LegendaryLife Blog

I’ve been traveling for a while now and am finally staying put for the next month or so while I wait for things to sort themselves out with (I hope) Australia but with each new place, you see new habits.

Going from a cabin in the woods back to “civilization”, I noticed my uncle took a break from the regular stock market trading and started playing poker online using the FaceBook system… don’t quite know how it works but he seems to enjoy it. It got me thinking of how marketing is done by poker companies, as they are a dime a dozen nowadays… the old advertisements for free poker at PokerStars.net on television, knowing full well that people would only remember the .com I thought was a wonderful marketing ploy. Those commercials for the .net where everywhere… funny how that ended-up for the guy.

I believe the owner of this got his domain was taken over by GoDaddy a while back because he, making millions of dollars online, forgot to renew one or both domains. There are tons of other poker sites online as well, you see them on TV every afternoon during the weekend up here.

I’m unsure if it’s the same owner but another poker site that seems to have given this .com pay vs .net free marketing system recently is PartyPoker.com.

All I got to say is that I hope these guys don’t forget to renew their domain like the PokerStars guys… otherwise, we’ll be reading about them online in forums!

As for me, I’m not that big a fan of Poker… I prefer to keep doing my 3D modeling, animation and growing my online businesses… but the thought did occur to me more often than not to get other domains for my sites, so instead of just WoodMarvels.com, getting the .net variation – not sure as to the value though… from my stats, most people by default look for the .com on things.

The nice thing about both sites is that they allow you to play online for free… so if you are a big fan of poker – no point in buying these video games at the store, you can just do like my uncle… spend endless hours playing this stuff at home. Unlike the stock market, you can’t lose your savings playing the free versions of these games.

Every once in a while, I’m reminded at just how narrow minded people at the executive level of a company can become the longer they work on ONE task for an extended period of time at a specific position. It isn’t their fault, our minds are built to build initial comfort then doing anything possible to REMAIN there. The result? Rejecting ideas or individuals who may challenge you to grow in new risky directions.

People get their weekly salary and THAT’S IT. They wake-up, go to work, come home, watch TV, kiss their kids goodnight then repeat the same again the next day… each time re-enforcing the level of comfort and dulling the senses slowly regarding their true potential. Basically, your mind optimizes itself overtime to coast along and optimize life around this repeating pattern and any deviation from these thought or action patterns is quickly stamped-out. People become COMFORTABLE and soon cannot imagine themselves doing anything else in life. BIG MISTAKE!

Wonder why some companies prosper while others fade away? Easy… comfort! The ones that grow and thrive keep trying new things, fail often but always move closer to an ever moving goal-post. The ones that fail? See their job as a 9-5. Not bad… but we are in a GLOBAL MARKET and 9-5 thinking just isn’t going to cut it anymore! There is always a company in the world that’s willing to do things cheaper, faster and better than you. How do you stay ahead?

1. Keep re-inventing yourself and the company you are directing!
2. Hire passion over expertise. You can teach a task but not passion!
3. Fail… fail… and fail some more. If you don’t fail, you aren’t trying hard enough to succeed!
4. If everybody is driving a Prius… drive a Monster Truck!
5. If you notice others or yourself starting to say “no” to too many ideas without thinking it through – guess what. YOU’VE BECOME COMFORTABLE!

This video is so full or ironies I don’t know where to start but should be mandatory viewing for all children and (most) adults as well who have any kind of prejudice against people of other races.

Just read the comments from this video on TEDs site, it’s incredible that in the face of GENETIC evidence that people still try to dispel scientific facts with belief.

What is holding us back as a species isn’t our belief systems or scientific breakthroughs, it’s the ability to readily ACCEPT new knowledge, adapt it to our needs and replace our old belief systems in the wake of new realities. Far too many humans still cling to our past vestiges (I’m not just talking about religion here) with so much ignorance that they close the door to the incredible opportunities that await them if they could just open their mind.

What we have to collectively accept is that right now, it’s the age of Homo Sapien, but it won’t be in the future… just as it was in the past. Our time is so limited here its scary if you think about it! A few hundred thousand years ago, there were no modern humans and I’d be surprised if there were any a few hundred thousand years in the future.

Instead of using our past to keep us separated, we should collectively unite and build a lasting legacy that will live-on far after the last Homo sapien draws his or hers last breath.

Why waste this precious time with outdated beliefs that prevent us from securing a far longer timeline that we will otherwise have? One of the many questions whose answer won’t be answered in my lifetime.

