How to Be Legendary

Morpheus: Let me tell you why youʼre here. Youʼre here because you know something. What you know you canʼt explain, but you feel it. Youʼve felt it your entire life — that thereʼs something wrong with the world. You donʼt know what it is, but itʼs there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. t is this feeling that has brought you to me. !o you know what ʼm talking about" Neo: #he $atrix. Morpheus: !o you want to know what it is" Neo: Yes. Morpheus: #he $atrix is everywhere. t is all around us. %ven now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. t is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Neo: What truth" Morpheus: #hat you are a slave, &eo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. nto a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. ' prison for your mind. – The Matrix

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

3

A prison for your mind
I donʼt think #he $atrix is science fiction. I think itʼs fact. I think itʼs a documentary about an average guy with an average job and an average life who, one day, suddenly realizes that everything heʼs come to know and see and believe is a lie. Of course, some artistic license was taken. But if you remove the evil artificial intelligence and the martial arts action sequences, #he $atrix could be about any of us. e live in an artificial world, surrounded by artificial comforts that donʼt fulfill us so much as make us com!lacent enough to remain quiet and kee! doing what weʼve always done. e hide from our human natures " those e#tremes of joy and anger and !ain and !leasure. e organize our lives in such a way as to kee! us in the middle of e#istence and away from the dangerous edges, watching $% to !ass the time. If thatʼs not the &atri#, I donʼt know what is. &ost !eo!le donʼt live their lives as humans, out in the world of the real. &ost !eo!le live as drones in a bizarre quasi' world theyʼve made for themselves " a !lace where something like working eighty miserable hours a week so that they can buy the nicest couches is a sensible choice, and where counting off the seconds until death in an easy chair is a good way to s!end time. &ost !eo!le are !laced, starting in childhood, into a slot " a role " in the world. $hey look around and learn the rules of life in that !articular slot in society, and then they !lay out their lives as if reading a scri!t, never wondering what else is out there. Itʼs a !rison that we canʼt taste or see or touch... and hence that most !eo!le never even realize is there. (nd itʼs im!ossible to break out of a !rison that you donʼt even know youʼre in. $he good news is that everything youʼve ever wanted is right there, right on the other side of the prison walls, out in the real world. (ll you need in order to have the )egendary life you were born to live is to break out.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4

The real world
*eady to break out+ ell, youʼve got your work cut out for you because the doors in your mind are well guarded. ,ere are a few of the obstacles you face " the conditioning youʼve learned for your whole life to obey• .ou have been told " by others, and then by yourself " that there will be all the time in the world to learn to !lay the !iano or to found that charity or to start the curio sho! youʼve always wanted to start. It sounds like this- You can do it tomorrow. • .ou have been told that you should be grateful for what you have, because others have less. .ou have been told that wanting more is greedy and ungrateful. • .ou have been told that there are !eo!le who were born to write, !eo!le who were born to do cartwheels on a balance beam, !eo!le who were born to climb mountains, !eo!le who are /good at business0 or /mechanically inclined.0 .ou have been told that if youʼre terrible at any of those things, that you sim!ly werenʼt meant to do them. •

You have been told that if you want to accomplish something, and you work at it for weeks and months and years and still donʼt achieve it, that you never will, and are wasting your time.

.ou have been told that there is something magical or lucky about success in anything. .ou havenʼt !recisely been told " but itʼs been strongly im!lied " that thereʼs really no !oint in trying to amass a million dollars as a !au!er, because if the magic doesnʼt strike, then it doesnʼt strike, and thatʼs all there is to it.

•

.ou have been told that if you want to accom!lish something, and you work at it for weeks and months and years and still donʼt achieve it, that you never will, and are wasting your time.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

5

•

.ou have been told that learning calculus or learning how to make money is fundamentally different from learning how to overhaul an engine, and that the !eo!le who can do it are /smart.0

•

.ou have been told that success is com!licated... and maybe that if you !ay someone enough, theyʼll tell you the secret " giving you the 1asy button that the millionaires and the famous and the accom!lished currently have e#clusive access to.

)ies. (ll lies. If you can acce!t that the truths about success and achievement in the real world are quite different from what youʼve been told, youʼve got a chance. 2o letʼs take a look outside.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6

The truth about success
In the !ages that follow, youʼll learn the truth about achievement and growth in the real world. .ouʼll learn how to break out of the ordinary and begin a journey of becoming e#traordinary " of becoming your most realized and fulfilled self, which I call /)egendary.0 $his wonʼt be my definition of )egendary3 it will be yours. .ou can have the things you want and be the things you want to be. $hatʼs not some kind of fluffy'bunny self'hel! bullshit, by the way. It a logical truth. If you do the right things for long enough, you will get to where you want to go, same as how a single ste! at a time will eventually take you across an entire continent. One thing that this means " and this is a really cool thing to realize " is that success isnʼt magical. tʼs mathematical. .ouʼll see.

This manifesto is my ift to yo!.

Success isnʼt magical. tʼs mathematical.

