Pride Fighting Championships during the course of his career and set numerous pay-per-view records. Shamrock is widely considered to be a legendary figure and icon in the sport of mixed martial arts. Shamrock was named The World’s Most Dangerous Man by ABC News in a special entitled “The World’s Most Dangerous Things” in the early part of his UFC career, a moniker which has stuck as his nickname. Favorite Success Quote “You have no idea what I’m willing to do to get where I’m going.” Key Points 1. Be Willing to Do Whatever it Takes If you want to truly succeed in the most competitive environments then you must cultivate a “Whatever it Takes” mentality. This doesn’t mean that you are willing to engage in unethical or immoral activities, simply that you are willing to sacrifice, to hustle, and to grind your way through any challenge and any adversity. For those of you who are content to be in second place (and there’s nothing wrong with that), doing whatever it takes isn’t truly necessary. You can skate by, cut corners, take shortcuts, and still arrive at your destination. But if you want to be the best, the top 1%, a leader, mover, and shaker in your industry, then you must show up early, stay late, and outwork all of your competition. The price of admission is high, but the rewards are worth it. 2. You Have to Choose Yourself In business and in life, most people wait to be called on. Like a child being called on by the teacher instead of raising their hand, most people wait until life presents them with an opportunity or opens a door. If you want to play the game of life in the top echelon of society, then you need to find opportunities and kick the doors down yourself. Or as previous podcast guest James Altucher puts it, you must Choose Yourself. No one is going to give you the freedom, the career, or the lifestyle that you desire. If you are a man, then do what needs to be done and take it for yourself. Take massive action, take huge initiative and do the work. Because if you don’t… Someone else will. 3. If You Don’t Seize the Moment Someone Else Will Life is competition. Anyone who has even the most basic understanding of our species’ history and the story of evolution knows this. Although we live in a world filled with abundance and a plethora of resources, we also live in a world filled with fierce competition. And the most dangerous thing that you can do in your life, relationship, or career is to hesitate and allow someone else to seize your moment. Think about how many times you saw that pretty girl, had that business idea or wanted to make that change but you didn’t. You hesitated, you waited, and you procrastinated. But someone else didn’t. Someone else went up and introduced himself, someone else set up their LLC and took action on their idea, someone else made the change, reaped the rewards and enjoyed the spoils of their labor… But you didn’t. In each of our lives, we are presented with a small handful of pivotal moments where we must decide whether we will take action or not. It is in these moments that your destiny is shaped. Don’t allow someone else to shape it for you. Take action, seize the moment, and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. 4. Find Your “Person”  If you continue down your current trajectory of personal and professional development, sometime in the future, you will arrive at a place in your life where you are surrounded by “Yes Men.” Your success and reputation will be so great that the people in your social circle will rarely tell you the truth and will, instead, try to tell you what they think you want to hear. This is one of the most dangerous places any man can be. You must find someone, whether a friend, relative, or coach who will tell you the truth all the time with compassion. You need someone in your life who will tell you when you are messing up, when you are on the right track, and when you need to shut up and get things done. Find your “Person” who will always be honest with you and you will find that your life will be a lot smoother and easier than it will when you operate on the opinions of impressed “friends”. 5. Slow Down and Be Patient  Life is a marathon, not a sprint. It seems like our instant gratification society has lost touch with the realities of life and, the simple truth is that life is meant to be lived and experienced. Don’t be so eager to achieve great things that you forget to live your life and enjoy the journey. Be patient and allow success to happen in its own time and its own way.

Gary John Bishop is one of the leading Personal Development experts in the industry with a global reputation that has impacted tens of thousands of people worldwide. He is the author of Unf*ck Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life.  His “urban philosophy” approach represents a new wave of personal empowerment and life mastery that has caused miraculous results for people in the quality and performance of their lives. He calls it like it is while being influenced by ontology, phenomenology and the philosophy of some of the world’s greatest thinkers to help you be inspired, unburdened and grounded. Favorite Success Quote “You have the life you are willing to put up with.” Key Points 1. You Are Responsible for Being F*cked  Whenever you (or someone that you know) is confronted with the cold reality that they are utterly and completely f*cked, the initial reaction is almost always one of blame. “My parents were terrible! You don’t understand.” “Yeah, well I grew up poor so this is just how it has to be” “You don’t know what it’s like to be an [insert minority group of choice]!” Although every statement above could be true, it doesn’t change the facts. You are 100% responsible for your life. Why would you let anyone else control even a fraction of 1% of your life? Do you really want to leave your future, your potential, and your one life to the whims of other people? If not, then you must accept full responsibility for your life and move one. 2. Authenticity is Inherently About You Whenever people hear the phrase “Just be authentic”, they often assume that they now have free reign to say and react to others in any way that they choose. This is not authenticity, it’s called being an ass hole. Authenticity in your interactions is about expressing your truth and owning that truth. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Let’s say that a client of yours responded to an error in a manner that was completely inappropriate and unacceptable on both a personal and professional level. You are feeling frustrated, hurt, and angry by their actions and feel compelled to bring them up. There are two ways of going about this. The first way, (which most people choose) is to make the interaction about them. “How dare you treat me that way! You are such an ass hole and you clearly don’t value our working relationship! You can take this project and shove it because I can’t stand this crap anymore.” Although the statement might be true, it’s not productive because it’s focused on the other person instead of you. A more authentic way to approach the conversation would be to say: “Look, what you did yesterday made me feel very hurt and undervalued. I don’t know whether you understand how your actions affected our professional relationship, but I wanted to let you know that I will no longer be able to continue working with you if we have another incident like that.” When you shift the focus from the other person and onto yourself, you step into your power and own your responsibility for your feelings and your response to those feelings. 3. Someone Somewhere Has Dealt with What You Are Dealing With  It’s funny how often I hear the words “No one knows what I’m going through”. It doesn’t really matter what the topic is about. It could be an abusive childhood, a controlling partner, a crappy boss, bad health, or any wide variety of ailments and general shittiness. But the simple fact of the matter is that someone somewhere has experienced the exact same thing that you are struggling with and they have turned this perceived weakness into their greatest strength. Sean Stephenson was born with a genetic deformity that stunted his growth, permanently confined him to a wheelchair, and weakened him so much that he’s broken every bone in his body. Yet he’s an inspiration to millions. Tony Robbins was abused as a child and kicked out of his house, left to live on the streets at 16. Today, he is worth more than $1 billion and coaches some of the world’s top performers to the top. Grant Cardone lost his father at the age of 9, became addicted to drugs at 16, and was in line for unemployment at 26. Today, his real estate empire has helped him amass a fortune of more than $750 million with a beautiful wife and two children. Whatever excuse you are allowing to hold you back… It’s bullshit. Someone somewhere has gone through the same things as you and worse. It’s up to you to choose a more empowering story, follow their example, and reclaim control of your life. 4. Always Seek to be of Service When we are focused on ourselves, life can quickly become a pit of chaos and confusion. The smallest obstacles derail us from our dreams, our emotions run wild, and we get so caught up in our own drama that we can miss out on the beauty of our lives. The simplest and most powerful way to fix this issue is to shift your focus from yourself to others by seeking to be of service. This doesn’t mean that you are a doormat but rather that you actively look for opportunities to serve others. In the office, do what you can to serve your boss, your clients, and your customers. At home, seek to serve your wife, your children, and your family. When you go into the gas station, think of how you can serve the attendant helping you find your favorite candy bar. Always look for ways to serve others and your life will transform at a pace you cannot imagine. 5. If You Want Something You Must Express It Something I’ve always found a bit frustrating about our society is how many people feel that they are entitled to things. People want raises without producing more value. They want respect without earning it. And, as it pertains to our conversation, they look for love without expressing it. How man women have you met who complain that they can’t find a “Nice Guy” while sleeping with a different ass hole at the club each week? How many men have you met who complain that they “Can’t find a good girl” and yet spend their weekend’s nose deep in cocaine and hookups? How many people have you met who are always looking for love but never willing to start by giving love themselves? If you want to experience something, then you must be the kind of person who is capable of manifesting and generating it in your own life. In the examples above, if you want a quality partner, you must first become a quality human being. If you want more money, you must first provide more value. If you want more love, you must first express and give love freely before you expect it to be returned to you. Stop searching for the things that you want and start expressing them. As soon as you make this shift, your life will change forever.

