Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 26
November 28, 2016
Forget About The Degree. Get Some Hustle.
One of the biggest lies you can tell yourself is that you aren’t as successful as you want to be because you don’t have the right education. That you need the right degree from the right college to get the right results.
Getting the results that you want for yourself is about hustle and heart and effort. You have to learn and evolve and grow.
And while you can do all of that behind a desk in a classroom, you’re going to have to do a whole lot more — if you want to be successful.
The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you can’t get started being awesome until you get a degree.
In fact, that might be the one thing holding you back.
Every part of life is full of winners who traded “a degree” for hustle.
Business — Richard Branson dropped out of high school at 15 and never returned. Over the next 50 years, he would build the Virgin Group and lead over 500 companies, creating a personal net worth of $5 billion.
Manufacturing — Henry Ford had no college education at all and few years of formal education at all. He went on to reinvent the manufacturing process and the entire automobile industry.
Boxing — George Foreman dropped out of school to run with a local gang. He started boxing years later and built a career that earned him a spot in the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame as World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic gold medalist.
Humor — Mark Twain only had a 5th-grade education. His Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered by most literary enthusiasts to be the greatest American novel of all time.
Innovation — Steve Jobs stayed in college for only six months. His breakthrough inventions in mobile technology are perhaps the greatest business marvels of the last fifty years.
Literature — William Shakespeare dropped out of middle school. He would later create almost 2,000 English words and write the most famous literary works of all time.
Fine Dining — Joe Lewis dropped out of school to help his father with his floundering catering business. Today he owns 200 companies including a Premiership soccer team and 135 restaurants — and is worth over $5 billion.
Science — Albert Einstein was a high school dropout and failed his university entrance exams. He came up with the Theory of Relativity, published 300 scientific papers, won a Nobel Prize, and is considered the greatest mind of the twentieth century.
Music — Aretha Franklin got pregnant at 14 and dropped out of school a year later to take care of her baby. She would sing her way to 18 Grammy awards and became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Movies — Quentin Tarantino left high school to work as an usher at a film theater so he could afford to take acting classes. He’s been nominated for multiple Academy Awards and is the winner of two.
Politics — Horace Greeley had no schooling at all. He would later become a Congressman, helped found the Republican Party, and today is considered one the most influential journalists in American history.
Money — John D. Rockefeller left school as a young teenager to get a job. He would build Standard Oil into a large petroleum monopoly, ultimately becoming the richest man of all time (considering current inflation).
Aerospace — John Glenn was a dropout from the science program at Muskingum College. He went on to become one of the most important astronauts in American history.
The list goes on and on and on.
Music superstar Lady Gaga, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, philanthropist Bill Gates, platinum artist Jay-Z, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Uber founder Travis Kalanick — they all dropped out of school and hustled their way to success.
They each hustled. They each worked. They each fought past the same fear and doubts that you have right now.
Success is not about a degree. It’s not about what grade other people give you. It’s about how hard you’re willing to work to get to where you want to be.
Maybe you need to forget about the degree and get some hustle.
The post Forget About The Degree. Get Some Hustle. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 21, 2016
Make Your Own Rules.
There are no rules to being successful.
There is no guaranteed formula that you can follow to automate the journey from where you are now to where you want to be.
What works for someone else probably isn’t going to work for you. What used to work for you in the past might not even work for you right now.
It’s not as easy as scribbling off check boxes on a list or finalizing the process outlined on your set of self-help DVDs.
Success is a journey. A struggle. A process.
It demands resilience and creativity from you every step of the way. Every day. In thousands of small ways.
That truth shouldn’t be discouraging. You’re tough enough to handle it. You’re smart enough to handle it.
There isn’t any challenge you’re unable to overcome.
It just doesn’t make any sense to be delusional about the odds against you.
You’re robbing yourself of victory every time you pretend it’s not going to be tough.
When you pretend like the rules make it easy to be awesome.
You don’t need to get up in the morning in a bad mood, whining and whimpering about the battle ahead. You shouldn’t be scared or alarmed. And you shouldn’t be delusional. Or emotionally lazy.
When you see greatness in others, copy the best parts. When you’re inspired by the attitudes and actions of those around you, take note.
Most importantly, make your own rules:
Be honest with yourself about the quality of your effort, the motivation for your work, and the consequences of your results.
