30 Days Of Genius Blog: Sophia Amoruso

Starting from scratch, building through necessity, and growing on EBay, she built Nasty Gal in to a multi-million dollar company. She is an amazing entrepreneur who learned along the way, pivoted, adjusted, and has been a fixture in fashion for over 10 years. Admitting that she stumbled in to becoming Nasty Gal, she is the perfect example of how every entrepreneur should approach work. Look for the opportunities, focus on what is in front of you, and get s*** done.

I have taken her interview on 30 Days of Genius with Chase Jarvis, extracted the information, and used it to answer common questions by readers just like you, who are looking to take their lives to the next level, or at least a different level than the one there are on.

Please enjoy.

Do I Need To Be Talented To Be Successful?

The obvious answer is yes. There needs to be something there. The not so obvious answer is no. It has been much more important to my business, and ultimately to my success, that I was able to develop a talent rather than have one before I began.

Give yourself the opportunity to develop, grow, and get better.

I started out very small. It was just me, some clothes, and EBay. I found the items, took the pictures, posted them, sold them, and sent them. As that grew, I needed to learn more. The more I learned, the more I needed to do, the better I got, the bigger I got. It was as straightforward of a progression as you can get. I never had a vision of grandeur, some ultimate goal where I was running a multi-million dollar company. I just focused on what was in front of me, how I could improve, and how I could do more.

Do not be discouraged by what you think you have a talent for or not. At this point you are at zero. 

Focus on what you can do, and what you need to do. Too many people get caught up in what they think they need to do and miss out on some of the foundational aspects of building a business. If you are at zero and trying to get to one, don’t focus on 1–10. You have to get to one first! Ten will come soon enough.

It is a little embarrassing some of the common business programs I didn’t know how to use 5–6 years in to Nasty Gal. But if I didn’t need them to build the business, why would I waste my time learning them? For looks? For ego? Make sure you focus on the necessities. You will be busy enough with that. There won’t be any time to learn things you don’t need to know!

What Is The Key To Success?

You are going to hate this answer, there isn’t one!

There are different paths and strategies. What worked for me may not work for you. I didn’t go to school, but I could see the benefit of it. I could also see how going to school would have changed everything I did when starting Nasty Gal. I would have seen everything so differently, my whole approach and strategy would have been different. Remember I started micro. I didn’t have a 36 month vision, a ten year plan, or investment rounds. I didn’t take outside money at Nasty Gal for years!

I know what you are going to say, at least give me something! There has to be something that can be used across the board that increases the likelihood of success!

You are right. Here it is: Think and operate at the micro level.

Do what is in front of you, the most important thing for that moment. It is basically the Lean Startup approach. Take baby steps so you don’t over-commit to one thing, or one direction. It allows you to evaluate clearly as you are going, making sure you are making the right move for today, and tomorrow.

When you use this approach you become more resourceful, especially in the beginning when money is tight. You can approach people and offer your services for their services. No money out of pocket. If you can reciprocate value with another person or company you can work around the fact that money is tight. You want to start small, stay out of debt, and build a solid foundation.

This approach allows for thousands of little “breaks,” instead of the Hollywood-style “BIG” break. Each one gets you a step ahead of where you were, and a step closer to where you want to be. These little breaks and moments can be anything: when you get paid more than ever for your service(s), when you realize people are don’t like you because you are successful, or when you have “haters.” Those are all signs that you are doing something good.

As you are building, constantly be evaluating and analyzing how you are doing things. What is working? What can be better? What’s the next step? How can you scale? To be honest, I didn’t even have “scale” in my vocabulary. I saw the potential in making 100 people happy with one type of dress instead of just one. Those 100 turned in to 1000, and so on.

Again, there are so many avenues to success. In my opinion, I think it is best to learn how to do things on your own. You internalize the process and information better, growing in small increments, and building a solid foundation.

Always remember, there is what you have, and what you do with what you have. That can be applied at any phase of any business, small or large, new or old, successful or not. The mindset is up to you.

Quotes

“There is what you have and what you do with what you have.”

“Things get done faster when people like you.”

“I love to over-commit and see what is possible.”

“The greatest change is made through how you treat the person next to you and what you learn from the person next to you. Sharing our stories makes other people feel capable. Telling stories has a ripple effect.”

Sophia Amoruso Links

Nasty Gal

Girl Boss

Nasty Galaxy

Chase Jarvis Links

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Joey Links

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Kill The Mouse

How many times have you made a situation worse by dragging it out?

