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Geoff Blades

Rocket to the Top Like Musk and Bezos

“So, this all seems horrible”

My favorite scene in The Avengers is right near the end.

After Earth’s mightiest heroes have been divided and conquered by the evil deceiver, Loki, they are assembling in Manhattan.

With a grotesque alien army streaming through a hole in the sky they are humanity’s first, last and only stand.

Then, just as the scene is getting even worse, the final Avenger rolls up on a motorcycle.

It’s Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, looking worse for wear after crashing down into an abandoned factory somewhere.

“So, this all seems horrible,” he says.

The unflappable Black Widow casually responds, “I’ve seen worse.”

I’ve seen worse

You might know that this work began for me in a horrible time back in Silicon Valley.

Bright eyed with the gold rush of technology, I’d landed a plum transfer to Goldman Sachs’ Silicon Valley office right at the top of the market.

By the time I was boots on the ground, however, the first shoe had already dropped.

Those of us in Silicon Valley will always remember March 10, 2000 as the end of the internet bubble, and start of the pop.

But it still wasn’t for another year or so that the other shoe dropped.

The not so great financial crisis in 2008 had the same footprint.

Investing in distressed companies at Carlyle, we were patiently prepared in 2007 when the Bear Stearns first shoe dropped.

But it wasn’t until Lehman Brothers collapsed some 9 months later that the legs cut out.

In both cases, round after round of layoffs later fewer companies and people were left standing.

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“The only way is up”

A late forties executive, he shook his head and laughed.

That’s a gift and curse of FaceTime.

For most years we’ve worked together I couldn’t see his responses.

I’d just told him the name of a song that has been playing in my head recently.

It’s old, from 1984, I doubt I’ve even heard it for a decade.

But it’s a goodie.

And it’s REALLY been speaking to me these last couple months.

“Keep on moving”

Ain’t nothin’ gonna break my stride

Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no

I got to keep on moving

Ain’t nothin’ gonna break my stride

I’m running and I won’t touch ground

Oh no, I got to keep on moving

Do you remember this song, if you were even alive in 1984?

You can see why he laughed, can’t you?

Yet it was still a powerful reminder for him in these treacherous times.

Like Churchill said about hell, you’ve gotta keep on moving.

Here’s the video if you want to rock it out.

btw, it has some trippy dancers and amazing hair like this artist.

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EFS for the 4th?

“But how can you feel your best about heading into a recession?”

That’s a question we got from this article last week on stopping being consumed by the debilitating fear in our world.

It’s a great question.

Few of us feel our best about heading into a recession.

And even fewer of us feel our best fearfully focusing on the future.

Besides, how many of us feel our best anyways?

Don’t you wonder why we are less than a shiny, happy species?

I wonder if it has anything to do with being served fear as an all day happy meal?

Food for fear

Our society is food for fear.

We’re apparently mystified by our worsening “mental health crisis,” which is exactly what you expect from this 1-2-3—

    1. Incessantly fill your head with mostly negative information
    2. Focus on unknowable things that feel bad that you can never influence
    3. Repeat as many seconds a day

About as mystifying as our obesity or loneliness epidemic, right?

Is this how it’s meant to be?

How your brain is supposed to be used?

You’re taught nothing about using this most magical machine, so perhaps this is right?

It’s a machine for filling with fear to be fear filled for the future?

Yet even if that’s right, I’m still thinking that some of us want to feel good about the future?

Heck, maybe this is taking it WAY too far these days, but perhaps even EXCITED?

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Are we meant to be scared?

When you work on Wall Street you have the same conversations over again.

Just like the brain has some 70,000 automatic thoughts a day, 80-95% that are negative and redundant, most conversations are too.

“Where do you think the economy is headed?”

That’s a question you can get pulled into all day every day.

One person shares their opinion.

Others thoughtfully deliberate.

Endless time is wasted.

0% certainty

The future is 100% unknowable.

Period.

Full stop.

We all know this, of course.

None of us have a crystal ball, and all that.

But because of the way our brains are set up and how you are socially conditioned, all day every day you can be “thinking” about the future.

This can be extremely valuable.

A magical thing about being human is the prefrontal cortex that gives your brain the unique ability to strategize, rationalize, plan ahead.

There is limitless value in this.

It is probabilistic thinking, preparing for different scenarios.

This is different to kidding yourself that you have any certainty whatsoever.

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Supernova

This is how I’m feeling these days.

Rocketing into the stratosphere.

We’ve gone supernova.

Hahahahaha.

I’m just playing around here.

But in many ways it does feel this way.

It’s very exciting.

Leap to hyperspace

This feeling for me started a couple months ago when this article from a couple years ago kept getting hit on the website.

It’s from my September Man upgrade that is now a continuous upgrade.

When I read it I cringed a bit.

It takes a pretty aggressive frame but it also does lay out a method for leaping to hyperspace.

Back then we executed this leap, btw, to tremendous effect.

And I feel it building again.

Leaping hyperspace.

Living supernova.

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It’s OK if you don’t know

Still I’m just taking steps.

