Why No One Cares About Your Shit (Why Your Sales Pitch Sucks)
by afheyne · 1 comment
We all have a sales pitch in life.
Whether or not you know it, whether or not you like it, your life is a sales pitch.
Your “2 cents” is your sales pitch.
“Find work you love” is a sales pitch.
“Life’s too short to do shit you absolutely hate” is a sales pitch.
“Money, women and fast cars” is a sales pitch.
You’re trying to convince people of an idea and have them go “Yeah, I agree.” (Sold)
The problem is that not all sales pitches are created equal.
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I was on the phone with AMEX and they were trying to sell me shit I don’t need.
As always. Like most credit card companies.
The whole time (6 minutes 31 seconds) I was thinking “I don’t fucking want/need this I don’t fucking want/need this leave me alone.”
The woman was polite but firm in trying to convince me to enroll in an identity protection service and stated the facts: “Last year 8 million Americans were victims of identity theft and didn’t even know it.”
Uh huh, fascinating.
“Our service is an upgrade only for AMEX premium reward users and enrollment is just $1 to try it out for 30 days before you will be billed the full amount. You can cancel any time before then.”
Still fascinating. Still thinking I could care less what she’s talking about. Start cleaning my room and making lunch and saying “uh huh, uh huh, uh huh” every 20 seconds to let her know I’m there.
Eventually (at around the ~6 minute mark) I used my generic excuse to get off the phone: “Oh god there’s a freak thunderstorm and it’s shitting unicorns and gremlins outside *fake static noise* I.. can’t… hear.. “ [click to continue…]
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Inspiration on Steroids And Intellectual Cocaine: Best of Milk the Pigeon
by afheyne · 2 comments
The Best of Milk the Pigeon
A lot of my earlier posts haven’t seen the light of day — some of which I think are definitely the most useful, the most well-written, and the some of the most thought provoking. Thus I thought I’d do a little recap of some of the earlier posts for anyone interested in checking them out!
Inspiration on Steroids
- The End of the Ordinary and the Birth of the Extraordinary
- Why Being a Badass is the Key to Success
- Are Your Dreams Worth $1,000,000?
- Why the Hell Not?
- Young and Lost? You Are Not Alone.
- 10 Posts to Kick You in the Ass And Get Started Building Your Legacy.
- 7 Posts You Need to Read for Firestarters, Revolutionaries, and History Changers
Entrepreneurship and Making Work Not Suck [as much]
- If Your Work Sucks, Learn About Flow.
- 5 Reasons to Continue Being Your Boss’s Bitch.
- Do What You Love and You’ll [Still] Work a Lot of Days in Your Life.
- Why You Should Stop Calling Yourself an Entrepreneur.
- Stand Out Like a Champ: Being a Weirdo 101 (Standing out for dummies)
- Douchiest Role Models You Should Emulate: Positioning, Exposure, and Success
Simplicity
- The Wine Drinker’s Manifesto: Simple Pleasures 101
Make History
- 12 Commandments of the Revolution
- Creating a Conversation-Worthy Life.
- Killing Your Old Life and Living the Dream (Manifesto)
Random/Misc Awesomesauce-ness
- How to Learn any Skill 2x as Fast in 1/2 the Time: Making Greatness Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
- The Paradox of Education (memory technique awesomeness)
- Dog Eating, Bar Fighting and Mini Skirting: The Inside Scoop on China
- Hookers, Bodyslams and Eating Cute Little Puppies: 2011 in Review
Whelp, that pretty much covers it for some golden oldies that are worth re-reading or checking out if you haven’t yet.
And as always.. thank you x 1000 for reading (whoever actually does), since it’s amazing that anyone actually cares about what some random dude has to say.
Belated happy V day –
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When Was the Last Time You Went Balls to the Wall?
by afheyne · 0 comments
Yesterday I decided to go to the park and run sprints at full speed – as fast as I could possibly run without dying.
I’m talking mountain lion running after you fast, I ran so fast I thought my legs would fly out from under me or start spinning like in cartoons. I felt like my torso was two feet behind my legs and I was running on air.
The feeling of giving it 100% even if you feel like you literally may die is a feeling not very familiar to most people these days. It’s not that we’ve grown soft, we’ve just grown comfortable.
Why run full speed if you don’t have to? There aren’t any mountain lions chasing us, no deer we have to run down and hunt to eat, not even a reason just for mere physical activity.
Why give 100% when only giving 60% leaves me with enough to get by?
Because giving something 100% reminds you of what it feels like to own your destiny.
Giving 100% and then some means every cell in your body is screaming towards some goal, that nothing is left up to fate or chance, and that you can honestly say you did everything imaginable.
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So when was the last time you really went balls to the wall?
