Hello all!
I just wanted to take a minute to share with you all one of the first skills I found necessary to learn on the road to success - mind you my success with business is limited and growing. The beauty of this tool is that it can be applied to any area of life you deem important - any area in life in which you want to see success.
Three years ago, I was told I was going to have to take two years of a foreign language if I wanted to graduate high school at the recommended level. This news struck me at the core with disdain and disgust. Foreign language had been pushed to the back of my mind as I saw friends walking home each day with an eight-pound blocky textbook, a menacing stack of black and white leafs of homework, and witnessed first-hand the parasitic nature of songs detailing the conjugation of particular verbs. "HA HAN HAS HAMOS..." they would chant through the hallways - providing a gap of humor to another droll lecture. And all of this with the added caveat that 80% of the kids in these classes still couldn't manage to speak the language they were enrolled in! Briefly put, I was not looking forward to two years of similar torture.
A week after receiving the news, I decided for myself - the hell with that! I'm just going to teach myself a language! My thought process was that I knew myself and my learning style better than any other teacher out there; I knew that I wasn't wont to do my homework; and I knew that I had seven months until the next Credit-By-Exam test. This was my deadline - I had seven months in order to test out of two years of German. German was not my first choice. In my bull-headed spirit, I first downloaded the popular, free language learning app Duolingo and began to study German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese all at the same time. This madness lasted the week, until the languages began to fall off one by one. German being the last remaining to really grab my interest. That day, I dedicated myself to learning German in seven months.
Thus began the mayhem - every spare minute I had was filled with the fanfare of trumpets and depleting hearts (fun aspects of the app) as new vocabulary and grammar concepts filled my head. Only to be briefly followed by grammatically butchered writings of amateur poetry, and a seemingly endless amount of YouTube videos which I used to immerse myself in the German culture and mindset - and to figure out where I was falling short in grammar.
I ventured through this personally virgin territory intent on finding the best methods, forums, and books which would allow me to learn everything possible in the months to follow. This introduced me to lads like Benny Lewis, Timothy Doner, Richard Simcott, and taught a new word which I would quickly come to admire, and covet those who applied it as a badge of honor "polyglot." I waded through horribly boring concepts like the "Subjunctive Case" or trying to remember how to conjugate the "second person singular informal future conditional conjugation" of a given verb. All of these terms which I had to bash into my head - often literally - in order to begin to comprehend.
Then, a long seven months later, came my time to shine. I was sat in a room completely void of life or energy (I hadn't managed much sleep the night before) or other people - save for the teacher administering the exam. I was given a laptop, a pair of headphones, and a BoomBox from 2004 which contained a cassette tape from the 90s. The exam began. // A short four months later, I was admitted straight into the German 3 class, and awarded credit for 2 completed years of German study - my work had paid off. Then, I was told of a test called the AATG which ranked the ability of German students all across my state. Completely self-taught, I competed, and won gold at Level 2 and bronze at Level 3 across all students in my state. I wore the medals throughout the rest of the day with pride. I had done it.
_____
Today, I sat before my computer with a throbbing headache, mounting laziness, and a growing sense of hopelessness. Could my projects really grow into successes? Did I really know how to market these products? Am I really the person to take these to market? Then stumbling through my project files, I found a list of retail marijuana vendors in Oregon, and with the same fire and passion as I had three years ago the thought hit me in an instant - I am the person to provide value to these people. I am creating a product that will improve their business and help bring them more sales. I am going to play in active part in helping these people succeed.
Raw, unfettered dedication is a powerful thing. To paraphrase Grant Cardone - when you don't meet your goals, don't lower your expectations. Raise your efforts!
I hope you all enjoyed this post! Here's some further reading.
"Awaken the Giant Within" - Tony Robbins
"Be Obsessed or Be Average" - Grant Cardone
I just wanted to take a minute to share with you all one of the first skills I found necessary to learn on the road to success - mind you my success with business is limited and growing. The beauty of this tool is that it can be applied to any area of life you deem important - any area in life in which you want to see success.
Three years ago, I was told I was going to have to take two years of a foreign language if I wanted to graduate high school at the recommended level. This news struck me at the core with disdain and disgust. Foreign language had been pushed to the back of my mind as I saw friends walking home each day with an eight-pound blocky textbook, a menacing stack of black and white leafs of homework, and witnessed first-hand the parasitic nature of songs detailing the conjugation of particular verbs. "HA HAN HAS HAMOS..." they would chant through the hallways - providing a gap of humor to another droll lecture. And all of this with the added caveat that 80% of the kids in these classes still couldn't manage to speak the language they were enrolled in! Briefly put, I was not looking forward to two years of similar torture.
A week after receiving the news, I decided for myself - the hell with that! I'm just going to teach myself a language! My thought process was that I knew myself and my learning style better than any other teacher out there; I knew that I wasn't wont to do my homework; and I knew that I had seven months until the next Credit-By-Exam test. This was my deadline - I had seven months in order to test out of two years of German. German was not my first choice. In my bull-headed spirit, I first downloaded the popular, free language learning app Duolingo and began to study German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese all at the same time. This madness lasted the week, until the languages began to fall off one by one. German being the last remaining to really grab my interest. That day, I dedicated myself to learning German in seven months.
Thus began the mayhem - every spare minute I had was filled with the fanfare of trumpets and depleting hearts (fun aspects of the app) as new vocabulary and grammar concepts filled my head. Only to be briefly followed by grammatically butchered writings of amateur poetry, and a seemingly endless amount of YouTube videos which I used to immerse myself in the German culture and mindset - and to figure out where I was falling short in grammar.
I ventured through this personally virgin territory intent on finding the best methods, forums, and books which would allow me to learn everything possible in the months to follow. This introduced me to lads like Benny Lewis, Timothy Doner, Richard Simcott, and taught a new word which I would quickly come to admire, and covet those who applied it as a badge of honor "polyglot." I waded through horribly boring concepts like the "Subjunctive Case" or trying to remember how to conjugate the "second person singular informal future conditional conjugation" of a given verb. All of these terms which I had to bash into my head - often literally - in order to begin to comprehend.
Then, a long seven months later, came my time to shine. I was sat in a room completely void of life or energy (I hadn't managed much sleep the night before) or other people - save for the teacher administering the exam. I was given a laptop, a pair of headphones, and a BoomBox from 2004 which contained a cassette tape from the 90s. The exam began. // A short four months later, I was admitted straight into the German 3 class, and awarded credit for 2 completed years of German study - my work had paid off. Then, I was told of a test called the AATG which ranked the ability of German students all across my state. Completely self-taught, I competed, and won gold at Level 2 and bronze at Level 3 across all students in my state. I wore the medals throughout the rest of the day with pride. I had done it.
_____
Today, I sat before my computer with a throbbing headache, mounting laziness, and a growing sense of hopelessness. Could my projects really grow into successes? Did I really know how to market these products? Am I really the person to take these to market? Then stumbling through my project files, I found a list of retail marijuana vendors in Oregon, and with the same fire and passion as I had three years ago the thought hit me in an instant - I am the person to provide value to these people. I am creating a product that will improve their business and help bring them more sales. I am going to play in active part in helping these people succeed.
Raw, unfettered dedication is a powerful thing. To paraphrase Grant Cardone - when you don't meet your goals, don't lower your expectations. Raise your efforts!
I hope you all enjoyed this post! Here's some further reading.
"Awaken the Giant Within" - Tony Robbins
"Be Obsessed or Be Average" - Grant Cardone
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