Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 9

[BYOA] Rockit Gaming

Russel and Vinny of Rockit Gaming share how we normally focused too heavily on doing things and that we don't realize how unimportant those things are and until we do it enough. They share their journey on how they started working in the nerdcore gaming music. Together with Broc and Dan, you will surely hear another zero to hero kind of story, get inspired on how these dudes overcome all the struggles they encounter and learned another way on how to become more awesome in your life.

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HOW WOULD THIS LOOK FROM ABOVE?

The higher you are, the further you can see. I am reminded of this every time I go trail running. (Mostly because I tend to be clumsy.) During a long ultra marathon, you find yourself twisting and turning through the trails to make it to your destination. Sometimes stumbling. Falling over rocks and sticks. You …

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YOU’LL DREAM BIGGER BEING INSPIRED BY OTHERS.

You have probably heard a trainer, coach, leader, or guru tell you that before you can achieve success you have to know what you want. There’s truth to that. You can’t achieve what you cannot imagine. In other words, before it becomes real in life, it has to be real in your imagination. You have …

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THE COST OF SMALL BAD DECISIONS.

I often joke from the stage that my mom used to tell me “If you can’t do something brilliant, just don’t do something stupid.” By this time in my life and after hundreds of keynotes I’m not actually sure if it was my mom or someone else that told me that. Maybe it was a …

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Corrosion

" I have destroyed more good things in my life because I didn't make the right decision soon enough than just it out any other problem that I could put my finger on " - Dan Waldschmidt

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Why Most Success Advice is Bullshit And What To Do About It.

Have you noticed how many people want to tell you what you need to do to be successful?

You don’t have to go far to bump into someone who has an idea or brand-new methodology that is guaranteed to make you rich, happy, and extra desirable in the bedroom. Fast methods. Quick results. Explosive impact. Finally… the answer to getting rich.

There’s a part of you that wants to believe all of it. Desperately. And why shouldn’t you? After all, you’ve been working your ass off trying to get closer to where you want to be.

But you don’t seem to be getting the results you see other people talking about.

You’re not driving a supercar or working with your toes pointed at the beach. You’ve got kids and a family, a demanding job, unfulfilled personal ambition, and a love life that seems to only work some of the time.

Some times it feels like you’re going places. Then other days you’re snapped back to reality by the monotony of the daily grind. It doesn’t feel like you’re making progress at all.

The truth about most consultants, life coaches, business gurus, “Linkedin ninjas,” and marketing experts is that they are lying to you.

Some of it is accidental. The bad guys are deliberate.

Just trying to manipulate you out of your money.

And usually, your BS detector goes off when you’re faced with the smarmy tactics of one of these experts telling you that you need to buy their product to achieve magical overnight success.

What’s a little more confusing to you, but just as damaging to your momentum, are the seemingly sincere people who promise you eventual success “if you do it their way.”

“Just do this and you’ll automatically double your revenue.”

“Meditate longer and you will attract wealth and riches.”

“Adopt a high-fat diet and you’ll add 30 years to your life.”

“I did it and so can you”– that’s the underlying persuasion to their pitch. “Let me show you the way.”

In reality, most of these experts are broke. Or close to broke.

Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing especially wrong with that. Being broke isn’t a crime. It’s what happens before you make some money.

But it’s a little disingenuous to promise you the world when they haven’t achieved it themselves.

Which is where the majority of these influencers live. Trying to make it just like you. Struggling with their bills, just like you. Hiring coaches for themselves, just like you. Trying to achieve work-life balance, just like you.

They’ve borrowed someone else’s marketing language and stock photos to try to present to you the case for investing in them.

That’s the honest-to-God truth.

But there is another side to this.

The truth about success is that it’s not one thing. There isn’t one massive skill you can learn called success. And making a lot more money doesn’t automatically make you more successful.

Success is what you need it to be at the moment. It’s the small things. In real time. Not big life plans.

It’s your ability to smile on the outside when you’re freaking out on the inside about the pain in your life. It’s your ability to get up and do something meaningful when you can’t see any evidence that everything you’ve been doing is going to work.

It’s your ability to ask for help when you’re not sure there is any.

Success is you doing the right thing. When no one is watching. When it’s hard to do.

In truth, success is really just a mindset. An attitude. It’s how you process decisions and make plans.

