Knowledge For Men Archives

Paul Huljich was the Chairman CEO of Best Corporation a pioneering organic food company with a valuation of over $100 million during its lifetime. After working for decades to build the life of his dreams, Paul’s unchecked stress caught up with him and he suffered a severe mental breakdown. Losing his rights as a citizen and being made a ward of the state, Paul lost everything he had worked so hard to achieve.

After being told that his chronic stress was incurable by the top doctors in the field, Paul decided to take matters into his own hands, becoming a self described guinea pig in his quest to eliminate his stress. After years of research and testing, Paul conquered his stress and has been free from all stress medications for nearly 15 years. From these experiences, Paul wrote the book “Stress Pandemic” an Amazon bestseller that teaches people how to mitigate the stress in their life to live more fully and perform more optimally.

Favorite Quote

“Take control of your stress before it takes control of you” – Paul Hulijich

Key Points

1. Optimum Health Is a Prerequisite.

The first key to managing stress is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Luckily, living in such a way that eliminates stress is fairly simple and does not require radical alterations to your lifestyle. This simple morning routine will reduce stress levels by optimizing neurochemicals and hormone levels.

~Wake early (before 7 am) ~Drink 1 liter of room temperature water after waking up ~ Take a brisk walk early shortly after rising ~Juice after your walk

2. Do your heavy lifting in the morning.

Another cornerstone habit to managing stress is to have a healthy sleep schedule. One of the habits that many high performers become sucked into is the past midnight work day. However, by working late at night, you reduce the quality of your sleep and increase the release of cortisol in your body.

3. Remove C.R.A.P. from your diet, replacing them with good mood foods.

Crap or: Caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol, and processed foods, not only contributes to stress and obesity, but also releases chemicals in your body that can increase cortisol, estrogen and several other hormones that raise stress and prevent optimal performance. Exchanging CRAP for “good mood foods” such as all natural and organic meats, vegetables, and fruits will enhance your bodies hormonal balance, neurological function and aid in fat loss and muscle gain.

4. You Must Remain Aware of your actions and your state.

One of the greatest keys to success in all areas of your life is awareness and honest self evaluation. You must be aware of your environment and your responses to it and how they affect your stress levels to operate at levels of peak performance. An awareness of your own physiology and neurology will allow you to head off stress and other issues in your life before their effects become detrimental. The consequences of failing to develop self awareness can be as mild as poor performance or as severe as a mental breakdown similar to Paul’s.

Mark Lee Greenblatt is an attorney based in Washington D.C. having worked several high profile senate corruption cases. Mark spent 5 years and hundreds of hours investigating to gain the information for his book “Valor” which tells the stories of the unsung heroes of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Favorite Success Quote

“Your either part of the solution or you are part of the problem.” – Eldridge Cleaver

Key Points

1. Grace Under Pressure

In his book Valor, Mark shares a story about Chris Choay, who, while trying to lead his squad in a flanking maneuver, found himself completely alone and exposed only meters away from the enemies position.

Instead of retreating, Chris calmly raised his rifle and fired…only to find his gun had jammed. He now stood like a fish in a barrel; if any of the insurgents looked over and saw him, he was dead. Calmly lowering his weapon, Chris cleared the chamber, reloaded a new magazine, and engaged the threat, eliminating the remaining hostiles.

Through his actions, Chris demonstrated extreme courage and performance under incredible pressure. It is this grace under pressure, this resiliency to the surrounding environment that we can demonstrate in our own lives when our first world problems causing undue stress and frustration.

Simply take a deep breath and think about Chris and make the decision to face adversity with grace

2. Change your frame of reference

You are not at war, you don’t have enemies firing bullets and rockets over your head, and odds are you never will. In the western society, we often find it so easy to get angry at the smallest things.

When the wifi in our house isn’t as fast as we want it to be, we throw a fit, screaming and swearing at the lifeless modem. When the wait time at our favorite restaurant is longer than we want, we complain and whine about how terrible life is and how we don’t have the time for this (ignoring the four hours we wasted on netflix that afternoon).

