As a single human we are never alone.

As a human you are a culture, a planet of life where each individual cell works together to keep their society alive and thriving. Trillions of cells each living their own individual life, experiencing pain, pleasure and death (not to get started on the number of other organisms!).

To me it never made sense to think of myself as anything static. We are never the same person throughout life, and personally I am fond of this idea that each night we die mentally, and we're reborn again the morning after. We get this idea of being static because of our memories still being intact, but loosing conscience is what kills who we are today.

That you are a living culture is exactly why you should challenge yourself, evolve, and arise new, over and over. You might fail over and over again, but you have the power to change who you are; leading your "planet" to something greater. That is something any individual cell in your body can never do throughout their life. Therefor lies a great responsibility on your shoulders to move forward, while all the individual parts of your body does their best to keep you alive and virile. No matter what happens in your life, they will live and they will die with you.

I enjoy to extend this perception to our planet as a whole as well. Whole societies of humans share a conscience, however different each human might be. We are sharing knowledge and trying our best to keep as many of us as possible alive and healthy, so the human species can continue.

One day we will look back at the tiny blue dot far, far away in the endless sea, as we are travelling through space to new horizons, and a greater future.

Life will move on as we experience pain, pleasure and death. It can feel very lonely at times, and you might fear that in the end you will just live and die alone. But that is not true. You have so much life inside of you that works to keep you strong, that you are obligated to work just as hard to bring life outside of you. Our legacy, blood and thoughts will live on for as long as life exists.

Share your love.
Share your pain.
Share your humanity.

We are in this together. Let's rise to our greatness.

When I was twenty I still didn't like raw tomato. I had grown to really dislike the taste of raw tomatoes.

Then I thought to myself that it was silly because I like tomato in pretty much any other form, that be tomato soup, ketchup, spaghetti with tomato sauce and I can go on forever. So why not raw tomato? It's even more absurd when tomato is, along with onion and potato, the most common vegetable to encounter in any meal. In short, any day of the week I'm likely to eat tomato.

After that realisation I began to eat a bit of raw tomato at each dinner, until I enjoyed raw tomato.

At first it was pretty nasty, yuck. I just ate a very small amount, and have to throw the rest away. Then it was kinda alright, but not really that good. And finally I began to love it. Today, there is not much that gets as good as a fresh tomato salad with salt, pepper, olive oil and diced onion. It is heaven. I love having a simple slice of fresh tomato as well.

I believe that teaching yourself to love something you hate (or you have some resistance to) is a great and important experience. I have done this with different food products, but also with more abstract ideas such as political viewpoints, preferences for clothing, and social interactions. You don't necessarily need to agree with the new perception, but you should definitely be able to enjoy the positive values instead of rejecting the idea right off the bat.

It always sucks when your mind has to change. Evolutionary we seem to fear change by default, but little by little your mind can be taught to love a new perception. You just have to keep on the pressure, until your mind finally give up resisting, and instead enjoy the actual values in the new perception.

Beware though, this is also true for things that is against your moral. You can teach yourself to accept horrible things. You have to be aware of these changes in yourself. Be careful that you do not lower your moral compass when it comes to understanding, and compassion.

To get you started, go identify one food item you don't like the flavour of, and then each day just try eat a little bit. Make sure that you get a good taste of it, but you don't need to eat it all. Remember little by little. Keep doing this every day for 90 days straight. (Just know that certain food items might actually taste bad to you no matter what because of genetic predisposition, but don't let that stop you from experimenting.)

Try it, you will thank yourself for doing it.

I could hear the bullets getting real close to me. I looked around, and everyone was dead. "RUN SCHULTZER, RUUUUN", and I ran all I could with three guys shooting at me. I was doing a military drill with my platoon, and my unit were being shot down like sitting ducks.

During my national service we at times did something similar to laser tag to simulate actual hits. The hit registration vest played a loud, obnoxious sound when you were shot dead that continues until you lie flat on the ground. It also simulated bullets passing by as beeping sounds that got louder as shots got closer to hitting you.

