Micha Mikailian is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience and over 8 startups. He made his first million dollars in his early twenties and has continued to grow and expand his empire today.
He’s committed to creating and supporting businesses that live on the bleeding edge of our evolution and are contributing to a more sustainable, just, and abundant world for all of us.
He is currently the CEO and founder of Intently, a website browser extension that helps you stay focused on your goals by replacing all ads online with motivational and goal oriented pictures.
1. Learn to See Yourself as an Entrepreneur
When you begin identifying yourself as an entrepreneur, you start to make it a part of your identity and way of life. You no longer see yourself as an overworked employee but rather an entrepreneur who is building his side hustle into a business that will give him the time and freedom he and his family want.
When you identify as an entrepreneur, you no longer see yourself as a college student trying to figure life out, but a young businessman preparing to innovate and change the world and learning the skills necessary to do it.
How you see yourself will determine who you become. See yourself as an entrepreneur.
2. Entrepreneurship is a Tool
Many famous entrepreneurs claim that business is a game, and while business itself may be a game, entrepreneurship is a tool. It is a tool to create freedom and wealth and happiness in people’s lives. It is a tool to change the world for the better and inspire others to be the change they want to see.
3. Focus on Your Personal Development
“Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development because success is something you attract by the person you become”
In the podcast, Micha shared how, like many pro athletes, even though he had made a lot of money, his character and personal development did not match the income. This lead to a number of very poor life choices and multiple failures.
If you want to see and sustain success, you need to develop yourself as an individual. Learn to handle your emotions, learn to set and achieve goals, to have a vision bigger than yourself and interact socially.
Then and only then will you be successful.
4. Outsource the Unnecessary
Life is full of unnecessary crap. The more of it that you can outsource, the better and more productive your life will be.
Cooking, editing, scheduling, cleaning, anything that can be eliminated should as soon as you have the income. The less energy and brain power you expend on useless crap the more you can expend on creating your ideal lifestyle and having as much fun as possible.
1. Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
2. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Scott Brills is a world traveler, international entrepreneur, and founder of Pajoma Safaris. He has spent the past half of his life traveling around the world going on innumerable adventures as a location independent entrepreneur.
1. Learning to Adapt is One of the Best Skills You Can Acquire
During his travels, Scott realized that learning to be adaptable is one of the greatest skills anyone can acquire. Like Darwin said “It is not the strongest, or the smartest, but the most adaptable that survive.”
If you want to survive the world of business, romance, health or anything else for that matter, learning to adapt is the best skill to cultivate. Learn to think on your feet and be willing to change your actions when your plan doesn’t work as expected.
2. Wealth is Not Always Determined by Monetary Possessions
Something that Scott noticed as he traveled was that, with the exception of extreme poverty and refugee situations, is that material possession does not equal happiness and inner wealth.
Many of the people he met in his travels living simple, minimalistic lives were just as happy and content, if not more so, than the average 1st world millionaire.
This is not to say that money and material possession is bad or that it does not contribute to happiness, but rather to say that it is but a small part of the whole when it comes to living a happy fulfilled life.
Great relationships and experiences will always improve your fulfillment more than a new rolex or an extra 0 at the end of your paycheck.
3. As Humans We Are All Generally The Same
With the exception of some moderate social and cultural differences. People are all the same. We all want better relationships, we more happiness, we want to feel like we are making a difference. We aren’t as different as we first appear, and once you understand this you are able to interact with people from any culture or lifestyle with ease.
4. Don’t Think Linearly
Often, people assume that life is a linear journey. We are born, go to school, go to college, get a job, retire, and then we die. What people don’t realize is that life isn’t linear. If you want to live a successful and fulfilling life, it will require that you think outiside the box and do things in an unconventional way.
Starting a business in college, getting your degree after taking 5 years to travel, deferring the 9-5 life until you pursue your dreams and your bucket list.
Live life in the way that will leave you the most fulfilled and happy at the end of the day. Not the way people tell you you have to.
Coach Michael Taylor is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, author, and a radio show host who has dedicated his life to helping men reach their full potential.
Despite being born in the inner city and dropping out of highschool, Michael became a mid level manager at a multi-million dollar company at only 22. However, his success did not last, and everything he built fell apart resulting in divorce, bankruptcy and foreclosure.
Michael went on a 15 year personal development journey to rebuild who he was, and that journey has resulted in his company A New Conversations About Men
Many men, sadly, spend their whole lives in pursuit of material possessions in a search for happiness. They believe that the fancier watch, faster car, or bigger house will make them feel more fulfilled and happy, but after the initial high of the purchase wears off, they are left just as empty and alone as before.
