How do you feel right after watching any Batman movie? I almost always entertain thoughts of renouncing my current life for the thrill of being a masked avenger (females might not relate to this example). I often find myself sneaking around corners and lurking behind my roommates, waiting for the right moment to strike. All joking aside, there’s something about the images and voices of others that can drive our thoughts and behaviors, for good or for bad.
I mentioned in previous post that I have a number of “virtual mentors”. When I find someone with an opinion I respect, I tend to devour anything and everything that they’ve touched. You could even say even say that I put them on a bit of a pedestal.
Is it good for me to let people I don’t even know shape the way that I make my decisions? It all depends.
Each of my mentors has their own personal brand. They each have fantastic strengths. All of them having glaring weaknesses. The most important thing is that each of them is doing what they love and taking the time to share their passion with others. This is where the inherent problem comes in. People devoid of passion tend to latch onto the people that are full of it. Passions are adopted and the passionless person suddenly begins living their “new life”.
Let me use Gary Vaynerchuk as an example. Gary has an amazing story. He worked hard to get to where he is today. Listen to three minutes of Gary and you’ll quickly learn that he loves to use as many four letter words as he can in one sentence to motivate you to work hard. He loves to tell the down and dirty stories. He loves working 18 hour days. Gary is a workaholic. Not my gig, but hey, everyone has their own opinions.
Now to the impressionable young mind, Gary’s success elevates him to celebrity status. The way to success is to eat what Gary eats, drink what Gary drinks, and work the insane hours that Gary works. Devoid of a bigger picture, the impressionable mind goes off on a quest to see how many 18 hour days he/she can work because thats “what Gary would do”. Two weeks into this experiment in lifestyle design, the impressionable mind starts to break down. Failure has snatched hold of yet another young and impressionable mind.
Fortunately, most of us realize that there are an infinite number of ways for us to live our lives and find success. No successful person truly believes thats you MUST FOLLOW all of the steps in their book to achieve happiness or success. Success is relative. It can change with our age. It can change with our circumstances. If you don’t believe me, take a look at Mariah Carey.
So next time you’re discouraged that you can’t “Live the 4-Hour Work Week” or “Find the Purple Cow” or “Crush It“, keep in mind that these people are here to help, not to ruin your life.
