What Your Global Neighbours are Spending On

When you make some extra $, what do you spend it on? Are you hunting for the latest D&G and Gucci wallets and purses, or looking for the next bargain deal on a 42″ LCD HDTV? (or like me, diligently save it up… NOT)

We often think how we spend money is the same as how others spend money. What we don’t realise is that there is a discrepancy with how people spend their discretionary income - that is, the cash on the various stuff they buy, depending on where they habitate. Hmm I’m not sure if that’s a word. Where is their habitat. Shabitat. Whatever.

It appears that The New York Times has discovered that much of that decision depends on where you live.

Take a look at this most awesomely interesting global map, which reveals what your neighbours are spending, how much they are buying, and on what. If your like clothing, electronics, alcohol, household goods and recreation, check it out. It’s all displayed in an interactive relationship mode (below).

Click above to view map (NYT)

The Global discrepancy in spending and an explanation from a NY retail analyst

It appears that if you live in Greece, Egypt, or Italy, you’ll most likely spend more on clothing over technology. The Greeks spend almost 13x more $$ on clothes than they do with electronics. I assume it’s because the lucky bastards sweat so much in the sun. A change of clothes keeps ‘em fresh.

It is also interesting that the Japanese spend more on recreation than on clothes, electronics and household goods combined, considering that they are like tech and fashion capital of the world.

What about the Americans?

Well, they seem to spend alot of money on everything…

“Italians and other Europeans love fashion; the greatest designs in the world come from those regions,” said Todd D. Slater, a retail analyst for Lazard Capital Markets in New York, according to this NYT article.

Here in the UK, the British do seem to spend a bit of money on alcohol. No surprise there. We gotta find our way through the coming dark gloomy winter nights.

And no I’m not an alcoholic. At least not in the summer.

If you were down under in Australia, a laptop or TV seems to entertain more. Australians spend only 1.4 times more cash on clothes than they do on consumer electronics.

“Some areas in the Pacific Basin are technologically savvy, and clothing is very casual,” Mr. Slater said. “In Australia, what else do you need besides a bathing suit and a pair of Uggs?”

The benefits of being in the middle of nowhere I suppose…

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You gotta check out this video, which Frank Kern sent me today. It’s pretty hilarious!!

I wonder who is going to win the upcoming US election?

I’ve personally got a bit of $ on Obama, but it’s looking pretty tight right now, with Palin taking the US women and republican party by storm.

A friend said that either way, the US economy is still looking at a post election recession…

I haven’t had much time on my hands to post on the blog lately, in between travelling and working pretty hard… but do have some vid clips of me surfing in sunny California (at least attempting to) that I’ll be sticking up soon.

Anyway hope you enjoy the video… look out for the special guest at the end!

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This is a great video on life that a friend shared with me today. I highly recommend watching it. It’s called ‘Wear Sunscreen’. The original video was by Baz Luhrmann (director of Moulin Rouge).
The video based on an essay written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997.

If you like it, do stumbleupon it below, and do share this with your friends!

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So in my previous post on The Bucket List, I was talking about how the movie inspired me so much, I started to write a list of things I always wanted to do but never got around to doing yet.

I was composing a list for my own bucket list, but without realising it, I have actually already got a bucket list which I’ve kept over the years!

I found a simple text document on my PC, which I started back in 1999, when I was only 16.

I think it was teenage angst more than anything else, and it started off more as a mission statement.

The first item on the list was ‘to kiss a girl’.

It had a bunch of other pretty funny items, but I could sort of see that it was kind of a bucket list.

I’ve kind of looked at it at least once a year and crossed off items, added new items, etc. recently I haven’t really looked at it, but now that I’ve discovered it again, I’m going to keep this and add to it.

Some of the items on the list are hilarious in hindsight.

MY OLD BUCKET LIST (CROSSED OFF NOW)

A few items I’ve now crossed off include:

• Meditate as a student monk in the sacred temples of Burma
• Move to Europe (unfortunately picked the wrong country)
• Kiss a hot girl (and date a bunch)
  
• Start a new business from scratch
  
• Travel to at least 10 European countires (with all expenses paid for)
• Shoot an AK-47 on a firing range
  
• Go snorkelling in the Carribean
• Quit my day job

Reading over that list, most of the items are no where as fun and crazy as my new bucket list.