Real men understand that true happiness comes from within, it comes from intimately connecting with others and having deep and meaningful relationships, it comes from doing work that you are passionate about, it comes from being generous towards others, but most of all, happiness simply comes by being at peace with who you are and knowing that you are enough no matter what the external circumstances.
If you want to be truly happy in your life, you must realize that stuff will not make you happy. It may give you a dopamine rush for a couple of days, but it will wear off. Your focus must be on becoming the grounded man, and internalizing the fact that you are enough. Then and only then will you be truly happy with life.
While many men believe that they know what it means to be a man, the majority of what is purported to be “masculine” in society is anything but. The following are the 5 most common illusions about manhood and what it means to be a real man
Illusion 1: You Must Be Disconnected
Society would have you believe that to be a true man, you must be a robot. You cannot express emotions, it’s not ok to cry, showing that you have feelings is a sign of weakness and should be avoided at any cost.
This is garbage. A man who is truly comfortable in his own skin, a man who is truly an emotionally mature man, realizes that showing his feelings is actually a sign of strength, because when you show your feelings you become vulnerable and you open yourself to the world saying “This is who I am and I won’t change it to conform to your standards”
That is true masculinity.
Illusion 2: Men Must Use Sexual Conquests to Validate their Masculinity
As men, we are told that if we want to be truly masculine, we have to bed dozens of women with complete ease, carelessness, and a borderline apathetic attitude. The truth is far different.
All religious dogma aside, a real man realizes that sex is meant for connection and is in no way indicative of his worth as a man. Sex is wonderful, and when used to increase the intimacy of a relationship, becomes an incredible experience. However, if a man uses sex as a way to validate himself to the world, he is on a one way track to broken relationships and misery.
Illusion 3: To Be a Man You Must Have Money and Material Wealth
While there is nothing wrong with material wealth, making money your sole focus in life, is the mark of an immature man, not a masculine man.
Ambition is wonderful, wanting to get to the next level is wonderful, building a lifestyle of comfort and luxury is wonderful, using materialism as a drug to sedate yourself from the struggles you are facing is not.
Being a man does not have anything to do with making a lot of money. While it’s true that it takes a certain breed of man to make millions, it takes an even higher breed of man to make millions while living his purpose, having deep connected relationships, and being totally in love with who he is and where he is going.
Illusion 4: To be a Man You Have to Acquire Title and Fame
Title and fame are irrelevant to masculinity. The simple fact is that there are more men who live and work behind the scenes who show true masculinity then there are truly “manly” movie and music stars.
Being a man is about who you are, not who knows about you.
Illusion 5: To be a Man You Have to Compete with Other Men
Competition is a great motivator and can be a force multiplier in may men’s lives. But it is not the mark of a man. True men look for ways that they can collaborate and work together, not compete.
While many men may feel that they are alone on whatever path the are walking, the truth is, there are hundreds of men out there going through the same things you are facing. Don’t be afraid to seek help form other men, remember “Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens another man.”
Stay sharp, swallow your pride and build a community where you can work through the struggles and triumphs you will face together.
Vast physical pleasure, deep love, and even union with divine source can be experienced through sex. Sexual energy is the source of all life in this world. Christopher Sunyata teaches people how to embrace their sexual power and artfully conduct it through their body and intimate relationships, integrating this power into their whole life.
Drawing upon decades of practice and study under masters of sexual yoga, Taoist exercises, and Buddhist meditation, he teaches ancient body-centered practices without dogma or esoteric language that lead people to discover the secret wisdom already present within their own body. By learning to trust this wisdom within their body, people can reclaim passion and life energy that is their birthright, and create intimate relationships that deepen in love and chemistry over the years.
Prior to teaching he was a successful international project manager responsible for over a billion dollars in revenue, a medical device engineer with seven patents, and a ceramic artist. He has raised four children, two of his own, including one who has significant disabilities. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his beloved wife Karlene.
1. You Need to Take Time to Acknowledge Your Present Mind and Body
Every man needs to take time out of his day to simply acknowledge how he feels in the present moment, but more than merely acknowledging, he needs to ask what his body is telling him.
Your mind and body are telling you a story, and when you are fully present and connected to your body you may realize that there are things that are happening in your life; stressors, lack of exercise, tension, etc. that need to be dealt with for you to live life fully.
