Knowledge For Men

Mike Dillard is an entrepreneur in Austin Texas. He built his first million-dollar business by the age of 27, teaching small business owners how to effectively market their products and services online using “attraction-marketing” strategies.

In 2010 he founded a financial education company in order to teach others how to achieve financial freedom through investment strategies commonly reserved for the wealthy.

Combined, his businesses have produced more than $50 Million in revenue without outside funding.

Today Mike dedicates his time to mentoring other entrepreneurs and developing technologies in the aeroponics industry that will give people around the world access to clean, healthy, organic food at a fraction of today’s current prices.

He spends his free time pursuing his passion for auto racing, competing in the Baja 1000, Mint 400, and SCCA.

“Never never stop”

1. Success Comes from You

One of the fallacies that many wantrepreneurs make is that they think success will come from outside of them.

They think that if they find the right vehicle they will be successful but they never realize that the vehicle doesn’t matter if the driver sucks.

You have to invest in yourself before you will ever see success in business. You have to master skill sets, understand your personality and how you function, and constantly educate yourself if you ever wish to be successful.

2. You Cannot Use Your Personality Type as an Excuse

Often times in business, entrepreneurs will use their personality type as a crutch.

They say things like “How can I get good at sales if I am an introvert” or “My personality just doesn’t let me focus on one thing” or a whole host of other b.s. excuses.

If you want to succeed in entrepreneurship then wake up and realize that your personality type may be an obstacle but it is never a death sentence.

3. Making Money is Only the First Part of Wealth

Many people believe that once you make money you are set. But the truth is that making money is only the first part of the equation for wealth.

If you want to be wealthy you have to learn how to make, keep, and grow your income.

If you earn $1,000,000 a year but spend $1,250,000 then you are not wealthy, you are broke as a joke.

The things that make so many entrepreneurs great at making money, being comfortable with risks, quick decision making, and a “go big or go home” attitude is also what makes it very difficult for entrepreneurs to keep and grow their money.

To grow true wealth, you must temper yourself and learn to exercise the discipline necessary to make smart investment decisions that are not sexy, do not require a lot of risk, and are often base hits instead of home runs.

Entrepreneurship makes terrible financial decision

4. If You Want to be Respected Have Integrity

This applies to all areas of life, not just business.

If you want people to respect you, then be a man of your word, say what you mean and stop lying. Be real and honest with people, don’t b.s. them because you are hoping for positive feedback.

Your word is how you are measured as a man, make sure that people see you as a man of integrity.

5. Build Your Life One Brick at a Time

Success in entrepreneurship rarely comes in fast spurts. It comes through building your business one brick at a time, a few bricks a day.

When you wake up each day, focus on 3-5 things that you need to accomplish that will grow your business. After several years of this daily ritual, you will be successful.

Like Charlie Monger said

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts…. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day–if you live long enough–most people get what they deserve.”

Mike Fitch is an innovative fitness educator focused on bodyweight training, skills-based practices, and multi-planar, fluid movement. As the president of Global Bodyweight Training, he has developed multiple programs (including Animal Flow) that celebrate movement.

All of his work embraces the philosophy that anybody can excel at bodyweight training and advanced skills building with practice and proper progressions. With 18 years' experience in the fitness industry, Mike has used and taught a range of styles from Olympic lifts and kettle bells to sports-specific and Speed-Agility-Quickness training.

"You must suffer through the structure in order to conquer the chaos"

1. You Have to Put in the Time

No matter what you want to accomplish in life, you have to put in the time.

Mastery takes time, it takes patience, and it takes an intentional practice that pushes your limits each day. You cannot expect to see world class results unless you are putting in world class time and effort.

2. When You Hit a Plateau Take a Step Back

So often, on our paths to mastery, we get stuck in a rut. Maybe, for you, your business has made the same amount for 6 months straight, your dating life has been mundane, or you have been doing the same workout for weeks without seeing any strength or muscle gains.

When this happens… Just take a step back.

While there are a number of things you can do to improve your practice to help break through plateaus, the first thing you need to realize is that there is no rush.

