Bout that life
Years back it almost stuck out of the blue – that what culminated as ‘success’ was really a tendency, actions, mindsets and habits that all coined our term of ‘about that life’.
It’s what separated the winners from the losers. It what made some break through and get to the top, vs others who dabbled in or around the subject.
Looking back at some of my past actions, beliefs and tendencies – in time seemed like what was done was just purely out of ‘enjoyment’, or that’s just what felt natural. The environment and the setup naturally yielded itself to producing a favorable outcome.
When inspected with a closer lens – and looking back in time it is obvious that several very important factors led to and contributed to the trial and error, perseverance, dedication, and the bootstrapping of a very successful business and startup to come.
Here are the various top factors I consider to be of utmost importance to be in congruence to ‘bout that life’, in no particular order.
1. Surrounding – who you are surrounding yourself with, the conversations you are having and the passion towards the subject will immensely lead you towards or away from your goal. Having buddies who are into the latest video game is inherently different then having a close acquitenance/friend or two with whom to bounce of the latest NFT money making ideas, and talks about how to build a personal brand.
2. Reading / Learning – is your media consumption the latest celebrity gossip – or are you surrounding yourself with reading real estate, investing and biographies of successful people? Are you watching the latest episode of star wars or is your channel mainly business, minset and investing advice? Content matters!
3. Hobbies – Yes – to a certain extent your hobby or passions will or should involve financials of some sort! Are you looking at buying your latest gadget / car / watch from the standpoint of which one you ‘like’ most – or are you employing a financial tactic behind looking at depreciation, demand/supply correlation – and what that item will be worth a day/month/year from now?
4. Free Time – Is your free time geared towards passively watching Netflix on the couch or opening up an account on the latest marketplace to see what you can sell? Are you joining boards and forums and groups where other entrepreneurs hang out? Are you immersing yourself in stories of how others started – and alighning your interests with that?
5. Mentality – this is where your whys , interests and hobbies must coalide. At several points during the start, there was no other way, and no ways out. There was a try till you make it attitude. Perception of ‘failure’ was nonexistent. This wasn’t something to ‘try’ or the latest hobby to entertain – the thought of full time work for someone else was so unbearable that the bar was set on making enough to cover the rent. The mindset and mentality needs to coalide into guiding you in the right direction.
6. Acting – And most importantly nothing is accomplished, learned, succeeded or failed without some action. You need to begin somewhere, and to begin somewhere is to suck. Yes – many of the initial actions, trials and tribulations will be unrewarded – and many thoughts will enter that this is not for you but for someone else. With every action will come a tiny sliver of knowledge learned, an attempt at market approval or disapproval, and guidance on the next step forward to make it work. Action is an imperative part of starting out and must be taken vigorously, often and consistent with a plan to gain and catch traction on any endeavor moving forward.
7. Process. You must be, ride on and enjoy the process. Maybe not enjoy ‘all of it’. But you must be OK with days, weeks and months .. (years) of enduring learning, trying, discussing, living and breathing ‘bout that life’ for an extended duration of time for anything to shake out. This is not a ‘trial’ or ‘lets see if I can get lucky reselling fake colognes’. This is a day in day out grind, that does not get easier with time. You must learn to live with, love or be OK with enduring this unending commitment and undefinite time span of going (balls to the wall) – until a very distant future that let’s you take of the foot of the gas pedal if you choose to do so!
‘Bout that life’ is really a culmination of your environment setup to yield a successful outcome. Without ensuring that many (if not all!) of the tenants of ‘bout that life’ are in place – the chance of success dwindles down to minimum, and instead of an entrepreneur you soon will fall into the ‘wantrepreneur’ category with little to know to show for it. You must at all times be getting to as close to ‘bout that life’ 24-7 to birth, create and grow a successful business.
Additional thoughts and actions to ponder…
Think about your friends, acquiantenances and parents. Would you consider any of them ‘bout that life’? In which ways yes and in which ways no? Almost immediately thinking about everyone in my life I can without a doubt determine (from what is on their mind, to our discussions together, to their financial success or lack thereof) if they are ‘bout that life’. No one I know ‘LUCKED’ into ‘bout that life’. You cannot luck yourself into it. The commandements of ‘bout that life’ are chosen, endured and can be influenced by you. Where you start of vs someone else might be vastly different. Your parents might have brought you up more financially literally, or in an entrepreneurial environment. Your best friend might have a strong interest in ‘flipping sports cards for profit’ and teaching you how to do the same. It still does not counterdefeat the fact that you have choice and power over your friends, time spent, media consumption and influencers/ mentors you decide to engage with. It has never been easier (or harder!) to tune into channels of thoughts, mentality and perceptions that you would like to instill in yourself. With social media and youtube – you are always one click away from being minutes away from the latest ‘reel’ on advice, tools and tactics given by the worlds most successful to reorient you closer to being and enforcing ‘bout that life’.
Think to the mentors you enjoy watching, or taking advice from on youtube and books, would you consider them to be ‘bout that life’? (Think joe rogan, gary v, grant cardone etc). What do you imagine is on their mind around the clock? Who do you picture them surrounding themselves with day-to-day? What do you imagine their leisure down time day to day look like? Is it sitting around watching Netflix for hours, or looking/researching real estate opportunity or creating content for viewers?
What are you weekends looking like? Going out? Recreation sports? Binge drinking? The weekend past times is a must have for many, and in a way an escape from the typical 9-5 grind. To join in the ‘bout that life’ – you must minimize or completely illuminate many if not close to all of your weekend past time activities and re-orient yourself to ‘bout that life’ commandments to be able to see an ounce of result.
Think about WHY you would even want or need to be a part of ‘bout that life’. What is driving you to do so, and abandon so many other values in your life in favor of this. This is a all-around, gruesome, dedicated, obsessive effort that will permeate your brain around the clock. Weekends and week-days. Why do you want to subject yourself to this what what will be your outcome if you do?