Learn to Think Outside the Box

You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night,
when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the
bus:

• An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
• An old friend who once saved your life.
• The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could
only be one passenger in your car? Think before you continue reading.

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a
job application. You could pick up the old lady, because she is going
to die, and thus you should save her first. Or you could take
the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the
perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find
your perfect mate again.


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'I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the old lady to the hospital. I
would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.'

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought
limitations.

Never forget to 'Think Outside of the Box.

- anonymous

Late Night Thoughts

You can’t be trapped by fear. Limits like fears they‘re illusions disregard them. If you’re passionate about it and you go full throttle there’s no doubt you’re gonna be good at it. Because what makes someone good at something? It’s dedication hard work and it’s doing it with the proper direction and methodology. But what makes someone a professional at something? It’s the concept of taking that little idea, that little decision you make and executing it to take it as far as your imagination holds, dedicating every breath in your body to that single cause. Seeing the grand picture at the end of the road to be the absolute best and not settling for any reason. 

It’s not talent, it’s not innate ability, it simply comes down to how hungry you are? How hungry are you to improve? How big is your appetite for success? What are you willing to do to reach your dreams? The professionals the best at their craft they don’t care about the naysayers they don’t care about the fun they're foregoing they don’t take days off. They are 100% set in their ways in perfecting their craft because its all for a much larger purpose than any semblance of happiness that immediate gratification provides.

Reaching your goal... well that’s just pure bliss.

Spoken by: Anonymous

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Late Night Thoughts - Study Break Edition

Reality? Overrated. Dreams, Celebrated! Impossible is nothing. You know what to do. Chase and Achieve. Work Hard, Think Smart, Love Life, Be Great.

- N.Pitso

Wise Words: 82 year old looking back on her life - A MUST READ

OG Mandino shares an interesting story:

One final secret and I pray that you think about this tonight and tomorrow and next week as you and all the rest of us keep chasing after those two elusive butterflies called success and happiness. Please take this away with you let it be my late valentine to all of you with my love.

Failures spend so much of their time reliving their past mistakes or worrying about tomorrow’s problems that they let this beautiful day which is all we have, slip away.

An 82 year old looking back on her life;

“If I had my life to live over I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would limber up. I would be crazier than I’d been on this trip. I know very few things I’d take seriously anymore. I’d certainly be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers and I would watch many more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see I was one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely hour after hour and day after day. I had my moments and if I had it to do it over again i’d have many more of them. In fact I’d try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many days ahead of my day. I’d be one of those people who never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a goggle, a rain coat and a parachute. If I had it to do all over again I’d travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and I’d stay that way later in the fall and I would ride more merry go rounds and catch more gold rings and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more. If I had it to do all over again but you see, I don’t.”

Like that old Japanese mother breaking branches I hope I have been able to break a couple for you today. Mr X and Miss X if you’re out there please don’t give up you’re much too precious to lose. Grab a life preserver and please all of you, don’t allow that neighbour leaning over the back fence to make fun of your dreams or that cynical worker to tell you that your goals will never be accomplished. With friends like that you don’t need any enemies. They wanna be buried in failure let them just don’t let them drag you down with them. Just remember you’re a special miracle and your destiny is in your hands and your hands alone.

I love you all, you have a good life.

God Bless You.

Wise Words from the Anonymous

Believe in yourself and your values,

Don't sell out when things go wrong.

Don't let anything get you down,

always bounce back up

Set goals for your future,

never settle for anything less.

Realize that there are others in the world,

with much bigger problems than you.

Appreciate the good things in your life,

and be thankful for the time,

you have with your loved ones.

Spend more time with your family and friends

Appreciate the simple things in life

and don't get caught up in material things.

Never Forget

I remember receiving an email from a good friend of mine I went to high school (St Dominic's College in Welkom, South Africa) with his name is Theo, a really wise brother. We had been emailing back and forth and I had started to look to him as a mentor getting all sorts of advice and just having the opportunity to pick his brain from overseas. Oh daaamn this is crazy!!! (I'm not gonna edit this because all my posts are conversational anyway but,)  I just checked my email and I haven't heard from Theo in quite a while and I just received an email from him RIGHT NOW!! lol crazy huh?? Call it what you wanna call it...

