LegendaryLife Blog

Seeds are like ideas, they are found everywhere. The real question is do you have the spirit to turn yours into an empire?

From my life’s experience so far, I realized one thing that’s for sure, the moment you are thinking of giving-up, you already have!

Entrepreneurship isn’t easy

Entrepreneurship is a rather misanthropic carreer choice for most of us. You are told by just about everybody that what you are trying to is too hard, demands too much time and is a waste of time… if you happen to get through it, you come-out transformed for the better. You essentially hit your head against the wall until either your head or the wall cracks, without knowing if what you are repeatly hitting is made from concrete or straw.

Developing new ideas is even harder!

Banging your head against the wall is one thing, doing it when surrounded by negavitiy is another and yet again, trying to get an idea adopted by others is an even more daunting prospect. The first two you have control over but the last is the ultimate gamble. You might develop the most amazing XYZ in the world but if nobody pays attention, it’s like being back in that room hitting your head against a concrete wall in a building about to implode.

Each idea has three steps, idea, implementation and adoption

The first one is easy, everybody has ideas! The second is where most people faulter, life gets in the way of their idea and they just never gather enough momentum to get an actualy working prototype in place. The third, is where the spectre of luck plays a HUGE role in. I believe the amount of luck involved in adoption would make even casinos blush with the odds in their favor.

What is luck anyways?

Luck can be defined as answering the door when somebody knocks but it can also be defined as stumbling upon a wallet with a million dollars in it while going for a hike in a remote mountain. Basically, luck is downplayed by far too may successful people who want to make themselves feel more important, smart or savy than regular people. The incredibly lucky ones are people like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the founders of Google who Yahoo rejected a buy-out of in its early days), Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft that IBM allowed it to own the rights to their source code) and the list goes on. One key event could have forever altered history but, as luck would have it, they happened to wake-up on the right side of the bed that day.

The entrepreneurial game

I believe that it takes 10 years of study to master much of anything, I realized this before the new book by somebody else came-out a few weeks ago. I decided long ago that if I was willing to sacrifice 10 years of my life, I would be able to come-out saying “I tried”. Well, it’s been 15 years now of living the entrepreneurial lifestyle, with enormous ups-and-downs and I am still in the game, addicted even, towards chasing the spectre of luck. During this time, I had thought of getting a “job” a few times, I actually did get a few of them but they always left me with a very bad taste in my mouth… I suck at taking orders and even more at seeing my spirit and creativity go to waste due to lack of use. The idea adoption game is just so much fun! Never during this time though, have I ever given-up or even thought of doing so in my life. It isn’t the money, the fame nor the changes in other people’s lives that I relish but simply the “chasing” aspect of entrepreneurship. To me, adoption is like the woman of your dreams, always just one step ahead that, once you feel you are close enough to touch, gets into a taxi to be lost again.

Reasons for giving-up

At the end of the day, the reasons for giving-up are always going to be far more numerous (almost infinite) compared to continually hitting your head against a concrete wall but that one chip that flies off the wall makes it all worth it. Like a gold digger, the odds are against them even if they do everything right, but the adventure itself more than lives-up to its promise.

The Bottom Line

Entrepreneurship is an adventure, not for the faint of spirit.

Passions are like flowers, give them a little care and they grow into the fruits of your labor

How can you tell if somebody truly loves their career? Easy, if they absolutely love what they do, they don’t count-down how many days till the weekend!

Passions are essential for a happy life

Life gets rather empty and meaningless without passion. The daily routine of waking-up, eating, working, eating, sleeping is something that far too many people get far too little joy out of. We are only here, on this Earth, for an extremely limited time, why not make the most out of it! Passions are what give you extra zest in life, they keep you awake at night (in a good way), lead to uncontrolled happiness and even in the face of doom and gloom, continued optimism that tomorrow will be better!

What is the relationship between passion and success?

Everybody has some special ability, discovered or otherwise, and turning that into a revenue stream is, I believe, essential, towards a fulfilling life. Getting great pleasure from helping others is great but being financially rewarded for your efforts is rather addicting and great for creating new habits that feed further into your passion. Basically, if you love doing something, you think, talk and dream of it all the time, it’s time you quit your job and DO IT! A successful person, more often than not, will pursuit their passion at all times of the day and night. What may start as a small creek in your mind can easily grow into a huge river with enormous torrents made-up of joy, money and health if executed correctly.

