LegendaryLife Blog

I have noticed a seismic shift happening in many areas of our shared world cultures which I feel is going in the wrong direction. It seems people from all walks of life are no longer taking personal ownership of the problems that arise from their lifestyle choices.

What is personal responsibility?

Personal responsibility is the acknowledgment that if you try something, no matter the intentions or chances behind said act succeeding, that you will take ownership of the consequences. For instance, if I decide to spend all my lunch money on a trinket, I have nobody to blame but myself for being hungry for the rest of the day.

Personal Responsibility: Lifestyle

Let’s be frank, if you choose on a daily basis, over several decades, to stuff your face, avoid exercise like the plague followed by working a job that you hate, who is to blame? Later in life, you find-out that you are obese, depressed and penniless because you wasted away your health and financial opportunities on self-serving instant-gratification decisions. Who is to blame for your shell of a life? Well, YOU ARE! Looking to place blame on society, “friends”, anybody or anything else is simply an illusion that you have created for yourself in order to cope with your carelessness and impunity towards yourself. You abused yourself, it’s your job to undo the damage and nobody else. Of course, at your cost in both time and money, not societies!

Personal Responsibility: Lifestyle (real-life manifestations)

Here are a few examples that come to mind

• politicians who “don’t recall” important events in their career, if they where that clueless in their position, they should give their salary back with interest as it shows how little value they brought for our tax dollars (we got scammed)
• doctors who refuse to say “I’m sorry” for mistakenly treating patients who didn’t suffer from the condition they treated them for or worse, actions that where responsible for their death (legal issues be damned, we are all human and DO make mistakes)
• school kids who don’t pick-up after themselves because a janitor will do it for them
• obese people (by choice, not due to a diagnosed medical condition) who seem to think it’s their RIGHT to pay for only one seat on an airplane when, due to personal decisions, their frame requires two or worse, seem to think it’s “insurances responsibility” to pay for all the pills and surgery that are a direct cause of their lack of self-care
• teenagers who blame their boyfriend / girlfriend when she gets pregnant
• people who got themselves into a sub-prime mortgage in order to buy a house they otherwise couldn’t afford and now blame the lender, government and everybody else for the resultant foreclosure
• Hillary Clinton asking her supporters and Obama to help her pay back debts that SHE chose to ring-up in her bid for the presidential race
• CEOs who get multi-million dollar salaries while the companies they manage lose market value and face insolvency
• people who choose to gamble at casinos, suffer huge losses then blame the casinos for their losses
• people who buy huge SUVs and complain about the high-price of gas as they commute ALONE to and from work when viable public transportation is offered
• individuals who decide it’s a great idea to invest money they cannot afford to loose into the stock market and when a company has some trouble, blame them for not being able to pay their bills
• smokers who complain about the high price (financially) of their habit, considering they are spending money to destroy their health, seem to think it’s societies responsibility to take care of them when they become sick. The argument seems to be “I am paying taxes now to fund my future health problems”
• (I could go on – but I hope you get the point)

Why do so many people avoid personal responsibility?

I believe as cultures increasingly put their self-esteem into the products instead of themselves (consumer society), the very act of being responsible for things slowly dissolves away. If todays “must haves” become tomorrows “who cares”, what kind of a lesson is this for yourself? Taking Hillary Clinton for example, she choose to borrow money to her campaign but now expects OTHERS to pay her back and the debts owed to other companies who helped her during her bid. If media reports are true, this very expectation is completely UNACCEPTABLE in a civil society!

Where do we go from here?

Well, I believe we need some fundamental shifts in how children are brought-up in this world and adults are educated. Schools shouldn’t have janitors. Why not have the kids clean-up after themselves and clean the school for a few minutes before the end of the day? People who decide to get themselves into debt or buy more then they can afford shouldn’t be allowed to file for bankruptcy (unless the reason was due to medical emergencies not brought-on by lifestyle choices). I believe each and every executive in every company should have their salary pegged to the value of the company they are managing, if their company makes a profit, so do they, if not, they go without! I believe people who suffer from bad lifestyle choices shouldn’t be able to look at society to “help-them-out” unless it was brought-on by factors out of their control. For instance, drug addicts who are given methadone treatment should instead be sent away for two years of tough military training.

Am I being a little Extreme?

Actually, I believe that not only is our word our bond but more importantly, a culture of “self” should be treated as such. Sure, people screw-up but you know what, that is what builds character… having lifelines only helps weaken the resolve to fix what went wrong and the lessons they hold. Is it extreme to refuse a double-lung transplant to a long-time smoker? Absolutely NOT! Is it wrong to execute a known drug dealer? Absolutely NOT! Is it distasteful to demand that our politicians, professionals and CEOs be help to higher standards? NO WAY!

The Bottom Line

If we want to live in a society of “self-interest” than we need to abide to these rules even when things go bad.

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have come to the realization of a number of facts, some of which I will share with you today. Instead of seeing these things negatively, people saying bad things about you or your products/services actually represents a fantastic opportunity!

Jealousy

When ever something “new” come onto the main consciousness of many people, the first thing they do is reject it even when this act completely defies logic. For example, if you start a new business and you all of a sudden have a number of people calling you a loser, that you will never amount to anything or worse, try everything in their limited powers of persuasion to convince you that everything will fail. What they are really telling you is “Geez… I wish I thought of that” followed by “Well, I’ll be damned if you succeed at something I -could- have but chose not to. In other words, the people out there with the greatest angst about you are the very people who are extremely jealous of your ambition and willingness to succeed where others haven’t.