It was born out of frustration, and anger, and even a fair amount of sadness. (fter talking to hundreds of !eo!le who canʼt get out of their own way, who struggle with lives that are /good enough0 4but not truly good enough5, who have dreams and goals they canʼt reach des!ite the !ath being right in front of them, it became incredibly obvious to me that !eo!le are their own worst enemies. (nd that sucks, because it means that they could succeed, but that they wonʼt let themselves. &ost !eo!le stand defiantly in front of themselves with their arms crossed, telling themselves that theyʼll be damned if theyʼll let themselves go anywhere. 6eo!le will ask me how to build a business or run a marathon or get out of a bad situation, and Iʼll tell them something obvious that they already know. $hen theyʼll nod and agree that it is indeed what needs to be done, and theyʼll agree that they already knew it. $hen theyʼll do nothing. &othing.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

"

(nd thatʼs so sad. It feels ho!eless, like I think a lot of !eo!le feel every day. $his manifesto is my attem!t to turn the tide... for at least a few !eo!le. 7ow, before you read any further, !lease understand that this manifesto isnʼt for everyone. Iʼm going to tell you some things that you wonʼt want to hear. .ou might even be offended by some of what I have to say, because the truth sometimes hurts. 8or instance- Iʼm going to suggest that where you are right now is your own damn fault. Iʼm going to tell you that there is no (uick fix, and that the road to what you want is long and requires a lot of hard work. $oo many !eo!le have told us the nice things that we want to hear. But how is candy'coating working for us+ ,ow is coddling working for any of us+

6arts of the !rocess to follow might be uncomfortable for you, but thereʼs a reason for that. e all know the cliche of the man who, on his death bed, looks back and realizes where his life went wrong, right+ $his archety!e of a dying man ty!ically wishes heʼd s!ent more time doing things that mattered and that heʼd taken the time to be ha!!y and make a difference in the world. ,e sees that all of what once seemed so im!ortant turned out to not mean very much when the rea!er was at the door. ell, I want you to have your deathbed e#!erience now, while you can still change the things youʼd like to change. I donʼt want you to suddenly /wake u!0 at the end of your life, after itʼs too late. 2o on that note, with that warning, I wonʼt be offended if you want to sto! reading right now. Iʼll give you some time to think about it. 2till here+ (wesome. $hen welcome to the real world.

!ow is candy"coating working for us# !ow is coddling working for any of us#

Let me tell you why youʼre here, reading this manifesto.
Youʼre here because you know something. What you know you canʼt explain, but you feel it. Youʼve felt it your entire life — that thereʼs something wrong with the world. You donʼt know what it is, but itʼs there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. t is this feeling that has brought you to me. #he world that youʼve been trained to settle for is everywhere. t is all around us. %ven now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. t is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth) that you are a slave . Like everyone else you were born into self*imposed limitations and mediocrity. nto a prison that you donʼt even know youʼve built, a prison you cannot taste or see or touch. ' prison for your mind. +ut fuck that. ,-./. #0'#. 10 #. tʼs time to break out, and become Legendary.

PART ONE: The lies youʼve been told

#here is no spoon. – The Matrix

0ave you ever heard those stories about a person who has been in prison for so long that they no longer know how to operate in the real world, and prefer being in prison because at least itʼs familiar"

#hatʼs you. 1orry.
donʼt want to beat the 2prison for the mind3 metaphor for too much longer, but freeing your mind starts with understanding 4ust how institutionali5ed you are. Weʼll do that in 6art 7ne. #hen, 6art #wo will give you the steps for becoming Legendary, and promise theyʼre not at all complicated. n fact, nothing youʼll read here is complicated. Weʼve been led to believe that correct answers must be complicated. #heyʼre not. 0ey, before you go to the next page... warned you that this process might be uncomfortable, right" Yeah" 7kay, good.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#$

The Lie of Immortality
)etʼs get this out of the way- Someday, you will die. Iʼm sorry, but thatʼs the truth. &ost !eo!le s!end most of their time !retending that they will never die. &ost !eo!le waste a month doing something meaningless and figure, /Oh well, Iʼll try something different ne#t month,0 as if the su!!ly of months was neverending and they hadnʼt just used one u! that theyʼd never get back. ( !erson who was very aware of his or her mortality would never !iss away hours, minutes, or seconds. e all know the Most people never get their cliche of the man who discovers he has si# weeks to live, and wake up call until itʼs actually who suddenly discovers that sunsets are beautiful. $hen, curtain time, when itʼs too late. because itʼs fiction and someone gets to write the outcome, the man usually lives and continues his life with a new a!!reciation of what it is to be alive. Itʼs the very realization of his mortality that makes him a!!reciate each sunset, each moment he has with his family, every chance he has to make a difference. But most !eo!le never get that wake u! call until itʼs actually curtain time, when itʼs too late. If you work a job that you absolutely hate " if you loathe &ondays and and look forward to 8ridays " then you are !retending that you will never die. If you miss something you wish you could be !art of because a /demand0 makes it im!ossible 4say, missing your kidʼs bravo theater !erformance or a great friendʼs wedding because you really need to clean the gutters5 then you are !retending that youʼll never die. If you ever catch yourself watching a $% show that you donʼt care about but donʼt turn it off because of inertia, then you are !retending that youʼll never die.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#3

I !romise you " promise you " that you will die. (nd whatʼs more, I !romise you that the day you really, truly, with all your heart gras! the fact that you will eventually die will be the day you wake the fuck up and begin crafting a life that isnʼt fine or /okay0 or /good enough for a &onday.0 .ou want a )egendary life+ It all starts with acknowledging and making friends with that big clock that youʼve been ignoring " the one that says that itʼs now... or itʼs never. ithout a fire behind you, thereʼs no urgency. $hereʼs no reason to act when you have all the time in the world. .our clock is ticking, and if you donʼt do the things you want to do now, you never will.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#4

