Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

–Napoleon Hill, Writer
THE MOTIVATION CYCLE: HOW TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS
G
reat results require a great commitment. Commitment fires the process-
principle where habits become lifestyle and lifestyle becomes winning results.
When everyone sleeps, the ballerina is at the studio practicing. When
everyone orders pizza, the fitness competitor orders salad. When everyone
parties like it's 1999, the inventor locks himself in his basement and grinds his
idea.
So where does this kind of commitment come from?
Not from willpower or motivational videos.
If commitment had a spark plug, it would be 
meaning-and-purpose—the core
reasons WHY you act and continue to act, even through hardship, criticism,
failure, and seemingly impossible odds
.
Like a Kevlar vest, meaning-and-purpose is an “I don’t give a crap” attitude
toward the YouTube comment trolls who called your latest video stupid. It yanks
you to the stage to speak when you’re scared shitless. It’s your latest business
venture despite the nonbelievers in your family who say you’re nuts, often citing
your nine earlier failures.

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Meaning-and-purpose is the fuel that powers 
the motivation cycle
—the heat
that churns your soul, torpedoing you forward when others crawl back to bed.
As we ascend into the 
UNSCRIPTED
framework, your meaning-and-purpose
and its motivation cycle are the catalyst to act, persist, and win. While rewritten
3Bs inspire starting, your meaning-and-purpose and its motivation cycle inspire
finishing.
THE WHY: YOUR CORE DRIVER
One can never underestimate the power of a moment. For me, it was a
seemingly insignificant conversation. My memory, however, would prove
otherwise. I stood in the fraternity hallway talking to three of my brothers. It was
just days from graduation, and my friends and I were discussing their post-
graduation jobs. When I disclosed my future employment, which was nil, I
confessed: I didn’t job interview because I’m an entrepreneur. (Notice my
identity!) One of my fraternity brothers snickered and with smug impunity said,
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to work out for you.” He then crowed about getting

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hired at some entry-level accounting job from a “big-three” firm,
braggadociously predicting that within a few years, he’d be earning a six-figure
paycheck. I, with equal smugness, retorted, “That’s awesome; maybe someday I’ll
hire you.”
This conversation lasted minutes. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, it
seared my mind. It was something I’d remember and think about often. It fired
me up, pissed me off, and deepened my convictions. While I never saw this frat
guy again, his belittling comment served me for years and ignited one of my
many whys—the specific motivations behind passionate action.
Aside from my pompous frat brother, here was my list of WHYs:
I hated suits, and the thought of wearing one was unbearable.
I wanted to own a Lamborghini.
I wanted to ease the burden for my single mother.
I wanted to retire early and write a book about retiring early. (LOL)
I didn’t want “money problems” to potentially damage a marriage.
Whatever your WHYs, they must be strong enough to incite action that
borders on the obsessive. What “whys” will compel you to work on a Saturday
night while your bros are partying? What “whys” will compel you to drive the
160,000-mile Honda when your wingman drives a new Camaro? And are these
“whys” hot enough to steam water when things go cold? Fiery WHYs overpower
expiring willpower and fizzling passion. Lukewarm WHYs translate into neither
meaning nor purpose, but action-faking. Without solid WHYs, effort sinks in the
first storm.
For example, the most common storm new entrepreneurs face is called the
desert of desertion
. The desert of desertion is the duration from idea to your first
sale. It is the absence of the feedback loop in the motivation-cycle (and within
the process-principle) and it could go on for months, perhaps years. In one
instance, an entrepreneur at my forum designed his own luxury brand of
sunglasses. From idea to creation to first sale was nearly two years. This two
years of high activity and zero feedback is the arid desert. Without
reinforcement, quitting becomes easy. Too easy. Life gets in the way: your job,
the kids, or the lure of the next hot opportunity.
Without outside confirmations, it’s easy to rationalize greener pastures: “Eh,
this isn’t going to work” or “No one is going to buy this” or “There has to be
something easier.”
Meaning-and-purpose is the camel you want in this desert—not willpower.

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Another storm meaning-and-purpose overcomes is pain and ridicule.
Several years ago, a young man posted a forum proclamation that he would
be a millionaire by twenty-five. Unfortunately, his lengthy declaration lacked
substance, and the forum denizens ridiculed him. However, as the years passed
and the failure crystallized, I noticed something: Despite public ridicule, this
entrepreneur was persistent, highly visible, trying various different things, and
overall, saturating the world with his effort. Suddenly, he didn’t seem like an
average drive-by looking to get rich. When I reread his original post (now a few
years old), something slipped my eye on the first skim: 
He said his purpose was to
free his mother from poverty.
Instantly, I became a believer. Even though he
failed, and might fail again, eventually he’ll strike gold. The mountaintop shall be
his because he’s backpacked a great WHY buttressed by meaning-and-purpose—
a weapon capable of slaying forum skeptics and “you’re crazy” doomsayers.
As you can see, I have a love/hate relationship with my forum. For over eight
years, I’ve observed entrepreneurs (and failed entrepreneurs) from the bleachers.
I love that I can occasionally take the field and make a difference. And I hate that
no matter how much I try, there’s always an entrepreneurial stampede thinking
that extraordinary results can be wrangled with an ordinary effort. The world has
no shortage of people seeking lounge-chair, remote-control success—they want
all that life has to offer—just as long as it comes in comfortable harmony. This
young man striving to save his mother from poverty? He’s a force-packing Jedi
Knight among a legion of soulless stormtroopers.
Unfortunately, entrepreneurship, along with life and liberty, is a tale of
periodic pain now or perpetual regret later. Namely, how bad do you want it?
How much are you willing to give up for it?
Everyone wants the perfect wife, but few want to work toward becoming the
perfect husband. Everyone wants the 
Muscle & Fitness
cover body, but few want
to workout daily followed by “no thanks” to break-room pizza. Everyone wants
the big bank account and the passive-income business, but few want the risk, the
long hours, or the unpredictable income. Without sufficient WHYs, you’re no
better than everyone, and “everyone” is not an echelon for aspiration. 
To be
someone, you can’t be driven like everyone.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for elderly retirees, lifelong employees who finally
retire, to die shortly thereafter. Without their job and a sense of contribution,
they lose their meaning-and-purpose. Without a purpose obsessively cored as
identity, you won’t survive. When sifting through life’s jungle, you want a

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sharpened scythe to break through the weeds—meaning-and-purpose are its
grinding stone.
Don’t confuse a WHY with a DESIRE. DESIRES are often superficial and transient,
whereas
WHYS are firm and transcendent through time.

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CHAPTER 29
BEWARE! THE WONDER TWINS OF
EPICALLY BAD LIFE ADVICE
There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.