You have the rest of your life ahead of you and there is no reason to get impatient with your goals. Take the plateaus as the come and keep moving forward.

3. You Have to Learn to Move

We live such sedentary and immobile lifestyles that most of us have forgotten how to move. We are riddled with aches and pains, joint problems and inflamed discs and such a long laundry list of other health issues that we could write an entire encyclopedia.

The solution to almost all of this, as counter intuitive as it may seem, is to start moving.

Not just lifting weights or running, but reconnecting with your primal side and moving like an animal, down on the ground, with all of your joints firing.

Whether this is through animal flow or yoga, getting back into your body and re-learning how to move will improve your overall health in ways that you could not imagine.

4. The Goal is to Develop a Balanced Body

The purpose of all physical training, whether it is with weights or just your body weight, should be to develop a balanced athletic body.

Who cares if you can deadlift 600 lbs. if you cannot touch your toes? Who cares how flexible you are if you cannot move weight around without snapping like a stick?

You have to build a balanced physique that will allow you to take full advantage of this wonderful gift called life.

5. Take Your Rest as Seriously as You Take Your Training

If you really want to succeed with your training, start taking your rest as seriously as you take your time in the gym.

Get on a sleep schedule, cut out the electronics, don't eat more than three hours before bed, turn the temperature down, and black out your room.

The better your sleep is, the better you will perform in the gym and in life.

Mike Fitch is an innovative fitness educator focused on bodyweight training, skills-based practices, and multi-planar, fluid movement. As the president of Global Bodyweight Training, he has developed multiple programs (including Animal Flow) that celebrate movement.

All of his work embraces the philosophy that anybody can excel at bodyweight training and advanced skills building with practice and proper progressions. With 18 years’ experience in the fitness industry, Mike has used and taught a range of styles from Olympic lifts and kettle bells to sports-specific and Speed-Agility-Quickness training.

“You must suffer through the structure in order to conquer the chaos”

1. You Have to Put in the Time

No matter what you want to accomplish in life, you have to put in the time.

Mastery takes time, it takes patience, and it takes an intentional practice that pushes your limits each day. You cannot expect to see world class results unless you are putting in world class time and effort.

2. When You Hit a Plateau Take a Step Back 

So often, on our paths to mastery, we get stuck in a rut. Maybe, for you, your business has made the same amount for 6 months straight, your dating life has been mundane, or you have been doing the same workout for weeks without seeing any strength or muscle gains.

When this happens… Just take a step back.

While there are a number of things you can do to improve your practice to help break through plateaus, the first thing you need to realize is that there is no rush.

You have the rest of your life ahead of you and there is no reason to get impatient with your goals. Take the plateaus as the come and keep moving forward.

3.  You Have to Learn to Move 

We live such sedentary and immobile lifestyles that most of us have forgotten how to move. We are riddled with aches and pains, joint problems and inflamed discs and such a long laundry list of other health issues that we could write an entire encyclopedia.

The solution to almost all of this, as counter intuitive as it may seem, is to start moving.

Not just lifting weights or running, but reconnecting with your primal side and moving like an animal, down on the ground, with all of your joints firing.

Whether this is through animal flow or yoga, getting back into your body and re-learning how to move will improve your overall health in ways that you could not imagine.

4. The Goal is to Develop a  Balanced Body 

The purpose of all physical training, whether it is with weights or just your body weight, should be to develop a balanced athletic body.

Who cares if you can deadlift 600 lbs. if you cannot touch your toes? Who cares how flexible you are if you cannot move weight around without snapping like a stick?

You have to build a balanced physique that will allow you to take full advantage of this wonderful gift called life.

5. Take Your Rest as Seriously as You Take Your Training

If you really want to succeed with your training, start taking your rest as seriously as you take your time in the gym.

Get on a sleep schedule, cut out the electronics, don’t eat more than three hours before bed, turn the temperature down, and black out your room.

The better your sleep is, the better you will perform in the gym and in life.

Kim Coates is a Canadian-American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American films and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and in the lead role of Macbeth performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He also starred as Alexander "Tig" Trager in the FX series Sons of Anarchy.

