Its pretty easy for people who have attained great heights to turn around to  the rest of us and offer advice as simple as “work hard”. But for those of us on the path, that advice is useless when we are faced with barriers that threaten to end our journey. As a teacher, a Sergeant of Marines, a personal trainer, and a mentor, I have seen a lot of good men and women fail to achieve their goals after being halted by one or more of these barriers. On your path to world domination, its important that you be made aware of these so that when you encounter them for the first time, you can recognize them for what they are. The 4 barriers to success are:

• Boredom
• Ignorance
• Isolation
• Surrender

Boredom

Success requires repetition and hard work. Its making the same cold calls to the same potential customers day after day, or standing on the same corner selling mixtapes every single day. Its going through the same physical fitness routines, performing the same speeches, doing the same profit and loss analysis, working on the same project at the same time every single day. The reward for constantly doing what works over and over again is achievement. Unfortunately, most people have a short attention span, and will go to the gym expecting to see instant results, or make calls expecting instant sales, or attempt to complete entire books and projects in one sitting. When the results they expect arent there after several work sessions, they become bored and conjure up some new idea, a new business, a new project to work on. The actual result is a resume of unfinished projects and half-attempted goals. Success will always be one new idea away for the man and woman that is easily bored.

Willful Ignorance

Willful ignorance describes a person who knows that they dont have sufficient knowledge, but tries to B.S. their way through it. A good example is the stock market. Everybody has an opinion on what a good stock pick would be, but none of them know how to read a company prospectus, or how to conduct a proper technical analysis of stock charts. Rather than taking the time to become competent, these people remain willfully ignorant. When you are first starting out in business, there are volumes of information that you will need to absorb and apply if you hope to be successful. If you decide you want to get in shape, theres alot you will need to learn about body mechanics, nutrition, and biological function (nothing makes me cringe like seeing a guy in the gym who has no idea what hes doing – he’s an injury waiting to happen).You should want to arm yourself with all the information you will need to do whatever it is that you choose to do. By choosing to remain ignorant you are choosing to fail.

Isolation

In Robert Greene’s landmark book, The 48 Laws of Power, he writes

“The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, and mingle.”

I have written about both the dangers of isolation as well as the importance of networking time and again, and still there are people who would say “Why should I network?” or “I can do this on my own”. My answer is that nothing worth doing can be done alone. The one-man company is extraordinarily rare, and even one man companies need accountants, suppliers, and professional support.  Theres no such thing as a self made athlete, entrepreneur, politician, or professional. More often than not, success is predicated upon having a capable team and a strong network. The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf. Lone wolves are dead wolves.

Surrender

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.” – Buddha

Giving up before reaching the finish line is one of the most common barriers to success.

There is a famous story written in the last century called Three Feet from Gold about  a prospector who gave up looking for gold after a good deal of time searching, only to later discover that he was just three feet away. The implications of the story are just as relevant today as they where last century.  So many people give up on their dreams and desires when they are literally three feet from the finish line. Imagine running a marathon only to give up in the last few feet. If you saw such a thing happen in front of you odds are you would ask, “Why doesn’t he just crawl the rest of the way?” But the fact is that this happens every day – people who are literally at the very edge of achieving their goals surrender.

These are barriers that everyone pursuing anything worthwhile will face. Now that you are able to recognize these barriers to your success, you can start to develop strategies for blasting through these barriers. In my Block Standard post, Blasting Through Barriers to Success, I give you some very specific ways to overcome boredom, willful ignorance, isolation, and surrender while you are on your path to world domination.

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An Ongoing Debate

“A traditional college degree, be it from a classroom or an online extension program run by an accredited university, is not all that it was once cracked up to be.

No longer can a general degree catapult a graduate into a higher class in society based on the intrinsic value of the degree itself. Likewise, the sheer number of degrees being churned out has diluted their worth to the point where they hold little more value than the high school diploma of yesteryear. Many jobs for which graduates will attempt to enter upon graduation may not even exist at the time in which they enroll.” – Taken from Technorati

A while ago, one of my homies asked me to do an article on the subject of whether college was really worth it or not. This has been an ongoing debate that has only gained fuel with the rapid devaluation of many 529 College Savings Plans, shrinking wages, and slow job markets for grads. As both a degree holder and an entrepreneur, I would have to answer both yes and no.

