I found with a lot of the business books written they are very idealistic and aren’t relatable or relevant to the average person to read. Sure, if you belong in the right tail end of the Gaussian bell curve, they are relevant to you. Most of us are not outstanding people and thus the advice is not as useful as it seems. For instance, one of the common things we hear now is to do what you are passionate about, or what you love. For most of us, embarking on that adventure leads to being broke and unable to pay the bills. Instead, doing something difficult that pays may be the better advice for most of us. Since MJ Demarco himself grew up poor, he is more able to relate to and understand the average person, and consequently the advice provided may be more relevant as a result. Here are the notes I’ve taken from his book.

-happiness is found doing the opposite of conventional wisdom

-entrepreneurship is the key

-does something in your life just not feel right?

-the 9-5 slavery

-your soul resonates its desires and discontent when faced with quiet and minimal distraction; sleeping, showering, walking. Don’t respond with stifling it or ignoring with work, games, etc

-scripted societal lie

-do not be trapped by dogma; other peoples thinking

MODEL citizen: mediocre, obedient, dependent, entertained, lifeless

-hyper-realities for RAS to be consciously aware of: named days, corporations, money, freedom, consumerism, virtual reality, entertainment, college degrees, hyper personality

-make life the game, not games as the game

-Avoid Unnecessary Ventures. Avoid Exchanging Time Directly for Money. Evade Confining Ambitions. Retain Authority. Prevent Treating Business Startups as Events Rather Than Processes.

-don’t live poor and die rich

-Five freedoms:

1- Freedom from work

2- Freedom from scarcity and fiscal constraint

3- Freedom from hyper realistic influence

4- Freedom from hope and dependence

5- Freedom from ordinary and routine

-only having energy and life spirit when going on vacation

-threats to full time entrepreneurship: mediocre comfort, guarded pride and ego, “responsibility”, fear

-people who have given up on their dream are miserable, which is almost everyone

-do not live the scripted life or abide by cultural norms

-lead life, don’t let life lead you

-don’t get rushed to get married based on age, but rather the quality of the relationship

-social media is a gigantic self-important narcissism game

-fixed mindset vs growth mindset

-fixed mindset is destroying younger generation’s ability to cope; self-esteem building builds a lack of self esteem

-stop looking to take and start looking to give

-stop hunting money and start hunting value

-99% of respondents to the question of why are you joining a entrepreneur forum mention making money or a related selfish motive

-many entrepreneurs are morally and ethically compromised, all in the chase for money

-selfish people are value cheating; selfless people are value providing

-take action. Brother A watches TV, plays video games, drinks with friends, casino binges. Brother B dives into books, learns skills, sells inventions on Amazon. Binges webinars, trade shows, shark tank

-three traits that lead to increased luck; intuition, routine, positivity. Have high intuition and trust your gut. Have an odd routine; do different things, talk to different types of people, have variety. And finally, be positive

-frugality scam; live poor, die rich

-controllable unlimited leveraged (could make none or a lot) and detachment from intrinsic value (trading time for money) is the key in a business system

-an extraordinary life is won on offence; it is then preserved through defense

-change adversity; our brains want status quo

-righteousness; confirmation bias

-don’t be right over being rich

-if someone gets offended, you’ve exposed a truth they want to keep denied

-new successes blaze new roads; they don’t trail old ones

-investing leads to living poor and dying rich

Avoid momentum paralysis; letting life’s momentum dictate your life rather than making proactive decisions, because of possibility of failure. The longer it goes on, the harder it is to break. Sunk cost fallacy causes big problems, especially used in relationships. It keeps you chained to your past while wasting away your future

-Wealth Provides Happiness When It Affords You Freedom

-when someone has what you desperately want, their backstory becomes irrelevant

-willpower and motivation are ineffective for action; instead, who you are and discipline. If you identify as an entrepreneur, you will take the steps and actions towards being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship; meaning and purpose (MP)

-meaning and purpose fuel the entrepreneur

-to be someone, you can’t be driven like everyone

-lifelong employees frequently die after retiring old; on average in just 6 years

-desire is superficial and transient; why’s are firm and transcendent through time

-no one interviews passionate failures

-do what you love and follow your passion is nonsense

-over justification effect; extrinsic reward decreasing intrinsic motivation. When there is no intrinsic motivation, the only motive for doing the activity is extrinsic. Otherwise, the activity stops

