yann girard - rethinking the now

I might be the laziest person alive

But luckily there are so many things out there that I want to do that at one point the list gets so big and the weight on my shoulders for doing none of it gets so heavy that I just gotta do something.

As a matter of fact, I want to do so many different things that I even started a subscription a while ago where I build all sorts of different projects totally from scratch for a few months and people can follow along and even replicate the stuff I do.

That way I'm not only forced to get over my laziness but I also gotta focus on one thing for a few months.

Something I've been struggling with over and over again in the past.

Another cool thing is that I'm also accountable to the subscribers.

I gotta show results.

Sooner or later.

Better sooner rather than later.

Even though I still struggle quite a bit with the sooner part.

But I'm getting there.

Sooner or later....

Here's the thing...

Deep down we're all lazy.

And I guess at the end of the day it's all about finding clever ways to fight your lazy alter ego that constantly tries to suck all the energy out of you.

So how do you fight your lazy alter ego?

I don't know.

But I just showed you how I do it.

How I managed to write 8 books.

More than 800 blog posts.

Gave more than 30 or so talks at all sorts of events and conferences.

How I built (and shutdown) multiple side businesses.

Lived and traveled to I don't know how many countries.

And a few other things.

I know that my clock is ticking.

And so is yours...

Will this work for you?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

But probably not.

It's worth a try though.

Make that list.

Write down all of the things you want to do.

The things you want to build.

The things you want to create.

And then put that thing in your pocket.

And carry it around with you wherever you go.

And see what happens.

So what could happen?

Everything.

And nothing...

Three types of clients

There are three types of clients out there.

Not more.

Not less.

Just three.

Ok, I just made that up.

Maybe there are more.

Maybe less.

Either way.

So the first group of clients consists of people who know your value, what your work is all about and are willing to pay what you're worth.

Unfortunately, these are the kinds of clients you're rarely going to meet.

Unless you're already famous in your field, a rock star and have a pretty strong brand.

And then you have a second group of clients who know your worth, what your work is all about but are not willing to pay what you're worth.

It's almost never a good idea to start arguing with those clients.

Or to start working with them.

They're almost never worth the hassle.

They have millions of special requests.

And if you agree to work with them on their terms (because you'll never be able to convince them to work on your terms) all of these special requests will annoy you even more because you already feel like you got a bad deal.

And then you have the third type of clients.

This is the type of clients you'll probably encounter the most.

Especially when you're just starting out and don't have a strong network yet.

The third group of clients consists of people who have no clue about what you're worth, what your work is all about and why your price seems too high.

Those will be most of your clients.

And he only thing these people know about the project is the end result they want.

And that's already about it.

They don't know a lot about all the steps involved.

They basically don't know anything about it.

As these will probably be most of your clients it's important to understand that you'd have to educate them about the work you'd have to put in.

The different steps involved.

The time involved.

Pretty much everything.

Also why the price for your work might seem so much higher than everything else they saw online.

For example for most people a book cover from Fiverr is the same thing like a book cover from a professional designer.

I'm not talking about the artistic value.

I'm just talking about the end result.

So why pay $500 for a cover instead of $5?

What's the difference?

Well, a book cover for $5 is usually made out of a simple template.

Or a simple copy of an already existing cover.

The work will maybe take half an hour.

Or maybe one hour max.

That's why it's only $5.

But if you tell a professional designer to create your book cover she will probably read your book.

Or ask you millions of questions about it.

To come up with a completely unique and new design.

And in most cases not just one.

But probably many different ones.

Totally different ones.

Which will then be narrowed down and fine tuned together with the client.

The work will probably take an entire week.

Or maybe even two.

And you know what?

Most people have no clue about these things before hiring you.

They just see the end result.

A book cover.

And the $5.

Or the $500.

So it's up to you to educate them about it.

About the different work that goes into creating a $500 cover and a $5 cover.

And what they're going to get for each price.

And if they want a $5 cover that's good also.

Tell them where they can get it.

Recommend them people who can do it for them. 

This will do two things...

They won't remember you as the guy who to tried to rip them off with a seemingly overpriced prices.

And instead they will remember you as the guy who educated them.

Who helped them to understand things better.

Who then pointed them to the right offer.

Even if it wasn't your offer.