Yes and No

The fact of the matter is that if you hope to succeed working for somebody else, a college degree is essential. Most companies use a degree as a filter when deciding who to interview and ultimately hire. Additionally, the contacts that you get within a company during an internship could mean the difference between a smooth transition into familiar territory and an uncertain employment future. And surveys have shown that the higher your level of attainment as it relates to education, the more money you earn. Its important to know that these figures apply to employees, not entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, if your goal is to be self-employed, there is nothing that you cant learn about running a successful enterprise from bloggers and websites, or from the hundreds of thousands of books available at Amazon. You dont need college.

Dont get me wrong, Im a firm believer in the importance of knowledge and educating oneself. However, I also believe that a great many college students would do better to invest the money they pump into academic institutions, or use that money to start a small business. Time and time again we have seen proof of the fact that a college degree is not a precursor to success when it comes to being an entrepreneur:

Herbalist Djehuty Maat-Ra runs a multi-million dollar herbal company on the west coast. He built his operation from the ground up without a college degree

$ Sir Richard Branson left school when he was only 16. Ironically, his first successful business was publishing a magazine called Student

$ Of course, we all know that Bill Gates never graduated. Im sick of talking about him and hearing about him, so Im not going to make this post a Bill Gates love-fest

$ In high school, Ralph Lauren was known to sell neckties to his fellow students. In his yearbook, he stated that he wanted to be a millionaire. He studied business for two years at Baruch College but never graduated.

$ Michael Dell started a computer company called PCs Limited while attending the University of Texas at Austin. It became successful enough that Dell dropped out of school to operate it

For a detailed list of very successful college dropouts, check out the College Dropouts Hall of Fame.

If you Must Go

I don’t think that college per se is a scam. I do, however, think that the price of college is a scam. Colleges, like all consumer products, are divided by price point. There are the low end products (community colleges), the brand name middle priced products (State Colleges), and the high end luxury brands (Private Colleges and Ivy Leagues). The problem here is that students are paying for the same information at state colleges that they would get in community colleges. Even worse, the loans that are given to these students are just as bad as the sub-prime loans given out during the housing bubble and could mean financial Armageddon for these students once they graduate. Heres what Kathy Kristof of Forbes Magazine wrote on the topic in her article The Great College Hoax:

Mindy Babbitt entered Davenport University in her mid-20s to study accounting. Unable to cover the costs with her previous earnings as a cosmetologist, she took out a $35,000 student loan at 9% interest, figuring her postgraduate income would cover the cost.

Instead, the entry-level job her bachelor’s degree got her barely covered living expenses. Babbitt deferred loan repayments and was then laid off for a time. Now 41 and living in Plainwell, Mich., she is earning $41,000 a year, or about $10,000 more than the average high school graduate makes. But since she graduated, Babbitt’s student loan balance has more than doubled, to $87,000, and she despairs she’ll never pay it off.

“Unless I win the lottery or get a job paying a lot more, my student debts are going to follow me to the grave,” she says.

Considering the fact that you wont land a cushy, high-paying corner office job the day, year, or decade after you graduate coupled with the massive amounts of debt that you will leave school carrying leads me to give you the following advice: Dont shell out for State or high profile colleges. Attending a community college for two years and transferring to a four-year college or university could save you a bundle in tuition costs ($30,000 or more, according to the MSN Money article, College for Half Price). You can also save hundreds upon hundreds of dollars by CLEP-ing out of courses (the CLEP program lets you study material and then take your final exam instead of actually going through the course. If you already know Marketing, you can save a lot of time and money by just CLEP-ing and moving on).

Once you are in the work force, companies will sometimes reimburse you for pursuing higher education, so get hired first, then worry about that MBA (The only MBA Im interested in getting is a MASSIVE BANK ACCOUNT! But that’s just me).

So to answer the question posed by this post: Is college really worth it? The answer is ‘yes’ if you want to work in someone elses company and no, if you want to run your own. And if you must go to college, save money and time by starting out at community college, CLEP-ing subjects, and scraping up grants and scholarships to save money while avoiding student loans.

