Golden Nuggets of Wisdom

[Rangermac2]

I couldn't find a thread for this so far and so I chose to start one. What are your golden nuggets of wisdom? It can be about lessons you learned from in your journey through business. It could be with the people you associate or don't associate with. The stuff that stuck to you that's always helped in a pinch.

For me it's been "Don't wear your heart on your sleeve" and "God helps those who helps themselves". The first golden nugget keeps me from taking stuff people say and do too personally. The second reminds me that favor is for those who take action and those blessed with success put forth the risk, effort, and wittiness to get to where they are, and further growing and improving.

 

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[perchboy]

"Effort ≠ Results."
Online influencers tell you that you're not working hard enough and then you feel guilty for not working 16 hours a day.
Andrew Tate told me that I'm not rich because I don't work hard enough so i started working 20 hour weekends recording kids basketball games. I ended up making $15 after 2 weekends. I made under $0.50/hour. it was depressing. I put in so many hours but I didn't get results. This was because i made a stupid decision of running a stupid business.

For my current business, I handed out flyers for 4 hours and it resulted in one sale. Low Roi. I also posted a quick post on the Nextdoor app and got 6 sales. insanely high roi

My mom worked her a$$ off at her job her whole life but she is still middle class. There are teenagers who found an opportunity, made a quick ecom store, and they make over 30k/month now.

Don't focus on working hard; leave that to the employees. focus on making good decisions; that's what separates the entrepreneur from the employees

“Be arrogant”
Don’t let the beliefs of others influence you. Losers will tell you that you can’t do x. Just like how they told Michael Jordan he can’t make the NBA. They will shout statistics at you and say things like “not everyone can be rich”. Tell them to stfu - tell yourself that you are the man and you are going to succeed. My mom kept saying "you're so lazy. go get a job at the grocery store and make $15/h". "no one will ever pay that much money to a kid" I said "watch me make $100/h and prove you wrong. just wait" now I'm making $100/h

 

[Johnny boy]

-Don’t get involved with low quality people.

Too many flipped bmw’s, people getting into a drunk fight outside and smack their head on the concrete…

drama.

Let the self destructive people destroy themselves and others and stay out of the way when it happens.

-When things get hard, remember to say “this is where everyone else quits”. By never quitting you give yourself a chance. I have never seen anyone do anything meaningful that didn’t have to endure through doubt to some degree. By reminding yourself that the tough moment you’re in is the precise moment everyone else would quit, you are in some way successful already.

-All big things start small. The only way anything can exist is to first not exist, and then only exist as a faint idea, and then a sketch on a napkin, and then a poorly executed effort, and so on until it becomes great. So do not discount what you can turn a small thing into.

-A strong body, a strong mind and a strong spirit go hand in hand.

-Almost all thoughts and beliefs are lies. That is why most people are failures. By statistical necessity, most things must be wrong considering the massive amount of shitty lives for the people who believe the wrong things. Which means there is some sort of trap that seduces the majority of people. Be aware of the mental traps that everyone falls for and be able to catch it before you get tricked. If it were so easy to see, no one would fall for it.

-Don’t listen to people you don’t want to be like.

-Do not worry so much about expenses. Worry about producing and growing. You’ll be too distracted to spend anyways.

-Don’t “sell” very much. Make a decent pitch to a million people.

-When you know you need to get up off your a$$ and do something, simply count down from 5,4,3,2,1 and it becomes easy.

-Other ethnic or religious groups love to do business with each other. This idea is foreign to American/European people. If you do a partnership with a Slavic person, you’ll have 30 other people who want to do business with you.

-Spend a little bit of money to have everything you would need to survive for at least a few months. A way to eat, drink, clean, defend yourself.

-Reflect on the statistical impossibility of your life and how rare it is to be breathing and give thanks for it as often as possible.

-Men age like wine, women age like milk.

-Learn to fight. Enough that you are known by close friends as the guy who can fight.

-Make friends with the action takers. Their energy, even misguided, will give you energy and confidence.

-You’re probably thinking too small and going too slow. Almost always.