Don’t let other people’s lazy ideas and small-minded thinking stop you from working hard — even when it seems like everyone else has it easier.
Force yourself into scary situations where it seems like failure or getting hurt is the only likely outcome.
Always keep improving by learning from the failures of those around you, before you make the same mistakes.
Dedicate time each day to protecting what you think about, what you expect to accomplish, and those that inspire you to be the best version of you.
Obsess about the details even when it seems like they won’t make you more successful or even get noticed by anyone.
Be willing to sacrifice anything in the pursuit of getting a few steps closer to where you want to be some day.
Never forget that conventional wisdom seems smartest to people who confuse mediocrity with brilliance.
Believe that you’ll figure it out. That you’ll work it out.
Don’t buy into the lies about following other people’s rules.
Make your own. Be awesome in the process.
The post Make Your Own Rules. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 16, 2016
You Have To Care.
You have to care.
That’s the only way you’re going to see progress.
That’s the only way you’re going to break past the obstacles holding you back right now.
It seems like not caring is easier. Like you won’t get hurt. Or disappointed when things don’t work out.
But that’s just false hope.
The hard truth about battle is that how hard you care about the outcome determines how long you’re willing to keep fighting to get that outcome.
Care is passion and stamina, creativity, insight and resilience.
It’s the seed kernel from which all of those elements first begin.
In truth, you already care about something.
Maybe it is how you appear to others.
Maybe it is how much money you can acquire. Maybe it is just to get through another day.
You’re not care-free. But you probably care less than you should about the right thing.
You might need to adjust your priorities.
You might need to get serious about that thing you’ve been saying you want to achieve but haven’t put in enough time or effort or care.
The post You Have To Care. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 15, 2016
The Art Of The Wait.
A lot of your time is spent waiting.
You’re working. You’re investing in the right training. You’re doing things.
Not just sitting idly by. But you’re waiting.
Waiting for the effort you’ve invested to start paying off. Waiting for the right time to kick-off the next step in your strategy.
Waiting for things outside of your control to turn your direction.
You’re waiting. Still busy. Still bothered. Waiting for the change you’ve been working towards.
That’s a dangerous time. A precarious position.
You want things to change, but you can easily destroy all of your hard work if you push too hard.
Which is why it matters that you maintain the right perspective. That you remind yourself of what really matters.
Your big goal is more important that how you feel right now.
Progress isn’t about you forcing success to fit your timeline. It’s about keeping your head straight as you manage everything outside your control.
Sometimes what looks like taking a step back is really just you strategizing the right opportunity to run a hundred miles forward.
Don’t be distracted and discouraged by a lack of obvious next steps.
Wait. Work. Fight. Lead. Pursue awesomeness relentlessly.
The post The Art Of The Wait. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 14, 2016
You Haven’t Actually Been Trying.
There’s no secret formula that makes trying any less of a struggle.
There’s no magic, super secret, or special process that guarantees you avoid failure.
The hard truth about trying is that it almost always includes massive amounts of disappointment.
You think you know what you want. You think you have a plan that will work. You’re determined and resilient and focused on achieving your goal.
But that doesn’t guarantee you anything.
You’re going to experience tough times and have to make hard choices.
It’s going to seem like all of your hard work and effort isn’t working. The things that should be easy feel hard.
More difficult than they should be. And uncomfortable.
That’s where trying levels the playing field. Trying is what you do until you get it done.
You create. You innovate.
You pivot, learn, obsess, and improve.
You do whatever it takes each day to keep moving towards where you want to be.
Which is why priorities matter. Which is why it matters how you start your day. Your focus on the details. Your discipline and candid analysis of your motivations and intentions.
Trying isn’t just about the things you do. It’s about the thoughts you allow yourself to have. The perspective you maintain.
You can’t expect to be the best version of yourself when you allow negativity and fear to influence the decisions that you make.
That’s not trying. It’s just going through the motions.
You’re walking dead. Doing things that should seem to have impact, but without ever getting the results you expect.
Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re trying. Just because you’re putting in effort doesn’t mean you’re trying. Just because you have dreams doesn’t mean you’re trying.
You know you’re trying when you’re willing to do the hard things.
Not one day. Not one time. Everyday. At every opportunity. It’s your priority. The measuring stick against which you judge your greatness.
Maybe you haven’t actually been trying after all.
The post You Haven’t Actually Been Trying. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 7, 2016
Awesome Is The Enemy.