The Wrap Up

Its important that you decide which path is right for you. Being an entrepreneur is difficult to say the least. You will have to work around the clock, sacrifice time and energy, find out all the answers on your own, and learn to live on an unstable income. Sometimes, it will feel like you are flying by the seat of your pants. If all that isnt enough to dissuade you, as an entrepreneur you will statistically make less early on than your college graduated counterparts. But for all the risk involved there is massive reward, and over time you are statistically more likely to become very rich as an entrepreneur versus as an employee.

On the other hand, as an employee you enjoy a set schedule, set pay, set benefits, and a routine life. Your destiny within your company is not in your hands, however, and there is little chance you will be any more successful than the man at the desk next to you. There is nothing wrong with choosing either path as long as you know yourself.

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This post is a blast from the past (at least where my early days on Twitter are concerned). Daily Kicks in the Ass are motivational tweets that I would send out on a daily basis to inspire my followers. So here’s a list of every daily kick that I shot out. Refer back to this list on occasion to keep you motivated, and if you haven’t already, join me on twitter and you can receive some of these daily insights, as well as news and notes.*Punctuation and spelling have been modified to suit twitter’s 140 character limit. So dont comment on my bad spelling or grammar. Nobody else cares that you are an English major and correcting other peoples grammatical errors only proves one thing: youre a nerd. Just read and enjoy!

• 7 years from now, what will you have to show for what you’re doing right now? If your answer is “not much”, consider a new plan
• The answer is not to work harder, but to work smarter A job should be looked upon as a temporary inconvenience
• Who dares to teach must never cease to learn
• Wealth is when small efforts produce large results Poverty is when large efforts produce small results
• Don’t get stuck in resentment-Travel without dragging an emotional baggage full of past disappointments
• Doing anything remotely major will bring criticism Attempting  do anything large-scale will bring armies of haters Stay wit it!
• Create a personal advisory board
• Smart businesspeople focus on the things they have the power to change, not whining about the things they don’t
• Don’t overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself – You are better than you think!
• CONQUERING FEAR = DEFINING FEAR. What are you afraid of?
• Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action – ACT ON YOUR GOALS TODAY!
• Many a false step was made by standing still
• For things 2 get moving in your life, stop having new ideas and focus on finishing the old ones! Finishing is better than starting!!
• You’re either starting or quitting
• PRIORITIZE! There are always more demands than there’s time to meet them!
• Success is getting what you want Happiness is wanting what you get
• Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success They quit on the one yard line and never know how close they are
• Don’t wait for success; work, learn and progress until it comes to you
• A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him
• The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it!
• If you have a ‘why’ to live by, you can live with any ‘how’.  Go forth and conquer!
• If you neglect your hustle for one day it will neglect you for two
• Strength doesn’t come from winning, but from struggle. When U go thru hardship and decide not to surrender, that’s strength

