Hey Folks,

This is going to be my first video blog. I’m trying out a new format. Please let me know which one you like better (written or video) in the comments!

A couple things I noticed on the video that I think could be improved: I’d like to keep it shorter and denser with information. Also I realized that I never sound very EXCITING when I talk. I think doing more video blogs over time I’ll get better. Probably a combination of video and some written outline or graphs could be a good combination. Let me know what you think!

Here is the written equivalent…

I’ve practiced this for a long time myself, but it just occurred to me again the other day and I thought I’d post about it: in general the mainstream news (television, radio, and print) is an utter waste of your time. And worse than that, it’s probably preventing you from becoming successful.

There are a few reasons why…

1. The News Is Full of Negative Stuff

The old saying in media is true that “if it bleeds it leads”. The news tends to overreport negative events like murders and crashes because it gets ratings. You can’t help but have these things affect you over time, and it slowly but surely starts to make you think the city is dangerous, or that the world is hostile, or that opportunity isn’t out there. All of course are incorrect, but whatever you spend time watching and reading becomes your reality.

2. The News Is Designed To Scare You As Entertainment

The story of the little girl who was kidnapped is addictive to watch. It robs you of your time. The story is designed just like an entertainment show, to keep you hooked waiting for what will happen next.

Some people would say its important to watch this because it gives you valuable safety information. We can prove to ourselves that this isn’t true by looking at the statistics.

Statistically, you are very unlikely to get kidnapped, die in a plane crash, or to choke on a small plastic toy. Yet this is what gets the media attention. I wrote about this a while back, how humans are bad at estimating risk. After 9/11 many people were scared to fly, and this perception caused about 1.4 million people to drive instead of fly to their holiday destination, effectively killing about 1000 people in additional auto fatalities (you’re much more likely to be killed in a car crash than a plane crash).

The news isn’t giving you valuable safety information on things that are likely to kill you (it’s boring to report on heart disease), its designed to scare and keep you watching.

3. It’s Biased

I couldn’t believe it the other day when I accidentally spent a few minutes on Fox News and then on CNN as I flipped through the channels. Fox news was essentially crucifying Obama while CNN was vigorously defending him. Of course not directly, but by the guests and hosts on the show.

I couldn’t believe how blatant it was. In theory the news should just report the facts and let us make up our own minds, but they (mainstream media) can’t even do that today it seems.

4. It’s For The Most Part, Irrelevant

99% of the stories you see on the news can never, and will never affect your life, period.

The reason is that its tailored to a wide audience. So you will have to wade through all sorts of junk you don’t care about that wastes you time to get 1 or 2 nuggets of useful information.

The Solution

So if mainstream news is a colossal waste of time that is polluting your brain with negative thoughts, what is the solution?

The first step is to spend as little time on it as possible. Reading a book on marketing could make you an extra $100,000 this year whereas watching a show on a tornado 1000 miles away will never affect your life one bit.

So, I spend about 20 seconds (literally) per day reading the news. This is no joke.

I do it with a new aggregator service that delivers articles to my inbox (I use Yahoo News, but Google News is great too). I just scan the first 5 headlines or so (they are ordered by importance) and delete. If I see something that is interesting or could really affect me (which is rare), I read deeper. This is better for a few reasons…

Its fast. With about 20 seconds per day of scanning headlines, you can know enough to know what’s happening in the world. At least as much as any reasonable, intelligent person needs to know.

Its unbiased. News aggregator services send out news based on what is being said in hundreds or thousands of news sources. You get the most important based on collective thought, not one person’s agenda.

Its more targeted. You can get email updates on specific areas like business, sports, or whatever is important to you.

Try it out. And with all your extra free time you should start reading and watching material that is WAY better than the news. You should be watching speeches by important innovative leaders in your field, blogs in areas that interest you, and listening to audio books in your car instead of the radio.

In fact, every morning while I’m eating breakfast I don’t read the newspaper. I read blogs (in Google Reader) like Signal vs. Noise, Seth Godin’s Blog, and The Four Hour Work Week to fill my mind with relevant, though provoking, educational, motivating material. And then I go take on the day. Because of this I’m much more effective during the day than if I’d started it by watching a story on Britney’s trip to rehab. Blogs in many ways are the new unbiased, educational, positive newspapers for successful people I think.

The latest issue of Psychology Today has an interesting article on how human beings don’t estimate risk well. Most people let fear (irrational fear, that is) run their life. And it prevents them from accomplishing great things, not the least of which is quitting your job to start your own business.