Ryan Stewman is a high-performance sales coach and trainer who went from spending two stints in federal prison to building a multiple seven figure income. He is the author of several best-selling books including Kick-Ass, Bulletproof Business, Elevator to the Top, and Hardcore Closer. You can learn more and connect with Ryan at hardcorecloser.com Favorite Success Quote “You must take action before you can take over.” Key Points 1. Knowledge is Only Power if You Take Action  You often hear the phrase “Knowledge is Power”. This simply isn’t true. In and of itself, knowledge is useless. Knowledge doesn’t do anything. It can’t add money to your bank account. It can’t make you ripped. It can’t help you find the woman of your dreams. It can’t do a damn thing. As the (in)famous entrepreneur and investor Derek Sivers said: If [more]information was the answer we’d all be billionaires with six packs. But we aren’t and it isn’t. Knowledge is only power if it’s applied. It’s only worth a damn if you use it. It only matters when you leverage your knowledge to take massively informed action towards achieving the life of your dreams. 2. Everything But Death is Temporary  Everything in life is temporary. Good and bad. All of the pains, frustrations, and heartaches will eventually end. All of the success that you are enjoying will one day grind to a halt. Everything in your life will end. And this is a beautiful thing. Because life is temporary and fleeting, like the cliche feather in the wind, everything falls into place. When you are struggling you know that your struggles are temporary. When you are at the top, you take the time to savor the moment because you know that it will end. Keep perspective on your life, the good and the bad, by always remembering that “This too shall pass”. 3. Your Past Doesn’t Matter  This year alone, Ryan’s company will generate more multi-millions of dollars in revenue. Which illustrates a very important lesson… Your past doesn’t fucking matter. Who you were yesterday has no bearing on who you are today and Ryan is living proof of this. At 19, Ryan was strung out on every drug that you can imagine and dealing full time to make ends meet. He was eventually busted by the feds and sent to federal prison for several years. When he was released, he dove into the world of sales and eventually, was making so much money in real estate that he was again targeted by the police who thought he was still selling drugs. They raided his house and found zero evidence of any drug possession, use, or trafficking. In order to save face, they arrested for felon possession of a firearm (which resided in a legal grey zone). He was sentenced to prison again except this time, his then-wife stole all of his assets and left him for the man with whom she’d been having an affair. Talk about a mess, right? Upon his second release, Ryan dove into the world of sales again taking special care to keep his nose clean and, in the last two years, has grown his sales coaching business from $0 to multimillions in revenue. If a convicted felon and former junky who lost everything can rise from the ashes and rebuild his life to the top then so can you. So cut the excuses and quit using your past as a crutch. You are capable of achieving anything that you desire. But you have to overcome your excuses and hustle. 4. It’s All Sales  In life and business, you must become a master of sales. I know that the word conjures up images of sleazy used car dealers and snake oil peddlers but let me assure you, everything that you do is sales. Want to meet the woman of your dreams and convince her to marry you? That’s sales. Want to get funding for your new startup? That’s sales. Want to convince your kids that it’s important to read personal growth books and regularly exercise? That’s sales. Want to get your boss to give you a raise or move forward with one of your ideas? You guess it! Sales. Everything that you do is sales or, to put it in less cringy terminology, influence. If you lack this skill then your quality of life and success will suffer. If you can master it then the world is your oyster. 5. Take Massive Action. Fast Although I’ve already mentioned the importance of taking massive action in this article, it’s a point worth repeating. Experience is the best teacher and there is no book or course that can serve as a shortcut for rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty. Your goal in business and life should be to acquire the MVIR or ‘minimum viable information required’ to take action on your next step. I’m not recommending that you simply take action without a plan or system to support you. I am saying that you should take action as soon as you have a concrete next step. You know what you need to do to improve your body, boost your income, or improve your love life. So go and do it. Once you’ve taken action, collect the MVIR for the next step and take action again. Information is important. But in a world where more than 2.5 million blog posts are published each day, information can also be a massive obstacle.

Mike Fitch is an innovative fitness educator focused on bodyweight training, skills-based practices, and multi-planar, fluid movement. As the president of Global Bodyweight Training, he has developed multiple programs (including Animal Flow) that celebrate movement. All of his work embraces the philosophy that anybody can excel at bodyweight training and advanced skills building with practice and proper progressions. With 18 years’ experience in the fitness industry, Mike has used and taught a range of styles from Olympic lifts and kettle bells to sports-specific and Speed-Agility-Quickness training. Favorite Success Quote “You must suffer through the structure in order to conquer the chaos” Key Points 1. You Have to Put in the Time No matter what you want to accomplish in life, you have to put in the time. Mastery takes time, it takes patience, and it takes an intentional practice that pushes your limits each day. You cannot expect to see world class results unless you are putting in world class time and effort. 2. When You Hit a Plateau Take a Step Back  So often, on our paths to mastery, we get stuck in a rut. Maybe, for you, your business has made the same amount for 6 months straight, your dating life has been mundane, or you have been doing the same workout for weeks without seeing any strength or muscle gains. When this happens… Just take a step back. While there are a number of things you can do to improve your practice to help break through plateaus, the first thing you need to realize is that there is no rush. You have the rest of your life ahead of you and there is no reason to get impatient with your goals. Take the plateaus as the come and keep moving forward. 3.  You Have to Learn to Move  We live such sedentary and immobile lifestyles that most of us have forgotten how to move. We are riddled with aches and pains, joint problems and inflamed discs and such a long laundry list of other health issues that we could write an entire encyclopedia. The solution to almost all of this, as counterintuitive as it may seem, is to start moving. Not just lifting weights or running, but reconnecting with your primal side and moving like an animal, down on the ground, with all of your joints firing. Whether this is through animal flow or yoga, getting back into your body and re-learning how to move will improve your overall health in ways that you could not imagine. 4. The Goal is to Develop a  Balanced Body  The purpose of all physical training, whether it is with weights or just your bodyweight, should be to develop a balanced athletic body. Who cares if you can deadlift 600 lbs. if you cannot touch your toes? Who cares how flexible you are if you cannot move weight around without snapping like a stick? You have to build a balanced physique that will allow you to take full advantage of this wonderful gift called life. 5. Take Your Rest as Seriously as You Take Your Training If you really want to succeed with your training, start taking your rest as seriously as you take your time in the gym. Get on a sleep schedule, cut out the electronics, don’t eat more than three hours before bed, turn the temperature down, and black out your room. The better your sleep is, the better you will perform in the gym and in life.

David de las Morenas is a Boston-based personal trainer, strength coach, bestselling author, and the founder of www.HowToBeast.com – a popular fitness and self-improvement website for men. Favorite Success Quote “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength.” ~Marcus Aurelius Key Points 1. Don’t Let Growth become a Drug Whenever we embark on our personal growth journies, it is easy to allow growth to become a drug. It is easy to get addicted to the surges of growth without ever stopping to appreciate them or stopping to realize that they are becoming a crutch. While constant and never ending growth is a wonderful thing, it can also become how we deal with issues in our lives. Struggling at work? Just go to the gym! Relationships suck? Just build your business and ignore it. Growth is good, just make sure that you focus on making small changes overtime and don’t allow it to consume you. 2. Presence Destroys Anxiety If you are suffering from anxiety, you are really suffering from lack of presence. Take a few deep breaths, pause, reflect, smile, you will be amazed at how much a little active meditation can change the way you feel about things. 3. Balance is Key Life is a juggling act, and you have to learn to balance things out to succeed. It doesn’t matter if you have millions if your health is in the shitter. It doesn’t matter if you are shredded as hell if you can’t get and keep a girlfriend, and it really doesn’t matter if you are sleeping with beautiful women if you have no money and no future outside of meaningless one night stands. You need to learn to balance all areas of your life, starting with health and relationships. If you can master those two, the money will eventually come, and it’s a lot easier to be broke whenever you have good health and great people around you to help, then it is to be rich and have poor health and bad friends. 4. Share Your Struggles You must learn to share the struggles you are facing. You have to confide in people that you trust who can asses things honestly for you, help you when you fall down, and admit that they have probably faced the same thing. Burderns are easier to carry when they are shared, and learning to speak honestly with people you trust will take a huge weight off of your shoulders. 5. The Key to Success is Self-reliance No matter what you are doing in life, you have to cultivate self realiance. If you cannot be happy with yourself whenever you have nothing, you will not be fulfilled when you have everything. Learn to love being you, to pursue things yourself, and not to base your validation off of the number of 0’s in your bank account or the girlfriend you have, or the business you are runing. All those things can be taken away from you, but short of a terrible disease, your identity cannot. Influential Books 1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 2. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer 3. Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant Connect with David De Las Morenas http://www.howtobeast.com/ Next Steps We’re on a mission to impact a million men with powerful life changing content. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends on your preferred social network on the left. I spent a ridiculous amount of time creating this article for you and with your support, we can impact the world together. Want to become the strongest version of yourself? Then click here to get a free trial to my elite community of 800+ high-performing men, The Secrets of the Top 1% of Men. Not only will you get tapped into your own “band of brothers”, but you’ll also have access to some of my best content and training as well as bi-weekly group calls with my team of coaches. If you’re ready to push the boundaries of what’s possible in your life and become the man you’ve always wanted to be. This is the fastest way to do it.

