Player One, Wake The F*** Up (How To Take Over The World)
Cheat codes for the video game of life
Wake up every morning and answer the call: “Who’s going to run this world tonight?” Most men will refuse the call. They’ll be too tired; too weak; too lethargic; too lazy; too broken. Same excuse, different face.
Don’t blame them. Little do they know: the more you do, the happier and healthier you become. You know because you’ve felt the bliss firsthand, for inaction only led to depression—the root cause of your psychological distress.
Make your life fun. When you aren’t having any fun, you seldom achieve your big dreams. Kill your doubts with laughter.
Maintain an aura of childlike curiosity. Question everything. Get rid of status quo thinking. See color in a world that thinks in black and white.
Always be honest with people. When you lie, you’re killing your self-esteem. You’re teaching yourself not to trust yourself. This will hurt you.
Invisible scars are the toughest to heal. The compound effect is real. While you are responsible for your own life, you are also responsible for bettering the world of everyone you meet: friends, family, clients, customers, strangers. Give 51 percent value for every 49 percent you take.
Always bring joy to others.
Live your life in such a way that when people come into contact with you, their life’s trajectory is changed in the best way possible.
And remember: there will come a time when you will be filthy rich, but you’ll never be a real boss until everybody at your table ate. So remain an inspirational enthusiast, full with infectious gusto.
No excuses or complaining.
It’s inevitable: the tides will come and take you along for the ride. The waters of heartache, pain, and failure will drown out your enthusiasm for life. You won’t want to leave your bed for days. Get up and get dressed anyways. It’ll be okay.
Every life comes with taxes and problems.
You made your bed. You chose your problems. You could have been X. You could have played small and been Y. But you chose to do this. You chose to be a BIG man.
Now swallow the pain that comes with a life spent chasing the stars—and do so with a smile on your face.
It’s the only choice you have.
What did you think you were going to do?
Complain? Bitch? Moan? It’s fruitless. How can you run the world when you can’t even run your mind? Excuses and complaining are the cancer to your dreams and aspirations. Don’t meet them at eye level. Ever.
Be the CEO of your own life.
Your life must be headed by the same degree of passion, resilience, and ambition as the men and women who move mountains—and, in the process, bear the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Qualifications for becoming the CEO of your own life:
100 percent responsibility. Everything is your fault; sit in the driver’s seat. You don’t like something? Good. Now do something about it.
A larger-than-life presence. Leave small thinking for small minds. Leave small actions for small men.
A mover; a shaker; a salesman.
Unflappable, no matter what. When your world is on fire and people are laughing at you, can you bet on yourself when the odds are stacked against you? Better yet, does failure make you grin with confidence?
Real-life smarts. Books aren’t enough—knowing strategy and how to navigate this world to achieve the biggest bang is what counts.
A problem solver; a fireman. If you’re not putting out fires and bringing innovative solutions to headaches, you won’t be around for long.
A leader with deep knowledge of human nature. You’re only as good as your weakest player. Can you find what makes him tick and turn him into a star while being 100 percent empathetic?
Inspirational. If you can’t make their eyes burn wide with enthusiasm, you’ll never move mountains.
Decisive. It’s your job to have the ball in your hands when the clock is running down and your team needs to score. Bathe in the fear of making the wrong play, and take action anyways. Do it daily.
The Key to Success
The key to your success lies in the concept called BLENDING REALITY—blending the future and the present into one so you can move through life with complete bliss and gratitude for your current day experience while simultaneously pursuing grandiose dreams that scare the living crap out of you.
Happy lives are made, not guaranteed. Visit the cemetery and see the dreams of the dead that never turned into reality if you think otherwise.
Don’t be afraid of life; the happiness challenge can be met if you learn not to take anything seriously—including life and death itself.
If you want to feel superior happiness, add value to the world.
Help others and give yourself the gift of happiness, joy, and enthusiasm every day so you can unleash your creativity and live your dreams.
Frowns lead to failure.
If your heart isn’t in it, you shouldn’t be in it.
Nothing matters in the end (besides who and what you are). So do whatever you do to the best of your ability—and enjoy the ride.
But remember to:
Treat people with respect—so they can respect you.
Help people when they are in need—but don’t expect any help when you are down.