You want a certain outcome, you know it is going to happen eventually, but you don’t want to be the bad guy, or the bad girl.

You want to break up with him, but you don’t want to be mean, so you drag it out. You justify it to yourself because you aren’t being really mean (say, a 9 out of 10), you are being less mean (a 5 out of 10), but for a longer period of time. Hoping he gets tired of your consistent “5” and breaks up with you. Whew! Not the bad guy!

Makes sense, right?

You want to say no, but you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and end up making it worse.

You don’t want to do the job, but you don’t want to be mean, so you do it, but you do a s****y job. 

At least you did it, right?

There are so many times in our lives, (and let’s be blunt), because we are pussies, that we make a situation worse by not getting it over with, saying no, saying yes, or walking away.

What the hell does this have to do with a mouse?

Everything.

Kill The Mouse

We had a rat in our attic, garage, basically everywhere he wanted to go.

Why is it called Kill The Mouse if I had a rat? It’s called marketing. If I called it Kill The Rat I couldn’t use Mickey’s recognizable face. Click bait.

But no mouse, a rat.

We had been leaving poising out for him for months. I even bought a shock box. Basically, you put food at one end, and as it goes in the box to get it, ZAP!! Fried mouse, er, rat.

I wanted this thing dead. I could hear it in the attic, it was getting in to the dog food in the garage, and leaving little rat turds all over the place.

Death to the rat!!!

An Opportunity

This is what we want, right? An opportunity to reach our desired outcome. I had been leaving booby-traps for months, hoping to kill this rat in a horrible manner, poison or electrocution, but this would be quicker, faster, and more effective.

I saw him in my driveway in the middle of the day this past weekend.

I could have easily killed it.

He was moving a little slow, and during the day, so you know something was wrong with him.

I had a shovel sitting right there. All I had to do was pick it up and smash that little bastard. 

Bada-boombada-bing. No more rat.

Here is my chance.

What I have been waiting for.

But do I really want to smash a little rat with a shovel in my driveway? Crush his little brain? Squirt blood all over the place?

Eh. Not really.

Trust me, I felt like such a pussy (being blunt, remember?) during this whole thought process.

What did I do instead of smashing it? I chased him across the street.

I am the girl that is mean instead of just breaking up with the dude.

I am the passive aggressive employee that smiles and makes it look they are going to do it, but they 

don’t.

But I justified it, just like we all do.

No more rat? No more problems. And I didn’t have to kill it.

But he came back.

In fact, the little shit walked right by me.

He basically said, “I know you aren’t going to do shit, so let’s stop the charade. I am going to chill over here by the washing machine, and you keep working out.”

How dare he?

In my garage? Right by me?

Son-of-a-bitch.

This means war!!

What Did I Do?

What any red-blooded American would do in a situation where you want one outcome but are too pussy to pull the trigger, I dragged it out.

How?

I got a flashlight, called for my wife and daughter to come look at the rat, and named him Micelangelo.

I still wanted him to die, but I didn’t want to be the bad guy (directly).

How was I “not” the bad guy?

I put peanut butter on poison and watched little Micelangelo eat it. This poison disrupts the rats neurological function. Basically, I am giving this rat fast moving MS.

Reflecting on it as I was doing it, I was willing to torture this poor thing, but not put it out of its misery quickly, and humanely.

This allowed me to not be the bad guy.

You may not be dealing with a rat, but what are you making worse by trying to make yourself feel better, or keep your hands “clean”?

Over the next 48 hours, I would check and see if Micelangelo was still in the garage. My daughter wanted to see him, she thought he was cute. We called him by his name. My wife said I adopted a damn rat. She’s wrong, I wanted to kill him, I was just doing it in a round-a-bout way. Passive aggressive. The pussy way.

I was doing laundry Monday night when Micelangelo came out to say hi. He was headed in the direction of the washing machine. I didn’t want to smash him, but I didn’t want to hang out with him either, so I tried to chase him the other direction. He hid behind a box. I thought if I shifted the box he would move, but he didn’t. I thought it would scare him, but it didn’t.

So I went to bed.

In the morning I came out to get some dog food (and check on Micelangelo). I had my flashlight, I looked around, and found him in the same spot I had left him in the night before.

Oops.

I shifted the box and he didn’t move.

I took a different angle so I could see him clearly.

He was still breathing, still alive, but barely.

I guess when I was moving the box I trapped his head between the corner of the box and the wall.