Ryan Stewman is a high-performance sales coach and trainer who went from spending two stints in federal prison to building a multiple seven figure income. He is the author of several best-selling books including Kick-Ass, Bulletproof Business, Elevator to the Top, and Hardcore Closer. You can learn more and connect with Ryan at hardcorecloser.com Favorite Success Quote “You must take action before you can take over.” Key Points 1. Knowledge is Only Power if You Take Action  You often hear the phrase “Knowledge is Power”. This simply isn’t true. In and of itself, knowledge is useless. Knowledge doesn’t do anything. It can’t add money to your bank account. It can’t make you ripped. It can’t help you find the woman of your dreams. It can’t do a damn thing. As the (in)famous entrepreneur and investor Derek Sivers said: If [more]information was the answer we’d all be billionaires with six packs. But we aren’t and it isn’t. Knowledge is only power if it’s applied. It’s only worth a damn if you use it. It only matters when you leverage your knowledge to take massively informed action towards achieving the life of your dreams. 2. Everything But Death is Temporary  Everything in life is temporary. Good and bad. All of the pains, frustrations, and heartaches will eventually end. All of the success that you are enjoying will one day grind to a halt. Everything in your life will end. And this is a beautiful thing. Because life is temporary and fleeting, like the cliche feather in the wind, everything falls into place. When you are struggling you know that your struggles are temporary. When you are at the top, you take the time to savor the moment because you know that it will end. Keep perspective on your life, the good and the bad, by always remembering that “This too shall pass”. 3. Your Past Doesn’t Matter  This year alone, Ryan’s company will generate more multi-millions of dollars in revenue. Which illustrates a very important lesson… Your past doesn’t fucking matter. Who you were yesterday has no bearing on who you are today and Ryan is living proof of this. At 19, Ryan was strung out on every drug that you can imagine and dealing full time to make ends meet. He was eventually busted by the feds and sent to federal prison for several years. When he was released, he dove into the world of sales and eventually, was making so much money in real estate that he was again targeted by the police who thought he was still selling drugs. They raided his house and found zero evidence of any drug possession, use, or trafficking. In order to save face, they arrested for felon possession of a firearm (which resided in a legal grey zone). He was sentenced to prison again except this time, his then-wife stole all of his assets and left him for the man with whom she’d been having an affair. Talk about a mess, right? Upon his second release, Ryan dove into the world of sales again taking special care to keep his nose clean and, in the last two years, has grown his sales coaching business from $0 to multimillions in revenue. If a convicted felon and former junky who lost everything can rise from the ashes and rebuild his life to the top then so can you. So cut the excuses and quit using your past as a crutch. You are capable of achieving anything that you desire. But you have to overcome your excuses and hustle. 4. It’s All Sales  In life and business, you must become a master of sales. I know that the word conjures up images of sleazy used car dealers and snake oil peddlers but let me assure you, everything that you do is sales. Want to meet the woman of your dreams and convince her to marry you? That’s sales. Want to get funding for your new startup? That’s sales. Want to convince your kids that it’s important to read personal growth books and regularly exercise? That’s sales. Want to get your boss to give you a raise or move forward with one of your ideas? You guess it! Sales. Everything that you do is sales or, to put it in less cringy terminology, influence. If you lack this skill then your quality of life and success will suffer. If you can master it then the world is your oyster. 5. Take Massive Action. Fast Although I’ve already mentioned the importance of taking massive action in this article, it’s a point worth repeating. Experience is the best teacher and there is no book or course that can serve as a shortcut for rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty. Your goal in business and life should be to acquire the MVIR or ‘minimum viable information required’ to take action on your next step. I’m not recommending that you simply take action without a plan or system to support you. I am saying that you should take action as soon as you have a concrete next step. You know what you need to do to improve your body, boost your income, or improve your love life. So go and do it. Once you’ve taken action, collect the MVIR for the next step and take action again. Information is important. But in a world where more than 2.5 million blog posts are published each day, information can also be a massive obstacle.

Gary John Bishop is one of the leading Personal Development experts in the industry with a global reputation that has impacted tens of thousands of people worldwide. He is the author of Unf*ck Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life.  His “urban philosophy” approach represents a new wave of personal empowerment and life mastery that has caused miraculous results for people in the quality and performance of their lives. He calls it like it is while being influenced by ontology, phenomenology and the philosophy of some of the world’s greatest thinkers to help you be inspired, unburdened and grounded. Favorite Success Quote “You have the life you are willing to put up with.” Key Points 1. You Are Responsible for Being F*cked  Whenever you (or someone that you know) is confronted with the cold reality that they are utterly and completely f*cked, the initial reaction is almost always one of blame. “My parents were terrible! You don’t understand.” “Yeah, well I grew up poor so this is just how it has to be” “You don’t know what it’s like to be an [insert minority group of choice]!” Although every statement above could be true, it doesn’t change the facts. You are 100% responsible for your life. Why would you let anyone else control even a fraction of 1% of your life? Do you really want to leave your future, your potential, and your one life to the whims of other people? If not, then you must accept full responsibility for your life and move one. 2. Authenticity is Inherently About You Whenever people hear the phrase “Just be authentic”, they often assume that they now have free reign to say and react to others in any way that they choose. This is not authenticity, it’s called being an ass hole. Authenticity in your interactions is about expressing your truth and owning that truth. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Let’s say that a client of yours responded to an error in a manner that was completely inappropriate and unacceptable on both a personal and professional level. You are feeling frustrated, hurt, and angry by their actions and feel compelled to bring them up. There are two ways of going about this. The first way, (which most people choose) is to make the interaction about them. “How dare you treat me that way! You are such an ass hole and you clearly don’t value our working relationship! You can take this project and shove it because I can’t stand this crap anymore.” Although the statement might be true, it’s not productive because it’s focused on the other person instead of you. A more authentic way to approach the conversation would be to say: “Look, what you did yesterday made me feel very hurt and undervalued. I don’t know whether you understand how your actions affected our professional relationship, but I wanted to let you know that I will no longer be able to continue working with you if we have another incident like that.” When you shift the focus from the other person and onto yourself, you step into your power and own your responsibility for your feelings and your response to those feelings. 3. Someone Somewhere Has Dealt with What You Are Dealing With  It’s funny how often I hear the words “No one knows what I’m going through”. It doesn’t really matter what the topic is about. It could be an abusive childhood, a controlling partner, a crappy boss, bad health, or any wide variety of ailments and general shittiness. But the simple fact of the matter is that someone somewhere has experienced the exact same thing that you are struggling with and they have turned this perceived weakness into their greatest strength. Sean Stephenson was born with a genetic deformity that stunted his growth, permanently confined him to a wheelchair, and weakened him so much that he’s broken every bone in his body. Yet he’s an inspiration to millions. Tony Robbins was abused as a child and kicked out of his house, left to live on the streets at 16. Today, he is worth more than $1 billion and coaches some of the world’s top performers to the top. Grant Cardone lost his father at the age of 9, became addicted to drugs at 16, and was in line for unemployment at 26. Today, his real estate empire has helped him amass a fortune of more than $750 million with a beautiful wife and two children. Whatever excuse you are allowing to hold you back… It’s bullshit. Someone somewhere has gone through the same things as you and worse. It’s up to you to choose a more empowering story, follow their example, and reclaim control of your life. 4. Always Seek to be of Service When we are focused on ourselves, life can quickly become a pit of chaos and confusion. The smallest obstacles derail us from our dreams, our emotions run wild, and we get so caught up in our own drama that we can miss out on the beauty of our lives. The simplest and most powerful way to fix this issue is to shift your focus from yourself to others by seeking to be of service. This doesn’t mean that you are a doormat but rather that you actively look for opportunities to serve others. In the office, do what you can to serve your boss, your clients, and your customers. At home, seek to serve your wife, your children, and your family. When you go into the gas station, think of how you can serve the attendant helping you find your favorite candy bar. Always look for ways to serve others and your life will transform at a pace you cannot imagine. 5. If You Want Something You Must Express It Something I’ve always found a bit frustrating about our society is how many people feel that they are entitled to things. People want raises without producing more value. They want respect without earning it. And, as it pertains to our conversation, they look for love without expressing it. How man women have you met who complain that they can’t find a “Nice Guy” while sleeping with a different ass hole at the club each week? How many men have you met who complain that they “Can’t find a good girl” and yet spend their weekend’s nose deep in cocaine and hookups? How many people have you met who are always looking for love but never willing to start by giving love themselves? If you want to experience something, then you must be the kind of person who is capable of manifesting and generating it in your own life. In the examples above, if you want a quality partner, you must first become a quality human being. If you want more money, you must first provide more value. If you want more love, you must first express and give love freely before you expect it to be returned to you. Stop searching for the things that you want and start expressing them. As soon as you make this shift, your life will change forever. Influential Books 1. Man’s Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor Frankl 2. Being and Time by  Martin Heidegger 3. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.   Next Steps We’re on a mission to impact a million men with powerful life changing content. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends on your preferred social network on the left. I spent a ridiculous amount of time creating this article for you and with your support, we can impact the world together. Want to become the strongest version of yourself? Then click here to get a free trial to my elite community of 800+ high-performing men, The Secrets of the Top 1% of Men. Not only will you get tapped into your own “band of brothers”, but you’ll also have access to some of my best content and training as well as bi-weekly group calls with my team of coaches. If you’re ready to push the boundaries of what’s possible in your life and become the man you’ve always wanted to be. This is the fastest way to do it.