However, as 1st world citizens, very few of us have ever experienced true adversity. Few of us will ever know true hunger, few of us will ever know true fear, and few of us will ever face anything in our entire lives that compares to a typical day in the office for guys like Chris Choay.

We need to remember this and see our issues for what they truly are.

3. Show humility

For his book, Mark interviewed Navy SEAL Chris Kyle for several hours. Chris is the most lethal sniper in U.S. history having over 150 confirmed kills (and reportedly as many as 240 total), several bronze and silver stars, and being nicknamed “The Legend” by the SEAL community.

However in all of his interview, Kyle never once mentioned any of these things. In the day of twitter and instagram, we struggle to cook a good steak without bragging about it to our entire social circle, however men of true character are humble in accomplishment and it is the exploits of men like Chris Kyle that remind us of this.

4. Push yourself beyond what you think you are capable of

The Navy SEALs are famous for what they call “hell week” which is 5 and a half days of nonstop mental and physical pain. During hell week, recruits are kept awake for nearly the entire week, receiving a maximum of four hours of sleep, they are forced to run over 200 miles, and sit in the freezing surf of the pacific ocean.

As a society, we have become used to soft living and mundane existences, therefore, whenever a challenge does present itself, we cower away from it, fearing the pain of growth.

As men, we must begin to seek challenge realizing that we are capable of far more than we could ever imagine, and that it is by doing the perceived impossible that we grow.

Dave Asprey is the host and CEO of the Bulletproof Executive podcast and brand. Dave has spent nearly decades as a Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur and has invested over $300,000 testing various bio hacks performance drugs.

Through his testing, Dave lost over 100 lbs. and raised his IQ 20 points. From his experiences Dave wrote the Bulletproof diet, which is focused on teaching normal people how to optimize their lives for top performance in all areas.

Favorite Success Quote

“The goal of life is not to accumulate power but to radiate it.”- Henry Miller

Key Points

1. Success is about what you give, not what you get.

Society has taught us to believe that success comes when we “get” something. We have been told that we have achieved success when we have that new Ferrari, the house on the beach, the beautiful women, or the multi-million dollar business. In reality, success is about what you give. Success is about what you can contribute to society and how many lives you can change with your talents and passions. True success is selfless.

2. Challenge long held beliefs and experiment for yourself.

In his early 20’s, Dave was almost 100 lbs. overweight. Dave hired a personal trainer and began following all the conventional wisdom of eating fewer calories, and training for hours a day. After months of no results, Dave decided to take his health into his own hands and figure out how to hack his biology for optimal weight loss. After he finished his experimenting he was able to lose and keep off over 100 lbs. of fat. This taught Dave that conventional wisdom is often wrong and success often requires challenging long held beliefs and experimenting for yourself.

3. Eliminate as many unnecessary decisions as possible.

Willpower is a finite resource. Filling your day with unnecessary decisions like what to wear, when to eat, or other superfluous activity leads to poorer decision making later in the day. A key to success is to automate your life as much as possible, making unimportant decisions automatic and saving your willpower for more important issues. (as a side note, one way to increase cognitive function and improve decision making is to get more fat in your diet from sources like meat and coconut oil)

4. Eliminate as many “kryptonite” foods as possible.

There are a number of mainstream foods today that do absolutely nothing to enhance performance and are extremely detrimental to your physical and mental health. Examples of these “kryptonite” foods would be gluten, soy, processed sugars, and msg. Eliminating as many of these as possible will increase health, performance and longevity.

5. Try bulletproof intermittent fasting.

One of the most effective ways to shred fat and build lean muscle is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is the principle of having a 6-8 hour feeding window followed by a 16-18 hour period of fasting. Do this in conjunction with bulletproof coffee to eliminate crankiness and food cravings and you’ll be burning off those last 15 lbs. in no time.

