Some stories just blow up your day.
Today while writing this article I came across Alex Look. He went to the Supernova Music Festival in Israel to have a good time.
The unthinkable happened. Terrorists overtook the festival. Alex and 30 other people took cover in a bomb shelter. The purpose of the shelter was to stop rockets but not bullets.
The bunker had no door. So Alex used his body as a human shield.
He was sprayed with bullets. 30 lives were saved as a result of his brave act. He obviously died. Now we have a war on our hands.
I tell you this story because this is what dangerous minds do.
They dare to put other people’s needs ahead of their own. And they change history in the process.
The alternative to a dangerous mind is to be normal
I call this hell.
Being normal comes with so much hidden pain.
- You have to ask for permission.
- You get paid less than you’re worth.
- You get thrown around like a rag doll, bouncing from one thing to the next.
- You get bossed by multiple bosses who exploit and manipulate you for profit.
The temptation to be normal is enormous. Everyone wants you to fit in so they feel like they fit in. You’re told not to stress. To avoid it. To stay away from hustle culture and burnout.
So you bounce around in the land of comfortable. But comfortable isn’t a useful place to be. Screw being normal.
Think about the gym. Muscles only grow when they are put under extreme stress. The growth happens at the point of muscle failure.
What’s sad is many people don’t understand this reality applies to life, too.
Here are a few things you can do to have a dangerous mind and become a contrarian who gets unfair advantages in life.
1. Failure and rejection are free energy
Weak minds run from failure and rejection.
They see them as weak points. It’s not their fault and I’m not trying to point bazookas at their pretty faces. But seriously, rejection and failure are blessings — not curses.
When you get rejected or go through failure it means you’re trying. You’re putting effort into goals and getting feedback.
That’s right, failure and rejection are feedback.
They tell you what does and doesn’t work. They tell you to try more times instead of give up. But most people don’t get their glorious message.
Dangerous minds love failure and rejection because they act as a redirection. They help you change your mind. They make you adaptable.
They even make you pissed off. And getting pissed off is one of the greatest states there is. When we get pissed off we actually take action instead of indulging in mental ma$turbation.
Increase the negatives to get more positives.
2. Dance between insanity and wise buddha
Recently in a live class I taught we hit the 90-minute mark.
150 people were still on the call. We’d run out of things to say. So I just started giving wild answers to people’s questions. I got a little spicy. I stopped telling people what they wanted to hear.
One person said “It feels like sometimes you’re a wise buddha and other times what you say and do looks like pure insanity.”
I’m no buddha, I can guarantee you. But I do think dangerous minds operate in between these two worlds.
That’s the thing about chasing impossible goals and trying to do big things: you need a little craziness combined with equal parts of wisdom. And wisdom comes from doing things. It comes from experiments, small bets, and networking with others.
If you don’t go a little insane you’re probably not trying hard enough.
3. Chase money and use it as a resource
You’re told to do the opposite.
That’s so wrong. Money can buy you luxury but what it’s better at is being a resource for good. Money can buy you helpers, tools, and physical materials that can rescue those in need.
Seeing money as evil is a nuclear mindset.
It can blow up your life in ways you can never imagine. The point is to figure out money so you can forget about money. It seems counter-intuitive, and they’re the paradoxes you should decode.
What’s weird about money is it’s a resource for those who decide to be resourceful to earn it. And resourcefulness is a mindset anyone can adopt. Just ask yourself: “What’s another way to achieve this goal?”
Chances are you’ll come up with thousands of strategies.
4. Stop giving a crap about what sideliners think
Sideliners sit on the sideline.
They watch everyone else “do” while they:
- Stay comfortable
- Watch from a distance
- Have strong opinions
- Throw dog poo from the peanut gallery at those on the field
- Acquire ‘experience’ (aka years sitting idle) & memorization IQ points
Forget the critics, naysayers, and trolls. They have a million problems that are none of your business. Everyone can talk but not everyone should listen to what is said.
Dangerous minds can filter the signal from the noise and block out sideliners from their thoughts. If someone wants to knock you then make it a rule they must achieve 10x more than you. The list will get shorter.
5. Just show up for longer than anyone else
Dangerous minds spend a stupid amount of time on one thing.
I spent 5 years writing online and making $0. When I tell people, they think I’m bat-sh*t crazy. They don’t get it. Why would anyone not cash in and enjoy the rewards?
The reason is rewards are overrated.
The rewards from obsession are the act of getting to do that one thing you can’t stop thinking about. I don’t want rewards to distract me from the daily execution that puts a big fat smile on my ugly little face.
If you planned in 5 and 10 year timeframes there’d be nothing in your way. And the concept of competition wouldn’t exist.
6. Have an obsession and chase it to the ends of the Earth
A dangerous mind is obsessed. Possessed, even.
While zombies walk the streets glued to their phone screens, dangerous minds do the opposite. They live in the moment. They disconnect from the Matrix. They may even meditate to escape the chaos for 30 minutes.
Obsession is weird because it automates all of your decisions.
It takes over your mind and becomes the only thing you can think about. So you don’t need coaching, university, or free mentors that’ll disappear because they’re not getting paid.
When you’re obsessed people treat you differently. There’s this level of quiet confidence and drive that acts as a steamroller to almost any obstacle or sly remark.
It’s hard to get thrown off your game. It’s hard to feel lost. It’s hard not to know what to do. It’s hard to fail.
The only goal a dangerous mind should have is to relentlessly look for what one is obsessed with. Once you find that thing it’s a cheat code to life that helps you play on god mode.
7. Live many tiny deaths
I had a call with Nick, a former banker friend, today.
We haven’t spoken for 5 years. At the end of the call he said “Man, I hardly can relate to you anymore. You seem like a different person.”
This is the greatest compliment you can ever get. It’s a sign you’ve killed many versions of yourself to become something more. I can’t even relate to who I was 6 months ago.
It’s like I am a piece of software and every month there are a bunch of version updates that make the old code irrelevant.
I go to the Life App Store, download the updates, and reopen my mind’s app to see a new user interface and a bunch of new features I could’ve never predicted.
No one should murder their physical body. But we should all murder the code that runs our minds.
100. Treat strangers with love, kindness, and respect
Wait, what?
Has Timbo lost his freaking mind?! Yep. Dangerous minds treat humans differently. While the culture war wants us to murder each other with debates and insults … dangerous minds do the opposite.
Love, kindness, and respect are in short supply.
So when you take a finite resource, and use it, you stand out. None of these tools are hard to use. All you do is think to yourself, “How would I want to be treated?” then do that.
Love is on the decline because it can’t start wars that give small groups of people more power. Only hate can divide and then conquer humans.
Be dangerous and reject hate. Hate is stupid.
