From the desk of Harsh Strongman
Location: Right next to my son on a cold but sunny day
To whoever needs to hear it:
If there is something you want to do, and you’ve been “considering it” for a while but are waiting for “the right time”, I can guarantee that the time is never right.
If you are always waiting for the right time, you will still be “considering it” like the guy who was “thinking of making money online” even after reading my site for 6 years.
6 years is long enough to become a millionaire with online business (hell, this hobby blog made over a million dollars in 6 years), and it’s long enough to do pretty much anything else.
You could sleep with countless beauties, find a wife, and have children in 6 years.
You could build your body to its maximum genetic potential in 6 years.
You could travel the world in 6 years.
But to do any and all of that, you must get started and finish the job.
There are two things that stop people from getting started:
1) Waiting for the right time: You want a clear sunny 6 month period to show up where you have no other obligations or responsibilities or anything else going on.
2) Waiting for permission: You send me an email like “I hate my job. Should I keep working or should I do the minimum while I build an online business?” and then do nothing and wait for an answer like a chump.
There is Never a “Right Time”
You will NEVER have a clear period of weeks and months where you have no responsibilities and obligations and nothing else going on so you can “finally” dial in to the thing you want to do.
If you ask anyone who succeeds at getting what they want, they do it despite not having the right circumstances or go out of their way to create those circumstances for themselves.
- Guys who built an online business literally at work (gossiping less, being “slower” with job responsibilities, devoting extra time to work)
- Fathers who built a body by going to the gym at 5 AM because they’ve got to drop their kids to school and then go to work
- Men who worked a 6-12 after their 9-5 to get their internet money rolling in
- Professionals who pre-cook and store a week’s worth of meals to maintain leanness and eat clean
- Young men with only 5-10k in the bank who moved to Thailand or Vietnam so they could live on it for a year or two as they built an online business
You can just wait around as much as you like and I can guarantee that they won’t come. In fact, life will continue getting more and more complicated.
If you are a student, you will eventually enter the workforce and be busier than you are now.
If you are a working man in your 20s, you will eventually marry and have a woman to look after
If you are recently married, you will eventually have children and that will add to your list of responsibilities even more.
Perfect conditions never arrive. You have to be successful despite not having perfect conditions.
Permission is For Slaves and Dogs
Back when the British ruled over India and treated our population as slaves, they used to have a sign up on trains and hotels that said “Dogs and Indians not allowed”.
It was a time when we were slaves and needed permission to do what we wanted.
We are not slaves anymore, and neither are you.
You don’t need anybody’s permission to do what you want… be it doing the minimum at your work and building an online business, or taking what you have and moving to South East Asia to give yourself time and runway to build it.
Or to do whatever else you want.
The worst way to procrastinate is to ask a question when you already know the answer. To pretend to be “not sure” so you can comfortably wait around for someone to tell you something you already know.
If you want permission to make money, get jacked, and be a man, you have mine.
Remember that some of the biggest fortunes were made during market downturns by poor men who lived their lives under hard times.
Because they took their chances instead of being scared of taking a chance. They had no other choice.
What happens to average middle class chumps during a downturn? They act like pussies and try to cut all expenses and live frugally and try to save their jobs by devoting more and more time to it.
Instead of embracing their dreams (the path of freedom) they choose the path of slavery. Because they are too afraid to risk what they already have.
John D. Rockefeller was born to a travelling snake oil salesman and grew up in poverty.
He became the richest man on Earth, because he wasn’t asking people for permission or approval.
You just get started and figure out the solutions to whatever problems get in your way.
No matter how you choose to fill your time, you will eventually grow older.
You can either grow older knowing that you did whatever was needed to get after what you want. That you lived a life true to yourself and pursued your vision.
Or you can grow older regretting that you waited your entire life for “the perfect moment” and “the right time” and cared so much about “societal approval” and “what others would think”.
There is a book called The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying written by a nurse who takes care of dying people, and do you know what the #1 regret of the dying is?
“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
The Two Paths in Life
Which path are you going to take my friend?
- The path of freedom which has short term pain (a rough 3-5 years where you work like a donkey) but you get your dreams
- The path of slavery where you have comfort but the pain lasts for the rest of your life (as you toil away at your job hoping your boss likes you enough)
You have to make this decision for yourself regardless of what anyone else says.
Your parents will push you down the path of slavery simply because they want to see you safe. Most parents do not want their children doing risky things.
For them it is more important that you are safe and able to provide for yourself than whether or not you succeed in achieving your biggest dreams.
Most women will push you down the slavery path as well. Because they see men as providers for their lifestyle and do not really care about your dreams.
For them it is important that you have a stable income so their comfortable life and their social reputation does not suffer.
The path of freedom is one you must take despite it not being the right time and despite what mom and dad and wife and girlfriend and society tells you.
Whatever you do, it’s your life, and you only get to live it 1 time. You are going to grow old and die either way.
– Harsh Strongman