YOU WANT LOSERS!

If you are developing something that sparks no emotion even in those who wish for your spiraling downfall it means one of two things, these losers either have no clue what you are doing or worse, you haven’t hit their “jealousy” buttons. Why is this bad? Well, it means that the general public, those who have a neutral stance on your success or or failure may also have the same blahze reaction to this idea as well. The quickest death of a company is indifference, you can succeed with huge negative and positive reaction but neutral sparks a quick death. Essentially, you WANT to receive a reaction – at both extremes, otherwise, you may be going down a dead-end.

YOU WANT TROLLS

The difference between a loser and a troll is quite simple, one usually uses their reputation and contacts to bring you down publicly while the other hides behind the anonymity of the internet to speed-up your failure. Losers are easy to deal with, if you have logic on your site, stand-up for yourself, present the facts (and only the facts) without any negative emotion or “talking-down” type behavior and generally losers will slowly fade into the background. Of course, you have to thank these losers because usually they bring-up a lot of attention to your cause which you may not have had otherwise. A troll on the other hand, well, you need to deal with them in a respectful manner now matter what they have said or done as, let’s be honest, you don’t know who they are or the possible influence they may have on you. I have found the easiest way to get rid of them is with a quick message acknowledging their “grief”, saying how you don’t agree with them and essentially telling them you will no longer participate in their games once you have summed-up a reply. Trolls need a reaction to succeed, don’t give them this pleasure and usually they will fade into the background as well.

Summarize

I know it’s tough to hold back your emotions and especially your tongue when attacked, but from my experience, if you handle it in a very civil manner and always maintain a certain state of decorum, others will come to realize that you where wronged and you will WIN! Every actions has a reaction, by blunting your reaction, there is nothing left to react against, as such, a developing negative situation can quickly be dissolved with little grief.

The Bottom Line

Trolls and losers are an indication of success, NOT FAILURE!

One of the most amazing aspects of being an entrepreneur is the absolute joy you get from being constantly forced to learn new things!

Enjoying the rewards, paying the costs

Honestly, what other type of non-job other then an entrepreneur can you be paid to do what you absolutely love to do and gamble, quite honestly, on all your past success to throw yourself into yet another higher level of possibility! The rewards of entrepreneurship as a lifestyle are as endless as it’s costs but the journey sure as hell is a fun one!

Case Study: WoodMarvels.com – how it began

I started this site after many years of having this idea in the back of my head. I really love wood, I enjoy the flexibility that this material provides and its availability just about anywhere. Nothing beats the smell of pine or cedar… so, I decided, enough is enough… I am going to develop this site right now! That was back in October, at first, it was difficult developing an entire new level of standards and procedures, not to sound too technical but after years of producing industrial 3D animations, switching to wooden toys takes a little bit of work to pull-off correctly. For several years, I also really wanted to get into manufacturing, I have visited some amazing shop floors around North America and to be honest, I LOVE BIG MACHINES!

Case Study: WoodMarvels.com – models from virtual to physical

So, back in October, I started essentially producing new virtual wood marvels on a weekly basis but about two months ago, my second dream was finally made available to me… manufacturing! I built all my wood marvels in my computer, they looked great and I got some great feedback from customers but being able to ship on-demand merchandise anywhere in the world is a whole other level of accomplishment. It took a few weeks but now I am as comfortable in the “manufacturing-on-demand” area as I am in the 3D one. I am not a professional in either by any stretch of the imagination, but I have developed enough knowledge of both industries to easily converse with engineers and other professionals on an even platform.

Just for the heck of it, you can see the evolution of the designs from one of the very first models I created to the second-to-last one (latest one is still rendering).

Shark (September 2007′ish)

Full Armor Gear Bull (June 2008′ish)

Case Study: WoodMarvels.com – book from virtual to physical

Now, this is where things get really interesting, I am a few weeks away from having a book published encompassing 25 of my top models available print-on-demand through BookSurge.com (an Amazon affiliate). Things have gone full circle, the models are produced on-demand in the physical world and now, my guides and books as well! Isn’t this really cool! One of my goals in my life was to publish several books, this is my first, at the age of 32 and I really enjoyed the process and can’t wait to actually hold in both my hands what where once but virtual items inhabiting the deep recesses of my mind.

Where do you go from here?

WoodMarvels.com has been a tremendous success, it has opened several doors in my life and I look forward to developing that property well into the future. My other properties are slowly growing and I am sure they will open as many doors if not more then what I have just shared with you… which is still but a glimpse of things to come. The fact that I managed to do this while traveling around the world, visiting one of my dream places (Cape Tribulation in Australia) and climbing mountains in South Korea really make these successes all the more enjoyable! I already have two other non-WoodMarvels.com books stewing in my mind which I hope to release next year. My priority is to get the next huge goal I have had in my mind for several years now… LegendaryLife.com. I wish I honestly could live a thousand years because I have so much yet to accomplish and experience, trying to cram all of this in one lifetime while still being able to enjoy that life is a very tall task indeed!

The Bottom Line

Nothing beats a dose of entrepreneurship to introduce some vitality into your life!

Buzvia: BookSurge.com (on-demand publisher), Ponoko.com (on-demand manufacturer), WoodMarvels.com (on-demand happiness!)