We were simulating how not to attack a well secured location. The location was on top of a grassy hill, a field fortification squared off with tall earthwork barricades. My unit was to defend the fortification first. We watched the attacking unit approach in the grassy open field, and our commander told us to wait firing until they were close enough. They came closer and close, shooting against us here and there, but as we could just lie flat on our stomach and occasionally peek over to see how close they were, nobody got hit. Then our commander yelled "FIRE". The sounds from our guns filled the air. The soldiers of the attacking unit dropped like flies. It was so easy for us to hit them. The attacking team did have a revive gun that the commander could use, but the commander had trouble go around fast enough to keep up the attack. It is sure to say that we won that easily, and it was shown why attacking a fortification like this is a really, really bad idea.

When it was our turn to attack the fortification, our commander had a different idea. I liked him, as he was against military parade drill exercise, and really just cared about strategy and getting the best out of any situation. It didn't matter if people could march on command. It just mattered what the unit could do when it was vital. He decided to split us up in three different columns, and flank the fortification. I was on the right side, with 3 other guys, including my "buddy" (in the military we had a battle buddy system to support each other. You have to do anything you can to protect your buddy, and you buddy will do the same the other way around).

Ready to attack. We were marching towards the fortification the same way as the now defending team did it. We were waiting for the first shot to be fired from their side. As soon as a shot was fired, our commander told us to split up and flank the fortification. My buddy died pretty much right away. And with the sounds that my vest made I knew the bullets was about to hit me as well. I fired like crazy at the fortification, while moving onwards to the right flank. My magazine was nearly empty, so I jumped down on my stomach in the tall grass to reload. Then I looked up. It was a shock to discover that all the guys in my column was lying dead on the ground! I look at the fortification, and saw three guys standing on the earthwork pointing their guns directly at me, firing. I saw my commander swinging his arm and yelling "GO NOW, RUN SCHULTZER, RUN!". And off I ran, shooting as vigorously as I could towards the three soldiers to keep their aim off me. My magazine was running low, and despite the effort, the shots was getting uncomfortably close. I immediately jumped down on my stomach, clenching to the ground, in the tall grass. I reloaded, and waited quite a few more seconds than usual. I looked up cautiously, and I saw the soldiers were now pointing their guns at another flank. This tactic of waiting a bit longer had worked surprisingly well as they now thought I must have been dead. Free to go! I ran up to the earthwork on the right side of the fortification, and nobody had seen me sneak up. As I peeked up above the earthwork, I could see all the hurt soldiers sitting down up a container. This was far, far too easy. I began to fire at the soldiers inside the fortification, and it caused some panic. A few seconds later the left flank (opposite of mine) came up, and the panic turned into chaos inside the fortification. The defending unit were getting beaten badly. In the end I was shot in the back, as I was all alone there with nobody to cover me. However, this time the defending team lost despite having the upper hand.

"It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela

You should always look for opportunities in any difficult situation you encounter. Especially the ones that seems close to impossible. With the right people, the right wisdom, and the right gut, you can beat the odds. Change vision rarely, but your tactics often. There is no one way to get on top, so you need to try out different tactics and new things.

Our commander could have decided we did the same thing as the defending team to see how bad an idea it is to attack a secured fortification out in the open. Instead he turned it on the head, surprised the defending team and ultimately winning.

It is strange.

Luck seems to be something few people, especially in the startup world, want to acknowledge.

All success stories tells about how hard work and some originality was the key.

But for me, to have success you need a bit of luck. I have been refuted on this, with answers such as "there is no such thing as luck, it's just timing". No, there is certainly something called luck, and you need luck to have success. Before you go on telling me that you just need to work hard, and believe in what you do, let me be clear: Yes, you have to work hard and not give up. You got to play the game to win. That doesn't mean that luck isn't part of winning though. Not at all.

How to be more lucky

Richard Branson said, "Chance favours the prepared mind. The more you practice, the luckier you become.". To be lucky is to spot the right opportunities at the right time, and be able to act on it. You won't see these opportunities unless you have practiced a lot to spot them. You won't be able to act on them unless your network, own skills and capital are ready. The hard facts of life is that circumstances does have a say in your outcome, and whether you fail or succeed. The good thing is that in most cases you can improve your circumstances.