Kenneth Shamrock (born Kenneth Wayne Kilpatrick; February 11, 1964) is an American mixed martial artist, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer, and retired professional wrestler. He emerged as one of the biggest stars in the history of mixed martial arts, headlining over 15 main events and co-main events in the UFC and Pride Fighting Championships during the course of his career and set numerous pay-per-view records. Shamrock is widely considered to be a legendary figure and icon in the sport of mixed martial arts. Shamrock was named The World’s Most Dangerous Man by ABC News in a special entitled “The World’s Most Dangerous Things” in the early part of his UFC career, a moniker which has stuck as his nickname. Favorite Success Quote “You have no idea what I’m willing to do to get where I’m going.” Key Points 1. Be Willing to Do Whatever it Takes If you want to truly succeed in the most competitive environments then you must cultivate a “Whatever it Takes” mentality. This doesn’t mean that you are willing to engage in unethical or immoral activities, simply that you are willing to sacrifice, to hustle, and to grind your way through any challenge and any adversity. For those of you who are content to be in second place (and there’s nothing wrong with that), doing whatever it takes isn’t truly necessary. You can skate by, cut corners, take shortcuts, and still arrive at your destination. But if you want to be the best, the top 1%, a leader, mover, and shaker in your industry, then you must show up early, stay late, and outwork all of your competition. The price of admission is high, but the rewards are worth it. 2. You Have to Choose Yourself In business and in life, most people wait to be called on. Like a child being called on by the teacher instead of raising their hand, most people wait until life presents them with an opportunity or opens a door. If you want to play the game of life in the top echelon of society, then you need to find opportunities and kick the doors down yourself. Or as previous podcast guest James Altucher puts it, you must Choose Yourself. No one is going to give you the freedom, the career, or the lifestyle that you desire. If you are a man, then do what needs to be done and take it for yourself. Take massive action, take huge initiative and do the work. Because if you don’t… Someone else will. 3. If You Don’t Seize the Moment Someone Else Will Life is competition. Anyone who has even the most basic understanding of our species’ history and the story of evolution knows this. Although we live in a world filled with abundance and a plethora of resources, we also live in a world filled with fierce competition. And the most dangerous thing that you can do in your life, relationship, or career is to hesitate and allow someone else to seize your moment. Think about how many times you saw that pretty girl, had that business idea or wanted to make that change but you didn’t. You hesitated, you waited, and you procrastinated. But someone else didn’t. Someone else went up and introduced himself, someone else set up their LLC and took action on their idea, someone else made the change, reaped the rewards and enjoyed the spoils of their labor… But you didn’t. In each of our lives, we are presented with a small handful of pivotal moments where we must decide whether we will take action or not. It is in these moments that your destiny is shaped. Don’t allow someone else to shape it for you. Take action, seize the moment, and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. 4. Find Your “Person”  If you continue down your current trajectory of personal and professional development, sometime in the future, you will arrive at a place in your life where you are surrounded by “Yes Men.” Your success and reputation will be so great that the people in your social circle will rarely tell you the truth and will, instead, try to tell you what they think you want to hear. This is one of the most dangerous places any man can be. You must find someone, whether a friend, relative, or coach who will tell you the truth all the time with compassion. You need someone in your life who will tell you when you are messing up, when you are on the right track, and when you need to shut up and get things done. Find your “Person” who will always be honest with you and you will find that your life will be a lot smoother and easier than it will when you operate on the opinions of impressed “friends”. 5. Slow Down and Be Patient  Life is a marathon, not a sprint. It seems like our instant gratification society has lost touch with the realities of life and, the simple truth is that life is meant to be lived and experienced. Don’t be so eager to achieve great things that you forget to live your life and enjoy the journey. Be patient and allow success to happen in its own time and its own way.

Dennis Meyers was a normal everyday man until he suffered from a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. After years of struggling to find joy and fulfillment in his new life, he discovered a way to make peace with his accident and has written about it in his book “You Have not a Leg to Stand On”. Favorite Success Quote “You’ve just got to go on” Key Points 1. You Have Just got to Go On Life will knock you down, it will throw punches that put you on your knees, it will shatter you and batter you and try and keep you on the ground, but you have just got to go on. Everyone will suffer in life, especially if you ever intend to do something great with yourself, the key is not if you suffer, but how you suffer. You must accept the hardships and move on with your life, grin and bear it, be willing to laugh in the face of pain. There is little else that you can do, and allowing life to knock you down is a surefire recipe, not just for failure in business, but failure in life. 2. Learn to Take Life as it Is Just as life will knock you down and you must learn to keep moving, so will life present you with situations and circumstances that aren’t ideal. While many people will moan and gripe about how unfair life is, the wiser man realizes that if there is nothing he can do to change the situation, he must simply take life as it is. Make peace with the pain, because sometimes it’s all you can do. 3. Put Yourself Second  While life may be difficult at times, and may present massive challenges to many people, life is much more challenging if you are operating from a selfish perspective. You have to be willing to put yourself second, to live for something bigger than just you, to truly live a life of service, if you want to find peace in this life. Serving others is the quickest way to remind yourself of all that you have to be grateful for and all the amazing blessings you have in your life.

Known as”The CEO Whisperer”, Cameron Herold is an entrepreneur, highly paid speaker, author, and business coach. He was responsible for taking the company 1-800 Got Junk from $2 million in annual revenue to over $106 million in annual revenue in only 6 years. He works with and coaches some of the most prolific individuals on the planet including multi-millionaires, politicians, monarchs, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Favorite Success Quote “You’ll never be smart enough to figure this out on your own. Your R&D should stand for be rip off and duplicate. millions of companies have already spent millions of dollars figuring out virtually every problem and every opportunity you will ever encounter. Just do what they’re doing. Instead of trying to sit down and figure it out for yourself, you already have the cheat sheets, just go ahead and use them” Key Points 1. Always be learning always be growing  If you want to have an exceptional life, not a good life, but an exceptional life, then you must commit to constant and never ending growth. Cameron recently attended an event in Las Vegas with dozens of other high profile entrepreneurs including Cole Hatter, Grant Cardone, and Tai Lopez, and he noticed that every single one of the speakers was actively listening and taking notes while the other individuals were on stage. Many of these people already had 7, 8, and even 9-figure businesses. However, despite their success, they were still attentive and engaged in the event, constantly seeking to learn something new. And if you want to create the best life possible for yourself and your family, then you must have the same voracious appetite for knowledge. Never ignore an opportunity to learn and improve yourself, never assume that you already know something, and never take the wisdom of other’s for granted. 2. If you can control your time you control your world  Many people think that entrepreneurs only care about money. And sometimes, this is true. However, most people who delve into the world of entrepreneurship do so because they understand one important thing. When you control your time, you control your world. When you are at the beck and call of your manager, supervisor, or boss, you will never truly have control of your time. When you are dependent on active income for your livelihood, you will never truly control your time. When you give control of your financial destiny to others, you will never have control of your time. Entrepreneurship allows you to change all of that. Sure, entrepreneurship can be even more stressful than working for a business because everything depends on you. But because everything depends on you, you have absolute control of your schedule and your life. You are able to say “No” more, work on your own time, take days off when you want, and live a life that most people dream of. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. If you can find a way to create a lifestyle in which you control your schedule (even if you technically work for someone else) then you have achieved one of the ultimate successes in life. 3. Being “Messed Up” Can Be Your Biggest Asset  Most entrepreneurs are ADHD, bipolar, and suffer from some form of Tourrettes. And guess what? They often succeed because of these so called “disabilities”, not in spite of them. Having severe ADHD allows you to juggle countless projects simultaneously, engage in moments of hyper focus, and constantly be bouncing from idea to idea. Having a manic-depressive personality is what allows you to persuade people to join your team and work for you even when things aren’t going as well as you had hoped. Tourettes, a.k.a. thinking out loud is a hallmark of some of the greatest geniuses and businessmen in all of history. The point is, being “messed up” or “disabled” isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, if you know how to leverage them, your disabilities can often become your biggest strengths. 4. Good Enough = Success  So many of you reading this are being held back by your own perfectionism. You are so focused on making everything that you do perfect, that you never embrace “Good Enough” and actually get it done. Being good creates momentum. Being perfect keeps you stagnant. Think about Apple. Techniologically, they are one of the most inferior companies on the market. But because their product is good enough and they have an incredible marketing team and millions of raving fans, they are one of the most successful tech companies in the world. Think about McDonald’s. Their product is inferior to just about any other burger on the planet and it’s actually been linked to serious health problems. b But because it’s “good enough” and backed by incredible marketing and culture, they continue to succeed as one of the highest grossing fast food chains in the world. If you want to be great, focus first on being good. Once you have achieved “good”, market the hell out of it, rinse and repeat. 5. Understand that Your Network is Your Networth  Nothing will accelerate your results and happiness or keep you mired in mediocrity as much as your net work. If you are surrounding yourself with grade A+ players who keep you on track and inspire you to do great things, you will find yourself breaking through to new heights and achieving goals that you never thought possible. If the company that you keep regularly engages in low caliber behavior and holds low caliber attitudes and mindsets, you will quickly find yourself sinking further and further into a pit of failure. Possible the most important thing that you can do on your quest for the good life is to be intentional about who you allow in your circle. You are the average of the five people you spend your time with most. Ask yourself, “Who are my five people and do I want to be anything like them?”

