Afford Anything

Category: Remarkable Lives

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What Most People Don’t Know About Pavlov’s Dogs

Disclaimer: This article contains a description of animal suffering. Reader discretion advised.

Most of us have heard about Pavlov’s dogs.

It’s a famous tale in the fields of physiology and psychology: Pavlov rang a buzzer, then fed his dogs; eventually his dogs began salivating at the sound of the buzzer. Most people think the story ends there.

Most of us don’t know what happened next.

The lesser-known epilogue to the saga of Pavlov’s dogs tells us that life isn’t as simple as it seems. Tragedy, stress, and grief can disrupt any training, thwart any plans, re-shape any personalities.

But human connection can repair the wound.

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28 Important Lessons from 2018

Here are a handful of lessons from 2018 (although many of these ideas originated during a lifetime preceding that). I’ve shared most, but not all, of these lessons on Instagram in the past year.

1: Your net worth is not your self worth. That’s true regardless of whether your net worth is low or […]

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We did it!! We raised $21,978 for charity

A year and a half ago, I saw a speech that changed my life — and the lives of at least 600 other people in the developing world.

I was at the World Domination Summit in Portland, where I’d later be speaking. I sat in the audience as Scott Harrison took the stage.

Scott is a former nightclub promoter who, at age 28, had a crisis of conscience. His job was encouraging people to get drunk. He smoked two packs a day. He gambled. He felt like he wasn’t adding anything to the world. And he wasn’t sure if, or how, he could.

“One day, I woke up and I realized I was the worst person I knew,” he wrote in an article on Medium.

He quit his job, sold most of his possessions, and spent the next two years as a photojournalist on a hospital ship off the coast of Liberia in west Africa. He saw diseases that were unlike anything he’d imagined.

As WIRED describes: “Some of the patients were grotesquely deformed by grapefruit-sized tumors, while others were nearly blind from cataracts that turned their eyes opaque.” (Here are images.)

He felt surprised — and then sad, then angry, then determined — when he realized that thousands of people die from preventable diseases, like cholera and dysentery, that are spread by drinking dirty water. More than 660 million people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water, which is almost 1 out of every 10 people. That’s twice the population of the U.S.

That’s unacceptable.

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You Can’t Change History From the Middle of the Bell Curve

“If Elon Musk has asked people what they wanted, they would have said better gas mileage.

“But Elon never bothered asking. Because he knows he can’t change history from the middle of the bell curve. And he knows design by consensus, by definition, leads to average results.”

Last week I published a transcript of the speech I delivered at the World Domination Summit, in which I challenged people to be true to themselves despite the fact that others may not like it.

A few days later, WDS released the video of the speech. (I had no idea they were going to release it so soon! I thought it would take a couple months.)

It’s the most heartfelt talk I’ve ever given. It’s deeply personal, and it describes a philosophy I’ve been creating for years. I’d encourage you to watch it here:

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How to Live Louder than the Sound of ‘Should’

One month ago, I made a speech at the World Domination Summit in Portland about the importance of being yourself, even if this requires setting difficult boundaries or relinquishing your people-pleasing tendencies.

If you’re a creative entrepreneur, such as an artist, writer, musician, designer, craftsman, entrepreneur, or any other type of creator … this is advice you might not have heard before.

I argue that your best business move is to stop giving a sh*t about what other people think. Even your customers.

It’s a counterintuitive philosophy, one that runs contrary to the seemingly-benign “I want to help others” mindset that’s preached in the world of online entrepreneurship. I argue that your effect on others is outside of your control, so the best thing you can do is be yourself and let the chips fall where they may.

Bending over backwards to please others is inauthentic and, ultimately, ineffective. People will be served the most when they see a confident, strong person who is true to themself.

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Love is Stronger Than Fear

I live in Las Vegas. This is my home.

Here are a few things that happened today:

Thousands stood in line for 6-8+ hours to donate blood. Hundreds more donated water, snacks and shade. Locals gathered on Facebook to offer free housing, rides, and pet-sitting for victims and volunteers. Airlines donated free flights to […]

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The Not-So-Secret Secret to a Happy Life

“I want an iPad!”

“I want a pony!”

“I want to take my family out for a $100 dinner, followed by $60 for a set of four movie tickets, $20 for popcorn and sodas, and $75 to fill up the gas-guzzling SUV that I bought on credit. And it’s SO HARD to save money! How can […]

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Think You Can’t Pay Off $147,106 in Debt? Guess Again.

There are Conformists, and there are Rebels.

The Conformist Majority says: “I have a 30-year mortgage, a 20-year second mortgage, a 10-year student loan and a 5-year car loan.”

“I’ll pay the minimum, and hold those debts for 30, 20, 10, and 5 years. After all, why deprive myself while I’m young?”

Worse, they’ll ask:

 […]

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