The Epiphany

Everything good had to be hard until I found the book of Tim Ferris. I read the book, and that was inspiring, so I wanted to do something in order to change my life from JOB status to 4hours-a-week status. In the book I found reference of his blog.

First article I read on the blog was Noah Kagan’s story of founding AppSumo. Great story, the kind of article that makes you jump from the seat and look around for the beginning of your own success. I decided to try his way to test-a-business. Suddenly, the “good anything” didn’t have to be hard anymore. There was a way that showed what was good and doable in some simple steps and without wasting tons of money and energy.

And I also decided that I love the blog, I bookmarked it and looked for another inspirational post.

The second post I read was Michael Ellsberg’s recipe for building-up a carrier without formal credentials. He proposes 8 steps to creating my own credentials and my own job. Michael also challenged me to start implementing my plan according to his steps.

Michael is writing about a new way of seeing education and opportunities. People often relate to school as a must-do-thing, as the “normal” thing to do in order to get an education. People don’t even want an education… they only care about the money they will make after graduating. Here is the controverse: there is no real and direct connection between the years we spend in school and the money we get in life. The fact that a lot of people that spent as much as 20 years with formal education have money to keep them on a JOB (Just Over Broke). On the other hand, we all can name at least 2 people that dropped out of school and they turned into Millionaires.

That is what Michael made me want to be: A MILIONAIRE. This will be my profession.

This is my journey. I am a Millionaire Apprentice now. I will teach myself into mastery, have fun while becoming rich, document my steps, so that anyone can do it after this. After my undisputed success I will offer to coach and teach “being a millionaire” to anyone that wishes to be one.

Why not, after all… it is lonely “up there”.

I will quote Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World), because he says it better then anybody: 

“Today I begin a new life.
Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long,
suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of
mediocrity. 

Today I am born anew and my birthplace is
a vineyard where there is fruit for all. 

Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the
tallest and fullest vines in the vineyard, for these
were planted by the wisest of my profession who
have come before me, generation upon generation* 

Today I will savor the taste of grapes from
these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of
success buried in each and new life will sprout
within me. 

The career I have chosen is laden with oppor- 
tunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and de- 
spair and the bodies of those who have failed, were 
they piled one atop another, would cast its shadow 
down upon all the pyramids of the earth. 

Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my
hands I now hold the charts which will guide me
through perilous waters to shores which only
yesterday seemed but a dream. 

Failure no longer will be my payment for
struggle. Just as nature made no provision for my
body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provi-
sion for my life to suffer failure. Failure, like pain,
is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I ac-
cepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for
wisdom and principles which will guide me out of
the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position,
and happiness far beyond my most extravagant
dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden
of Hesperides will seem no more than my just
reward. 

Time teaches all things to he who lives forever
but I have not the luxury of eternity. Yet, within
my allotted time I must practice the art of patience
for nature acts never in haste. To create the olive,
king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An
onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an
onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst
become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the
greatest of salesmen. 

And how will this be accomplished? For I have
neither the knowledge nor the experience to
achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in
ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The
answer is simple. I will commence my journey un-
encumbered with either the weight of unnecessary
knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experi-
ence. Nature already has supplied me with knowl-
edge and instinct far greater than any beast in the
forest and the value of experience is overrated,
usually by old men who nod wisely and speak
stupidly. 

In truth, experience teaches thoroughly yet her
course of instruction devours men's years so the
value of her lessons diminishes with the time
necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end
finds it wasted on dead men. Furthermore, ex-
perience is comparable to fashion; an action that
proved successful today will be unworkable and
impractical tomorrow,
Only principles endure and these I now pos-
sess, for the laws that will lead me to greatness are
contained in the words of these scrolls. What they
will teach me is more to prevent failure than to gain
success, for what is success other than a state of
mind? Which two, among a thousand wise men,
will define success in the same words; yet failure
is always described but one way. Failure is man's
inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they
maybe. 

In truth, the only difference between those who
have failed and those who have succeeded lies in
the difference of their habits. Good habits are the
key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door
to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which
precedeth all others is— I will form good habits
and become their slaves. 

As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I
am slave to my habits, as are all grown men. I have
surrendered my free will to the years of accumu-
lated habits and the past deeds of my life have
already marked out a path which threatens to im-
prison my future. My actions are ruled by appetite,
passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear, environment^
habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit,
Therefore, if I must be a slave to habit let me be
a slave to good habits. My bad habits must be
destroyed and new furrows prepared for good seed. 

