You can’t make money without

You can’t make money without selling something real. You can’t make something real without […] imagination […]. You can’t have imagination without surrendering yourself to an idea that you want to create something of value to other human beings.”

James Altucher

In the blog world (where many of my clients and friends live) it’s easy to setup a site and dole out advice on things like life, success, happiness, etc. There’s no required certification. For better or worse.

The blog world is inundated with these kinds of properties. It can be greasy, but my experiences with these kinds of bloggers has typically been positive.

My other world, the tech & startup world, is much different. It’s not a simple thing to get into (or at least it feels that way). When there’s real money, real stakes, there needs to be real value, real worth.

Recently I’m seeing these two worlds combine. Bloggers thinking more about real value, startuppers thinking more about lifestyle and happiness.

These two worlds are much more alike than I used to think. Though blogging is easy to start, creating true value (a question the typical blogger starts thinking about a year or more after starting) is hard. And that’s hard everywhere — be it a blog, an app, an HVAC company, or anything else.

And maybe I should rephrase that. It’s not that it’s hard to create real value, it’s that creating real value is the real work.

My two worlds are discovering they share the same ecosystem: creating value, making things someone wants.

Hillman Curtis on Reinvention

I’m spending less of my time thinking about how’s and why’s these days. My mind is stuck on the what’s. I clamber and climb over all sorts of ideas. I can pick up any single one of them and do some how/why work on it for a time. But it’s clear to me: none of the how’s or why’s will be very deep so long as there’s so many of them.

The Self-Made Man’s Self-Worth Problem

“But the manhood of the Self-Made Man was ever in doubt, tied as it was to external factors and the whims of financial success. Just as the value of a company’s stock fluctuated from day to day, so could the value of the Self-Made Man.”

Art of Manliness

Here’s one thing I’ve learned from a year at the gym: I’m strong. Doesn’t matter how much weight I can or can’t pull, I can grow, build up strength, whatever’s necessary. I’m not defective.

There’s confidence that comes with that – wisdom enough to know when it’s too much weight, confidence enough to know what I can do.

Today’s fluctuating sense of worth, whether man or woman, is danger stuff. Confidence changes the kinds of thoughts you have.

Do you feel confident?

Be a Real Artist

“‘We’re artists, not producers.’ Then make some art! ‘No one will buy it.’ Are you insane? The point isn’t the money yet, it is the drive. Go to the Whole Foods and ask if you can hang it for free, and if they say no, hang it anyway. […] The natural human instinct is to create things, beginning with the toddler who is amazed that he was able to create such a fascinating product out of his butt, the difference is most toddlers grow up and sublimate that drive and create other things. You have not gotten past the poop, strike that, you have regressed to the oral stage, hence the emphasis on organic foods. Yes, the anal stage comes after the oral stage.”

The Last Psychiatrist

Doing “something you love” for work is all the rage these days. And I’m all for it.

But before you try businessifying your passion, try out being a real artist — believe in a story so much you’ll give away your art for free. And if you don’t have the story yet, start looking.

Conan on Just Keep Going

“I get very down when I have a bad day, I go into a very dark place. [George Meyer] talked to me about it one time and he said, ‘you’re laying little pieces of tile and you can’t see the whole mosaic because it’s made of thousands and thousands of pieces. Some days you’re laying down a very brightly colored piece and other days it’s the light blue piece… Make something when you’re done.’ And I thought that was the most beautiful rationale for ‘just keep going.’”

Conan O’Brien

Truly, The Only Way

  1. Move from fuzzy to clear ambitions.
  2. Move from conflict avoidant to conflict engaging.
  3. Choose meaning over pleasure.

This list of three came from an email promoting a friends book and it perfectly summed up what I’ve been hearing.

I’ve read and watched a good deal of the whole think-big/where-are-you-going/what-do-you-want/goals/Choppra’s-scarf/Robbins’-toothpaste stuff recently. Probably self induced by my recent sit down and breathe circus.

Everything has been good and interesting. The list above (especially the first and third item) have appeared just about everywhere — though never as simply put as it is here.

You don’t know this, but I was a life coach for a while. I know, “who wasn’t,” right? At least I was certified, took the courses, etc. Honestly, it was great stuff — more like training in being human than it was “how to sell air.”

My own personal development digging and working with loads of clients has taught me I could make a good living asking people one question: what do you want?

I could charge $50k to ask you that question and have a proprietary checklist method with the word “forum” or “landmark” or “quantum” in it and it would change your life.

Or you could spend a little time thinking about it yourself. Maybe work it over with a non-close friend who’s in the same place a bit.

It’s not easy. Partly because our brain is biologically bad at it. It’s really good at figuring out the fuck/fight/run/live/die questions; it’s literally built for that stuff. But it’s not so good at sorting through the gradients of things like quality of life. We’re better at the how’s and what’s than we are at the why’s.

So it’s very common for you to never think through what you want. That’s why I’d charge $50k: because people need an incentive to landing on it truly, and there’s nothing quite like trying not to have wasted a bunch of money on something.

It isn’t difficult but it does take time. So don’t hold yourself to a time-frame. You probably don’t know enough about what you want right now. You’ll say something stupid like, “I want to travel to every country!” or “I want to make x amount of money!” They’re good enough to put down on paper but not good enough to think you’ve figured out your answer. They’re more.

Suffice it to say, that list up at the top, it is what is it. If you spend a second on the first one, you probably won’t be as safe/boring when you wake up tomorrow.

lifes too short for groping

Jubal on an Artist’s Praise

“But I am an honest artist. What I write is intended to reach the customer — and affect him, if possible with pity and terror… or at least divert the tedium of his hours. I never hide from him in a private language, nor am I seeking praise from other writers for ‘technique’ or other balderdash. I want praise from the customer, given in cash because I’ve reached him — or I don’t want anything.”

Jubal Harshaw

Listen to the podcast, get the Matterful Monthly and enter to win free gear.