But I only have myself to show for. The main thing is that I did manage to achieve and cross them off my list in the end.

And that brings things sort of to the present, where my new bucket list commences.

MY NEW (CURRENT) BUCKET LIST

It’s still a bit of a draft, and I’ve limited to sharing the top 10 items of my Bucket List which I hope to cross off before I die:

1. BUY A BOAT AND LIVE ON IT

…first I will have to save up enough money… but I’ve always wanted to travel around the world on a sailboat.

And the sailboat above is not just a stock pic. I actually saw this sailboat above recently. I certainly probably won’t be able to travel the world on it, but I could possibly do Europe.

Living on a sailboat would be a total lifestyle change. I’ve already semi escaped from the daily grind and never ending bureaucracy of everyday living.

The next step is having more freedom of location and mobility to take my home with me. I know I would enjoy it.

On the other hand, there are obviously concerns, such as: How would my girlfriend feel about living on a boat, and would she do it with me? Would I get used to the small confined spaces? How long would it take to train in maintenence and management? Would it be a depreciating asset relative to property?

But in view of the economic situation, it may indeed be a good time to consider this, and just move to the Amalfi coast or dock somewhere in France or Spain and steal wine and cheese and , and save the rising costs of expenses in the UK.

2. SELLING ALL MY STUFF (OR JUST GIVING IT ALL AWAY)

I have too much stuff. Period.

Going along with point 1, I want to start afresh. If I were to move to a tiny boat, all my crap has gotta go.

This will probably include some stuff of lots of sentimental value. But tough. That’s part of it. So much junk has just collected over the years, and it’s sapping on my mental energy and headspace.

But I’m also too lazy to list every single one on eBay or Gumtree. I also don’t want to make a loss. Which makes this rather tricky. I could outsource this to my VA, but would she do a good job? I have no idea.

But clearing my physical space would not only give me more freedom, but it would also clear my emotional and mental space.

The goal is to be compacted down to the bare essentials. 2 suitcases and a backpack max.

This probably should go up to my number 1, in order for me to free my location so that I can do all these things in my list. Then again, having a ‘home’ to get back to (whether it be the sailboat or not) is a good idea.

3. SKYDIVING

Statistically speaking, skydiving is supposedly safer than scuba diving or walking around London at night these days being stabbed to death. But the idea of jumping out of a plane at 15k feet followed by falling at over 120+ miles per hour towards the earth knowing it could possibly be your last… I’ve still not gotten my head around this.

But now that I’ve written it down…

4. SEMI-RETIRE TO A WARMER COUNTRY FOR NO LESS THAN 6 MONTHS

Argentina, Panama, California, Australia, or New Zealand. All places I’ve considered.

And I’ve just booked flights out to Cali for next week, so we’ll see how I like it now

Aiming to do this within the next year.

5. FLY IN A FIGHTER JET

Nuff said.

6. GO ON SAFARI, AFRICA

And hope that a leopard won’t hunt us down, while watching nature’s magnificent beasts roaming in the wild. So a trip out to Pilanesberg National Park is definitely on the books.

7. SWIM WITH DOLPHINS

Diving with sharks is also certainly going to be a thrill, but I’ll
save that for when I really don’t care whether I live or die. At the
moment, it doesn’t exactly give me pleasure to think about that

Swimming with Dolphins however… that’s something I’ve wanted to do since a kid. Then again, I heard dolphins can be dangerous.

8. CLIMB THE GREAT PYRAMID, EGYPT

The movie inspired me to check this out, and to follow in the footsteps of King Khufu, travel back in time to 2720-2560 BC and marvel at the engineering masterpiece of one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

I’m not sure if I’ll make it all the way up the 482 feet climb… there’s always the 345 feet passage down to the subterranean chambers…

9. ATTEND (OR BETTER, SPEAK AT) A TED CONFERENCE

I’m a big fan of TED.