 

[Shono]

When things get hard, remember to say “this is where everyone else quits”. By never quitting you give yourself a chance. I have never seen anyone do anything meaningful that didn’t have to endure through doubt to some degree. By reminding yourself that the tough moment you’re in is the precise moment everyone else would quit, you are in some way successful already.

I like this one

Almost all thoughts and beliefs are lies. That is why most people are failures. By statistical necessity, most things must be wrong considering the massive amount of shitty lives for the people who believe the wrong things. Which means there is some sort of trap that seduces the majority of people. Be aware of the mental traps that everyone falls for and be able to catch it before you get tricked. If it were so easy to see, no one would fall for it.

I like this one

When you know you need to get up off your a$$ and do something, simply count down from 5,4,3,2,1 and it becomes easy.

I used to do this for things like cold showers, getting out of bed in the morning. I need to learn how to use it for more scary things like approaching the hot girl

-Men age like wine, women age like milk.

Is this true??

Lots of golden nuggets there, i will learn to fight too

 

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[Subsonic]

I couldn't find a thread for this so far and so I chose to start one. What are your golden nuggets of wisdom? It can be about lessons you learned from in your journey through business. It could be with the people you associate or don't associate with. The stuff that stuck to you that's always helped in a pinch.

For me it's been "Don't wear your heart on your sleeve" and "God helps those who helps themselves". The first golden nugget keeps me from taking stuff people say and do too personally. The second reminds me that favor is for those who take action and those blessed with success put forth the risk, effort, and wittiness to get to where they are, and further growing and improving.

-> If you start something and simply don't stop it will be unreasonable for you to not be good at it.

-> Pleasure leads to pain and pain to pleasure. All the things that people say are "fun" (alcohol, porn, videogames, TV, anime) make you unhappy. Why ? They cause a spike in dopamine which then always leads to a drop below basline. Then you either tough that pain out or get another "hit". If you choose the latter you will eventually end up depressed and unhealthy as the baseline keeps dropping untill even a "high" is lower than natural baseline.
Interestingly, almost every time we experience pain the dopamine drops but then rises above baseline when the pain is over. Here you also have no crash.


Those are my 2 biggest pieces of wisdom.

 

[adnanazmi]

• Don't take advice from people who are not rich on how to be rich.
• Your lazy friends can seriously affect your motivation and discipline. Don't directly cut them off but slowly stop talking to them and stop showing interest in being their friends.
You can pitch them the hustle too but know most of them will remain lazy. Always know your drive should be unaffected by their decisions. Once you get rich enough you will start making rich friends anyways.
• Learn how to communicate effectively. Change the tone of your voice to evoke emotions. Smile. Look people in the eye when talking to them. Use subtle relavant hand movements. Etc. (I like watching videos by @askvinh)
• Watch Brian Tracy's video on 10 habits that will make you successful beyond belief (he researched what habits successful people have and how we can copy them and be exactly like that).

 

[AnneC]

-Men age like wine, women age like milk.

It appears to be your MO to make degradingly sexist and controversial comments. Is this really necessary?

 

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[Robdavis]

Here's a few things that I think are useful.

It's a good idea to learn from your own mistakes and a great idea to learn from everyone else's.

In the land of mind, self fulfilling prophecy is king.

Friendfluence is important. If you want to become more successful you will typically need to gain successful friends and lose your unsuccessful ones.

Effectiveness is on the optimistic side of truth.

It is a good idea in life to learn new things. It is also a good idea to unlearn things that are ineffective. As you get older unlearning will become more important. You should make time for both.

Beliefs should be held fairly lightly so they can be changed or updated as required. They should be tested via the process of "seeking the counter example". Seeking evidence to support your beliefs is useless due to confirmation bias (self-fulfilling prophecy).

I now believe that most people underrate travel. They simply don't so as much of it as they should do. Or they always visit the same places repeatedly, which reduces the benefits.

 

[Simon Angel]

你是個臭老太太，像酸牛奶

The only stink here comes from the rot that is your brain after consuming all of that red pill Andrew Tate content. You're 26, act like it.

