Razaberrys

Perception is reality.

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Do not aim to change your emotions.

Change your focus.

Your emotions are a signal.

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Stress, fear, anger…none of that has any positive effect on anything. So there’s no point at all in having those emotions. Replace them with enjoyment, excitement, curiosity & daring.

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I’m not going to quit till I succeed. So there’s nothing to worry about.

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Eddy might not be up to par at the moment, but Tim Ferriss would be. So don’t be Eddy; channel Tim Ferriss.

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Remember that being stressed out doesn’t actually help anything. But being calm does. So be calm.

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If you fuck up, you can almost definitely fix it. But if you’re too shy, you’ll never even get a chance. I’d rather be known as the guy who takes too many risks than the guy who takes too few.

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Yesterday, my iPod died. On a boat, somewhere in the  East Indian Archipelago between Bali & the Gili islands, the guys at SkyBox stopped talking mid-sentence.

So I delt with it. With this gorgeous scenery and the sound of waves behind the roar of 6 motors, I could survive without some philosopher in my ear.

I’ll deal with it.

Then, weed. Glorious weed. And with it, a surpassingly interesting and asthetic girl to trade stories with.

“I love the beat of this music. With the waves.”

And I heard it. The slow, head bopping boom-pa boomp boomp boom-pa boomp of the music drifting from the beach bar. The ever-relaxing hiss and crash of the waves on the beach.

Joe Rogan’s got some competition. And he would approve.

Today, my iPod is still dead. The Drunken Taoist is silent, Joe Rogan is on haitus, and all the entrepreneurs are sharing their philosophy in other’s ears.

For me, the sound of wind in the leaves, laughter with friends, the meeting of ocean and earth, the chatter of the morning islanders, and clip clap of the horse-drawn-carts. Even the sporatic drum of the of the electricity generator across the street.

This is music. A form of music I’d nearly forgotten to love.

Expanding on my love of wonderful words we don’t have in English: Datsusara.

Japanese for “to leave the salaried/corporate worker’s life”.

It’s part of my lifspeki.

It’s also the name of an awesome hemp gear maker, who have created a backpack that will soon be part of RadNomad (yeah, it’s that good).

1. Getting invited to a one-on-one study night with the hottest girl in highschool….not going.
2. Spending $400 on business cards. Making $13 off the business.
3. Deciding to jump a meter gap in a concrete skate park with a street bike.
4. Running down a sandy beach and leaping into the water that is hiding large and sharp rocks.
5. Allegedly driving at 100km/h past a red light in Indonesia

I’ll keep it updated.

The Experiment

For the next 6 and a half months (begun on December 15th, 2012), I will focus 5 days a week & at least 7 hours a day on learning, practicing, & profiting from copywriting.

For these months, copywriting is sacred. Nothing will be allowed to interfere with it. Women, adventure, learning, playing; all that will be enjoyed only if it does not interfere with copywriting.

EDIT: Not just copywriting anymore. Now it’s also GrowthHacking at Contenga & ChillHookahs & RadNomad & wherever else.

The Reason

I am doing this because I think it will bring me the most joy on a 5-year scale, not on a 1 week scale.

In the last two years since beginning the entrepreneurial path, I have had many adventures and learned many things, growing from boy to man in the process. But I have not become a successful entrepreneur.

Now, I feel the weight of time & the disparage between my dreams at 17 & my reality at 19. I want to have a serious entrepreneurial success as soon as I can.

If I am successful in my goal & never have to worry about basic money ever again, it will be worth it. Even with the risks and downsides, it will be worth it.

And there are some scary risks in focusing on one thing for six months, and a set of plans and steps I’ve set up to fend off & repair the worst case scenario. All that is here.

The Hypothesis & Goal

I believe that focus will result in a more direct route to a goal, and that locking in and really working on something is the only way to make something great happen quickly.

My hypothesis & goal is that I will be making $3000/month by July 1st 2012.

• January 1st: $0
• February 1st: $50
• March 1st: $200
• April 1st: $600
• May 1st: $1500
• June 1st: $2500
• July 1st: $3000

Should I fail, I will know that my hypothesis has been proven wrong, and that I have to combine focus with something else to reach success.

The Rules

Weekly

From Monday to Friday, from 1400-2100 hours, I will be working on copywriting.

Daily

From 14-16, I will be writing verbatim & reading copywriting books.

I will take a 10 minute break every 50 minutes, and a 30 minute break every 2 hours.

During 1630-1830 & 1900-2100 I will be working on actual copywriting, with breaks to read copywriting books should I hit a block.

Monthly

At the first of every month, during my monthly review, I will review my progress, the money I have made, and any thoughts I have.

Experiment Log

January 1st

Goal for this month: $0

Money made this month: $0

Took a complete break of focus in the last week and a half, for a mini break of snowboarding, travelling, partying, trying shrooms, meeting old friends, and resting.

That was great, and worth the lost time, but it also threw me WAYY off. Not only did I not do any work during that time, but I’m also having ponderous progress at getting back into the groove. I’ve had 2 failed starts trying to get back into it, I feel a bit depressed and afraid that I’m going to fail at this goal from lack of destroying my fears and thinking deeply, and my brain feels foggy & unable to concentrate on being creative or planning well.

Currently reviewing December & planning January. By the end of this week my mind will be back in full gear, I hope.

February 1st

Goal for this month: $50

Money made this month: $0

Well, I’m working hard, but not hard enough. I’ve given into fear far too often, and laziness even more so.

I didn’t complete any jobs.

