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What You Should Know Before You Sell Out

I loved Pixar when John Lasseter was directing every film.

I loved Jack Johnson’s music when he was a poor surfer.

The First is often the best

The first version, the first album, the first move, the first season is usually the best.  The quality and soul of version one is often unmatched by the “post success” subsequent versions.

After companies, bands, athletes, writer, entrepreneurs and artist score big they seem to regularly loose their original identity that underpinned their break-out success.

It reminds me of Rocky Balboa from the original 1976 movie. Do you remember when he lived in a cellar, owned two greasy wife beater t-shirts, drank raw eggs in a plastic cup and slept on a cot?  He didn’t have fame, but he had heart.  

Heart drove his training.  

Contrast that image of Rocky to the Lamborghini driving, mega-wealthy, soft champion distracted by what he would be wearing in his next television commercial.

Rocky after he made it big

Count the costs before you cash the check

Before we sell out we should really give some strong consideration to the fact that we might loose The Eye of the Tiger.

A few questions to ponder:

  • Are you ok with that trade?
  • Has the money and the prestige been the goal all along?
  • How much of your present success is because you’ve been the hungry, idealist, dead-set on doing it better than the other guys?
  • How much of your shoe-string budget has forced you to be more innovative?

I have a few friends who are on the verge of this status change.  They have pursued their dream to the point of earning a well-deserved chance to stop punching meat in the freezer.

Will they keep doing version one work even after they make it big?

Real world examples

Were they better before they made it big? 

  • Bon Iver From a Log Cabin to the Grammy’s
    Can he still infuse his music with the melancholy angst that he found in his secluded Wisconsin cabin?  Now he has Grammy albums, fame, distraction and likely not a lot of solitude.  Now that he records in a fancy studio, how will it sound?
  • M. Night Shyamalan Film Maker
“I see dead people”.
    Do you remember his 1999 breakout film The Sixth Sense?  This Indian-American screenwriter’s early work is studied by film students as great works of art.  Today, he is producing mega-blockbusters for Walt Disney Studios.  Which movie would you rather go see?
  • Mossimo Beachwear Designer
    
In 1986, he started making shorts for beach volleyball and schlepping them up and down the California coast.  As his website states, They gained notoriety for their humble, grassroots start.  Now you can find his clothing line in every Target superstore across America.  Is the original aloha vibe still alive?

Stop Waiting. Just Go For It.

M Field center stage at Quiksilver launch

A lack of action guarantees 100% probability that absolutely nothing new has a chance of happening.

None of us, not a single one of us, can predict what will or won’t happen tomorrow.

You have to risk the next unknown step.

No one knows if they’re going to become the next

  • Steve Jobs
  • ProBlogger
  • TED speaker
  • Entrepreneur on the cover of Wired Magazine
  • NY Times Best Selling Author
  • Grammy winning Musician
  • Surf wear designer

We should go for it anyway.

We don’t have to:

  • Know where it is going to finish
  • Have a five-year plan
  • Know what shape it is going to take
  • Wait for permission
  • Have a budget
  • Know how to do it
  • Know all the right people

We do need to:

  • Swing for the fence not for a single
  • Risk embarrassment and rejection
  • Tune out negative people
  • Believe in ourselves
  • Try something different when we get stuck

We are guaranteed to:

  • Meet interesting people
  • Feel alive again
  • Have new experiences that will stretch you
  • Never regret that you tried
  • Learn a lot about yourself

They are just like us

They too faced doubt, challenges, discouragement, slim moments of hope, but they went for it anyway.

Get out your pom-poms and your list of excuses.

You’re going to want to cheer, cry tears of joy and cross off every excuse you’ve entertained.

Leading the way to simplicity

Mike Field

Artist, Waterman, after 15+ years as a painter and designer M. Field was announced last week as Quiksilver’s newest beach wear clothing line.

Ask Mike what he knew about apparel design 18 months ago?

Ask Mike how confident he was that he was going to be on the big stage with brands like DC, Hawk and Roxy?

Tweet this to @Quiksilver and congratulate them.

Listen to our Podcast interview last year when this was just kicking off.

He’s just like us.

Corporate Escapee

Pam Slim

Author, Blogger, Career Coach

Just published her second book, Body of Work (book review coming soon) after she escaped corporate consulting to go out on her own.

Ask Pam if she knew Guy Kawasaki was going to promote her now famous letter to CEO’s, COO’s and CIO’s?

Tweet this to @PamSlim.

Ask her if she thought that the blog she created in a computer class would be read by hundred’s of thousands of readers each year?

Her adventurous story Podcast.

She’s just like us.

Finding remarkable again

Tess Vigeland

Broadcaster, Author, Finance guru.

Jumped without a net after 11 years as a leading host of National Public Radio weekly show-Marketplace.

Ask Tess how easy it’s been some days getting up each day embracing the unknown?