I will form good habits and become their slave. 

And how will I accomplish this difficult feat?
Through these scrolls, it will be done, for each
scroll contains a principle which will drive a bad
habit from my life and replace it with one which
will bring me closer to success. For it is another of
nature's laws that only a habit can subdue another
habit. So, in order for these written words to per-
form their chosen task, I must discipline myself
with the first of my new habits which is as follows: 

I iviU read each scroll for thirty days in this
prescribed manner, before I proceed to the next
scroll. 

First, I will read the words in silence when I
arise. Then, I will read the words in silence after I
have partaken of my midday meal. Last* I will
read the words again just before I retire at day's
end, and most important, on this occasion I will
read the words aloud. 

On the next day I will repeat this procedure,
and I will continue in like manner for thirty days.
Then, I will turn to the next scroll and repeat
this procedure for another thirty days. I will con-
tinue in this manner until I have lived with each
scroll for thirty days and my reading has become
habit. 

And what will be accomplished with this habit?
Herein lies the hidden secret of all man's accom-
plishments. As t repeat the words daily they will
soon become a part of my active mind, but more
important, they will also seep into my other mind,
that mysterious source which never sleeps, which
creates my dreams, and often makes me act in
ways I do not comprehend. 

As the words of these scrolls are consumed by
my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each
morning, with a vitality I have never known before,,
My vigor will increase, my enthusiasm will rise, my
desire to meet the world will overcome every fear
I once knew at sunrise, and I will be happier than
I ever believed it possible to be in this world of
strife and sorrow. 

Eventually I will find myself reacting to all
situations which confront me as I was commanded
in the scrolls to react, and soon these actions and
reactions will become easy to perform, for any
act with practice becomes easy. 

Thus a new and good habit is bom, for when an
act becomes easy through constant repetition it
becomes a pleasure to perform and if it is a plea-
sure to perform it is man's nature to perform it
often. When I perform it often it becomes a habit
and I become its slave and since it is a good habit
this is my will. 

Today I begin a new life. 

And I make a solemn oath to myself that 
nothing will retard my new life's growth. I will lose
not a day from these readings for that day cannot
be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it. I
must not, I will not, break this habit of daily read-
ing from these scrolls and, in truth, the few
moments spent each day on this new habit are
but a small price to pay for the happiness and suc-
cess that will be mine. 

As I read and re-read the words in the scrolls
to follow, never will I allow the brevity of each
scroll nor the simplicity of its words to cause me to
treat the scroll's message lightly. Thousands of
grapes are pressed to fill one jar with wine, and the
grapeskin and pulp are tossed to the birds. So it is
with these grapes of wisdom from the ages. Much
has been filtered and tossed to the wind. Only the
pure truth lies distilled in the words to come. I
will drink as instructed and spill not a drop. And
the seed of success I will swallow. 

Today my old skin has become as dust. I will 
walk tall among men and they will know me not, 
for today I am a new man, with a new life.”

This is the promise I make to myself. It is my gift to me and to the others, as he who can’t help himself, can’t help the others.

It will be the way I make my fortune revealed to everybody; my unique way of “teaching them to fish” instead of “giving them the fish”.

And because Michael offered to be coach to one of the people that will accept his challenge, and I want to take his challenge, I decided to begin by mastering Michael’s art, so he can really teach me the trade: I will be a commercial writer, specialized in sales and personal relationships.

My plan is to first generate valuable content for beginner sales-persons and create a sales-oriented “tribe”, as Seth Godin says. There is a lot of knowledge flying around these days about sales and money. I just want to start with the fundamentals. I will learn to teach sales in the time that my students will learnto do sales. In the meantime I will learn from the new entrepreneurs how to grow rich in modern times and apply the ideas in my own manner.

My list of teachers include: Dale Carnegie, Robert T. Kiyosaki, John C. Maxwell, Ken Blanchard, Karrine Steffans, Larry Winget, Jim Bagnola, Barrie Watson, Meredith Belbin, Larry John, Jonas Ridderstrale, Kjell Nordstrom, Donald R. Keough, Donald J. Trump, Og Mandino, Jeffrey J. Fox, Spencer Johnson, Hannes Stein, Tom Hodgkinson, Craig Elias, Stephen King, Tim Ferris, Michael Ellsberg, Richard Branson and many more.

Join my journey… and Magic will follow.

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