The last thing that happens in a race is crossing the finish line. The same thing is true with achieving wealth or finding love. The last thing that happens is the “success” that other people see.

It’s the mindset and the actions created by that mindset that lead to the outward evidence of your success.

Stop buying into other people shortcuts.

It’s natural to be tired of the daily grind. It’s natural to question why some other people seem to have it easier than you do. It’s natural to want to believe that someone else just like you has discovered an easier, faster path for you to get to where you want to be.

Maybe they have. And maybe it works like nothing else in the history of the world.

Or maybe, what you’re buying into is One Big Lie. A giant crock of marketing bullshit.

Instead, do the hard things.

Stay disciplined despite how you feel.
Make kindness a priority.
Do one thing each day that gets you closer to where you want to be.
Let go of grudges and avoid negative people.
Read books that inspire your greatness.
Invest more in progress than in entertainment.
Believe what you want to achieve as possible.
Tune out the haters, the skeptics, and the cynics.

Ignore anything that looks like a shortcut. It’s just a dead end in disguise.

You already know what you need to do. The question is if you are going to do it.

11 Activities to Clear Your Head and Give You Focus

Life is always going to find a way to overwhelm you. To try to beat you down. To try to get into your head.

No matter what you want to achieve or how well prepared you happen to be, you’re going to face frustration, chaos, and uncertainty.

You’re going to feel overwhelmed. But you get to choose if you let yourself stay that way.

Let’s face it, you need more clarity. You need more focus.

You need a plan to keep yourself pointed towards progress.

Sometimes doing one little thing can make your day, your week, or your month amazing.

Try one of these EDGY activities daily to have more awesome and less worry in your life.

1. Your pen (or your keyboard) is your sword.

Use a notebook or online journal to help cut through your stress by writing out what’s holding you back. Explore your feelings. Make a list of what you are thankful for. Make a list of what you hope to accomplish today. Tomorrow. This week. Check back on your list and cross off what you’ve done.

Add another goal. Nothing screams productivity and focus like actually being able to see how far you’ve come and where you are heading.

2. By land or by sea. Or both.

There is not enough that can be said of the power of a good workout. Go for a long run. Or a short walk. Take a dip in the pool. Roller-skate. Dance. Do yoga, pilates, or Zumba. By the way, if exercise isn’t your “thing,” change your mind and make it your new thing.

Start small. Download a beginning runners app. Take a water aerobics class. Move the coffee table and turn up the music. Just get moving. It’s good for your body, but it’s better for your mind.

3. Meditate. Learn how to be still.

Even if it is only for fifteen minutes a day. If you aren’t a “be still” kind of person, find your meditation. Maybe painting takes your mind off the world. Maybe drawing is your escape. Maybe it’s one of those nifty grown-up coloring books. Or kneading bread dough.

Find your meditation and commit to fifteen minutes just for you. Even if you have to lock yourself in the hall closet or bathroom to do it.

Note: the bathroom is no place for kneading bread.

4. Find your mantra. And repeat it as needed.

Learning to clear your mind of all of your thoughts is an acquired skill. With the right amount of practice, it is an invaluable tool. Until you can sit and think nothing, try using a mantra to keep you positive and focused.

When you are feeling low, try “I am strong. I am power. I achieve anything I put my mind to.” When you need to stop overthinking, simply tell yourself “stop thinking” over and over. You may feel silly at first. Until you see the big changes a little change can make.

5. Phone a friend. Or FaceTime them.

Or better yet, sneak off for a coffee date. Sometimes you need to vent. Sometimes you need to hear a joke. Sometimes you just need to see a familiar friendly face.

Everybody has good days and bad days. It’s OK to share both. Keeping close connections and sharing goals with your people will help hold both of you accountable and is a great way to stay focused on accomplishing big goals.

6. Make a road trip. To anywhere.

Driving is its own form of meditation. You don’t have to go anywhere specific. Just fill up your tank and drive. Windows down. Windows up. Music Up. No Music. You choose. It’s your trip.

Figure out how long you want to be gone and get lost on an old back road. Or take the straightaway on the highway. Try not to think. But if you must, think happy thoughts. Leave your problems behind. Come back ready to conquer.