Anyway all his emails had a profound effect on me. I still re-read some of them till this day. The thoughts and ideas in those emails are just timeless. I want to share one particular theme that was constant in all his emails and that was the idea that regardless of what happens, Life is Good and we thank God that it will get better. He touched on the fact that it's easy to be humble when things aren't going so well.... 

My gifts, talents I regard as seeds planted by Him which are meant to be shared and to benefit others... My purpose is becoming bigger than I am, it's not about me anymore, I used to think it was...

I'm grateful that I am still standing but by the grace of God...

Please enjoy the video below:

The song is by David Crowder

Title: Glory of it all.

Video: Travis Corey (an artist not evolved but touched by God)

P.S. Always stay true to yourself.

(damn I got a lump in my throat)

The Magic Pill

One of my pet peeves is switching the TV late at night and finding a majority of the channels trying to sell me something I don't need. They ask the most vague questions and if you answer yes to all of them you might just need this product:

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel unmotivated?
Do you want to change your life for good?
Do you sometimes feel you're working hard but see no results?

Immediately I think pause... everyone feels like this from time to time but okay let me see where this is going. A minute later they introduce a miraculous new product that is gonna change your life for good. It's gonna give you the body you've always wanted, it's gonna increase your school marks etc etc the list goes on. Essentially they advertise a product that promises you big results from small efforts.

I call it Magic Pill Syndrome.

How many times have you watched commercials and come across messages like these about scientists who have created a pill that helps you lose weight quick or authors that promise to change your life in one minute (59 seconds to be exact)? Everywhere you turn people are offering you a quick fix but here let me save you time lol :

Face facts you’re not going to achieve greatness, find your life’s purpose or become a much happier person over night. It’s a process, and great souls are grown through struggles, storms and seasons of suffering as Rick Warren puts it. So ‘don’t try get out of anything prematurely [do the work] so you become mature and well developed.’ Avoid the quick fix. There's not much else to say on this topic: Stay deaf, dumb and blind to these magic pills which offer you a quick fix. It took Einstein years of consistent effort before he was recognized as one the greatest thinkers of our time and the father of modern physics.

Personal Perspective: I’ve explained in my fitness Friday posts how I battled with my weight. To say I battled with my weight gives the impression that I was overweight but this isn’t the case. I used to research numerous methods, diets, master cleanses, workouts etc anything that guaranteed the biggest results but required the least amount of effort. From personal experience I can tell you none of these things were effective in the long term. Take a look at my before and after pictures under ‘Fitness Fridays’ and you will notice that once I put in the effort that was required the results became long lasting.

"I've always believed that if you put in work, the results will come' - Michael Jordan

We live in a time where things are available instantly. You can buy movie tickets without leaving your house, pay your bills from your couch; check the weather, news, sports, and even local events all online. We have instant noodles, instant messenger, instant results from every second product advertised on TV, we basically have instant access to the whole world from the comfort of our homes. So we have become accustomed to the lazy lifestyle where we can get more than what we put in. 

Unfortunately we expect the same formula when it comes to reaching our goals. We want to achieve big, with minimal effort. We fall victim to the late night infomercials that promise us life changing results with little or no work needed. We sleep more than we work; party more than we study, dream more than we strive and then become disappointed when we get poor results. 

