Well my friends… one of the most valuable things we can do at the beginning of a new year is REFLECT on the lessons brought forth from the year before.
Those who never reflect on their mistakes, their challenges, their experiences of the past… fail to have any power to create something different in the future. They end up in a constantly repeating pattern of boredom, frustration, lifelessness, & stagnation (sounds terrible doesn’t it?). Where as the people who reflect the MOST, who observe themselves the MOST, have the most power to affect what they create in their future.
We’ve really got to take this to heart. The more we know about OURSELVES… the more power we have to create what we want in life. The more awareness we have of our own patterns, our own emotions, our own habits, our own tendencies… the more control it gives us to choose “ways of being” that lead to the outcomes we want.
So… with this in mind, I thought I’d share some of my BIGGEST reflections from 2011. So you can see inside the lessons I’m learning in my life right now, as I continue along this amazing never ending journey of entrepreneurship.
First of All… It’s Been a BIG Year.
2011 was chalk full of game changing experiences. 
One of my favorite accomplishments of the year was definitely the creation of the “Unstoppable Entrepreneur” experience, our first major seminar product line which saw almost 1,000 people in attendance for our first event, leading to our next event… “Unstoppable Millionaire”. You can see some highlights of these spectacular events clicking the links above.
Here’s the reasons I loved them so much.
- I was FORCED to develop new skills, strengths, & step into my power on a deeper level to be able to lead these events at the level I wanted to lead. I feel this was accomplished. It could not have been accomplished unless I flat out THREW myself into the unknown, with no guarantee’s what so ever, and just gave it my best. Thankfully, the teachings I live by prepared me perfectly & we created something unbelievably powerful.
- People. I realized I absolutely need to be creating business models & companies that foster community on a much deeper level. I think we have one of the most beautiful communities in the world. So many amazing, empowered, visionary, hard working people belong to our entrepreneurial community. It’s high time we come TOGETHER on a deeper level… help empower each other more… and really unite. The Unstoppable Experience was the realest taste of this I’ve ever seen… and I know it’s just getting started.
- Fun. If you missed the event, just watch this. UNSTOPPABLE EXPERIENCE.
It was flat out one of the funnest damn times I’ve ever had, and I know I’m speaking for many. There’s just little that can compare to productions of this scale, quantity of people at this magnitude, and the effect of all that POSITIVE energy infused into an electrifying and fun experience. This is how I want to live my life.
2011 Also Created HUGE Changes…
It became very apparent to me in 2011, that I was not playing anywhere near as big of a game as I could be playing (you ever felt like that?). As I’ll show you in the Epiphany lessons below, I started getting very clear that something much much more meaningful, & much bigger, was on the horizon for my business.
One of the most powerful skills in life is being able to RECOGNIZE that feeling when it arises, and having the strength & wisdom to GO FOR IT… instead of staying attached to what you already “know”.
So many of us sacrifice our potential… for the security of what we “already know”. The problem is… that’s not how the universe works when it comes to creating mind altering results. You’ve got to have the strength & wisdom to recognize when you need to risk it all for the right reasons… or not.
Having this skill is what differentiates people who start a site like Wikipedia when no rational sense at the time would ever think the world’s most popular encyclopedia wouldn’t be created by “experts” but by random people who do it all voluntarily for no compensation what so ever. Amazing.
Without further ado… lets get into 2011′s biggest lessons.
2011 Lesson #1: The Meaning of Intuition
I’m truthfully convinced at this point, that what I’m about to share with you is one of the most powerful & profitable skills you could ever develop. Aside from this comic above… I’m VERY serious about this lesson.
And if I knew what I knew now… I’d have not only saved about $1,500,000+ over the last 24 months… but I would have made a lot more on top of it as well.
Intuition is no new concept to us. We all hear about “developing intuition” and we all have had experiences in our life where our instincts just sort of “guide us”. However… I am now able to see more then ever just how OFF most of our intuitive capacity is… and I figured this out by how “OFF” I was in the last 24 months, & by observing just how many mistakes I made that my ‘kinesthetic physiology’ was actually aware I was making.
Kinesthetic physiology refers to a visceral feeling you actually have within your body. It really means your bodies natural learning system. It’s a learning that doesn’t take place on the level of mind… kinesthetic knowledge take place within your actual body. This is an important distinction.