• The greatest thing a man can do is to make the most possible out of what has been given him This is success, and there is no other
• Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you
• Motivation will almost always beat mere talent, so get motivated and conquer your world!
• A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty
• Everyone thinks of changing the world, but the great (wo)man thinks of changing himself, first!
• It isn’t easy  get others  believe in you until U have a track record. So go make your own track and build your own record
• To talk much and no nothing is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish. Put up or shut up today!
• Most obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we make up our mind to walk boldly through them!
• Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall
• Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
• I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it
• Every day is either a success or failure. Which do you want today to be?
• It is better to be defeated with integrity, than to win without it
• Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do
• One of the secrets 2 success is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks
• The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today’s work superbly well
• The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism
• You must fail often to succeed only once
• Yesterday’s joy will become today’s sadness; yet today’s sadness will grow into tomorrow’s joy
• Unless you act you will perish in a life of failure, misery, and sleepless nights
• Today I will surpass every action which I performed yesterday
• To multiply your value you must multiply your actions!
• Success comes to those willing to work a little bit harder than the rest!
• Remove from your vocabulary the words quit, cant, unable, impossible, failure, hopeless, and retreat; these are the words of fools
• Nature knows not defeat, why should you!
• Live today as if it is your last chance to prove your love and your greatness
• If you must be a slave to habit, then be a slave to good habits
• Do not waste a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, yesterday’s defeats, or yesterday’s aches of the heart
• Don’t be satisfied with yesterday’s accomplishments or indulge in self-praise
• Destroy procrastination with action. Dismember fear with confidence!
• Cherish each hour of this day for it can never return!
• Act now, for now is all you have!
• A man of sense is never discouraged by difficulties; he redoubles his effort, he perseveres, and infallibly prevails at last
• Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of
• First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you
• Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends
• Goals that are not written down are just wishes
• Define your business goals clearly so that others can see them as you do
• Do not let the future be held hostage by the past
• We all need lots of powerful long-range goals to help us past the short-term obstacles
• Keep your mind on the things you want and off the things you don’t want
• If you chase two rabbits, both will escape (Focus on one goal at a time!)
• If you focus on results, you will never change If you focus on change, you will get results
• My experience has shown that ppl who r good in biz aren’t so bcuz of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more
• If you think education is expensive, try ignorance
• Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!
• Success is not permanent. The same is also true of failure
• Everyone has his burden. What counts is how you carry it
• Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do
• Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great
• Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly
• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together
• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together
• Seize Today! Remember, you can earn more money, but when time is spent is gone forever
• It’s a very funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it
• They can conquer who believe they can He has not learned the first lesson is life who does not every day surmount a fear!
• It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide what to do
• Acknowledge rewards for they are your due; but welcome obstacles for they are your opportunities!
• Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things
• Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts
• Performance, and performance alone, dictates the predator in any food chain

• A failure establishes only this: that our determination to succeed was not strong enough
• In pursuit of success, you will hear  no’s until you find the person who will say yes don’t stop until you find that person!
• I’m sorry u feel bad about not meeting your goals–I would suggest that u begin meeting your goals in order 2  feel better (LOL!)
• The rut you’re in isn’t permanent, nor is it perfect. Escaping your rut is not a quick dig, but a slow climb
• “EXPECTATION BRINGS MISERY, ACTION BRINGS VICTORY!” DONT EXPECT TO BE SUCCESSFUL, GET UP AND TAKE YOUR SUCCESS!
• The presence of fear is not the absence of courage. Courage is doing wat u r afraid  do, so there can be no courage unless ur scared
• Get up, work hard, n do what you gotta do now so you can do what you wanna do later!
• In the end, you’re measured not by how much you try but by what you finally accomplish -Donald Trump
• You, Diddy, Trump, and Obama all have the same 24 hrs in a day. What makes them different is how they use those  hrs
• THE GREAT TRADGEDY OF LIFE IS THAT IT HAS TO END ONLY BY GIVING BACK TO THE WORLD CAN YOU REALLY LIVE EVER!
• LOOK AT YOUR  NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS HOW MANY OF THEM STILL ARENT ACHIEVED? GET UP N GET ON EM YOU HAVE MONTH!
• Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that!
• “You don’t have to stop being a gangster, just elevate your hustle. Remember, real gangsters wear suits”
• “A CONSISTENT VISION LEADS TO CONSISTENT ACTIONS THAT LEAD TO CONSISTENT RESULTS DEVELOP YOUR VISION AND GET MOVIN!”
• Daily Kick in the Ass: Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it Establish your priorities and go to work
• Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily
• “DONT TAKE ADVICE FROM PPL WHO ARENT WHERE U WANT TO BE
• Those who take action are rewarded, not those with the best ideas. There’s no reward  thinking it, only  doing it!”
• IF UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING, KEEP DOING IT!
• The bottom is the worst place to be. When the flood waters start rising, you will be the first to drown. RISE UP!
• “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can’t read or write, but those who refuse to learn”
• “He who overcomes shall inherit all things” – If you quit, there is a % chance you will never achieve!
• If you got a dream protect it People will tell you you can’t do it because they can’t do it!
• THERE ARE PPL WHO WILL LUV U NO MATTER HOW MUCH WRONG U DO, THERE R PPL WHO WILL HATE U NO MATTER HOW MUCH RIGHT YOU DO!
• When it comes to helping poor people: The best thing you can do 4 them is not be one of them
• To know and not to do is to not yet know.
• Ability is nothing without opportunity -Napoleon Bonaparte
• Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit

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Alot of the people I coach get really frustrated when it comes to getting out of their financial situation and getting their hustle on. I experienced this same frustration when I started out, and came to the realization that the problem I had wasnt a lack of money, it was a lack of ideas. I had no money because I had no ideas on how to make money.

