This post is not about me

I look around the room and I see potential. Guys who are in the process of becoming really successful men in this world. They have choices to make, and those choices will carve out their path in life and their legacies while they are here in this world. All of us have flaws, and things that can be easily improved upon. Habit and routine has made us weak and absent minded.

In establishing the alliance 5 months ago, I would not have guessed that we would still be meeting weekly. In some ways our meetings are an escape for me. It is a way for me to see a glimpse of what I really want to do in life and how I can get there. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life sitting in front of a computer, taking orders from middle management. Read more

Core Values and Life Beliefs

These are my core values

1. I consider myself a very loyal person. I am loyal to my friends and family. Most importantly, I am loyal to myself. Loyalty to me is the willingness to let go of seemingly short term gains to grow and preserve a long term relationship with another person, entity, or with yourself. It is also about being completely honest with myself about my humanity and desires, and my most inner thoughts as they exist in its purest form.
2. I am faithful. I believe in God/Infinite Intelligence/Greater Purpose. There’s a reason I am here, in this time and place. and my will guides my life in alignment with this life force. Read more

The Incubation Period

Business vs. Love Part 5

You know the feeling.

Friend calls you up to go out, there’s an event at a bar. Same scene, same girls. You wonder if you should muster up the courage and energy to go out, or decide to stay in and make some progress on that website you have been trying to launch in the past 6 months.

Scenario 2 – you have been doing well at work lately – new job and new promotion. 2% salary raise. Yeh. You decide to go out more this week with your friends. You get a few number closes, but none of them return or pick up when you text/call. You wonder where your game has gone wrong, and after a while decide “fuck it” and focus on some other area in your life. Maybe you’ll muster up the anger or motivation to call up a few PU friends and ask for their advice, but ultimately, the game dynamics go back to you.

You go back to focus on work, but you realize that you are working your ass off for your company and they are making all of the money. The constant ass kissing and power maneuvers at work get to you. You decide to start your own company on the side. You do some research and work, but really have no idea where to start. You write a business plan.

A friend’s birthday comes up – you decide to go. You hit it off with this girl, and decide your game isn’t so bad after all. You go out a few more times over the next 2 weeks – some nights are good, some night are not. A lot of effort is being put into this and the results of lays is not showing.

If the above 5 paragraphs sound remotely familiar, that is because I have experienced it first hand. I have been writing these “Business vs. Love” posts for…. 1 year now!

It took a some simple advice from one group member, a Stanford PhD student at our MasterAlliance meeting to wake up me, “R, maybe there are just excuses? I mean, when I didn’t want to work out, I was throwing out the exact same reasoning as you. These are just excuses that stand in your way. Maybe I am wrong, but think about it.”

He’s right. The truth is, if it came down to it, I would choose love over money. Because love transcends material things, even this life, money is only a tool we use to trade things of perceived value in this world. But achieving both often means going after something the right way. You want to pickup a girl? Focus and learn from each set’s mistake. Don’t over analyze your sets, and focus on your skill set. Film yourself if you have to to see your flaws.

Waiting for that business plan? It is not going to write itself. Stop watching porn and if you are going to blow off your friends, make a commitment to finish 20% of that plan by the time you go to sleep. These are things that are definite and require energy, but the fact is sometimes this pain of exerting energy is better than the pain of mind-numbing and time passing that comes from doing a lot of things that are 1. half assed and 2. not significant anyway.

“With Scarcity comes Clarity” – Sergey said recently in the economic downturn, and this is another sage advice that I am lucky enough to see working at Google.