Why Is Taking Action So Important?
A few years ago when the idea of Real Men Real Style was just something in my head, it was hard to get started.
I knew that getting on video, that showing myself, that being a little bit vulnerable because I'm not the best-dressed guy, I don't have a huge wardrobe, even though I'm a custom clothier.
It's kind of like saying, the cobbler's kids are running around barefoot despite the fact that he makes shoes, it's very similar.
I put all of my money back into my company and it was something I'm very careful about.
Things have changed quite a bit.
In the last couple of years, when we started testing around Real Men Real Style.
I talked to Brett over at the Art of Manliness about the idea. He said it'd be great. He'd love to support me. I started putting information out there, testing it.
We made a commitment to do 100 videos in 100 days, and that turned into 200 videos in 200 days. That's when the channel started to take off.
The blog itself started getting a lot more views. At the same time, I have to admit that it's not like it just exploded.
I'm getting now a lot of people asking, “How can I repeat this?” or “How can I create a channel like this?”
The good thing is a lot of people are coming in and wanting to advertise with us, work with us, partner with us, and that's all great, but it happened because I took action.
I stopped reading and I stopped watching other people do what I wanted to do and it's hard. You've got to break away from the reading, the studying, which is important.
Research is important, but up to a point. You have to take action
It's one of the reasons I started my style system. I knew that many men out there had been reading forums for years. They have read four or five books by Alan Flusser (Dressing the Man) or Bernhard Roetzel (Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion).
They've spent money on this, but what they haven't done is they haven't put themselves in a step-by-step course that really makes sure they execute on what they need to and learn exactly what they need to in the order they need it, and it turns out that works out really well.
Whatever you want to get done in life, whether you want to build up a company, whether you want to improve yourself, whether you simply just want to ask that woman across the way who you've been wanting to meet for a year, just to go up and do it.
Introduce yourself, say “hi”, talk to her, or if it's a company, stay up all night, pull an all-nighter and get that company going. Quit finding excuses and take action.
I have to admit, I don't like it whenever trolls come in and they say something bad about me. I get emails occasionally back on my email list and people just telling me not very nice things, and I have to admit, I see that stuff and it definitely brings you down.
3 Things That I've Realized In Taking Action
1. I'm going to fail
I have failed multiple times trying to get to it whether it was in the Marine Corps, whether it was sports growing up. I always had points in which I was failing.
If you're not failing, you're not willing to push yourself to the utmost breaking point. Realize that if you really want to do something, if you want to take action, there are going to be points of failure.
2. You're going to be attacked
It's a reflection of who they are. They're tearing you down because they're either a bit jealous or they are kind of kicking themselves that they should be doing it and they don't want to see you do it.
A lot of people believe that if they pull you down that they are going to feel better about themselves.
Try to be somebody who is a level up and is reaching down to pull others up with you, but realize you're going to be attacked. You've got to develop a little bit of tougher skin when you take action.
3. You're going to be lost at times
You're not going to know where you're going. You're going to be out there. You're going to feel very exposed. You're going to think everyone's looking at you, that people are going to critique you and point out that you are a fraud.
You're going to be lost, so those three things, gentlemen, understand it's going to happen. You're going to fail. You're going to be attacked. You're going to be lost.
If you can accept that and if you say the worst that's going to happen is I'm going to fail. You're going to find if you can put up with that and if you start taking action.
If you are consistent and if you seek constant personal improvement, not comparing yourself against others, but looking to improve yourself a little bit each day, if you can do that, you're going to start to see amazing things happen.
There is no Fast Solution or Quick Fix to Success
I felt really good this last trip I took to Vegas and I was at New Media Expo, and I was meeting people outside my industry.
We'd meet, we'd exchange cards, and then actually a little bit later in the conference, they'd come up to me and say, “Wow! I just checked out your website. I saw what you're doing. That's amazing! How did you do it?” I'm just kind of laughing because that's a whole lot of work.
A lot of people think that it happens overnight. Now, people are looking for that quick fix; it's not.
You've got to be able to take action and know that you're going to run into failure, and be steady, consistent.
We do this in college and we need to be continue doing this throughout life, gentlemen. We do this up through school and it's something that I think a lot of us lose whenever we get out because we're putting this unstructured environment.
Create structure for yourself. One of the things I did is hire a business coach and she makes sure that I do stay on path to the path where I'm headed, but once you do it, amazing things happen.
I want to thank you all for being big supporters of my channel. We just passed three million views and this is going to go faster and it's going to grow bigger.
We're coming in on 40,000 subscribers, so that's pretty awesome. I can tell you that my style system sold out. I filled all 100 seats. I was amazed, and the quality of the guys in there, it just keeps getting better and better, so thank you for helping me and for making this channel and my business a go.
What I would just like to offer to you is a little inspiration:
If you take consistent action in the right direction, yes, you're going to fall back occasionally, but you're going to take two steps forward and fall back. And over time, you're going to see amazing things happen.
