**This post was originally written just for my mailing list, but I had such an overwhelming positive response to it I decided I needed to share it with the “world” at large through a blog post. If this seems like it is speaking straight at you or you have additional words of wisdom to add please do so at the end.

I had a particularly frustrating last few days and the nagging harpy of self doubt was starting to whisper into my ear. So I decided that instead of entertaining those fears, those doubts and those nagging questions about my own capabilities as a person I’d just refuse…

And it worked AMAZINGLY!

So I quickly scribbled down every way I could refuse that would help me grow a person, embrace my dreams and banish the self doubt that tries to derail all extraordinary plans. I wanted to share them with you in hopes that they’ll encourage you to also shoot down your doubt and negative self talk and instead only pay attention to the positive goals and actions that will get you where you want to be.

I REFUSE…

1. I refuse to listen to my doubts, my fears and any negative self talk that goes on in my head.
2. I refuse to worry about the future and instead I will only focus on actively influencing my present.
3. I refuse to not give myself the fighting chance I deserve to do anything and everything I want to in life.
4. I refuse to accept failure as a permanent state and instead only choose to see it as a learning experience.
5. I refuse to entertain thoughts that don’t directly benefit myself, others or the greater good of the world at large.
6. I refuse to accept anything less than my wildest dreams coming true.
7. I refuse to acknowledge the limitations that most people think they have, no matter what the circumstances.

How I do this is when thoughts opposite of what I want in life come up I just simply tell them (sometimes even out loud) “I don’t care and I refuse to acknowledge you”. They’ll try a few more times but then after a while they’ll give up.

This is you training your brain to only bring in positive, goal affirming thoughts and ideas and it will help you exponentially if you really put it to work.

I refused… what can you refuse that will lead to greater success and happiness?

For the last two weeks I’ve hit that time in my life where one suffers from entrepreneur’s ennui. Maybe it was the fact that I turned the big 2-5, maybe it was because I was nearing my 150th post or possibly it had to do with feeling like I was working so hard at my business and I wasn’t seeing the earth shattering results I wanted to.

So I took a few days completely off. I avoided my Mac like the plague and instead sent it longing glances from across my condo as I forced myself to read, relax and go bicycle riding (very cathartic by the way). I spent some time thinking about the purpose by this blog and within my own life. I came to a few amazing conclusions which I will be sharing with you, my lovelies, later on this week.

But for now I wanted to share some of the best quotes I found while going through my quarter life crisis which I think will reinvigorate you just as they have me to continue to follow your passions and pursue an extraordinary life.

10 Maxims for Business Revolutionaries

1. My first six years in the business were hopeless. There are a lot of times when you sit and you say “Why am I doing this? I’ll never make it. It’s just not going to happen. I should go out and get a real job, and try to survive.” George Lucas

• Have you had those feelings? Have you quit? If not then good for you, if so then get back on the saddle. Lucas didn’t quit after 6 years, most people in business quit after 6 months.

2. The entrepreneur is not really interested in doing the work; he is interested in creating the way the company operates. In that regard, the entrepreneur is an inventor. He or she loves to invent, but does not love to manufacture or sell or distribute what he or she invents. Michael Gerber

• For me this was where virtual assistant’s came in… they help you with all the stuff in your company as the ‘inventor’ you don’t want to do but are essential.

3. I like to tell people that all of our products and business will go through three phases. There’s vision, patience, and execution. Steve Ballmer

• All too often people have a vision, but don’t have the patience or execution to make it a reality… don’t be one of those people.

4. Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are in business. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect or engineer. Dale Carnegie

• Go read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” a.s.a.p. and you’ll learn how to deal with this ‘problem’ and make your own life a lot easier and happier.

5. To have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents and when you are expressing your unique talents you lose track of time. Deepak Chopra

• Being passionate about what you do really does make your entire life 100 times more pleasant and it makes what you do 1oo times more effective.

6. I feel sorry for the person who can’t get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile. Walter Chrysler

• Do you wake up everyday excited about your ‘work’? If not think of what changes would have to be made to make you jump outa bed and whistle your way to your job… then make them happen.

7. Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. Mary Kay Ash

• If you find yourself starting to limit what you can do think of instead the worst possible scenario, like you go broke and a bird poops on your head. Then work yourself mentally out of that hole and see what the BEST possible scenario you can imagine is – say living in 5 star hotels with the love of your life while traveling the world and running a business that is turning sand into food so orphans can eat. You have one life, you owe it to yourself to at least try for the very best.

8. You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure. Andrew Grove

• Epic, and so true, action is always the #1 piece of advice I give to any entrepreneur or would be business builder when they ask what they should do more of… just act!!

9. The most important thing is God’s blessing and if you believe in God and you believe in yourself, you have nothing to worry about. Mohamed Al-Fayed

• I personally love this one, you may not and may leave me a mean comment calling me a dirty religious but hey, it’s my blog so deal with it

10. The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. Thomas Edison

• I think often people see the word ‘hard work’ and think it has to be physically and mentally draining – instead it just has to be effective, so try to remind yourself daily to work ’smarter’ not necessarily ‘harder’.