 

[Brandonistaken]

Whatever your going to achieve in life you must think of the "competitors" you must create this mindset whatever that person has what i want, i am going to take it from him/her and i must win.

He or she who let go of the rope is weak, he or she who holds tight on the ropes even when things get rough are the strongest.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

-Men age like wine, women age like milk.

You need to stop with the sexist, immature comments as if you were 17 years old. For F*ck's sake grow up. Is this ignorant display how you would act in a meeting of the board, some of whom were women?

If you drop a value bomb, but poison it with some ignorant comment that is more suited for a back alley hillbilly bar and not a corporate boardroom of your peers, I'll start deleting your posts, even if they are 96% value, and 4% poison. You made a great post and then whipped your dick out and pissed on it like a child, making it untouchable and unlikable.

I don't care how much rep, likes, forum cred, or whatever you (or anyone) have - the Tate-ization of your posts needs to end. You've been warned too many times and I'm getting tired of waking up to it.

This forum is based on the Fastlane philosophy of MJ DeMarco, not the Cocksure Clown Show of Andrew Tate.

Please play by the rules or don't play at all. Thank you.

 

[DMass]

When you think your done, you're only 40% spent. There's 60% of you left. Don't stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done.

Or words to that effect from David Goggins. If you any someone who never gives up no matter what, he's the man

 

[Andy Black]

When you think your done, you're only 40% spent. There's 60% of you left. Don't stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done.

Or words to that effect from David Goggins. If you any someone who never gives up no matter what, he's the man

Or our very own @Shono

 

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[heavy_industry]

When you think your done, you're only 40% spent. There's 60% of you left. Don't stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done.

Or words to that effect from David Goggins. If you any someone who never gives up no matter what, he's the man

Sounds very cinematic and I'm sure this phrase will sell a lot of self help books. There is a huge market for this kind of motivational message, which usually creates a short lived hype.

Winning at anything is done by following a clear strategy and executing a process, which is often times monotonous and not very exciting.

If for some reason I feel excessively tired and feel like it's time to stop working, I stop. And resume working the next day.

This is not called "giving up". It's called a tactical retreat. It's long term thinking.

If you don't know how to control your motivation system and you constantly ignore your brain's signals, you will end up with a complete psychological burnout (in business pursuits) or a catastrophic injury (in fitness pursuits), which will be a major setback.

Process > Event

 

[BizyDad]

Let the self destructive people destroy themselves and others and stay out of the way when it happens.

-Don’t listen to people you don’t want to be like.

Men age like wine, women age like milk.

The irony here is I don't think I've ever seen anyone headed towards a midlife crisis faster than this dude.

Ah the wisdom of a 26 yr old who gets praise for kicking his girlfriend out of the house.

This idea is foreign to American/European people. If you do a partnership with a Slavic person, you’ll have 30 other people who want to do business with you.

Wait, when did Slavic people stop being European?

For that matter, I'm American. I love doing business with American people. I don't export. As much as possible I try to source in America. I hire Americans. This is my agency is 99% referrals, Americans send me more Americans to do business with.

Americans love doing business with Americans. Americans love buying American products so much that all foreign companies have to do is hint that they're American, and their sales go up. Toyota didn't become the leading car maker until they started making their cars here.

People called for a boycott of Anheuser-Busch when they got sold to a European company.

Shoot Johnny, I bet 99% of your customers is American. Why isn't American a valid ethnic group in your worldview? And why, after countless wars over millennia, do you think "European" is an actual ethnic group? What next, Asians like doing business with Asians?

You want to do more business in America? Try throwing an American flag on your website somewhere. Bottom right corner will suffice. The trick works in Pennsylvania and Arizona. I can't speak for other states. Just make sure you're not sending Mexicans to do the job though. Nothing against Mexicans, that might kill the credibility...

Don't tell me Americans don't like doing business with Americans. That's nonsense.

Treat any ethnic group with respect, and you'll have more people from that ethnic group appreciate you? Shocking revelation.

 

[DMass]

@heavy_industry I completely get where you are coming from. And I get a lot of value from reading your posts.

