You there, sitting at your screen, looking at this text. What the hell are you doing, staring at a screen and reading this text. As if the act of reading by itself will change your life.
All those self help, personal growth and success instantly blogs are lying to you. Zen habits? Useless! Blogmastermind? Don’t make me laugh. All those stories about setting up a payed member site and raking in six digits a year. Just that, stories and marketing. Designed to lure you in and and to keep you coming back. RSS feeds, mailing lists, their sole purpose is to feed you more info and through advertisement, affiliate programs and memberships earn the smarter guy on the other end some (or a lot of) money. The latest of them being “Project Mojave”, even Jonathan Mead over at Illuminated Mind got sucked into this one and is now “Director of Ass Kicking” apparently.
That is exactly what you need right now! A kick… How many blogposts have you read about setting up an online business. How many bloggers are you following who write about this? Is the Tim’s Four hour workweek in your bookcase? Along side Seth’s Purple cow, Ramit’s I will teach you to be rich and all those other books that tell you how to do things. I should probably kick you myself but that is the problem with Internet. I can’t actually kick you for reading all that!
…
So, now I probably got your attention, if you are one of the few who is still reading this. Why am I pissed? It’s simple, you’re only learning what you should do. That’s all that reading does for you. It let’s you learn how to do it. But the simple fact that you are reading this blogposts states clearly that even though you know how to do it you are not doing it right now!
Close this screen and start doing what you have learned. Don’t spend another minute reading all the info and stop being amazed that these people got so successful. What sets them apart from you is the ability to not only learn but to act it out, even if they don’t know every detail. Although they do fear the unknown they respond with ”I’ll figure it out while doing it” in stead of “I need to learn more before I get started”. The guys over at Project Mojave have learned some skills and now they want to sell you those skills. Where did they get them? Probably through the same books and same blogs you read. They threw in some common sense though and did some serious research. Now they expect you to buy in to what they have to offer and buy their nice little package so you can learn more, and more….. and more…. but will you ever act on it? I sure hope so otherwise you’ll have made another author some money and didn’t get anything back from it other than more information and dreams about how things can be if you just do so and so.
What are you waiting for, shut down this screen, get off your chair and start actually making a difference right now! I’ll still be here tomorrow and so will this blog, the minutes you spent reading this blogpost are gone forever. Were those minutes of your life worth it?
Don’t just read and learn. Reading is useless! Stop reading and start doing what you know!
This all being said and after reading the liberation manifesto written by Jonathan for the Project I can tell you he does manage to kick virtual ass in there. They might just really be on to something. Although they have posted a “success” video log on their site please do remain critical and ask yourself “Is this genuine or did they ask someone to make up a story just to get things rolling?”. There is great potential on the web to make a side income, many have done so. However, for every one person that succeeds there are countless who don’t make it. Be ruthlessly honest and do what you believe to be right. It’s damn hard work and ever a ”get rich quick” scheme. There is no such thing as easy money. However concerning making money (earning a living/dying) the paradigm has shifted considerably because of Internet.
If I offended anyone with this post I’m truly sorry, I’m just trying to make a point here and I hope that writing about it this way actually got the message across. I’m sure all the people I wrote about are nice and honest people and actually do want to help you achieve financial independence or a better life with healthier (financial) habits.
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it. You might also want to subscribe to my RSS feed.
Pinpointed article …So of much with you on many of the points you have written .The only part which I do not agree is why not to read further .
My point is why not read and make blo g.If you keep it as a hobby and not as a source of income this schemes do not attract those .Like just look at your blog no advertise .. .. just plain writing ,intellectual nothing else .
But for many website this fact is can be seen that they would love to sell stuff or ideas .After all its they to decide what to do , and the user to think and use his senses to make sure what to subscribe and what not to buy.
Regards
Sudeep
Right on! You’ve got me pegged. Time to change.
Great article, I get myself in that rut, spend the whole day ‘reading’ how to do something, than by the end of the day I haven’t done it, when I totally could have! LOL
Off to actually work! Thanks
On your RSS feed, I”m getting a “wad” of type all along the left side and can’t read anything. It’s the only feed doing this so thought you might want to check it out
You might want to check out this blogpost ….I still haven’t found a way to remedy the situation…
Great rant! I agree with you.
Regards,
Coolwired
My good friend says it perfectly- “You can think about something all day, but until you put one foot in front of the other you haven’t gotten anywhere.”
I think I’m going to close my browser now and do some ultra-productive work!
I must remember to get back to your blog when I have finished reading this book on “how to avoid procrastination”……………….:p
Finish the book: take it outside and set it on fire….
Take an example from the book and light the fire within you as well.
LOL . good idea!
was kidding though , am reading no such book .
(no patience) :)
I feel like a masochist saying it, but I love this post!
I love this Christiaan. You’re absolutely right—there’s a lot of good stuff out there but the fact is only a small minority will actually act and make something from what they learn. We need to consume less information and do more! Thanks for the ass-kicking!
I totally agree that action is what makes the difference in results – even imperfect action. In improv storytelling they have the mantra “it’s all about having as many goes as possible, rather than trying to have 1 perfect go,” and I think this is a great mantra for life, and one of the foundational ideas in Agile Living.
great post, Christiaan
Cath
What a nice quote Cath, if you don’t mind I’d like to use it in a (near) future blogpost and of course give a linkback. Thanks for the comment
And Cody, most welcome, I’ve got more ass-kicking where that came from! :)
Gr, Christiaan