Hey Moguls, Preston Ely here, getting this lesson started with a great quote:
“I’m not a paranoid deranged millionaire. G-d@mit, I’m a billionaire.”
~ Howard Hughes
It’s no small task to live authentically. I know I don’t do it all the time. From the moment we enter grade school, we are immediately pressured on all sides to conform. To be like everyone else. And most people do.
I admire guys like Howard Hughes, crazy as he was. Dude could care less what any-darn-body thought. He did his own thing. Made his own way. Bucked the system. Scoffed at the government.
Read my lips here, even though you can’t see them…
These are the kinds of people who succeed.
Conformity Sucks
High school kinda sucked for me. All the cool kids played sports. I played skateboard and cigarette. All the popular people had short hair. I had long hair. They went to college. I went to work. While the “in” crowd did this, I did that.
I hung out with all those “cool” people on occasion – don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t a total dork or anything. But something in me felt very disconnected from them.
Years later, I would have one of these same cool people tell me that they had always admired me for not doing everything they did. For being my own person. Then they rang my cherry slurpee up, and put $15 on pump 5 for me. It was a special moment, if you know what I mean.
“Everything popular is wrong.”
~ Oscar Wilde
I don’t know anyone from my class who is doing anything worth a darn. As a matter of fact, the more popular they were…the longer it seems they physically spent in prison.
Conformists suck. They’re weak. They’re scared. They simply do not know who they are. All their actions are dictated by the media, coworkers, friends, and family. They take all their cues from their environment, listening to EVERYone but themselves and God.
I suck too sometimes. Fashion influences me for one thing. I happen to agree with the trends. Shakira influences me. Man, does Shakira influence me. Never mind that…
My point is simply this:
BE YOURSELF.
If I could magically sing through this article I’d sing the “Be Yourself” song from the movie Just Friends. Remember when the mom starts singing it to the son. LOL. So funny!
Anyway, you gotta think for yourself, people.
Think for Yourself
Do what YOU want to do, and not what everyone else is doing. Who really cares what anyone else thinks anyway?
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Everyone else is going to college. Does that mean you have to go?
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Everyone else has a 401k. Should you have one? (*hint* – HEAVEN NO YOU SHOULDN’T!)
Everyone else has a job. Does that mean you have to have one? I don’t.
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Everyone else will be broke by the age of retirement. Will you?
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Everyone else will retire. Why?
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Everyone else has a relatively good chance of ending up in hell after they die. Where are YOU going?
The government, culture and world system have the wool pulled over the majority’s eyes. Most people are walking around half asleep and half hypnotized.
Snap Out of It
It’s time to start consciously thinking deeply about life and your place in it.
The world needs you awake, alert and alive. People need you. YOU. Not the you-that-looks-like-everyone-else.
Just you. Your unique gifts, ideas, and ways of thinking about life. You matter. You are important and valuable. We need YOU.
“He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
~ Isaiah 53:3 (in reference to Jesus)
Share Some Thoughts
How did you break away from the ‘cool, in’ crowd? Are you better for it? Share with us in the comments section below.
Stop following the herd – The herd is headed off a steep cliff. Like lemmings. (I have a pet lemming by the way. His name is Mike, and I’ve trained him to play chess. He lets me win every time.(
Know that the herd will hate you for this by the way – You being different doesn’t sit well with them. The cool crowd may shun you. But I’m learning very slowly (way too slowly) that cool…is a curse. Believe me, I know… I am REALLY freakin’ cool. I’m trying to stop though. CPA: Cool People Anonymous. I go every week. “Hello my name is Preston, and I’m cool.”
Just be you – you are awesome.
Preston Ely
is a real estate investor, serial entrepreneur, life coach, musician and philanthropist. CEO of Real Freedom, Inc, one of the most influential internet-based information publishers in the world, owns the largest Anytime Fitness Gym in the United States, is recording a music album with Atlantic Records, sits on the board of Advocates Of Love Orphanage, and has a non-profit charity assisting the poor and oppressed in Cuba with both their physical and spiritual needs.
With over 200,000 subscribers to his email newsletter, he is rapidly fulfilling his mission on earth, which is to glorify God by setting people physically, mentally, financially, and spiritually free through his music and his message of FREEDOM. Preston is 37 years old, lives in Tampa, FL with his wife Ashley, where he spends most of his time reading, writing, and practicing mixed martial arts.