10ish Entrepreneurial Possibilities I Can’t Believe Even Exist (for You & Me)

05 Aug 10ish Entrepreneurial Possibilities I Can’t Believe Even Exist (for You & Me)

“We get so caught up in the fear of how and what, that we forget to marvel at the fact that it’s even possible in the first place.”

Sometimes I forget how magnificent it is to be living right now.

I get caught up in how challenging, scary and uncertain so much of my (everyone’s) work is that I lose sight of what I get to be a part of.

Last week I had two days back-to-back where I was up until past 4am prepping everything for our Connect With Anyone launch and new crop of students. One of those days started at 5:15am. You can do the math.

That’s not normal for me and it’s not something I’m proud of, but last week, that was what needed to happen.

And when the alarm goes off a few hours later, waking me up to keep cranking on things, is about when I forget how grateful I am…

Part of my late night was due to being deep in a live chat with a LYL Local host in Bangalore who excitedly told me all the details of the monthly LYL events he’s been hosting in India all year. I’m grateful for him – and for the tools to publish that one blog post last October announcing our search for hosts.

Another part of my night was making some real-time improvements to our Connect With Anyone site to have it ready for everyone the next morning. I’m grateful to have the technology to work with my designer across the country to immediately have our updates live for the world to see (and for his willingness to stay up until the wee hours with me).

Sometime early last week a man in Singapore decided to invest about $1,000 to join Connect With Anyone, and he was ecstatic about it. I’m grateful to have built enough trust with all of you to know I’ll deliver on the promise that LYL and our tools represent to the community, even though we’ve never met in person.

I’m also grateful that by some stroke of genius, it’s even possible for one person across the world to easily, safely and instantly pay another.

Do you have any idea how incredible that is??

We have been granted the privilege to live in the most unbelievable time of possibility in the history of the world.

A time where the barriers have been broken down. The gatekeepers disbanded. Where the only thing between you and publishing your first book (and potential future best-seller), is not the permission of some stodgy publishing house, but your decision to sit down and create.

Where a debt-ridden, overweight husband struggling to support his family of eight on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean can decide “enough” – and go on to build a life and business that helps millions make the same habit changes he did.

Where a securities lawyer can decide to trade it all to spend more time with his wife and daughter by sharing his art with the world and inspiring and training others to do the same.

Where a highly paid corporate consultant can press reset to leverage his coding and design chops and build a business that teaches people how to turn their talents into their own online gigs.

Where a burned-out techie could decide to make his mark on the world using tea as the vehicle for facilitating positive human connection.

Where you could decide to learn the guitar from the best teachers in the world (often for free) in your living room. And you could even watch a TEDx Talk to learn how to do it in 20 hours or less. Or take in 14 other TED Talks on Disruptive Career Change.

Where much of the best practical education from the savviest experts in the world is not hidden behind the nearly impenetrable walls of some Ivy League school, but instead waiting for you to absorb free of charge. And you could choose to consume it while sitting on a beach in Thailand or a cafe in Costa Rica to save on living costs while you acquire your new skill. I’m grateful to have done both.

Where, no matter what your beliefs, you can find a tribe somewhere around the world that shares those same ideas.

I’m grateful that I get to call all of the above people good friends of mine. Friends who I didn’t even know existed five years ago. Friends who most the world had never heard of a few years before that.

It doesn’t matter where you came from, what your background is, who you know or what you know.

For every hardship or disadvantage you feel like you’ve had, there is an example of someone who had it worse and prevailed.

I’m grateful that we can find those people. We can learn from them. They can be the ones who make the impossible our new normal.

Sure, it’ll probably involve some nights and weekends at first (or for a while), but that will probably happen at a job you hate too, so what’s the real sacrifice for taking a crack at what matters?

Our fear and inaction is selfish.

We get so caught up in the struggle, the fear, the thrash, the uncertainty, the challenges, the questions of how and what, that we forget to marvel in the pure incomprehensible beauty of what is possible in the first place.

The things that couldn’t even have been dreamed up by most of us ten or 15 years ago now happen every day.

The fact that I get to sit at my kitchen table this morning and write a few ideas down, and as soon as I hit publish, tens of thousands of you will read them. And it’s possible millions will – it might not be likely, but it’s possible. And that is the point.

That three years ago I had an idea to build a community to help people make their difference in the world and that, from scratch, I created courses and tools to help you with that, and that you consume them, you buy them and you graciously thank me for them. And on top of that you’re actually using them to leverage your talents and passions to change other peoples’ lives. And because of you, Live Your Legend has grown into a bigger and more empowering movement and business than I had the capacity to imagine.

Even if it all stopped today, that fact – your loyalty and support – will leave me drowning in gratitude and awe for the rest of my life.

It’s not about whether or not it’s easy.

Because a lot of the time it won’t be.

It’s not about whether it’s always going to be fun.

Because sometimes it’s not.

It’s about the difference you can make. That you can decide to do work that matters – to you and those around you.

It’s about the fact that it’s possible.

That no matter your age, stage, culture, nationality or background, today we get to live in a world where the only gatekeeper between you and living your legend is your desire to get your ass to work and start learning and building.

I see it as our responsibility to do something with that possibility.

To become an example of what’s possible.

Eternal gratitude is the only way I can describe the gift we’ve all been given.

What will you do with it? Tell us in the comments.

-Scott

P.S. In honor of our possibility, I wanted to share the #1 music video and song on my “Inspire Me” playlist right now. I was blasting it all last week.

And because tonight I’m off to see Beyoncé in concert in San Francisco with Chelsea and six friends (I love seeing people doing their thing in real life)…

Beyoncé performed this at the United Nations on World Humanitarian Day on August 19, 2012. It’s called “I Was Here.” Whether you like her or not, don’t judge. Just pay attention to the message.

One of my favorite lines…

“When I leave this world, I’ll leave no regrets. Leave something to remember, so they won’t forget. I was here.”

I hope it sheds some light on your own potential and that of this community. We are capable of so much more than we realize…

Don’t see the video? Click here.