How to be more sad and depressed

You become sad and depressed when all depends on your own skills. When you reject that other people around you and luck, has a say in your success, your reality simply won't match your expectations. You have to be patient. You have to work hard to become more lucky. And you have to not give up, try new ideas and change your perception from time to time. Acknowledge that having the right people around you, and a fair bit of luck is vital for success.

Success is hard work sprinkled with luck

Success in large terms is very hard work, mixed with good luck. Good luck opens the doors, hard work makes you act on this luck. Luck and hard work intertwines to create success. From my personal experience I definitely see this. At times I have had the right people with me, and the right opportunities and we had great success (which made a feedback loop of more success). At other times I simply didn't see the values in people or the opportunities and I failed despite hard work. And I felt absolutely miserable.

Don't despair. Be patient. Secure yourself for the long run. Don't risk your health and family on getting success. Instead work hard on what you believe in, and if it doesn't succeed the first time, try again. Try a hundred times, and then try one more time again. Your health and people around you will always be more important than having success in this moment.

Are you actually happy, or merely content? It is a distinction I try to make from time to time. There is nothing worse than rationalising that I'm happy, when in fact, I'm merely satisfied with my situation.

Why distinction is important
I am not a native English speaker, nor is the majority of you who read this blog, so I want to clarify that by happy, I mean the feeling of joy, and by content I mean the feeling of satisfaction (often by rationalisation). Being happy is a bright clear color while being content is a muddy grey-ish color. Denmark is mentioned as one of the happiest countries in the world, but funny enough, it is also one of the largest consumers of antidepressants, and to not get started on alcoholism (also remember that statistics can prove anything)! I believe one big mistake with these surveys is that you confuse happiness with being content. Of course if you have food on the table, a place to sleep, security against misfortune what can you not be content about? But are you really happy?

The distinction is important because it defines if you really are living life as you want to.

Your comfort zone

The comfort zone is where you are content (or maybe sad). Outside it is where you are happy (or maybe terrified). When you break the comfort zone of your life, you are exposed to the dangers of the world. But to be happy, you need to live life to it's fullest. To me, not doing so is betraying my very self.

Partners in "alright" relationships

You might know this situation, or have even experienced it on your own body; the "alright" relationship. You have been with your boyfriend or girlfriend for a considerably amount of time, and you feel alright about it. However you are not as happy and thrilled as you first meet, you are just okay about it. This is you living in your comfort zone of your relationship. This is you rationalising your reality to fend yourself off the pain of saying "There is something wrong" and risk the relationship.

The worst of it is that, in the end you risk the relationship anyway!

Doing something alright vs doing something good

Another example is when you are doing something alright, or you are doing it good. When I'm creative I always want to do it good and it keeps me staying up late. When I'm just doing mindless work I'm just doing it alright, as quick as possible, and maybe even sloppy. Discipline helps me with the later part, but the real distinction here is the love in what I do. We cannot do what we love to do all the time, but we certainly can live a life in which we are happy, instead of merely content.

Happiness doesn't come from security, it comes from exploring the world and yourself. It comes from facing your fears, and survive. It comes from loving the world, and not being afraid of showing you enthusiasm for it.

Stop being mediocre, and start changing your live to what truly makes you happy.

Most people just need someone who believe in them for them to excel. When someone says that he/she will do something, I really do believe they will do it. From experience, far the majority won't keep their word. It always will frustrate me deeply that they are unwilling to keep their word, and live as trusted people.

However the few people who actually put actions behind their words will benefit greatly from your belief in them. It is those people that matters, and it is why I say you need to believe in people.

Meditation is something I have been experimenting with for the last 6-7 years. I have found two ways of meditation that works well for me, and both of these involves movement of my body.

I believe movement of the body is the most important way for humans to think. There is brilliant people like Stephen Hawking, who aren't able to move their body, and they do amazing things in the world. The mind will always find a replacement for what it looses, so what I am going to say apply even if you can't move your body in a physical way. The movement, one way or another, is essential.

Our body was never meant to sit for many hours in the same place, but meant to keep on moving, one way or another. However sedentary lifestyle has become a natural part of daily life as in cases like myself; I do pretty much all work from a computer!