Comments, Questions, Testimonials?

How’d ya like those apples? If you have any maxims you’d like to share or stories of inspiration (or heck stories of hair pulling out frustration) feel free to leave a comment below…

As a child we were all asked by adults seeking some common ground in which to bond with us the cliched question “whatdaya wanna do when you grow up?”. Many of us answered honestly – we really let fly what we wanted to do. If we thought being Indiana Jones would rock, we’d say so. If we wanted to be a nurse, a mommy, a firefighter or a cowboy, all we had to do was utter the words and coos of adulation would come in drones. “Oh he wants to be an astronaut, isn’t that cute!” or “She said she wanted to be a judge, how adorable!”.

Fast forward to the present. Now go tell the next person who asks you “what you do” instead what you WANT to do when you grow up… see how fast you get hustled to the psyche ward. It is a sad commentary on the state of things that instead of being praised for saying “I want to fly a spaceship” you’d be mocked – or if a woman said “Hmm.. I really just want to be a mommy” she may be thought stupid for not taking up a career.

Who CARES what others think of YOUR dreams

That is why they’re yours!! Fight the overwhelming pressure to conform into a shape that fits the rat race’s mold and instead champion your own path. Think of the great minds of the last 200 years, anyone from Picasso to Warren Buffett. How many of them conformed to a stereotype? How many of them gained fame, riches and most of all the ability to live the life they wanted on THEIR terms – by being the same as everyone else. Nobody that’s who, because being outrageous is the new safe.

It’s time to think about your life people, I mean really think about what YOU (not your mom, your girlfriend or your great uncle Joe) want to do with YOUR life….

Being what you want to be when you grow up… now

Growing up I wanted to travel the world, to be rich and to be able to do whatever I wanted – whenever I wanted. When I would tell people this as a young adult they’d look at me funny so I started to say “I want to be a lawyer”. Which everyone – goodness knows why - would react to positively. “Lawyer, good job, yep, not a lot of competition in THAT field”. But it was safe, it was standard, it fit the mold and there was a map (aptly called law school) that drew a line between where I was at 18 and where I would be at 24 (pulling 90 hour weeks while my thighs got fatter from never moving my bum from an executive chair). It all sounded GREAT!

Actually it sounded boring, but I didn’t have the giblets back then or the creativity to say “Wait, I am going to school so I can work myself to death and die at 55 of a heart attack? That’s outrageous”.

Being outrageous in the new safe

At around 20 I realized, school sucks. I get fed info that has no practical application to  my life and then I have to regurgitate it on a term paper that moves me up a grade where I can do more of the same. So in an attempt to have more control over my life I decided something that was epic… to be in control you need X amount of dollars (your X and my X are different, depending on what you want to do with your life). My X at the point was pretty low, so when I started pulling in hundreds a day selling crap on eBay I was thrilled.

I promptly ditched school mid-semester and moved back to Vegas to grow my little eBay empire and goof around.  Little did I know there were rules on eBay I had to follow and when I didn’t I got kicked off – thus my main source of income dried up FAST.

So I went to work at a bar at the tender age of 21 and about 15 days old. I worked there for 9 months and it was the single WORST and best time of my life. Worst because I had settled, I had gone to work at a CRAP job with no future – was in a relationship with someone who I didn’t even like but had settled (see a pattern?) for and had NO clue what I wanted to do with my life. It was also the BEST because at the end of it I had realized my inner entrepreneur and KNEW beyond knew that no matter what I wouldn’t have an ordinary life like so many of the people I was around.

How to be Outrageous

In such a time as ours, where we rely on the government for everything and are obsessed with finding jobs that have decent 401k benefits it is very hard and very easy to be outrageous. Being an outrageous entrepreneur is difficult because you’ll face so much confrontation from others at first, on the same note it is supremely easy to be outrageous nowadays since everyone else acts so brain-numbingly safe all the time.

10 Ways to be outrageous and win

1. Start a business in the midst of a recession (check)
2. Quit your ‘job’ before it feels safe to do so (check)
3. Create a rocking personal brand that makes you stand out like a sore thumb from the rest of your competition (working on it)
4. Start a small business that consists of you wearing other people’s shirts and getting paid a 6 figure salary for it (see: www.iwearyourshirt.com)
5. Charge WAY more than anyone has ever charged in your market and call it ‘premium’
6. Offer a ridiculously good deal on something no one else is marking down and call it a ‘super deal’
7. Paint your entire office building BRIGHT ORANGE
8. Don’t give up even when people tell you your a fool for going forward with it (see: Richard Branson in building Virgin Records)
9. Give up even when people think your a fool for doing so in pursuit of your true passion (see: Michael Crichton going all the way through Harvard Med just to become a writer instead)
   
10. Don’t be afraid of ‘what ifs’ be afraid of the status quo (Check & check!!)

So I have two questions for you, how can you become more outrageous and what do you REALLY want to do when you grow up??