Be a human—not a machine that lives to get through his to-do list. (It’s much funner to bleed than it is to be programmed.)
And oh, one more thing:
Find a spot in nature you love and visit it often with the people you love. You’ll look back on these days with fondness.
Why am I telling you this?
Cause it’s all about creating and finding stories. Measure a life not by how much money or fame the man or woman earned, but how many stories he or she gave birth to.
In the end, experiences are the bedrock to great stories.
So take risks and aim high so you can experience the greatest stories of them all.
Don’t give in to the voice inside your head.
Fear is your body’s way to tell you that you’re about to embark on a great adventure that will make for a great story. Follow your fears. Don’t be crippled by them.
Above else: Don’t be a sheep.
Your parents will tell you to do X.
Your friends will tell you to do Y.
Your teachers will tell you to do Z.
And society will tell you to do everything in between. If you don’t, they’ll label you crazy… or worse, lazy.
Learn to laugh at the world—silently.
It’s a crazy place.
First, they call you insane. Then, they label you a genius.
You win NOT when you beat them.
You win when you realize it doesn’t matter what they call you—because you were never doing it for them. You were doing it for the 5-year-old child inside you that never stopped bleeding optimism.
Adventure and Relationships
Your paramount problem in life is this: How do you push your life to the limit and extract as much joy and success from not only your career, but also your relationships and the adventures you undertake?
A man who only works becomes a rich but boring man. Just like there is no fun to be found in a normal life, there is no fun found in a boring life. Work hard, but play hard, too.
In the end, the adventures you went on with the people you love matter the most. It gives your life meaning. So find a way to inject your days with the juices of adventure.
Create a life of danger, excitement, thrill, and freedom. If you lose this, you’ll lose yourself. Set big challenges—both personally and professionally—and go for it. Your life is a movie. Never forget it.
Spend as much time with the people you love as possible. Tell stories. Connect. Laugh hard. Go deep. And be vulnerable.
Be crazy. And live life in such a big way that when death arrives, it will tremble to take you. Remember, you only get one shot. Make it count.
In pursuing a life of adventure, you’re bound to feel fear and doubt and uncertainty. This is the beauty of life. Whether you’re starting up a new company or traveling to the other side of the world, growth occurs when you push through this initial discomfort.
And make it onto the other side.
Most will be too scared to even open the door. You will have to walk through it. Daily. Get used to it.
The Most Important Function
On this journey, your health is the most important. You should never pursue any one area of life for an extended period of time if it cripples your mental, physical, or spiritual health.
Unbalance is required to achieve greatness. But don’t get stuck in unbalance—find time to sleep well, eat well, and move every single day.
It’ll make you better.
Disciplines
In every area of your life, you must instill a healthy discipline.
Due dates must be met. You must always arrive on time. Keep your word. Wake up early. Complete your to-do list. Have high standards. Take action daily. Demand excellence. And have fun—it’s the greatest discipline of them all.
Top of the World or Bottom of the Ocean?
You will find yourself either on top of the world or bottom of the ocean. There is no in-between. It’s an illusion.
Worry not, though—both have their advantages.
When you reach the bottom of the ocean and hit rock bottom, you’ll know who your true friends are.
When you reach the bottom of the ocean, there’s no way to go but up.
When you reach the bottom of the ocean and build your life back up, you’ll realize nothing is impossible. And the only enemy you ever had lived inside your head (rent-free).
Then there is life spent at the top of the world—and you’ll very well end up here if you don’t stop. The good life, or so they say, will be yours. But remember:
When you reach the top of the world, you’ll find yourself in a position of power. Do good with this power and bend the world in the best way possible.
Share the fruit of success with others. Plant the seeds in their mind and watch their garden grow. You’ll get the most joy from this.
Eat only with those you starved with. The food tastes better. And the conversations will be much richer.
New Ideas
Even when you think you’ve made it, you’ve never made it.
A man stops living when he stops coming up with new ideas to make his life and the world better. Your primary responsibilities should always be to push life to the limit and see how much you can get out of it. Don’t stop until your tombstone kisses the dirt and the music stops playing.
Until then:
Keep playing the game of life with love in your heart and laughter in your belly.
Because, at the end of the day—
It’s all just one big game.
And YOU make the rules.
Thanks for reading.
Your friend,
/tej
Beautiful read Tej 🙏