I read long time ago about this idea that how you move your body affects how your mentality is. This would be something along the lines of:

• If you constantly look down at the ground, while walking, you will be more closed to other people, more afraid. If you keep your head high, looking people in the eyes you will be more open to other people, and daring.
• If you walk with rapid steps, you will be more tunnel visioned, than if you walk more slow.
• If you bend your back forward, and push your sholders forward, you feel more depressed, than if you keep your back straight, and your arms to the sides.

This recent TED video by professor Amy Cuddy explains how the body language affects your thinking:

This certainly does ring a bell to me. Movement (and body language) changes the way you think, and it is why I believe movement is of such importance! My meditation methods involve movement for that very reason.

My two methods are:

1. Clearing the mind for noise

To clear my mind, there is only one thing that works; very intense exercise. It is cleansing my mind like nothing else, making me thinking sharper, faster, and more creatively. The exercise should be so intense, that your mind can't wander off. Your mind is forced to be in the now, accepting reality. After an one-hour session of this, I feel like new.

2. Solving issues

To solve issues I just take a really long walk. I usually don't solve them right there and then, but the solution comes to me hours after walking, as the blood is moving around, and my neurons are trying to figure the right connections. I usually walk for an hour, pondering about the issues I have. It liberates my mind.

And talk with people!

The above are my preferred methods of clearing my mind if alone! However, you should never underestimate the power of speaking your mind to other people. Other people will usually not be able to help in any way, but the mere act of articulating your thoughts understandably to others, will make you realize what you need to do.

What helps you? Tweet me if you have any great methods to clearing your mind!

"BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP....".

A relentless alarm shatters my dreams, as I force myself out of my bed. 5.30 AM. We first got to bed at 2 AM, but I was trained as a robot to get up right away. I knew I didn't have too much time to waste. It was still pitch black, and freezing outside, but off I went! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I had barely 15 minutes to buy it and eat, before we had to clean our quarter. I tried eat as fast as possible, and I put the rest in my pockets. Then we began cleaning our quarter.

"The life of being a soldier, what a joy it is", I often thought sarcastically to myself. After a rigorous inspection by our superiors, we were informed to gather our stuff and get to the trucks. With the smell of burned motor oil in the frozen air we went off. I looked inside the truck at my platoon to find most of them trying to get just another 20 minutes of sleep in the half-open freezing back of the truck. A few others were eating the rest of their breakfast. Everybody was silent, and the sound of the truck engine deafened any other sounds. In that moment I looked out and saw the sun rise. It was beautiful, and I felt something that I never forgot again. I felt complete peace. I knew that soon enough we will go through hell with boring tasks, and tough disciplin. And I just felt happy, and at peace.

Some years later when I had finished army I found myself yet again in this situation. This time I was working sometimes in a factory at night. The shift started at 10 pm and ended at 7 am for 3 days straight. I wanted to do these shifts because it would mean 2 days off, though working at night was tough, boring, cold, and very long hours. I remember one moment, the second day, after about 7 hours of work, and still 2 more to go, I felt this peace again as I saw the first strokes of the morning light.

To me peace arrives from acceptance of the situation.

I do not necessarily believe peace is good or bad, just as I do not believe war is good or bad. In the right circumstances, both are beneficial (mind you I do not speak about war as in conquest of material values, but war as in fighting for your values, feeling frustration about the status quo).

You need pain for your motivation, because it gives you a cause, a purpose. You need pleasure for your achievement, because it offers you relaxation, reflection, and further motivation. Feeling at peace doesn't come without mental sacrifice, without hard work. It doesn't matter whether you believe in what you are doing or not, hard work will be replaced with a feeling of joy.

That is why I say; feeling at peace should be the result of your dedicated, hard work. Work hard for your genuine cause, and you will feel at peace, as well as achieve something greater. The feeling of joy and peace will stay.

As you probably have noticed twitter (or twttr) has turned 7, and boy a lot have happened since 2006.

Twitter in 2006

Seven years ago I had just turned 20. Back then I came from a failed online store for Mac games, going through military service, and I was going to start working as a humble mail carrier! I was saving up money to turn my old childhood dream into reality; my dream of living abroad.