I drive all the time and instead of rocking out to MmmBop (am I dating myself?) or whatever is popular with the kiddies, I try to enlarge my gray matter (squishy brain area) by listening to audio books. Some of you might benefit greatly from doing the same as I believed I have consumed an entire MBA’s worth of knowledge in the last year from this method alone. You can easily take in two to three audio books a week if you listen to them religiously and nothing grows your business like learning from those who have been there.

The Magic of Thinking Big (by David Schwartz). This book is incredibly encouraging, uplifting and helps truly put you in the mindset of success. Though written decades ago the Magic of Thinking Big is one of the most highly recommended books for business owners and entrepreneurs ever.

Tribes (by Seth Godin). Tribes teaches you just that, how to build a tribe around your brand and create products/services that will last a lifetime. A great read for anyone thinking of starting a business or getting into a new project, Tribes will make you think and inspire you to greatness.

Think & Grow Rich (by Napoleon Hill). A cult classic that I think should be mandatory reading for ALL MBA’s and entrepreneurs alike. The greatest business minds in the world all point back to Hill’s classic book as the start of their entrepreneur’s journey. Truly this book teaches you how to think and grow rich.

The 80/20 Principle (by Richard Koch). Want to work less and make more? Want to be far more effective in your life without having to use more of your energy and time? The 80/20 principle is one of the cornerstone philosophies of great lifestyle design artists everywhere – it teaches how to get more out of less time in ALL aspects of your life and will change your mindset when it comes to ‘time management’ for good.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (by Stephen R. Covey). Would you like to be highly effective in your life? Do you need 7 tips to really lay out the road map? Ta Da! Here ya go… no need to thank me, your effectiveness is thanks enough!

The New Pyscho-Cybernetics (by Maxwell Maltz). This book is the perfect blend of science and motivational thinking. It’s like “The Secret” on steroids – and not ridiculously corny! (P.S. That chick pretty much took ALL of her ground breaking ideas from this book written 40 years ago!). Also a great thing is this new edition is edited by the great Dan Kennedy!

Outliers (by Malcolm Gladwell). Many people know of Gladwell’s other classics such as The Tipping Point and Blink but few have read Outliers a true classic in my mind. “It is not the brightest who succeed,” Gladwell says in the book, “Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”

Farewell to Summer (by Ray Bradbury). Why is this science fiction type book in here? Because it’s my darn list & I love Ray Bradbury – you should too, it’ll make you popular, beautiful and gold flakes will fall down on you wherever you go (promise!). Besides those bonuses this book is an epic read, Bradbury’s writing style is beautiful and it’s a nice escape from reality.

Man’s Search for Meaning (by Viktor E. Frankl).

Viktor Frankl talks about people’s search for meaning even in the midst of surviving the Holocaust death camps. This perspective helps us see no matter how bad we think we have it we’ve got nothing on this guy – and he still perseveres while finding a way to encourage others. Frankl’s book is uplifting, eye opening and truly a beautiful work – everyone should read it at least once. It makes it very clear that money really isn’t everything.

Linchpin (by Seth Godin). Another amazing instant classic from Godin. In this book he teaches you about how anyone can create truly meaningful art as well as how to become the linchpin that is necessary to your businesses success. If you are going to read one book from Godin this year – make it Linchpin – it’ll rock your world.

Getting Things Done (David Allen). Though the concepts in Getting Things Done may take you a few reads/listens to really understand it can truly change your life and productivity if you give it a chance. GTD has revolutionized the way I work and organize – it’s the reason I can work on 7 projects at the same time with nothing falling through the cracks. I’d say the best book on productivity and organization I’ve ever experienced.

Buy-ology (by Martin Lindstrom). This groundbreaking book is based off a 7 million dollar scientific study into why people buy. If you are selling ANYTHING in your business (which I think go hand in hand) you need to get this book a.s.a.p. It will change the way you look at the consumer economy and evolve your marketing to trigger what matters most.

The Art of War (by Sun Tzu). Whether your into War or Peace (get it??) this book is a must read for entrepreneur’s everywhere. It’s ideas and philosophies go far beyond actual war and into the depths of what drives people and creates amazing ventures. The Art of War is a beautifully written ancient text that is still 100% applicable in today’s world.

Go Get These Now!!

P.S. Oh you noticed I didn’t link to any of these books? That’s because they are audio books people! Type it into Itunes or Google it (let your fingers do the walking)! Or you could be an uber zealot and go to this ancient thing that people used to frequent called The Library and get it them for free!

Ever feel yourself thirsting for a little knowledge, want a head start or a push in the right direction? Well here are 21 entrepreneur blogs that will get you all fired up to get up and get out there! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, heck you may even stumble upon your million dollar baby reading through these time tested jewels!