The skill of intuition I’m referring to above is the ability to become more acutely aware of your body’s “Kinesthetics”. The correlation between your kinesthetic physiology & what we call “Intuition” is a VERY VERY real phenomenon. I’ll prove it to you in this insight.
So… let me rewind.
At the end of 2009, I started investing in a new product I wanted to launch. I wanted to launch this product… because “Logically” it made a lot of sense. It seemed like my next logical step to make a lot more money. Plus, there was many other benefits… but if I was being totally honest with myself I’d say the core motivator for wanting to launch this product was it made logical sense as my next step to make a lot more money.
So… I started hiring people. I brought on programmers, designers, consultants, you name it (it was a very big product). In total, I spent over $300,000+, and a LOT of time on this concept, and guess what… it NEVER launched.
You can imagine as I reflected back on this over the last year… I asked myself… “What the F. Happened?” “How did I do that?”.
And the answer I found really shocked me. When I reflected back, I actually discovered that it never felt right the ENTIRE time I was working on it. I was NOT connected to my kinesthetic physiology. I was not connected to what my body was aware of, & trying to tell me. Let me explain.
I was operating mostly from the “Mind” in this affair. As I reflected back on many of the interactions I had with the team, with all the people involved, in brainstorming sessions, etc… I was sort of “disconnected” from my body.
I remember feeling anxious, feeling impatient, wanting to just ‘hurry through‘. The whole time… something was uneasy in my body. Something was “off”… if I really tuned into it.
I didn’t listen. I just powered through, forced it, and kept moving forward. Well, it turns out our bodies might know something after all. Because the end result was that it wasn’t meant to be. When push came to shove the whole direction changed so many times the entire project needed to be scrapped. Good bye $300,000+ invested, just like that.
Looking back, I can literally FEEL how I could have known that the whole time. Having the ability to differentiate now between what it feels like when things are RIGHT ON… and what it feels like when they’re NOT… I can clearly see where I went wrong.
It was my lack of ability to discern my intuition, my lack of ability to NOTICE the subtleties of my kinesthetic physiology, that led me to continue to make choices my higher guidance knew was not the right direction the entire time.
You can BET YOUR ASS… from this point forward I am paying FAR MORE attention to how any project, any idea, any business, any concept, any work… lines up with how I feel, & my kinesthetic physiology. I literally am now looking for those same feelings I felt working on that project… and if I feel ANYTHING even remotely close to them, I know it’s a big red flag. I know my kinesthetic physiology is telling me something, & this time… I’m listening. This is a HUGE distinction.
$300,000 is an expensive mistake. If more people really knew how much money they lose in opportunity cost & physical cost by having NO IDEA what their kinesthetic guidance is telling them… there would be classes upon classes of people teaching this stuff.
The fact of the matter is… it’s very real. The only way you can have an experience of it is to know BOTH SIDES.
You’ve got to know what it feels like when things are COMPLETELY aligned… and when they are not.
You’ve got to be able to distinguish “mind logic” from “Body logic”. Your mind doesn’t know what your body does. There’s a reason why our bodies intuitively know danger if it’s around us, even if our minds can’t yet sense it.
We have to harness the same instinctual power our bodies have had since the start of our evolution… except now outside of the “forest” and inside the new “Forest of our daily lives”.
I’m convinced that just blindly following the mind without a true awareness of kinesthetic physiology is responsible for so many mistakes on this planet it’s not even funny. I think the people who spend time focused on really developing their Kinesthetic “Skills”… have a significant advantage in the marketplace.
I think they are more likely to make better decisions, select the right partners, choose the right projects, companies, teachers, & ultimately save themselves enormous time costs, money costs, & physical, emotional, & mental energy costs.
The sum total of all this opportunity… is what’s making me call this distinction my #1 lesson from 2011. I truly believe having refined this ability the way I have over the last 12 months… is going to allow me to earn several hundred millions dollars over the next few years. We’ll see what happens from there… but I plan on developing this ability as much as humanly possible.
It’s now on the top of my charts. And if I was you reading this… I’d pay heed. If you look at your life, you’ll be able to find example after example where life has been trying to teach you this lesson.
How many times have you done something when your kinesthetic physiology was suggesting otherwise you shouldn’t? In other words, when you didn’t feel right? When you were emotionally unbalanced? When you were anxious, impatient, or un-confident about it?