6. Focus on making your body do what you want it to do, not what it was designed to do.

With all the modern chemicals and toxins that infect our food and water sources there is large focus put on staying “natural.” However this approach is often unbeneficial as it leads to us forgoing supplements and activities that can enhance performance, prevent aging, and optimize our natural functions. When deciding whether or not to utilize a certain supplement, nootropic etx. focus on how it effects your body and not whether it is “natural”

7. Meditate.

A key stone habit of hundreds of successful people throughout history, mediation allows you to get in touch with and gain greater control over both your mind and body. Implementing this habit for as little as 5-10 minutes a day can bring exponential returns in the long run.

Jake Ducey is a motivational speaker, author and youth role model. At 19 Jake dropped out of college and traveled the world writing the book “Into the Wind” shortly thereafter. Jake is the youngest published personal development author with Penguin Random House.

Favorite Success Quote

“Most of us are gambling on the biggest risk of all and that is to bet that one day we will be able to buy the freedom to do what we want later in life.” – Jake Ducey

“Write it down, make it happen”- Jack Canfield

Key Points

1. It’s All Within Yourself

Jake traveled the world for six months, experiencing life in third world countries and during his travels he saw people who had absolutely nothing, yet they woke up every day with a smile on their face. It was through this experience that Jake came to the realization that everything you need is within yourself, you are enough.

You don’t need the house, the car, or the girl to make you complete as a man. Everything you need to live a full life is within you.

2. There is a difference between learning it and living it

We all know what we need to do to have success. To be financially independent, we need to save more than we spend. To be healthy, we need to eat clean and exercise more. And to have success in our dating and relationships, we need to be confident in ourselves and listen more.

Most every key to success is simple. So why are so many people broke, fat, and lonely? Because we aren’t living it! You must be willing to live out the lessons you have learned not merely read about others doing them. If you truly wish to be a success, what you need is not more information and more plans.

What you need is to start living out what you believe and become a man of action.

3. Most of our fears and anxieties aren’t real

As a society, we suffer from high rates of chronic anxiety and depression, allowing the mundane worries of our day to day grind to dictate how we live. However, the majority of our fears don’t even exist.

Our anxiety is simply a projection of what may happen at some unspecific time in the future if we fail at x, y, or z. In other words, most of our worries are bullcrap.

Even the worst thing that can happen to us is likely not half as life altering and world shattering as we may imagine. As soon as we embrace this mentality, we can begin to feel the fear and do it anyways. And that is when we begin to truly grow into the man we were meant to be.

4. The Point of a goal is who you become in the process

The purpose of any goal, be it physical, experiential, or financial is not the achievement of the goal itself, its about the man you become in the process.

When you set out to transform your body, bank account or social life, you will find that the real reward you gain is the character and integrity from doing the difficult things.

You will find that the grit and tenacity that you have developed from challenging yourself is better than any car, house, or number in a bank account. And you will find that being a man of integrity, a man who says he will achieve something and damn well does it, is the greatest reward of all.

Bo Eason is a former safety of the Houston Oilers, now, a playwright, actor, and personal development coach. In 2009 Bo produced a daily talk show called the Bo Eason Show and his stage production “Runt of the Litter” is currently being played on several stages across the nation. Bo also runs a personal development company focused on teaching individuals and companies to share their stories in a more compelling way.

Favorite Quote

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Key points

1. Talent is a myth

In the modern age, we rarely get a glimpse into the trials and obstacles that many of the “overnight successes” face. We are lead to assume that they achieved success purely from talent. We are not shown the years of hard work and effort poured into their so called “instant success.” Talent is a myth, the only way to achieve greatly is to dare greatly and work harder than every single one of your competitors.

2. Mastery is a learned skill

The very act of learning is an aquirable skill. At an early age, Bo decided that he wanted to become the best safety in pro football. Despite several obstacles, he achieved his goal and was able to apply what he learned while mastering football to his new career as an actor and playwright. Mastery is a learned skill , if you can master one thing, you can master all things, and if you can master all things then the world is yours for the taking.