7. Lose your phone. Do it live.

Disconnect from the world and connect with what’s around you. Do something or do nothing. The choice is yours. For at least 30 minutes a day, forget where you put your phone.

Stop taking pictures of everything and look at things with your eyes. Make memories that are just for you. A picture of a sunset is great, but sitting on the beach running both hands through the sand while you inhale the salty breeze watching the setting sun–that is awesome.

8. Talk to your dog. Or your cat. Or your fish.

Sometimes you just need to formulate and articulate your thoughts without any unnecessary feedback. You know what you want. You know what you need to do to get it. Say it out loud while petting them.

Sure, your pets may look at you like they are confused and like you are crazy, but at least they’re fuzzy. Except for the fish. What’s the lesson? Say it out loud. Share your thoughts. Speak your destiny.

9. Find the little things. And appreciate them.

Everything doesn’t have to be big, bold and in your face. Start appreciating the small things. They really do become the big things. A sunny day outside. A rainy day curled up on the couch with someone you love. Children laughing as they play in a water fountain.

All the little things together are what happiness is made of. And isn’t your head much clearer when you’re happy? Happiness is a choice. A hard one at times. But still a choice. Choose it.

10. Organize your space. Organize your mind.

Nothing is more calming than walking into an organized space after a long day. The last thing you want to do after you’ve put in two more hours than you anticipated is to walk into a messy bedroom or dishes in the sink. Your messy desk is one thing, but everything surrounding it should have its place.

And while you’re at it, why not throw some inspirational posters up in the places that you spend the most time? (BTW, here are 5 or 6 FREE EDGY posters to keep your cubicle or home office inspired and looking classy.)

11. Read an inspiring book. Or two. Or three.

Keep a stash of inspirational reading in every room of your home and office…. including the bathroom. Keep one in your car. The ones you can pick up and start reading anywhere for a little encouragement are great.

Don’t rule out whole biographies about amazing people who succeeded at doing the same amazing things you have set out to do. For every success, there’s a failure. You aren’t the first to need a few words of wisdom.

You got this. You really do.

Make momentum your advantage.

The frustration life throws at you doesn’t need to be debilitating. You don’t need to give up because you don’t know what to do.

Achieving big goals starts with small changes to your daily schedule. So stay focused.

Make today the day you take back your motivation.

That Idiot Who Changes Everything.

Ed McCracken. He was the CEO of the company. Handpicked by the board. But Jim couldn’t utter the man’s name without referring to him as  “Fucking Ed McCracken.”

After everything he had been through. The highs and lows. The heartbreaking disappointment. The billion-dollar skyrocket of his company Silicon Graphics. This moment was perhaps the most absurd. The very people he had enriched were the same ones stealing his business out from under him.

He wasn’t bothered so much by the raw, naked greed. It was the incompetent dishonesty that enraged him.  They were idiots in suits who thought they were taking advantage of him. Little did they know the measure of the man they were dealing with.

The success of Jim Clark was as improbable as it was magnificent.

Born in less than humble beginnings, his home life was the epitome of abuse and alcoholism. Every day his father would get blisteringly drunk. And every night, Jim would listen to his mother, Hazel, get screamed at and beaten in the other room.

Finally, when Jim was 14, Hazel divorced her abusive husband. That still didn’t end the cycle of violence. For the next few years, Jim’s father stalked Hazel and the kids, vandalizing and sabotaging her barely workable vehicles. Slashing tires. Cutting brake lines. Smashing headlights.

The last of these incidents left his mother and sister on the side of the road far from home. It was scary. And dangerous. But at 16 years old–and jobless–Jim knew the financial stress it caused. His mom would have to save two months of her meager salary just to get the car back on the road.

It left a mark on Jim. Something he would never forget.

He hated school. He was bored. Teachers treated him like a loser. Told him he would never amount to anything. Jim kept himself entertained by building small bombs to detonate on the school bus and smuggling skunks inside his tuba case. Or lighting a string of firecrackers inside a classmate’s locker.

When he told his English teacher to “go to hell” it was the perfect opportunity for the school system to get rid of him. He was expelled from school indefinitely. He wouldn’t ever earn his high school diploma.

It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out of Plainview, Texas and join the US Navy. That would certainly make his life easier. But he could not have been more wrong.

They treated him like an idiot too.