I basically trapped him for 12 hours by the neck.

Micelangelo’s time of death was roughly 930am, Tuesday, November 22. RIP little buddy.

The “Easy” Way Out

He was going to die. It was a matter of time.

You were going to break up with him, it was a matter of time.

You were going to get out of that job, it was a matter of time.

What we do when we avoid the inevitable is make it worse for the other person involved. This person (or mouse) we are trying to avoid inflicting an intense, singular pain on, we end up dragging the pain out over time, deliberately, tortuously, inhumanely.

To make them feel better?

Or to make us feel better?

We know it’s the latter, if we are honest.

Instead of “biting the bullet,” “pulling the trigger,” or whatever other cliché you want to use, I made it much worse for little Micelangelo.

Instead of smacking him with a shovel and making it quick and painless, I inflicted more pain. Being poisoned, trapped, and being held by the neck overnight, dying slowly and probably painfully.

I made it worse for him, but easier on me (other than feeling bad for the little guy after I realized what I did).

What is your mouse?

What is your rat?

What are you dragging out? Making worse? Treating someone or something inhumanely?

Get it over with.

If you really care about their feelings, make it quick and painless.

Kill the mouse.

Joey

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The Reality Of Westworld

For those of you that have not seen the HBO series, Westworld, here is a breakdown of the plot: A “world” (duh) set in the “west” (double duh), was created where humans can interact with extremely lifelike robots, live out fantasies, and have adventures, all without the threat of serious physical harm.

It’s like Vegas x 1,000.

Sounds awesome, but at $40,000 a day, not going to happen any time soon (at least for me).

I knew where the show was going to go, ultimately questioning reality, and I have been waiting 8 episodes for it to get there.

Last night, it got there.

And when it did, the way they did it, between the writing, acting, and execution, it was pure gold.

Here is my breakdown, in relationship to us, of the best two minutes of writing I may have ever seen on TV.

Our Reality?

Starting at minute 37:

“What do you really feel?

After all, at this moment, you are in a unique position. A program that knows intimately how the machine works and a machine that knows its own true nature.”

We can’t even begin to ask ourselves a question like this unless we have a certain level of maturity. I don’t mean a certain age, I mean maturity. If you were not aware that age does not equal maturity, you are not mature.

I have met plenty of “old” people that sound like a dumb kid.

Remember, mature, not old.

At this point you have seen the good and bad side of life. You have seen the best and worst in people. 

You have had your own ups and downs, examined yourself, worked on the problems, gotten better each year, and consistently reflected on yourself in order to keep growing.

You know how people work, and more importantly, you know how you work.

How do you feel when you look at the world around you? What do you feel as you make your way through the day? Things you hear on the radio? See on TV? The people you deal with as you traverse from home to work and back again?

Maybe at this point you want to take the questioning to a higher level. Maybe your questions start sounding like this.

“I understand what I’m made of, how I’m coded.

But I do not understand the things that I feel.

Are they real?

The things I experienced?”

You have seen the best and worst of yourself. There are things in place in your life that allow you to feel good, to function at a high level, and to be consistent from day to day, whether that be work, home, relationships, etc.

Do you still have bad days? Yes.

Depressed every once in a while? Yes.

Good and bad moods that you can’t really put a finger on? Yes.

On a good day life is wonderful. On a bad day, what’s the point? Right?

Ever ask yourself what the point of all this is? Life?

If you are honest, the answer is yes.

This is where you really get to know yourself, diving deep in to self-awareness.

We tend to praise ourselves for the good things and others for the bad. Why would we want to look negatively at ourselves when we could just blame Rick (Gary Vee’s nemesis) and be done with it?

F*** you Rick. It’s all your fault!

What is the point of everything that I have gone through, or even worse, what I am going through now?

You feel like you have a grip on yourself, that you have figured “it” out, but why do you still feel like this?

Maybe it doesn’t seem real. Maybe you feel as confused as the hosts in Westwood. If you do, then you should think about this:

“Every host needs a backstory, but you know that.

This stuff is a kind of fiction.

It’s the story we tell ourselves.

Every story needs a beginning.

Your imagined suffering makes you lifelike.”

We all need to come from something, and we are all headed somewhere. A quote that I have used to pick myself up during down times is: “every saint has a past and ever sinner has a future.”

What is your backstory?

What is your future story?

What are you other than stories?

Stories you have written yourself. Stories you have allowed others to write about you. You read them all as if they are the absolute truth, but are they really? Are you really that good, or that bad? Do you really think you are that sexy? Or that unattractive?

