
The first ever self-development book to help millions of people around the globe transform their lives using humor, irreverence, and the occasional curse word—now updated and expanded for its 10th anniversary with a brand-new foreword, reader's guide, and more! In this refreshingly entertaining guide to reshaping your mindset and your life, mega-bestselling author and world-traveling success coach Jen Sincero serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilarious and inspiring stories, sage advice, loving yet firm kicks in the rear, and easy-to-implement exercises to help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want. Shift your energy and attract what you desire. Create a life you totally love. And start creating it NOW. Make some damn money already. The kind you've never made before. By the end of You Are a Badass, you’ll understand how to blast past what’s holding you back, make some serious changes, and start living the kind of life that once seemed impossible.
The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' wallet), get more stubs, and try again (and again) until they hit the balloon.
The middle class kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and also miss. Then they will walk away, saying that was fun, and go hang out with their mates. But maybe the 10th or the 100th middle class kid will hit the balloon.
And the working class kids? They work at the funfair. They never get to throw darts.
Here's the kicker: those kids who hit the balloons? One or two of them might go off and start a blog/podcast, or write a book titled
- Zero To Plushy
- The Dart Thing About Dart Things: Plushy Hunting When There Are No Easy Answers
- Dart Throwers at Work: Stories of Plushy Hunters' Early Days
- You Are a Badass at Hunting Plushies: Master the Mindset of Throwing Darts
- The Lean Plushy Hunter
- &c
Hell, if it's the middle class kid writing the book, they might even throw a couple of anecdotes in there about how they didn't have an easy start (compared to the rich kid), and it might even be true for them.
That book is the catnip that folks like you and me base our life decisions on.
I had a go at 3 startups, only one of them quasi-full-time, as I self-funded with freelancing. (I spent years building a "turn PDFs into data" product, had a few paying customers, and then one day got made totally redundant by Google Vision.)
Needless to say, I got completely burned out on startup number 3.
I shuttered the business just as Covid hit. I spend more time with the family (wife, two daughters, 9 and 6), and we moved to the countryside to be closer to ageing parents and siblings with kids.
It's healing time, baby
I wish you all the best
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
1984 by George Orwell
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck by Mark Manson
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
No More Mr Nice Guy by Robert A. Glover
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Dressing the Man by Alan Flusser
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose
The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco
Mastery by Robert Greene
Models by Mark Manson
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferriss
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Kingdom Man by Tony Evans
The 50th Law by Robert Greene
The Mask of Masculinity by Lewis Howes
100 Deadly Skills by Clint Emerson
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Quiet by Susan Cain
Mate by Tucker Max
Icons of Men's Style by Josh Sims
Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven
The Man in the Mirror by Patrick Morley
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Stranger by Albert Camus
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Wild at Heart Revised and Updated by John Eldredge
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Unfu
k Yourself by Gary John BishopThe Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Iron John by Robert Bly
The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
There are a lot of pieces to that, but I ultimately realized that I had been suffering from long-term, chronic depression -- the kind where you're not necessarily sad, but the world just seems very... flat. And you are irritable a lot.
I want to recommend some things (understanding that I'm just trying to get you to think about them -- I don't know you, so I could be way off course... but). 1) Look into whether you have depression or not. At the very least, see a therapist. Maybe get a pyschiatric or psychological evaluation as well. Because depression sucks, and if you are battling it, you want to know.
2) Start looking at your life. What do you want out of your life? What would you hope for if you could "blue-sky" it? Because you need to make this life count... regardless of what your partner's expectations are. There are lots of books on this subject (random one: "You Are A Badass" by Jen Sincero).
3) Look at your spiritual life. (I don't necessarily mean religion.) If you are like a lot of us, it has kind of languished. But it's one of the legs of the stool, so you shouldn't neglect it.
4) Quitting is always an option. Telling yourself it isn't is just a way of locking yourself into BS options that may not work for you. Yes, there would be an economic hit. Maybe you'd have to sell your house. Maybe your partner would divorce you. It's OK to consider the drawbacks, but leave the option on the table, because... this is your life, friend. Destroying it for money is a bad, bad plan, and will teach your children the worst of lessons -- that life is a horrible grind for security, despite the fact that we hate our lives. Bad, bad outcomes come out of that lesson.
Take what you like, and leave the rest.
