Deconstructing Success...

[AndrewNC]

How's the book coming along? Are you writing it as a fiction book?

Creative non-fiction.

I'm modeling the writing style of the majority of the book after how Neil Strauss wrote The Game. Despite non-fiction being my default writing style in the past, I see a lot of benefits of doing the creative non-fiction route:

1. Lessons are better understood and help people make the change in their life easier when you wrap them in stories and metaphors.
2. By using the writing structure that a lot of fiction books use (hooks, cliffhangers, roller coaster of emotions, twists, turns, etc.), it will engage the readers more and make it a more enjoyable read (not like a textbook).
3. This will appeal to more of the mainstream and be able to impact more lives, especially the ones that need it the most.

The stories and lessons are all real/authentic, and people will learn...but they will have a creative twist on it.

I could literally take 100 pages and get the main points across with one sentence on each page - so instead of filling it with boring fluff...I want to make it more entertaining.

 

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[AndrewNC]

After reading the introduction to my roommate - as I was reading it off of my phone, I noticed that about three sentences in - her jaw dropped and she was hooked. She dropped what she was doing and gave this her full attention (which NEVER happens).

After I finished reading, she said the words gave her chills...I'd say thats a good sign.

Then her friend Jamie came over, I read it again - and she mentioned she gets bored when people read to her...and she was hooked the entire time.

I am learning from James Patterson and he said that every chapter should be as high quality as your first - and I feel this is the standard for all my chapters so far.

 

[AndrewNC]

The final introduction is done...

 

[AndrewNC]

I really like this chapter, and want to fit it as the third part of the intro...but I don't know if it fits the storyline there...


First Principles of Success
“Before you are ready to learn, you must first unlearn.” The billionaire said to me.

“But I came here to learn! Why do you want me to forget everything I’ve already been taught!?” I thought to myself.

A lot of the things he was saying contradicted everything I was told to be true growing up, but one thing is for certain: This guy is already living the type of life I want to live, so I should listen to what he says without question.

First Principles Thinking

The first lesson on my journey came not from that millionaire I was driving to meet for lunch in Scottsdale. Instead, I heard the guiding principles of billionaire entrepreneur and investor, Elon Musk, when he began speaking about a rule in physics called First Principles.

When Elon Musk speaks, people listen.

Not only is he the cofounder of Paypal, Tesla Motors, Solar City, and SpaceX, but he is also the man who is saving the planet, and turning humans into an interplanetary species by colonizing Mars.

Yes, he is actually doing that.

First Principlesstates that instead of basing what you do off of the way most people do things and the way things have always been in the past, you must first unlearn (what you thought to be true), begin from the most fundamental truths of the universe, and then work your way up from there.

Thinking Like a Billionaire

“It’s important to reason from first principles, rather than by analogy.” Elon began, “The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. We are doing this because... it’s like something else that was (already) done. Or it’s like... what other people are doing.”

In the late 1800’s, if you asked anybody how to travel faster, they would reason by analogy and tell you to find a faster horse.

Before the automobile was invented, people lived in a reality where they couldn’t believe the future would be that much different than the way things have always been in their past.

They accepted the way things are now as the way things will always be, and this kind of thinking has done nothing except limit what their future holds for them and it holds them stuck in the reality they’ve been living in.

When most people try to move forward in their lives, they make slight adjustments from the way things have always been done, and mimic the way most other people do things.

But what would happen if they broke free from the way there were supposed to do things and began walking a path less traveled?

What if they created their own path? Doing so might seem harder at first, but it’s the only way to reach uncharted territory, and begin to live a life they once thought to be impossible.

Would that kind of life be worth it?

Elon accredited first principles thinking for some of his most profound accomplishments in life.

For his space company SpaceX, the Russians quoted him in the tens of millions of dollars for old cold-war era rockets which he would then turn into spaceships. When the finances of the deal didn’t work out for his business, he used first principles thinkingto break the rockets down to its most fundamental building blocks (cost of raw materials, assembly, etc.) and began determining the cost of each rocket from a clean slate.

After he realized that he could build a rocket for only 2% of the price that any rocket cost to be built in the past, he was awarded a $2 Billion contract from NASA to resupply the space station.

$2 Billion was a nice payday after he put 100% of his $165 million fortune into his new companies, and was forced to borrow money for rent and sleep on his friends’ couches just a couple years earlier.

This is what happens when you break free from the norm, and re-learn the “rules of life” from the ground up.

When people were screaming for a more fuel efficient car, he didn’t try to improve upon existing gasoline engines. Instead, he ignored the way everyone else believed to be the only way, and he invested in a company to build a 100% electric engine from the ground up.

This formed the basis for the multi-billion dollar company, Tesla motors.

But first principles thinking doesn’t only apply to large companies and innovations. It applies to the making a breakthrough in your life so you can transform from who you are into who you want to be.

First Principles for Success

Just like most people, I fell into the trap of building a faster horse.

I used to think that my past equals my future, and that I should do things simply because it’s the way most people do them:

• “You’re a ______ and therefore you’ll always be a ________.”
• “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
• “Nobody does that! You’re crazy if you do that! Everybody else does it like THIS…”
• “Successful people came from some type of privilege, or they just got lucky.”
• “If you want to make more money, go back to school.”

It was that last one that finally woke me up. When I graduated college into a recession and couldn’t get a job, the only way I thought I could make more money was to get my Master’s degree, because that is what everyone else is doing (this was me arguing from analogy, not first principles).

When I finally was awarded my advanced degree, the jobs I once was under-qualified for, I’m now “overqualified” for.

