Entrepreneurship

[caption id="attachment_7329" align="aligncenter" width="594"]Creating is more powerful than consuming Creating Value Outside of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep near Chiang Mai, Thailand[/caption]

"When in doubt, consume less and create more. The world will thank you."

After all of last week's talk about the importance of selling value to others, I realized we'd forgotten to cover an even more foundational step...and a decision we all face every day. Thankfully I'm constantly reminded of it as I explore Thailand. The above man seems to have it figured out...

To Consume or to Create - The Golden Question

Two weeks ago over some Tumeric Spice tea at Samovar, my buddy Jonathan Fields casually smiled as he said "You know I don't really read that many blogs anymore." Then it got me thinking…most people waste their lives consuming things. When I first started my business I noticed myself spending a lot of money. And this wasn't money needed directly for the business (it only required about $67 to start), but I was buying all kinds of books on passion, career, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, etc. I hired coaches, purchased courses and attended seminars. I also subscribed to (and actually attempted to read) 30 or so of my favorite blogs. Over the course of a year the cost, both in time and money, started to approach a rather ridiculous number. I was learning a ton, but I noticed I was creating very little of my own work.

The consumption was killing me.

Even when I did create things, it was often because I'd read the latest post from one of my mentors or just finished a recent bestseller. All it lead me to do was create a much lower quality version of the same idea I'd just consumed. I was stuck in this trap. And it's a valley every one of us stumbles into on the path to living our legend.

"Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable." - Kenyan Proverb The free Ultimate Mastermind Workbook is live! Today is huge! We just released The Ultimate Mastermind Workbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Surrounding Yourself with the People Who Won't Let You Fail. This gorgeously designed 56-page guide is our 100% free gift...

You are already an expert find people to help

"The law of work seems unfair, but nothing can change it; the more enjoyment you get out of your work, the more money you will make."

- Mark Twain

You're Already an Expert - Start Acting Like it.

Everything we do at Live Your Legend is based on what all of you ask for - through surveys, emails, comments, tweets, snail mail, you name it - we are always listening for your biggest challenges and how we can build things to help. As it turns out, the #1 most requested resource by all of you, by a long shot, is a tool to show you how to become an expert who people are willing to pay for your help. Today we are going to answer that exact question, and I am very pumped about it! About a year ago a friend introduced me to a guy she thought "I could learn something from." Despite the fact that I have more to learn than most, emails like that always tend to put my guard up. But then, from a standing start, Jason Gracia went on to teach me some of my most powerful lessons in online business, and more specifically, how to build a very specific business around a passion, talent, strengths or expertise. His process blew my mind.

Do Something that Matters Amy Clover

"The only real task any of us needs to worry about is this: Find your own way of helping people. Then go out and do it."

Time to Get Inspired!

Okay team! In our Ask the Reader post, I told you this week was all about you, and it would not be complete without sharing a few inspiring stories from our community. So here's our January Reader Spotlight. It's short and sweet because I know how busy you all are in making your big goals reality - hearing your 2013 plans earlier this week blew my mind! Our biggest goal at Live Your Legend is to inspire you to believe in possibility, and the best way I know is to show "ordinary" people doing the things most of the world only dreams of. That is the purpose of our monthly Living Legends Reader Spotlights. Oh, and to give you the chance to help support the dreams of our community. Realize that the stories you read about on this site are not as out of reach as some like to believe.

How to get invited to give a TEDx talk

“I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

- Thomas Jefferson

I have the quote above engraved on a silver cup that my parents gave me for Christmas ten years ago. It's been on my desk ever since.

Last month you all made a dream of mine come true.

I was invited to stand on the TEDx stage in San Francisco and give a talk on our core message and purpose at Live Your Legend: How to Find & Do Work You Love. Five days ago that video was published on YouTube. As of this morning it had 40,147 views, 447 comments, 1,010 likes, and 15 dislikes. ;) [Update - August 2014: nearly 1,700,000 views!] One of the members of the TEDx community wrote to me yesterday and said our talk was the #1 trending TEDx talk on YouTube. On top of that, 1,801 people joined our community here - Welcome to the adventure! I am still pinching myself as I write this... So I thought it'd be a worthwhile exercise (both for me and for all of you) to recap exactly how this dream came true and maybe sort out what was blind luck and what might have been luck that was a little more in our control - because with any dream becoming reality, there's a lot of both. Because more often than not, when things like this happen to people, the world tends to like to dismiss it as, "Oh, he just got lucky," or, "Of course they got to speak and their talk got a ton of traction. Look at the size of his following!" and on and on. But we must be very careful not to confuse the type of luck we can control with the type that's plain dumb…

passive income is a lie

"If you want real passive income, dedicate your life to making the people around you better, every single day."

-Anonymous

Thanks for all of your inspiring responses to our "Name our Movement" contest last week. Wow! We're still sorting out the best name, but we have chosen the 10 random folks to win a free LYL shirt. We will email the 10 winners this week. Now for today's topic... Btw, pardon the occasional unsavory language below - when I get on a rant, sometimes I can't help myself!

The Biggest Lie on The Internet

Okay so I have a bit of a bone to pick. The more time I spend online, the more I learn about how to build this business and the more I get requests from people for help, the more I hear the same damn word and it's about to cause me to jump out my window (which would suck since I only live on the third floor). The phrase is... Wait for it...

how to turn a message into a movement

"A message becomes a movement when every member of the mission becomes its leader. And when everyone starts to lead, a revolution begins."

Lately I've been doing a lot of research on revolutions.

I've been curious how they start, how they grow and how they create change in a lasting and meaningful way. Why? Because at Live Your Legend, we are leading our own revolution. And it's starting to catch on in a pretty big way - 100% thanks to all of you. In the last few months, readers have held LYL Live Meetups in Los Angles, Australia, Pittsburgh and New York, and more are already being planned for Minneapolis, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Paris and China in the next couple months. One of our inspiring members, Mark Arkell, has even started a Live Your Legend Club at his university in Ontario, Canada where he's completing his PhD in philosophy! It's hard for me to believe this is really happening, but there's no question that indeed it is.