That all changed when I picked up a book called Jump Start Your Business Brain by a guy named Doug Hall. He co-hosts a live radio show on WVXU in Cincinnati, is the founder and CEO of Eureka! Ranch, which is a corporate innovation, research and training center, and helps companies build their businesses with new ideas and strategies.The book didnt give me all the answers, but it started me down the right path. I highly recommend you check it out!

Ok, so where do ideas come from? The two best sources of new ideas are (1)”information cross-pollination” and (2) exposure to different ways of doing things.

Turning Information Into Ideas

Getting ideas from information is like cross pollination. Cross pollination occurs in the animal kingdom when birds and insects carry seed from one plant to the other, fertilizing the receiving plant in the process. Vast fields of blooms are the result of these animals going from plant to plant. Coming up with fertile ideas is rarely the result of reading a single book or studying a single subject matter. You will harvest your best ideas from going from book to book and subject to subject. You are more likely to discover new ways to make money by studying biology, history, sociology, and Mediterranean cooking along with business and financial books that if you just studied books on making money.

A great example of cross-pollination is the discovery of Velcro. The inventor combined his knowledge of engineering with his study of nature and became filthy rich. I make it a point to regularly diversify my information diet by reading books on a diverse array of subjects, listening to podcasts that are informative but have nothing to do with money (like Blog Talk Radio’s Zeitgeist Movement podcast), and watching The History Channel. Read newspapers from other cities and other countries. Watch channels that you have never watched before. Diversify your knowledge intake. The result could be the million dollar idea that youve been waiting for.

Turning Exposure Into Ideas

One of the best ways to gain exposure to new and different ideas, practices, and opportunities is travel. The time I spent overseas was more than just a break from the sameness of American society; it was an opportunity for me to experience first hand how other cultures lived and thrived. I discovered solutions to problems that they had come up with. For instance, Japan’s small land mass meany they didnt have room for expansive parking lots. Their solution was to build a mechanical parking garage that could store parked vehicles in a much smaller facility. My travels in the middle east exposed me to Aquaponics, a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics that allowed Africans to grow both crops and fish in the middle of the desert. Traveling is the absolute best method of coming up with new ideas. Just look at what Ed has done with the Japanese vending machine business model. (I wish I could find a Georgia Coffee in America!)

If you cant get to Japan, try heading to any other region right here in America. The cultures in Seattle, Los Angeles, Mobile, Louisville, and Baltimore are all different from each other. If youre not from those areas, you can learn much from the way they do business and take the ideas you come up with back home to launch a new and different product or service.

And even if you cant get outside of your region physically, theres the internet. Sites like this, The Block Standard Network, Dream and Hustle, and many others are all dedicated to helping you come up with new hustles and ideas that could help you change your financial situation. There really is no excuse for limiting your exposure.

Capturing Ideas

Keep a notepad on you at all times. Keep a notepad next to your bed. Keep a notepad with you while youre in the gym. The best ideas have the tendency to pop up when you least expect them to. Dont run the risk of forgetting your million dollar idea because you didnt write it down!

ACT!

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.” – Swami Vivekananda

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” – Buddha

Action is the most important thing when it comes to ideas. I have talked about this before in my post, Ideas are Useless, where I also gave you step by step instructions for capitalizing on them. Dont talk yourself out of the idea before taking action on it, but put it into action. Wear it out. Do everything in your power to make your idea work. Truly put it to the test. Invest your life savings into making it successful. If you have invested a godly amount of effort and money into making your idea successful and it still fails, only then can you call it a bad idea and move on to the next idea thats written down in your book. Re-read Swami Vivekananda’s quote above.

Diversify your knowledge, gain exposure to new ideas and cultures, capture your ideas in writing, and put the idea into action. This is one of the many formulas for success.

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