Exploring this magical journey wherever it leads.

I never set out to do this work in the world, let alone to build programs on the brain or reality constructing.

Certainly not to focus on the future of our species.

Beginning this work 22 years ago I MERELY wanted to know how you live the life you TRULY want.

It seemed like the most obvious thing to me.

So I just started taking steps.

Down the rabbit hole

See, this is ALL that got me started on these topics.

I didn’t get it anymore.

Since I “woke up” in high school and creating your best life became my obsession it had seemed obvious.

Work hard in school.

Get the best job you can.

Do your best work.

Keep creating your best life.

Simple, right?

It all made sense, until it didn’t.

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1 thing… to transform ALL humanity

Have you learned things in life that have changed so much for you?

Of course I know you have, and here I’m trying to get specific with you.

That some or even just 1 of these things might have fundamentally changed you and your life.

You were just going along as you had been.

Like you used to think or feel or behave a certain way.

And then you learned some or just 1 thing that changed you forever.

Perhaps rapidly.

This is 1

1 thing I struggle with in all of my work is how to convey it.

There are things that I’ve come to know that I can’t say how I know.

Or there are things that have been so fundamentally transforming for me but I don’t know how to get the message across.

A problem is that these concepts can all seem to make sense at a certain level.

You think that you really get it.

And then, some thing clicks in a way that you REALLY get it.

It’s like a deepening or insight or knowing.

Once you get this, everything changes.

And it can be the same for ALL humanity.

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73 bursts of inspiration for your rocketing

A client just needs one special quote to get fired up.

He can get it from just about anywhere.

For him a single burst of inspiration propels a LONG way.

Personally, my brain demands more fuel.

I need 73 🙂

What’s in a quote?

Not much, one may say.

Or you might say that some quotes contain so much more than one can convey.

This quote you see at the top of this page, for instance, is one of my favorite, by educator John A Shedd in 1928—

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

Powerful idea, isn’t it?

You see that it forces your brain to consider risk a certain way, doesn’t it?

This is why we used it to “reframe” taking risk in this program for Rocketing To the Top like Musk and Bezos.

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10/10 is the only way you know

Most often in life you’re told what you can’t do.

In fact, one might say that most of your life is this way.

From the day they’re born to the day they die most people live by other people’s rules.

Living within the limits of what the world thinks is possible, you never learn what is TRULY possible for you.

Let alone when you’re the one limiting yourself.

Limited brain

In fields of excellence you come across the notion of limiting beliefs.

These are beliefs that limit and hold you back.

Unfortunately, what’s most missed on this topic is that it’s never just beliefs limiting you.

You are limited by the ENTIRE brain.

It is a limited machine.

Mostly operating to keep you safe, it’s mostly commanding what you can’t do, mostly governing what is possible for you.

But that limited brain only knows the limits of its cognition, rather than the limits of what is truly possible.

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What might you find here?

Are there things that you want to do but you fail to get yourself doing them?

Perhaps they are old habits you’re “trying” to change?

Or you have actions you’ve decided to take, yet you fail to get yourself consistently taking them?

Maybe you give it your best shot for a while and then it’s hard to keep it up?

Perhaps you find yourself resisting these actions?

Or even avoiding them altogether?

What to do?

This is the topic I was writing about here on MORFOCUS.

See, the bigger challenge for me and most my clients is different to this thing we typically call focus.

It’s beyond the obvious things such as prioritizing, organizing, shutting off distractions, etc.

Because it comes back to the emotional thing—

Discomfort.

Sometimes just thinking about your goals can feel uncomfortable.

Taking your best actions can be uncomfortable.

Even when you “want” to do them or have “decided” they matter it can still be hard to get yourself focused on what is uncomfortable to do.

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How certain are you about this?

What would you say is the hardest part to achieving what you TRULY want?

Often people tell me it is knowing what you want.

For sure this can be hard.

In fact, it was so hard for me that this question hijacked my life 22 years ago, and led me to build The System for achieving what you truly want, even if you don’t know what this is.

So, certainly, I agree this can be hard.

But I’d suggest that what comes with it is much, much harder—

Knowing how you ACTUALLY achieve it, as quickly as possible.

How, REALLY, how?

For ACTUALLY achieving, this is the ONLY question that counts, isn’t it?

Certainly there are lots of people who are interested in these topics in theory.

But if you’re serious about actually achieving what you truly want, being certain on how is ALL that counts.

How certain would you say you are?

Do you know exactly how you achieve?

Meaning, you know with CERTAINTY the actions that drive the success you want?

Or is it less clear for you?

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Everything is possible, at all times


Are you limiting yourself?

Placing limits on what you perceive is possible, do you limit what is possible for you?

Keep in mind—

Our most advanced scientists never even know the limits of what is possible.

In fact, they never even know what makes up your reality.

Brain blown

It’s brain blowing when you go deep into neuroscience.

You learn how little we know about the brain.

Quantum physics is the same.

Scientists observe things that make zero sense to your logical brain.