1. Follow Your Bliss

Life is too short to live every day doing things that you dislike. If you love something, do it, end of story.

If you want to be an actor, act. If you want to be a musician, play music. If you want to start a business, do it! Don't let anyone or anything hold you back from pursuing what you love.

Follow your bliss, and the rest will fall into place.

2. Be Willing to Wait Until You Are Ready

Once you have committed to a path, whether it is business, acting, athletics etc. be willing to wait until you are ready to take the big leap.

For Kim, he continued to master his craft of acting on stage for 8 years before he took the leap into television.

For you, it may mean working an apprenticeship for a few years before you start your business, it may mean playing local gigs with your band for a few years before you quit your job and try touring.

Don't rush things. Excellence takes time.

3. Failure is Not an Option

Success is simple, you simply have to remove the possibility of failure from your mind. When failure is no longer an option, success is inevitable. Once you have started following your bliss and prepared yourself for the leap, it is time to burn your boats and leave yourself no choice but to succeed.

Whether that is moving to a new city, quitting your job, or investing all of your dispensable cash into a business, when you give yourself no way out, you will succeed.

4. Keep Your Head on Straight

Once you start to see success, it is easy to let it go to your head. You have to be diligent in making sure that you keep your head on straight. Stay away from the masses living the rock star lifestyle who will end up ruining their career within a few short years.

If you want longevity in whatever path you select, you have to continually grow and avoid things that are detrimental to your public image and success.

5. A Real Man Listens More and Talks Less

You were given two ears and one mouth for a reason, use them in that proportion.

Kim Coates is a Canadian-American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American films and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and in the lead role of Macbeth performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He also starred as Alexander “Tig” Trager in the FX series Sons of Anarchy.

1. Follow Your Bliss

Life is too short to live every day doing things that you dislike. If you love something, do it, end of story.

If you want to be an actor, act. If you want to be a musician, play music. If you want to start a business, do it! Don’t let anyone or anything hold you back from pursuing what you love.

Follow your bliss, and the rest will fall into place.

2. Be Willing to Wait Until You Are Ready

Once you have committed to a path, whether it is business, acting, athletics etc. be willing to wait until you are ready to take the big leap.

For Kim, he continued to master his craft of acting on stage for 8 years before he took the leap into television.

For you, it may mean working an apprenticeship for a few years before you start your business, it may mean playing local gigs with your band for a few years before you quit your job and try touring.

Don’t rush things. Excellence takes time.

3. Failure is Not an Option

Success is simple, you simply have to remove the possibility of failure from your mind. When failure is no longer an option, success is inevitable. Once you have started following your bliss and prepared yourself for the leap, it is time to burn your boats and leave yourself no choice but to succeed.

Whether that is moving to a new city, quitting your job, or investing all of your dispensable cash into a business, when you give yourself no way out, you will succeed.

4. Keep Your Head on Straight

Once you start to see success, it is easy to let it go to your head. You have to be diligent in making sure that you keep your head on straight. Stay away from the masses living the rock star lifestyle who will end up ruining their career within a few short years.

If you want longevity in whatever path you select, you have to continually grow and avoid things that are detrimental to your public image and success.

5. A Real Man Listens More and Talks Less 

You were given two ears and one mouth for a reason, use them in that proportion.

Dean Niewolny spent 23 years in executive roles with three of Wall Street's largest financial firms, finishing his career in the financial sector as the market manager for Wells Fargo Advisors in Chicago, where he oversaw a $100mm market.

While in Chicago, he and his wife, Lisa, traveled many times to Africa and, seeing the abject needs of widows and orphans, made life changes that enabled them to get involved, such as helping to complete an orphan home and a Hospice home in Durbin, South Africa.

In 2010, Dean traded his marketplace career for Halftime to help more people who, like him, wanted to expand their own "first half" success and skills into passion and purpose for meeting human needs and making a significant difference. Dean joined Halftime as managing director and in 2011 became chief executive officer. He speaks at events around the world, encouraging business leaders to channel

Dean joined Halftime as managing director and in 2011 became chief executive officer. He speaks at events around the world, encouraging business leaders to channel their first-half achievements into a second half defined by joy, impact, and balance.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do." ~Ephesians 2:1

1. The Pursuit of Money is Empty

So many of us as men tie our identity to the number of 0's in our checking account. We think that out worth as a man is determined by how much money we earn and the number of toys that we have without ever realizing that the sole pursuit of money is empty.

