52 STEP I: D IS FOR DEFINITION

isn't, "What do I want?" or "What are my goals?" but "What would

excite me?"

Adult-Onset ADD: Adventure Deficit Disorder

S omewhere between college graduation and your second job, a

chorus enters your internal dialogue: Be realistic and stop pre-
tending. Life isn't like the movies.
If you're five years old and say you want to be an astronaut, your
parents tell you that you can be anything you want to be. It's harm-
less, like telling a child that Santa Claus exists. If you're 25 and an-
nounce you want to start a new circus, the response is different: Be
realistic; become a lawyer or an accountant or a doctor, have babies,
and raise them to repeat the cycle.
If you do manage to ignore the doubters and start your own
business, for example, ADD doesn't disappear. It just takes a dif-
ferent form.
When I started BrainQUICKEN LLC in 2001, it was with a clear
goal in mind: Make $1,000 per day whether I was banging my head
on a laptop or cutting my toenails on the beach. It was to be an auto-
mated source of cash flow. If you look at my chronology, it is obvi-
ous that this didn't happen until a meltdown forced it, despite the
requisite income. Why? The goal wasn't specific enough. I hadn't
defined alternate activities that would replace the initial workload.
Therefore, I just continued working, even though there was no fi-
nancial need. I needed to feel productive and had no other vehicles.
This is how most people work until death: "I'll just work until I
have X dollars and then do what I want." If you don't define the
"what I want" alternate activities, the X figure will increase indefi-
nitely to avoid the fear-inducing uncertainty of this void.
This is when both employees and entrepreneurs become fat men
inredBMWs.
 System Reset 53

The Fat Man in the Red BMW Convertible

T here have been several points in my life—among them, just be-

fore I was fired from TrueSAN and just before I escaped the
United States to avoid taking an Uzi into McDonald's—at which I
saw my future as another fat man in a midlife-crisis BMW. I simply
looked at those who were 15-20 years ahead of me on the same
track, whether a director of sales or an entrepreneur in the same
industry, and it scared the hell out of me.
It was such an acute phobia, and such a perfect metaphor for the
sum of all fears, that it became a pattern interrupt between myself and
fellow lifestyle designer and entrepreneur Douglas Price. Doug and I
traveled parallel paths for nearly five years, facing the same challenges
and self-doubt and thus keeping a close psychological eye on each
other. Our down periods seem to alternate, making us a good team.
Whenever one of us began to set our sights lower, lose faith, or
"accept reality," the other would chime in via phone or e-mail like an
AA sponsor: "Dude, are you turning into the bald fat man in the red
BMW convertible?" The prospect was terrifying enough that we
always got our asses and priorities back on track immediately. The
worst that could happen wasn't crashing and burning, it was accept-
ing terminal boredom as a tolerable status quo.
Remember—boredom is the enemy, not some abstract "failure."

Correcting Course: Get Unrealistic

T here is a process that I have used, and still use, to reignite life or
correct course when the Fat Man in the BMW rears his ugly
head. In some form or another, it is the same process used by the
most impressive NR I have met around the world: dreamlining.
Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most
would consider dreams.
54 STEP I: D IS FOR DEFINITION

It is much like goal-setting but differs in several fundamental respects:

i. The goals shift from ambiguous wants to defined steps.

2. The goals have to be unrealistic to be effective.
3. It focuses on activities that will fill the vacuum created when work
is removed. Living like a millionaire requires doing interesting
things and not just owning enviable things.

Now it's your turn to think big.