The ones who do succeed however, are the ones who look past the short cuts, work through the pain, sacrifice big to succeed even bigger, commit to short term pain for long term gain, they become blind to the magic pill because they understand one fundamental idea that rings true today as it did in AD 200 when it was first uttered and that is: 

No Great Thing is ever created Suddenly - Epictetus

Can you Get Rich? Part 2

Transcript of a Felix Dennis Video

You have to have a clear understanding of what it is you are trying to do and you must understand step by step how you are going to do it. I’m gonna do this if that fails I’m gonna fall back and do that or I gotta do this I gotta get that. You have to have a clear methodology in front of you, that does not mean you’re creating a business and the ridiculous things I receive about 40 a week of you know business plans telling me how we’re all gonna become multi-billionaires, never mind all that. You have gotta have a clear understanding of what it is you’re gonna do and the steps you’re gonna take to do it then you have to I don’t know if you’re going with a partner or just entirely on your own. Go to a place, go to a place on your own I don’t care where it is, I don’t care if it’s in front of your chimney or you go out in the middle of the new forest I don’t care go to a place. Swear to yourself, I will not give in until they bankrupt me! While you never give in on your goal, you know where you’re trying to reach what you’re trying to do i.e. make more money than your neighbor; you might have to change the methodology. If something isn’t working (yeah) then what sorts the man and woman that is gonna be rich from the man and woman that is just gonna have tried it once failed and dream about it is the ability, as with all human activity, to adapt. So you’re gonna say okay this isn't working we’ve gotta change our methodology. 

We gotta change direction we gotta try something else that is gonna make this damn thing work. And if you’re willing to do that and keep trying you know listening to everybody that you know who’s got any kind of sense whatever that you trust within this particular industry or whatever and if you’re willing to change until it starts working then they cannot stop you for the very simple reason that in the end you will get it right and I had to do that many many times. Many of the magazines I started we’re complete dobs absolutely useless and we all got together and we talked about it and we started to listen to our readers and we realized that what we were doing was completely wrong. And it’s amazing how often entrepreneurs get the right idea and the wrong methodology, just go about it completely wrong. 

So can you get rich? Can you build your own business empire? Is it a delusion to believe that so called ordinary men and women can within not so many years do what I did? And what did i do? I WENT from being a failed blues musician and an arts student living in a crummy bed set without the price of a pint of beer in my pocket let alone the money to pay my landlady the rent into becoming one of the richest men in Britain or so the Sunday Times rich list tells us. I went from being a high school drop out without a penny of capital or the benefit of a university education to owning my own business, flying around in private jets, purchasing massive homes and estates with thousands of acres of land around the world, being chauffeured in a fleet of rolls royces and Maybachs and drinking the finest wine that money can buy from my own cellars. 

In the end if you want too much money then make a decision that you DO want it and go out there and get it! And nothing can stop you I swear that to you, nothing in this earth can stop you apart from death, Nothing! MOST of the people that got fantastically rich in the western world in the last couple of hundred years were not very clever they don’t have to be clever.

*To find Can you get Rich Pt 1. Click Late Night thoughts under the Labels.

Can you Get Rich? Part 1

Transcript of a Felix Dennis Video:

So can you get rich can you build your own business empire? Its true you CAN be rich you can build your business into an empire you can do it. Anyone of reasonable intelligence who lives in a western democracy can do it given sufficient motivation and application. And the first lesson is that you can only get rich if you believe, if you believe in yourself. You must believe in yourself, you must believe, you must believe that you are the one to do it for if you will not believe in yourself then why should anyone believe in you? 

Absolute belief in yourself is vital if you are to succeed absolute belief in yourself despite all your faults many of which you will not know, all of your weakness despite what your parents and teachers told you, despite what your colleagues and friends tell you despite what your lover tells you despite your own failures up to now, despite everything that life has thrown at you. 

If you will only banish fear and fear of failure to the darkest recesses of your heart then I promise you, you can do it and no one can stop you from doing it. Only you can stop yourself from doing it. We all fear failure I fear it still I have always feared it but such fear itself is not the problem it is the paralysis that comes with such fear which is the real problem. The paralysis that grows into a mountain you shrink from climbing. That fear is real. The fear of embarrassing yourself, of people laughing at you, of letting down yourself and your family and your colleagues and maybe even your employees the fear of losing the money that you borrowed or begged or stole. 