It’s now one of my life’s goals to eventually at least get invited to attend TED. Or even better, get to speak at one. Whatever I will talk about.

10. GO INTO SPACE AND DOCK WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

If anyone wants to spare an extra change of $20 million so that I can do this, feel free.

Otherwise I’ll just settle for watching it on HDTV…

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The Bucket List

I finally watched The Bucket List today, and it made me cry.

The bucket list is a comedy/drama written by Justin Zackham and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars some of my favorite actors including Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

I watched it after recently seeing that it was one of the few Top Ten Films of the Year rated by the National Board of Review that I have not yet seen.

The story follows two terminally ill men (Nicholson and Freeman) on a road trip with a wish list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.”

Hence, ‘The Bucket List’, which is a list of things you want to do before you die.

I shall not say more in case you haven’t seen the movie yet so that I don’t spoil it. It was pretty emotional as a movie, but it also inspired me to start my own Bucket List.

Living in The Now

I’ve always been a big believer of living in the moment. If you haven’t read Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, I highly recommend you check it out.

Most of us suspend our lives making plans to live in the future, or to do things only when we retire, or after we get more financially secure or climb the career ladder. And out of fear of death or other fears, we hold back from doing things we have always dreamt of doing.

And guess what? Most of the time, we will never get around to doing the things we really want to do.

The only way to break this pattern is either to do it right here, right now, or in the near future.

Of course, that’s not always possible. The alternative would be to make your Bucket List, and to persistently check each and every item off it.

What a Bucket List should be

Here is my personal opinion on what a Bucket List should be:

• A list of things that you really want to do, maybe even just once
• Realistic things to do, but stretch your imagination
• They should not be things you can do in your daily regular life basis
• They should not be a a list of things to impress anyone else or to show off
• They should not be a list of unachievables

That means, there may be things you’ve already done, but not recorded on paper.

In which case, that’s a great start for your bucket list. Start writing those things down and cross them off!

Note: there’s obviously a fine line between blowing all your money in a day without any planning for the future, and in making the most of the present and in conquering your fears and pushing your comfort zone. I’m referring mostly to the latter.

More to come on my list. And feel free to share yours if you have one too.

If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out. And if you have, do share your thoughts!

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I haven’t written much in over a week. Part of that is because I’ve been so busy in between 2 different jobs and an online venture I’m working on with my friend Alex, but also because I’ve had a bit more of an unexpectedly busy weekend on the wards. More on that later.

The bigger reason is because I’ve been thinking alot about what I should blog about and where I want to take this.

I was talking to my friend Tynan who runs a pretty successful blog, and he suggested that having a bit more focus is a good idea. The problem is, what should I focus on? I could write a medical related blog, a marketing related blog, or hell, even a blog on dating advice. But I’m a bit stuck.

There are essentially 2 ways you can apparently go with a blog - either a personal blog where things are written from a first person perspective on their trials and tribulations (aka Tucker Max) or to go topical, which is what authors and others often do (aka Lifehacker, Steve Pavlina, Tim Ferriss, etc).

Now to start with, I think the blog was going to be a personal thing. In fact, I only started the blog as a way to keep my mom posted.

But when I saw the traffic spike from articles like The Warren Buffett and Michael Phelps, which I initially really wrote for myself, it took the site from under 50 views a day to literally over 10,000 overnight and increased my Twitter followers to 3 fold, I thought ‘I guess topical blogging is the way to go’.

But I am going to try an experiment. For the next few weeks, I’m going to add some blog entries about… *drumroll* ME. Just as an experiment.

Worse comes to worse, if I find those posts to be less popular, then I’ll shut down the blog. On the other hand, I feel more genuine and at one to write about my adventures, trials and tribulations than feeling like it’s turning into another Tim Ferriss, Lifehacker, or Steve Pavlina blog, just because I like to read them. Writing about Warren Buffett and Phelps is motivating but I feel like I’m doing more research than writing.

Going down the personal journal blogging route also would kind of kill 2 birds with one stone, and save me from keeping a separate journal. But obviously it’s stretching my comfort zone to be extroverted enough to write about my life.

Anyway gotta run, but would love any opinions/thoughts on this.

