Maxwell Murphy

Why Ron Paul should stop asking me for money

I'm a huge fan of Ron Paul.

I will vote for him for president anytime he's on the ballot.

I will try to convince my friends and family to vote for him.

But I won't send a penny to "support" his campaign.

Why?  Because I know all he's gonna do is waste my money on TV commercials and junk mail.  TV commercials and junk mail don't work.  I don't buy them for the products I market.  Why would I buy them for Ron Paul?  That was the old days.  Spreading the word is free now.

Instead of asking me for a few dollars, Ron Paul should be asking me to DO SOMETHING to support the cause I believe in.  He should be asking me to give speeches, write articles, write status updates and have conversations.  He should be asking me to wear a sign and give "Free Hugs for Ron Paul".

Asking for money is SO LAME.  I have much more to give.

I know what the campaign is gonna say when they read this... "We need to raise a lot of money to show Ron Paul is a serious contentender for the nomination."

BS.  Turn it on its head.  Send back every donation you've received.  Raise $0.  And brag about it.

"You don't need to run ads when you've got a better product.  Our supporters spread the message themselves, it's as simple as that.  Honest ideas don't need to be forced on people."

Going to a rally to see a politician you love and then being asked for a donation is a lot like making love and then being asked for a donation.  It gives you that not so awesome feeling!

Ron Paul supporters deserve AWESOME.  We cannot buy the election with our dollars.  That's not a problem.  Because if you EMPOWER us we can win the election with our support.

It probably doesn't matter how fast you work.

It probably does matter what you do.

dancing with opportunity

Great post from Seth today.

Do you spend an hour and a half each day improving your skills?

The girls at Tropical massage parlour in Sihanoukville Cambodia earn $60 a month.

Each morning from 8:30 to 10am they have an English class to improve their language skills.  If the girls want to take part in the lessons they pay $10 per month.  They all do.

Do you spend 1/6 of your income on developing new skills?

Do you spend 1.5 hours per day developing new skills?

My brother gave me some great advice the other night

Not sure if he made it up or picked it up or what... but I wanted to write it here to make sure I remember it.

He said, "Just build something you want to use yourself everyday."

And then... "Launch is the starting line.  Just get to the starting line."

Core

I'm fascinated with the notion (explored wonderfully in Tony Robbins' TV special Breakthrough) that there's something at the core of a person... a strength, a confidence, a force of certainty, a force of will... from which all else follows. If it's off we can (and must) turn it on. All success, all chrisma, all ideas, all happiness flows from a power at our core, an optimism, a confidence.

Are you no good at ____ or are you just out of shape?

Know how it feels when you've loafed for two months and you finally hit the gym again?

Of course.  You're weak.  You can't do nearly what you used to do.  Hurts like hell.  The next day you're sore in muscles you didn't even know you had.

But just because you're not in shape doesn't mean you're no good at working out.  You just need to push through the pain and get back into your groove.

I noticed something.

I get out of shape at tons of stuff... phone calls, sales calls, comedy.

These are all things I know I'm pretty good at.  The question is, what have we been telling ourselves we're "no good at" when really we're just not in shape?  Or haven't ever been in shape.

Note to Self: What Investors are Looking For

Angel Investors and VCs talk about risk all the time. It's easy to assume they're looking for something that just might work.

However, the subtle truth is, investors don't invest in things that look or feel risky. They invest in things that look certain to succeed. Sure, only a small number of investments turn into home runs. But 100% of them looked like FOR SURE HOME RUNS when they wrote the check. That's why they wrote it.

Investors look like risk takers in hindsight.  Investors look like risk takers from 10,000 feet.  But up close--like when they're looking at YOUR DEAL--investors do not look (or act) like risk takers.

Don't aim for LIKELY to succeed.

Want your new start-up to succeed? Launch fugly.

Craigslist.  Google.  Facebook.  Wikipedia.  All fugly.

Why do people use fugly products?  Because they're amazingly useful.

The problem with beautiful design is it tricks entrepreneurs into thinking their quite useful product will succeed.

Quite useful = failure, no matter how well-packaged.

Amazingly useful = success, no matter how fugly.

So my strategy is to launch fugly.  Don't let yourself be the pretty boy/girl without a personality or a brain.  Force yourself to succeed in the early days despite your fugly appearance.  And then when everything else is working go in for a haircut and start putting on some make-up.

I don't know how

Most people let "I don't know how" rule their life.  They DO things they know how to do.  They find someone else to do the things they don't know how to do.

The problem is, finding people is expensive and slow and very often the people we find don't actually save the day.  But that's not our fault.

We don't start that new company.  We don't bring our idea to life.  We don't make our dream happen.  But that's not our fault either.

We embrace the idea we're "delegating".  We pat ourselves on the back for being efficient.  We define ourselves by what we know how to do.

Pretty silly in a world where it's possible/free to learn how to do just about anything.

I don't know how is a joke, and the joke is on you.