3. Obstacles are inevitable if you want success

When Bo decided to become a pro football player. Every odd was against him. He was shorter and slower than the typical safety, and did not get picked for the college he hoped to play at. However, despite being a walk on at a small university, he was still drafted into the NFL, going on to become one of the best in the league.

4. Learn to love obstacles

If obstacles are inevitable to success, then we must learn to love them. Accept challenges for what they are and take pride and pleasure in the process of becoming better. Don’t see obstacles as a negative but rather view them as a way for you to sharpen yourself as a performer in whatever field you choose.

5. To gain follows you must learn to tell a good story

Bo now runs seminars and key notes teaching people how to tell a convey their story in a memorable way. He has learned that all great leaders throughout history achieved their success because they were able to tell a story, they were able to cast a vision and create a reality for people to follow. If you wish to be successful in any endeavor you must learn how to tell your story.

6. Be a warrior and not a critic

This world doesn’t need another damn critic. This world needs warriors. This world needs people who are willing to face challenges, who are willing to do the impossible, who are willing to be uncomfortable and rejected to achieve great things. You must become a warrior. Become the kind of person who laughs at adversity, who welcomes obstacles and who makes the world in your own image. Be a warrior.

Phillip and Ishmael are the duo behind the band “William Pilgrim and the all Grows up.” They are social activists focused on bringing about societal change by spreading their message through music.. Phillip and Ish are also heavily involved in programs to help at risk teens by teaching them to express their struggles through music.

Favorite Success Quote

“Don’t give up before the miracle happens” ~Flannie Flagg

“If I stay ready I won’t have to get ready” ~Will Smith

Early challenge

For several years, Ish was living on the streets, spending time with druggies and headed no where fast. After hearing “Not Afraid” on the radio Ish realized that he needed to get his life together and put an ad on Craig’s List for a day singing in the studio. Phillip responded to the ad and ”William Pilgrim and the All Grows Up” was born.

Key Points

1. “Don’t quit ten feet from gold” – Napoleon Hill

Life will always throw challenges and adversity our way right before we accomplish our goals. Things often look worst right before a breakthrough, and the temptation to quit will become almost unbearable. The key is to persevere and not give up when the struggle gets hard but to face the trials until you succeed.

2. Approach all of your goals with intensity and determination.

If you want to have high levels of success in your life, you must be willing to put forth the same effort and resolve that our forbears did during movements like the American Revolution and Civil Rights Movement. Nothing worth having ever came easy, and the only way to ensure success is to pursue your goals with a fiery drive.

3. Accept the uncertainty of life and adapt to meet it.

Fate doesn’t care about plans. Life will always present unexpected circumstances and trials and the only way we can succeed in a world of constant uncertainty is to learn how to accept whatever happens and adapt your tactics.

A mentor and advocate to business leaders and entrepreneurs, Brian Smith shows how you can find your passion and follow it to a rewarding, happy, fulfilling life. Brian Smith’s amazing story proves that you can stick to your guns, authenticity, and spiritually and still grow a wildly successful career and company.

He is a passionate innovator and entrepreneur, Brian is one of the most sought after business leaders in the country today. As a media guest and inspiring speaker, he is committed to teaching his breakthrough business strategies to entrepreneurs and translating personal vision and spirituality into the company culture.

Favorite Success Quote

“You can’t give birth to adults.” – Brian Smith

Key Points

1. You Need a Team of Believers 

If you want to create a truly successful business, then you must build a team of people who believe in you and your product.

You cannot win the game of business if you have a team of skeptics and naysayers.

And this principle is axiomatic across all areas of life.

There is no way that you will achieve any great amount of success unless you are surrounding yourself with people who believe in you, people who support you, and people who encourage you.

So take stock of your current social circle.

Are they believers?

Do they encourage your dreams and aspirations and push you to achieve more?

Or are they disbelievers?

If they fall into the latter category, then it is crucial to your success that you immediately begin pruning your circle until only the very best are left.

It is not a pleasant task, but it is necessary to achieve your goals.