Govindh Jayaraman is an entrepreneur, successful businessman, and the author of the Paper Napkin Wisdom, leading to many individuals calling him the Napoleon Hill of our time. Favorite Success Quote “You can’t connect the dots looking forward. you can only connect them looking back, so you just have to trust that somehow the dot will connect in the future”~Steve Jobs Key Points 1. The Five Guidelines  1. To Do Amazing Things You Have to Have Laser Focus and Discipline What Govindh discovered after interviewing hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, is that one of their greatest assets is that they were highly focused and disciplined. They weren’t off multitasking and trying to accomplish a million things at once or trying to watch TV while they wrote their product’s copy, they were focused solely on the task at hand and disciplined in working until it was accomplished. 2. There is no Such Thing as Priorities just a Priority  The second of the five guidelines that Govindh discovered is that highly successful individuals, always had one priority. They didn’t use pareto’s 80/20 principle, they used the 99/1 principle. They found the one thing that was the most vital to their business and worked tirelessly until it was accomplished it, and then they moved on. 3. When you Change the Way you Look at the World the World you Look at Changes  The third discovery Govindh made is that all successful people invested heavily in changing their mindset and the way they looked at the world until they saw a world that was full of abundance and opportunity instead of a world full of challenge or a world that was too difficult to succeed within. 4. Simplify The fourth principle Govindh discovered is that all great businesses understand the importance of simplicity. They do not needlessly complicate their operations or their mission. While there may be aspects of the business that are complicated, the overall mission was simple and straightforward, normally to solve a certain problem in the most efficient way possible. 5. The Pen is Mightier than the Sword but Accountability is Mightier than All  The final principle that Govindh discovered is that all great achievers had a high level of accountability with other high achievers. They volunteered themselves to stay accountable to people whom they respected and didn’t want to disappoint. By doing this they almost guaranteed that their levels of success would be multiplied instantaneously. 2. You Have to Design Your Path  After you have mastered the 5 principles, it is time to design your path, to gain absolute clarity on who you are and where you want your life to end up. You have to create a road map that you can come back to when you think you are getting lost or when you feel your momentum slipping. Having absolute clarity on where you are headed will allow you to take control of your life in a way few other things will. 3. Create a Playbook Once you have your vision designed, it is time to create your playbook, or your how for accomplishment. What do you need to do, who do you need to connect with, what steps must be taken to achieve your goals? Develop a very intentional action plan that will allow you to understand exactly how to get from where you are to where you want to be. 4. Get Your Key Players Once you have your principles mastered, clarity on your vision, and an action plan, it is time to surround yourself with other high achievers who can help you to achieve your goals with ease. Find people that you respect who are on a higher level than you that will benefit you as a man and your business. While it may be difficult to find and attract these people, by being on purpose and on fire for your passion these individuals will start coming into your life naturally. 5. Be the Heart of the Team The final step to ultimate success is to become the heart of the team, be on fire, be passionate about what you are doing and understand that once you make a definite decision to do anything, your one “yes” will be accompanied by a thousand “nos” If you decide to get healthy, you will have to say no to junk food, laziness, lack luster sleep, cigarettes, and excessive alcohol. If you decide to get rich you will have to say no to procrastination, lack of productivity, and bad work habits. You have to lead others and be the heart of the team, and this starts by learning to say no.

Gordon Miller has devoted more than 30 years to the pursuit of excellence in design and innovation. An accomplished designer and engineer in his own right, Mr. Miller first focused his attention on K-12 and higher education solutions and then corporate websites, decision support systems and now mobile applications and data aggregation. As CEO of G3 Systems, Inc. since 1993, Mr. Miller has developed a rapidly expanding base of mission critical government projects including efforts for the US Dept. of Defense, US Navy, US Army, US Dept. of Education, US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, US Dept. of State and US Dept. of Homeland Security. As CEO of G3i Ventures, LLC, Mr. Miller has co-founded, launched or funded a total of 8 companies. Favorite Success Quote “You are the average of the five people that you surround yourself with most” ~Jim Rohn Key Points 1. Your Network Determines Your Networth  Do you want to know how to really “get rich quick”? Do you want to know the fastest way to achieve massive amounts of wealth and success? It’s actually pretty simple… Level up your network. That’s it. The quickest way to exponentially increase your results in your life, your bank account, and your body is to hang around people who already have what you want and more.  When you are constantly spending time around low caliber individuals who are worried about making rent, have fixed mindsets, and who let you rest on your laurels, you will eventually become complacent and begin to stagnate and die. There’s no way around it. But if you are around people who are playing the game of life at a higher level than you are, if you are around people who are true hustlers and game changers, they will start to rub off on you. You will begin to see the world through the lens of the player instead of the spectator. So I want you to commit right now, that no matter what happens this year, you will find a group of men who are playing the game of life at a higher level than you are and get around them. Your success depends on it. 2. Fall in Love with the Process One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they are outcome oriented, not process oriented. In this moment, you might think that you will find satisfaction by purchasing that big house, the yacht, or the car. But what happens after you are done? What happens when the transaction concludes and you have you “dream”? You are left to your own devices once again and asked to find fulfillment and joy in yet another set of goals and outcomes. You are constantly chasing something that you can never catch, because there is always another goal to achieve, another benchmark to hit, and another level to break through. But what if I told you that you could achieve all of the joy, happiness, and fulfillment that you desire right now in this very moment? Well, you can. All you must do is learn to love the process. Learn to love the hustle and the grind as you work towards your dreams. There is no tomorrow, the only time that you have is right now… So make damn sure that you are enjoying it. 3. Live Below Your Means and Put Money Away  One of the biggest mistakes made by most people in their 20’s is spending money like they will live forever. Statistically speaking, if you are under 30 reading this right now, you will likely live well past 90 years old. Do you really want to be working your ass off and hustling like a college graduate at that age? If the answer is “No” then you need to start saving and investing money, immediately.  Do whatever you need to do to set aside at least $500 a month every single month and invest it into a money market account or low-risk index fund. If you can do this, then you will be a millionaire by the time you are 60. Period. 4. Get Out There and Do It In our age of social media and hyper-connection, everyone loves to talk. They love to talk about entrepreneurship, about how they are going to start a business, about how they are going to quit their job, or how they are going to make it big. Here’s a revolutionary idea… Stop talking about it. Get out there and do it! The world belongs to those who do.  So stop running your mouth and start moving your feet. As Nike says… Just DO IT! 5. Own Your Mistakes and MOVE ON You are going to make mistakes. That is simply part of the human experience. You aren’t perfect and you shouldn’t expect to be. Mistakes are not only normal they are necessary. So learn from your mistakes and move on. Don’t dwell in the past, wishing that you could have done it differently. Decide to do it differently today. You only have the present moment, don’t waste it wishing that things could be different. They aren’t. What is done is done. All that you can do is learn from it and move on.