"►O&A: QUESTIONS AND ACTIONS

The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of

boredom.
—VIKTOR FRANKL, Auschwitz survivor and founder of
Logotherapy, Man's Search for Meaning
Life is too short to be small. —BENJAMIN DISRAELI

D reamlining will be fun, and it will be hard. The harder it is, the more
you need it. To save time, I recommend using the automatic calculators
and forms at www.fourhourworkweek.com. Refer to the model worksheet
on page 57 as you complete the following steps:

1. What would you do if there were no way you could fail? If you were
10 times smarter than the rest of the world?
Create two timelines—6 months and 12 months—and list up to five
things you dream of having (including, but not limited to, material
wants: house, car, clothing, etc.), being (be a great cook, be fluent in
Chinese, etc.), and doing (visiting Thailand, tracing your roots overseas,
racing ostriches, etc.) in that order. If you have difficulty identifying
what you want in some categories, as most will, consider what you hate
or fear in each and write down
 System Reset 55

the opposite. Do not limit yourself, and do not concern yourself

with how these things will be accomplished. For now, it's unim-
portant. This is an exercise in reversing repression.
Be sure not to judge or fool yourself. If you really want a Fer-
rari, don't put down solving world hunger out of guilt. For some,
the dream will be fame, for others fortune or prestige. All people
have their vices and insecurities. If something will improve your
feeling of self-worth, put it down. I have a racing motorcycle, and
quite apart from the fact that I love speed, it just makes me feel
like a cool dude. There is nothing wrong with that. Put it all down.
2. Drawing a blank?
For all their bitching about what's holding them back, most
people have a lot of trouble coming up with the defined dreams
they're being held from. This is particularly true with the "doing"
category. In that case, consider these questions:
a. What would you do, day to day, if you had $100 million in
the bank?
b. What would make you most excited to wake up in the
morning to another day?
Don't rush—think about it for a few minutes. If still blocked,
fill in the five "doing" spots with the following:
one place to visit
one thing to do before you die (a memory of a lifetime)
one thing to do daily
one thing to do weekly
one thing you've always wanted to learn
3. What does "being" entail doing?
Convert each "being" into a "doing" to make it actionable. Iden-
tify an action that would characterize this state of being or a task
that would mean you had achieved it. People find it easier to
brainstorm "being" first, but this column is just a temporary
holding spot for "doing" actions. Here are a few examples:
56 STEP I: D IS FOR DEFINITION

Great cook ■»■ make Christmas dinner Without he\p Flcenf in

Chinese m+ha\ie a five-minute conversation With a Chinese
co-Worker

4. What are the four dreams that would change it all?

Using the 6-month timeline, star or otherwise highlight the four
most exciting and/or important dreams from all columns. Repeat
the process with the 12-month timeline if desired.
5. Determine the cost of these dreams and calculate your Tar
get Monthly Income (TMI) for both timelines.
If financeable, what is the cost per month for each of the four
dreams (rent, mortgage, payment plan installments, etc.)? Start
thinking of income and expense in terms of monthly cash flow—
dollars in and dollars out—instead of grand totals. Things often
cost much, much less than expected. For example, a Lamborghini
Gallardo Spyder, fresh off the showroom floor at $260,000, can
be had for $2,897.80 per month. I found my personal favorite, an
Astin Martin DB9 with 1,000 miles on it, through eBay for
$136,000—$2,003.10 per month. How about a Round-the-World
trip (Los Angeles -> Tokyo -» Singapore -> Bangkok -» Delhi or
Bombay -> London -> Frankfurt -> Los Angeles) for $1,399?
For some of these costs, the Tools and Tricks at the end of
Chapter 14 will help.
Last, calculate your Target Monthly Income (TMI) for realizing
these dreamlines. This is how to do it: First, total each of the col-
umns A, B, and C, counting only the four selected dreams. Some
of these column totals could be zero, which is fine. Next, add your
total monthly expenses x 1.3 (the 1.3 represents your expenses plus
a 30% buffer for safety or savings). This grand total is your TMI
and the target to keep in mind for the rest of the book. I like to fur-
ther divide this TMI by 30 to get my TDI—Target Daily Income. I
find it easier to work with a daily goal. Online calculators on our
companion site do all the work for you and make this step a cinch.