It’s okay, I didn’t know either when I was your age.

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Growing up in the late 1990s was not a time that was known for creating new successful entrepreneurs. In fact, I was no more than just an average kid in his early 20s and thought that I would just figure life out as I went. I dropped out of college, became a ski bum, got married, had kids, and spent most of my 20s and early 30s with really no direction. I did the best I knew how with what I knew just working average jobs. It wasn’t until I lost a really good job after the market crash of 2008 that opened my eyes to what was possible for someone like me.

After losing my job, I started a small business building fences on people’s property. One of my customers was very impressed with my business acumen and my employees, he said that I reminded him of Andrew Carnegie. The customer then mailed me a book by Carnegie and told me I needed to read it.

After reading the book, the 1937 classic Think and Grow Rich, I was a changed man. I was 37 years old and was finally introduced to the secret of becoming very successful. At first I was incredibly angry after finishing the book. For two weeks I stopped around the house completely pissed off that the content in this book was not taught to me at a younger age. “Why wasn’t this required reading when we were kids?” I would scream.

I was in my late 30s when I discovered the secrets to incredible business and financial success but lucky for you, you are getting this now while you are still young. Don’t let me mislead you. It wasn’t a lucky break that my customer sent me this book. I had to risk greatly during a very hard time in my life to start my business after losing my job. I also had a wife and two young kids depending on me to be successful. I created my own luck by starting my business and doing the hard shit to earn the trust and respect of the successful man that sent me the book. There is no luck!

Since then Carnegie’s book is only the foundation of which I started to succeed. I have learned so much more over the years.

When you are just starting out in life, you don’t know shit! And that’s okay. You just need to be able to continue to learn. It’s okay, I didn’t know this stuff either when I was your age but now I do and now… you will too.

The first thing you must do is understand that you should never blame yourself for being so idealistic. Your proclivities to be a dreamer and “pie in the sky” are not your fault. We are humans with advanced brains and have the ability to visualize our future with vivid clarity. With that said, you must now have a firm understanding that your dreams of success are a real thing. It’s not imaginary or pretend because you are using energy and matter in your brain to formulate these big dreams. The same natural forces and laws of nature that created the earth and everything that you can materially see.

Now, you must know that everything you want from your life is incredibly possible. This is where I failed for so many years as a young person. I was from a middle class family raised in northern Wyoming. I thought my options were limited. Looking at my operations and bank accounts today, I can see just how blind I was to what real opportunity looked like!

You should also never blame those who raised you or mentored you as a youth. What they didn’t know they could not teach. Also, don’t blame your friends or the associations you had in your past. People who don’t follow their own dreams rarely encourage others to do so. Let go of any animosity toward your raising. Even God can’t change your past so why worry about it.

The one mistake I made years ago was not to prioritize my success. This is understandable because if you don’t know you can be super successful, you’ll never put it as a priority. You must now make time and be disciplined in that time to study success. I know this can be hard because success is a lot like working out. You’ll do it for a few weeks with little results and it’s easy to give up on. But consistency is the secret here. Just keep studying and work to apply what you have learned. I guarantee, if you develop a habit of studying success and applying it to your work, you will start to see a result.

The funny thing about discipline is that a lot of people think that the most disciplined among us are just born with a heightened discipline gene. I don’t believe in a discipline gene or a talent gene or a fear gene. You are who you are by influence and a record of your historical experiences. Science is proving this over and over. While it’s not popular to think that work and discipline are the secret to success, I’ll give you something much easier to work with. Addiction!

When you see a very successful person that looks to be highly disciplined, what you are actually seeing is their addiction for their success. Discipline is hard and requires work, but addiction is consuming and uncontrollable. If you were wanting to start a new tech company, discipline would not be enough. You would have to become addicted to it.

Luckily for us humans we were “blessed” with an addictive nature. I say blessed figuratively because as we all know addiction can be bad if alcohol, drugs, or any other destructive activities are involved. You must know that you can reverse your addictive nature to work to your benefit. I’m addicted to making this magazine the best there is and teaching young people how to be successful. That’s all I can think about every day. I have no choice but to keep working on it. It consumes me!

What successful thing can you become addicted to? I’m not talking passion here, I’m talking hopelessly hooked on making whatever it is you love doing your purpose in life. What will you give up your friends and family time for? What would you give a childhood up for? This is how the most successful people think.

“A childhood is an overrated concept. You can have a much better childhood when you are older and have the affluence, power, and freedom to really enjoy it.”

~TS Grover (Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s personal trainer)

I understand the above quote goes against everything you were taught. But I have to ask, how’s everything you were taught working out? While there is so much more for you to learn, I hope that in just a few articles I am able to open your eyes to a whole new world. A world I didn’t know existed either when I was your age.

If you know anything about Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” concept you will see that most really good movies and books use this concept as their theme. The Matrix is the perfect example. Put simply, the hero leaves his ordinary world to explore the extraordinary world where incredible success is waiting for him. But he must be tested in many ways before he will ever be successful. Most of you are still in your ordinary world. But that’s okay, you probably didn’t know.

Your biggest challenge is to take the first steps into the extraordinary world. This will be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. It will require going against most everything you were taught in the ordinary world like financial security, staying safe, risk averseness, education, and finding a good career. Those who have succeeded greatly generally go against these acceptable social constructs and begin breaking the rules. This is why you see so many high profile people getting entangled in scandals, being investigated, and having public discourse. They are used to not following the rules and they push the limits of what they can get away with.

I’m not saying that you have to be a criminal or break the law to be successful. What I am saying is that you must be willing to push the limits and see how far you are willing to take it because the extraordinary world of success just doesn’t recognize the ordinary. If you are average with mediocre results, you will get eaten alive in the extraordinary world.

As a young person, you have so much more to learn but start out by knowing that just because you didn’t know it before doesn’t mean you won’t be super successful. You are learning it now and that’s what matters. Find a way to become addicted to what you do and do it every day with deliberate practice. Reduce the time you spend with friends and family and become more laser focused on what you want to be successful at. Insulate yourself from worrying about what others might think or say and begin taking the first steps into the extraordinary world of success.

It won’t be easy and you will have many failures. But don’t feel alone. People your age are doing it every day. I absolutely guarantee that once you begin, you will start to see something far better than you are seeing now.