Now I hope you guys have learned as much as I have from Tai Lopez. And by this point, you’re truly enjoying this book. Our next chapter is “studying the habits and minds of others”; don’t take vacations, learn how to adapt and be more persuasive towards people, build multiple sources of income, life is like chess, and habits.
Don’t Take Vacations
Do something you don’t need to take a vacation from. Now, what does that mean? I’ve told this story a couple of times in different publications, but it fits perfectly here. A few years ago, I was on a beautiful vacation and it was a vacation I thought I was going to be able to relax and do absolutely nothing. Well, a day and a half into it, I woke up and I just started having a panic attack. I had none of my work with me. I couldn’t do anything and I was panicking. Like the world was beating me (my competition was still working while I was not). Right. And I was behind. I couldn’t take it. Why is that? Because I enjoy what I do so much. My drive for competition, whatever it is, is so powerful that I don’t want to stop doing what I’m doing. Right. Now in the situation I am right now, I have a nice house. I got a nice pool. What? Five, four bedrooms, four baths, 3,200 square feet, whatever. Two acres of land. So it’s a nice property, but I’m tired of being here. I want to see different scenery.
So most people would want to take a vacation, but me, I don’t want to leave because I can’t take my work with me. And I have a pretty large project, right? I have a whole library I got to go through. So until I can move my library where I’m going, I’m not really trying to go anywhere. (In short, unless I am going to be more efficient in a different environment then it is advantageous for me to stay put) Or until I accomplish my goal. Once I accomplish my goal, then I can pack the necessary belongings and we can move forward. But I don’t have time for a vacation. I don’t understand them. Why do I want to leave my mission and take a break? Doesn’t make any sense. So if you are finding the need for a vacation, then you need to find a different mission. Because if you are in tune with what it is that you’re supposed to be doing, then you’re not going to want to leave your mission either.
You’re not going to be like, “oh yeah, I’ll just put off my mission in the middle of it. And let’s go sit on the beach and do nothing for three days or a week.” Some people, they like to go on vacation for like a whole entire month. No way. That is an eternity. So you mean I got to take an entire month to do nothing? That’s such a waste of time to me. I don’t want to go any further. I think I have beaten the dead horse, just don’t take vacations, but I hope you understand the mindset that you need to have. You need to have the mindset of, I don’t want to waste any time. And a vacation means that I’m not just wasting an hour or two hours. I’m wasting that week to two weeks. And that is unacceptable. If you are a goal oriented person, and if you have the correct missions and you’re living your life, we’ve talked about this in health, wealth, love, and happiness.
We’ve talked about it in goals, we’ve talked about it in creating value. We talked about it in every chapter. If you’re creating the correct value in your life, then you don’t have time for vacations. Your work follows you everywhere you go. So I might go somewhere. And when I’m done with this particular mission, I might go somewhere. Remember, bring a library with you. I might bring my partial library with me. I might be on the beach somewhere. But most important for you to understand, I’m not on a vacation. I just needed to change the scenery.
So that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to have fun because remember, we’ve already talked about this. I enjoy myself so much. I love what I do. I love it so much that I have all the energy that I have to accomplish the missions that I set out. Every day I’m trying to accomplish the impossible. So if I did not love what I did and I was not happy, I would not be doing that. So be very careful when you think I might be going on a vacation, no, I just needed a new scenery. I was tired of looking at the same thing all the time. I needed to go somewhere different. It might be an exotic place, but I’m bringing my library with me.
Learn How To Adapt And Be More Persuasive Towards People
Be likable. When people like you, they start to trust you. When they start to trust you, you start to gain influence. Another part of that is consistency. If you are a neurotic person, who’s this way one time and this way another time, okay, let me explain it a different way. If today we had a conversation and you are in a great mood and you’re very happy and we have a great conversation. And then we schedule a time to talk and it’s for tomorrow. And the next day, you’re in a different mood, not quite as how you were the day before. And then we scheduled to talk a third time. And this time you’re not like you were the first time or the second time. Is it easy for the other person to trust you? No! It’s very difficult to trust something that’s not consistent. It’s almost impossible. You have no constant. So it’s impossible for you to trust.