Awesome is the enemy of complacency.
Awesome is the enemy of comfort and satisfaction.
Awesome is the enemy of pettiness.
Awesome is the enemy of being paralyzed by fear.
Awesome is the enemy of ego and an inflated pride.
Awesome is the enemy of playing it safe.
Awesome is the enemy of willful ignorance.
Awesome is the enemy of playing it safe.
Awesome is the enemy of never getting it wrong.
Awesome is the enemy of avoiding failure.
Awesome is the enemy of doubt.
Awesome is the enemy of just trying once.
Awesome is the enemy of always having it all figured out.
Awesome is the enemy of negativity.
Awesome is the enemy of most things that come naturally. Your weak moments. Your tired moments. Your automatic responses when you feel threatened, discouraged, or hurt.
What comes easily is to avoid doing the awesome thing.
It just happens. Because that’s how you’re wired.
Awesome is the enemy. It’s also everything you’ve ever been looking for.
The post Awesome Is The Enemy. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 2, 2016
How Do You Know You Can’t?
How do you know that you can’t achieve that goal?
Then why would you say that out loud? Why would you even allow yourself to think it?
Achieving success is hard enough without you doubting your own abilities.
It’s tough to be successful.
The daily grind will beat you down and convince you that your goal isn’t as important as you thought it once was.
It is a battle for focus and energy, passion and progress.
So when you’re faced with a choice to believe or not to believe, you owe it to yourself to take a chance on you.
You owe it to yourself to believe that you can do what seems impossibly crazy.
Not because you’re lucky.
Not because you’re hopeful. But because you know how much it matters and how badly you wish to achieve this goal.
You won’t stop. You won’t consider backing down. You are all in. Committed.
When you find yourself not believing, be deliberate about fighting that doubt.
Believe in yourself. Gamble on your commitment and resolve.
How do you know you can’t? You can.
The post How Do You Know You Can’t? appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
November 1, 2016
That’s A Huge Mistake.
The greatest skill you have is your will.
Your stubbornness. And determination. Your focused obsession on turning an idea into success.
It’s easy to forget the personal element you bring to the struggle for getting to where you want to be.
In an age where you can search the internet for just about anything and where an expert can be found to perfect everything, it’s natural to make the mistake of believing that the future is going to happen regardless of what you do.
That’s a huge mistake.
But one you will most painfully explore if you aren’t careful to keep your head straight.
Almost everyone has tried anything one time. In fact, that’s the excuse they will give you when you give them feedback.
“I already tried that,” they tell you. Forgetting that anything you try just once doesn’t amount to much of anything.
If you get it right we call it “beginner’s luck”. The same should be true if you fail.
Bad timing. Bad preparation. Or just bad luck.
It doesn’t really matter why you failed. What matters is what you do next.
Do you keep trying? Do you interpret the tea leaves of your failure as an omen of your everlasting doom?
You shouldn’t. It should remind you that trying matters. It should provoke you to do what few others will be brave enough to do — keep trying.
And while that sounds simplistic and unsophisticated, it’s the exact formula to get you to where you want to be.
The post That’s A Huge Mistake. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
October 31, 2016
22 Times The Experts Were Wrong And What You Can Learn About That.
In 1876, senior executives at Western Union made the decision that “This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. It is inherently of no value.” In early 2016 Apple announced that it has sold it’s 1 billionth iPhone.
In 1878, Erasmus Wilson, a professor at Oxford University, studiously noted that “When the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” Scientists estimate that there are 12 billion incandescent lights in use around the world right now.
In 1895, Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society of Science, expertly argued that “heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” The Wright brothers built one anyways. Boeing has built more than 4,285 of them since then.
In 1899, Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the US Office of Patents astutely noted that “everything that can be invented has been invented.” Since then, 7,673,820 inventors have received patents from the USPTO.
In 1903, Horace Rackham, the president of the Michigan Savings Bank advised Henry Ford’s own lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company by making the case that “the horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty — a fad.” As of 2010, there were 1.1 billion cars being driven across the globe.
In 1923, Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics offered his opinion that “there is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.” The United State’s secret “Manhattan Project” team built an atom bomb that leveled 7 square miles and 2 cities in Japan.
In 1929, three days before the stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression, Economist Irving Fisher made the prediction that “stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” Days later, and for the next decade, investors across the globe would lose trillions of dollars.