The Lie of Impossibility
I have a friend, 9oel *unyon, who writes about doing im!ossible things. $hink about that. Over and over, 9oel finds things that are im!ossible, and he does them. hen you say it like that, so baldly, it sounds ridiculous. (nd, accordingly, I called him on it once. I said, /9oel, the fact that youʼre doing these things means that theyʼre !ossible, not im!ossible.0 hat I didnʼt say, but that I thought, was that he was !laying !retty fast and loose with the definition of /im!ossible.0 ,e did some triathlons. *an a marathon. :id ;<< !ushu!s in a row. =ot >'!ack abs. &ostly !hysical stuff, all totally !ossible. ,e said, after a thoughtful !ause, / ell, I guess theyʼre things I used to think were im!ossible.0 hat do you think is im!ossible+ In ?<<@, I met a guy named 9on &orrow. 9on built an em!ire fli!!ing million'dollar real estate, then moved on to dominate the world of internet business as associate editor of one of the biggest blogs in the world. ,eʼs widely considered one of the best writers and most brilliant minds online, and is incredibly cocky about it all. ,e should be. ,e did it all des!ite the fact that he canʼt move below the neck and is, as of this writing, nearly thirty years overdue to die, according to his doctors. 9on canʼt do ninety !ercent of the little things I do any given morning in the way I do them, yet he honestly doesnʼt consider himself disabled. ( bit later, I met ascend A?. arren &ac:onald. arren lost his legs, and only thereafter decided to become a rock climber and

(fter I started $he Badass 6roject 4a no'e#cuses site ins!ired by these incredible badasses that was later !rofiled in 6enthouse " sorry that thatʼs my first major magazine credit, &om5, I met guitar !rodigy 9ason Becker. (fter becoming known as a rock guitar legend, 9ason develo!ed ()2, commonly known as )ou =erhigʼs :isease. ,e used to have the fastest, most talented fingers in rock nʼ roll, and today he can only move his eyes and a few facial muscles.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#5

:es!ite this, heʼs still totally rock nʼ roll. ,eʼs still u!beat. ,e still com!oses amazing music, and is a !rolific writer and author. 7ow, Iʼll ask again- What do you think is impossible" If you think itʼs im!ossible run a marathon because youʼre too old, shame on you. If you think itʼs im!ossible to one day quit your dead'end job and do that thing you love to do, shame on you.

You will never be able to do anything as long as you think itʼs impossible, but the good news is that very little is impossible.

.ou will never be able to do anything as long as you think itʼs im!ossible, but the good news is that very little is im!ossible. It is, given our current understanding of !hysics, im!ossible to be in two different !laces at once. $,($ is what /im!ossible0 means. 9oel does what he used to think was im!ossible, and realized quite readily that he was totally full of shit, and that most /im!ossible0 things were very !ossible indeed. If you want to be )egendary, youʼll need to do the same.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#6

The Lie of Responsibility
1ver been cut off in traffic+ $hatʼll really !iss you off, huh+ 1ver had someone betray you or steal something from you+ &an, thatʼll set you back. 1very day, weʼre at the effect of something. 2omeone does something, and it jostles us from our !ath. If !eo!le would sto! messing us u!, we could get to where we wanted to go. If the economy would just !ick u!, you could o!en that corner store. If your boss didnʼt demand all of your overtime, you could write that book. If your kids didnʼt need so much attention 4and hey, theyʼre more im!ortant anyway5, then you could join a gym and get in sha!e. eʼve been told that what ha!!ens to us is an effect, but itʼs not true. Being at the effect makes you a victim, and victims are hel!less. If youʼre not res!onsible for the bad things that are holding you down, how can you ever !ossibly overcome them+ If youʼre a victim, someone else has to change before you can change. But if instead you take res!onsibility, right here and now, youʼre em!owered. If youʼre in the cra! right now, then the bad news is that itʼs almost certainly your own fault. But the good news is that you can change it, because youʼre in the driverʼs seat. I could go on and on and on about res!onsibility and e#cuses, but instead Iʼll just refer you to the !revious section, and to 9on and arren and 9ason. 7obody can ever get in 9on and arrenʼs way other than 9on and arren, and thatʼs not about to ha!!en anytime soon. #here are no excuses. 7o legs+ 7o !roblem. eʼll just find another way. $he sooner you sto! blaming others, the sooner your life is in your hands... which is e#actly where it belongs and where you want it to be.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#"

The Lie of
1at less. 1#ercise more.

omple!ity

(re you overweight and would like to be thin+ Okay, hereʼs how you do it-

$hatʼs it. $hatʼs all there is to it. If youʼre overweight and would like to be thin, donʼt fool yourself into thinking youʼre the one !ercent of !eo!le for whom thereʼs more to the equation, and donʼt give me all the nuances- Well, but what about the (uality of foods and the ratios of fat and protein and carbohydrate" What about eating too little and throwing your body into starvation mode" What about rest" What about the level of intensity of exercise, or of resistance training versus endurance" 2to! it. 9ust fucking sto! it. .ouʼre better than that. .ouʼre smarter than that. .ou deserve more res!ect than such waffling and bullshit. If a mechanic botched your car re!air job and then fed you the kind of cra! thatʼs in italics above when you raised a fuss, youʼd be insulted. 2o why do you acce!t it when youʼre the one telling it to yourself+ 7o form of success is com!licated. *e!airing a relationshi! involves communication, !atience, and time. )earning dance ste!s involves rehearsing them until you get them right. Becoming fluent in Italian requires s!eaking and reading and hearing Italian and maybe !racticing vocabulary. Building a business requires finding a need in the market and filling it, and learning from e#!erience. .ou already know what you need to do. .ou just need to do it.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#)