1. Project Mojave Blog odd name, amazing story behind it and a guy that is truly taking the world by storm through his entrepreneurial grit. If you want to make money via internet business (the non scuzzy way) this is for you!
2. Dumb Little Man reading this blog will make you smart, it teaches you tips on how to save money, be more productive and get things done.
3. Think Traffic a great place to go for information on getting more readers to your blog and developing the content to make them stay for a while.
4. The Middle Finger Project how else can I explain it? It’s a blog called the middle finger project?! If you love sticking it to the man and hate the status quo the clever writing done at MFP will get you motivated to leave your boring life in the dust and start a new, exciting journey!
5. Ramped Up Blogging a great place to read about true pro blogging that isn’t copyblogger or problogger, I mean those are great, but it is time to give some others a voice and Robb Sutton does an amazing job at that.
6. Virtual Business Lifestyle for those of you who are sick of being stuck behind desks and in cubicles, this blog teaches you all about outsourcing and how to become a virtual business magnate!
7. Young Entrepreneur Blog every time I read something  from 16 year old Ben Lang I get a kick in the pants to get out there and get moving – if learning tons of stuff you should be doing for  your business from a teenager doesn’t jump start your engines I don’t know what will!
8. Income Diary is truly like reading through the secret journals of a mega successful internet business entrepreneur, check it out you’ll be glad you did!
9. Quick Sprout since I just interviewed Neil Patel (for an upcoming piece on this blog) I figured no time is better than to highlight his awesome site. He is a serial entrepreneur who is involved with businesses like Crazy Egg and shares his wisdoms freely at quicksprout.com.
10. Dragos Roua that’s his name & his game is providing amazing content for entrepreneur’s to make us all brilliantly better.
11. Untemplater a great multi author site that helps entrepreneurs and forward thinkers everywhere shatter the ‘template’ life and do things differently!
12. Johnny B Truant a great source of laughter and amazing internet business advice, Johnny’s blog is taking the internet by storm and helping you make money all at the same time!
13. Upgrade Reality a little diversion from all the biz talk, this blog written by Diggy is an amazing journey through personal development… with a fun twist, the writing within will encourage and inspire you!
14. Become a Young Successful Entrepreneur written by one in fact! This great entrepreneur blog is perfect for those of you who want to get involved with start ups and are uber motivated. Jun’s writing style is amazing and his advice is solid.
15. Social Triggers it’s like Freud meets ProBlogger! This site is a great way of learning how to get more out of  your internet business WHILE learning a lot of psychological triggers for why people do what they do.
16. Exile Lifestyle for the travel happy among us, this blog will make you sell your house to see the world! Colin blogs about life, entrepreneurship and travel in the style of a true storyteller.
17. Mixergy to me this site is like entrepreneurial crack, it is SOO good. All interviews, all the time, seriously like one a day! And the interviews are from entrepreneurs who have been there done that and made millions! Start listening and you’ll never stop, that is why Mixergy is one of my top blogs of all time!
18. Smart Passive Income join Pat on his journey through supporting a family ALL on passive income online, he is incredibly transparent and more than willing to help – making Pat’s blog the perfect place to learn how to make passive income online without the B.S.
19. Viper Chill the name belies the pure awesomeness of this online marketing blog, last but certainly not least is Viper Chill a literal work of art in the internet business community – if you can only read one blog on online marketing make it this one!

How’s your business? How’s your year going? How are your relationships or dare I say it, love life? Do you think there is an intrinsic connection between all of these areas of one’s being? Is it money – noooo. Is it good looks – noooo. So then what is it?! It’s simply called networking, that over used word that encompasses  all of human interaction. Are you a rockstar at it? If not you probably wouldn’t answer a whole hearted YES!! to each question above… more of an ‘eeeh’ as you stuff your face with another bite of comfort food. So instead let’s learn more about what REALLY makes will get you to your goals, help you win friends and amaze people…

A trait that has always gone hand in hand with exceptional networking is confidence. Confidence is a characteristic groomed, yet so hard to pinpoint most people think your born with it. I get called confident a lot – I don’t know if people mean it in a good way or not – but I take it as a medal of honor. I used to be a quivering mass of jello when it came to self confidence. I would sit alone during school dances and walk literally blocks out of the way to not pass by frat houses in college due to the irrational fear that the guys hanging outside would mock me and call me ugly.

Sounds silly, but to many people low self confidence is the reason they don’t network and poor networking is the reason they don’t do well in many areas in life. There is a famous quote from someone I can’t remember that goes along the lines of if you stripped a millionaire of all his money and left him in a field chances are he’ll be a millionaire again in 5 years. Why? Because of the knowledge he possesses and the people he knows. You can be stripped down to your skivvies and still leverage major power if you know enough of the ‘right’ people.

Now the right people change – depending on what you do. If you are a mommy blogger your right person and my right person are two terribly different individuals. Yours probably wears a nursing bra, where mine more likely wears a power suit. But knowing the right people within your world is vitally important to success, to personal growth and most importantly to making the kind of money that can change your life.

