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In order to have a truly diversified income, you should have at least 4 different sources of it. The best way to maintain those 4 is to place them in different industries so they may be countercyclical in their revenues.

So let’s do the math…

90% of the businesses die before 5 years. So, if you want 1 successful business according to the numbers you will have to try at least 10 times, fail 9 and voilá, you have your 1st successful business.

Then, let’s assume you have more resources and knowledge. This helps you a little and the odds at failing diminish to 80%. Then you would have to try another 9 times in order to succeed in your second business.

The next round comes with a 70% and the 4th with a 60% success rate.

Now you would have tried 9+8+7+6=30 times.

Now let’s have a look at our reality. Do you have financial freedom? Are your monetary reserves increasing or decreasing? How many times have you tried so far? Did you think that you found that winner idea and you tried only that one time, it didn’t work, you felt sorry for yourself and started cursing the world for the misfortune?

I guess it’s time to start really putting into the game all that it takes, which incidentally, odds are, will be everything you’ve got.

I leave this jewel here.

Those beautiful freaks were so influential in my life. They are, in my eyes, the quintessence of creativity.

Enjoy.

All of us do. All of us wonder about what’s next. And we dream and day dream about it constantly.

And sometimes it is enough to drive us to pursue that dream and effect changes.

We inflict upon ourselves the pain of being in the present and we decide it is not how we want to be and live.

More often than not it is just not enough.

There we find ourselves in the daily desperation of the hopeless, powerless life of not being capable of transforming our reality.

So how would you find the painspot required to drive you, to thrust you into your new next?

We buy things that help us develop the story about ourselves.

They are statements both for others and ourselves. Statements on where and who we are. Where we want to be or who we want to become. And also, where we come from.

So as long as your product helps somebody reinforce their own story you have a market.

Be insightful in searching those stories that lead to amazing beautiful niches.

Sometimes the things that call my attention are devoid of any practical use whatsoever.

It has happened that I catch myself reading and studying useless stuff like the dozens of theories behind world economic regimes. That is something that, even of it is ever so interesting, have little control over. So it is not useless to other people, but, for me, in my present context it is useless.

Then I force myself to abandon that thread and refocus on what will have more impact in my life. I force myself to become useful to my purpose and goals.

Oh look at him. A sassy new word.

How are you feeling in this enforced, surreal, never ending liminality?

I bet you, you didn’t even know you were in this liminality, right? Well, now you do. And the best time to cope with this kind of periods is embracing it.

It is a momentary lapse our brains take advantage of to take care of lots of stuff such as sustaining our cognitive processes and refill our storage of focus and motivation.

So instead of suffering through it, just let it pass.

Start a “side job” even if you don’t have a primary one.

It has been sometime now. You are interested in a variety of topics. You devour articles, opinions, books, you name it. And you have a million thoughts about all of the topics you have decided to follow.

That is beautiful, you are being transformed. You are growing. And a growing human being is a force of nature waiting to be unleashed.

But the force is never released. You are restraining yourself for some reason. You may feel the urge to create but the inertia of absorbing information is just huge.

All that info. All those thoughts and ideas. They will go and vanish if you don’t set them in motion. If you don’t do something with all those things you’ve learned it will be a shame. A sad moment for all of humanity.

When there is a highly atomized market, with high switching costs for the costumers, with no clear distinction if it is a commodity or not, and with complacency from those who offer the product or service, then you may enter and design a platform to provide a cheaper, more convenient, product or service with a higher value.

Each industry will define what value proposition would work best. There your powers of analysis and imagination will determine if you have a shot at changing the industry’s rules.

It is so common to hear you should go and find your purpose, so your life will have meaning. Of course a life with meaning will be so much more rich, happy and fulfilling.

It is as easy to understand as 1 + 1.

However, what is not so easy to grasp, and the thing no so many people talk about about this topic is that instead of going out there like a romantic lunatic, there is a more empowering, beautiful and magical choice.

Instead of searching, just fucking CREATE the purpose you need in your life.

In “the art of possibility”, the authors propose a rather clever way of regaining control of yourself, in the event you experienced something that had wronged you in some way.

They say you ought to define yourself as the board in which the whole game of your life is developing. This way you include in it, any possibility and outcome within your control.

Let’s take it to a consulting exchange where one your clients has repeatedly ignored your advice.

Then you graciously proceed, ever so serious, to the blaming spree. You rethink and rethink the situation in your mind. You look for weaknesses in the project, the deliverables and the team. Of course it is flawless. Then you turn to analyze the client and find a few pieces of the puzzle: they are immersed in the day to day; they lack strategic mind; they just don’t get it, etc.

How unfortunate to have this kind of clients. You feel angry, frustrated and, maybe even desperate.

The perception of dependency kicks hard and you decide they are to blame because they should know better, they should listen to yu, they should understand, they should, they should…they should. And then you have stripped yourself of any power or control on the situation. Everything is up to them.

but then you remember this exercise and ask yourself the question: What framework have I allowed to arise in which they are not excited about my solution, they are not swayed, they are not inspired?

And then it’s super easy to recognize the flaws in your solution, or method, o customer experience, or perspective or whatever, and it becomes obvious you should go apologize to your client for not being able to transmit all the magic, passion and results your solution would bring if only you would have been capable of communicating it.

I see only one peril here: being too hard on yourself and going to a place where you won’t believe in yourself anymore. Please, please don’t go there.

Of course there is this really well known practice of self forgiveness where you write your own mistakes in a piece of paper and then burn it. You might want to do it, but then you must go inwards again.