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The price of success

MILIANARD134

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Today I was with my father at the theater and we saw Avengers Endgame. By the way a great movie but the goal of the topic isn't to review this blockbuster or spoil you the end. I'm not the typical geek that love marvel and super hero stuff, but Infinity war was good so I said, let's go, let's watch it.

When you think about the vilain Thanos, there is a lot of analogy with entrepreneurship, particularly when he need to sacrifice his daughter in order to achieve his goal in the precedent opus. This scene is crazy because thanos really love his daughter, but he need to make his dream a reality, he needs the soul stone to achieve his dream

It may be the same for you who are reading this post written in an approximative english, maybe you dream of billion, of big warehouse full of products, what's separate you from this?
Can you do this by going to the club all weeks and spending a lot on expensive clothes?
What do you love the most in your life that you could sacrifice as thanos did for success ?

I think this vilain is really great because he teach us everything has a price, and you can't catch two fish at the same time, you need to leave one go to get the big one.
What do you guys think about the movie if you watched it , and in your journey what/who did you let go to pursue your dream ?
 
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Johnny boy

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I don't believe in rules. "You must do x to get y".

Says who? The only real rules are that water freezes at 32 degrees and it's not good to shoot people for no reason. Pretty much everything else is up in the air. I don't have to sacrifice anything to grow my business. I have to transport the money in other people's pockets into my pockets and anything that isn't that is malleable other than breaking the law or doing something harmful.

Nearly all people, even those who look to live a life "unscripted ", are still very much following a script in one way or another. They have all of these limiting beliefs that make them less creative. Beliefs like you can't catch two fish at the same time. And when you step outside of everyone elses' mode of thinking, they try to steer you back into their lane one way or another.

Someone told me I needed credit to get a loan and that credit was important. Something inside of me just felt like that wasn't true. If I believed them I'd tuck my tail between my legs and work on building my credit score and making sure my business showed consistent revenue for 3-4 years before getting the "privilege" of borrowing money.

"Get a credit card, make your payments and one day you'll be able to buy a house that looks like crap for 200k!"

Instead, I just made some friends with some money.

"Hey bud, I'm growing my business. Give me 50k and I'll turn it into 70k. Here's what I'll do with it. Sound good?"

"Sounds good Johnny Boy"

Same thing with work

"Study hard and get a good job and one day you'll go from $10 an hour all the way up to $20 an hour!"

So I dropped out of school and started my own business. When I do the work myself it's $80 an hour and I'm growing the business to have crews working and eventually plan to franchise it. If I worked full time it would be a bit nicer but I guess I just enjoy waking up late and having mojitos too much. I'm moving in to a lake house for the summer next week.

There's no sacrifice. There's no rules to life. It's what you make it. Suckers live by rules. Employees live by rules. Winners live by their own imagination. Thinking of sacrifice makes you feel like nothing will matter, since everything takes from somewhere else. What a miserable life. You trick yourself into feeling guilty for enjoyment, and only happy when you're experiencing discomfort. You're conditioning your brain into "feels good = bad" and "feels bad = good". There's usually another opportunity that is available that will both feel good and actually be good. I believe Tim Ferris speaks of it in the 4-hour workweek.

So as time goes on, I believe less and less in rules. I believe less and less in the things people tell me and more and more in my own gut that you can have your cake, eat it too, and have a super model give you a massage while it happens. No more glass half empty or half full, just bottle service and it's all for free. Think outside of the box. It's not a zero-sum game. There's enough to go around and thinking smart can get you 100x returns.
 

Ninjakid

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Nah dude, you're missing the point.

In the comics, Thanos is in love with Death. He worships her like many tribal societies worshipped their Gods, by making animal and human sacrifices. He commits genocide as sacrifices to Death.

The movie completely changed Thanos' character, in line with the current trend of sympathetic villains. The movie makes him out to be acting for a higher good – almost like more of an anti-hero. In the comics, he's basically a psychopath who relishes the destruction of life. Honestly I'm disappointed with his portrayal in the movies because he seems less menacing than his character was meant to be.

Thanos isn't meant to be a life lesson lol.
 
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The Abundant Man

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Nah dude, you're missing the point.

In the comics, Thanos is in love with Death. He worships her like many tribal societies worshipped their Gods, by making animal and human sacrifices. He commits genocide as sacrifices to Death.

The movie completely changed Thanos' character, in line with the current trend of sympathetic villains. The movie makes him out to be acting for a higher good – almost like more of an anti-hero. In the comics, he's basically a psychopath who relishes the destruction of life. Honestly I'm disappointed with his portrayal in the movies because he seems less menacing than his character was meant to be.

Thanos isn't meant to be a life lesson lol.
Well, he's talking about movie Thanos not comics Thanos.
 

Devampre

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I don't think to be successful one would have to toss their child off a cliff. But, I understand the point you are making.

I think many people look at change as sacrifice. I mean it is, but it shouldn't be thought of as loss, which many people confuse it for.

If one goes to the club 5 days out of the week and then one day decides to "sacrifice" going to the club completely, it isn't like they are going to now sit and do nothing with the new spare time they acquired. Now they have even more time to improve their life. They could go to the gym to improve their health. They could work more on their side hustle to grow their bank account. They could have more time for the people that matter in their life and strengthen their relationships.

Ultimately, I wouldn't look at change as "sacrifice" or "loss." Think consciously about the changes you want to make in your life and understand the true benefits of making such change. Is going to the bar and drinking beer all night really the best life can get? Or is it just a comfortable and easy way to get dopamine while you harm your health and wallet in the process?