Quite paradoxical, isn’t it?

Translation: I was left unemployed and broke, single and alone, when I did things the way I was supposed to do things.

Reasoning by analogy does not create major breakthroughs in your life, regardless of where your starting point is.

In fact, I would argue that the worse off you have it in the beginning, the greater the breakthrough you will experience on your journey.

Do you ever notice that it’s those rock bottoms in life, where things seem like they can’t get any worse, are the very moments that propel you in search for a new way of doing things?

Now, when I meet people on my journey and they tell me how bad they have it, I let them know how excited I am for them!

I say to them “This emotion you’re feeling right now, whether it is rock bottom or simply feeling stuck and wanting more...is the very thing that is pushing you to search for a change in your life. One day you’ll look back and realize that this may have very well been one of the best things that has ever happened to you.”

It’s a lot to digest when you’re going through the struggles, but it’s true.

The time is now to apply first principles to your life, today.

You are here today because you’re ready to reach that next level, you are reading this now because you’re ready to realize that your past doesn’t equal your future, and that means you now know the way you’ve been taught to do things in the past will only get you the results you’ve gotten up until this point.

You don’t want a faster horse. You want to step on the accelerator to success.

This first principles approach to doing things differently than the “normal” way of thinking is where your self-made success begins.

The Unlearning Process

When most people try to learn what it takes to become successful, they skip the unlearning process and begin their journey trying to learn something new.

Of course you need to learn something new, but here’s the thing…

Trying to learn the new without first getting rid of the old is like taking a glass filled to the rim with a thick chocolate milkshake and pouring water on top of it, expecting the glass to retain with water.

What’s bound to happen? Yes, you may have a few drops of the water floating at the surface, but the new content you’re trying to learn is going to overflow and come pouring out the sides.

And then you’ll gain weight, get diabetes, and perhaps die from heart disease at a young age…

But you don’t want that. Instead, you want this new life of success, don’t you?

You won’t retain this new information…this new life, and you’ll feel stuck in your old ways if you don’t first get rid of the old. That feeling of being stuck is nothing more than a feeling.

It’s not real.

You break free by letting go…

Let go of the old life, and make room for the new. This means to stop doing the things you’ve done in the past that have been holding you back before you begin doing the things you need to do in order to be successful.

You break free by waking up and taking this next step…

These old guiding principles got you the results you’ve got up until this point in life. But just because you are reading this now means that you want more.

Instead, it is not only important, but necessary to begin this journey with first principles thinking. Now that you’ve already accepted the old got you to where you are today, and the things you haven’t even heard of yet will get you to where you want to be in the future, it leaves you with only one possible option: approach these learnings with an open mind.

Warning: This book is going to challenge a lot of the things you’ve been conditioned to believe is “true”.

It’s human nature to defend our beliefs. Think of when somebody challenges a strong belief of yours: Abortion, religion, politics, gun control, welfare, or whatever you feel most strongly about. If someone challenges your belief, you begin to defend it, and it usually makes it stronger in the process.

This book WILL challenge your beliefs, and you must be willing to let some of them go if you want to reach that next level in your life.

Let go of the things that are no longer serving you on your journey to your new life and new reality.

Some of your beliefs are good to have (like how you shouldn’t kill people or jump off a bridge), but I’m not talking about those. You can hold onto them. I’m talking about the ones that are holding you back.

Here is a simple test to see if a belief should stay or go:

1. Does this belief help me get closer to achieving my goals?

2. Is this belief holding me back?

Beliefs are nothing more than electrical impulses going through your brain…they aren’t real.

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right”.

So I ask you for a compromise. Approach the information you are learning here today with an open mind. I’m simply sharing my lessons learned from some of the most successful people on this planet. Some of this information may be for you, and some of it may not.

One of the main premises of this book is a thing called social conditioning.

Social continuing is the process by which society unconsciously conditions the population to act and behave in a certain way. They do this to preserve order and the greater good of society as a whole.

The world needs police officers, garbage men, fast food workers, firefighters, and countless other jobs that overwork and underpay people. Governments, the media, the school system, and even our friends and family program our minds to behave a certain way from the very moment we were born.

This is good for society, but it limits the growth of an individual. Living a life by the rules of social conditioning is the same thing as reasoning by analogy. There are enough people out there to keep society running. It’s ok if you choose to let them take care of the dirty work while you live the life of your dreams.

The world needs leaders like you…

Virtually all of the millionaires and celebrities I’ve met on my journey woke up from this, and guide their actions by first principles thinking…choosing the road less traveled.

They don’t simply do things because other people do them. In fact, most of the things they do or believe go against everything you’ve been conditioned to believe growing up.

Now that you are aware, you are already waking up from this conditioning and already breaking free. When you put the lessons you learned in this book to use, today, you are now open to an entire new and exciting chapter of your life, which begins now.

So what’s it going to be?

Do you want to continue to live the live you’ve been living, and keep walking down that path to the same destination you’ve been to time and time again? You already know where that is going to lead…

Or are you ready to stop doing things simply because other people around you do it that way, or it’s how you’ve done things in the past? When you follow this new path you are ready to start learning from the ground up (first principles thinking) and take that next step on your journey to success...

Now is the moment you are ready to make be that change…

 

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[AndrewNC]

So I'm writing a section of the book where I want to distort time.

What I mean by that is that the chapters I write that span through 2 years of frustration and lessons...but to the reader, they go by as quickly as the 3 hour scene in chapter 1.

How do I give the reader the experience of time dragging out, so I can have them relate to my character in the story?


The things I never thought about while writing my first 2 books...