The trap of a “job”

To me, a “job” is a three letter word that makes me shutter. Why? Well, you are always going to be selling yourself far shorter than your true value by taking-on one of these horendous corporate creations. If you love what you do, it’s called a career, if you hate it, at least in my book, it’s called a job. I have taken jobs here and there for “fun” just to experience what others spend their lives doing and to be frank, I have always thanked my lucky stars that this is not a fate that will ever come into my life. People get into jobs for security but if the financial crisis has taught me anything it’s that this is a false proposition, even worse, a LIE! Think of it this way, you either run your own enterprise and see the pink slip coming or work for somebody else and get blindsided. A job is not a guarantee, not security and sure as heck not any fun… so why do this to yourself? Find alternatives ASAP before you lose anymore of your life’s energy.

Finding ones passion

I have a relative who, just a little over a month ago found the “stock market”. You may think this is a bad thing but within this small period of time, he has found a true passion for studying public companies and trading them online. The result? He has made more than his job gives to him and right now, it actually costs him MORE to work for somebody else than to stay home and trade stocks! He was always a very happy and go-lucky person previously (must be a genetic trait of our family) but now, when he speaks, there is a little bit more “life” coming out of his words… he has found a gift that he never knew existed and is making a small fortune doing what he loves! I had another relative give this a try but instead of making money, they lost almost all of it through a “virtual account”. The reason? Passion! If you love what you do, your mind re-aligns itself to put more energies towards achieving the goal you have set for it. I know a number of people who have discovered their hidden talents and where able to leave their job and become self-employed and have never looked back.

The Bottom Line

Passions come in all shapes and sizes, find yours today!

Your goal over the holidays is not to become wider than the Christmas Tree!

Many people gain a few extra pounds over the holidays so here are some tips to keep them at a minimum and even, possibly, lose weight while taking some time off!

What’s up with the weight gain?

On a daily basis, no matter what time of day or night you take in the calories, a balance is created. If you eat more than you burn, you gain weight, if you eat burn more than you eat, you lose weight. I don’t mean to over-simplify things but basically, this is really  a rather simple equation to work from.

Metabolism explained

It’s a known fact that your metabolism plays havoc on you when you change your lifestyle in any sudden way. Your mind, love or hate it, has only one goal in mind, to keep you alive another day out on the savannah full of lions and elephants. You must realize that when ever there is a shock to the system, your mind will direct your body to slow-down your metabolism (so you burn less) while, at the same time, dump as much muscle as possible while building-up fat reserves. Why? Well, muscle is very expensive to maintain while fat is easy and more calorie dense.

Alright, let’s recap.

If you eat more than you burn and your metabolism takes a nosedive while your body dumps as much muscle as possible because your lifestyle has suddenly changed… you GAIN WEIGHT!

Holiday Meals and habits

Now, if that wasn’t bad enough, the holidays are usually accompanied by very healthy portions of very calorie dense foods. Why is this bad? Well, it’s easy to over-eat as you can shove more into your mouth in one sitting before your brain signals you that your stomach is full. Add on-top of that, being distracted by conversation, friends and intense concentration and you have a recipe for eating a heck of a lot of stuff. Throw-in some alcoholic drinks to further confuse your brain and the pounds really start to roll on!

Solution to the holiday bulge

Here are a few tips to keep your waistline in check and maybe even lose a few pounds while enjoying the holidays.