I think Chapter 24 in Unscripted is really good at explaining why living frugally and with great sacrifice is likely not in one's best interest.
Also, a nice little saying I like is, "what is life without a little fun?" :smile2:
 

Kevin88660

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Today I was with my father at the theater and we saw Avengers Endgame. By the way a great movie but the goal of the topic isn't to review this blockbuster or spoil you the end. I'm not the typical geek that love marvel and super hero stuff, but Infinity war was good so I said, let's go, let's watch it.

When you think about the vilain Thanos, there is a lot of analogy with entrepreneurship, particularly when he need to sacrifice his daughter in order to achieve his goal in the precedent opus. This scene is crazy because thanos really love his daughter, but he need to make his dream a reality, he needs the soul stone to achieve his dream

It may be the same for you who are reading this post written in an approximative english, maybe you dream of billion, of big warehouse full of products, what's separate you from this?
Can you do this by going to the club all weeks and spending a lot on expensive clothes?
What do you love the most in your life that you could sacrifice as thanos did for success ?

I think this vilain is really great because he teach us everything has a price, and you can't catch two fish at the same time, you need to leave one go to get the big one.
What do you guys think about the movie if you watched it , and in your journey what/who did you let go to pursue your dream ?
I think to make everyone understand the context better, i would day the most relevant trade-off would be business vs family.

I read about a start-up founder says he has no time to see his children grow up and that is the price.

This is not just limited to business owners. Chinese internet companies are starting a 9-9-6 culture for their employees. Work 9am to 9pm 6 days a week.
 
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The Abundant Man

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I think to make everyone understand the context better, i would day the most relevant trade-off would be business vs family.

I read about a start-up founder says he has no time to see his children grow up and that is the price.

This is not just limited to business owners. Chinese internet companies are starting a 9-9-6 culture for their employees. Work 9am to 9pm 6 days a week.
The point of Fastlane/Unscripted is to free up time and make money.

You can have a business and a family.
 

The Abundant Man

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I don't think to be successful one would have to toss their child off a cliff.
For some reason this reminds me of the story in the Bible where God requires Abraham to sacrifice his own son. When Abraham is about to do it God goes "Hold on. You have proven yourself. You don't have to actually do it."

One of my favorites is the story of Job. One day the devil goes to God and asks him, "This is your most loyal guy. Let me mess this guys life up." God then allows him to do so. The devil takes away everything from him. His land, his animals, his family, his children etc.

Finally, Job cries out, "Why God Why?!"

God goes, "You're the best. I'm going to give you your whole life back but better." So God literally gives him a brand new better life.
 

Ninjakid

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Well, he's talking about movie Thanos not comics Thanos.
I know, I'm providing context on Thanos portrayal.

OP was implying MCU Thanos sacrifices for the sake of "success," and that lesson is somehow a lesson for business, and I'm pointing out the point of his character at all.

Both versions Thanos commits genocide as a sacrifice, but in the MCU they just made it a different purpose. MCU Thanos is an embodiment of many real dictators, like Hitler, Mao, or Stalin. They are supposedly driven by a "vision" which masks how twisted their worldview is. They find some sick rational to justify mass-murder.

MCU Thanos is not meant to be an example of world success, he's meant to be a deeply disturbed individual.
 
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luniac

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The price of quitting is much higher.

You wanna die on your deathbed a failure or a quitter?

Life isn't fair, sometimes failure is your fate, nothing to be ashamed off if you really gave it ur all.


aka
thanos failed in the end but he took his L like a champ and calmly sat down to await his fate.
 
Last edited:

MakeItHappen

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The price of quitting is much higher.
Yes! It's very important to understand that not doing something has always a cost as well.

What's the price of failure and mediocrity?

Also I doubt that many people define success as "not having time to take care of my family".
 
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MILIANARD134

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Ok so I think i have to reexplain my vision of success, but first thank you all for taking of your time to answer.
For me success isn't something as having a family, or mariage, or even be rich.
Success is your own goal, for some people, success means be a professional athlete, or for drug dealer be the best drug dealer(lol).
I don't approve this by the way, but I think success is not something you could say have to be morally acceptable or not. I don't approve some people of my french history, like Napoleon, but i think they are successful, because they reach their big goal.

So for Thanos it's the same, Thanos is not morally a good person, but I think he traveled the path to his own success.

So far I really like your quote @MakeItHappen, make me reflect about my own vision of success.
Anyway I think I have to practice a lot my english before trying to explain what I feel because it's a bit hard to debate with my poor vocabular...
 

100k

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Everything has a price. You do have to sacrifice something for something else.

Even if you don't think you're sacrificing you're doing it in some shape or form.

To become a good at something you need to dedicate (sacrifice) time to practice your craft.
To make friends you need to invest your time/energy towards those people - which takes you away from something/someone else.
There's always a sacrifice - unless you just happen to wake up with $1 mil. + into your bank account because you're a trust fund baby. Anything short of that then you'll need to pay some type of price.
And my way of thinking isn't limiting - its realistic and frank.
 

Coff33Add1ct

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I think it depends on the amount of wealth you want to acquire, the stage of your business (just starting, stable, was good but not anymore) and your particular circumstances. For those of us who don't have a family, well, we don't have to sacrifice family time, we don't have something to lose. Introverts don't have to sacrifice friends time, party time, etc. because they aren't interested in those things. If you have a family, friends, hobbies, etc. and you want to build a business to lead a comfortable life but not to be the most powerful, wealthy person on the planet, I guess you can achieve a balance of business time and family time. But, if you want to achieve that level of success, and you have a family, friends, etc. you'll have to sacrifice a lot to get there. Just read any autobiography of someone of that stature and somehow they had to sacrifice other interests to achieve what they achieved.
 
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