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I haven’t posted in a few days, because I’ve been so busy with work (another post for that). But since writing the Phelps article, I’ve had a couple of interesting emails and links sent my way about the ‘Phelps Diet’, and I’ve been sort of doing some research over the past week.

There’s also been an increasing trend this week for people googling for Michael Phelps and his Diet Regime. The question people are asking is: how does he get a body like his, get so fit, and what is his diet like?

In terms of getting fit, that’s a pretty simple answer. He EXERCISES. Period. Most people want a quick magic pill, including me, but the more I have lived, the more I realise there’s no such a thing.

In the previous Michael Phelps 5 Success Secrets article, I shared some of the mindsets that allow people to reach their goals, whether it be fitness or career or whatever. I think those principles are pretty universal.

This article is going to be focused on diet - more so the contrast between the Olympian Diet and the average persons, and my parting thoughts on caloric restriction and life span extension.

To start with, I should let you know that Phelp’s diet is insane. At least for a normal person. Here’s why: Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day.

12,000 calories a day. 5,000 calories in me would probably burst me (or you), but bear in mind that Phelp’s is not just a regular guy that just swims now and then. He’s an Olympian that’s in the pool 10+ hours a day (read Part 1 of the post for his success secrets)

But more than the calorie intake that is surprising, is what he eats.

What Michael Phelps Eats

Phelps eats a crap load of carbs (mostly complex carbs) especially white bread, pizza, and loaded with lean meat protein and healthy fats. And yes, he eats ALOT.

But in terms of the calories for Michael Phelps, Mark Klion, a sports medicine doc and orthopedic surgeon at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, has a few things to say about this.

I think for him,” Klion said, “because of his caloric demands, he can probably eat whatever he wants to.

But Klion warns that plenty of athletes trianed for marathons gulping down all kinds of food still end up gaining weight. The reason is because it is a diet. It’s not about eating anything and everything, even though it may appear so on the surface.

A typical item from the Phelps menu.. can all that oil be good for your health? Flickr CC

And here’s a typical menu. According to The Post, he doesn’t even choose one option from the menu.

He eats them all!

The Typical Michael Phelps Menu

Breakfast:

• Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese
• Lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise
• Two cups of coffee
• One five-egg omelet
• One bowl of grits
• Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar
• Three chocolate-chip pancakes

BTW.. we’re still at Breakfast.. Is it just me who is getting morning sickness imagining eating all that at 5 in the morning?

Lunch:

• One pound of enriched pasta
• Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread
• Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories

Dinner:

• One pound of pasta
• An entire pizza
• More energy drinks

The French Paradox

I am not a medical specialist in nutrition nor food, but it certainly interests me how Phelps is able to gulp down oily pizzas and still look so ripped and toned. Eating all those eggs, hams and cheese. For the average person, that probably won’t be particularly good.

It also struck me as interesting that he only eats 3 meals a day, since the body can only process so much protein in one go.

I don’t know if any of you have heard of what’s called the ‘French Paradox‘. The bottomline is: Zee french people eat very high fat diets, but live long lives.

This was observed by Dr. Samuel Black in 1819 in the French, who suffer a relatively low incidence of CHD (coronary heart disease), despite all the relatively rich saturated fats the yeat. The term French paradox was coined by Dr. Serge Renaud, a scientist from Bordeaux University in France in 1992.

In 1991, it was then suggested that red wine, or alcohol, was the factor. In the US, it was voiced on 60 minutes that drinking wine decreases the incidence of cardiac diseases. This increased consumption of red wine by 44%. Wineries believe it or not even began lobbying for the right to label their products as “health food”.

The ‘French Paradox’ however is questioned. WHO statistics from 1990-2000 showed that heart disease in France may have been underestimated. However, it was only this year when research found that low doses of resveratol, a compound in red wine, mimicked the benefits of caloric restriction (CR) in a mice study, which has shown to increase life span.

The problem however in testing antiaging drugs creates another Paradox: no one wants to invest in a study that lasts for 70 years from birth to death or longer. And the FDA is not going to approve a chemical without testing.