How often does it work out for you? And the real question… how long are we going to continue to operate like that? When are we going to choose to ONLY ACT when it’s aligned with what our bodies wisdom is telling us as well?
This is a very important question for us to answer as a society. However… we can get started inside our own lives now. And I promise you… the result of honing this skill is a much more satisfied, fulfilled, happy, peaceful, efficient, productive, & “Flowing” life.
Try me on it.
2011 Lesson #2: Rapid Adaptation
N0w, I realize many people feel like they are “behind the curb”… and struggling to keep up. So the thought of needing to “adapt rapidly” might scare you.
Well, it’s my intention to shift some of the memetics (beliefs & values) surrounding this concept, and give you a new meme that EMPOWERS you to create a more amazing life. The new meme is simple… “It’s FUN to adapt rapidly.” I’ll explain more in a bit.
You should also know by now… I’m not here to sugar coat. I’m not here to babysit a bunch of people claiming they want to be entrepreneurs.
I’m here to tell the the truth about what it takes. And I’m here to genuinely inspire the people who are ready to commit themselves to creating a life beyond imagination no matter the costs. I’m here for the truth seekers, the people who want what’s real & they want it no matter what.
The fact of the matter is… there’s a reality of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and we either abide by that or we don’t. But it’s foolish to ask reality to change for you. It’s not going to. Lets just get that out of the way… you have to adapt to reality.
If the market moves fast, you have to move fast. And we can’t get mad because that’s the way it is… we either play along. Or we don’t play. I think it’s just that simple.
So lets get started…
2010 marked a huge change in the online marketing industry. A wave of crack downs took place across most of the largest advertising sources on the Internet, that really constrained the marketing ability of our industry.
There were some very powerful trends for why this happened… and they were trends that are not going away. I won’t go into details here, because it’s unneccasary, I’ll just focus on the BIG lessons.
The fact of the matter is… things changed.
And here’s the lesson I learned that will make me (and you) A LOT more money in the future.
When things change… DO NOT try to make what was old work again. I don’t care how frightening it as that things changed… or how big the ramifications are… if they truly change, then let it go. And follow the trends somewhere else.
Here’s what happened to me. We lost TONS of our advertising over the course of 2010. So, rather then do what I should of done which is really SCALE BACK our expenses, and change our business model to adapt to the new trends…
… I tried to figure out ways to make what used to work work again. Wrong approach.
I spent HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars on projects, consultants, advertisers, developments, etc… trying to get back what used to work. Bottom line was that nothing worked long term at all. Even if we found a short term fix, it was only temporary before it was offline again.
Funny thing is… reflecting on lesson #1… I knew it was the wrong idea the whole time! haha, my kinesthetic physiology was telling me. But, I didn’t listen, because I hadn’t learned lesson #1 fully yet.
Finally, after truly exhausting myself… I did what I should have done 12 months earlier. I changed the business model, & let the old die to focus on the new.
Again… if I had adapted more rapidly instead of trying to make what’s “Old” work inside of the “new”… I would easily have an extra $500,000 – $1,000,000 right now. Easily.
I don’t really care because how much money this lesson will make me in the future is likely 1000x’s of times more than that, but it’s always nice to have a few more million in the bank ya know.
There’s a BIGGER Lesson Here…
What happens if you’re focused on the old amidst a changing world? YOU MISS THE NEW. Fact of the matter is… there are emerging trends that make the trends of the past look like CHILD’S PLAY.
I thank god everyday for the eyes to see… because as soon as I opened them I found something so much bigger it’s insane. And now all of my focus is going to models of companies that are $100,000,000+ to $1,000,000,000+ models.
There’s ALWAYS a reason why everything happens. You never know that reason until the future about 99% of the time. That’s why it takes WISDOM to be able to perceive everything that’s happening inside a larger context.
You’ve got to have wisdom to be able to look at your experiences & what’s happening in life… and perceive it in a LARGER CONTEXT. Perceive it out of the moment. Perceive it from the eyes of what you truly KNOW.
If you look back on your life… your biggest failures, biggest challenges, & toughest moments were probably your biggest teachers. Even the things that made NO SENSE when they were happening… almost always turn into an invaluable gift for you.
You have to develop the wisdom to perceive life from that bigger context.
At this point… I’m learning to follow trends even faster. And gaining experience into the silicon valley world I have an even NEWER perspective on what it means to follow trends. Silicon Valley is seriously crazy.