Yes, money is important and allows us to have a bigger impact on the world, but pursuing money just for the sake of having more money and bigger and better things is a pursuit that will leave you empty and full of regret for a life lived in vain.

2. Life is About What You Can Give Not What You Get

The true joy of life is in giving back, it's in making an impact and helping other people to become all that they can be. If you want to live a full life, a good life, and a life that has true meaning, then you must focus on what you are giving, not what you are getting.

3. You Don't Need to Leave Your Job to Make an Impact

Many people seem to think that the only way to have true significance is to leave their job and start a nonprofit in the deep Sahara. But the truth of the matter is that you can start having a real impact by just focusing on your local community.

Start a local club for young boys who don't have fathers and give them a strong male role model, build a park for the inner city, mentor someone who you believe has real potential.

You don't have to be drastic to make an important difference, start small and you will be amazed where it takes you.

4. Aim for Success and Significance

Something that many millennials are realizing is that success and significance are not either-or situations, you can have both-and. They are realizing that they can have the 7-figure business, and use that business to enjoy the finer things in life while still changing communities and individuals on a global scale.

They are realizing that they can actually make a money from making a difference, solving real problems and training up the next generation of leaders and world changers while making a profit is something that is completely doable.

Do not settle for one or the other, pursue both.

5. You Have to Operate from Passion and Strength

If you want to make a real difference in the world, then you have to operate from passion and strength. If you are doing something that you do not enjoy and you are no good at, you will never make a difference in your life or the life of anybody else.

You have to find things that make you come alive, and then find a niche where you can become one of the best. This is the only way that you will be able to make a lasting impact on the world.

Dean Niewolny spent 23 years in executive roles with three of Wall Street’s largest financial firms, finishing his career in the financial sector as the market manager for Wells Fargo Advisors in Chicago, where he oversaw a $100mm market.

While in Chicago, he and his wife, Lisa, traveled many times to Africa and, seeing the abject needs of widows and orphans, made life changes that enabled them to get involved, such as helping to complete an orphan home and a Hospice home in Durbin, South Africa.

In 2010, Dean traded his marketplace career for Halftime to help more people who, like him, wanted to expand their own “first half” success and skills into passion and purpose for meeting human needs and making a significant difference. Dean joined Halftime as managing director and in 2011 became chief executive officer. He speaks at events around the world, encouraging business leaders to channel

Dean joined Halftime as managing director and in 2011 became chief executive officer. He speaks at events around the world, encouraging business leaders to channel their first-half achievements into a second half defined by joy, impact, and balance.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ~Ephesians 2:1

1. The Pursuit of Money is Empty

So many of us as men tie our identity to the number of 0’s in our checking account. We think that out worth as  a man is determined by how much money we earn and the number of toys that we have without ever realizing that the sole pursuit of money is empty.

Yes, money is important and allows us to have a bigger impact on the world, but pursuing money just for the sake of having more money and bigger and better things is a pursuit that will leave you empty and full of regret for a life lived in vain.

2. Life is About What You Can Give Not What You Get 

The true joy of life is in giving back, it’s in making an impact and helping other people to become all that they can be. If you want to live a full life, a good life, and a life that has true meaning, then you must focus on what you are giving, not what you are getting.

3. You Don’t Need to Leave Your Job to Make an Impact

Many people seem to think that the only way to have true significance is to leave their job and start a nonprofit in the deep Sahara. But the truth of the matter is that you can start having a real impact by just focusing on your local community.

Start a local club for young boys who don’t have fathers and give them a strong male role model, build a park for the inner city, mentor someone who you believe has real potential.

You don’t have to be drastic to make an important difference, start small and you will be amazed where it takes you.

4.  Aim for Success and Significance

Something that many millennials are realizing is that success and significance are not either-or situations, you can have both-and. They are realizing that they can have the 7-figure business, and use that business to enjoy the finer things in life while still changing communities and individuals on a global scale.