He was given an aptitude test to decide where best to position him. It was a multiple choice test. Which he had never taken before. Instead of circling the best answer, he ended up circling most of them — on each question. In his analytical mind, he could, in fact, see some truth in every answer.

The navy labeled him a juvenile delinquent and shipped him out to sea, where he spent nine months doing the dirtiest jobs the ship had to throw at him and dodging insults from higher ranking officers. He hated the Navy more than he hated home.

Back from the sea, Jim started testing again to see where he “fit in” in the Navy. The first test he took was a math test. He scored the highest in the class. Even the Navy wouldn’t believe that this juvenile delinquent was capable of such high numbers.

So they gave him a second test. Again, he scored the highest.

Within six weeks, Jim was teaching algebra to the new recruits and being encouraged by his instructors to consider college. Maybe he wasn’t an idiot after all. No. He surely wasn’t.

It was a few short years later that he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics. And a Master’s degree in Physics. And a PH.D. in Computer Science. All at the same time.

So Jim Clark became a professor. At Stanford. The most prestigious university in the world of computer science. Then at the top of this roller coaster of success he was riding, he pushed things too far. Was a bit too edgy. And got fired.

But along that journey, he did something magnificent.

He invented a new type of computer chip. Built specifically for 3D computer graphics. When he explained it to potential investors, they laughed him out of the boardroom and refused to play, or pay, for Jim’s unorthodox ideas.

But Hollywood wasn’t so cynical. They got wind of Jim Clark’s 3D technology and were practically banging down his door to use it in their movies. If you’ve seen a Steven Spielberg movie from the 90’s (or later), you’ve seen the magic of Jim Clark’s company, Silicon Graphics.

Soon the investors were back on the Jim Clark boat. But it came at a price he would only discover much later.

He had risked everything to start Silicon Graphics. Lost a job. Lost 2 wives.

Invested his own money. Recruited researchers. Hired students to help.

He watched the company take off. He watched it start to thrive. From nothing to millions. And then billions. He watched people get rich off it.

People like “Fucking Ed McCracken”, the new CEO, and Glenn Mueller, the original money man. People who had nothing to do with actually creating any of the computers or the amazing features of the computers. The investors were rewarding themselves and greedily starving the founders and engineers of any participation in the upside of the massive growth of the company.

Glenn Mueller was making the lion’s share of the profits himself. Jim was furious. Beside himself with rage that Glenn had taken advantage of his naivete when it came to investment capitalists. And when Ed McCracken came along as CEO to run Silicon Graphics at Mueller’s urging, things took a downward spiral.

Ed McCracken seemed to have it in for Jim from the beginning.

Together they would conspire to steal the entire business away from Jim.

When Jim Clark walked away from Silicon Graphics at the beginning of the 1990’s, he did so with a bad taste in his mouth. And rightfully so. He hadn’t just worked for over a decade for the billion dollar company. He had created it.

But he wasn’t done yet. Far from it.

So began the manic, frantic, disappearing act of Jim Clark. He wracked his brain for the next big computer idea. He, with the help of Marc Andreessen, finally came up with a web browser. He called it Netscape. Within four months of its release, it owned more than 75% of the browser market.

The personal computer–and the internet–would never be the same.

After many months of work, more than a year of perfecting the program, and his own $5 million dollar investment, Jim took Netscape public. And became a billionaire.

Many of the people who agreed to push him out of his own company, including Glenn Mueller, now came knocking on his door. They wanted in on the action. But Jim wouldn’t let anyone who was involved in the greed and pillaging of Silicon Graphics get involved.

Then Jim decided to build the world’s largest sailboat. And he wanted it to be manned completely by computer technology. That technology didn’t exist. So he created it.

When he saw the gaps in healthcare, he had the idea to revolutionize the way doctors interacted with patients, pharmacies, and insurance companies by digitizing the industry.

Healtheon was born.

When he saw that wealthy Silicon Valley individuals had trouble managing their money, he had the idea for myCFO–which went on to become a full bank with trading capabilities that didn’t exist anywhere else.

When he saw the impact of sickness on undeveloped countries, he had the idea for DNA Sciences, which would use genetic modeling to unravel the complications around common diseases.