Maybe you aren’t at the extremes, maybe you are just in the middle. You are just ok. Nothing special. Nothing unique. People don’t really like you. They don’t hate you. You are just in the middle. Bleh.

The story you tell yourself is your identity.

You suffer so you have an identity.

You celebrate so you have an identity.

You love.

You hate.

It’s your story.

It’s who you are.

Or is it?

Are you alive? Is it really you?

“Lifelike, but not alive?

Pain only exists in the mind?

It’s always imagined?

Then what’s the difference between my pain and yours?

Between you and me?”

How do you feel after reading this?

How does it make you feel about us? Humans?

What if we are functioning in this world as more lifelike than alive? Our pain and suffering. Our love. Our loss. Is it all imagined? Is it really there? Would it be as good or as bad if we didn’t allow it to be?

We have all met people that don’t open up, never let anyone in.

We have also met people that open up and let everyone in (if you know what I mean).

What if we didn’t? What if we stopped telling ourselves the stories that allow us to be open or closed with the world? What if the story changed? What if we were reprogrammed? What if we could see the world differently? See potential where we used to see nothing? See beauty where we used to see emptiness?

What would we be then?

Would it be more real? Or less?

“The answer always seemed obvious to me. There is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts. No inflection point at which we become fully alive.

We can’t define consciousness because consciousness does not exist.

Humans fancy that there is something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet, we live in loops almost as tight and closed as the hosts do. Seldom questioning our choices, content for the most part being told what to do next.

No my friend, you are not missing anything at all.”

Clash With Reality

Our most difficult times come when our reality clashes with the stories we tell ourselves.

If I am so good, how did this happen?

If I am so smart, why did I fail?

If I am so beautiful, why didn’t he pick me?

We have our most difficult times, our existential and midlife crisis, and our breakdowns, when the things that we have been telling ourselves, the stories we have written, prove to be nothing more than stories.

How could this happen? Because of the story we told.

It’s our own fault if we didn’t write in a contingency plan, a pivot, or an alternate route.

It’s our own fault when we wrote in someone else having the power over our self-worth, or self-esteem.

It’s our story that holds us down too hard, or too long.

It’s our story that builds us up too high for too long.

What makes us real is not reality, it’s our story. We are the hosts of this world. Not Westworld, Realworld. Not Real World (MTV), Realworld.

We write the narrative, pick out the costumes, define the parameters, and choose our interactions, dialogue, and temperament.

How do you want your world to be?

What is your reality?

How do you want to change it?

It is all up to you.

Joey

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30 Days Of Genius Blog: Kevin Kelly

He is the co-founder of Wired magazine, a best-selling author, and seems to have his pulse on the heartbeat of technology for over 25 years. He shares his philosophies on technology and how you can stay cutting edge in this ever-evolving world.

I have taken his interview on 30 Days of Genius with Chase Jarvis, extracted the information, and used it to answer common questions by readers just like you, who are looking to take their lives to the next level, or at least a different level than the one they are on.

Please enjoy.

Do I Have To Adopt New Technology?

That depends. Do you want to have more choices? Do you want to increase the possibilities of this world and its inhabitants? Do you want to do things that have never been done, with people you would have never met otherwise, in a way you never thought possible?

Those are personal questions. For me? I say absolutely yes, you need to adopt new technology. You have to.

Does technology create problems? Absolutely.

But there is a catch.

The way I look at it, today’s tech makes tomorrow’s problems. Sound a little depressing? It is, except for the fact that new technology will solve all of those problems. We will be better on the other end of it, with a new set of problems, but with new technology just around the corner to solve them.

The scary, fascinating, wonderful, and amazing part of technology and it’s ever changing nature is that the problems of “tomorrow” may be solved, literally, tomorrow. We aren’t talking months and years like the past, we are talking about days and hours. Without the “bad” you never would get to the “good.”

A little scary? Sure, sometimes.

But the only way to maximize the potential of technology is to keep creating, keep innovating, changing, failing, adjusting, practicing, and finally, succeeding. It is all about deliberate practice. You are legitimately trying to fail in order to figure out weaknesses and problems. It is “failing forward,” as Derek Sivers puts it.

What Do You View As The Main Benefit To Technology?

New technologies allow for genius to shine.

Think about it.