My friend Colin just recently came out with a MASSIVE ebook on Networking (by massive I mean 251 pages!!!). When he sent it to me to read I thought “mmmm… I know enough about networking” but that little voice inside of me that says Maren don’t be a cocky idiot made me open the PDF. Three hours later I hadn’t stopped reading – the next day I was at it again – his book was so amazing, so life changing even for someone like me who networks ALL the time. I can’t even tell you in words…

So instead this is what I am going to say – this eBook costs $20, it is probably the best $20 you’ll spend ALL year. If you don’t fall madly in love with it I will give you a FREE session of networking consulting myself and teach you step by step how to become a social butterfly who brings in lots of dough through her networking prowess… OH WAIT, his book already DOES THAT!!! This eBook ROCKS…

Also Colin walks the walk, he’s young, he’s able to live all over the world and make lots of dough all through using networking properly – and  if you don’t want to do that – well then, I just don’t know anymore. Point being… get this eBook … you won’t regret it! And if you do you can call me at 702-245-2423 and get your hand held until you do get networking in all it’s life changing glory! For $20 bucks that is quite a steal.

At first the connection between these two concepts may seem tenuous (look it up!) but stick with me and both of these awesome entrepreneur ideas will rock your world! I recently moved into a condo a little nicer and pricier than currently would be “wise”… if I was to sit down with a financial adviser they’d say “Your income is too sporadic” and wonder why I always have a huge jump in income at the end of every month (secret: it’s because I realize “oh crap I have to pay bills” and actually get up and go).

So why’d I do it, isn’t that “dangerous” in this present economy (say the word like all the talking heads do with the same inflection as when they say “SARS”)? Well firstly because I believe in myself fully, I know that by the end of this month I’ll have made X and by the end of next month that will have doubled – how do I know it?

Because I work my butt off, am always pushing myself farther and I have faith in my own abilities. Secondly I have a little trick up my sleeve that has worked on skyrocketing my income and quadrupling my productivity time after time. What is this amazing secret? It’s simple just…

Burn the Boats

Long ago the Greeks were masters at psyching their troops into success. As the warriors would pile off a boat, onto foreign enemy land, the commanders would shout for the boats to be burned as the bewildered army stood on the shores watching their only ride home sink into the sea. I simply ADORE this tactic and have yet to see it fail in my own life and the lives of other entrepreneurs.

When you are contemplating starting a business or becoming an entrepreneur it’s ridiculously easy to fall into the “maybe someday” phase – this can last years – and all it will do for you is ensure you’ll be older & wrinklier when you actually begin to escape the 9 to 5.

Instead I am a firm supporter of burning your boats and psyching yourself into winning. Becoming an entrepreneur is hard when you have escape routes all around you (your job, your cozy life, your 401k) but when suddenly you see your ships sinking into the deep blue sails ablazin’ you’ll get the picture real quick that you’re in it to win it.

So disregard all the small business tips you’ve read over the past seven years while you sat around ‘thinking’ about how great it would be to work for yourself. Instead take this one SIMPLE but HIGHLY EFFECTIVE bit of advice: burn your boats, leave yourself no recourse and get in it to win it for real this time.

Doing Business like a Rock Band

How many successful rock bands in the last 50 years have produced one and only one song, ever. Hmm… if you can think of one send me the name, because the answer is none.

So if you were a consultant for rock bands how would you respond if a client came to you and said  “So we’ve been working on this one song for two years, nobody really likes it and we keep tweaking it to make it better but nothing is happening”. You’d smack them on the head and tell them to get lost – the music industry just isn’t for them (unless they were paying you tons of money, then you’d probably just sympathize and give them hundos to blow their noses in).

Why do would-be entrepreneurs and small business start ups do this ALL the time then!? They roll out ONE invention or business idea and if it doesn’t work like gangbusters they get mad at the world & continue their exercise in futility only to find out years later that the model is a complete dud.

Instead do business like a rock band, work on several projects at the same time - have laser focus on all of them but be sure to keep an eye out for the runaway hits and capitalize the pants off of them!

Currently I am working on 7 projects! This may sound absurd – and it kind of is – but due to my laser focus on each (mostly because of all the systems I set up) I can get 7x as much as other would be entrepreneurs get done. There is a difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur on a  side note, the couple that owns the local Irish pub down the street from you are business owners – they have one business and run it themselves, they probably will never grow it into something massive or start other projects while running their bar. To them it is just “too much” to keep organized.

An entrepreneur is the guy who is working on one project hoping it makes millions but if another amazing concept comes up that he believes in 100% he’ll spend time on that too… he may even drop the original business idea. Entrepreneurs are always growing, changing and adapting… they usually start many businesses in their lifetimes… some are runaway success stories others fail. But it doesn’t matter because the entrepreneur has burnt their boats, there is no going back for them and they know it – they must win at any cost or be destroyed. The entrepreneur also behaves like a musician, they work on an ‘album’ of projects and don’t get their ego caught up in just one that “has to work or else I’ll quit”.