In 1933, the head of engineering at Boeing bragged that “There will never be a bigger plane built” after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people. Boeing’s own 747-8 can hold 605 passengers, and it’s long range competitor, the Airbus A-380, can hold 853 people.
In 1936, editors at the New York Times wrote that “A rocket will never leave Earth’s atmosphere.” Just 6 years later, the V2 missile which was first launched by Germany made it into space. Less than 15 years after that, a rocket launched the first satellite, called Sputnik, into space.
In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM observed that “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” As of June 2010, there were approximately 1,966,514,816 computers connected to the internet — accounting for roughly 28% of the global population.
In 1946, Darryl Zanuck, the founder of 20th Century Movie Studio and winner of 3 Academy Awards, noted that “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” Over 2 billion hours of TV is watched in the USA alone — each day.
In 1954, Dr. Wilhelm Carl Hueper, Director of the National Cancer Institute, argued that “If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.” More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964. That number continues to grow.
In 1955, Variety Magazine downplayed the impact of Rock n’ Roll music by sneering that “It’ll be gone by June.” Just the top 25 Classic Rock albums by themselves have generated sales of more than 413 million individual albums. Rock music continues to outsell all other categories of music combined.
In 1959, IBM reported to the future founders of Xerox that “The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most” — inferring that the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production. In 2015 alone, Xerox generated over $18.2 billion in copier sales, managing 60 billion printed pages.
In 1962, Brian Epstein, a senior executive at Decca Recording dismissed the Beatles with a note that “we don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” They went on to sell 180 million records win 7 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, and 15 Ivor Novello Awards. Rolling Stone would later call them “the best artists of all-time.”
In 1968, Times Magazine made the observation that “online shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop.” In 2013, worldwide online shopping reached nearly $1 trillion. Goldman Sachs predicts year over year growth of almost 20%.
In 1969, Margaret Thatcher told a listening audience that: “It will be years — not in my lifetime — before a woman becomes Prime Minister.” Ten years later she would prove her own prediction wrong — winning the 1979 UK general election.
In 1977, Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corp scorned the idea of personal computing with “there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” By 2014, industry analysts predict that 2 billion families will have a personal computer in their home.
In 1981, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft prophesied the maximum speed of computers with his opinion that “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Today, the average personal computer is 300,000,000 times faster than that.
In 1998, Edmund DeJesus, the editor of Byte magazine, boldly proclaimed that “Y2K is a crisis without precedent in human history.” The morning of January 1, 2000 dawned and nothing negative happened. Nothing at all.
In 2007, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft proclaimed that: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” Since 2007, Apple has sold almost 430 million iPhone. Microsoft has only sold about 2% of that number.
Maybe the experts you are listening to right now are just as wrong.
So don’t give up the fight.
Don’t walk away from your passion and dreams and goal. Don’t stop grinding and working towards getting to where you want to be.
It’s likely that that person who tells you that you’re wasting your time or to “be reasonable” is just flat out, dead wrong.
If you stop doing the right thing before it starts working, you’ve just done the wrong thing.
They don’t see what you see. They don’t know what you know. They don’t have your passion and heart and soul.
Be your own expert. Live your life undeterred by the opinions of others.
Aim for awesome.
The post 22 Times The Experts Were Wrong And What You Can Learn About That. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
October 26, 2016
Drowning Within.
You won’t drown because you’re surrounded by water. You drown when water gets in you.
The same is true for doubt and fear and negativity.
It’s all around you. And that’s not a problem until it seeps inside you. And you feel yourself drowning.
Dreams torn from your fingers. Hope dashed.
You can’t always escape the danger.
You’re usually not prepared for your most painful moments.
You’re thrust into a churning ocean of discomfort. As far as you can see. As long as you can feel.
You’re stuck. Swimming frantically to find your way out.
That ocean will always be there.
The fear and self-doubt and chaos that grips your soul unexpectedly — that will always be there.
Remember most that you control you.
You are the master of your destiny and the decisions that you make.
You can only drown when you let it get inside you.
When you stop fighting.
When you decide that she’ll never make it. When you surrender to the darkness.
You’re good enough right now to win. You’re strong enough to win the battle. You’re smart enough to figure out the stuff you still don’t know.
Right now, it’s just a choice about will.
The post Drowning Within. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
