The seasons are changing now in Colorado, the trees are no longer green, mornings require a jacket and the gym is more crowded than ever. For me, during this season of change I too try to find something new the expands my current endeavors and helps me grow; this season, enter a book…
Now I understand that reading is not a ground breaking activity nor am I going to preach to you about, “the new found mental growth since I started reading.” No. I read plenty. I’m simply going to write about a book I started and how it has started to inspire me to create more. The book is called, “Rebel Without A Crew” by Robert Rodriguez. It’s about creating against all odds, riding ambition to the absolute limits to bring to life something beautiful.
For those of you that don’t know, Robert Rodriguez is a director, this book is about his story in creating El Mariachi. The movie is fantastic and it had a budget of $7,000 and made a profit of $2,040,920… THAT IS INSANE!
What’s more insane is the story of how it came to be and why I’m actually writing about it. Because regardless of your opinions of film-making or the industry, this is about directing ambition and going to work on a passion. I think everyone can learn from someone who has done it successfully. But’s lets start by analyzing Rob’s situation here: no money, no equipment, and not even a name worth mentioning… Simply a vision. Some things in this world are so powerful they can will individuals to do amazing things, a vision is one of them, and I’m will to bet all of you reading this have had a vision of doing something great. The difference is about how you act on that vision.
What Does Your Vision Look Like…
- Long-term or short term
- Personal or to inspire others
- Lifestyle or objective based
Personally, my goals are personal with the intent of inspiring others. I set objective based goals that are short term. Short term for two reasons: because I’m impatient and so that I’m more effective in changing up my routines. This might work for you or might not, but you need to decide that based off what it is you want to accomplish.
Robert Rodriguez obtained $7,000 by volunteering for a drug study. He literally let people test and experiment with drugs on him in order to get the money he needed for his movie. I’m not suggesting any of you go out and do this but the lesson to take from this act is that Rob was willing to stop at nothing in order to make his vision come to life. So ask yourself, how far are you willing to go to obtain your goals? I only ask that because there have been too many times where I’ve talked with people about their goals and why they’re not striving for them anymore and more times then not it’s not a situational issue or financial issue, it’s a determination issue. I’ve found that people stop working on their dreams when those dreams start to require more than that which is within the individuals comfort zone. Which is a great thing believe it or not.
The reason this is great:
If you’ve ever come to this road block or a similar one then I applaud you because it means you haven’t accepted anything else as an excuse up until YOU get in your own way. It means you’re so close to getting to the next level, YOU are your only enemy, YOU are the only person that can limit your potential. Once you begin to accept that then your goals will find themselves more in focus.
At this point I’m sure there are plenty of you saying, “my goals would be so possible if I only had enough money.” And to that I’ll ask you a simple question, is it not then that your goals are only capable by having money or is it that your goal is in fact to have money? Because if your goal requires having money then make it your goals to get money. Simple. But my point is that excuses now are far and few because everyone thinks everything is impossible until it’s done and there are so many people in this world doing. Are you?
No money? Robert Rodriguez didn’t have anything fancy to create his movie, he used a wheel chair to to get smooth shots and duct tape was at his right hand at all times; improvisation was practically part of the daily routine, but he did it, he brought his vision to fruition despite any and all setbacks. The amount of excuses in this world is shrinking and the space for them is diminishing even quicker.
Kill Excuses…
- No Money —–> Bullsh*!
- No Time —–> Get Up Earlier
- Not Motivated —–> Watch this
Once you start limiting your excuses something truly amazing will begin to happen, you’ll find a way to get it done. I had a conversation a while ago with a mentor of mine that told me humans are interesting in the fact that by nature we’re lazy, we won’t be productive until it’s either necessary in order to survive or we limit our excuses so much until we push through it and get it done. If you need to stay up later in order to get it done, do it. If you need to spend that extra hour in the library to get it done, do it. If all you can think about is your goal then I need you to stop thinking and start doing because nothing will happen when there is no action. Comment below your story of success or advice if you’ve been through any of this.
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