So which are  you? Are you the rock band entrepreneurial spirit or are you just a one hit wonder? Do you have the guts to burn the boats and force your mental troops into battle with no back up plan, or will you stew for years in mediocrity hoping something or someone will give you the push you never had the backbone to give yourself?

These are serious questions – and they deserve hours, maybe even days of thinking over. But once you discover that you have what it takes, that you are the Greeks going into battle, that you are the entrepreneur who risks it all but wins time after time for his persistence then there is only ONE thing left to do…

GET YOUR ACTION ON!!!

A few weeks ago I discovered a tomato that changed my life forever… seriously, my productivity has gone through the roof, my businesses have improved and I’ve started on 3 new and potentially super profitable business ideas all because of a TOMATO!! What’s my secret? It’s called the Pomodoro Technique.

Francesco Cirillo coined the Pomodoro Technique in 1992 using a basic kitchen timer (Shaped like a pomodoro - Italian for tomato) and a sheet of paper. The gist of the technique is that you break down all of your ‘tasks’ throughout the day into 25 minute increments called pomodoros. First you write down on a sheet of paper the things you have to do for the day… for example:

• Write a blog post
• Research for my new project X
• Design a business card in Photoshop
• Call 3 potential clients
• Give my VA’s instructions for the coming week

Now look over your list and see what will take you less than 25 minutes, group that with another task because you must always finish the pomodoro once it’s set ticking. If your task will be over 25 minutes that’s fine, you’ll just use more than one pomodoro to complete it.

Now get your kitchen timer, or use e.ggtimer or use a Pomodoro Technique iPhone app (there are several). Before you set it going remember, pomodoros are indivisible – meaning you can’t break them into smaller time segments. So get ready to dedicate the next 25 minutes of your life to the task at hand. It works best if you turn off your phone, block out all distractions (yes I mean Skype, your pet kitty Friskers or your annoying roomate – I listen to white noise through my headphones) and get to work.

When your pomodoro rings no matter what you have to put aside what you are doing and take a 5 minute break, in this you can clean up your desk, skim a fun blog or make a phone call. Then after the break is up get back to your pomodoro if you aren’t finished or start a new task.

After you’ve finished 4 pomodoro’s back to back (including the 5 minute breaks in between) you must take a 30 minute break – this larger break should be used to do things completely non work related. I.e. clean out your sock drawer (during my last break I found 23 socks that had NO partners! so sad). If you have the good sense God gave a gerbil you get the point of this…. but let me tell you, THIS ROCKS SOCKS! You will within one day be amazed at how much MORE you get done. But you’ve gotta stick to the rules no matter what, if you break a pomodoro i.e. answer the phone, get distracted, work on something else you must reset the timer and start again. So no cheating!

If you want to learn more and download the FREE PDF offered by the people who created this amazing technique check out the official site for the pomodoro technique here.

I’m so sick of boring-ness, I’m sick of boring blog posts, boring advertisements, boring conversation and boring people. I loathe myself every time I think I’ve put out a ‘boring’ post on this site… I lie awake thinking “ugh, you just drained someone of a few minutes of their life reading your boring crap” but I digress. Point is boring is out, extraordinary is in and to be extraordinary you mustn’t play it safe because honestly avoiding risks is a terrible way to live.

10 Ways to kick boring’s butt & be extraordinary

Always do the Never.

Seth Godin is a genius, I don’t know if I say this often enough, but it deserves to be said. I was just reading Small is the New Big and he said something that stuck with me… Find the always and then do the opposite if you want to succeed. Example: blogger’s always are concerned with SEO, advertisers always are interrupting us, entrepreneur’s are always trying to get your business. What if you were a blogger who NEVER cared about SEO and just wrote from the heart, what if you NEVER interrupted people and instead complimented their life with ads that pertained directly to them, what if you NEVER did business with anyone except those who sought you out and practically begged you to take their money?

Take a risk every day.

What if you forced yourself to go out on a limb daily ? Like a major limb, what if each day you made a huge stride towards a goal of yours. Like you spent 2 hours a day working on the business you are planning on launching, come rain or shine, regardless if the wife yells or the kids scream – just force yourself to every day not play it safe and go for your unreasonable goal. What if you walked into the offices of the six largest business in your town and asked them if you could have their business EVERY day, never taking no for an answer, coming back again and again – to the point that they threw you out? You’d annoy 5 of them, but one of them, the CEO who had the heart of an innovator would be impressed and would be your first big client.

Play hooky.

I am a firm believer in scrapping college for reading 3 books a week and learning from the school of real life and I suggest people bail on their 9 to 5 jobs and give themselves no option to fail as a BIG motivator to succeed.

Drop everything you don’t love.

Has your boyfriend of five years been keeping you back? Do you “love” him but not LOVE him… drop him. Free yourself of baggage and start soaring to new heights. Dump the job you hate, drop the car you despise (in turn for a bike or something) and kick the relationship that holds you back to the curb with the ole its not you its me routine (or my personal favorite its not me, its you).

If you have an idea that is unrealistic seriously consider it.

