Skip this story if you’ve heard it before: “There was once a farmer who planted his crops. He knew he had good fertile land and was very proud to finish planting so quickly. As the days rolled on, the farmer began to get very impatient. He would lie in his bed at night and stare at the ceiling. He couldn’t wait for his crops to grow so he could harvest and sell them. His eagerness ate at him every night and disrupted his rest. As the crops began to grow, small shoots sprung up from the ground. The farmer went out every night and tugged on each and every one of the shoots. He hoped this would help them grow faster. But despite all his efforts, they never did. The crops grew in their own time and when they were supposed to.” I teach The Game in 9 Principles. The 3rd Principle is called, Reciprocation. I define it like this: Reciprocation: You must give in order to receive. You cannot get something for nothing and truly call it yours. You must earn the right to have or possess anything in your life. We live in a world of where we have been taught to seek out instant gratification. Many of us want what we want and we want it now! But nature doesn’t work like that. People are a part of nature and The Game works through people. This means that nature plays an important function in The Game. Consider this – everything that’s worth something takes time to grow – plants and flowers grow; great art and music takes time to create; even a child must grow 9 months in their mother’s womb. These are all examples of processes. And these processes unfold in “stages”. When you’re learning something new, you have stages you go through. Here are 3 basic ones just to keep things simple: (1) DISCOVERY – AKA the initiation phase (2) TRIAL & ERROR – AKA the apprentice phase (3) PROFICIENCY – AKA the “I think I got it now” phase The Game is a big advocate of knowing yourself first, before you choose to master anything. Why is that? Because you can spend months or years of your life climbing up a ladder just to find out that’s not where you really want to be. A square (average person without Game) works things backwards. They try to DO and HAVE things so they can feel like they’ve BECOME someone. This is instant gratification thinking and is a very frustrating and rough way to move through life. They’re reaching for goals and aspirations to become what “society” deems is worth something. They never took the time to define themselves – they’re defined by other people. A Player (a person with Game) works the other way – they BECOME someone first – then they DO what they need to do so they can HAVE what they want. When a Player finds out who and what they really are then they choose a goal (or life Purpose) for themselves. This puts them into the discovery (initiation) phase. As they gain more knowledge of WHATthey’re doing then they figure out HOW and WHEN to do it. During this time they’re going through the trial and error stage; they’re gaining wisdom. And finally when everything starts “clicking” they began to come up with their own formulas to bring about the results they want. This is understanding – the proficiency stage. Here’s the key: If you don’t know what to GIVE, you won't get back what you want to RECEIVE.
You must GIVE in order to RECEIVE – but you have to know what to give. In other words, become first and the rest will start falling in line. With the mentality of instant gratification you won’t do the necessary work. I see this all the time. Everybody wants more of something – but as soon as the first problem (obstacle/challenge) hits, they start thinking to themselves, ‘Hmm… maybe I’m doing something wrong. I’m not going to make it...’ They don’t get “instant results” so they stop moving in one direction and choose a new one. Let me tell you this: You cannot get what you want if you’re not giving to receive what you want. As we say in The Game, “If you don’t put anything down, you can’t pick anything up.” You must take control of your thinking and get out of the “instant gratification” mentality. As I explained earlier, nature DOES NOT work instantly. “Anything worth something is worth struggling for.” When I wrote my first book, you know what thoughts came to me? The same thoughts that would come to many of you: “Is anyone really going to read this?”, “Is anyone going to like it?” These are the same thoughts I had when I wrote my first blog post in 2006. These are similar thoughts I had years ago when I hit the streets attempting to sow my seed of success. And again when I first got in front of an audience to speak. Although those thoughts crossed my mind, you know what I did? I told them to keep walking. I chose think of possibilities, not limitations. I commanded my mind; I didn’t let my mind command me. Once I know what I want, I’m willing to discover, learn, make mistakes and fail in order to get it. When I reach the other side, I’m always met with success. I play to win, not sit on the bench and watch. If you really know what you want, then stay down to get it. Take all your bumps and bruises with a smile and keep going. Effort always pays off; even if you just learn how NOT to do something. IMPORTANT NOTE: I’ll be taking a week off to finish the last proofing and formatting of my next book, The Mack’s Bible. The blog will return on Wednesday, April 20th. Always keep it moving! Keep pushing out there – I’m out here pushing right along with you. AVAILABLE NOW! USE MORE OF YOUR MENTAL POWER