You don’t even know what you’re missing if you’re not plugged into that scene. It’s like the “you don’t know what you don’t know” principle in full effect. That world is SO TUNED IN to what the largest business & technology trends are it’s nuts. And it’s inspiring.
If you follow the trends, & follow the knowledge… it will take you to incredible places. I plan on sharing much more of what I’m learning as soon as it’s the right time. Lets just suffice it to say there are some extremely powerful & creative opportunities emerging that have changed my view on business, lead generation, & the future.
Bottom line… ADAPT QUICKLY. You don’t have a choice. It’s just how it works.
It’s not good enough to learn something… and think just because it was hard to learn it will be valuable to you forever. Fact of the matter is… I’ve invested tons of time & money learning things that simply aren’t as relevant to my life anymore. That doesn’t make them a waste… it makes them a stepping stone.
Everything is in your life for a reason. It’s all a stepping stone. Even your future lessons are just stepping stones to lessons beyond that.
It’s only when we get stuck feeling like we are somehow “owed” success from the universe, because we’re “working hard”, that we end up never getting it.
Hate to break it to you… but it’s not as much about hard work as it is HARD STRATEGY.
It’s about intelligence. It’s about application. And it’s about execution. Who you are as an entrepreneur makes a 100x bigger difference in your success than how hard you work.
Live your principles. Live these teachings. Live knowledge. That’s what will make the biggest difference in your life. That’s what will shape your entire future success as an entrepreneur.
2011 Lesson #3: You Can’t Compromise Values, Period.
This is another lesson we all supposedly “know”… yet there’s a layer of subtlety that can be addressed here to gain deeper insight.
We are human beings. And much of what truly defines our life… is contained within our values. What is it we actually value? What’s truly important to us? What really makes us want to live & what are we living for? Those are our values.
Far to often, the work we do on a daily basis does not line up with our values as much as we want it too. Usually… if it aligns with one of our values like “providing for my family”… we sacrifice everything else just for that one.
But what happens when we sacrifice even just ONE value of ours, never mind many? We’re unhappy. It’s just as simple as that. Our life is missing a certain integrity. It’s missing a certain meaning that is fundamental to what it means to be a human being.
We can’t sacrifice our values gang. Not at all. Not any of them. They’re just to darn important, and the outcome of what we create in the world when we sacrifice any value isn’t what we’re really about. I know this to be the case.
I discovered in 2011… that I had some core values that were not being honored by some of the work I was doing. That doesn’t mean the work was bad. It just means that I wanted more. In some way, I wasn’t honoring what was really most important to me in life.
For this, I began to pay the price. If you’re not doing work that truly matches your values, what you really want to be doing while you’re here for your limited trip on this planet, you lose passion. You lose that “zest” we’re all striving for of feeling amazingly alive.
To be blunt… I just wanted to be making a bigger difference. My BIGGEST core values are for contribution. I want my life to be the biggest contribution to this planet, & the people & animals on it that it can possibly be. Yet when I looked at what I was doing… I realized what I was working enabled that to happen “later”.
Well to hell with that. I don’t really want it later. I want it now. And even if my mind tried to say… “no, later is fine”… my kinesthetics disagreed. And frankly that’s a losing battle. Because if you don’t adapt to follow what your core values are telling you… you’ll suffer. It’s just that simple.
So I realized something huge in 2011. There are no compromises with values. There really aren’t. Once you reach a certain stage in your life, and a certain stage in your awareness, you just can’t compromise. Your work has to match your values 100% to reach your full potential.
It doesn’t mean you need to be “radical” about everything. You don’t need to throw out your intelligence just because you have this realization… it’s just that it needs to become a guiding principle for the direction of your life.
It’s not like you have to abandon work you’re currently in or doing if it’s un-intelligent to do so… it’s just that you need to put more emphasis on creating work that matches your values 100% and moves you in that direction.
It’s our job to do so. It’s how we honor ourselves. It’s how we honor this life. By being in integrity with what’s truly meaningful to us. The result of this, is the life we’ve always imagined. It’s the life we truly want. And we gain more happiness from simply living a life aligned with our values, than anything else.