Fear of failing in the open where there is nowhere to hide and no one else to blame. This is the fear you must confront, that you must entice, capture ,chain and eventually padlock into a secret chamber of your soul. It will still call to you it calls to me you will hear its echo from time to time believe me, but by then you will be so far up the mountain so close to the goal of getting rich that its cries will only serve to spur you on rather than paralysing you with doubt. Confront fear of failure confront it head-on stare it straight in its feral eye, wrestle with it, master it master it as best you can batter it in into submission and harness it into becoming your secret weapon. A goad, a scourge to keep you working longer hours than your friends can believe, harder than your colleagues can comprehend, harder than you ever dreamt you could work in years to come you will thank that fear the fear that drove you to achieve what you feel was impossible.

Audentes Fortuna Juvat

For this week’s article I will be focusing on ‘boldness’; an essential ingredient in achieving your goals.

I once read a story about an army that travelled by ship to a foreign land to wage war with another country. The men were slightly outnumbered and their spirits were low. When they arrived at their destination the captain gave the order that the ships should be set on fire! As the ships went up in flames he announced that there was no way to get back home so they had to win the war in order to survive. They won.

In order to achieve your goals you need a high level of boldness and this can be achieved in numerous ways. Below I have set out what I believe to be 3 determining factors which, if taken together, will lead any individual to take calculated yet bold actions when working towards achieving their goals.

1.       Urgency – Achieving your goals must be such a top priority that you go through tomorrow literally behaving like someone who is trying to make 1 million dollars a day for example. Pushing your goals back too much sometimes leads to a relaxed attitude which ultimately leads to half hearted attempts to achieve your goals. Put your goals on your daily to do list and work towards them regularly.

2.       Standards – If you want to be successful but are constantly plagued by limiting beliefs, your chances of success could drop dramatically. Jordan Belfort once told a group of mentees:  if you don’t make $250k in your first year you’re suspect, if you don’t make $ 500k in your second year you’re considered weak and worthless...  what he was doing was trying to inspire his students (who at the time believed that they could only make $80k a year at most) to aim high. So first what you need to do is eliminate your limiting beliefs by aiming high because as Les Brown says ‘Life has no limitations except the ones you make’.  So you have to set high standards because as the saying goes aim for the stars because if you miss at least you’ll land on the moon. Don't settle for less.

3.       The Final factor is the Ultimatum. Once your goals have become a matter of urgency and your standards are raised to the point where you’re ready to begin performing at a high standard you must take action that forces you to succeed. I’m slowly completing my double degree (Law and international studies) but last year I found myself in a situation where I was sitting with Fs on my report card and was close to be being excluded from the university. I would have been satisfied with a ‘PASS’ average at the time. Instead of sulking I took action (1) Prioritized on improving my marks, quit all my jobs, deactivated my social networking accounts, stopped going to parties, stopped drinking, attended my classes (2) increased my standards to a distinction at the very least, (3) signed a contract that said if I failed again I would be excluded from the university...

I passed, not just that but it was one of my best performances since beginning my University studies and I have just been offered a position to complete my honours at my University. By including this personal perspective I aim to show you that taking bold action can be done with day to day tasks as well as your long term goals. Boldness leads to growth...

Name any successful person on the face of the earth and I will show you someone who required a level of boldness to get to where they are today. So it’s fair to say, success rarely, if at all, visits the timid because Audentes fortuna juvat, translation;

"Fortune Favors The Bold"

The.Sum.Of.Small.Efforts

I came across this picture while randomly browsing the web. Although it is from a fitness blog I think it also applies to the attainment of success and the pursuit of happiness. The message behind it had quite a profound impact on me and inspired me to write this article. The most interesting part of this quote is the usage of the words ‘every morning’ (I’ll explain later). 

How does this apply to our lives as humans and what can we learn from this lesson of the lion and the gazelle? Allow me to digress for a minute.

When talking about success we often come across words like ‘big break’ or ‘waiting for a sign’ or other phrases that indicate one event that leads to success and ultimately to happiness. There is a huge misconception that success stems from one isolated incident or big break. 

When the story of the lion and gazelle is analysed we come to realize that these 2 animals on a daily basis do things to achieve happiness. Failure by one of the animals on any day either means no food or no tomorrow. The reason people give up sometimes is because they tend to look at how far they still have to go. When you’re driving at night your lights only shine to a certain distance. This doesn’t cause you to turn the car around because you can’t see the destination. You take it a few metres at a time until you reach your destination.