I can only go off my own experience, maybe I'm not as naturally driven as others, but I found that reading Goggins book pretty mind-blowing.

And it worked for me. Other people may not need that kick in the a$$ but I sure did.

Here's my example.

Back when I was starting my business I was slogging away, it took 6 months working in the evening and weekends to get my first product ready. I was working 12 hour days (at my full time job) and was tired all the time. If I didn't take action because I was tired I would never have gotten anywhere.

And then it came to the point where I hit the wall and just couldn't do it anymore. But I kept pushing beyond what I thought I was capable of. Kidding myself with "just one more week", "just one more recording", "just one more document". That idea of being able to push further than I thought I could do kept me going.

This might not be applicable to people who can focus solely on their own business. I consider them the lucky ones.

12 months later I have just left my job to focus on my business full time. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I would've stopped when I was tired.

There was a point where I almost gave up too. I'd grafted and grafted. I was tired, fed up, and didn't know if it would work or not.

Reading Goggins book inspired me to keep going and I'm glad I did. Inspiration can lead to motivation as long as you remember that lesson and play it on repeat every day.

 

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[Kevin88660]

I couldn't find a thread for this so far and so I chose to start one. What are your golden nuggets of wisdom? It can be about lessons you learned from in your journey through business. It could be with the people you associate or don't associate with. The stuff that stuck to you that's always helped in a pinch.

For me it's been "Don't wear your heart on your sleeve" and "God helps those who helps themselves". The first golden nugget keeps me from taking stuff people say and do too personally. The second reminds me that favor is for those who take action and those blessed with success put forth the risk, effort, and wittiness to get to where they are, and further growing and improving.

The devils/Money is in the details. Whatever information you obtained from onlin/guru/experts/multimillionaire, it is your job to critically examine them, try the ideas yourself and learn from your own experience.

Do not dismiss absurd ideas because sometimes our world is absurd.

 

[Johnny boy]

You need to stop with the sexist, immature comments as if you were 17 years old. For F*ck's sake grow up. Is this ignorant display how you would act in a meeting of the board, some of whom were women?

If you drop a value bomb, but poison it with some ignorant comment that is more suited for a back alley hillbilly bar and not a corporate boardroom of your peers, Ill start deleting your posts, even if they are 96% value, and 4% poison. You made a great post and then whipped your dick out and pissed on it like a child, making it untouchable and unlikable.

I don't care how much rep, likes, forum cred, or whatever you (or anyone) have - the Tate-ization of your posts needs to end. You've been warned too many times and I'm getting tired of waking up to it.

This forum is based on the Fastlane philosophy of MJ DeMarco, not the Cocksure Clown Show of Andrew Tate.

Please play by the rules or don't play at all. Thank you.

Will do

 

[heavy_industry]

@heavy_industry I completely get where you are coming from. And I get a lot of value from reading your posts.

I can only go off my own experience, maybe I'm not as naturally driven as others, but I found that reading Goggins book pretty mind-blowing.

And it worked for me. Other people may not need that kick in the a$$ but I sure did.

Here's my example.

Back when I was starting my business I was slogging away, it took 6 months working in the evening and weekends to get my first product ready. I was working 12 hour days (at my full time job) and was tired all the time. If I didn't take action because I was tired I would never have gotten anywhere.

And then it came to the point where I hit the wall and just couldn't do it anymore. But I kept pushing beyond what I thought I was capable of. Kidding myself with "just one more week", "just one more recording", "just one more document". That idea of being able to push further than I thought I could do kept me going.

This might not be applicable to people who can focus solely on their own business. I consider them the lucky ones.

12 months later I have just left my job to focus on my business full time. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I would've stopped when I was tired.

There was a point where I almost gave up too. I'd grafted and grafted. I was tired, fed up, and didn't know if it would work or not.

Reading Goggins book inspired me to keep going and I'm glad I did. Inspiration can then to motivation as long as you remember that lesson and play it on repeat every day.

That's a great example!

There are some phases in life when you will have to go into overdrive in order to get the ball rolling.