They are realizing that they can actually make a money from making a difference, solving real problems and training up the next generation of leaders and world changers while making a profit is something that is completely doable.

Do not settle for one or the other, pursue both.

5. You Have to Operate from Passion and Strength 

If you want to make a real difference in the world, then you have to operate from passion and strength. If you are doing something that you do not enjoy and you are no good at, you will never make a difference in your life or the life of anybody else.

You have to find things that make you come alive, and then find a niche where you can become one of the best. This is the only way that you will be able to make a lasting impact on the world.

Tucker Max received his BA from the University of Chicago in 1998, and his JD from Duke Law School in 2001. He even attended Duke Law School on an academic scholarship, where he neglected to buy any of his textbooks for his final two years and spent part of one semester–while still enrolled in classes–living in Cancun.

His first book, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, is a #1 New York Times Best Seller, spent five years on the list, and has over 2 million copies in print. His second book, Assholes Finish First, and his third book,Hilarity Ensues, are also NY Times Best Sellers.

He co-wrote and produced the movie based on his life/book, also titled "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell." He has also been credited with being the originator and leader of a new literary genre, "fratire," is only the third writer (after Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis) to ever have three books on the NY Times Nonfiction Best Seller List at one time, and was nominated to the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential List in 2009. He currently lives in Austin, Texas.

"Every day write down one example of you working your process and one example of how you are making your life about other people"

1. Life is Not Complicated but it is Difficult

Many people like to make life seem more complicated than it really is. In reality, life is simple, but it is hard as hell and it boils down to two things:

-The relationships you have with the people that you love

-The work you do

If you can master the relationships in your life and you can do work every day that you find personally fulfilling, allows you to have freedom, and adds value to others, than you are about as successful as they come.

2. The Best Way to Make Money is to Help People

If you want to be rich, then you have to help a lot of people. Making money is all about the art of problem solving and helping others improve their lives in a way that they cannot wait to pay you.

Everyone is in pain and everyone is struggling with something in their lives, no matter how rich, good looking, or successful they are, and if you can find that thing and offer them a solution that genuinely works, you will be able to make more money than you ever imagined.

3. Achieving External Success Alone is Unfulfilling

In the interview Tucker talked about how he had all of the external trappings of success. Millions of dollars in income, meet and sleeping with countless beautiful women, a healthy body, and a great career, but still found it ultimately unfulfilling, because he had not done the work on himself.

No matter how much you achieve in your life, if you do not work on yourself and if you do not take care of your emotions and inner world, no amount of outward success will leave you fulfilled.

4. Knowing Is Not Enough

If everyone in the world acted on what they knew, we would live in a society where everyone was happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Think about it…

Everyone knows that to be healthy you should move more and eat less. Everyone knows to be wealthy you should work hard and smart, and spend less than you make. Everyone knows to be wise you should read more and be around smarter people.

So why the hell don't people do this?

They have an action problem, not a knowledge problem. If you want to succeed in life, you have to take the action, knowing is not half of the battle, it's about 10% and massive effing action is the other 90%.

5. You Make Your Own Purpose

Many people have been sold a lie that they have to go on this mystical journey to find their purpose. That if they go and meditate in a dark cave a ball of light will come down from the heavens to reveal to them what they need to do.

This is pure bullshit.

If you are struggling to find a purpose it is because you don't find a purpose you make one!

Pick something that you enjoy and are good at that will allow you to maximize your relationships with the people you love and serve the world, and you have successfully found a purpose worth living for.

Like we said earlier, this is quite simple, but not easy.

But it is also worth it.

Tucker Max received his BA from the University of Chicago in 1998, and his JD from Duke Law School in 2001. He even attended Duke Law School on an academic scholarship, where he neglected to buy any of his textbooks for his final two years and spent part of one semester–while still enrolled in classes–living in Cancun.

His first book, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, is a #1 New York Times Best Seller, spent five years on the list, and has over 2 million copies in print. His second book, Assholes Finish First, and his third book,Hilarity Ensues, are also NY Times Best Sellers.

