Living The Dream

Success is what we crave. Parents, peers and culture push success down our throats as it’s the best thing ever. Yet not many people claim success in their lives. They jump from one hot opportunity to another.

One day they are building SaaS, the next month consulting, and then selling cheap privately labeled and growth-hacked shit on Amazon.com. It’s like an addiction. Starting a business is easy. Starting micro businesses like SaaS, info product or private label is extremely easier than managing brick and mortar. Entrepreneurs become parallel entrepreneurs. They juggle multiple things. Each is moderately successful, but nothing great… why? Because success is boring.

Some people like the thrill more than success. Like many thrill seekers they deny this fact. They sabotage their success. They are like gamblers who hit the slot machines and are frustrated by the interrupted flow of their trance when they actually do win. The adrenaline junkies, those people love to start new ventures and see them succeed from 0 to 60, but they never stay long enough to see any really great fruits.

Some people like the inviting adventure of new projects more than the steady long-term progress of established ones. If you need some serendipity, then go pick up a new sport (surfing, rock climbing, Krav Maga) or learn how to ride a motorcycle, but don’t bet your career on a risky proposition.

I wrote this post mostly for myself to stay focused and as a reminder that real success is boring. Find the thing you’re great at and which is in demand and valued by others. Then, you stick with it unless you fully get its potential. It might be 5, 10 or 15 years. Give it time. Everything great takes time; otherwise we won’t treasure it much. Boring is good. You have my permission to be boring… and achieve the success you want be it personal life, health or business.

The more I think about happiness, the more I come to the conclusion that it’s overrated. Maybe it’s even detrimental to actually living a productive and healthy live. You see, evolutionary humans weren’t designed to be happy all the time. For example, you’re having a great day, maybe you made progress on a project, then you have think what would make you happy and boom—the mood goes down if you don’t get it.

Happiness is simply not wired into our brains and nervous system by millions of years of evolution. Humans were designed to survive, and survival doesn’t mean happiness. Survival is at the bottom of the Maslow’s pyramid, and it’s what our oldest brain is doing perfectly. Why work hard trying to achieve something you’re doing sub-optimally?

Lower expectations bring more satisfaction, right? Once I realized that we weren’t born to be happy, I had an epiphany which liberated me:

• Forget about this illusive happiness. In the never-ending pursuit of it, you’ll remain miserable.
• Stop thinking that you’re supposed to be happy all the time. Banish the entitled to feel good or thoughts on how to achieve it.
• Just live in the moment, survive and be productive, instead of worrying about illusive feeling.

Stop pursuing happiness; search meaning in your life instead.

You only live once, but not in the context of how most people think about this phrase such as: party, drink, reward or entertain yourself. In other words, they justify some epicurean activities.

On the contrary, I use YOLO when I’m deciding to take on new projects, work, or tasks. My mindset is to create as many useful things as possible. Time is the only finite resource that we, humans, have.

Don’t postpone any longer something you wanted to do yesterday or last year. Time will pass anyway… So don’t spend your time on frivolous activities. Make your time count big time.

Be ignorant about everything except two or three things you are really interested about. Those things are your priorities and dream goals. Everything else is a distraction.

The myth that we can do everything, should know about a variety of subjects and accomplish everything is just a myth. You cannot be everywhere and do everything… If you try, the outcome is mediocrity.

Tech advice: if you need a simple website for your project, then use GitHub pages. It’s free and better than cheap $4.99/mo hosting, which can be easily hacked, is slow and requires you to use cPanel.

Here’s what you’ll need to get your website up and running:

1. Create account on GitHub (do it once).
2. Create a new repository.
3. Send your developer a link to that repository, and a Twitter Bootstrap theme of your choice (Google it if you don’t know where to get a beatiful theme).
4. Point your CNAME records in Godaddy, or whatever you’re using, to GitHub IPs (192.30.252.153 and 192.30.252.154).
5. Merge pull request from you developer on GitHub.com.
6. Boom! You’ve got your website.

I use this technique for my 10+ websites, some of them quite fancy:

• http://rpjs.co
• http://150x.co
• http://azat.co
• http://proexpressjs.com
• http://expressjsguide.com
• http://azat.co/blog
• http://nodeprogram.com

There’s no need for WordPress or PHP. GitHub Pages is free and it is faster than BlueHost.

The site must be static only without any PHP, Node.js or any other server-side logic. You can use foxyform or EmailMeForm for contact forms, and Gumroad for sales. For blogs, you can use Wintersmith or Jekyll.

Inspired by the famous TV show Man vs. Food, I went on a 7-day BBQ challenge. Please don’t try this at home.

Just kidding! I lasted only three days, because apparently cole slaw and sweet potato fries weren’t enough veggie for me. ;-)

We love to go out and treat ourselves to nice meals! But it’s unhealty, because almost all US restaurants are bad for you in the long run. Why? This is a common sense and it has to do with us when we favor cheaper places.

In order for restaurants to stay in business they need to generate profits and cut costs:

• Would a restaurant use more expensive extra virgin olive or coconut oil instead of cheap vegetable (mutant) oils like Canola? No.
• Would they use more expensive wild caught fish (especially salmon in sushi places) instead of antibiotic-filled farm-raised one? No.
• Would they use more expensive organic vegetables and fruits instead of conventional ones? No.
• Would they use more expensive organic grass-fed meat and poultry instead of conventional grain-fed one? No.

Therefore, when we vote with our dollars, we shouldn’t just choose cheaper places. If we continue doing it, organic good food will never become mainstream and cheap. Same thing happened with high-speed airlines: Concorde became extinct because passengers preferred cheaper but slower flying options.

What if it’s too expensive to eat at a good place like Laughing Planet? Just cook at home! :-)

Over the years of being on a paleo lifestyle, I’ve noticed that I don’t want to go back to the S.A.D (Standard American Diet), for the reason that living on paleo feel is akin to having superpowers. I just don’t want to give up these perks:

• I don’t get food coma
• I don’t crave sugary treats
• I don’t get cold or flu as often (this year I took zero sick days!)
• I have more energy
• I can skip meals (when I travel or for fasting) and don’t feel bad, exhausted or anxious
• I spend less time shopping because a lot of food options eliminated (cereals, breads, cakes, etc.)
• I have more free time

Why someone wouldn’t want to be a real-life action hero?

Oftentimes, we are on the go, have to travel or just want to indulge in the staple of the standard American diet (SAD) — fast food. Personally, I find most fast food restaurants convenient. They are quick, offer a good value and have predictable quality.

Here is what I order:

• Salad with proteins (chicken or beef) and without croutons/bread/corn/grains
• Burgers without buns, some places call them “wrapped in lettuces”

There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself once in a while to a small side of french fries (with garlic, yum!) or a smoothie/milk shake. Even Mark Sisson says that we should’t be hard on ourselves all the time (80/20 rule). Just be careful not to make it a daily (or for some even a weekly trip can be dangerous) meal!

My favorite joints are:

• SuperDuper Burgers
• Chipotle
• Panera
• Mixt Greens / Chop’t
• McDonald’s

Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico is only 9-11 hours driving from the Bay Area. It’s a relatively large port city that serves as tourist cruises port of call. It has nice Pacific Ocean views and great seafood. The commerce is thriving on the US border with street vendors, acrobats and windshield window washers.

Hard not to love this place.

Much aho — extra garlic.

Extremely fresh and meaty oysters at the marina cafe.

An hour spent manivering between hustling people.

The Road to Ensenada by Lyle Lovett