Nicolas Cole is a former pro World of Warcraft player turned entrepreneur. He is writer and essayist, and a Top Writer on Quora. His work has been published in Time, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., The Huffington Post, Business Insider, and more. He is best known for writing true stories about self-development. He recently authored the book, Confessions of a Teenage Gamer.  Favorite Success Quote “You can’t steer a stationary ship” Key Points 1. There Are Always Lessons to Be Learned  Few people consider video games to be a vehicle for learning powerful life and business lessons. However, according to Nicolas, the exact same skills and strategies that made him a phenomenal World of Warcraft player were the exact same skills that translated into professional body building, entrepreneurship, and writing. And while I am not suggesting that you go and become a professional gamer to build up your resume for the business world, you need to realize that there are life lessons to be learned in almost any endeavor. Because the rules of success are universal. The same laws that governed your success in the gym will govern your success in business. The same laws that governed your success in business will govern your success with women. Understand that there are always lessons to be learned and look for ways that you can apply seemingly disparate concepts and ideas from one area of life to achieve success in another. 2. Feel Don’t Think If you ever watched Star Wars growing up, then you probably remember Obi Wan’s famous line to Anakin in Attack of the Clones “Feel. Don’t think.. Use your instinct.” And while I am not training you to bring balance to the force or defeat the dark side, this same truth is applicable in our everyday, non-Jedi lives. People, especially men, think too much. We allow logic and egoic reasoning to dictate what we want (or what we say we want) and what goals we pursue. But if you want to be truly happy. If you want more joy and fulfillment in your life, and you want to live for your true purpose, then you need to feel your way through life. When you trust your instincts instead of your head, you will be in greater alignment with your true purpose and your actual desires. So drop the logic and just feel. What do you really want? Who do you really want to become? And most importantly… Why? 3. Learn to Gamify Your Life If you want to quickly achieve success in life and business, then stop taking it so damn seriously. Relax and gamify your experience. See your different goals and dreams as quests. And in order to achieve those quests, you need to “level up” by practicing different skills and breaking through different milestones. When you begin to view your life and goals as a game, they start to become less of a chore, and more of an adventure. How can you begin to gamify your life more, starting today? 4. You’ve Got to Start the Quest  Once you have created a “quest” that you are going to pursue… You have to get started. You cannot hope to achieve success without taking action and actually taking the first step towards your dreams. I don’t care what this step is. It can be buying a new domain name, writing your first blog article, or launching your podcast. Just do something. Just get started. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step ~Lao Tzu 5. Learn to Hustle  If you want to achieve success, then you’ve gotta hustle. This applies to professional gaming, entrepreneurship, bodybuilding, and success with women. You can have whatever you want, but you have to work for it. You have to get off your butt, show up, and do the work. If you are willing to do this day in and day out over the years, you will succeed. It will not be all at once, but over time, as Charlie Munger said, “If you live long enough, most people will get what they deserve.”

Jolie Dawn is an author, speaker, and wild visionary. Through her own journey of spirituality and self-discovery, along with thousands of hours of training, Jolie has discovered her innate ability to set people free from the confines of limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging habits, so they can create a life and business that truly thrives. Jolie has fearlessly built her own platform to share her message through her popular Inner Goddess Unleashed Summit and also her retreats, online programs, and one-on-one programs. She has attained smashing success in guiding women through her signature process to help them remember their limitless potential so they can start taking immediate action on their dreams. Favorite Success Quote “You win just by playing” Key Points 1. Location is Important One of the most important factors in your success is your location, both physical and social. If you are living in a small town that is filled with fast food “restaurants”, bars, and walmarts, it is going to be much more difficult to stay healthy and fit and find a like minded community than if you are living in at the beach with yoga studios and juice bars on every corners. If you are living in a retirement community full of baby boomers, you will find it difficult to find young entrepreneurs to share ideas with and create incredible businesses with. However, if you are living in a large, vibrant city, full of startups and entrepreneurs, you will find success comes much more easily. If you set yourself up to live in a location that is conducive to your goals and you surround yourself with loving and supportive people who will push you and force you to grow, nothing can stop you! 2. Play the Host Whenever you are struggling to find like minded individuals, or to find groups that you feel you fit into and want to be a part of; play the host. Invite as many people as you can to something you have put together and executed, especially individuals you respect and admire. Start taking the initiative and creating and leading events locally to get those people together, not only will you meet great new people, but those people will respect you more because they will see you as the leader and creator of a group that they regularly enjoy attending. 3. Embrace Your Purpose More than Your Relationships Your purpose ALWAYS comes before your relationships. You were put on this earth to do amazing things, to create world changing movements, to help take people’s lives in a radically different direction. Your relationships are just a small part of that, they are not the whole. No matter how amazing you think a woman is, she does not come before your purpose, and if she is a woman of character who loves and respects you as a man, she will never want to. 4. Take Care of and Follow Your Body Your body is the key to everything. Take care of it and respect it, and you will live a full and joyful life. Disrespect it and treat it like a trash heap instead of a temple (or playground depending on your adventure levels) and you will feel the pain of your choices. Fill your body with good food, good exercise, and good sleep and stay in tune with it through practices like yoga and meditation, and it will serve you throughout your life. Take care of your body, it’s the only one you’ve got.

Ryan Stewman is a high-performance sales coach and trainer who went from spending two stints in federal prison to building a multiple seven figure income. He is the author of several best-selling books including Kick-Ass, Bulletproof Business, Elevator to the Top, and Hardcore Closer.  Favorite Success Quote “You gotta take action before you can take over” Key Points 1. Action not Knowledge Leads to Success If you have been involved in the personal development world for any appreciable amount of time, then you have inevitably come across the people, shall we call them “Pathological learners” who are voracious consumers of knowledge. They know all of the latest market trends, are well-versed in the high-performance practices of characters like Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield, and can tell you how to start and grow a business from inception to 7-figures. And yet, when you look at the results in their lives, what do you find? Nothing, nada, zilch. They live in a 400 square foot apartment, are overweight, and in a relationship that looks like something out of a bad soap opera. Yet they know all this information! The problem is that they do not apply it. You have to realize that knowledge without action is useless. Only applied knowledge is power, and if you have spent years devoting your time and energy to learning without taking the proper proportion of action, then it is time to get off your ass, leave the theory on your nightstand, and get in the game. 2.Suffering is a Temporary But Essential Part of Life When was the last time you experienced suffering? I mean true suffering. Not the “My dog is sick” or “The 49ers lost their last game”, but real, visceral suffering, the kind that keeps you up at night, deprives you of joy, and makes you question your purpose on this planet. Perhaps you lost a family member or a friend, underwent a nasty divorce, lost your home, job, and family in bankruptcy, or even suffered from a life-changing disease or injury. Whatever that suffering was (or is) you need to internalize one of life's great truths, spoken over a century ago by Abraham Lincoln. “This too shall pass” No suffer, no matter how devastating and debilitating it may feel, is permanent. And what is more? It is necessary to build you into the man that you need to become. I am not telling you that your pain will be easy to bear, but I am telling you that it will be worth it. 3. Ignore the Haters and Embrace the True Players One of the greatest tragedies of the modern world is that men with unlimited potential and unimaginable abilities allow themselves to be smothered by the advice and criticisms of unambitious, underachieving, and jealous peers. Every time you go to the office look at the men to your left and to your right. What do you see? Do you see men embracing their true potential, taking control of their lives, and creating an incredible future full of freedom and joy? Or do you see men who have allowed the doubts and misgivings of society, family, and friends to hold them back from their dreams and desires? On your path to success, you will be faced with many, many, many haters, doubters, and naysayers. They will tell you it cannot or should not be done only out of their own insecurities and fears. But if you want to unleash the giant inside of you and reach your full potential, you must ignore these people, whether they are bosses, life-long friends, or even family members. Only take advice from those who are achieving what you want to achieve, and ignore the rest. End of discussion. 4. Education not Schooling is What Separates the Winners from the Losers There is a fallacious belief circulating the modern world that tells all young men the only path to success is through higher education. And while college can be a great choice for some people, it is not the ultimate road to massive achievement. I want you to think back to your highschool and college years. If your experience was anything like mine, then at some point, you inevitably came across two different types of guys: The learner and the hustler. The learner was someone you would describe as the stereotypical nerd. He was smart, worked hard in classes, and did everything right. He made good marks, graduated with honors, and probably had several high level job offers waiting for him upon graduation. The hustler however, is a different breed. This was the man who spent his days building something that he believed in, working towards his dream, and focusing more on his practical education than his education. Sure, he still applied himself to his schooling, but, as Mark Twain said he “Never let his schooling get in the way of his education.” Which of these two men do you think ultimately achieved more? Who became more successful? Who was able to create something that would last and create freedom for themselves and their families? Hint, it's not the guy with all A's. 5. Your Past Does Not Determine Your Future Imagine, if you will, a man who spent his whole life as a criminal, stealing, lying, and terrorizing his way to “success.” After being arrested for one of his many crimes and spending nearly half a decade of his life behind bars, he is released back into the world and left with a choice. He can either allow past decisions, events, and circumstances to determine his future, or he can lift a middle finger to mistakes and decide to create a different life for himself, to rebuild himself, and create a new identity as a man of honor, integrity, and love. Most people don't believe that you can ever overcome your past. And quite frankly, most people are full of shit. Every single day, you are faced with the same decision as the man above, you can either bend a knee and supplicate yourself to the flaws and mistakes of your past self, or you can start anew and recreate yourself into the kind of man you would be proud to be. Which decision will you make?