2.You Will Die Someday
One of the most uncomfortable truths of life is our own mortality. No matter who you are, what you do, how much money you make, how many women you sleep with, or how big of an impact you make, you will still die. This is an inescapable truth, and although it is unpleasant can also be incredibly freeing.
People tend to ruminate on shit that really doesn’t matter, they worry about the car they drive, what clothes they are going to wear, and a number of other things that will make no difference in the long run.
If you want to be living a life of joy and freedom, learn to accept your death and live in accordance with the reality of your own fate.
Love openly and fully, connect with people, get away from your damn phone and just be present. take care of your body, never hold back anything, go on adventures. We are all dead men walking, better make the most of it.
3. Learn to Accept and Enjoy Your Various Emotional States
Our life is like a river, flowing between the banks of pleasure and pain. The only time we get into trouble is when we try to get out of the river and onto the bank, either of pleasure or pain, and we try to stay there. But as long as we realize that our life is a river and pleasure and pain are the boundaries, we’re going to do fine. We’re right in the middle between the two of them. We can’t really catch hold on either side. A lot of things go by.” ~Reggie Ray
4. Perfection is About Constant Improvement
So many people are overly critical of themselves because they are not perfect. They fuss over every little mishap and screwed up event in their life without realizing that perfection is an unattainable goal, a carrot on a string.
True perfection is constantly improving who you are. It’s about being better than the man you were yesterday, learning new things, improving your character, your mind, your body, and your spirit.
Don’t worry about being better than everyone else or never messing up, simply work to be better day by day and you will experience joy and fulfillment.
Angel Donovan is the head of Dating Skills Review and the host of the Dating Sex Relationships podcast. He interviews different men and women with specialist experience and knowledge in dating, sex and relationships every week.
1. You Need to Have Self Control
If you want to be successful, with women and in life, you must develop self-control. The self control to do the things you don’t want to do and to refrain from the things that you know will hinder your progress.
In dating this is exceptionally important. If you do not have self control, you will get bogged down in a sea of information, never taking action, never getting out there and never making progress.
You will allow yourself to become overloaded on information while never actually applying it.
Have some self control, do what you know you need to do and cut out the things you know you shouldn’t do
2. Biology Plays a Big Part in Your Dating Life
Something most men do not realize is that biology plays a far larger role in their dating lives than you would expect. This means that men who suffer from low testosterone especially, will likely have a lower success rate with women.
What this means for you is that lifestyle is key. Start lifting heavy weights, get 8 hours of sleep, cut out the porn, eat a diet of whole foods. Not only will this be good for your dating life because of the biological boost you will receive. It will be great for the overall quality of your life in general.
3. Avoid Your Comfort Zone and Attack Fear
Your comfort zone is where dreams go to die. When you get comfortable you get complacent and you no longer take risks. One of the best things you can do to create the life of your dreams is to do something that scares you shitless every day. Find a way to face a fear, get uncomfortable and do things you wouldn’t normally do on a regular basis.
This can be anything from cold showers to new foods to intentionally getting lost to tackling to fear of heights. Just do things that scare you or make you uneasy daily and you will set yourself up to live a life of purpose and power.
Olaniyi “Nee” Sobomehin is a former American football fullback. He played college football at Portland State. He was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2008.
After being cut from the NFL due to an injury, Olaniyi decided to begin coaching and from there, in adittion to being a full time fire fighter, he has built a coaching company imnotyou.com to help young athletes be successful at an elite level.
1. If Your Mindset isn’t Right Your Life Won’t be Right
Everything in your life, good or bad, stems from your mindset and your internal beliefs. If your mindset is shit, your life will be shit, it’s that simple.
You must develop the habit of improving the quality of your thinking daily. Stop tolerating weak and amateur level behavior and beliefs from yourself, challenge all of your limiting beliefs that say “I can’t do this” or “I’m not worthy.”
Quit complaining and making excuses and just get to work, improve your mindset and build the life of your dreams.
2. Begin Your Morning in the Right State
One of the habits nearly every successful person follows is a powerful morning routine. How you start your days plays a huge role in the outcome of your days, and your days control the outcome of your life, so if you want to take control of your life, take control of your mornings.
Some habits you can begin instilling into your morning routine for rapid results are:
1. Affirmations: Tell yourself that you are the best over and over, and over
2. Meditation: Quiet your mind and get present and focused for the day ahead
3. Read: There is almost nothing as important as educating yourself, read, read, read.
4. Exercise: Get the endorphins going and the blood flowing
3. Eliminate Things That Are Distracting You From Your Goals
We live in a digital age where big companies capitalize on creating products that distract us from living our lives. If you want to be truly successful, you must begin to ruthlessly eliminate things that distract you from achieving your goals.