Lacking any way of knowing what is truth our best scientists are STUCK not knowing.

Yet the rest of us are taught a simpler, more black and white view.

This is the case with consciousness.

You are taught to “know” that you are conscious.

And given a certain understanding of what this is.

While top scientists who deeply research these topics have zero clue what this is.

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Where’s your Mars?

Do you know that Mars is only 9 months away?

That’s how little space there is between here and there.

Learning this blew my mind on the whole space travel thing.

It seems foolish now, but before my brain had thought of distant space travel like cryo chambers, light-years of sleep, robot pilots, and so on.

But only 9 months at regular human speed?

What’s the big deal?

Duh

Obviously, the whole thing is a big deal.

Just escaping gravity of this planet is a BIG deal.

In every way, every thing about colonizing Mars is a “difficult problem,” as Elon Musk might say.

Yet, still, listen to Musk talk about it, even just a few clips on this page, and it seems no big deal.

Watching Elon you can be convinced that so long as he keeps working at it he’ll reach Mars.

Whether it happens soon enough is the real question?

That’s why you see them building rockets around the clock.

Musk knows he now has this solved so they’re iterating as quickly as possible.

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28 Musk and Bezos quotes on taking more risk

We all limit ourselves.

Cap our potential.

It’s safe.

Comfortable.

We all get that with little risk there is little reward.

Yet, still, we often take too little risk to achieve what you TRULY want.

I used to be this way.

It’s one thing training this program on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos did for me.

It helped me put all my cards on the table.

To risk it ALL, rather than looking back having not.

You must be measured in your risk taking, of course.

But also you must stop your dreams being murdered by your false perception of risk.

And here’s the thing.

Just one small change in how you perceive risk can make ALL the difference.

e.g. Is it more risky to build rockets that blow up?

Or to remain a single-planet species waiting for an eventual extinction-level event?

Hmm.

Here’s 28 quotes from Principle 6. Take [Unreasonable] Risk from this trillion dollar program on rocketing to the top like Musk and Bezos.

1. “If you want to have more invention, you need to do more experiments, per week, per month, per year, per decade. It’s that simple. You cannot invent without experimenting. And here’s the other thing about experiments. Lots of them fail. If you know it’s going to work in advance, it is not an experiment. ” — Jeff Bezos

2. “Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared.” — Elon Musk

3. “I had one of the most difficult choices I have ever faced in life was in 2008. And I think I had maybe $30 or $40 million left in 2008, I had two choices. I could put it all into one company and then the other company would definitely die or split it between the two companies. But if I split it up between two companies, they both might die.” — Elon Musk

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Will-power Vs. the limitless power of your Will?

He gifted a classic book that sits on the shelf next to me.

It’s a reminder of what matters most right now.

Also, it’s how I see him.

Hardcore, highest standards, disciplined, focused, getting things done.

Decades ago he helped train me in some of these things and the book reminds me that you can always train more.

The title?

“Will-power”

Published in 1905 it might as well be written today.

Arguably this topic matters even more now as it did back then because your brain is the same, and you’ve got WAY more distraction.

Ultimately, this book is about THE most important life skill that I’ve written about plenty.

It’s the concept I wrote about here as the definition of insanity. 

Here we went deep in this monster article on how simple this can be but why most people will never do it.

You see it here on Mike Tyson’s unstoppable programming. 

It’s what my book for Building Your Limitless Mind is about and my System for Ultimate Days too.

I decoded it behind the winning methods of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

You see it over and over with top business athletes like Ray Dalio and Warren Buffett.

And top sports athletes like Muhammed Ali and Tom Brady.

It’s not JUST this thing we call will-power.

But the WILL AND SKILL to think how you want, feel how you want, and take the actions you choose.

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Why Musk and Bezos do this

You know that getting better is a key to success.

It may be THE key to extraordinary success.

Certainly continuously improving is key to every facet of winning and life.

The theory of evolution that got us from crawling to walking works this way.

Every winning athlete is nonstop getting better.

Extraordinary competitors in careers and business win the same way.

What do you see?

For you personally?

In your career or business?

Do you see getting better is key to your winning?

How clear are you on what it means to be getting better?

And what about this question we’re heading into—

Are you improving RAPIDLY enough?

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Happy holidays. Keep in mind…

Apparently 50% of people rank this year as their worst ever.

What about the other 50%?

It really is a tale of two worlds right now, isn’t it?

While many people are struggling from the effects of the virus and lockdowns, some people are absolutely crushing it.

It reminds you that things are never all good or all bad.

“It seemed pretty, pretty dark”

Keep in mind…

On Christmas Eve 2008 Elon Musk’s businesses were nearly bankrupt.

Personally he still had some $30 million and of course a bevy of rich friends who could help him out.

But that was the small part of Elon’s problem.

The big problem was that his two babies, Tesla and SpaceX, these two world-changing missions that Elon had committed his life to, would imminently be taken off life support.

That’s the way Elon talks about his businesses—personally.

He describes them like babies and was forced to ask questions like, “Which one am I going to let starve to death?”

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