The Lie of Normality
.ouʼve s!ent your entire life trying to be normal. :onʼt worry. e all have. I donʼt care how /out there0 you think you are3 the truth is that you were raised in a society that had rules. 2ometimes the rule might be /there are no rules,0 but thatʼs a rule. $ry creating rules in a family or a grou! that claims to have no rules. .ouʼll get !unished, shunned, shamed " for breaking the rules by creating a rule. eʼve grown u! wanting to !lease those around us, and itʼs in our very biology as human animals to do that by being like those other !eo!le. 2ome coaches even teach this stuff. ,ow do you build instant ra!!ort with someone+ By finding something you have in common with them. By s!eaking at the same cadence and volume. By using the same body language. By wearing similar clothes. 6eo!le like !eo!le they are like. Itʼs sim!ly how we work. =ot that !icture+ Bool. 7ow, hereʼs another !ictureImagine a grou! of !eo!le. )etʼs say a hundred of them. ,alf of them are si# feet tall. ,alf of them are five feet tall. ,alf of them have net worths of one million dollars. ,alf are !enniless. ,alf of these !eo!le have two children. ,alf have no children. In this imaginary grou! of !eo!le, the distribution of traits is more or less random. $here are some !eo!le who are si# feet tall, !oor, with no kids, and there are some si#'footers who are rich and have two kids, but for any given trait, a !erson is either in one grou! or another. 7ow- (sk yourself whatʼs /normal0 in this grou!. /7ormal0 is just another word for /average.0 hen we say that someone isnʼt normal, weʼre saying that they donʼt conform to an average archety!e within that society. (nd /average0 is a mathematical conce!t. If half of the !eo!le are si# feet tall and half are five feet tall, the average !erson is five and a half feet tall. $hatʼs /normal.0

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

#*

*un through the rest of our hy!othetical traits and youʼll find that a /normal0 !erson in this grou! is five foot si#, has one kid, and has a net worth of half a million dollars. (lso notice that nobody in that society conforms to that idea of normality. &aybe you see where Iʼm going with this.

Nobody is completely normal. $he very idea of a %normal person& is ridiculous, yet weʼre constantly steering toward it. 'eʼre slaves to it.

$hink of all the traits out there in our actual world " all of the millions of as!ects of life that go into what we consider to be /normal.0 $hatʼs a lot of things to be normal on. 7obody is going to match them all. 7obody is com!letely normal. $he very idea of a /normal !erson0 is ridiculous, yet weʼre constantly steering toward it. eʼre slaves to it. hen we want to do something, we weigh it against whatʼs normal before deciding whether or not to do it " what society e#!ects, what our friends would acce!t, what our mothers would a!!rove of. But nobody " anywhere " is /normal.0 /7ormal0 is the most abnormal thing you could ever be. )egendary !eo!le have to be different and break norms in order to be )egendary. If you want to be one of those !eo!le, you must be willing to do the same. You have spent your whole life pursuing and being guided by something that doesnʼt exist. Iʼd sto! doing that if I were you.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$+

The Lie of "ero #um
2ometimes, a !erson will want a better job. $heyʼll com!lain about their current job, saying they wish it were different. (nd someone nearby " a friend, a family member, a co'worker " will say, /.ouʼre lucky to have a job in this economy. .ou should be grateful for what you have.0 $he codicil " im!lied if not e#!licitly stated " is that the desire for a better job makes you greedy and ungrateful. $hat desire s!its in the face of everyone out there who is struggling. 0ow could you want more" $any have nothing8 7ow, think about something. If you got a better job, would that rob someone of their livelihood+

$his is a win"win world. $his is not a (ero sum world.

&y mom used to tell me that I should eat the food on my !late because there were children starving in Bhina. I never really understood that. as my not eating causing that famine+ If I ate my brussels s!routs, would those children be fed+ $he )ie of Cero 2um says that it is greedy to want to im!rove because your im!roving means that something else is diminishing. $hatʼs what /zero sum0 refers to " the idea that there is only so much /stuff0 to go around, and that your accom!lishing anything takes something away from someone else. But this is a win'win world. It is not a zero sum world. If you get the better job, youʼll !robably be ha!!ier and have more free time, and your family will benefit. 1veryone around you will benefit. $hat barista at 2tarbucks youʼre rude to when youʼve had a hideous day+ 2heʼll benefit when youʼre ha!!ier, and !olite, and maybe even leave a ti!. $his is all true of money, too. 6eo!le who end u! with more money donʼt ty!ically hoard it. 2ome do, sure, but most !eo!le s!end it, which hel!s other businesses. &any !eo!le who find themselves with more than they need will give to charity " or, finding themselves with e#tra time, will do volunteer work.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$#

7ever feel guilty for wanting more. It does not s!it in the face of what you have any more than looking forward to being in )os (ngeles at the end of a tri! s!its in the face of where you currently are. .ou are where you are. .ou can be grateful for it, and satisfied with it. (nd you can also want more. .ouʼre su!!osed to want more.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$$

The Lie of

omfort

eʼre an instant'gratification society. ant your food fast+ =o through the drive'thru. ant to watch any movie right now+ Bheck out any number of on'demand services. e want internet service wherever we are, and we want it to be fast. What, this phone canʼt record video and upload it to ,acebook without opening a separate app" What a piece of shit8 7ow, donʼt get me wrong. I like my movies on demand and I like my internet fast, but I donʼt like them better than living. If your finances are terrible and youʼre !anicky about them all the time and youʼre working three jobs just to make ends meet, take a serious look at where your money is going. I know !oor !eo!le in grand houses. $hey stay there because they think that comfort is more im!ortant than happiness or fulfillment. Iʼd suggest that those !eo!le leave those houses, sell their nice cars and furniture, and move into a modest a!artment. O!tional items include canceling cable $%, canceling internet service, and canceling their gym membershi!s.