If you’re like me, and don’t remember the feeling, head to the park and run until you feel like your heart will explode and you’ll pass out.
It’s good for you, and while you’re sucking in breaths it’ll remind you that you’re alive.
Successful people don’t bust their ass because they’re workaholics. They bust their ass because they realize that time is our most valuable commodity — and that to not give 100% every single day in every single pursuit would be a sin.
Image Credits
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5 Ways to Suck at Life & Business (The Straight low down)
by afheyne · 13 comments
For some reason, people love side paths. Even when the path is clear and the road paved, we like complexity, we feel like if something is too simple or too easy, it can’t be the right way.
Life is supposed to be full of suffering! Being successful is supposed to be difficult!
The reality is this: of course it’s difficult.
But there are 5 ways that most of us end up royally sucking at life and blaming it on “factors outside our control,” when in reality we just sabotage ourselves.
#1 All talk and no game
“Success needs no explanations.”
-Napoleon Hill
Let’s face it: we all get lost in the excitement sometimes. We get a new idea while we’re in the shower and the dreams and adrenaline start flooding in: you see yourself with a multi-million dollar business, driving whatever car you want, living wherever you want, traveling when and where you want, doing what you want.
You can see the press coverage, the interviews, the tv, the excitement, the respect, the prestige…
The autonomy to be the [wo]man and do whatever the hell you want when you want.
Yep, you’re human. It’s fine to get excited, to get that initial adrenaline rush that keeps you awake all night with possibilities in your head.
But it’s deadly too. If I had a penny for every time I told someone I was going to do something – and never did it or followed through – I’d have a shitload of pennies (would I be a millionaire? hmm.)
Besides, as it turns out — the more you talk about your ambition and goals the less likely you are to realize them.
Way #1 to suck at life: Be all talk and no game. And yeah, it’s bloody fucking hard to not want to share your goals! It’s like dating a new pretty girl you’re really into, you wanna tell everyone including the homeless man sitting next to you on the subway. But control your excitement, and channel it into a slow, steady, penny-a-day work ethic.
#2 Not finishing
“Winning isn’t always finishing first. Sometimes winning is just finishing.”
-Manuel Diotte
Let’s put things in perspective here: For most of us, starting something is hard.
We invest so much into thought and so little into action (for fear of the long road ahead) that we never end up starting. Well, I sure ain’t ya momma but you should know by now that if you aren’t building something extraordinary you should hurry the fuck up and do it!
So let’s say that 5% of people will start something. A blog, a book, a business, a new hobby, whatever.
How many will finish that? See it through to fruition ? Set a goal and achieve it no matter what? I would bet close to 0%. As close to zero as you can get while still having a significant figure.
The truth is that if you think starting something is hard, you’re in for a rude awakening. Finishing is hard. Waking up every day and putting words on the page of your book – even if they suck – that’s hard. Some days you feel like a failure, some days you just can’t work, some days you have to talk yourself off the ledge.
I recently plugged Seth Godin’s talk on Quieting the Lizard Brain, but this is the only thing you need to remember:
Instead of starting new things, pick something and finish it.
#3 Shitty work ethic
[click to continue…]
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Living an Epic Life and Getting Un-Lost, Milk the Pigeon’s First Interview
by afheyne · 6 comments
I recently was interviewed by Tohami over at Transformational Motivation.
It’s only 16 minutes long, so it goes pretty quick if you get the time. However, I know It’s pretty hard for me to focus through some audio interviews, if thats also the case with you I’ve got a brief recap here of some of the important points:
What You’ll Learn:
- What Milk the Pigeon means and what it stands for
- Why I quit my job and moved to China
- Why I felt my life was meaningless, and what I did to change that
- Key traits of highly successful people, high achievers and quick learners
- Ways to kill a meaningless life
- How to kill the lost feeling
- Closing thoughts on living a successful, meaningful life
– People worldwide are experiencing a lack of purpose … we feel we’re stuck into one life phase or life path, trying to please your family, stuck into a corporate job you can’t escape from… Milk the Pigeon speaks to doing bigger things than you feel like you are right now”
– Basically my life felt pointless, that was the bottom line, and that is the bottom line with many people. We do jobs that are expected of us, but we don’t actually get any satisfaction out of them. I have my car, apartment, life, money,. but what do I do now? There is no enjoyment, nothing to strive for. And that feeling of life being pointless is what really got to me
Finding Meaning
– How I managed to find purpose in traveling: It wasn’t that I traveled that was important, it was just trying something new that got me on back on the path. Break the comfort zone and totally flip your world upside down. Just do something that terrifies you — something that has the potential for failure. And just do it – As scary as it is.
Traits of High Achievers and Fast Learners [click to continue…]
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