And guess who they're going to recommend next time anyone in their network is looking for a professional designer?

Guess who they're going to call when they need a professional book cover for their next book, or design, or app, or website or whatnot? 

Right.

They're going to recommend you.

They're going to call you.

Because you helped them.

Educated them.

And pointed them to the right offer.

And that's how you build your brand.

Your reputation.

And your network.

That's how you go from type 2 and type 3 customers to type 1 customers.

To customers who know your worth and are willing to pay what you're worth...

You become...

You become a good boyfriend by being a bad boyfriend first.

You become a good writer by being a bad writer first.

You become a good driver by being a bad driver first.

You become good by being bad first.

It's hard to be good at anything in life right away.

Not to say impossible.

It all takes practice.

And patience.

Patience with yourself.

If you think you're not talented enough, that you're not good enough, remember that no one ever was.

Remember that we all started from a position of "I'm not good enough."

Be patient.

With yourself.

Keep practicing.

And keep putting in the work...

Starting small

Don't try to build that super complicated solution when you have no clue about the mechanics, tools and processes you need to be able to sell that thing.

Start small instead.

A lot of people (including myself) sometimes get jealous of the people who make millions with the simplest solutions.

Like some kind of widget or something.

But what I didn't understand back then is that selling a product follows the same mechanics, tools and processes.

Over and over again.

No matter how big or small your idea.

It's always the same stuff.

Sure, they're slightly different.

But overall it's very similar.

And you gotta get those right.

You gotta get those basic mechanics, tools and processes right.

Or you'll never get anything right.

And those people selling those widgets got those mechanics right.

So the problem here is that we (including myself) want to build something big.

Something world changing.

Something super complex.

We're too good, too smart or what not to build or create something simple.

But the only way to build something big is to build something small first.

To start small.

Really small.

And simple.

Jeff Bezos started selling books online.

Super simple.

Super small.

And not complicated at all.

And now he's the richest man on the planet.

Or was. For a few hours at least.

Here's the thing...

If you don't know a damn thing about the mechanics, tools or processes to sell your stuff, then it just won't work out.

And when you have no clue about the mechanics and you spend 16 hours a day building your super complex and world changing product, service or what not, you just don't have the time, patience or energy to learn and figure out these basic mechanics.

It just doesn't work.

And you don't learn these things in a text book.

Or in a class room.

You only learn them by doing.

Just like pretty much everything else in life.

So instead of building that super big new thing, build that super small and simple thing first.

Put it out there on the market.

And see what happens.

Build a simple Shopify store.

And dropship products from Aliexpress for example.

And then try everything you can to sell  those products.

Try to figure out how to send traffic to those products without losing money.

Trust me, it's harder than you might think.

But the mechanics are the same.

The mechanics are always the same.

Use that small project to learn the basics, the tools and the mechanics of how to sell stuff.

The micro and the macro.

And then once you got that right you can go ahead and level up.

Richard Branson started selling Christmas trees.

And now he's sending people to the moon.

Elon Musk built two companies totally from scratch and sold both of them before he started 4 world changing companies at the same time.

Or 5.

I don't even know.

They both learned the micro and the macro first.

The mechanics.

By doing. 

And not by building super complex solutions first.

Start small.

Because the only way to build something big is to build something small first.

Don't be a tree...

Roots.

When they're too strong they take away your flexibility.

And not just your geographical or physical flexibility.

They also take away your mental and emotional flexibility.

And your ability to react to an ever changing environment.

Just like that tree can't go anywhere, you can't go anywhere.

Mentally, physically and emotionally.

You lose your flexibility.

Your agility.

And the ability to adapt to an ever changing environment.

So whatever you do, try to keep your flexibility alive.

That's how you survive in the 21^st century

Don't be a tree...

Reading my stuff is a waste of your time...

Instead of reading this you could have kissed your wife.

Or your husband.

Or your boyfriend.

Or your girlfriend.

Or you could have spent a few more minutes with the kids.

You could have written your own small blog post.

Or maybe even started writing that book.

Or recording that song.

Or learning that instrument.

Or that language.

No matter what I'm going to tell you in this post right here, it won't make you feel as good as any of the above.

It won't make you as happy as any of the above.

I guarantee.

Here's the thing...