)egendary lives are free lives. $heyʼre not always comfortable in the short term, but thatʼs because )egendary people understand that itʼs okay to trade comfort now for a bigger, better, more epic life later.

ould it be uncomfortable+ 2ure. ould it be inconvenient+ 2ure. (nd in line with the !revious section, might they also find themselves wanting more 4and unashamed about it5+ 2ure. But theyʼd be free. Dncomfortable, but free. )egendary lives are free lives. $heyʼre not always comfortable in the short term, but thatʼs because )egendary !eo!le understand that itʼs okay to trade comfort now for a bigger, better, more e!ic life later.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$3

Bomfort is killing us. Itʼs killing so very many of us. Itʼs a lot more comfortable to watch 1einfeld reruns for three hours than to start that novel you claim to want to write " es!ecially since youʼll be writing that novel for months or years, night after night after night, struggling through rough s!ots and uncertainty and self'doubt, closing yourself in a room away from other !eo!le. Itʼs more comfortable to remain in the middle of life, in that /good enough, donʼt rock the boat, be grateful for what you have0 sweet s!ot. But at the end of your life, will you wish youʼd written the novel+ Or would you rather have had !adding under your ass and Bheetos in your hand and &ichael *ichards !ratfalling on your screen+

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$4

The Lie of $ailure
$hereʼs a !o!ular quote " one thatʼs su!!osed to hel! you zero in on what youʼre su!!osed to be doing with your life " that goes like this/ hat would you do if you knew you could not fail+0

(nd then youʼre su!!osed to get all ins!ired thinking about being able to achieve anything, and go out there and set your goals. (nd thatʼs a !retty awesome thing, feeling like you couldnʼt fail, and it lasts for a while until you realize that of course you can fail, and you will fail 4like you did last time and the time before5, and that you shouldnʼt even try because the idea is too big, and you have better things to do than to waste your time. But failure is an illusion. $he truth is that you cannot fail. $here are only two things you can do- 2ucceed, or give u!. $hatʼs not su!!osed to be some manly statement, said by the commander in an overly dramatic war movie, like, /,ailure is not an option, lads83 Itʼs sim!ly the truth. )etʼs say you decide to o!en a bakery. $he bakery doesnʼt do well, and nobody comes in, and the landlord kicks you out for non!ayment of rent. hat ne#t+ .ou have two o!tions. .ou can give u!, or you can try something else. hat if you baked in your own kitchen and took your wares to farmersʼ markets and bake sales+ hat if you tried internet sales or mail order+ (nd if that doesnʼt work, what if you got an a!!renticeshi! at a successful bakery and worked on a !lan to buy the !lace in five years+

$he truth is that you cannot fail. $here are only two things you can do: Succeed, or give up.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$5

If you did that, !eo!le would look at you and theyʼd say a lot of things, but unless theyʼre misusing the word, they wouldnʼt say, /.ou failed at this baking thing.0 $heyʼd say things like /,e wonʼt give u!0 and /,eʼs like a dog with a bone0 and /,eʼs obsessed.0 2ome of these things !eo!le would say might not be flattering, but they wouldnʼt be about failure. $heyʼd !robably consider failure !referable, because right now youʼre just embarrassing yourself. 2o says them. But then again, how remarkable are their lives+ .ou cannot fail. .ou can only give u!.

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$6

The Lie of I%norance
If youʼve read this far, this last lie shouldnʼt be remotely sur!rising. $he lie of ignorance says that you donʼt know enough. It says that your shortcoming in any given area is due to a ga! in your knowledge. It says that if you learn more, youʼll be able to achieve, but until you learn more, youʼll fail, and youʼd be stu!id to even try. $he reason I donʼt do much !ersonal coaching is because most !eo!le e#!ect me to tell something that will /make the difference0 for their business. $hereʼs something I must know that they donʼt, and when I tell them that thing, theyʼll be successful. $hey donʼt think theyʼre !aying me for coaching. $hey think theyʼre !aying me for a magic key. 1veryone can use su!!ort and hel!. ( good coach will give you that. ( good book will do that. ( good course will teach you a few ti!s and tricks that will make what you already know more efficient and effective. But donʼt fool yourself into believing that youʼre hel!less without any of those things.

$he lie of ignorance says that if you learn more, youʼll be able to achieve, but until you learn more, youʼll fail, and youʼd be stupid to even try.

I recently hired a !ersonal trainer named *oger )awson 4who I highly recommend, by the way5 because although Iʼve always been fit, I wanted si#'!ack abs. *oger told me that Iʼd need to lose weight if I wanted to see a si#'!ack. $o lose weight, he told me to eat less. ,e told me a lot more than that, of course, but all of those details were refinements on one central !remise- 1($ )122. Iʼm not insulting *oger or his e#!ertise when I say that his hel! wasnʼt strictly necessary. ,e knows that. .et I !aid *oger each month for a handful of months, knowing that I already knew the most im!ortant conce!t. hat *oger gave me was su!!ort and accountability and a bunch of refinements on that central theme that got me to where I wanted to be better and faster, but he did not give me the key. I already had the key. I already knew the most im!ortant !art of what I needed to know.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

$"

Itʼs easier to believe that there is a critical missing !iece of information than to believe that youʼve had what you needed all along but were too blind to use it. $he latter version of events is much more !ainful, but itʼs the truth. .ou already know what you need to know. $his is very good news, because it means that all you need to do is to act on it. 4$his is all true of this manifesto too, by the way. $hink about it. Iʼve told you that youʼll die one day, that achievement involves steady and !rogressive work, and that you have to begin something in order to finish it. *eal revelations, right+5

Brea% someone o!t of the Matrix &y te''in the tr!th a&o!t this 'ie on T(itter.

#he #ruth
You will get old and then you will die, so thereʼs no point in waiting and no point in hedging your biggest bets. tʼs truly now or never. 'lmost anything is possible if youʼre willing to be flexible about the problem and its solution, and if youʼre willing to break some conventions. &obody controls you but you. &othing anyone does to you can ruin things for you unless you allow it to. %verything is simple, but very little is easy. f you fail, it will be due to lack of effort and persistence, not lack of knowledge. &obody is 2normal,3 so you should stop trying to be normal, too. Wanting more does not make you ungrateful for what you have. 9eceiving more does not take something away from someone else. 1atisfaction often comes at the cost of some discomfort, but it is always worth it. You cannot fail. You can only (uit. You already know everything you need to know to get everything you want. 'll thatʼs left is to do it.