Whatever your future goals you need to understand that in order to achieve them you must, on a daily basis, do things which will bring you closer to that goal. Don’t lose hope because you can’t see results or you seem to be in the same place you were last year or 2 years prior. The truth is if you keep going you will see results.  The title of this article was derived from a quote by Robert Collier; ‘Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out...’

The small day to day efforts must become habitual to a point where they are second nature. The key words are: ‘every morning’, ‘day to day’ etc. I know someone is thinking what if it’s raining on this day, or it is not practicable or I feel a bit sick.  The decision is yours, you know how bad you want to achieve your goals. If you make half hearted attempts you will get half hearted results besides:

“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good”

Activating your blinders

How many times do you start a task and struggle to finish it because of distractions? The routine is usually the same: You begin a task, a few minutes into this period you lose focus for a few seconds by looking at a photo on your desk. You start thinking about some good places to visit in future, then you start thinking about your future and what it may hold. Fifteen minutes later you snap out of this daydream; your task is still not complete and now your whole day’s plans are derailed because of a 15 minute daydream.

The ability to stay focused is perhaps the most important attribute to possess for ambitious individuals. You must learn to stay on task in order to accomplish your goals. However, it’s easier said than done. Staying focused is extremely challenging, but by adopting a few steps you can learn to focus on your tasks until completion.

Think about this image for a second:  A child aged 9 is playing with a magnifying glass in his backyard. He has seen his older brother burn paper and leaves with it by holding it under the sun. He decides to mimic his brother and after a few unsuccessful attempts he learns how to burn leaves and paper with the magnifying glass.

The child, although unknown to him, has discovered the power of focus on two levels. Firstly by concentrating all his efforts on burning the paper and leaves he has maintained his focus and completed his task. Secondly, the magnifying glass only burns paper when the light is focused. This indicates the power of focus, which is that if your efforts are concentrated the results will be desirable.

Below are 5 different tips to help you maintain focus when completing a task:

• Put your phone on silent – a slight beep could put you of your task and lead to back and forth texting or even an unnecessary phone call
• Work in an area where people cannot disturb you (or put a sign on your door)
• Use a timer to heighten focus  - allocating times to different tasks lets you know how long you have to complete the task
• Remove all distractions from your work space such as phones, computer games, iPods  – (work on a computer that doesn't have the internet, or to avoid using social networking sites deactivate them until you've completed your task)
• Break your task down into manageable portions – the reason for doing this is that if you’re completing a task and get sidetracked and lose focus, it’s easier to get back on track if you’re following a set of steps.

The most important thing is that you  activate your blinders when going after a goal. Make a conscious decision to stay focused. In horse races, the horse has a blinder placed on its head so that it can only see ahead in one direction. Activate your invisible blinders and stay focused and your mind will follow because as Mark Twain puts it:

 ‘You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus’

Endurance: A Lesson in refusing to quit

Extraordinary people that are looked up to and sometimes idolized arguably share one common trait: Endurance. It is often said that the path to success is long and winding with unending twists and turns along the way. If this statement is to be considered then an individual must be equipped with an infinite amount of endurance to reach their final destination: success.


Endurance is not accepting 'No' for a final answer, but using your vision, ability, courage and determination to keep attempting to turn a potentially negative outcome into a positive result. Most people crumble when faced with pain, temporary defeat or humiliation. They use this as an excuse to quit. Remember however, YOU CANNOT FAIL until you quit (Russell Simmons).

• Nelson Mandela - 27 years imprisonment
• Thomas Edison - 10 000 failed attempts 
• Michael Jordan - cut from his High School basketball team
• Colonel Sanders - KFC recipe rejected 1009 times before a restaurant accepted it
• Oprah Winfrey - Fired from station because she was 'unfit for tv'
• Oscar Pistorious - born without bones below the knee
• Bruce Lee - Continuously turned down by directors and had such a severe back injury he was told he would never be able to practice martial arts again

The above mentioned individuals went on to make history because they refused to quit in the face of adversity. Oftentimes when we are faced with a difficult situation we take the easy way out, we quit because it's more bearable and comforting. We forget our vision and the reason why we kept fighting till this far. Here's a little motivation:

In fact pain is simply weakness leaving the body.