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I was sitting one time talking to a very prominent black Atlanta businessman. I was in my late 20s at the time while he was in early 50s. Needless to say he was doing well for himself. On this particular day he was excited about how he had just bought his daughter a “baby Benz” as he called it. She was doing outstanding in college and he felt she deserved it and it made him feel good to buy it for her. Like most older businessmen I spoke to (and successful street Hustlers) that had well-padded bank accounts, just by looking at his appearance you would have never suspected he was a millionaire. If he was on one of his “off-days”, he didn’t flaunt his wealth. However it was hard to overlook his car – a black E-Class Benz; and that wasn’t even his “work-day” vehicle, to him that was keeping a low profile. Lucky him. There’s a mental shift that every Hustler needs to make. Sometimes it happens naturally (like it did with me), other times you’re fortunate enough to get this piece of the Game blessed upon you. That mental shift is to remove all feelings of envy, jealousy and disdain when you see wealth and money. This isn’t easy especially when you don’t have any money of your own. Instead the Perspective to take (in my opinion) is: If they did it, I can do it – just as long as I’m willing to pay the price. Those status symbols of wealth and success become motivations to step-up your Game instead of symbols of how unfair things can be. Trust me; I’ve met some very successful people who I didn’t think were very bright. But it’s not always intelligence that makes a person wealthy. Sometimes they’re just geniuses at what they do. And sometimes that’s enough. There are very few guarantees in life. I think we can all agree on that. But here are a few:
So with those little life guarantees in mind let’s examine success and failure. In general, people don’t like to fail. I mean who wants to try and not succeed? It can be a blow to your ego, and depending on your Perspective, it can affect your overall self-image and self-esteem. But on the other side of the coin (and every coin has 2-sides), there is 1 very simple and effective way to guarantee failure. And that is NOT to try. That is undoubtedly a guarantee that’s iron-clad – don’t even think about asking for a refund. I meet people from all walks of life; from every corner of the United States, to other countries around the globe. Some of the most intelligent people I’ve met are also some of the most sacred people I’ve met. They usually over analyze situations and opportunities. And they take so long in doing it that they usually just make the decision to do nothing. Once again… if you don’t put anything down, you can’t pick anything up – guaranteed failure (at least in that area of their life). When I was younger I used to debate with people about all manner of subjects (except politics, that was never really my thing). We could go on for an hour or 2 about what is what, and how something should be, or how something actually is. And at the end of this mentally exhausting exercise, you know what happened? 9 times out of 10, they would go their way still thinking how they thought, and so would I. Once again… you’re right even when you’re wrong. The Game is heavily based in Perspective. Have you ever listened to 2 people explain their opposite points of view and you’re saying to yourself, “Wow, she might be right!” and “Hmm, he might be right too!” How can that happen? Because when a person thinks they’re right, that’s it – you usually can’t change their mind. So what does this have to do with The Game? Well, it’s simple really. If something works well for someone, who am I to argue that they’re doing it wrong? Is it really worth it to have a 30-minute discussion about the correct way to button a shirt? That’s sounds silly because it is. Most people would never be caught dead arguing about that. When it’s all said and done, it’s the result that’s important – and as we say in The Game, “Results don’t lie.” This leads me back to one of life’s little guarantees. If you’re trying to fail, then don’t try at all. But if you’re trying to win, then you have to put in some effort to make that happen. We all only have a certain amount of time to live. Where is your time going? Time is a Valuable asset. Why? Because every single person on this planet has the same amount. Time is the greatest equalizer in existence. You can’t borrow it, ask for more or return it. Once you “spend” it, it’s gone. So since time is an asset, then like most assets it should be invested in. Because what you choose to do today, or NOT choose to do today, will determine what returns you get in your future. Peep Game. Curious about the Game? Subscribe to the Uncommon Sense Adviser – Higher level Game to help take YOUR Game to the next level. Also receive news, discounts on future books and products along with early access. Join now by clicking [HERE]. Ready for some real talk? Let me lace you with this… I was once told a story by one of my bosses, the General Manager of my workplace. Our relationship was fairly casual so I don’t think she had any reason to lie to me. And knowing The Game even as little as I did back then, I’m quite sure she wasn’t lying. She told me that the wife our 1 of our company’s owners was a little upset with how she was treating the employees. The owner’s wife thought the General Manager was too lenient, too caring and overall too “soft”. So in an effort to teach her something about how employees should be treated, the owner’s wife told the General Manager this, “Your employees are like a lemon. You have to squeeze them until all the juice runs out.” I’ll