2. Just Get Out there and Get Started 

No matter what goal you have, what business you want to start, or what dream you want to pursue, you need to just get out there and get started.

Just take the leap, plug your nose, and land in the cold water.

Success comes to those who hustle.

Not to those who wait.

So get off your butt, and get into the game.

Stop waiting, and start doing.

3. Do Your Research Before You Start 

While this might sound almost contradictory to the last point, you need to understand the importance of a plan.

Yes, you need to start and get yourself out there.

But you also need to have some idea of what you are getting yourself into.

Understand the market, pervasive trends, and common mishaps before you start and you will save yourself a world of trouble.

You don’t need to have everything figured out, but at least having a basic business plan mapped out is a critical first step.

4. Stick Through It 

Success is simple.

Find an idea that you love that the market needs and don’t quit.

Period.

If you don’t have the “Sticktoitness” that is required to achieve real results, then you will constantly be moving from one venture to another, getting discouraged and giving up before you have truly started.

You need to realize that success only comes to those who are willing to hustle and push themselves through the hard times.

Stick to it and make it through it.

The rewards on the other side will be worth it.

5. Your Biggest Disappointments Often Become Your Greatest Blessings

One of life’s greatest ironies is that, looking back, our biggest failures and disappointments are often our greatest blessings.

You never know when the breakup, bankrupcy, lay off, or divorce will be the catalyst that you needed to achieve your goals.

You never know when that bad thing that happened to you will give you the time, perspective, and energy to go from good to great.

You never know what doors will be opened by tragedy and loss.

Learn to accept disappointment with a smile.

It often precedes your greatest victories.

New Zealand born author, personal trainer, and life coach Mike Campbell is the author of Unleash Your Alpha: Eat like a man, Train like a Beast, Operate like a Gentleman and Become a Legend. Mike is currently living in Australia where he works coaching men on how to become the best men they can be, a real alpha. Which is, as Mike puts it, a man with equal parts heart and backbone.

Favorite Success Quote

“I build the road and the road builds me” – African Proverb

Early Challenge During the early stages of writing his book, Mike struggled to find time for all of his activities. Writing a book, coaching clients, running his company and finding time for himself and his loved ones put a large amount of strain and stress on Mike’s life. Key Points

 1. Public accountability is key to success.

Mike realized early on in his writing journey that he couldn’t do it all alone. He used accountability relationships (posting about his book on Facebook, having writing challenges with friends etc) to ensure that he made progress during trying times.

2. You need to delve into your core values to find who you are.

Most men don’t know who the hell they are. They walk around like sheep, simply following whatever is trending and fashionable. A real man, an alpha man, knows who he is and what he stands for. He does this by analyzing his values and determining what is important to him and then reverse engineering everything is his life to meet those standrards.

3. You must set behavioral goals over outcome goals.

To achieve anything of real significance in your life, you must have goals, more importantly you must have the right kind of goals. Setting behavioral goals instead of outcome goals allows you to focus on the daily journey and doing the necessary tasks moment to moment to achieve your dreams.

4. Being an alpha is about becoming the best man you can be .

Being an alpha is NOT about being the biggest, baddest, most macho guy in the room. Being alpha is about mastering your own life, it’s about competing with yourself and growing every day and it’s about doing your best to make the most of the short time you have on this planet.

Israeli born journalist, author and designer, Eran Dror has worked at various startups in NYC for nearly 10 years. Eran is the author of “The Book of Hard Truths” a book that brings into the light several hard, uncomfortable and unavoidable facts about life that we must all learn to accept. Eran has recently taken an interest in Buddhist psychology and the ways we can apply it to our own lives to live with more presence.

Favorite Success Quote

“To create anything great you have to fail early, fail fast and fail often”.  – Unknown

Early Challenge

In 2011, Eran found himself single, working for a company headed towards bankruptcy and facing eviction from the US. These challenges caused Eran to develop severe stress and anxiety over his future.