Do you really need to spend hours on facebook each day for “Business,” is the next episode of Breaking Bad really more important than your dreams and aspirations?
Start eliminating distractions so that you can fill your life with real experiences and real achievement and impact.
4. Read as Much as You Can
One of the cornerstone habit of every successful individual is massive self education. The most important investment you can make is in yourself, and reading is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to do that.
Begin incorporating an hour of reading or listening to audiobooks into your life every day. Fill your head with the thoughts and life lessons of the greatest people who have ever lived and watch the quality of your life transform.
5. To Get Good Results You Need Good Emotions
Your emotions are either helping or hurting you, there is no in between. If you want to see exceptional results in your life you need to have an exceptional quality of emotions.
Learn to control how you feel in each moment. Understand the affect that sleep, exercise, posture, diet, and even your clothing has on how you feel in each moment and begin to build a lifestyle conducive to positive emotions.
6. Stop Being a Bitch aka Own Your Situation
Whenever you find yourself allowing circumstances and negative emotions to rule your life, or whenever you begin playing the blame game, stop being a little bitch and own your situation.
You are where you are because of the actions you have (or haven’t) taken. You are responsible for your life, no one else. When you take 100% responsibility for your life, there is no one left to blame, and when there is no one left to blame you can begin living the life that you were born to live.
Cole is an author, investor, award winning speaker and entrepreneur. He is passionate about truly living life, creating massive financial success for himself and others, and most importantly, giving back. Cole has taught tens of thousands of people to be more than just alive, but to become the best versions of themselves, create massive profits, and then impact others by living a life of significance.
Having barely escaped death 2 times in 2 separate accidents, Cole has a true appreciation for life and lives it to the fullest. He loves boating, is a water sport enthusiast, adrenaline junkie, drives fast cars, is a husband, father, and philanthropist. Cole’s story of losing everything, even temporarily his ability to walk, to now having monumental success is truly inspirational.
1. The World Teaches Life Wrong
Society, the media, friends and even family have taught you the wrong way to go about doing life.
We are all taught from a young age that if we just go to college, get good grades and a good degree, then find a safe secure job and work our asses off for 20 years, then we will be ok. We will be successful.
We’re taught that success is about keeping up with the Joneses, having a bigger house, a faster car, a bigger credit card max, or sending your kids to a more prestigious private school.
But what we aren’t taught is that success is really about doing things that you love. Success is about finding what you are passionate about and good at, finding your God given gifts and then applying those to live a life of impact.
Success is about having fulfilling relationships, meaningful work, joyful experiences, and leaving a legacy. And if big houses and fast cars are a part of that for you, than more power to you. Just realize that there is more to life than society’s definition of success, and keeping up with the joneses and working that “secure” job until you retire is a one stop ticket to a life of regret.
2. Focus on Creation
If you want to succeed in life and business, then start focusing on creation. Spend more time focusing on how you can create better content, create more value in the market place, and create better resources for people and spend less time worrying how you can “get” more.
Business is about creation, it’s about adding value and building something that your audience wants and needs.
3. Eliminate Distractions that Prevent You From Living Life
Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Porn. All of these, when taken to extremes are nothing more than distractions that will prevent you from living the life of your dreams.
If you want to be successful and live life on your terms, you must begin to eliminate distractions and toxic activities/individuals that are poisoning your life. If you constantly find yourself wasting hours on Facebook, block it. If you are always watching Netflix, cancel your subscription for a while.
(Do realize that after a long day of working on important things and getting crap done, you have earned the right to crash with some Game of Thrones of The Walking Dead, it’s when it prevents you from achieving desired results that it becomes an issue)
4. Surround Yourself With Top People in Your Industry
Success leaves clues, it’s not an accident or an art, it’s a science.
If you want to be as successful as you can, you must surround yourself with other individuals in your industry who are achieving at a high level. Figure out what they are doing and copy it. As Picasso said “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
You must realize that success is not a solo venture, you need mentors and accountability in your life and by surrounding yourself with people achieving on a higher level you will basically shortcut your way to success by avoiding pitfalls that they made and finding the things that worked and doing them that much quicker.
Jimmy Tomczak lives a mission to design, inspire, and connect. Jimmy founded Tombolo, a social enterprise that partners with designers to create innovations with impact. Made in the USA, Tombolo’s eco-beach gear encourages people to get outside and live.