Next time you think about quitting a degree, a career choice, a job, remind yourself why you have come this far. Endure the pain and never quit.  Trying to fulfill your life's purpose and your dream is gonna be challenging. Along the way It's gonna hurt, it's gonna burn, it could reduce you to tears, it's gonna frustrate you at times, it could even come close to killing you but always remember tears and sweat are both salty but one gets you sympathy and the other gets you results.


Don't stop holding on, endure the pain and keep the dream alive, your heart and your mind will carry your body when your limbs get weak.


ENDURE.

Sacrifice: Give in order to Receive

How do you feel about hand outs? If some one offered you $1000 for doing absolutely nothing at all would you accept it? To be honest I would, then I'd spend it and feel guilty afterwards because I hadn't earned it. But I'll be patient with myself God isn't finished with me; I'm a work in a progress. What's my point? Many times people expect results without putting in the effort or they put a little bit of effort and expect high results: greed. Robert Greene in 48 Laws of Power, names the 40th Law as 'Despise the free Lunch'. If you haven't read the book in short the chapter can be understood as this: The only free cheese is in the mouse trap.


In order to find yourself in a state of self-reliance you must first learn to sacrifice something in order to gain a reward and therefore be better off than you were yesterday. Betting on the lottery is a halfhearted attempt at trying to make lots of money. What are you sacrificing though $5? You need to put in the additional effort to  get a well deserved reward.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion." - Muhammad Ali

You wanna be the greatest in your field? Great go ahead and do it but it's not gonna happen if you spend your time on social networks for hours,  or watching TV for extended periods of time and sleeping like you have retired. Maybe you don't want greatness perhaps you just wanna stand out and make a meaningful impact on your generation. The choice is yours.

I've put in hard work to get to this point. I came in to win, you know. This is why I stay up late while other people are sleeping. - Diddy

The world is yours, but what are you willing to sacrifice in order to get it?

Impossible is Nothing

At one point or another in life we come across a situation where we're told completing a certain task is impossible or it's never been done so one should not attempt it. The people who give out this advice tend to think it's for your well being however if you take this advice on board it will be to your detriment. People often measure feats according to their own ruler and therefore set limitations to what is possible according to their own abilities. Thank the heavens for individuals with self belief who continually challenge the status quo and debunk the myths that certain things are impossible so, because of them there is hope.

*'Impossible' when broken up reads 'Im Possible' which is exactly what a task should be screaming at you when you attempt it:

Three (3) points on how to prepare yourself for an 'impossible' task:

Before you even begin you must first : VISUALIZE the positive outcome

1. Work longer hours. 
If attempting an extremely difficult task the only way to ensure a respectable positive outcome is to practice  and put in more effort than expected. Gladwell in 'Outliers' states that it takes 10 000 hours to master any craft which is about 10 years of continuous hard work and effort. In the case where it is a short term task such as passing a topic or preparing for a sports match you must push yourself to do more than you've ever done before. Self belief is important but it must be backed with experience in the form of long hours of continuous training.

2. David v Goliath Complex
When faced with an extremely difficult task or opponent ensure that you use your strengths when undertaking the task. In the story of David and Goliath we learn that David was said to have no chance against the giant. In fact had David fought Goliath by sword he would have faced a more challenging battle. What he did was take into account his weaknesses (his size in this case) and used non-conventional methods to defeat his opponent.  Impossible is nothing but one should not use methods that have little chance of success, instead be different, think different and fight to your strengths.