These are the tr!ths of the rea' (or',. -t.s in yo!r han,s to /!t them to !se0 an, to &e1ome 2e en,ary.

PART T&O: 'ow to be Le%endary

can only show you the door. Youʼre the one that has to walk through it. – Mor/he!s

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

3#

The first thin% to understand
$he first thing you need to understand about your !ursuit of being )egendary is that it will never end " not until the time on the big clock runs out, and you die. Dntil that time, your job " your very !ur!ose in life " is to grow as much as !ossible in the ways that matter to you and that will make a !ositive difference in the lives of others. $he latter is es!ecially im!ortant, but you donʼt need to worry too much about it because it will ha!!en automatically. 6eo!le who live )egendary lives canʼt hel! but ins!ire and f your life is )egendary, the engage others. )egendary !eo!le leave turbulence behind world will be different in twenty them in the stream of time, and the !eo!le around them will years because you influenced feel that turbulence. .ou will do things, and someone will see those things and be forever changed. Iʼve had a lot of those someone who influenced )egendary !eo!le in my life. If you like this manifesto, you can someone. n a hundred years, in thank them. a thousand years, in a hundred If your journey never ends, you can never arrive during your lifetime. But thatʼs okay. .ou will arrive at the end... and if you do it right, you will enjoy the hell out of the journey.

thousand years, your influence will resonate in untold numbers of people.

,erodotus said, /Ball no man ha!!y until he is dead,0 which basically means that you can never truly judge a !ersonʼs life until itʼs over. :eath sto!s the clock, and until it does, the ball is still in !lay and the results are uncertain. .ou canʼt say who won a game until the game ends, right+ Itʼs the final buzzer that decides whether it was a good or a bad game, a win or a loss. $his game isnʼt you versus others. Itʼs you versus you, and thatʼs a game you can win. $he awesome news is that your /win0 is forever.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

3$

If you have a )egendary e#istence, the universe will know that you were here. If your life is )egendary, the world will be different in twenty years because you influenced someone who influenced someone. In a hundred years, in a thousand years, in a hundred thousand years, your influence will resonate in untold numbers of !eo!le. .ou are the butterfly effect. .ou, here and now, are fla!!ing your tiny wings, causing great changes in the distant future. Be deliberate with those fla!s. $hey matter. In a way, )egendary !eo!le actually do live forever. In a way, every )egendary !erson truly becomes a Legend.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

33

The second thin% to understand
$he second thing you need to understand about your !ursuit of being )egendary is that only you will know if youʼre doing it right. 7obody has any right to tell you that youʼre going in the wrong direction or that youʼre not doing as much as you could do. It doesnʼt matter what you do or how much you do. hat matters is that you do the best you can do relative to what youʼre able to do. $his is not a game of money or material rewards or traditional definitions of success. Itʼs a game of you versus you, and only you have any business steering your own shi!. Is it )egendary to be a fantastic mother, nurturing children who will be remarkable+ I think so, but the final decision is the motherʼs. Only she will know if she did her best. Is it )egendary to be a man who cleans toilets all his life, but is friendly and kind and ins!ires his friends with his unflagging !ositivity+ If youʼre thinking that heʼs not )egendary because heʼs cleaning toilets, then I ask- Who the fuck are you to decree what is a noble or right way to spend a life" You get to decide on your life. #hey get to decide on theirs. .ouʼll be able to feel it when youʼre going the right way, and youʼll be able to feel it when youʼre going the wrong way. 2o wake u! and !ay attention.

Nobody has any right to tell you that youʼre going in the wrong direction or that youʼre not doing as much as you could do.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

34

The third thin% to understand
$he third thing you need to understand about your !ursuit of being )egendary is that it is a slow and steady !rogress. .ou will not make huge lea!s down the !ath to becoming )egendary overnight. If youʼre e#!ecting instant results, Iʼm sorry, but you arenʼt going to get them. 2o if you require them, you should really sto! reading. $here is no easy button. $here is no magic !i#ie dust.

You will get what you want if you constantly, every day, make small improvements, and never give up.

$he !ath toward becoming )egendary is long and is !aved with small im!rovements over time. 1very day and every week and every month, your goal is to become a little bit better than you used to be. .our goal is not to make huge lea!s and bounds. .our goal is to im!rove, ste! by ste!, day by day. $he 9a!anese call this conce!t Aaizen, and $ony *obbins calls it /constant and never'ending im!rovement.0 Itʼs very unglamorous. It would not sell for thousands of dollars as a quick route to getting everything youʼd ever want right away. But itʼs the truth, and it works, and you should !ay attention... because if youʼre like most !eo!le, youʼve tried the quick fi#es and have found that theyʼve gotten you nowhere. I want you to understand, right here and right now, that you are in for a long journey. ( lifelong journey. .ou can be, do, or have almost anything you could ever want, but you wonʼt have it tomorrow. .ou wonʼt learn to breakdance overnight. .ou wonʼt quit your twenty'year cor!orate job and start working at home, making a fortune, ne#t week. But you will get what you want if you constantly, every day, make small im!rovements, and never give u!.