1. Before any large meals, drink two glasses of water, this fills-up your stomach so you can’t eat as much and even better, keeps you hydrated, thus reducing stress on your vital organs.
2. Avoid alcoholic beverages, alcohol is a leeching agent throughout your body and worse yet, empty calories without any nutritional value at all. If you got to drink, drink one glass of water for every glass of ethanol.
3. Try to maintain regular schedules, remember, any sudden changes causes your body to go into starvation mode, if you keep your sleeping and eating patterns roughly the same, this reaction is minimized.
4. Take your time, being in a hurry to eat usually leads to over-consumption. Relax, enjoy the environment and eat as slowly as possible.
5. Exercise! In the morning, why not go for a quick jog to keep you in shape and after a large meal, a nice walk around the block. It will do wonders for you!
6. Get yourself a small plate! It’s a proven fact that a larger plate leads to added food consumption, this is a trick used by restaurants but be sure to be smart, if it’s a buffet, grab a smaller plate.
7. Get soup and salad instead of steak and lobster! The calories found within a soup and salad are almost nothing compared to a heaping plate full of fries and meat / seafood. Bread is fine but in moderation.
8. Sleep at the same time every night! Sleep deprivation is a wonderful way to gain weight because it stresses the hell out of your body (remember, stress causes your body to go into starvation mode even if you are already obese!)
9. Take lots of pictures! The more you take the initiative to move around and not be so sedentary, the better you will get through the holidays without that bulge!
10. Take time-outs. You are probably overloading your senses on a daily basis, take some time off for even half an hour to wind yourself back down.

The Bottom Line

Staying lean over the holidays takes some effort but is more than possible if you put your mind to it.

The steps of paranoia are a painful one!

Running around with your head chopped-off does nothing but make you die faster!

Jumping from one paranoid episode to another!

The propensity for people to jump from one crisis into another is happening yet again, right now, but this time, it isn’t terrorists but finances that are at the top of the list! What exactly did being scared of terrorists solve? NOTHING! If you review the news reports, trillions of dollars where spent, lives lost and even worse, the roots of the global economic crisis going on RIGHT NOW where formed. This is happening all again right now, the news has nothing good to say, governments are passing laws that make little sense and yet again, borrowing money they don’t have to put on the backs of the next generations to pay down. This has got to stop! You don’t dig yourself out of a hole by digging faster!

Where does paranoia come from?

Paranoia comes from not knowing what is around the corner… it served us very well in the ancient grasslands of Africa when many animals wanted us for their diner but now, with mass media and instant communication… this is killing-off our societies ability to maintain a clear vision regarding the future. There are problems now, there will be problems later but one things for sure, there will ALWAYS be problems. Going from a cycle of ignorance or indifference into paranoid frenzy as soon as a friend of a friend’s brother’s uncle’s grandfather looses a bit of money does nobody any good. The media, social groups, friends… all help create a severe winding-up of fears which only end-up making the entire situation worse for all involved, not better!

Paranoia affects your mental health!

I would be completely unsurprised if hospitals reported a significant increase in patience suffering from heart attacks, strokes and many other accidents… mostly due to the constant level of stress they put onto themselves. For instance, you lost 60% of your “savings” in the stock market over the past year… that would stress anybody out but if you treated the markets like a casino (they are one in the same in my opinion), you NEVER would have put your money in there to begin with. Never put money you can’t afford to lose on the market or with others, you are just asking to be burned.

So what is the solution?

The first is to accept that chaos will always win against stability, this is an important fact that is too easily ignored at our own peril. Second, a clear, long-term vision is required where small deviations might be necessary but the bigger picture of goal never getting out of sight. Micro-management isn’t any good for anybody.

Opportunity in Chaos

Each and every time there is extreme turmoil in society in general, you have winners who see the opportunity and losers who do not. This financial crisis is no different. Look at the marketplace, competitors are dying-off, retailers are eager for new products to sell and generally people are looking for escapes any way they can. The video game industry is booming right now as well as a few other sectors… try to think of what you can do to profit and actually help people, in the process, of making some money. Your goal shouldn’t be just getting out of this chaos alive, it should be to come out ahead!

The Bottom Line

Paranoia causes nothing but mental and physical stress, don’t allow yourself to be sucked into it!

Earth is insignificant compared to the vastness of the Universe!

I am an avid fan of CBC’s Quirks and Quarks show and last week, they had a top 10 listing of how our world will end by leading scientists.

End of the World?

It isn’t a question of IF but WHEN, whether tomorrow or 100 000 years from now, our species is a blink in the universes eye and we are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I am sure the universe is a very creative being and will use something abstract to end our civilization no matter how far away from Earth it colonizes. If you are hoping and praying for an after-life, where would it take place if there was NO UNIVERSE? Fun questions to ask yourself on a Sunday afternoon eh?