Also I wanted to try out different kind of professions so I could find out what I actually enjoy. I was trying to find myself. A funny note is that I never have had a full-time job in a company for much more than 4 months, because I quit when I felt I couldn't learn more!

Fast forward, I sit here, living abroad, founded companies in 3 countries, running several startups, groups and communities, while being financial independent and full of joy! Who could have thought that twitter would change the way we network with just 140 character messages? I certainly didn't have any idea of that at 20, just as I didn't had any idea of who I had to become!

I just knew that I had to do something. I had to sacrifice the belief of who I was, to learn who I needed to become.

Remember to always challenge your perceptions. Experiment, feel, and enjoy the rush. Happy anniversary Twitter!

Note: In the spirit of #twitter7 I recommend you look up these guys. They all share interesting thoughts, and hopefully some that will challenge your beliefs! @richardbranson, @jasonfried, @joelgascoigne

Many years ago, when I was experimenting with different attitudes, I came across an interesting philosophy; brutal honesty. It is basically that you say exactly what you are thinking, putting aside any politeness in the words.

This should be especially true for negative things. So as an example, if somebody ask about your opinion, and you have a negative idea about it, don't lie or add politeness! (E.g. "That is good", "That is good, but needs work.", "Maybe this idea is better") Simply say what you think (E.g. "That is not good").

This can be very confrontational as it can introduce negative emotions, but I really do enjoy the philosophy of not trying to sugarcoat my words, which in the end dilutes the meaning, and makes you unconsciously feel like a liar, and a pleaser. I believe that it is always better to say what I honestly think, than what I believe the questioner wish to hear! It just seems much more valuable.

I would like to couple this with another concept I also enjoy. Do you remember the phrase "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it."? I would like to paraphrase it to "If you don't have anything constructive to say, then don't say it.".

I put these two ideas together to practice what I call constructive honesty. I like to express my opinion, but I also try to express why I think the way I think. So as an example, when people ask if I like something I would say "No because of Z. Maybe try A!". I'm aware that if I'm fully honest about what I think, then some people probably will not like me, but in the long run this help people (and myself) a great deal. There is no value in a dishonest, sugarcoated, and non-constructive response. Even the people who initially doesn't enjoy my response, later on might reflect more deeply, and find a great use in my honesty (at least subconsciously). The honest constructive response simply helps so many more people than a sugarcoated answer ever will!, by forcing the person to reflect.

Don't try to prevent being confrontational, this stems from a need to be liked. Even worse, it doesn't help the people who genuinely ask what you think. Also, don't be rude, there is no need for that! If you are confrontational, just because you want to be confrontational you are doing this wrong. In that case you are just introducing negative emotions to people that doesn't help them, and you will probably end up with a lot of negative karma.

The advice is that you should be honest about what you think even when it is negative, but remember that it should be constructive! People will appreciate you for it, and you will feel much more valuable in your words, and honest towards yourself.

Disclaimer

Of course you need to be smart doing this. Do not pick fights with people you know will not be able to understand your honesty. In these cases I myself tend to go with a simple "That's cool..." even though I don't mean it. It is simply because I do not wish to fight pointless fights that doesn't help anybody. Luckily, it is very few people who are like this, so in the majority of the cases I try be as honest possible!

Programming is an artform. To know how to code is to be able to speak a language, in which you transform your ideas into reality. The joy when building your first application, and see it work, as you specifically told the machine it should, is simply amazing. Just as a kid learning to read stories for the first time.

Now, why should you learn to code?

To me, learning to code is at the same terms as learning math, to read, and to write. You do not need to become a "great" programmer, just as you do not need to become a professor in mathematics, or to become a great author to be able to use these tools efficiently to better your life. Just as learning the other basic skills, programming will create deeper understanding, and grow your possibilities exponentially!

Everybody should at least have an idea of how to program, and have some practical experience. Computers are replacing pretty much all the tedious manual work we, in the past, had to spent time and energy doing ourselves. This development will of course continue, and if you do not have any idea of how to program computers you will miss out on life, just as much as the people that haven't learned to read.

So how to learn?