Charlie Brenneman is a former UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) competitor in the lightweight division with an overall fight record of 19 wins and 8 losses. After leaving the UFC two years ago, Charlie has devoted himself to helping other people achieve the success that they desire and deserve through professional coaching, speaking, and entrepreneurship. Favorite Success Quote “You are what you repeatedly do, excellence is not an act but a habit” ~ Key Points 1. Success is About Giving Everything You Have In our materialistic and results driven society, it is easy to get caught up in this idea that success is all about making a certain amount of money, winning every competition, and reaching every goal. But the truth is much deeper than that. While accomplishment should certainly play a central role in every man's definition of success, the missing piece of the puzzle is the effort that you devote to achieving your goals. If you put everything that you have into the attainment of a goal, if you are relentless and driven to a point that many people consider you insane and you still don't achieve your desired outcome, then guess what? You are still a success. You showed up, you put in the work, and you did everything that you could do. Sometimes despite your best efforts, the stars simply don't align. And it's times like this where you can look at yourself in the mirror with pride, knowing that you gave it your all and are still a man of success despite the perceived failure. 2. A Life of Fulfillment Comes from the Habit of Pursuing the Uncomfortable  So many people believe that fulfillment will come whenever they reach a certain goal. Whenever they have seven figures in their bank account, are married to the model wife, or driving the Ferrari. In reality, however, as men, we derive our true sense of fulfillment from constantly pursuing a life of “uncomfortability.” A life where we don't know whether we will succeed, a life of struggle and triumph, a life, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, “In the arena, with your face marred by blood, and sweat, and tears.” If you want to be fulfilled and live every day with a smile on your face and joy in your heart, then get out of your comfort zone. Get uncomfortable and start pushing the boundaries of what you think is possible in your life. 3. Humility is a Hallmark of the Greats  No matter how successful you become, there is always someone out there who is better than you. And if you want to truly succeed at any endeavor, then you need to have the humility to learn from others and devote yourself to constant improvement. If you look at any great man in sports, business, or life, you will notice that no matter their stature, they were always willing to take criticism and look for ways to improve their craft. From billionaires like Sam Walton to All-Stars like Kobe Bryant, they all approached their field with a deep and genuine humility, accepting that they did not know everything and had plenty of room to improve. If you truly want to be one of the greats, then you need to take the same approach to your life. 4. Accept the Struggle  Whenever you start out at anything, whether it is a business, a sport, an instrument, or improving your social skills, you are going to suck. It's not pretty, it's not nice, but it is the cold hard truth. You are going to suck, and you are going to suck for a long time. The quicker that you can come to terms with this and accept that the journey is part of the joy of mastery, the sooner you will be able to overcome your own egotistical nature and truly become an expert in your craft. So embrace the suck. Don't take yourself too seriously, and get ready for months or even years of fumbling through until you become proficient in your field. 5. Surround Yourself with the Best  The quickest way to accelerate your own growth is to surround yourself with people who are playing the game of life at a higher level than you are. Find people in your field who are performing at a level 10X your current level and get around them. Figure out what habits, tactics, and mindsets are separating them from the 99% and putting them into the proverbial hall of fame. The sooner that you can build up your circle of friends and mentors who are playing at a higher level, the quicker you will achieve your own goals and truly embrace your own potential.

Mike Fitch is an innovative fitness educator focused on bodyweight training, skills-based practices, and multi-planar, fluid movement. As the president of Global Bodyweight Training, he has developed multiple programs (including Animal Flow) that celebrate movement. All of his work embraces the philosophy that anybody can excel at bodyweight training and advanced skills building with practice and proper progressions. With 18 years' experience in the fitness industry, Mike has used and taught a range of styles from Olympic lifts and kettle bells to sports-specific and Speed-Agility-Quickness training. Favorite Success Quote “You must suffer through the structure in order to conquer the chaos” Key Points 1. You Have to Put in the Time No matter what you want to accomplish in life, you have to put in the time. Mastery takes time, it takes patience, and it takes an intentional practice that pushes your limits each day. You cannot expect to see world class results unless you are putting in world class time and effort. 2. When You Hit a Plateau Take a Step Back  So often, on our paths to mastery, we get stuck in a rut. Maybe, for you, your business has made the same amount for 6 months straight, your dating life has been mundane, or you have been doing the same workout for weeks without seeing any strength or muscle gains. When this happens… Just take a step back. While there are a number of things you can do to improve your practice to help break through plateaus, the first thing you need to realize is that there is no rush. You have the rest of your life ahead of you and there is no reason to get impatient with your goals. Take the plateaus as the come and keep moving forward. 3.  You Have to Learn to Move  We live such sedentary and immobile lifestyles that most of us have forgotten how to move. We are riddled with aches and pains, joint problems and inflamed discs and such a long laundry list of other health issues that we could write an entire encyclopedia. The solution to almost all of this, as counter intuitive as it may seem, is to start moving. Not just lifting weights or running, but reconnecting with your primal side and moving like an animal, down on the ground, with all of your joints firing. Whether this is through animal flow or yoga, getting back into your body and re-learning how to move will improve your overall health in ways that you could not imagine. 4. The Goal is to Develop a  Balanced Body  The purpose of all physical training, whether it is with weights or just your body weight, should be to develop a balanced athletic body. Who cares if you can deadlift 600 lbs. if you cannot touch your toes? Who cares how flexible you are if you cannot move weight around without snapping like a stick? You have to build a balanced physique that will allow you to take full advantage of this wonderful gift called life. 5. Take Your Rest as Seriously as You Take Your Training If you really want to succeed with your training, start taking your rest as seriously as you take your time in the gym. Get on a sleep schedule, cut out the electronics, don't eat more than three hours before bed, turn the temperature down, and black out your room. The better your sleep is, the better you will perform in the gym and in life.

Dennis Meyers was a normal everyday man until he suffered from a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. After years of struggling to find joy and fulfillment in his new life, he discovered a way to make peace with his accident and has written about it in his book “You Have not a Leg to Stand On”. Favorite Success Quote “You've just got to go on” Key Points 1. You Have Just got to Go On Life will knock you down, it will throw punches that put you on your knees, it will shatter you and batter you and try and keep you on the ground, but you have just got to go on. Everyone will suffer in life, especially if you ever intend to do something great with yourself, the key is not if you suffer, but how you suffer. You must accept the hardships and move on with your life, grin and bear it, be willing to laugh in the face of pain. There is little else that you can do, and allowing life to knock you down is a surefire recipe, not just for failure in business, but failure in life. 2. Learn to Take Life as it Is Just as life will knock you down and you must learn to keep moving, so will life present you with situations and circumstances that aren't ideal. While many people will moan and gripe about how unfair life is, the wiser man realizes that if there is nothing he can do to change the situation, he must simply take life as it is. Make peace with the pain, because sometimes it's all you can do. 3. Put Yourself Second  While life may be difficult at times, and may present massive challenges to many people, life is much more challenging if you are operating from a selfish perspective. You have to be willing to put yourself second, to live for something bigger than just you, to truly live a life of service, if you want to find peace in this life. Serving others is the quickest way to remind yourself of all that you have to be grateful for and all the amazing blessings you have in your life.