If you can’t trust a person, are you going to listen to this person? No! That person’s not going to gain influence over you if you can’t trust that person. That’s why they also say, be consistent if you want to start a YouTube channel, and be consistent if you want to do anything. We have gone over it so many times in the book, but I’m going to say it again because, if you want to gain influence over people, you have to be consistent. So again, on day number one of you punching that bag, no one cares. 500 consecutive days of you punching that bag, you’re going to start having some influence over some people. Why? Because you have done it for 500 consecutive days.
Now on day 1000, you’re going to have loyal fans. Why? Because they can trust that you’re going to punch that bag 1001 times. They have faith. They can depend on you. So if you are a different character every time, no one can depend on you. You’re not going to gain influence. In order to gain influence, you have to be consistent. And you have to be likable and well, not even really likable. People don’t have to like you to be influenced by you. But you have to be consistent.
Let’s put it like this. We’ll break it into simpler terms. A movie star. He is typecast as an action star. Every movie, 10 movies, are blockbusters. Every one of them, action hero. Then in the next movie he’s in a romantic comedy. It just doesn’t quite fit. It’s kind of like, what are you doing in this movie? Right. Your loyal fans will still watch you. But if you keep making movies that are the complete opposite of what you were doing before, you’re going to lose a lot of those loyal fans because you are not consistently doing what they’re loyal to you for. Now you might gain other fans, but you’re going to be losing them as well. You gotta throw in another action movie, right? For every romantic comedy, do another action. Keep everybody happy. Build your influence.
Build Multiple Sources Of Income
With only one source, no matter how large it is, you are a servant to that one source of income. Be like a rainbow with multiple colors. So what do I mean? You’re making $8 billion, but it’s only one source of income. Tomorrow comes and the whole world changes. The $8 billion turns into nothing. And you’re going to be like, well, Erik, I’m fine. I got $8 Billion. Okay. Well how much do you owe? Seven billion 999 million. Okay. Well you might not be as well as you thought you were. Right? So make sure that you’re diversified and have multiple sources of income.
After 2008, the government made banks have something they called a stress test. To make sure that what happened in 2008 would never happen again. Right? So gauge your own vulnerability by taking a personal stress test. How long could you survive with just your passive income? And if you can’t survive for very long, then you understand that you did not pass your personal stress test. So you need to do things that are going to help you pass your personal stress test.
So just like the Corona virus came out of absolutely nowhere, right? There are multiple things that can go wrong. So I say your passive income, not your earned income. Because your passive income is what you are making no matter if it’s shining. Whether you have an emergency or choose to travel, your passive income is what’s going to consistently be there. So if you don’t have any passive income right now, and you didn’t pass your personal stress test, then you need to be looking at different avenues to build your passive income, right? And you can Google it. There’s millions of different ways that you can build passive income. But remember the main thing is to have multiple sources of income, not just one. Don’t rely on one.
Life Is Like Chess
It’s not checkers, Checkers you’re trying to get kinged. And once you become king, you can move backwards and forwards. But with chess, there’s multiple pieces to the puzzle. And each piece has a well-defined movement. Life is like that. When you make a move, the world makes a move back. You have to always plan for the unexpected attack. You have to plan for things that you’re not paying attention to. Expect the unexpected.
Habits
If you don’t like your income or life, the basis of your problem could be your habits. Create habits which give you the opportunity to achieve your goals. Now, through this entire book, we have gone through this intensely on different avenues, different ways to do it. But this is studying the habits of others, studying the minds and the habits of others. What do you do? What are the habits of people that have done it before? Now, through most of it, we’ve talked about how Einstein needed 10 hours, but Arnold Schwarzenegger said he needs six to eight hours of sleep. So figure out what’s best for you. Elon Musk, we talked about the other greats, how they had the 10 dark years. So figure out the habits and what they learned in those dark years and emulate those habits, because those are the habits that created the success that they have now. Does that make sense?
One of the most influential snippets on habits I learned, I was reading the book by John Paul Getty, How To Be Rich. And he was talking, his first couple of million dollars, he moved to LA and he was being a playboy, having a good time. And his parents basically shunned him. And then he came out of retirement and then he never wanted to party and go out again. He didn’t see the point. When I was reading that, around the same time I was doing the same thing, going out, partying, whatever. But then I put myself in his shoes and I looked at it from the outward looking in like, what am I doing? Why am I wasting all this time? I’m not even really enjoying myself. I wake up with a headache every morning. I’m not getting anything accomplished. So reading that and emulating the habits that he had, where instead of going out, work. And through that, I’m having more success. I’m happier. And I’m achieving the four pillars.