Diet to Increase your Lifespan

I was having an interesting convo recently with my GF, who thinks that the British people are getting fat because of all the crap food in the supermarkets here in the UK. The UK is dominated by 4 major supermarket chains. Her theory is that it’s all in the chemicals in everything we eat.

It’s true. You travel anywhere else in Europe and people don’t look anywhere as unhealthy as the Brits. On average the British are not as fat as the most obese of Americans, but they are heading in that direction. The weather, cost and culture make people exercise too little, eat too much, and drink too excessively.

The bottom line is this: If you consume more calories on average than your body uses, the extra energy (no matter what the source) becomes body fat. An extra 100 calories a day over a year becomes 10 pounds of fat!

So should we eat more, and exercise more, or should we eat less, and just stay skinny? It it does raise an interesting question on caloric restriction. Caloric restriction, or CR, is a concept that is evidence based, supposed to improve health by limiting dietary energy intake. It is found in several diet regimens, including the Okinawa diet and the CRON-diet.

In human subjects, CR has been shown to lower cholesterol, fasting glucose and BP. Various animal species ahve also been tested that shows lifespan extension from CR.

“If you start CR at age 25, you might add 4.5 years to your life,” says Eric Ravussin, who studies human health and performance at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana.

The problem is, most people probably can’t persist through a CR regime. It’ll make you pretty tired to start with, feel grouchy and get pretty fed up and all.

And a question - would caloric EXCESSION lead to a shorter lifespan? ie Have Olympians like Phelps found that they have lived shorter lives?

What are your thoughts on both the Phelps Diet and Caloric restriction? Both are a bit of a contrast.

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“I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything.” - Michael Phelps: “The Greatest Olympian of All Time”

M
ichael Phelps is the man. Nuff said. I haven’t really been following the Olympics too closely because I’ve been working my ass off lately (on the upside making a $).

But I did catch a bit of Phelp’s signature event, the 200m butterly, on TV today, which inspired me to write this article.

If you saw this, you would have realised that his goggles filled with water from the dive. If you swim, you know how tricky that makes it not knowing exactly where you are going. Especially in the Olympics.

But guess what. Phelps still broke the world record and won a gold medal.

Phelps is now enroute to eclipse Spitz’s tally of seven gold medals at one Olympic Games. Phelps has won five gold medals this week, all in world-record time, with the 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly and 4×100m medley to come.

And guess what Spitz has to say about Phelps?

“You haven’t seen nothing yet.” He could break his arm before Beijing, but as long as they have some duct tape, they can just tape him back up and he’ll swim and win.” -Mark Spitz, 1972 Olympic World Record 7-Time Gold Medallist

Phelps, by the way, has hit a total of 10 gold medals, but before statisticians could even update their records, Phelps added another gold medal in the 4×200m freestyle relay, taking him to 11 gold medals with the title as ‘The Greatest Olympian in History.”

So is it as easy as he makes it seem?

5 Secrets to Michael Phelps Success (+ Bonus)

In view of the popularity of the Warren Buffett article on Living a Simple and Happy Life, I thought I’d write a bit on Michael Phelps, focused more on achieving success.

I spent (my very precious evening) researching facts, interviews and quotes I can find to put this together.

Overall, I can break it down into 5 different simple things he does.

They are: Struggle, Win, Prepare, Focus and Persistence

(and bonus secret at the bottom but don’t read it until the end…)

1. “Struggle“

“Every morning I wake up at 4.30-5.00, and it takes me a while to get up in the morning but it’s the Olympics, you have to. I need to recover as much as I can and it is crucial for the coming events,” - Michael Phelps

Phelps is no different from you nor I. He is human, and a creature of habit.

He admits struggling to wake up early in the morning. He loves to take naps in the middle of the afternoon.

The difference between you, me and Phelps, is that the Olympian is willing to put in the psychological struggle and emotional climb to move onwards and upwards. Imagine swimming for 10 hours+ a day, then taking daily ice baths to help his body recover from the grueling schedule. Imagine having to whoof down gargantuan amounts of pasta and pizza between races. He does manage to squeeze in 2 massages a day… oooh… that would make my day, but it’s definitely not as fun as it sounds.