The Le%endary formula

:et this.
ʼve created an infallible formula for success in anything, and promise it is the key to achievement. f you follow it, you flat*out will succeed. tʼs the ultimate tool in becoming Legendary. ʼm not even going to charge you anything for this incredibly valuable formula, even though itʼs worth millions of dollars. ʼm that cool. 9eady"

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

3"

The surefire formula to become Le%endary
2te! ;- Begin 2te! ?- :o the work 2te! E- 2hi! 2te! F- *e!eat

'lmost nobody truly does all four. #hose who do inevitably become Legendary.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

3)

&hat(
If youʼre rolling your eyes, sto! it. $hink of something youʼve wanted, but have been unable to get. (nd ask yourself• • ,ave you formulated a !ossible solution and begun work on it+ ,ave you shown u! every single day to work on it, seriously and studiously, !utting in hours and hours and hours working, researching, analyzing and 4most im!ortantly5 taking action in the !ursuit of !erfection+ • ,ave you, after com!leting a !hase of your !roject, !ut yourself and your ego on the line by !utting it out into the world to see if it works+ • If it didnʼt work, did you find another way to a!!roach the !roblem, learning from your last attem!t, and try again and again and again until you got the result you wanted+ Bʼmon. 7o you didnʼt.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

3*

#TEP ): *e%in
&ost !eo!le are fountains of worthless ideas. Iʼm not saying that to be a dick. $he ideas are worthless because they remain ideas and never become !lans " not because there is anything inherently wrong with them. .ou get no credit for the ideas you donʼt !ursue. ,ave you ever thought how stu!id and sim!le the 6et *ock or the ,ula ,oo! mustʼve been to invent, and thought, /I couldʼve done that+0 ell, tough shit. .ou didnʼt do it, and that makes all the difference in the world. The first ste/ is to &e in. If that seems too sim!le, go back a few !ages and re'read the section on the )ie of Bom!le#ity. %ery few things are actually com!le#. .ou canʼt achieve something you donʼt begin, so the first ste! is to begin. If this is still bothering you, think of all the things youʼve never begun. ,ave you ever wanted to ask someone out but lost your nerve+ ,ave you ever seen the same workout commercial on $% over and over and thought, /I really need to start e#ercising,0 but have never quite gotten around to it+ ,ave you ever wanted to do something that seems com!licated " say, start a business " and analyzed and researched and !lanned and analyzed and researched and !lanned... but never actually sto!!ed the analyzing and researching and !lanning so that you could actually start that business+ $hatʼs kind of a !roblem.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4+

+our homewor,
$his manifesto has /how to0 in the title. In my mind, that means youʼve got to do some stuff. If you read and do nothing, thatʼs just one more great idea that is worthless because itʼs never begun. 2o hereʼs what you need to do for 2te! ;*ight now, right here, before you read about ste! ?, think of something youʼd like to be, do, have, or !ursue. It doesnʼt matter what it is. &aybe itʼs something big, like wanting to make a million dollars. Or maybe itʼs something small, like remembering that your motherʼs birthday is coming u! and wanting to be sure to get her a card. *ight here, right now, yo!r home(or% is to &e in that thin . 7ow remember, this isnʼt doing the thing. $his is beginning it. Beginning, mechanically s!eaking, is not hard. .ou just take a ste!. (ny ste!. If youʼre E<< !ounds overweight and want to become a fitness model, beginning might mean calling a gym. 9ust calling, and finding out when theyʼre o!en. $hatʼs a beginning. :o it now, before you read any more.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4#

#TEP -: .o the wor,
$hereʼs a book by 2teven 6ressfield called #he War of 'rt, and it changed my life. I got it from my friend (drian, who sent it to me because he said it changed his life. I gave him the /.eah, yeah, Iʼll eventually read it0 line, and he rightly concluded that meant Iʼd !robably never get around to it, so he bought a co!y and sent it to me " again rightly concluding that if he bought it for me, Iʼd feel I had to read it if only so I could re!ort back and thank him. #he War of 'rt is the reason I finished and !ublished my first novel " a book that had been sitting in my closet for twelve years. Itʼs the reason I totally revam!ed the structure of my business, and now do only work that I love. Itʼs the reason that I continue to write, no matter how hard it gets. Itʼs the reason I !ush myself at the gym and almost never miss a scheduled day. Itʼs the reason I almost never make e#cuses anymore, and get a lot more great stuff as a result. #he War of 'rt is short, and if you can find the time to read it yourself, I highly recommend it. But if you canʼt, let me sum it u! its message in one sentenceStop making e*cuses, and have the discipline to do what you know needs to be done. Or in other words+o the work. 2ome !eo!le are great starters. If you read the last section and breezed through it, congratulating yourself on being a !erson who has ideas and acts on them immediately, then thatʼs awesome. 2o let me ask you- hen you start things, do you then show u! every day and do the work required to make it ha!!en+ :oing the work is hard. 0ard. If you want to lift two hundred !ounds and can currently lift ten, doing the work is showing u! and e#ercising for months or years until you lift two hundred.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4$

If you want to build a business, doing the work is creating the systems and the branding and the website and the !roduct and doing the networking. Itʼs !icking yourself u! when something doesnʼt ha!!en the way it was su!!osed to. Itʼs riding out rough times and budgeting during good times. Itʼs taking !rofits and doubling down at the right times. Itʼs ada!ting as the market changes. Itʼs researching. 1#!erimenting. 2!lit testing. If you want to quit smoking or drinking, doing the work is fighting cravings every day, maybe forever. If you want to write a novel, doing the work is sitting down for a few hours every single day and !utting words on the !age even when you sus!ect theyʼre horrible. If youʼre currently a bad writer, doing the work might even mean writing a few ;<<,<<<'word go'nowhere manuscri!ts full of terrible !rose while youʼre learning, and then sim!ly throwing them away. Oh, and doing the work might entail a lot of rejection, too. If you want to lose E<< !ounds, doing the work is several years of dieting and e#ercise. !oing the work is not for the faint of heart, but it is the key to achievement. ,ave you ever noticed how very few !eo!le are truly, truly, truly committed to a goal+ $hatʼs why so few !eo!le achieve truly remarkable things. Dsing a term from #he War of 'rt, 6ressfield would say that $he *esistance got them. It sto!!ed those !eo!le from doing the work, and as a result, they accom!lished nothing.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