Reading this or as a matter of fact anything online will probably never make you happy.

Or a better person.

Or a better what not.

Only action does.

Just think about all of the stuff you consumed this year.

And the time you spent consuming it.

Instead of spending your time consuming you could probably already have written a best seller.

Or started writing stuff online.

Or what not.

Heck, if you didn't consume so much and instead produced more, I could have been the one reading this.

And you could have been the one writing this right here...

Milking the cow...

The average cow can produce up to 30 liters a day.

If you're a farmer with 100 cows that means you'll be able to produce 3000 liters a day.

Or more than a million liters a year.

With the ability of giving milk for about 5-6 years and about 8 births a cow, this looks like a healthy business for the next few decades or so.

Unless things change.

And they always do...

New competitors enter the market.

Prices drop.

Substitutes are found.

Demand drops.

Regulations change.

And on and on and on.

And when any of this happens the farmer is getting one step closer to going out of business.

It doesn't happen over night.

It takes many years.

Or maybe even decades.

The process is so slow that it's almost impossible to even notice.

And the longer the farmer waits to figure out what to do next, the harder it'll get to be able to keep doing what she's doing.

When people don't want to drink cow milk anymore it doesn't matter whether your milk is the best milk on the planet or the worst on the planet.

If you wait to change things until people don't drink cow milk anymore and instead started drinking goat milk then it's usually already too late.

Even if you're trying to water down your milk so it tastes like goat milk, people will sooner or later find out and then you're totally screwed.

This isn't a story about farmers.

Or cows.

Or goats.

Or milk.

Or cars.

It's a story about life.

And business.

And pretty much everything else out there...

Come and go

Leaving is one of the hardest and most beautiful things at the same time.

 

Because only when you leave will you be able to come back.

 

Will you be able to experience the beauty of coming back again.

 

And because leaving is so scary and we’re so afraid of the thought of maybe never ever coming back again, we miss out on the beauty of coming back.

 

Of exploring.

 

Of experiencing new things.

 

And this fear of maybe never coming back is so strong that we tend to never ever leave again.

 

Even if we might not be happy where we're at right not.

 

Even if we're not happy with the things we’re doing.

 

With how the things are going.

 

Sometimes you just gotta leave to be able to arrive...

You're not the market

Just because you don't like it doesn't necessarily mean that other people won't like it.

Or wouldn't be interested in it.

Or wouldn't read it.

Or watch it.

Or buy it.

This has probably been one of the most interesting discoveries for me over the past couple of years.

Just because I wouldn't read it, buy it, watch it or whatever doesn't necessarily mean that others won't.

And this is quite good for me.

Because I wouldn't read any of my stuff.

Or watch any of my stuff.

Or buy any of my stuff.

Because I'm not the market.

But I'm glad there are people out there who do it.

Who appreciate what I do.

So whatever you do, never ever underestimate the market.

Never underestimate your impact.

And whenever you feel like people would probably not be interested in what you do, just because you wouldn't be interested in buying, reading or watching it, remember that you might not necessarily be the market.

As a matter of fact in many cases you're not the market.

Because the market consists of consumers.

And not producers.

But when you produce stuff you're automatically a producer.

And not necessarily a consumer anymore.

Consumers are going to read, buy or watch your stuff.

And not the producers.

And at the same time don't overestimate yourself.

Just because you'd want to read it, watch it or buy it doesn't necessarily mean that others will...

Self awareness is about being selfish

I don't know anything about self awareness.

And I've never read anything about self awareness.

So of course I'm perfectly suited to write about self awareness...

I don't know a damn thing about self awareness.

But there's one thing I know about self awareness.

I know that we live in a time and society where it's gotten almost impossible to be self aware.

Simply because everything we do, every decision we make is basically controlled by other people.

Which makes it almost impossible to become self aware.

To understand yourself.

And ultimately the world around you.

We live in a time where everything is working against self awareness.

We're almost exclusively driven extrinsically.

We do what we're told to do.

We do what our bosses tell us.

What our parents tell us.

What society tells us.

And then we naturally seek external validation.

Instead of internal validation.

We use external validation as yard sticks.

Like money for example.

Or other people's opinions.

And on and on and on.

