Thursday, June 12, 2014

Extremist

Extremity - 1. the farthest point 2. an unacceptable or extreme nature or degree The farthest point. That about says it correctly, an extremist will push the limit, will test the boundaries and go beyond them. Why? Because moderation doesn't result in greatness. If you ask your friends 9/10 will likely be people who do things in moderation. Nothing wrong with that, but for those select few people who REALLY want to make an impact on not only their lives but to those who they surround themselves with and even possibly the world? You must live life as an extremist. I have SO many friends who tell me everything is better in moderation. I say bullshit. You know what moderation most of the times provides? A sense of security, not too much risk, not too much reward, small joys and a balanced life. You like balance? You like regular? You like average? If you answer yes, to any of these questions then you don't aim for greatness, you don't aim for TRUE change, you don't aim for the extraordinary. You aim for safe, you can keep that safe and live with your what if's. I'll take the life that's worth speaking of. Now ask yourself who do you consider great in their respected crafts? What are some names that come to mind? LeBron James, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet? Those come to mind for me (biased on LeBron as I've seen him in my time & I'm from Miami) as 3 individuals who are wildly successful and because they took the extremist approach in life. This doesn't mean because you're an extremist you're guaranteed success. It's probably quite the opposite, if you live with an extremist mentality your failure rate will likely outweigh your success rate granted sometimes you nail it from the beginnings and become an all time great with your consistency over time like LeBron James. Now why is that? Shouldn't someone who does things at an extreme dedicated rate achieve success more often than not? The problem with that is that the extremist doesn't settle, doesn't like the average. So this means they must push open new doors that have never been opened, they must attempt at doing things in a radical way, an unconventional way because their way of thinking isn't the norm (average/moderate). But what about Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs? How did they become great? How did they impact the world? It's not because they said I'm going to try this and play it safe. NO. They said I'm going for a home run when they probably should've tried getting a base hit to win the game (God I can't believe I just used a baseball analogy). Nonetheless Warren Buffet's work ethic is published in many places and you can read more about it, and Steve Jobs has a movie you know the man wasn't moderate he always bit off more than he could chew and delivered someway, somehow. He pushed the envelope he innovated and now that he's passed way the head people at Apple don't share the passion he had, they are content with profits, and their loyal customer base. While Steve Jobs would've continued innovating. Instead Apple has mimicked it's competitors and have just become copy cats but with the stamp of Apple on their product. It's annoying, and it sucks. But you can teach someone to become an extremist about something when they lack the passion for it. Extremist doesn't just belong in the work field, but if you're going to apply it in that sense then do it with something you love. Otherwise it's going to be an unnatural force on your body that eventually will realize this isn't what you really wanted. People sometimes don't like extreme people because well, they're extreme. You ever hang out with a group of addicts? It's not an easy environment to be around if you're not participating in whatever the addicts are. The main thing about being an extremist for me is SELF CONTROL. Extremist are linked heavily to addictive personalties, why? Cause again, moderation sucks and if we're going to do something we DO IT. You need to realize when you have to cut back for a little or control the situation. You must be sure you have the right capabilities to provide whatever it is you are saying yes too if you're providing a service. So while being an extremist is almost always at 100mph you got to realize sometimes you must slow down. I'm an extremist (shocking right?). How? Well, I have a passion for what I do in owning my own soccer business. And it's success is highly dependent of me. What does that mean? It means I can probably do things in moderation and achieve success over a period of 5 years, the extremist in me sees the possibility of cutting those 5 years to 2 1/2 with a strong work ethic. But that comes at doing things at an unordinary pace. What are some of those effetcs? Sleeping 20 hours during a 5 day work week, working on weekends, staying up late, planning ahead, making projections, how to cut costs, and the list goes on. You can do these things probably over a period of let's say 2 weeks right while doing the regular day to day stuff. Or you can say I'm going to work 16 hours nap 4 hours eat if there's time and think of how can I take the next step in our growth. See most people are content once they get to certain profit margin and cruise control. But who in the WORLD ever cruise controlled to greatness? Nobody. You must push the accelerator at all times. Granted, yes do know when to slow down and manage things properly but continue to reach for more at all times. Love? Why bring this up, cause it correlates. You ever been in love with an extremist? Lol, sorry I literally laughed out loud. There is no I love you with them. It's I LOVE YOU and if we said these wedding vows that it's until death do us part then that's the way it's going to be. Don't think you're just going to divorce me, shit we probably have better chance of us death doing us apart then of us getting a divorce. You don't get in a relationship and quit 2 months into it, nobody got time for that. You indulge in wanting to figure out every little thing that moves them, you pay close attention to detail so that when you do certain actions you realize how she had a small smirk that she tried to hide. You take all those things into constant account to keep them happy because their love to you becomes of the upmost importance. Right now that love of mine is thrown into my business, I see when something as small as body behavior isn't right with one of my employee's, and I ask them what is it. In no way shape or form am I trying to micro manage either, on the contrary I'm trying to see in which way I can always improve and make things better for them as they feel is right. If you feel like there's no room for improvement then you should probably lay off the drugs cause you're doing that to an extreme clearly. Improvement is always possible because nobody is perfect. Enough for one post though, I wanted to share with you why if you really want to be great you must be an extremist. And share with you guys a little bit about my personal ways, this is My Life blog at the end isn't it? But anyways my end point here is simple. You want to be great? Then become an extremist don't push limits, pass them! Don't touch the boundaries, stretch them! Don't be afraid, fail happily! Don't doubt yourself, do what you love most! Do it to the extreme and watch how you change lives around and who knows maybe you'll make a real impact on this world.