He co-wrote and produced the movie based on his life/book, also titled “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell.” He has also been credited with being the originator and leader of a new literary genre, “fratire,” is only the third writer (after Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis) to ever have three books on the NY Times Nonfiction Best Seller List at one time, and was nominated to the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential List in 2009. He currently lives in Austin, Texas.

“Every day write down one example of you working your process and one example of how you are making your life about other people”

1. Life is Not Complicated but it is Difficult

Many people like to make life seem more complicated than it really is. In reality, life is simple, but it is hard as hell and it boils down to two things:

-The relationships you have with the people that you love

-The work you do

If you can master the relationships in your life and you can do work every day that you find personally fulfilling, allows you to have freedom, and adds value to others, than you are about as successful as they come.

2. The Best Way to Make Money is to Help People

If you want to be rich, then you have to help a lot of people. Making money is all about the art of problem solving and helping others improve their lives in a way that they cannot wait to pay you.

Everyone is in pain and everyone is struggling with something in their lives, no matter how rich, good looking, or successful they are, and if you can find that thing and offer them a solution that genuinely works, you will be able to make more money than you ever imagined.

3. Achieving External Success Alone is Unfulfilling 

In the interview Tucker talked about how he had all of the external trappings of success. Millions of dollars in income, meet and sleeping with countless beautiful women, a healthy body, and a great career, but still found it ultimately unfulfilling, because he had not done the work on himself.

No matter how much you achieve in your life, if you do not work on yourself and if you do not take care of your emotions and inner world, no amount of outward success will leave you fulfilled.

4. Knowing Is Not Enough 

If everyone in the world acted on what they knew, we would live in a society where everyone was happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Think about it…

Everyone knows that to be healthy you should move more and eat less. Everyone knows to be wealthy you should work hard and smart, and spend less than you make. Everyone knows to be wise you should read more and be around smarter people.

So why the hell don’t people do this?

They have an action problem, not a knowledge problem. If you want to succeed in life, you have to take the action, knowing is not half of the battle, it’s about 10% and massive effing action is the other 90%.

5. You Make Your Own Purpose 

Many people have been sold a lie that they have to go on this mystical journey to find their purpose. That if they go and meditate in a dark cave a ball of light will come down from the heavens to reveal to them what they need to do.

This is pure bullshit.

If you are struggling to find a purpose it is because you don’t find a purpose you make one!

Pick something that you enjoy and are good at that will allow you to maximize your relationships with the people you love and serve the world, and you have successfully found a purpose worth living for.

Like we said earlier, this is quite simple, but not easy.

But it is also worth it.

Babette Hughes, did not start writing until her 80's and has now become a prolific author of books like The Red Scar, The Hat and Lost and Found, and co-author of Why College Students Fail.

Now 93, she writes every day with a fluidity and grace of a woman half her age; her most recent novel is Searching For Vivian. Her earned wisdom has enriched her contributions to the Huffington Post.

"When you accept the events that happen to you, you accept life, and when you accept life, life accepts you"

1. Stop Worrying About the Pressures of Society

As a man, society places tremendous pressure on you to live up to the standards it has unrealistically set.

If you don't drive the fastest car, own the biggest house, have the biggest paycheck, lift the most weight, be the most masculine and classically manly man yet also be the most sensitive and kind hearted lover that you can be then you have failed tremendously.

Men, just stop!

Live your life, love your life and be there for the people who really matter. You will not be on your death bed wishing you had made more money or owned a bigger house, you will wish that you had spent more time doing things you love with people you love.

Life is too darn short to be unhappy.

2. Don't Fear Failure, Embrace It

Mistakes are often looked at as a failure, something that you cannot recover from and something that will permanently tarnish your name.

This isn't true.

Mistakes and failures are how you learn and how you grow into the man you need to be. They teach you valuable lessons about what is truly important and about the kind of person you should aspire to be.

Use failures, don't regret them.

3. Life Takes Time

When you are young, you always want to move faster than necessary and try and get to the next checkpoint in life.

You want to become the man you dream of over night. But life takes time.

And that's the way that it should be. Enjoy the journey and don't rush it.