But the problem is that when you constantly do the things you're told to do, when you use other people opinion's or external things like money as your yard stick, then you'll ultimately lose touch with yourself.

You'll lose touch with your true self.

And when you lose touch with your true self it's just really, really hard to become self aware.

Not impossible.

Just really, really hard.

So how do you become self aware?

I don't know.

I'm not an expert.

Or have a degree in that field.

But I can tell you what I did.

I became selfish.

Very selfish.

I stopped doing what other people told me to do.

And I stopped relying on anybody else except me.

I also started doing more and more of things I really wanted to do.

And this lead to a few things...

As I could only rely on myself I also couldn't blame anybody else when things went wrong.

I couldn't outsource responsibility to anybody else anymore.

I couldn't hide under the blanket of anonymity anymore.

If there was someone to blame, it was me.

100%.

And this is quite powerful.

Because everything I do, I immediately see the outcome.

And I'm the only one responsible for it.

So if I do something wrong, if something didn't work out, I have to figure out what I did wrong, where things went wrong, take responsibility and try to adjust.

I have to figure out why my assumptions about the world were wrong.

Why people reacted differently from what I expected.

This is almost impossible in the current work environment.

Or any environment as a matter of fact.

In the current environment we can outsource responsibility to dozens of layers above us.

The layers that told us what to do.

So if something goes wrong we're never the ones to blame.

It's always the layers above us.

Or below us.

Or in between.

Dozens of layers to blame.

Another thing that makes it so hard to become more self aware is the fact that in our current work and life environment we're constantly awarded for following the rules.

For following orders.

And we get rewarded with things like money.

And when money is your yard stick, well then that's your yard stick.

Then you'll always try to understand how money works.

Or how to get more of it.

Instead of understanding yourself.

And the people around you.

And then it's just really, really hard to develop self awareness.

And by the way I'm not saying one is better than the other.

I'm just saying that it's just really, really hard to develop self awareness in our current system.

Another thing that helped me to understand myself and the world around me a lot better was to do more and more of the things I wanted to do.

And less of the things I was told to do.

But probably not because of the reasons you might think.

Here's the thing...

When you do more and more of the things you want to do, you're automatically forced to also do a lot of the things you don't want to do.

Things you might not necessarily be good at, yet.

Especially when you try to only rely on yourself.

And when you're forced to do a hell lot of things you don't want to do, things you might not be really good at yet, then you'll automatically learn about all of your weaknesses, shortcomings and how you really operate.

In the normal work environment we're getting paid for doing the things were really good at.

We're paid to avoid the things we're not good at.

We're paid for efficiency.

And not trial and error.

Which makes a lot of sense.

Why should you get paid for doing something you're not really, really good at?

But what that also does is that you'll never really have to deal with your shortcomings.

With the things you're not that good at, yet.

And instead you'll mostly do and work on things you're already good at.

It emphasizes your strengths while it ignores your weaknesses.

But at the end of the day 50% of self awareness is to know, understand and be able to deal with your weaknesses.

If not more.

So you can basically spend your whole life doing the things you're already good at.

Without ever really having to deal with your shortcomings.

Or really understanding yourself.

Nothing wrong about that by the way.

Again, it's just really, really hard to become self aware, to understand yourself and to figure out what your weaknesses are when you're constantly doing things you're already really good at.

Personally, I've learned the most about myself and ultimately the people around my through struggle.

By doing things I don't like that much to be able to keep doing the things I love.

Like writing for example.

I hate self promotion.

And marketing.

And sales.

And all of this kind of stuff.

But the only way I'll ever be able to keep doing what I love, to be able to keep writing is to figure out how to become better at all of these things I don't really like.

So at the end of the day I guess self awareness comes through struggle.

The struggle of having to rely on yourself.

To take 100%  responsibility.

And to do a lot of things you don't enjoy that much.

For me that's what helped me to understand myself and the world around me a lot better.

That's what helped me to become more self aware.

And by understanding yourself, by being self aware, will you understand everybody else a lot better.

We're all the same.

And we all want the same things.

And struggle with the same things.

Some people more.

Some people less.

But at the core of it all, we're basically all the same.

So to be able to become more self aware you've gotta put yourself first.

You've gotta be selfish first.

That's the only way to understand yourself.

And ultimately everybody else..