Lives change because of new technology, right? We can all agree on that. But the new technology allows for things to be possible that weren’t possible before that new technology. That may sound too obvious, so think of it in terms of music:

What if Mozart were 100 years older?

What if the Beatles formed in the 1990’s?

What if Metallica started in the 1940s?

They would have been too soon, or too late, and the world would have missed out on their genius.

No Mozart? No Beatles? No Metallica?

Where would music be today?

If there was no YouTube, how many stars would we be missing today? The Beebs? Nope. No 

YouTube!

It has never been easier to get your work out there. It doesn’t matter what your area of expertise is, you can find people all over the world to share it with. 50 years ago? You would just be sitting in your house, being an expert all by yourself.

How many companies started in a garage in the 70s and 80s? Now the garage is the entire world (at least those connected to the internet).

That is a wonderful thing.

What Is The Future Of Tech, and How Can I Utilize It?

Our brains are going to be more valuable than ever. Critical thinking. Critical questioning. Creativity. Those three things will be more important than ever because the jobs that require efficiency: cashiers, assembly line workers, even drivers (in the near future), will be done by robots. Humans will be doing jobs that are wasteful and inefficient, like thinking and creating. The “new work” will not be measured in productivity. We will be left with jobs and tasks that are more opened ended.

To put it plainly, answers will be worth nothing, but questions will be worth everything.

Google can practically answer any question you have today. That will become more and more true as time passes and the “question answering” technology advances. But the questions themselves? Digging deeper? That’s where the money will be.

Collaboration is going to be the next big thing for the creative community. We love the idea of the lone creative genius, but that is rarely the reality. Adding other ways to meet and collaborate, not just face to face, is going to be enormous moving forward.

Tech is additive. Increasing choices and possibilities. It increasingly allows people to work on something together that they could never do before.

How do you utilize it?

Experience it. Try it out. Play with it. Figure it out, then put yourself in it.

You will never be able to successfully adopt new technology unless you play with it and learn it for yourself. You can pay someone to do it, but it will never capture the essence of you without your direct knowledge and application.

The big thing now? VR. Play with some goggles, check out some 360 cameras. How can you use them?

The earlier you adopt them the less crowded the market space is. That new technology could be the one that takes your career to the next level.

But you have to try.

Be quick to try, quick to drop, and slow to adopt. Find the things that work for you. Find the ways that work for you. Try everything, then adopt. You need to be very selective in what you ultimately choose.

Quotes

“We tend to over-estimate the effects of technology in the short term and underestimate the effects in the long term.”

“Disruptions always come from the outside. If you want to be successful and stay successful, you need to keep an eye out on what is going on around you, and look for the inroads.”

Kevin Kelly Links

Website

Wired

1000 True Fans

Book: The Inevitable

Chase Jarvis Links

Website

Creative Live

iTunes Podcast Page

Joey Links

LinkedIn

Twitter

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YouTube

The United States Of Entitlement

In the greatest political shock of my lifetime, Donald Trump is the president-elect.

Americans were angry.

Americans wanted change.

Americans wanted an outsider.

Americans were sick and tired of the status-quo.

Who Can Blame Them?

We all need change in our lives, right?

I can’t blame any of those nearly 60,000,000 people who were sick and tired of the status quo.

I mean, for years we have had to deal with:

1. Being the safest country in the world.

2. Having the greatest economy in the world (we have states that are in the top ten by themselves. 

Think about that).

3. Having the best university and higher education system in the world.

4. Educating 82 million students for free each year, K-12.

5. Having the premiere medical/research facilities on the planet.

6. Developing Obamacare, covering Americans denied previously, saving thousands of lives (at least for 2 more months).

7. An unparalleled opportunity for upward mobility (except to President, at least for women).

Wait, what was I talking about?

Oh yeah!

F*** this place!

I am sick of the status quo.

The same thing, over and over again, year in and year out.

F*** being the best country in the world.

I’m tired of it.

Our Unabashed Entitlement

We are amazing.

Take that as you wish. That can either be “amazing, yay!” or “wtf amazing.”

I LOVE this country.

I am so proud to be an American (and especially a white one the next four years. Whew!)

There are billions of people around the world that would love to slap the s*** out of 60,000,000 of you today.

You obviously have no idea how good you have it.

There is ZERO sympathy for you around the world.

Cambodia? Nope.

Russia? Nope.

Afghanistan? Nope.

South America? No. (that’s Spanish for no.)

Africa? Negatory.

Life being so amazing here and people still complaining is the root of the Western hatred around the world.