Ask her if she ever thought a fifteen-minute speech to 3000 people would have changed her life forever?

Tweet this to @TessVigeland.

Ask her if she believed she’d get a book deal two weeks later?

More on Tess’s journey.

She’s just like us.

Finding new rhythms

Jackopierce

Jack O’Neill & Cary Pierce

Dads, Musicians, Entrepreneurs.

Started rocking together in 1988 in central Texas.

Two decades later, ask these two musicians if they thought they’d get a second shot at the big show?

Tweet this to @Jackopierce.

How about a recording contract in Nashville?

Give a listen to some of their tunes.

They are just like us.

On stage TED2013

Nilofer Merchant

Author, Speaker, Corporate Director

After her long tech career at silicon valley giants like Apple, Nilofer earned her spot next to U2’s Bono at this year’s TED2013.

Ask her if she thought she’d be featured in the Harvard Business Review after writing a break-out article about how sitting is killing us?

Tweet this to @Nilofer.

Now (among many things) she’s the messenger of Walking Meetings.

Podcast interview from a cafe in the valley.

She’s just like us.

Bringing big ideas to light

Mario Schultzke

Founder of IdeaMensch

After a 50 state road tour on a shoestring budget, armed with only a MacBook Pro, and a US map; IdeaMensch has now helped bring over 2000 entrepreneurs ideas to light.

Ask Mario how confident he felt when tomorrow night’s next Meet Up had zero tickets sold?

Tweet this to @IdeaMensch

Ask him how easy it’s been doing his now day job at the University of Montana and running IdeaMensch?

Listen to Mario’s nine lessons that every entrepreneur should know.

He’s just like us.

Author of Accidental Creative

Todd Henry

Author, Podcaster, Consultant, Creative.

Ask Todd about how he accidentally became one of iTunes top business podcasts by faithfully recording his ideas every week since 2007?

Tweet this to @ToddHenry.

Ask him how much caution he received over his latest best-selling business book title “Die Empty”  Who wants to read about death Todd? 

Listen to his story.

He’s just like us.

Zero to on top in two years

Jeff Goins

Tribe Leader, Author, Mega Blogger

Ask @JeffGoins if he thought he’d be speaking side-by-side with Michael Hyatt at his Platform conferences when he cold called him to have coffee?

Tweet this to @JeffGoins.

Ask him if while he was leading mission trips he thought he’d build a Mega Blog in less than two years time?

Podcast early in the upward trend.

He’s just like us.

What are you not doing today that you wish you were?

Come on…tell us.

Keep going.

Why We Should Avoid the Sea of Same?

Being the same is easier than creating something unique.

Being the same is less risky than paddling out away from the sharks to see what the blue ocean holds.

Being the same is safer because you know people will buy your (fill in the blank).

Be a heretic instead.

Don’t succumb to copying the guy next to you.

Find your voice.

Find your story.

Create your own special sauce recipe.

The risk is that you may actually create something of lasting value.

The Sea of Same as my friend Mike Field calls it is filled with microscopic differences from one offer to the next.

Don’t be like them.

You’re better than that.

What My Lizard Brain Said When I Asked for Advice?

Don’t Do It!

Aaron
Lizard Brain what are you saying to me?

Lizard Brain
Your family needs you to not screw this up.  
Don’t be such a revolutionary that you get canned from your job.  
It takes more money than you have.  
It will require you to borrow money from your friends and family and you’ll ruin your relationships.  

Taken straight out of my journal from December 2011.

The Context

I was thinking about leaving my day job and not looking for a new one.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for a living but I was sure I could not continue doing

  • What I was doing
  • Who I was doing it for
  • Where I was doing it

I knew I was scared.

  • Scared to change.
  • Scared to screw up a “good thing”.
  • Scared to be foolish.
  • Scared I was arrogant and that no one would want me.

I Went to the Lizard and Asked

What the hell are you so afraid of?  

What do you really think is going to happen if I quit?  

You are going to be destitute, broke, 
ashamed and ruin all of your relationships.   

Isn’t that just wonderfully ridiculous?

The concept of the Lizard brain is talked about a lot.  I love it.

It reminds me that I am not the only guy who hears crazy stuff like this.

Here is what happened instead.

Despite the Lizard’s advice, I resigned from my job in November of last year.

I didn’t have a job for four months.

I received phone calls from people asking me to work for them.

I am not destitute.

I didn’t spend a dollar of my savings.

I went to Hawaii and surfed with Mike Field and played in the sun with Sam Ainslie and Kevin Lynch.

I had sex with my wife at lunchtime.

I stopped using an alarm clock to wake up.

I walked my daughter to her bus stop most days.

I wrote an eBook that was endorsed by Seth Godin.

And the list keeps going.

Ask your Lizard brain what he is really saying.

Write it down.

Laugh out loud.

Show it to your friends.

And tell it what it can do with itself.

Get started.

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Copyright © 2025 Aaron McHugh

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