Now that I have sort of left the rat race, I can wake up pretty much whenever I want and do what I like. But I have to constantly remind myself of my end goals and plan of action. It certainly has forced me to grow though. I have to push myself to get things done, instead of just watching movies all day or surfing random websites. Something we all do as a natural tendency.

So how do you counter such natural tendencies?

First, accept the natural tendency for us to be lazy, to be unproductive if given all the time in the world, to not challenge ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically…. and realise once you accept this that the only way to move upstream is against the current, otherwise you’ll be flushed downstream.

As Frederick Douglas one said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Celebrate the struggle, accept it if you want to move onwards and upwards. For better or worse, your future is determined in large part by what you dream of, and the steps you take and struggle you go through to make them come true.

2. “Win”

I hate to lose. When you lose a race like that, it motivates me even more to try to swim faster. - Michael Phelps

While talking about his two bronzes in Athens in 2004, Phelps insisted that he disliked losing, and ever since then, he’s tried to swim faster (see 1. Struggle).

“Four years ago I wanted to race and I hated to lose, getting third in the 200m freestyle and when I do lose in races like that it motivates me to swim faster,” -Michael Phelps

Winning and losing are interesting subjects. For one, I think the message behind what Phelps is saying is not about ‘winning’ itself.

If you read closely between the lines,Phelps is actually talking about the will to win.

The will to win = the passion, the desire. Not the medal.

Zig Ziglar once said something about how “winning is not everything. It’s the effort to win.” And I guess that’s what Phelps is referring to also. And part of that may involve having to take risks, make mistakes, and just take action to get somewhere. Something I need to do more often for sure.

Losing is a good thing. Start making mistakes. Start taking risks. Otherwise you won’t find your desire to progress nor get anywhere.

3. “Prepare”

“I prepare myself the best I can, to compete the best I can” - Michael Phelps

We all know that preparation is a virtue. But how many of us actually follow this religiously?

For example, I’m writing this post at 00:18 when in less than 7 hours I have to wake, then I am on-call for 96 hours straight. I haven’t even finished packing my bags for the weekend, nor am I anywhere close to where I have to be at 8 am tomorrow morning. I have to take a train, and I have no clue when it’s leaving.

Vince… prepare!

And to top it up, there’s plenty of reading I’ve been wanting to do to ‘prepare’ for these next 96 hours, as I could be dealing with subjects that I am unfamiliar with. And you guessed it. I haven’t done the work!

That’s not what I would call great preparation.

I do fluctuate between being very prepared with certain things, and not so much with others. And I’m sure you do too.

I guess it comes down to deciding what’s important to you and in realising that while ‘practice may not make perfect, it will make better.’ I am a bit of a perfectionist so I do often have grand plans. So the lesson for me personally, is to be more organised so that I follow through. Work backwards from the end goal, and decide what steps need to be taken and make a plan to follow through with it.

4. “Focus”

“I have so many races, so much to do in every race, I have to keep 100 per cent focused. No matter how good, you have to force it out of your head,” - Michael Phelps

The mistake I used to make is to take on 10 projects at once, and never finish any one of them. At the earliest signs of an obstacle, I end up thinking it’s not worthwhile to pursue.

But then I realised that all my successful friends and mentors have one trait in common: they stick to one thing, and push through to the end until it’s complete and done with.

Focus is something I need to work on. My head tends to get like chattering monkeys. I’m probably an undiagnosed ADD. I come up with 100 great ideas, like to kick them off, but need to be more of a focused implementator.

I’m getting better at this now. I’ve now only got just a couple of things I’m focused on, and immediately have watched a rise in my income streams, and cut down on the signal to noise ratio.

Focus on one thing at a time, and give 100% on what you’re focused on.

5. “Persistence”

“If I didn’t swim my best, I’d think about it at school, at dinner, with my friends. It would drive me crazy.” - Michael Phelps

I have left this one for the very end, because it is probably the number 1 key to succeeding in anything. Desire and persistence. You have to want what you want and persist in getting it.