For this month, I’m going work 4 sessions a day (that’s 8 hours a day) from Sun-Fri.

No more wasted time. Stagnation time will be spend either napping or learning.

March 1st

Goal for this month: $200

Money made this month: $100

April 1st

Goal for this month: $600

Money made this month: $1500

Won the Entrepreneur’s Apprenticeship, now I’m getting paid xD. I’m ahead of schedule until May 1st.

May 1st

Goal for this month: $1500

Money made this month: $1500

No ahead of schedule anymore. Aiming to get ChillHookahs to make up the next month’s $1000

June 1st

Goal for this month: $2500

Money made this month:

July 1st

Goal for this month: $3000

Money made this month:

The Result

Conclusion

* side note: If this doesn’t work, try an alternating schedule of building your network & doing one thing you really enjoy.. that schedule is here.

When Julius Cesar was little more than a rebel against the Roman Republic, he faced near certain ruin against Pompey’s great international armies.

The night before the final battle, outnumbered more than 2 to 1, Cesar ordered his army: “Pull down your own ramparts and fill in the ditch, so that if we fail to win we shall have nothing. And the enemy shall see that we lack a camp, and that necessity compels us to make our quarters in theirs.”

The took the battle with no hope of retreat. The only two options were win or die.

They won.

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What I’m demonstrating with this example, and would love to hear arguments against so I can flesh out my belief, is that backup plans and open doors and compromises are all antithetical to reaching great success.

Great success requires that you burn your ships and bridges. Destroy your camp. Leap off the cliff.

To reach a great goal, it must be the only option you have. There is nothing to settle for, no Plan B. Just one goal and an indomitable desire to make it reality.

What say you?

To myself at least.

Since my first ever yearly goal review last June, one of my goals in the category of Congruence With My Deepest Self is honesty. Not necessarily with the world, thought usually I would like that as well. With myself.

Remember the last time you were procrastinating? Odds are, you were lying to yourself too. You were saying that you needed a break (then take a nap), that you had plenty of time (then shorten the deadline), or that everything would work out well (not as well as if you weren’t stagnating).

Remember the last time you didn’t approach that cute stranger to say hi? Then too. You were saying that you’re not interested right now (then you wouldn’t have even taken the time to want them), or that you’re happy with the person you’re with (so you can’t cultivate cute friends?), or that they’d never go for you (impossible to know unless you go say “hi”).

What if you’d just said “Yeah, I’m wasting time right now instead of doing what I want to do” or “I’m not saying hi to that cutie because I’m scared of rejection”. Maybe you would have kept stagnating & giving into fear…but you’d know it.

And the first step to fixing any problem is acknowledging that you’ve got it. There’s absolutely no benefit in lying to oneself to those who pursue self-improvement. The benefit to being truthful, however, is less time and energy creating ideas, debating with yourself, and suppressing thoughts. It’s being able to trust yourself that you won’t try to sabotage yourself (at least not without first letting you know). It’s being aware of the problems you’re dealing with and therefore much more able to fix them.

And it’s a peacefulness of mind that comes when you’re congruent with yourself. If you’ve felt that swelling in your chest, freshness of perspective, and light feeling of lightness and self-trust that comes with suddenly being lining up what you know deep down to be true and what you tell yourself in the moment to moment, you’ll know what a perfect state of mind this is.

So, every time I find myself lying to myself, I will stop and acknowledge the truth. I don’t have to do anything about it yet, just acknowledge it. And I’ll check in every day to remember what truths I acknowledged.

Question for you: have you tried this kinda thing before? What were the results?

Also, if you wanna join in this and trade daily truths with me, I’d love to have you as a partner. Email me at eddy.e.raza@gmail.com.

I’ve got a level 16 Wargen hunter & a level 11 Bloodelf mage. I didn’t have either of these things 2 days ago.

To get them required that I spend about 20 solid hours staring at a computer screen. All the while sitting beside a huge open window with a view of palm trees, rice patties, lazy rivers, and blue skies replete with puffy white clouds.

What could I have done in those 20 hours?

Well, a new friend invited me to go surfing with him at a beach I haven’t yet been to. Another online and particularly fascinating friend (a male BDSM sub, for those of you who know what this means) invited me out for beers.

I could have been planning my awesome week, complete with a new brain boosting meal group I’ve been put in charge of creating. And then I could have put the first, Mailbird related, part of this week plan into action.

Instead, I leveled up my Wargen.

After a bit of thought (didn’t take much), it occurred to me that my life would be more enjoyable and interesting if it didn’t involve shit like this.

And, thanks to some advice from Sebastian Marshall (which, until now, I treated as one of those that’s-a-great-idea-that-I-don’t-wanna-actually-do) on setting hard rules, I’m removing it.

Now I don’t wanna get rid of video games forever…they’ve got some fun stuff in there. But I do want it out of the way while I’m trying to build the foundations (and perhaps the first floor) of an awesome life.

So, new hard rule:

I don’t play video games or watch TV until I’ve reached $3500/month automated.

The only exception being when it’s educational or inspirational (like watching the Departures TV series or playing the entrepreneurial education game Startup Heros).

New crash course up!

The 80/20 of copywriting , condensed into 13 pages of pure useful awesomeness.

There’s not much theory here…it’s all stuff like processes, templates, & checklists that you can use right now to write better.

Grab it up here.

And here’s the accompanying talk:

Copywriting Crash Course from Eddy Azar on Vimeo.

And you can get all my book notes, crash courses, and mastery files on the “Book & Skill Notes” page.

via XKCD