Although he gave his family shares of Silicon Graphics and made them rich as well, Jim rarely visits the town of Plainview, Texas where he couldn’t even manage to graduate high school. But to Plainview, he’s the definition of hometown boy makes good.

One of the only people to have built three multi-billion dollar companies.

He wasn’t the idiot after all. Just a man on a mission to create change where it was needed.

How many times have you seen this type of story repeated?

Then why are you still giving up on your dream just because other people don’t believe in you? Why are you still making excuses for quitting just because the people you want to respect you, don’t?

You aren’t guaranteed acceptance just because you’re brilliant. Life isn’t especially unfair for you. Karma isn’t out to get you.

The results you achieve are the results that you demand. The outcome of your effort and determination.

If you don’t like something, change it.

When bad people take advantage of you, brush yourself off and get back to work being awesome. You can’t change other people. But you can decide to keep going even when things get rough.

You can make the decision to press forward. To keep trying. To invest in your own success.

The only thing that separates you from Jim Clark is your willingness to keep trying. It’s not about the money. Or the fame.

It’s about your willingness to ignore the critics and skeptics and achieve success regardless of what obstacles stand in your way.

If they can do it, why can’t you?

You Don’t Need To Be Perfect To Win.

You’re going to make mistakes. That’s just what happens.

If you are human and try, you’re going to fail. Which means you’re going to hurt people, disappoint others, and leave results that are less than stellar in a trail behind you.

The secret to success is to learn from your mistakes. To stop the cycle that caused you to make them in the first place.

While that sounds easy and obvious, the truth is it’s not automatic. It is mostly problematic.

It’s usually more painful for you to change then it is to experience the negative consqeunces of failure.

Isn’t that crazy?

Subconsciously you’re willing to experience unnecessary regret, loss, pain, frustration, and emotional torture rather than invest the awkwardness and energy in trying something new. In doing something that could radically accelerate your personal progress.

So what do you do to change that automatic response? You remind yourself of what’s important.

When faced with the decision not to change, you remind yourself of the consequences of that decision. You have to make the stakes all-or-nothing.

It has to be that you’re willing to die trying rather than just to go through the motions and hope that something accidentally works.

What you do right now can’t be about how you feel right now.

Your behavior has to be future-focused. Targeted specifically at what you so desperately want to achieve.

It’s easy to make bad decisions because you’re weak in the moment. You’re not thinking about what’s going to come down the line. You just want whatever is in front of you right now to go away.

Learn from your mistakes. Use each bad experience as motivation to improve.

You won’t ever be perfect. But you can get better.

And that, at its very core, is the secret to achieving success.

Just Take It A Step At A Time.

It is usually always a scary long distance between where you are now and where you want to be.

Which is why it’s important that you focus on progress rather than where you are right now. 

In other words, focus on taking it one step at a time. That doesn’t mean you need to go slow. It just means that you need to stay focused on what really matters and not let yourself become discouraged because success hasn’t already happened. 

The last thing that is going to happen is that you’re going to realize success has happened. 

You turn around and realize that you have achieved your goal. Along the way, you’re just taking it one step at a time. 

I learned that lesson for myself running my first hundred mile race.

While it seems daunting to run through the backwoods of northern Arkansas for 100 miles straight, I suddenly realized when I arrived that I wasn’t really running one 100-mile race. I was running 25 4-mile races. See, there were aid stations along the way. 

All I had to do was make it from one aid station to the next.

They were usually four to five miles apart. Instead of running 100 miles in one big, long, scary stretch, I just had to hop from one station to the next. I was counting down the number of aid stations. That first race I finished a pretty difficult challenge in a little over 19 hours. 

Had I gone into the race knowing that I would be running for 19 straight hours, I probably would have been so discouraged and scared that I would have talked myself out of running it. 

It turned out to be just a matter of steps. What are those steps for you? What are the milestones that you need to achieve on your journey towards success? 

You’re going to have to prepare. You’re going to have to learn.

That’s usually followed by an initial try and a bit of failure. But if you’re willing to repeat the cycle and keep learning, trying, and evolving, you’ll end up bouncing across the finish line looking back at your accomplishment, wide-eyed and amazed that you actually pulled it off. 

Your perspective matters. Focus matters. Don’t be discouraged by where you need to get to. 

Just start getting there. One step at a time.