3. Down : Up Ratio
This is perhaps the most important point out of the three. ALWAYS get up more times than you get knocked out. If it means having to recuperate and better prepare yourself for a rematch so be it. So you didn't get the job? Find out what you did wrong, dust yourself down, go home adopt a DIFFERENT method and make another attempt in a week or month etc. So you failed your driver's license test 6 times in a row? Find out what you did wrong, work on the mistakes, make another attempt in a week. The winners are the ones who do not lose heart even after 1000 temporary defeats because they know in their minds that Impossible is nothing. Thomas Edison failed 10 000 times before succeeding, to some it would have been reason enough to quit but for Edison as he stated ' I have not failed I have merely found 10 000 ways that will not work'

You might lose a fight but do not lose a war - IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING

The Difference.

What separates winners from loser? Given the same opportunities and situations why is it that some people succeed, while others barely survive? How is it that some people can go from having $0 to their names to ultimately having an abundance of wealth over a period of time? What is the secret to riches? Is there a secret to riches? A fundamental difference between rich people and poor people [not referring to the homeless etc] who want to be rich is this, poor people talk a good game, rich people play it. I am no self-help guru but I know this; while you're planning your goals, your competitors are working towards them. When you start working towards them, your competitors have already achieved them. The gap never closes it just keeps widening.

Talk Less Act More. 

When an idea comes to you or you make a conscious decision to change your life around for the better, don't spend hours, days or even years planning on how you're going to execute your plan to perfection, once the decision is made, in the famous words of the swoosh: Just Do It.

"When He Came, in the Game, He Made His Own Lane"

Jay-Z has gone from Marcy to Madison square, corner hustler to business executive; he has arguably become hip hop's greatest success story. He epitomizes success in hip hop and at age 41 is still setting trends in urban culture. One thing is obvious about Jay-Z when you read about him or listen to his music, that is, he predicted his own destiny. He might have had the talent to rap but his ridiculous work ethic put him way above his peers with many having witnessed his legendary trait of never writing lyrics but crafting them on the spot after hearing an instrumental. This trait, for a lot of people stands out about him in terms of being an artist. No one can do it like Jay-Z, he has cemented his spot with the greats forever.

The next generation of rappers should understand that there can only be one Jay-Z. Emulate some of his steps to success if you have to but at the end of the day you must come up with your own blueprint to success by making your own lane.

In the words of Jay-z

'“…Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself…”

Too Blessed to be stressed

For the last 6 weeks I have been exposed to insurmountable obstacles. Just when I thought I've hit rock bottom it turned out to be a bottomless pit so I'm still falling, and I'm falling hard. It's basically a snowball effect of problems. I'm not the kind of person who shares my problems with people I wouldn't say I bottle them up either. I prefer to solve them one step at a time.

Random Observation: if you've been given 100 donuts to finish in 5 minutes the chances of success are infinitesimal. If you were given 20 days to finish the same amount the task becomes manageable. The 'impossible' becomes possible when broken down into small pieces or steps.

With regards to these issues of mine I won't go into detail because as I've said before I believe in focusing on the positives more than the negatives. Temporary defeat is a stepping stone to success.

Throughout this chaotic period I have come across some inspirational individuals and some good news. I always make it a habit to surround myself with like-minded and equally ambitious, self-driven people.

Three people over the past week have really inspired me to keep striving to be the best I can be in whatever craft/task I put my mind to. I don't think it's necessary to put their names on blast they know who they are - One of them however is my sister (13 years old). I'm really proud of her:

She won a speech competition at school and even wrote her own speech. She even received some impressive awards at her school's award ceremony/prize giving. Too proud of you lil' sis keep going for gold! Plus she's so passionate about her future career that she's already pushing the whole family to take her to places where she can find out more and research about her ideal career. As we say in Australia - 'GOODONYA'

lil sis

The Good news I received is we (Thee Immaculate) will be supporting the one and only MOS DEF on the 11th of January. I didn't know how to respond when we got the news I'm grateful to have been given this opportunity and remain humble throughout both trials and tribulations.

Mos Def

One thing's for sure when it all comes down to it I try very hard to stay positive in the face of adversity - so Rain, sleet, hail, snow I'm determined and positive I'll get to where I want in life it won't be easy but remember 'what doesn't break a man, makes a man'

Learning how to fly