This is the best part. As the internet has developed, there are so many amazing opportunities to learn programming completely free. You don't even have to install anything on your computer. There is basically no inertia to get started other than your own willpower! No matter what you do, you should be able to sit down 20 minutes every day and learn a bit of programming.

Here's some options (both free, and premium):
http://www.codecademy.com/ (free)
http://www.learnpython.org/ (free)
http://teamtreehouse.com/
(free and premium)
http://www.starterleague.com/ (premium)

There are many more options, go find them yourselves! Don't limit yourself to this selection.

Final words

Personally I love that I am able to build most of my dreams right away. However also programming can become tedious work, just as much as writing, and doing math. This is where the programming techniques come into the picture, and you are centralizing work, making it more enjoyable and faster to program. You will figure this out yourself on the journey!

Also I would like to say that you can perfectly continue your life without coding! But what I say is that without at least some knowledge about how to code, you will be in the same situation as a person who have never learned reading or how to do math. You will be missing out on something amazing.

Never stop learning, and life will show you amazing things!

I have always found people who say "music sucks these days" to be to some extend arrogant, ignorant and closed-minded; in all likelihood the music is actually better today because so many more people are able to create their own music.

Another thing, just because you have good feelings connected to a certain style of music, doesn't mean that it is objectively good, even if a million other people agree. This goes for movies, games, and anything else people compare "then and now". What you experience is neuronal wirings connecting your memories and emotions. When our brain recognize some familiar tunes, we feel the emotions that has been hardwired in our brain.

If something makes people feel emotions and feel a connection, then it is good. Do not feel you are special because of your taste (you are most definitely not), but instead be open to new ideas, tunes, art, movies, games, and everything else the world has to offer!

Turn off your bias, and appreciate the world!

I was around 10 years old, and I was walking with my mom down a street towards our house after doing some shopping. While walking back to our house, I asked my mom if she understood that I would not live in this country when I grow older. My mom, being painfully aware of my passion for living as a world citizen, answered that I should not be saying those things, because "I know too well that it will happen, but right now you are still my little boy, and I do not wish to imagine you not being here".

The many years to come, I grew up, and worked dedicated to be able to live in any country I like. For the last 4 years I have lived outside my home country fully independent. I feel extremely happy and fortunate every single day, also in bad times.

My desire was freedom. In this post, I would like to talk about the importance of setting yourself free.

Richard Branson wrote a blog post not long ago where he ask a simple question; how do you measure success?

Success and money can contribute to happiness, but happiness itself is another thing altogether. Words like ‘family’, ‘friends’, ‘love’ and ‘laughter’ have a lot more to do with happiness than words like ‘gross’, ‘capital’ and ‘revenue’.

Money is a by-product of bigger, more meaningful goals such as passion, fun and wisdom. As I’ve said before, have fun, do good, and the money will come.

Source: linkedin.com

To me, money is a tool, and never a goal. My goal, and dream, has always been freedom. In reality, I didn't need money to do what I did. Of course there is many expenses involved in living abroad, but money should never be an issue for your goals.

When I moved away from my country, I had no network, and I didn't have any independent income to support myself. I just moved with a sparse capital I had. What I did have, that was so much more important than any practical planning, was the desire. The desire to be 100% free. To just jump and feel the rush. And, more important, to find out who I really am. Am I the person I wish to be, or not?

Many years after that conversation with my mom as a small boy, I was reaching 19 and I had a pretty clear idea that I needed to figure out who I really was. I was thinking, "What am I meant to be?". I figured there is two ways to find out who you are. Either you try change yourself, or you change your environment. I did both, experimenting with my life.

To set yourself free you need to be able to let go of who you think you are, and really push yourself.

Happiness is a strong indicator for how close you are to who you wish to be. If you feel generally unhappy there is some things you have to change in your life, and it is probably things coming from yourself. You should not be afraid of loosing who you are, but embrace this idea. You might have a very specific idea of who you are, but it might not really correspond to your emotions. Do you feel generally very happy?

It is always amazing to feel the rush of something new and scary, and to feel that everything is possible. This includes changing who you think you are. If you finally do the jump you will understand exactly this feeling.

Set yourself free, experience freedom, and find your true self.