There are two points I wanted to make with the previous post:

1. Working less hours, but using a superior strategy will almost always result in more success.
"Grinding" is usually glorified by people that are disappointed with their life, and they want to see this as the holy grail of success that will change things for the better. Self-help gurus have capitalized on this flawed idea.

I wasted many years working 100 hour weeks trying to emulate Elon Musk, with very disappointing results. Having a solid strategy beats the hell out of "hard work". In business you are paid for the results you deliver, not for how much time you spend glued to your desk.

2. Being at war with your neurological system is a bad idea.
Forcing myself to work was never a viable long term strategy for me personally. Fortunately, I learned how to control my motivation to a large extent, and now I am extremely driven and can generate motivation on demand.

I enjoy overcoming difficulty and putting in a lot of effort. But I always try to use a logical strategy.

I think it's very important to learn how to control your emotions, because they are insanely powerful. And you are much better off using them to your advantage, rather than having a civil war in your head every single day, like most people.


I'm glad to hear that you're now working on your business full time, that's awesome!

Good luck!

 

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[DMass]

@heavy_industry your right on the mark there.

1. The aim is to work smarter, not harder. It's all about the output and impact. Not about how much time you spent to get there. What's more important to a client, the fact you spent 600 hours designing, building, recording, editing and fine tuning a course? Or the fact that they can learn more in your 13 hour course than the best selling 26 hour one?

2. I'm really excited to explore this element. For so long I've been running my business as a side business, unable to put my all in into it. Now I can.

I'm looking forward to how I can learn to master my motivation and spend time developing my mindset and mental abilities.

On a personal note, I've always gained a lot of strength from people telling me I can't do something, or I haven't go the ability to do something. Any time someone puts me down and tells me I'm worthless it lights a fire under my a$$.

The naysayers are starting to become quite thin on the ground so I need to find another way to light that fire.

 

[heavy_industry]

I'm looking forward to how I can learn to master my motivation and spend time developing my mindset and mental abilities.

The single most useful thing I did to learn how to control my motivation was starting to train very hard in the gym.

This rewires your nervous system and teaches you how to enjoy pain and hard work. It was a complete game changer, it altered my personality forever.

 

[Kevin88660]

@heavy_industry your right on the mark there.

1. The aim is to work smarter, not harder. It's all about the output and impact. Not about how much time you spent to get there. What's more important to a client, the fact you spent 600 hours designing, building, recording, editing and fine tuning a course? Or the fact that they can learn more in your 13 hour course than the best selling 26 hour one?

2. I'm really excited to explore this element. For so long I've been running my business as a side business, unable to put my all in into it. Now I can.

I'm looking forward to how I can learn to master my motivation and spend time developing my mindset and mental abilities.

On a personal note, I've always gained a lot of strength from people telling me I can't do something, or I haven't go the ability to do something. Any time someone puts me down and tells me I'm worthless it lights a fire under my a$$.

The naysayers are starting to become quite thin on the ground so I need to find another way to light that fire.

Working hard versus working smart matters when it is concerns a strategic difference.

You can’t expect getting rich early working on most jobs on wages.

But when you are already in the business working hard and smart actually do overlap.

Getting smarter requires trial and error that no one else in the world can teach you. There is no place to download the information without the hassle of trial and error/self reflection.

Someone who works 12 hours day will be eventually smarter than someone who works 4 hours a day.

 

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[BizyDad]

Someone who works 12 hours day will be eventually smarter than someone who works 4 hours a day.

Depends on what you mean by work.

The person running a plumbing business turning the pipe 12 hours a day will eventually be better than at turning pipes than the person turning pipes 4 hours a day.

But the person turning pipes 4 hours a day has eight more hours in that day to reflect on how to run the business better. Reflection isn't often considered work, bossing people around often isn't considered work, having drinks with builders in order to buddy up and get their work isn't often considered work, and yet...

At the end of the day, this isn't a dichotomy.

The guy who works smarter and harder is the one who wins...

 

[Rangermac2]

Depends on what you mean by work.

The person running a plumbing business turning the pipe 12 hours a day will eventually be better than at turning pipes than the person turning pipes 4 hours a day.