Everyone one else is looking at us going, “what in the f*** are you complaining about?!?!?!”

“You have everything, and you’ve had it forever!”

In fact, you have had it so long you think: 1. You deserve it just for being here, and 2. That it should be even better!!

WTF?!??!?!

Our country has become the 49ers. Things are amazing, buuuuuuuuut, we want them to be better. So we fire Harbaugh. How is that working out? (answer, not good, just ask Chip).

We have become Gavin Rosdale. We are married to hot ass Gwen Stefani, yet we need a little “strange” on the side. Something new. You know, not the status quo? How is that working out Gavin? Maybe if anyone gave a s*** about Bush 25 years later you would be better.

We are the spoiled brat with the Mercedes that wants the new BMW.

Even worse, we got the new BMW, but it was blue instead of silver.

Waaaaa!

My life sucks!!!!

We Are Becoming What We Hate

We are obviously losing our self-sufficiency, because we need Trump (God help us) to come in and “save” us!! “Help, help!! I’m only on a 14 person yacht!! Someone, anyone, help me get to the 25 person one!! Please!! Anyone!!”

What are we?

What have we become?

Or what have we been all along that we are finally seeing now?

We just elected an ego-maniacal jackoff to the position of leader of the free world.

The most powerful country in the world just “hired’ The Apprentice!!

I am not saying Hillary was the bees knees, but Trump? Grab them in the pussy? Build a wall? 

Monitor all Muslims, block them from entering? I would date my daughter if we weren’t related, Trump? Really?

Why?

Because we were fed up with the status quo.

Thank You Media

By using fear tactics to engage viewers with your bulls*** every night, you have actually gotten them to be scared. So scared in fact, that the most unqualified candidate in the last 100 years was able to double down on your rhetoric and win the presidency.

Why?

Because we don’t like the direction the country is headed.

And I agree.

F*** being the best.

Nice work America.

Joey

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How Bad Is It, Really?

Big day today!! Election day!!! Woohooo!!!

Everything that Trump says is wrong with America will be fixed starting today!!!

All of the things that Hillary says need to change will be better starting today!!

Yiiippee!!!

We can finally fix this horrible country we are living in and make it what it was intended to be: amazing!!

“Hallelujah!! Holy s***!! Where’s the Tylenol?” — Clark W. Griswald, III

A Time For Honesty

A horrible country?

Fallen from grace?

A shadow of its former self?

Is that us?

Is that America?

My Challenge To You

Take everything the news has been telling you. Everything the candidates have been telling you. This 

horrible country we are in. This awful time in America. The failed economy. The failed borders. Our safety. Our jobs.

Take all of those things and leave them on the TV. Leave them on The Socials. Put the phone down for a minute.

I want you to look at your life. Just yours.

Not the people you hear about. Just you, and your family.

How bad is it?

How is your health? Your job? Your home?

Is it as bad as they say it is?

Are you voting today because of what you feel and see? Voting for your life as you know it? Or are you voting because of what they tell you? Voting because of what Fox tells you, or CNN, or MSNBC?

If you take away everything you have heard the last 12 months and just looked at your life, your day to day, how bad is it?

It’s Up To You

Don’t let them tell you what you think.

Don’t let them tell you how it is.

Democrats, Republicans, media, any of them.

F*** them all. They don’t know you.

They want to scare you. They want you to think that you need them. That you can’t do it on your 

own. Both major parties tout small government, or big government. It’s all bulls***.

All they have said the last 12 months is you need them.

You need the government.

Your life sucks.

Your life has sucked the last 8 years, and it’s only going to get worse.

They Are Wrong

I know your life doesn’t suck. Why? Because you are alive and able to even read this. You woke up this morning. You are alive and can vote today. You are alive and will either be furious or ecstatic tonight. You can feel. You have emotions. That’s a beautiful thing. Things are pretty good. Life is pretty damn wonderful if you take the time to look. If you take the time to block out all the noise, the hate, the fear, the news, and especially the candidates.

Take some time and settle in to the peace and quiet.

Be grateful for the peace.

Be grateful for the quiet.

Be grateful for the breath that just entered your lungs.

The eyes you are using to read this.

The heart that is pulsing life through your veins.

The friends and family that love you with all their heart.

The friends and family that you love with all your heart.

Life is beautiful.

Take a moment to feel that today.

It’s going to be a hell of a day.

Just remember to ask yourself:

How bad is it really?

I’m guessing it’s pretty damn good.

Joey

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