Money can’t buy this. Love can’t buy this. Pleasure can’t buy this. Experiences can’t buy this. Only LIVING LIFE aligned with our true core values can give us the feeling of genuine fulfillment that is the hallmark of human beings who are at total peace with who they are. This is possibly the greatest gift we could achieve in our lifetime.
I vowed in 2011… that I will pay more attention to this than ever before. I will make sure to watch my kinesthetic physiology like a hawk, and keep a ruthless integrity to living a life aligned with my core values at all costs.
I already feel like a BILLION bucks.
So… What’s Next?
I honestly can’t even explain all that’s happening in my life right now my friends. But one day I sort of see it all unfolding in a book of some sort. I’m incredibly focused at the moment. We’ve made huge strides in several different areas that are those BIG models I was alluding to before… and the work ahead of me now is called “proof of concept” in the VC world.
My head is buried. Working on launching 4 new companies… and working on true game changing applications & technologies like never before. I’m finding myself surrounded by the most amazing people of my life. I find myself being part of much bigger teams, & collaborating with entrepreneurs like I never have before.
I find myself being opened to brand new ideas & concepts… and studying the cutting edge of technology on this planet like I never have before. And I find parallel to all of this “newness & exploration” in the business world, I’m experiencing just as much opening up in my personal life as well (go figure, wonder if that’s an accident?)
I’ve been more active with new hobbies, passions, interests, skills, arts, & relationships than ever before.
All around, I find myself knee deep in brand new worlds. I find myself playing the BIGGEST possible game I can play right now… and not “waiting” for later. And I find myself actually just going for it, with nothing left to stop me.
So… I’m in “proof of concept” phase right now for many companies. Be on the look out for some super amazing things to be launched out of this camp over the course of 2012! )
In the marketing world… I find myself hanging out with most of the largest leaders in the Internet, technology, & personal development worlds. It’s been a wonderful period of relationships blossoming, and I think in general everyone is coming together for very good reasons. Collaboration seems to be the name of the game at the moment. The list goes on & on of the amazing leaders I’ve been meeting over the last 12 months.
I plan on sharing a lot of what I’m learning in the marketing world with you everywhere it’s applicable. I’ve got some amazing concepts to introduce you to soon. I’m testing some lead generation strategies that honestly make anything that’s ever been taught in direct response marketing look like CHILD’S PLAY. I’ll share soon as it’s ready.
I’ll probably be slower with trainings than I have been in the past before… simply because I’m very involved in a lot of next level activities at the moment. Yet every time I share something with you… just know you need to OPEN IT & READ IT.
Seriously, what I’ll be sharing is truly the most VALUABLE training, information, & opportunities that I come across in my journey. When that happens, I’d pay extra close attention. Keep leveraging my experiences as long as I have the time to keep sharing them.
And Remember This…
I often reflect on why I’m in your personal life. What I mean is… where can I really offer you the most value? Where can I really add & contribute to your life in a way that helps you get everything you want?
And I realized one part of it is… I’m meant to be your reminder.
I’m your constant reminder of how powerful you are. I’m your constant reminder of how brilliant you are. I am your constant reminder for what you’re capable of… and what possibilities are beholden at YOUR fingertips.
I am your mirror. I’m meant to keep reflecting your entrepreneurial strength back to you. I’m meant to be the mirror for the part of you that is simply UNSTOPPABLE… and will never quit on what you truly find meaningful to you.
I am your unstoppable mirror.
I am a reflection of your inner knowing, always pushing you to achieve what you know you can achieve.
I am here to remind you to consult your own experiences, to trust yourself, & truly synthesize everything you learn into the perception that will allow you to make the most powerful choices going forward.
We are this for each other. And I’m convinced as long as we’re in each others lives… we’ll never be stopped. We will always be mirrors for each other this way, and no matter what my goals are or what your goals are… we stand for each other achieving them no matter what.
We stand in solidarity collaborating with our wisdom & strength… and never stopping the pursuit of our life’s most meaningful work.
Lets stand for each other. And lets be this stand for every other human being who wants to play in our tribe as well.
So… I’m looking forward to creating an absolutely amazing 2012 with you. As long as we remember our lessons from the past, our results are ONLY going to get bigger & bigger from here on forward. Trust me on that.
Live the Knowledge. Live the teachings.
We’ll speak soon.
Yours in Mastery,
Jonathan Budd
P.S. please like & share this post with your friends if you want to expand the knowledge of our tribe!
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