Jolie Dawn is an author, speaker, and wild visionary. Through her own journey of spirituality and self-discovery, along with thousands of hours of training, Jolie has discovered her innate ability to set people free from the confines of limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging habits, so they can create a life and business that truly thrives. Jolie has fearlessly built her own platform to share her message through her popular Inner Goddess Unleashed Summit and also her retreats, online programs, and one-on-one programs. She has attained smashing success in guiding women through her signature process to help them remember their limitless potential so they can start taking immediate action on their dreams. Favorite Success Quote “You win just by playing” Key Points 1. Location is Important One of the most important factors in your success is your location, both physical and social. If you are living in a small town that is filled with fast food “restaurants”, bars, and walmarts, it is going to be much more difficult to stay healthy and fit and find a like minded community than if you are living in at the beach with yoga studios and juice bars on every corners. If you are living in a retirement community full of baby boomers, you will find it difficult to find young entrepreneurs to share ideas with and create incredible businesses with. However, if you are living in a large, vibrant city, full of startups and entrepreneurs, you will find success comes much more easily. If you set yourself up to live in a location that is conducive to your goals and you surround yourself with loving and supportive people who will push you and force you to grow, nothing can stop you! 2. Play the Host Whenever you are struggling to find like minded individuals, or to find groups that you feel you fit into and want to be a part of; play the host. Invite as many people as you can to something you have put together and executed, especially individuals you respect and admire. Start taking the initiative and creating and leading events locally to get those people together, not only will you meet great new people, but those people will respect you more because they will see you as the leader and creator of a group that they regularly enjoy attending. 3. Embrace Your Purpose More than Your Relationships Your purpose ALWAYS comes before your relationships. You were put on this earth to do amazing things, to create world changing movements, to help take people's lives in a radically different direction. Your relationships are just a small part of that, they are not the whole. No matter how amazing you think a woman is, she does not come before your purpose, and if she is a woman of character who loves and respects you as a man, she will never want to. 4. Take Care of and Follow Your Body Your body is the key to everything. Take care of it and respect it, and you will live a full and joyful life. Disrespect it and treat it like a trash heap instead of a temple (or playground depending on your adventure levels) and you will feel the pain of your choices. Fill your body with good food, good exercise, and good sleep and stay in tune with it through practices like yoga and meditation, and it will serve you throughout your life. Take care of your body, it's the only one you've got.

Alex Dodd is also known as Ali Afshar and is an actor and producer, known for Three Kings (1999), Godzilla (1998) and The Siege (1998) and is also the founder/president of the world record holding auto racing team Easy Street Motorsports (ESX). He is the creator of the exclusive ESX Super Vantage Aston Martin and ESX STI Subaru vehicles. Alex and his company ESX raced for Subaru of America for 7 years from 2001 through 2007 and won two NHRA National Championships in 2006 & 2007. Favorite Success Quote “You can sleep when you are dead” Key Points 1. Always be Hustling You can sleep when you are dead, or as Newton put it “A body in motion tends to stay in motion.” Once you gain momentum, it is imperative that you keep hustling and keep grinding to ensure continued success. While there is plenty of debate about the effects of sleep and success, if you want to be successful, you will lose sleep to achieve your goals. If you want to achieve great things, you have to be willing to lose sleep, put in the effort, and work ungodly hours for a certain amount of time. But it will be worth it. 2. Do What You Love As cliche as it may sound, a life spent doing anything other than things you love, is a life of drudgery and pain. Why would you willingly subject yourself to daily work that you find dull and uninspiring just for an added 0 on your paycheck? Do what you love and the money will follow (given that what you love is more than playing xbox). If you live your life doing things that light you up with a passion, you will never work a day in your life, and money and impact will be a natural byproduct. Don't waste your life with things you don't love. Follow the advice of your middle school teacher and do what you love. 3. Use Your Passions Instead of Drugs and Alcohol "Stuff" happens. Welcome to the real world. When it does, many men are tempted to fall into drugs and alcohol to escape their problems instead of facing them head on. Instead of falling for this trap, dive headfirst into your passions and create a life centered around the things you love to help yourself heal and get through the hard times. Bad things will happen, it's up to you whether you allow them to destroy you and ruin your life with addiction, or whether you use it as a catalyst to create your best self. 4. Change the World with Kindness The world is full of bad people. It's full of wannabes and windbags trying to seem important and putting others down in the process. Don't be like them. Life is short, love others, be kind and leave nothing on  the table because you never know when it is your time. You will never regret a life of passion, love, and kindness. Period

Jayson Gaddis is the breakthrough marriage and relationship coach for smart, successful, people. He will teach you how to use conflict to transform your life and your relationships for good. He's a husband and part-time stay-at-home dad getting schooled by his two cosmic kids. His family is the center of his universe and when he tries to wiggle away from what he teaches, his wife and kids hold him accountable to living it, daily. Jayson is also passionate about masculinity. He has run dozens of men's groups, men's leadership experiences, and founded the Men's Leadership Training, Boulder Men's Experience, and BoyStrong.org. Jayson is looking to provide his 5- year old son a smooth, conscious path toward manhood. Favorite Success Quote “You can make yourself miserable or you can make yourself strong; the amount of work is the same”~ Carlos Casinada Key Points 1. You Have to Work on Yourself You cannot expect to have successful fulfilling relationships if you are not first investing in yourself. If you aren't going anywhere or working towards anything; if you dont have your stuff together…then why would a woman want you? Before you can have the relationships you are looking for, you MUST get your own life in order. Meditate, eat healthy and hit the gym, read, and build your personal brand. Become the man that women want to be with, and the quality and quantity of your relationships will increase exponentially. 2. Take Full Responsibility In relationships, men often struggle in accepting the responsibility for conflicts or problems. We throw out b.s. justifications and excuses as to why it's our girlfriend or wife's fault. By doing this however, we relieve ourselves of the ability to take the blame and fix the problems we are facing in our relationships. To truly succeed with women, you must accept the blame, take responsibility and work together to fix any problems. 3. Admit Your Need for Help Most men hate showing emotion. And with good reason. Men who wear their heart on their sleeves are often perceived to be weak and incapable. Unfortunately, this often leads to a large number of men refusing to ask for help even in their darkest times. In our society, we have taken this to an extreme, bottling up emotion and never letting anyone in for fear of what they would think. By doing this, however, we cut ourselves off from people who have the tools, knowledge and resources to help us with whatever we are facing. One of the best things you can do to find a healthy place to discuss your struggles and trials and get the help you need is to find an all men's mastermind and become a regular contributor. Surround yourself with other men in the same shit and you will find an overwhelming amount of support in much needed areas of your life. 4. Cut Out the Garbage If you are filling your mind and body with garbage, that is what your life will put out. On your quest to become the type of man that women want to be with, you must begin by cutting out everything in your life that a woman would not want to be with. So remove what is unnecessary in your life or holding you back from being the man you want to be and start moving towards the man you want to be. 5. Stop Having to Prove Yourself One of the marks of a true man is that he doesn't feel the need to prove himself to anyone. He is totally self confident and sure of himself, and he doesn't need anyone else's approval. Learn to be ok with just being you. Don't feel the need to validate yourself before anyone, be happy being you because you are enough. As long as you are growing and expanding, you are enough, and always will be.

On March 24, 1965, Albert Podell embarked on a 581-day, 42,000-mile, adventure-packed expedition by 4×4 across 30 countries that set the record for the longest auto journey ever made around the world. During the next 50 years Podell visited every one of the rest of its 196 countries. Albert Podell has a B.A. in government from Cornell, was a graduate fellow in international relations at the University of Chicago, holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, and has had successful careers as a magazine editor, director of photography, advertising-agency creative director, and trial attorney. He has written 300 magazine articles and wrote the adventure classic, Who Needs A Road. Favorite Success Quote “You only live once so grab as much gusto as you can. “ Key Points 1. Life is Fleeting Live it Full Life is precious and short. We all live like life will last forever without realizing its fleeting nature. Embrace the now and live life like you will never live it again. 2. People are Generally the Same Many first worlders ignorantly assume that the rest of the world is vastly different from us. We assume that they are all extremists and crazies and that anywhere beyond the first world is the no mans land. What we fail to realize is that humans are largely the same across all cultures. We all want to live long and prosperous lives. We all want to raise our children to the best of our abilities, we all want as much health, wealth, love and happiness as we can fill into our days. When we open our mind to the similarities that cross all cultural boundaries, we are able to interact much more deeply and intimately with people who are seemingly dissimilar. 3. You Can Live on Less Than You Think In America, the idea of living with less is a foreign concept. We assume that to survive we need to be making hundreds of dollars a day and filling our lives full of possessions and cheap thrills. But in the end, we are left with crap we didn't need and shallow, base level experiences. If we open our minds to the idea of embracing minimalism and living with less, then we open our lives to a whole new level of fulfillment. When life becomes about seizing every moment enjoying every second over accumulating more stuff, we are able to live lives of true abundance and joy. 4. Money and Time are not an Impediment to Travel If you are creative enough, adaptable enough, and tough enough.  You can travel the world on little to no money fairly easily. From staying with locals to camping to hostels, there are a number of ways that you can travel without breaking the bank. One of the best ways to get started is by looking into work exchanges such as WWOOF or Help Ex where you work in exchange for room and board. Influential Books 1. The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss 2. How to Travel the World on $50 a Day by Matt Kepnes 3. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts