Andy Black
Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
LEGACY MEMBER
MEMBER
The first anniversary of my dad’s passing was last month and I’ve been thinking about him a lot recently.
Andy Black Snr joined the British army at the age of 16, and left over two decades later as a staff sergeant.
It’s been said that staff sergeants are the backbone of the British army. They’ve shoveled their fair share. They’ve been in the trenches. They engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Staff sergeants are practitioners leading a small team of practitioners. They lead not because they have stripes on their sleeve, but because they *earned* those stripes.
One thing my dad hated about the army was blind obedience to authority that doesn’t deserve it.
The last thing he wanted was for me to follow in the family footsteps (his dad and two older brothers were in the RAF and his younger brother was in the army too).
His revulsion to blind obedience must have rubbed off on me in some ways.
I’m a reluctant course creator. The thought of creating a course on something I’ve not been in the trenches for is not how I’ve been brought up. I created my course because I’m a practitioner, and because people kept asking if I had one.
I suppose that’s the best way to start a business - having people asking to give you money?
Anyway... one of the phrases that jarrs with me is “building authority”.
“How do I build authority?”
WTF?!?
Do the fecking work. Get in the trenches. Engage your market in hand-to-hand combat. Get bloody. Get knocked flat. Get up again. Keep going.
Keep going. Keep moving forward. Create a vacuum and people will tuck in and follow.
Battle scars are *earned*.
Wisdom is *earned*.
Grey hair and wrinkles are *earned*.
Want to know how to “build authority”?
Earn your fecking stripes.
When I get to my PC I’ll upload a photo of my dad. I know he was super proud of me. I just hope he realised how super proud of him I am.
Andy Black Snr joined the British army at the age of 16, and left over two decades later as a staff sergeant.
It’s been said that staff sergeants are the backbone of the British army. They’ve shoveled their fair share. They’ve been in the trenches. They engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Staff sergeants are practitioners leading a small team of practitioners. They lead not because they have stripes on their sleeve, but because they *earned* those stripes.
One thing my dad hated about the army was blind obedience to authority that doesn’t deserve it.
The last thing he wanted was for me to follow in the family footsteps (his dad and two older brothers were in the RAF and his younger brother was in the army too).
His revulsion to blind obedience must have rubbed off on me in some ways.
I’m a reluctant course creator. The thought of creating a course on something I’ve not been in the trenches for is not how I’ve been brought up. I created my course because I’m a practitioner, and because people kept asking if I had one.
I suppose that’s the best way to start a business - having people asking to give you money?
Anyway... one of the phrases that jarrs with me is “building authority”.
“How do I build authority?”
WTF?!?
Do the fecking work. Get in the trenches. Engage your market in hand-to-hand combat. Get bloody. Get knocked flat. Get up again. Keep going.
Keep going. Keep moving forward. Create a vacuum and people will tuck in and follow.
Battle scars are *earned*.
Wisdom is *earned*.
Grey hair and wrinkles are *earned*.
Want to know how to “build authority”?
Earn your fecking stripes.
When I get to my PC I’ll upload a photo of my dad. I know he was super proud of me. I just hope he realised how super proud of him I am.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