When you tell people your ideas or inventions which one do you they respond to most fiercely to? Do that one… even if it is an epic flop like the Segway you know you’ll get some awesome press from it and meet new people along the way. At the very least you can blog about your amazing failures at epicflop.com (domain is FREE people!).

Introduce yourself to everyone.

What would you do if a 5’1″ girl at 100 pounds who looks about 16 came up to you at a bar and said “So, what are you passionate about”? Run, put your hands in the air and say “I didn’t touch her officer” or maybe say go home child… maybe, but if you let me explain I’d tell you that this odd opening line works wonders. I don’t ask people “what do you do” anymore, I ask them what they are passionate about – usually people have to think a minute, then when their brains finally wrap around the fact that I’m A. not a hooker B. truly interested a fount of repressed ideas flow out. I have met the most amazing people this way (with a handful of creeps of course) it may work better if you are a guy – or worse – I’m not sure. But it definitely connects you with the person you just met FAR better than knowing their job title. Also it filters the boring people out fast because they’ll respond with “Umm… I sell Xerox machines??” my cue to signal the check.

What is the status quo?

Find the status quo in whatever field or area of life your in and then twist it up. Say you are a mommy, if the status quo is to wear mommy jeans wear gowns. If you are a sales person and the status quo is to cold call or send boring emails starting with “Dear Mr. X” flip it on it’s head. Imagine a salesman calling you and saying “Listen, I don’t want to be making this call as much as you don’t want to get it” he’d catch my attention there “but I have this amazing service X and it’s going to rock your socks… literally. So let me take you to coffee, you can see my see my super trustworthy face and it will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.” Don’t know about you but I’d go, if not just to meet the guy ballsy enough to cold call with those lines.

Act as big as you plan to be someday.

When people ask me what I do I NEVER downplay my business, I say I run a global social marketing firm. Why? When I’m running it with two VAs from a coffee shop? Because I do damn it, why down play it or make myself sound littler than I am? Why not take a positive approach and paint the picture of what I am headed for (by the by – I am not saying lie ever, my company is global because I can and do business all over the world & my employees are in another country).

Don’t fall prey to small thinking – ever.

When you think I can’t it is your brain being scared and your butt being lazy. You can do anything you set your mind too – this quip is very true. Look at the Wright brothers, look at the moon landing (don’t even start with me freaky conspiracy theorists) and look at Oprah. If they can do it, can you SERIOUSLY not break free from your 9 to 5 job, make enough money to live the lifestyle you want and enjoy?

No pain no gain.

That saying was popularized by obnoxious guys in spike jackets wearing ‘NO FEAR’ shirts.. ugh… (sorry if you WERE that guy) yet it really rings true. Why isn’t everyone rich? Do you think its because they don’t want to be? Why isn’t everyone free? or why doesn’t everyone live the life of their dreams? It’s because the barrier to entrance for all of those things is HIGH. High barriers = fewer winners. Now this isn’t to say there aren’t short cuts. I don’t believe in the work 80 hours a week till your 60 then retire with a million bucks mindset – that is bunk, why waste the best years of your life slaving away in hopes that the last years of your life will be cozy? I’d rather enjoy every year as it comes and not have a million in the bank when I die. But remember there is PAIN, you must sacrifice, go beyond, think till it hurts, if it was easy EVERYONE would be living an extraordinary life. It isn’t, but what you need ask yourself is do you have the gumption, the grit and the wits to find the simplest path to your goals?

So no more playing it safe, go run in traffic, stick your hands in fire, wrestle near cliffs (metaphorically of course!) and get out there and start living life – so you fail, so you make a fool of yourself, better than blending into the background… in my humble opinion of course.

P.S. For whatever jack ass wrote the comment on my Youtube wall “you just want attention” my answer is NO DUH. Of course I want attention, EVERYONE who posts on Youtube wants attention – why the HECK else would you share something with the world? Alright, I’m done. Xoxo’s to all the rest of you awesome loves!

This post is pretty darn basic, it’s about productivity, but if you really pay attention and use the techniques explained below it can literally rock your world as it has done mine. Years ago I had a”brilliant” idea for a start up, called statuscheck.com, status check would be a social platform where people send out ‘updates’ on what they were doing throughout the day in little blips… I mapped the idea out in my mind several times and even put it to paper – but I never went further than that. About 6 months later something called Twitter hit the market, it was so similar to my idea I couldn’t believe it. The premise was simple, the platform was concise, but there was a huge difference between my idea for statuscheck.com and theirs. They actually ACTED upon their ‘great idea’ while I did nothing. Why? Because I wasn’t being productive enough, I had ideas and things I wanted to do but nothing to filter them through…

Problem > Us entrepreneurial types have loads of thoughts, ideas and plans swirling around in our heads that we just want to get out, but if we follow every thought as it happens we’ll never get anything done.

Solution > If your creative, entrepreneurial and idea centric you must develop a system to catch all your thoughts and organize them along with your daily tasks, this way both can be accounted for and nothing falls through the cracks.