There are two kinds of companies out there, the “me-toos” which see how successful others are and try to replicate it with a few changes in order to enjoy the same amount of success and the “what-the-___” ones who create their own unique niche and take years to get steam. I’ve had a very bad habit of creating “what-the” since I was a kid, always thinking of the world in a very different way than most others.

I use to deliver newspapers and much to my customer’s puzzlement, would only collect money from them on a bi-monthly basis ONCE (if they weren’t home, it would be another 2 weeks before they saw me) after I realized the more customers owed me, the higher the tips were. Giving 10 cents tip out of 3$ is too easy, not having change for a 20$ when they owed me 17$ was more profitable.

I began a 3D animation studio when most companies had no clue what it was (ironic considering how much “3D” type articles you write about now) and in vain tried to acquire 3ds.com but Dassault Systèmes beat me to it – hence i3DS.com which is starting to sound like a lot of the names of 3D systems out there. Convincing the DELL phone sales rep that I was an industrial company needing a 10K workstation for CAD so it was fine selling it to me.

I was given a line of credit while in university which I promptly cashed-out a few months later (giving my parents two weeks notice in the process) to travel abroad alone for two months to Japan, Australia and Malaysia! I even got another line of credit to help fund my business while learning how to fly!

Since September, WoodMarvels.com has really been on a tear… in the most positive sense of the word. Sales keep going UP, people are more and more offering me great opportunities which, based on my past, I don’t say no to. I still remember the time when I first started WoodMarvels.com, there was just me and my computer (that hasn’t changed much) but the pictures of the resources available all showed hand-crafted toys with guys wearing mustaches showing their handywork. There were screws, nails, extensive material lists and MEASUREMENTS (I hate math!). Suffice it to say, I knew there had to be a better way, computers, 3D animation, no measurements… this seemed like the path forward! Back then, I didn’t even know about lasers, on-demand manufacturing… I was designing things using wooden dowels meant for jigsaws but kept looking for a modern equivalent. I had visited industrial companies around North America and they showed me what was possible… so I designed based on what I saw, not on what I knew.

Barriers to entry where steep, I had no way of cutting much less knowing if my designs worked other than what my computer told me but I didn’t let that stop me… I plowed through. I didn’t know how to design toys but that didn’t stop me. I couldn’t draw but I didn’t let that stop me. I didn’t have any money! That didn’t stop me either! Basically, I saw a door and come hell or high water, I was going to open it!

I wanted others to join with my company as well, and to this day, I still actively look for other designers to have their stuff on my site – nothing worse than going to a store that sells only one style of things… and after each of those collaborations, I learn a little something that helps me improve on my designs!

The more I design for WoodMarvels.com, the more it surprises me that there are no equivalent sites to it. Sure, there are a few hobby places here and there but doing things the way I do? Nope! The cost of entry is huge – you need to get a full time 3D artist (not cheap especially now!) or learn yourself (very steep learning curve), build products out of thin air (easy for me now but incredibly difficult for me when I started), build a brand and partnerships (again, very difficult without an extensive portfolio) and even if you have all of this… finding customers to make it a profitable enterprise! If anything the barriers have only increased, not decreased with time.

Suffice it to say, I believe I created my very own niche and for however a short time I dominate it, the ride has and continues to be fun! That being said, I’m always trying new things… I really and truly love what I do here at WoodMarvels.com and anything I can do to grow the audience and customer base – I’ll give it a try.

There is a motto that I feel myself living through quite often, there is nothing to fear but fear itself – when you realize you have nothing to lose – and go for it… the journey might take a few years with challenges along the way, but taking the initiative and jumping off the diving board without knowing how high or even if there is water in the pool… makes life worth living!

I’m constantly reminded at how important it is to be well diversified, financially speaking. If you learn only one skill that provides but one stream of revenue, you are ASKING for trouble should that stream become a trickle or worse, be damned upstream.

Now, more than ever, learning isn’t something just done during your school-age period but over your entire lifetime. Unlike the “old times”, you are never too old to stop learning new things to keep yourself relevant in the global economy we all find ourselves into. Competition isn’t locally but worldwide so people can no longer afford to remain stagnant in the head when it comes to knowledge and expertise.

I’m to the point now in my life where I have money coming from several buckets, any one bucket dries-out I’m still fine financially… this is the way to live in the future. The nice thing about having several buckets is the freedom it affords me in making decisions that are relevant to my aspirations and goals in life. I know what I want, and increasingly, have the financial confidence to pursuit it without worrying about financial “what-ifs”.

Diversification, especially in the area of financials, is essential. The more buckets you have to pull from, the more water you can devote to any one idea… increasing the chance of any one planted idea growing into a money tree!