His work’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN, Mashable, and more. Jimmy also consults with companies on brand strategy, business development, and the creative process. A University of Michigan graduate, StartingBloc Fellow, Crain’s 20 in their 20s honoree, and lover of all things adventure – one of Jimmy’s favorite things is a good bonfire, preferably by the beach with friends and fun.
1. Be Willing to Let Go
Our lives are so full of clutter and unnecessary baggage that often times, it is by decreasing the things, commitments and relationships that we are able to increase our happiness and fulfillment in life.
So often we get attached to unhealthy ways of living, even going as far as to wear it as a badge of honor. The wall street CFP working 80+ hours a week, barely able to keep himself awake without stimulants, the young entrepreneur running multiple companies and allowing his relationships to fall into the ground, and even the college student trying to balance too many different commitments, must learn to let go if they want to be happy.
Learn to live with less, learn to say no more, be willing to say yes more. Live your life and don’t let it be dictated by the things and responsibilities you have.
2. True Entrepreneurship is Seeing the Need in the Market
While nearly anyone can become skilled enough to own and operate a business, it takes a special talent and gift to be a true entrepreneur, someone who sees a need in the market and acts on that need.
The entrepreneur is not just a business owner and a business owner is not necessarily an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship requires innovation, hustle, and a high tolerance for risk taking. Entrepreneurship requires you to find a need in the market and fill it.
3. Get Outside and Live
Too many of us spend our days, weeks and lives in a tiny little bubble filled with nothing but social media, Netflix, work, and bar hopping Friday night. To quote William Wallace “All men die, not all men truly live.”
If you want to live a happy, fulfilled life, get out there and freaking live! Go on a hike, take an adventure, get lost, talk to a stranger, life is too damn short to spend in fear and mediocrity…get out there and live!
5. You Don’t Need a Board Meeting You Need to Connect
One of the biggest mistakes in business today is that there is no connection between people. They spend millions on retreats and meetings when they should be investing their time in getting to know, love, and connect with their employees.
Life is all about relationships, and if you want to live a great life, you will learn how to become a master at connecting with others and building great relationships.
Honored by several professional associations, Dr. Barton Goldsmith is a multi-award winning psychotherapist, a syndicated columnist and radio host, as well as a recognized keynote speaker. He has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, CBS News, NBC News, Beauty and The Geek, The Ricki Lake Show and The Mancow Muller Show.
1. Get Really Good at Asking Questions
One of the keys to being good at relationships is being good at asking questions. People love to talk about themselves and when they find someone who is good at asking them about their life and appears genuinely interested, you become the most valuable person in the world.
The key here is that you are genuinely interested. If you are just asking questions to make conversation, it will show. Treat every person you meet like a great mystery you are trying to solve and discover one clue at a time.
2. Run Through the Best, Worst and Likely Case Scenarios in Your Head
Whenever you get paralyzed by fear, run through the best case, worst case, and likely case scenario in your head.
If you are an exceptionally shy guy at a bar, and you want to go talk to that beautiful girl over in the corner, ask yourself; what the best, worst, and most likely thing to happen.
The best case is probably that she falls head over heels for you, you get her number, set up a date..maybe even sneak a makeout session in. The worst case is that she tells you to piss off, maybe she spills a drink and makes a scene, nothing you won’t recover from and likely a great story to share with your buddies later that week.
The likely case, however, is that you go over, have a pleasant conversation, get her number and part ways.
When you dissect a situation in this way, you make it seem much more doable and less frightening. The thing is, the best case is great, the worst case isn’t that bad, and the likely case makes the uncomfortable action worth it.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Learn and Use Stupid Jokes
One of the best social tactics for arguments, disagreements, and awkward pauses is to become great at comedy. Watch stand up comedy, start reading satire, just expose yourself to new content that you can use later on, you will be glad that you did.
4. Get a Vision for Your Life
If you don’t know where you are going, you will end up somewhere else entirely. It is essential to your success in life and relationships that you have a vision for your life, that you know what you want as an end game and start moving towards it.
Maybe you don’t know exactly what career path you want, where you want to live or who (if) you want to marry, but I am assuming that you want to have as much health as possible, as much wealth and freedom as possible and as much love as possible?
Start moving towards those things and don’t stop.
5. Family is Everything
At the end of the day, relationships are all that really matter. Don’t give up your family and the people who love you for money or fame. Always prioritize being a good husband, son, and father above everything else.