You see, the way I see it, if you want something badly enough and must have it, you will always find a way. ALWAYS.

You will do whatever it takes. If you want something badly enough, you will do WHATEVER IT TAKES. I am writing this in capital because as a self-affirmation actually. Whatever it takes means you will persist with no exception.

Notice I didn’t just say persist. I said persist with no exception. That’s a phrase I learned from Andy Andrews in Seven Decisions (great read if you haven’t checked it out, get it). And it makes absolute sense if I look back over my own life.

In my own life, alot of my friends think that I’m a natural and effortlessly get things I want, whether it be the dream job, money, girls, or whatever else.

It’s not true.

Look at Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett etc. Sure, they all have some talent and affinity to what they do best. And they never make it look difficult. But do you think they struggle? Hell yeah they do.

Frederich Nietzsche once said, “”The strongest have their moments of fatigue”. Just as a magician could make a magic trick look natural and simple, the reality is that they had to struggle alot to get it appearing that way.

“I’m the same kind of guy before all this happened.” - Michael Phelps

I don’t openly admit it because I do like the image of being a natural, just as Tiger Woods likes to make his swings appear effortless or Michael Phelps laps through looking so cool.

The truth is, EVERY step of the way to get the best things I want has been a struggle. From getting into the best American high school that money can buy to making it through medical school without appearing to have done any work for all 6 years. Or even in getting dates, let alone ending up in a happy relationship with a gorgeous girlfriend.

All these happened, but something very few people knew before, was that they could very well have never happened. I was on the waiting list to Phillips Exeter. I wasn’t going to get in. For a whole week just before we were about to start term, I called the admissions officer about 10 times in a day and wrote them countless letters. I spent about 3 hours a day writing up the letters, and deliberately spaced phone calls so that I would ring them at times where different admissions people would pick up. I knew all their names and they knew me too.

But the head admissions guy pretty much told me that I shouldn’t keep my hopes up and to stop calling him.

But I kept calling anyway.

Persist with no exception.

In the end, just a day before I had to start at a different school- I got a call from the head admissions officer saying: “Vince, congratulations. You’ve now been accepted to Phillips Exeter Academy.”

Pure talent, obviously. And I made it look all so effortless. But I managed to replicate this persistence, again and again. In the same way I was on the waiting list to Exeter, I was on the waiting list to Edinburgh. Most of my colleagues ended up in Manchester as part of our transition from preclinical to clinical medicine. But I was determined to ‘do better’. Edinburgh wasn’t a ‘better’ medical school, but its international reputation was certainly more recognised. To be honest, I had no idea how I got in, because I didn’t have the grades really. But I pretty much replicated the same process. And I’m sure I’ve done it 100x in other areas of my life. Persist with no exception. Something I truly believe in.

“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” - Michael Phelps

It’s easy for us to look at successful people at what they do and because they make it look so simple, we think that they have some innate talent or magical ability to do it. That’s either because you don’t think you can succeed, or because you don’t want to think of success as work. My friend AJ was talking to me about this recently, and my personal take is that anything is possible, and that I can learn it too.

“I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming.” -Michael Phelps

I am also actually embarrassingly ambitious. Just as Michael Phelps wants to change the course of swimming history, I want to create some major change in this world. Who knows, maybe some day.

6. BONUS SECRET

“There is a one woman in China that claimed she paid $50 to get my e-mail address. It was pretty shocking. I got one this morning from Scotland. A girl’s requesting a signed photo of me.” - Michael Phelps

Haha. You gotta love this one. Yep. Part of a trait of most successful guys is an inflated ego.

Ok, I sort of mean this as a joke, but at the same time, it’s kinda true, with a few exceptions.

I guess you gotta love yourself if you want to do well, right?

FINAL CONCLUSION:

Prepare. Desire. Struggle. Persist. And Win.

And when you’re rich, famous and super successful, and the girls (or guys) are all over you, don’t forget to mention this post.

Or if you like it, you can help share it and stumbleupon or twitter it now. Just click the ‘Thumb it Up’ button below if you like what you read

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Just saw this article on News 24.

Beijing - The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show’s musical director said.

Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and had not sung a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster.

Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.

But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91 000 capacity crowd at the main Olympic stadium was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

“The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation,” Chen said in the interview that appeared briefly on the popular news website Sina.com on Tuesday before it was wiped from the Internet.

Lin was seen to perform the patriotic song “Ode to the Motherland” as China’s national flag was carried into the stadium, a key moment in the three hour opening ceremony.

“The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression,” he said.

“Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in terms of voice, Yang Peiyi is perfect, each member of our team agreed,” he said.

Research by Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at the University of Texas, has suggested that the “beauty premium” in parts of China is far more pronounced than in the west for women. Dr Hamermesh’s work shows that “ugly people earn below the average income while beautiful people earn more.” The Guardian quoted that “in Britain, attractive women enjoy a +1% premium. But in Shanghai, the figure was +10%.”

But is it just me that’s getting a bit concerned? First, fake opening ceremony, and now, a fake kid miming. I mean sure, good looking people do better. I know. But I honestly had a tear in my eye when I first watched the opening ceremony out of pure joy. Now, I still have a tear in my eye.

Just for the wrong reasons.

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I’ve been a big fan of Twitter for a long while. Robert Scoble and Tim Ferriss both sort of inspired me to get an account. I then discovered a bunch of useful ways to use the site (for another post).

In the process, I also found it to be one of the coolest ways to update news or discover user driven information. It’s also a great way for me to let friends know of any cool things I come across. Twitter if used correctly gives a great signal ratio.

But just as experimental a tool I believe it is, I am also still in a rather experimental stage with Twitter. From following 0 people to following as many as I can. From writing about my daily routines to pushing my comfort zone, and sharing any thoughts or cool things off the top of my head, and in sharing my (very new and recent) blog with the world.

And it just occured to me just yesterday that Twitter has limied accounts to following 2,000 people unless previous to the switch, you were following more than 2000 people. In my opinion, this is trying to jam water pouring out of a bucket with a sponge. They are dealing with it is no better than the way the UK
government tries to stop knife crime by increasing prison setences,
instead of dealing with the teenager issues at heart.

Now I understand that they may want to limit the number of spam and marketers and all that. People who simply follow loads of people and offer no value in return
IMO are RETARDED. But I believe there are definitely genuine people
who want to offer value. But the way I see it, following someone is not exactly spam. Cutting down on how many people you can follow is not dealing with the issue of spam. I follow lots of people because it allows me to experiment with information flow. If people follow me back because they find what I write interesting, great. If they don’t, I don’t really give a shit.

Now I get the issue with ‘information overflow’. In fact, it’s probably impossible to follow beyond 1000 people, let alone 2000. But the way I see it, Twitter is a dynamic platform that allows you to discover information. So by using a combination of 3rd party tools such as Quotably.com and FriendFeed.Com, and tools like Summize/Twitter search. I don’t really use the web interface itself. My updates are automatically sent from either my Twitterbar in Firefox or Twitter Tools in my blog to both Twitter and to Facebook.

Scoble has actually been a big advocate of following more people than
having followers, and I have started to see his point. It used to be
that I think having lots of followers is the way forward. From a
marketing point of view, sure, but from a social information web 2.0
perspective, just as Facebook is a way for YOU to keep updated on what
your friends are up to (for example I know a few people on facebook
that are following my blog.. and I know who you are so don’t try to
hide ;)) and Twitter in the same regard is more useful. I follow @breakingnewson - which sends me breaking news updates faster than any news I can read or watch. And following loads of people doesn’t actually hurt me. As long as I find u interesting, I am happy to have you in my stream. I obviously don’t read it all the time, but there are more than 2000 interesting people in the world. By following interesting people and using a combination of filters, I do usually get alot of value out of it.

I guess the point I’m making is, Twitter is sort of trying to jam the issue of spammers without really fixing the problem. They have lags, crashses, and lots of problems. I still consider Twitter to be a beta program. So Twitter, pls fix all that stuff before trying to block a problem without really addressing it.

Ok rant over…. what are your thoughts on this? Do write a comment!

Finally, you can follow me on Twitter here

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