let you put that together for yourself. Whether you want to hear the reality about this or not (and I assume you do or you wouldn’t be on my blog), you need to understand the mentality against you. I make no claims that everyone with a degree of power thinks like this, but it’s something to consider. How else does a person have power over others unless those people give it to them? Reading about how a “worker” should be lemon-squeezed until they’re dried up and no longer good would upset the average person. But it’s no shock to a Player. A Player understands The Game and a Player plays it accordingly. They move and shake with the same knowledge, wisdom and understanding of their opponent. And their opponent is usually a person who has a degree of worldly power. What’s a Game if 1 person knows how to play against a person who doesn’t? That’s not really playing a Game, that’s just wielding power over the weak. If you’ve been following along with my blog for a while then you already know the essence of The Game is self-empowerment. I repeat this over and over again because if you choose to begin to play The Game, you have to know this – through and through with every fiber of your being. If I place a stick in the ground, that stick represents no real strength. You can easily kick it over, knock it over, even a strong gust of wind can uproot it. But you can’t do that with any well-rooted tree. What makes a well-rooted tree so strong? It’s the roots, correct? The bigger and deeper they are, the more difficult it is to uproot it. Simple enough. But now let’s take this and apply it to yourself. How much inner strength do you have? Are you easily “uprooted” by day-to-day events and drama? How often does something happening outside of you that makes you react inside? How often do you let something happening outside of you irritate you? How easy is it for something happening outside of you to upset you? How did you feel when you read about employee "lemon-squeezing"? Did it piss you off a little or make you say to yourself, “That’s so messed up! How could someone think like that?” And the reality is, none of these things should affect your inner emotional state. When you allow yourself to be emotionally moved, you’re on the road to loss. A Player must develop an almost unbreakable sense of mental and emotional fortitude that the average person just doesn’t have. Which is one reason I encourage you to think above average. A Player can’t be average – in thought, speech, action or reaction. The greatest Game that you must learn to play and win is inside of yourself first. Your inner Game. The way you talk to yourself in your mind and how you Perceive things both inside and outside of yourself. This is you becoming that tree with deep thick roots. The average person is very reactionary. They let things outside of them make them upset, make them feel bad, make them feel as though they’re not good enough, make them feel like they’re missing something, make them feel like they’re weak, defenseless, and at the mercy of someone (or something) else. The weak and average suffer because they allow others to treat them as weak and average. And they allow it because of their Perspectives – they have allowed themselves to think less of themselves. And this honestly is a shame. The person that thinks above average will eventually break this conditioning. An above average mind can’t tolerate this type of conditioning because they think bigger and grander. They see themselves as competent and capable of greater things. For the students of The Game out there, please soak this up. Before you go on to try to conquer your life (outer world), you have to first conquer the world inside of you. You have to become pro-active instead of reactive. You set the tone, you set the pace and you play your hand when it’s necessary – otherwise, you hold your cards. This is grace and finesse with The Game; the careful plotting of strategy and tactics to position yourself where you want – not just accepting what someone else hands you. The average person has a difficult time wrapping their head around this kind of thinking. And this is a major frame of mind that keeps them average. Haven’t we all heard that, what you think creates your reality? If that’s true then average thinking breeds an average life. There’s no other way that can work. What is a Player up against? Others in the world who know what you don’t and use it against you. There’s no sense in feeling angry about that because all it takes is to learn The Game and become a Player instead of accepting being played. Why be another pawn on someone else’s chessboard, when you can be the King or Queen on your own chessboard? Become the empowered. The person who rides the fence will eventually fall off. Sooner or later you're going to have to choose. And the power to choose is a power that we all have at our disposal. Become empowered or stay dis-empowered. What's it going to be for your future? Maybe you're your worst enemy? And the greatest opponent is yourself... Curious about the Game? Subscribe to the Uncommon Sense Adviser – Higher level Game to help take YOUR Game to the next level. Also receive news, discounts on future books and products along with early access. Join now by clicking [HERE]. The Game is deep. I’m going to introduce you to a concept that’s very simple in theory but contains subtle layers of complexity. One of the first things I was taught when I came across the Game was this saying: “Life is a series of problems that must be solved.” Some people don’t like to use the word “problem” and prefer to replace it with less-threatening terms like, “challenge” or “obstacle”. But changing the name of something doesn’t change what that something is at its core. In science there is something called, "Chaos Theory". Chaos theory is roughly defined as: “When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.” In other words, if present events are unpredictable then future events become unpredictable. Think of it like this: Let’s say you go to a job interview. There’s only so much preparation you can do, but as soon as you walk through that door, shake the interviewers hand and sit down, you’re placing yourself into the unknown. By nature, this situation is chaotic – the future is largely unpredictable. There are hundreds of possible outcomes and you can’t prepare for them all. You could have great rapport with the interviewer and make a great impression. Or maybe, the interviewer could be having a bad day and nothing you say seems to make any difference. Perhaps the interview starts out great and then you say 1 wrong thing and destroy any chances of getting the job, etc., etc. You can only guess at the present event and because of that, you really don’t know what can happen. This goes back to cause and effect – you can’t logically foresee all the causes so you can’t predict all the effects. Squares (people without Game) fear chaos - they fear the unknown. A Player however recognizes chaos for what it really is. Chaos is potential energy. And potential energy can be used to your advantage. There is a ton of potential in chaos; the unknown. Chaos must be brought into order. So in the Game we say, “Life is a series of problems that must be solved,” and why do we say that? Because we recognize the potential energy held within events and we accept them. Problems are areas of chaos (unpredictability) that should be brought into as much order (predictability) as possible. For example: If you never cooked a meal before and decided to do it one day, what could possibly happen? With no knowledge of cooking there are hundreds of possible outcomes that cannot be predicted – anything from burning a pot of water to burning down the house. But if you were a chef, you understand what to do and how to do it to get the results you want. Having knowledge, wisdom and understanding of something helps bring order to chaos. Meaning, the potential energy is channeled and used to one’s benefit. For my Hustlers (entrepreneurs) reading this, your day-to-day life is chaotic. There are hundreds of situations that you have to deal with. And most of the events that come your way are unpredictable. But the more knowledge, wisdom and understanding you gain through experience, you can begin to predict certain outcomes. When you recognize the causes, you can begin to predict the effects. You’re taking the potential energy of chaos and bringing order to it; turning it into something that you can work with. Fear is a natural human response to the unknown but we deal with many unpredictable factors everyday. Certain situations you’ve become comfortable with because you have plenty of experience in dealing with them. Driving on the highway is chaotic for example. You know where you want to go but there are hundreds of possible events that can take place on the way there. Conversations with strangers are chaotic. You don’t know how a person will react to what you say and you can’t predict what the person will say to you. Although with Game, you can learn to say certain things to produce certain predictable responses in people. These “regular” everyday occurrences don’t seem chaotic because you’ve gone through them many times before. But think back for a moment. Do you remember when you were first learning to drive? It was new, different and you placed yourself into something completely unfamiliar. You gained knowledge about what you need to do and why you need to do it. You then practiced until you became better and now driving doesn’t take much conscious effort. Every time you get behind-the-wheel, you place yourself into the unpredictable realm of chaos, but because of your past experiences, you can bring a certain amount of order to it. In other words, you use the potential energy to your advantage (if only other drivers were as good as you, right?). When you find yourself feeling fear or hesitation about doing something new, 9 times out of 10, you’re facing chaos. You’re unsure about the unknown. Until you gain the necessary knowledge, wisdom and understanding of something, you’ll be constantly putting yourself in the realm of unpredictability. As a Player you have to accept this and move forward anyway. You want these experiences, positive or negative, so you can learn how to use the potential energy of situations and events to your advantage in the future. Every unknown factor is something not to be feared, but something to learn about and eventually conquer. Chaos represents potential energy and almost all energy can be changed or controlled to a certain degree. Think about it. Until next time… Curious about the Game? Subscribe to the Uncommon Sense Adviser – Higher level Game to help take YOUR Game to the next level. Also receive news, discounts on future books and products along with early access. Join now by clicking [HERE]. Power has had many interpretations and definitions throughout human history. Thousands of years ago it was raw human strength that was looked upon as a trait of leadership. As time went on, it become the skilled strategist and tactician that was deemed powerful. The Game is based around power. Since the original Game is defined as self-empowerment, you can find the very word power in that definition. This sounds great, but what is power? If we examine the dictionary definitions we get:
It can also be defined as: To inspire; spur; or sustain. And these don’t even begin to touch the many definitions of power. For 1 word to have well over 20 different definitions should be an indication of something. And what is this indicating? Power is not a linear thing – therefore it can't be simply defined. What do I mean? Power is subjective. It’s based entirely of one person’s position over another person; or a person’s position over themselves. And of course when we say something is subjective, it means it’s based off an individual’s Perspective – how they think and feel about it. Let’s say there are 2 men trapped in the wilderness. The 1st man is a Harvard graduate and a successful businessman. The 2nd man is a natural outdoors-man. Our Harvard graduate has spent the majority of his life attaining intellectual pursuits and he doesn’t know how to survive in the wild. Our outdoors-man has spent the majority of his life learning to hunt, fish, forage, trap, and basically survive in the wild. In this situation, who has power? The outdoors-man has the power here. Why? Because to know something gives you power over that thing and also power over those who have no knowledge of it. So while our outdoors-man can live, eat and find water just fine, the Harvard graduate on the other hand is more than likely doomed to get ill or possibly die; either the environment will get to him or he’ll pass of starvation or thirst. If our outdoors-man is a “good-guy”, he’ll probably help the Harvard man survive. But if he’s a “bad-guy”, he can let the Harvard man fend for himself, or even tell him to eat something poisonous. How would the Harvard man know if the outdoors-man is telling the truth or not? In this example, the outdoors-man holds a lot of power over the Harvard graduate, he knows something the Harvard graduate doesn't. If you reversed this situation and placed our outdoors-man in the executive corporate world, who would hold the power then? Our Harvard graduate would. Why? Because in this situation he has the knowledge of how to "survive" in this environment while our outdoors-man would be "out of place". Like I said earlier, this is subjective and also based around the environment you hold knowledge in. The key-word here is knowledge. Knowledge means to know something. Not guess, not theorize, but to actually know. If you don’t know then you really don’t have any knowledge because true knowledge is based on experience. You could study books and videos about how to play basketball for years. But if you never actually play, when you finally hit that court you’ll look foolish. You’d have a ton of information about basketball, but no practical application about how to play basketball. You could sit and watch the Food Network until your eyes bleed. But until you actually get in the kitchen to experiment and apply what you’ve learned, you don’t really know. You just have a lot of information. Knowledge is power. But only if you know how and when to use it! The Value of power is based on an individual’s Perspective and the environment they’re in. Sure there are more factors involved, but these are the roots of genuine power. While I Hustled in the streets I was taught that power was gained through respect and money. And respect was gained through fear; money was used to enforce that fear. In the streets that can be a form of power, but how much power does a street Hustler hold when they’re face-to-face with the law? Very little. Again, power is subjective not objective. For someone to hold power, other people have to agree to it. So, in the Game we speak about self-empowerment. Having the knowledge, wisdom and understanding to make yourself powerful in a particular environment. The root-word of empowerment is power. And if genuine power is to know, then to be self-empowered you have to know yourself. This may sound a little odd to some of you, but many people have a lot of information about themselves, but no real knowledge about themselves. They like to think of themselves as good, patience, helpful, team-players and other good qualities that society deems "acceptable". But this same person can have a bad experience one day and suddenly all these “good” qualities fly out the window. That’s not self-empowerment, that’s being fake. Why? Because what these people claim to be changes with the wind (on how they feel that day). And in the Game, we call these people “Squares”. Genuine power is to know, and genuine knowing comes from experience. And since power is subjective, if you know yourself and know your environment, you'll have more power in that area than others. You'll know what they don’t know. This alone gives you degrees of genuine power. It’s nothing that has to be begged for or forced onto people, it flows naturally because this is the natural order of things - when they accept that, you'll automatically possess genuine power. Just studying something isn’t enough, you have to use it and experience it so that you can begin to really know. How much genuine power do you hold in your life? Peep the Game in that. Until next time… Curious about the Game? Subscribe to the Uncommon Sense Adviser – Higher level Game to help take YOUR Game to the next level. Also receive news, discounts on future books and products along with early access. Join now by clicking [HERE]. |
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