Ah-hah moment

While living over seas, facing uncertainty about his financial future, Eran came to the realization that all of his suffering had never really existed. He had food, shelter, and friends and no matter what, he would be ok. It was through this hardship that he learned that life is full of uncertainty and unavoidable obstacles, but by accepting these challenges and understanding that we cannot escape them, we can free ourselves from the majority of the worry and fear we face in our lives

Key Points

1. Memento Mori (Latin phrase meaning remember your mortality) As much as we may try and escape it, the one in changeable fact of life is that death will come for us all. However, by accepting this we are able to take full control of our lives and live our lives fully, accepting that one- day we will die.

2. “This too shall pass” ~Acredited to Abraham Lincoln. Everything in our lives will end, the good along with the bad. Nothing we face, no struggle, no challenge, no adversity, will last forever. Accepting this allows us to embrace the suck and face difficulty with courage knowing that it will eventually end.

3. All we have is now. The past no longer exists, the future is uncertain; all we have is the present. We must learn to live in the moment because right now is all that we have, if we dwell too deeply in the past or ruminate too long over the future we will miss the beauty of our lives that is the present.

Joey Klein teaches people to consciously transform their lives using the practices he developed and has used during years of study with gifted teachers from around the world. His practical approach marries the wisdom traditions of East and West with the latest scientific studies in genetics and psychology, grounding them for the modern world.

Favorite Success Quote

“I am the center of my world.” – David Rudden

Key Points

1. If You Do What Others Do You Will Get What They Have Got 

If you are living like everyone else, you are going to get the same results as everyone else.

You cannot live the 95% and expect to get results like the top 5%.

If you are serious about changing your life, then you must commit to taking radically different action from everyone else.

Don’t do what they do.

Don’t use their vocabulary.

Don’t think how they think.

Commit yourself to playing the game at a higher level and embracing the habits, mindsets, and attitudes of the best.

This is the only path to greatness in any area of your life.

2. The First Step to Success is Awareness 

The first step to becoming successful in any endeavor is becoming aware of the habits, routines, and mindsets you have that are not serving you.

Once you have awareness of where you are, where you want to be, and what it will take to get there, then and only then do you have the power to make a shift happen.

If you are serious about success, then you need to take a step back.

Figure out where you are right now.

Figure out where you want to go and what you are willing to sacrifice in order to get there.

3. Shift Out of Fear-Based States 

Your state determines your reality.

If you are living in a fear based state you will never be able to enjoy life and achieve success.

Anytime you catch yourself falling into a state of doubt, fear, discomfort, or frustration, pause.

Become aware that you are in this state, take a deep breath, relax your muscles, and let it go.

Find 5 things around you that you are grateful for.

Anything that you are grateful for, whether it is your partner, your children, or just the chair that you are sitting on.

Fear cannot exist when gratitude is present.

They are the antitheses of each other.

If you want to escape your fear based states, then get present and get grateful.

4. What Vision do You Want to Fulfill?

Whether you are religious or not, all of you should be able to appreciate wisdom, wherever it is found.

And one passage in the Bible from the book of Proverbs stands out.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish”.

Not “Where there is no vision, people don’t do great things”

No, the people perish when there is no vision.

If you want to live a life of success, happiness, and fulfillment, then you must develop a more compelling vision for yourself and your life.

What are you working towards? What is it that you want to achieve? Who do you want to become? What legacy do you want to leave?

If you don’t have a massively compelling vision driving you forward, then you will wither away and die.

You will slowly decay as you relegate all of your dreams and ambitions to the realm of “Should have” instead of living with purpose and bringing your dreams and ambitions to life.

If you don’t have a vision, you are dying.

So stop waiting for permission to create a better life for yourself and decide right now what you want.

5. You Are Where You are Supposed to Be 

In this very moment, you are where you are supposed to be.

Every action, every misstep and every mistake that you have made up until this point has brought you to this moment and you are exactly where you need to be.

Don’t wish that things were different.

Don’t wish that you could change the past.

Everything that has happened to you has also happened for you and you must realize that everything in your life, whether positive or negative, has a purpose.