Thirty Million Dollar Mindset

So, I saw Jupiter Ascending.

I really liked it.

A lot of people didn't like it.

These are the same people who complain about a lack of originality in Hollywood.

So, fuck 'em.

And from this point on, I'm going to actively repel people in my life who do not want me to succeed.

This isn't a matter of being a snob.

Saying you will succeed isn't snobbish. Dismissing someone's accomplishments is snobbish.

It's the definition of being a snob.

It's an unwarranted criticism from someone who doesn't deserve the time of day.

I wanna succeed, and I'm going to surround myself with people who want to succeed.

And I'm going to hang around people who are in touch with me creatively on a larger level.

Nicholas Meyer didn't watch a lot of Star Trek. If he did, it might have stunted him from pushing the series forward. He dug into things he was passionate about. Mainly, Napoleonic naval warfare. And he bled that into Star Trek, and he created some of the greater films in the series.

A lot of people look at the culture at large as some sort of get rich quick scheme. Sometimes it works, even to the point where it makes a good artist angry and loathsome.

But it doesn't last long. All con artists get caught eventually.

It takes a balance. A lot of people wanna be Kubrick. They treat the film they're working on like they're Kubrick. No studio today is going to give a young director Kubrick money or Kubrick power.

But Kubrick didn't have access to the things a lot of young filmmakers have access to. 

It's both easier and harder to be a filmmaker.

It's easy to do things. But society wants more. Hitchcock might not have been able to maintain a social media campaign. It is what it is.

And maybe we're a better society because of it.

Maybe Hitchcock getting caught on his bullshit if he were to live in the modern era would be a good thing. Like Bill Cosby.

It's a new world. Plan accordingly. A lot of history is nostalgia, so beware putting the past on a pedestal. Opera was a crude artform for poor people. People with class stayed home and sang madrigals. It's in Gone With The Wind.

There's so much room so for so many interesting opportunities.

There's a project I've been thinking about.

I've been thinking about it since 2007.

Since high school.

It's something that always comes back to my mind when things get hard.

For this project to exist, I'm going to need thirty million dollars.

Now, there are many other projects I have to execute before I can get to this.

This project is my Ganondorf. It's my Ganon.

I died a lot of times before I got to Ganondorf. Not just that, I took time off and did other things because life got in the way. 

When I was a kid playing Legend of Zelda for the first time, I didn't realize I had to light the Deku Stick on fire. I was in that chamber for a good three days.

It seems silly, and it is. But, eventually, with time, you play the game, you beat Ganondorf, and you beat Ganon.

It's not about how slow you go, as long as you finish, so said Confucius (although people wonder if Confucius actually existed, blahblahblah, cognitive dissonance, little picture)

The point is, there's going to be a lot of time focusing in on this thing. Maybe someone else could have come along and done a better job. But they are not here right now, and I am. And after that's done, we move onto Majora. Did I ever beat Majora? I don't even remember...

And as long as there's something to do (which there is a lot of), I'm going to keep showing up till said thing is done.

I always thought I was guilty to aim for something like this.

But in order to acquire that kind of opportunity, you're going to need to do 30 million dollars of work. And to get the results you want, you have to be better than the results that you want. Everyone thinks they're underpaid at their job. This will be no different.

But the truth is, I plan to exceed those expectations. And not feel guilty if things turn out right.

You can't be afraid of success.

I mean, it's life right? And we know we're gonna die right? And the haters don't follow us to the afterlife right?

So, what's the problem?

Weight Loss Terrorists: The Brain Is The Strongest Muscle

A lot has been said about the various diets, workout plans, and nutritional supplements that we are convinced will work like some elixir and make the fat go away. We have been led to believe that the quest for some "fountain of fit" will allow us to gorge our faces at the buffet while our chiseled abs remain impervious to the effects.

Even if you were to find such a thing, human nature would make you tinker with it. You would eat fried chocolate eclairs just cause you can. Your arrogance would be your caloric downfall.

There may even be a short period of time (after hard conditioning) where we find that this can actually happen. But, what goes up must come down, and you might find yourself at the bottom of a mountain that you now recognize as your stomach.

In order to live out your dreams, you need to have the right mindset. A lot of us have goals that we keep off into the distance. We fantasize about what we are going to do this summer vacation.

We say "I have little time to do what I want with my busy schedule, but when vacation comes I will do half of everything I've ever wanted to do ever", and yet when the vacation comes, we find that it's impossible to sleep all week and see the world at the same time.

Our dreams seem like an amazing picture in the background of our lives. We like looking at it from where we are, but the difference between achieving your dreams and letting life pass you by is that the achievers go out and be part of that picture.

Sometimes we are afraid to be part of the picture. It's one thing to look at the Empire State Building as a country bumpkin (or a city boy looking at a tractor...whatever), but going inside the Empire State Building does not seem as glamorous as it does from the outside. We find obstacles on our way there, people do not share the enthusiasm for something we find valuable.

We hesitate because for some strange reason, the opinions of idiot strangers matter to us.

In reality, you shouldn't care. If it's your dream to go to the Empire State Building, do it, and don't worry about anybody else, because believe me, no one's going to worry about you. The people in life who should take the second to overthink what evil they are about to commit are either a) never the ones that do, or b) thinking about it and doing it anyway

I'm not saying go out and pursue self-destructive behavior, but if your dream isn't hurting anybody, hell, if your dream is making the lives of the people around you better, you should pursue it like a rottweiler.

The only thing guaranteed in life is you, your dreams, and your deathbed. You want to not pursue something because a degenerate somewhere told you not to? That's ridiculous.

Great people have always had opposition. Superheroes have supervillains. Normal people aren't super, and neither are the haters. We all indulge in hating on people every once in a while. I have uncreative talentless hacks, it's the monster I wake up to fight every morning. Sometimes when I feel I've created something that doesn't feel unique enough, I even hate myself.

But when you decide not to do something to better ourselves out of some need not to hurt someone's feelings, what does that accomplish? Not much. You don't go to the gym because your older sister is fat, and she mocks you for working out? What do you accomplish by bending to her pudgy needs? Not much.

Two pudgy sisters, which isn't to say you can't work it, but your sister will then hate you for having a personality.

In my own personal experience, I find that bending to a hater's needs will not make them accountable in the future. They're not going to thank you for worrying about them, they're going to throw you under the bus and hate on you for being inferior.

So workout, develop a personality, become talented, do something with yourself in whatever little time you have left in the day. I hope you're doing some push-ups while reading this. I'm not, but I've been working out this week, which has been the first time in a while.

Baby steps still burn calories.