-do what you hate; this tells how much pain, effort and discipline one is willing to put in to achieve success

-do what is useful or contributes

-entrepreneurs need positive feedback to keep going

-positive feedback loop drives passion, which drives action, which drives results

-passion isn’t something you follow, it’s something that ebbs and flows within you

-recluses won’t find purpose living out their days in a sacred bubble

-provide value as meaning

-wealth; family, freedom, fitness, friends

-according to US census bureau and CDC, NYC is the unhappiest city in the US

-autonomy, connectedness, competence. If a job provides that you’ve won

-internal locus leads to meaning and purpose; 100% everything is on me

-the best businesses don’t need to advertise

-meritocracy pulls power to the skilled

-productocracy pulls money towards the value creators

-push-pull (buy my shit vs you want my shit). Pull, not push

CENTS; control, entry, need, time, scale

-Facebook, Airbnb, Alibaba and Uber don’t own anything, they control the distribution

-difficulty is the opportunity; the harder something is to solve, the greater the opportunity

-don’t be a money chasing value cheater

-entrepreneurship is not about being in Thailand on a beach with a laptop and a drink. Nor is it flashy cars, cash, Instagram posts, passive income. It is about problem solving, creating convenience, satisfying desires, and becoming valuable

-avoiding hard problems leads to a circle jerk of easy problems in over saturated markets

-the only thing that can overcome easy entry is executional excellence; easy entry means a lot of work and study to do well. E.g. stock market day trading

-there is no clear path, step by step blueprint in entrepreneurship

-instead of “I want to be rich”, it should be I want to provide a lot of value to society. “Find partners, find something to make money, find capital, marketing” are all wrong. Create a product that people need or want

-the 6 misappropriation myths

1- the market myth

-business owner ignored the market needs and focused on his own selfish needs

2- isolation myth

-seeing one good attribute and ignoring the rest

-competing only on price is a commoditized market. Find a product that offers more value

3- the blockbuster myth

-contrary to #2, waiting for a new idea

4- crowded run myth

-believing market is over saturated when it isn’t

5- empty room myth

-believing if no one is doing it, there is no market for it

6- the use myth

-believing myself has to use the product. I don’t, only the market needs to see a use for the product

13 ways to find fast lane ideas

-1; language, find what people don’t like

-2; inconvenience

-3; simplify

-4; wants

-5; better customer service

-6; geography arbitrage

-7; feeding the crowd. When people are looking to mine gold, sell the shovels

-8; value arbitrage

-9; repurposing

-10; marketing arbitrage

-11; over capitalism

-12; stakeholder demotion

-13; improvement on existing product

-one can find problems in their own job. Don’t isolate from opportunity. Get out of the house and encounter life and life’s problems  

-software systems, product systems, rental systems, HR systems, money systems

-before you can do what you love, you have to do what you hate

-building a money system requires a lot of time

-if you can’t say no to what you want today (an easy unlearned ride), then you can’t say yes to what you want tomorrow

-local businesses that don’t have online competition are now the unsaturated markets; everyone wants to get an online business

-channel strategy; using existing distribution channels is better than starting your own unknown website. 99% of his book sales come from existing channels, not his own website.

-action faking vs action taking

-interest and commitment are not the same

-periodic, huge life imbalances often precede success, not balance

-pick environments conducive to results you want

-avoid gatekeepers; don’t ask for permission. Just do it

-much of industrialized humanity lacks a purpose other than paying bills and then dying

-shelve your own biases, look at what the market wants

-know who to have in your life and who to avoid

-avoid those with dark or empty look in their eyes

-negative influences or destructive people, no matter what their label (family, fraternity brother, coworker) shouldn’t carry exemptions to excommunication

-WCCA; worst case consequence analysis

-choice is the only thing we have. Make good choices.

-failed entrepreneurs: competent self-destructor (the one who lacks belief and doesn’t try), the wanderer (lacking meaning and quits early), pay the bills entrepreneur (lacking cents and being stuck at the business), idea entrepreneur (lacking execution), gambling rockstar (no discipline)

-book smart college graduates score As on tests and Fs in real world results

Disclaimer

This is not Financial Advice. This article is meant only for educational and perhaps entertainment purposes.