First off you have to arm yourself with the correct weapons to be ninja like in the entrepreneurial space. My top must haves go as follows:

• A notebook: I like moleskins but you can get a cheaper alternative at any drug store.
• A pen & highlighter: one is for writing down all your ideas the other is for highlighting the important stuff in your own notes and other’s books.
• A smart phone: whether it is the iPhone, a blackberry or something else if you are serious about becoming a kick butt go getter its time to get serious. I check my email from my smart phone, I record voice notes, schedule meetings and even send off proposals on the lamb.
• A mobile office: this is probably applicable to more people than realize it, but if you can’t do it I understand – all I’m saying is my mobile office is bad (in a good way) and shoots my productivity through the roof. A mobile office consists of a book/laptop bag, a great book (for inspiration) all the above mentioned and a wi-fi card. Presto you’ve got a set up that allows you to do business from anywhere in the world and as an entrepreneur you never know when your next million dollar idea will hit you so be prepared take your office with you.
• Munchies: no Ninja can fight crime, battle the forces of big business and smoosh his competition without a little nourishment. Don’t be a fool, grab some gruel.

Top non-sucky time optimization techniques

Notice I didn’t say time management, firstly because the idea that you can manage time is silly to me, regardless of what you do or how you do it you will ALWAYS have exactly 24 hours a day – until you die. So it doesn’t come down to ‘managing’ those static number of hours, it comes down to getting the most bang for your tick.

• Use e.ggtimer and always give yourself a little less time than you need. Right now I have 30 minutes and 7 seconds to finish this post, ack! Normally I’d diddle around and get distracted but since I’m battling the clock I gotta get this puppy done… son. Try it yourself, any task you have guestimate the amount of time it will take then battle the clock to get it done. For the first few tries on repetitive tasks I suggest you keep a record, then you will know in the future how long X takes and can plan your day accordingly. This single technique has DOUBLED my productivity in one day and cut the amount of time I spend “working”.
• Go through your email twice. I know Tim Ferriss says he checks his email once a week, well you know what he’s also a wunderkind who competitive dances with his spare time (ew?)… If you are not super human I suggest checking your email 2-3 times a day, especially at the beginning of your entrepreneurial ventures. In the morning check it and don’t leave your inbox until it is EMPTY… do this again at night. How do you empty your inbox? I’ll explain in the next bullet point.
• File everything! A good book that is pretty hard to get through is Getting Things Done by David Allen. Most of you won’t read it so I’ll give you the basic gist: Create folders that apply to all sorts of situations i.e. Research, Read, Waiting on, Maybe/Someday, Projects, Email, etc. and then with every email/memo you get file the juicy bits into one of those folders. The best folder I use is called Next Actions it is chock full of the exact next step I have to do on tons of things. So when I am sitting here, twiddling my thumbs I remember ‘oh yeah’ and head over to Next Actions to find out exactly what I should be doing next.

• Never stop learning. Often I get far older, far more successful business people tell me that they are ‘impressed’ by me or that I’m making leaps and bounds that they never did at 24. I smile and thank them but never let on to my real secret behind my perceived good business mind – I read non stop. I read so much it would make your head spin. If I’m not reading blogs, books and articles relevant to all the things I love I am listening to a book on tape (right now it is Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big and it rocks socks). I get inspired to write posts, encouraged to keep on my entrepreneurial path and ignited to go towards new business goals by constantly consuming content from people smarter than I. I honestly think this is the key to success that everyone has kept a secret. When I meet people who are far more advanced in the same field as I’m in I don’t stress because they usually also say I’m too busy to read so I know that someday soon I’ll overtake them because they are focusing only on growing their business, not their knowledge. Businesses come and go, your knowledge is what will lead you to an extraordinary life.
• Mind Sweeps. Another of my secret weapons, about twice a day I open up my moleskin, pull out my pen (Aaah.. its all coming together!!) and write down what I call a mind sweep. This consists of me writing down everything on my mind at that moment. From personal stuff to business stuff to ideas and inventions, I literally turn my brain on it’s side and shake until there is nothing left in there. It’s amazing, I feel pounds lighter and my mind is free of clutter. The fact of writing down all those things literally takes them off my mind and frees up the thought waves to come up with more good ideas. Later in the day, or right then, I go through my mind sweep and figure out what the next step is for each item, then I add it to my Next Actions folder to be dealt with accordingly. If you try ONE THING from this post, try this one you’ll feel like a new person.

So when you are driving around or sitting in your office listen to a great podcast or book on tape, when you are working time yourself so you’re competing against the clock and when you check your mail make sure you have a place to put all of that info… do these things and you will notice your productivity double if not triple!

Want to learn more my suggestions would be check out: Getting Things Done & The E Myth (google them yourselves I’m too lazy to put a link and my timer is running low!)

Have a comment? Think your more of a Ninja than me (do you carry a night stick??!)? Holler below and we’ll figure out whose the top entrepreneur ninja around here!