Psychology Today included this short test, which I found to be incredibly revealing. See how many you can get right. Answer are at the end, don’t peak.

1. What’s more common in the United States, (a) suicide or (b) homicide?
2. Whats the more frequent cause of death in the United States, (a) pool drowning or (b) falling out of bed?
3. What are the top five causes of accidental death in America, following motor-vehicle accidents?
4. Of the top two causes of non accidental death in America, (a) cancer and (b) heart disease, which kills more women?
5. What are the next three causes of non accidental death in the United States?
6. Which has killed more Americans, bird flu or mad cow disease?
7. How many Americans die from AIDS every year, (a) 12,995 (b) 728,200, or (c) 1,299,500?
8. How many Americans die from diabetes every year, (a) 72,820, (b) 728,200, or (c) 7,282,000?
9. Which kills more Americans, (a) appendicitis or (b) salmonella?
10. Which kills more Americans, (a) pregnancy and childbirth or (b) malnutrition?

Read the rest of this entry »

Every once in a while I like to sit down and make a list of cool things I’d like to do. You know, the sort of things that you typically have in the back of your mind that would be fun, but for whatever reason (sometimes laziness, sometimes because they are scary) you never get around to doing. The sort of things that most people only TALK about doing, and never do because they’re stuck in corporate America.

I like to call these “peak life experiences”. The type of experience where you can go home that day and feel happy knowing you did something unique. These make great stories to tell your friends and family.

Here are a few that I’ve gotten around to in the past year. Some started out as new years resolutions, others just came up through brain storming sessions like this one:

• Bought my first piece of investment real estate, and made it cash flow
• Put up my business (University Tutor) for sale with a business broker
• Took some acting classes
• Hired a personal trainer
• Took first place at a local speaking competition
• Dated a girl I actually liked
• Made a bunch of new female friends
• Attended four conferences on various subjects (ongoing education)
• Built a blog for my book, achieved a #1 page ranking on Google
• Tried rock climbing, yoga, and joined a volleyball team
• Tried stand up comedy at open mic night

Here are some more I’d like to accomplish in the next year:

• Sell University Tutor for a nice profit
• Purchase 10 pieces of rental real estate (at least $3000/month in passive income)
• Buy a BMW M3
• Get my concealed handgun license
• Get a personal (virtual) assistant
• Get booked/paid to travel to another city for modeling/acting
• Get six pack abs
• Make at least one quality post per week to this blog
• Travel to Australia to surf
• Take a helicopter tour of New Zealand
• Visit at least four friends in different cities
• Launch a new business (can’t disclose details right now, but we’ll call it codename BR for the moment)

To me this is the most exciting part about being self employed: you have the freedom and time to do all of these things. What “peak life experiences” have you been putting off?

I’ve always struggled to explain working for yourself to other people. Some just instantly ‘get it’ and some don’t really see the point.

I think Jeremy Shoemaker hit the nail on the head with his post on Freedom vs. Security.

That’s all it is, which do you value more? Clearly I’m a freedom person, but I see now that entrepreneurship just wouldn’t make sense to someone who values security above all else.

To me this was the best part though:

I was talking to a friend who owns several local businesses the other day about this very thing. We both kind of agreed its a awesome thing that there are so many security people out there who are satisfied to work 9-5 and make their owners (or stockholders) rich.

If you aren’t willing to take the risks, then it’s tough to get the rewards.

I love it when a simple theory can be used to sum up a complex idea. Which do you value more freedom or security?

Michael Masterson from Early To Rise wrote a great article (you’ll have to scroll down a bit) on mentality behind entrepreneurship.

Many people assume they don’t have what it takes because they aren’t risk takers. Risk-loving and entrepreneurship do not go hand in hand. In fact, it turns out that often the most successful entrepreneurs are those best at minimizing risk.

The natural entrepreneur is good at coming up with ideas, but not so good at following up on them. “I’m an idea person,” such entrepreneurs will tell you. “I’m not good with details.”

In saying that, these people are suggesting that the ability to come up with ideas is more important than the skill of implementing them. But as Robert Ringer says in Action!, no idea has any value until it is carried out. The secret of success in business is the ability to combine innovation and implementation.

If, like my friend PG, you have been putting off the decision to strike out on your own because you don’t know if you have “what it takes,” consider the case I am making here: If having what it takes means having the classic entrepreneurial personality, you may be better off with the personality you have.

Check out the article here (scroll down till you see “Do You Have What It Takes?”).