10: The Sun eats the Earth!

Our Sun uses hydrogen as it’s primary fuel source, it WILL run-out in about 7 billion years and turn into a quickly expanding “Red Giant”. Growing to over 250x its current size while losing a third of its mass in the process. The Earth’s oceans would evaporate, the surface would return to a molten form and if you are a human on this planet, no amount of air conditioning will keep you from spontaneously catching fire. Try to imagine yourself holding a nuclear bomb when it explodes and it should give you an idea of how uncomfortable this era of our Earth will be.

9: Gamma-Ray burst will microwave us!

What happens to water when you put it into a microwave? It gets how… now imagine if you where stuck in a microwave that had a wattage exponentially higher! How does this happen? Well, a star, such as our Sun, right before it explodes into a quark, releases a bursts of energy while undergoing a Super Nova. This DOES happen, has been recorded and so far, we have escaped them. Don’t worry, if you survived the first few seconds of this gamma-ray burst, our ozone layer would be destroyed and you would be fried by our Sun’s UV rays. Best to stock-up on some sunscreen and dig yourself a BIG HOLE to live in right now!

8: Rogue black hole eats Earth!

If the rogue black hole was large enough, it would completely shier the entire Earth and spit it out into its base elements. It would need to be just a few hundred kilometers in wise as well… so we aren’t talking about a HUGE black hole being necessary. Interestingly enough, the center of our galaxy is occupied by a super massive black hole!

7: Earth gets KO’ed by an asteroid

An asteroid a few kilometers in size hitting the Earth would lead to massive tidal waves, worldwide instant incineration as the seismic waves engulf our planet causing both volcanos to show-up everywhere and millions of molten asteroids caused by the initial impact zone rain down. If that wasn’t bad enough, possibly a few decades of nuclear winter along with a complete collapse of the Earth’s ecosystems would sure make the planet a lonely place unless you had Wikipedia to keep you busy!

6: Earth goes into a super massive ice-age!

Imagine that the entire Earth was covered by kilometers of ice! Scientists actually believe this happened about 750  to 650 million years ago on Earth. What can cause this? Well, our Sun greatly reducing it’s power output or CO2 levels dropping exponentially, no longer trapping any heat in our atmosphere.

5: Magnetic field collapses across our Milky Way Galaxy!

The magnetic field throughout our galaxy is all that is stopping it from imploding onto itself due to the powerful forces of gravity, remove this and our entire galaxy becomes flatter than a pancake! Don’t worry, the Super Novas caused by such a decline would fry you far before you ever felt the sky falling onto you.

4: Earth’s magnetic field reverses itself!

Cosmic radiation would be able to reach the surface of Earth and basically black-out our energy sources such as telephone wires, wireless networks and cause havoc on with any electronic equipment of any kind. The last reversal on planet Earth actually happened about 700 thousand years ago and we are 250 thousand years (so far) overdue for this to happen again as they usually occur every 500 thousand years. Time to trash your car and buy a wheelbarrow!

3: A nearby star goes Super Nova on us!

Damage from a Super Nova first causes a massive release of gamma-rays (above) followed by massive amounts of x-rays. Our ozone gets depleated in the blink of an eye (depending on distance) and voila, we get fried by our own Sun’s UV rays. To have any impact the super nova would need to be at least 25 million light years away from us. If you happen to still be alive, the genetic damage this causes would probably mean permanent infertility for all living things on our planet. The good news about this is that teenage pregnancy becomes impossible!

2: Super Volcano comes-up on Earth!

74 thousand years ago, a super volcano, about a hundred times bigger than anything we have now, exploded an incredible amount of material into our atmosphere. The result? Causing a global nuclear winter due to the ash thrown into our atmosphere with constant super-tsunamis and Richter Scale crushing earthquakes. Scientists expect one to occur in the next 10 thousand years.

1: Aliens invade us!

Let’s hope that these aliens don’t have the same mentality as us, otherwise, we are doomed.

The Bottom Line

The Earth may die tomorrow but you are alive today… appreciate it!

Buzvia: CBC’s Quirks and Quarks