How do you know what decision you should take? What is a right, and wrong decision? The other day I read a quote from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra that really reasoned with me.

There is more intelligence in your body than in your wisdom

In business, and personal life clouded thinking occur frequently. You most likely have been, or are in doubt of many things. “Should I finally take this step?”, “Should I go this way, or another?”, “What would my peers think with this decision?”, “Have I done the right decision in the first place?“, “I feel lazy, why?“

All these thoughts disappears in an instant when you are faced with the hard reality. Like the body command your thinking (feeling pain/pleasure will make all your thinking irrelevant), the reality forces your decisions. Many larger businesses have become numb to this by softening their edges, making them much slower in the process. But smaller businesses know it all too well, how decisions need to be taken as soon as the reality forces you to take them.

Stop worrying what decision you need to make. Instead seek the wisdom of reality, the hidden wisdom inside you. Rationalization is very easy, but reality forces you to accept the actual situation, instead of the situation you would prefer to be in.

You need to take the decisions that reality forces you to take, not the decisions your rationalization tells you should take.

Reality cuts through all the clutter, and show you exactly what needs to be taken care of. You need to look at the hard facts of your business or personal life, and the necessary decision will materialize. Of course it can still be a difficult decision, but you will be forced to accept the situation, and then you will know what needs to be done!

I will end with the full quote from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra describing how the body supersede thinking.

Behind your thoughts and feelings, my brother, there stands a mighty commander, an unknown wise man— he is called Self. He lives in your body, he is your body. There is more reason in your body than in your best wisdom. And who knows to what end your body requires precisely this your best wisdom?

Your Self laughs at your ego and its proud leaps. "What are these leaps and flights of fancy to me?" it says to itself. "A detour to my purpose. I am the leading reins of the I and the prompter of its conceptions."

The Self says to the I: "Feel pain here!" And then it suffers and reflects on how it might suffer no more— and this is the very purpose for which it is meant to think. The Self says to the ego: "Feel pleasure here!" Then it is happy and relects on how it might be happy again— and this is the very purpose for which it is meant to think.

Source: Lexido

Seek the wisdom in your reality, instead of rationalising!

I got some inspiration from 37signals Signal vs Noise post "Forget passion, focus on process" for this post.

About 3 years ago I started a new company that has produced so far 4 startup projects. Back then we did not know at all what we should do. We had so little experience in doing startups from scratch, so we found a market were we thought that we could do a difference.

This was the start of cSupport Live Chat. We already had an idea of this market. Kasper Christensen, the co-founder of the company, was a web designer for big web agencies, but he found it difficult to find any both esthetically nice and reasonable priced live chat solution. So we agreed to do this as a test project. This would prove if we could do a startup from scratch! So we worked, and worked, and worked.

While our competitors were large teams, we were just two guys. While our competitors had funding, we bootstrapped. And let me say, boy it was hard. I had no idea how much work it was to actually build this live chat solution we imagined. I don't think I have tried anything as hard as that, including my time in military, and moving to other country with no network starting from scratch again.

However we succeeded despite all the hardships. It seams that our lower prices have lowered the overall pricing for live chat, part of the number one goal. Our live chat is one of the most well-designed, and competitors seams to begin caring more about the design/UX, also part of the number one goal. We were profitable after 6 months (probably was a little more for breaking even). It seams that all our competitors had heavy funding, and therefor had a much, much longer period before breaking even. And we proved to ourselves that we are able to built functioning startups from scratch!

But in the end, was it worth it?

At times I wonder why I did go through all that. What do I care about live chat and customer service! I am just a programmer, a creator! In the process I learned the importance of customer service, more about doing sales, landing pages, user experience, design, accounting, and so many other things.

But where was the passion? Why continue? The focus was not to make much money, but to offer a great alternative, and give us the experience we need to release bigger projects (as we are now doing with Peakium). It definitely did that! But I discovered that one of the most important things in entrepreneurship is not what you are doing and feeling, but it is what your customers are doing and feeling! They trust in your product to be the best for their money.

With their money they say that your product is the best solution to their problems!

This is what will keep you going! Your customers happiness for a great product, as well as your employees happiness to work on something that does a difference in people's lifes!