But the person turning pipes 4 hours a day has eight more hours in that day to reflect on how to run the business better. Reflection isn't often considered work, bossing people around often isn't considered work, having drinks with builders in order to buddy up and get their work isn't often considered work, and yet...

At the end of the day, this isn't a dichotomy.

The guy who works smarter and harder is the one who wins...

I like this, but the maximization of hours is important too. A plumber may turn pipes on a 12 hour job when it could only take 4. If he was getting paid by the job (I know they get paid by the job and hour typically) then he could do two 4 hour jobs and still have the time to think of ways to improve the business and expand the horizons. But that too ties into working harder and smarter

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Wisdom #1: Don't confuse mental toughness for mental illness.

Wisdom #2: Aim for excellence if you want to get good results. Aim for good, and you'll get mediocre. And mediocrity doesn't produce 1% results.

Wisdom #3: Your actions always express your priorities. Every. Single. Time.

Wisdom #4: What's done is greater than What's said.

Wisdom #5: Math doesn't lie.

 

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[wyattnorton]

-Men age like wine, women age like milk.

Amen.

Best advice I've EVER heard is, "Do your thing."

Too many people in this world and even this forum trying to control and push their agendas.

However, there is a place for everything. And you must realize that you cannot say your opinion in a room full of woke-sters and not expect to go deaf for a few days.

 

[jdm667]

Don't mistake movement for achievement (don't drive 100mph in the wrong direction).

Surgeons are interested in safety - pilots are committed to safety (have skin in the game).

You don't get what you deserve - you get what you negotiate (ask, or the answer is always no).

Teach your garden to weed itself (set up your system and train people so that things happen automatically, the way they are supposed to, without constant maintenance or oversight by you).

 

[Andy Black]

I made a thread to drop my favourite nuggets into. I'll tidy it up over time.

GOLD! - MINDSET - Andy's Favourite One-Liners

I love collecting quotes and boiling thoughts down to one-liners. I've had this list for a few years and always meant to expand on each. They're not organised, and I need to attribute them. I'll do this over time. Thought I'd drop the list in here in case some of them resonate with you. Let...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[wyattnorton]

My best piece of advice is:

- Pick your advice wisely. Choose which part of things people say to listen to. Think for yourself.

Don't listen to someone who is a 9-5 worker about business/investment advice.

Don't listen to veterinarians on how to cure your illness.

Don't listen to a kickboxer tell you how to train Muay Thai.

Don't listen to Michael Jackson about how to be around kids.

The truth is most people cannot tell you how to live the life you want in every single area.

Do not listen to me about becoming a millionaire, I am not there yet. But do listen to me about how to turn $100 into $1,000 and $1,000 into $2,500, and $2,500 into $10,000 flipping cars and trucks and more.

Listen to @MJ DeMarco about marketing, how to run a forum, how to code, etc., etc.

But I wouldn't listen to him about how to buy a duplex in your area, seller-financed. (unless you know the market, then let's talk)

I would listen to @Andy Black about Google Ads, but I wouldn't listen to him on Facebook ads. (sarcasm)

These are to name a few examples on the forum.

To the younger guys on this forum reading the experienced posters' stories, advice, etc. Realize that they do not know everything. Even influencers like Andrew Tate, Grant Cardone, and Jordan Belfort don't know everything about you, your life, and what and how to make your next big life decision EXACTLY.

An example is if you want to be a great husband, Don't listen to EVERYTHING Andrew Tate has to say. Protecting your wife, and providing for her and your kids = Yes, listen. Having 17 wives, maybe not so much. (personally not my style but if that's what you want, go for it).

If you want to get into real estate, there are a shit ton of users on here who are in it... not just Grant Cardone and how he did it. But don't waste time reading posts from coders, SaaS people and their advice on business. Sure some of it crosses over, but most does not.

Please, stop listening to and parroting EVERYTHING someone does just because they're good in one area of life.

 

[ocricci]

Wisdom #1: Don't confuse mental toughness for mental illness.

Hey Mj, Could you go into more detail about that ?