43

A caveat on doin% the wor,
:oing the work takes a lot of time. 2o right now, you might be thinking about how you didnʼt do the work on that thing that mattered to you because you just couldnʼt find the time to do what needed to be done, and how that was a real shame because you were totally committed otherwise. 2to! it. 9ust sto! it. $he /I donʼt have time0 e#cuse is the lamest e#cuse ever to e#ist. It makes me angry, because itʼs so flagrantly bullshit. .ou have ?F hours in a day. I have ?F hours in a day. If you want to write a novel but canʼt find an hour a day to write but I can, thereʼs something wrong with the laws of s!ace and time. Itʼs so sim!le. 9ust use one of the ?F you have " the same ?F that I have. ,ow hard is that+ .ou may have noticed that Iʼm a stickler on the definition of the word /canʼt.0 /Banʼt0 means /literally unable.0 hen most !eo!le say /canʼt,0 they donʼt really mean /canʼt.0 $hey mean mean /wonʼt.0 $hey mean that theyʼre choosing something else " work, family, a!!ointments, $%, slee!, eating, se# " over the thing they claim to want. Of course you can find the time. $he truth is that you arenʼt. If you truly want to do something and it requires an hour of work, ditch an hoursʼ worth of something youʼre currently doing but that matters less to you. ant a sim!le one+ 2lee! less. If you truly want something, going from seven hours to si# !er night is no big deal. If, on the other hand, you want to do something but are unwilling to give u! anything currently in your schedule to get it, then you donʼt really want it. (nd if thatʼs the case, then sto! being a whiny asshole and admit that you donʼt want it badly enough to !ut in the work required to make it ha!!en " which is a totally legit choice if itʼs made deliberately and consciously, by the way. $hen, move on to something that actually does matter to you. Or, sto! reading right now and settle into a mediocre life with the knowledge that nothing is sto!!ing you and that you are choosing to stay there.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

44

+our homewor,
$hink of something that youʼd like to achieve and that youʼve begun, but that you havenʼt yet !ut in much if any work on. 4It doesnʼt have to be the same thing as from ste! ;.5 $hen, commit to doing whatever it takes to get that work done, every day until itʼs finished. &ake a !lan. 6ut the !lan on the calendar. (nd by the way, be honest with yourself. Bheating on doing the work is like cheating at solitaire. 2ure you could !retend that youʼll get fit by eating cake and walking once a week, but who are you trying to fool+ 2u!!osedly, youʼre doing this thing for yourself. If thatʼs the case, you know what needs to be done, so donʼt be a !unk. Bommit to reality, not fantasy. (nd then, when those /do the work0 a!!ointments show u! in your calendar, get off your ass and work.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

45

A second caveat on doin% the wor,
(t this !oint, a lot of !eo!le object that it canʼt be this easy, because theyʼve had the )ies of Bom!le#ity and Im!ossibility and Ignorance drilled into their very souls. It canʼt be as sim!le as /just doing stuff,0 can it+ :onʼt you need to do the right things+ :onʼt you need to know what to do+ &aybe an e#am!le would hel!. ( lot of !eo!le that I run into would like to quit their jobs and have their own businesses. If thatʼs you, itʼs tem!ting to look at where you are now and feel that itʼs im!ossible, because thereʼs so much you donʼt know. .ou canʼt just show u! and /do stuff.0 .ou need hel!. *ight+ ell, hel! might s!eed things along, but getting and then actually acting on the advice you get 4versus falling into analysis !aralysis5 is !art of doing the work. .ou work, you ask for hel! or research or whatever, and you do some more work. (nd if it still seems im!ossible+ If the idea of starting a !rofitable business still seems too big and too hard+ &aybe a further e#am!le would hel!. )etʼs !retend that /doing the work0 on your business means getting u! an hour earlier 1(B, (7: 1%1*. 2I7=)1 :(. and sitting down and working toward that goal. :o you really doubt that in E>G focused hours this year, filled not with thumb'twiddling and dreaming but with real, hard, effort'filled O*A and *121(*B, and 71$ O*AI7= and )1(*7I7= and B*(I72$O*&I7= and *I$I7= and 1H61*I&17$I7= and B*1($I7= that you couldnʼt make some serious !rogress toward building a business that will one day sustain you+ .ʼmooooooooon.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

46

#TEP /: #hip
(uthor 2eth =odin has a conce!t he calls /shi!!ing.0 It basically means that once youʼve begun something and have done the work on it every day for long enough, you must eventually declare that !roject is finished and !ut it out into the world, where it can be consumed, lauded, a!!lauded, and judged by others. )ike the other ste!s, the idea that you need to /shi!0 the things that youʼve com!leted may sound sim!le and obvious. But very few !eo!le do it, des!ite its obviousness. ( lot of !eo!le actually manage to begin their !rojects, which takes those !rojects out of the realm of ideas and into the world of reality. 2o far, so good. $hen, some of those !eo!le manage to show u! every day and do the work. 2till good. But then, a lot of those same !eo!le stagnate and canʼt quite !ull the trigger and shi! the damn thing. $hey canʼt quite bring themselves to !ut the !roduct u! for sale, submit the art to a gallery, ask for the date, or o!en the doors of the business. Instead, to !rove to themselves that theyʼre not chickening out on something that matters to them, they do more work, and more work. Instead of !ublishing their novel, theyʼll rewrite it. Or maybe theyʼll declare that the first novel was just !ractice to learn the craft, and theyʼll !ut it in the closet and begin work on a second novel. 4I should know. I did this. &y first novel sat in a closet for twelve years before I finally shi!!ed it.5 $hey wonʼt call it an inability to !ull the trigger and shi!. $heyʼll call it persistence or perfection, which would be noble if it werenʼt just an e#cuse " if they ever had the guts to fail on the real !roving ground before starting over. 2hi!!ing seems sim!le, and it is sim!le " but itʼs not easy. In fact, itʼs very hard. If you never shi! the novel, nobody will see your intimate art and be able to wound you by saying itʼs no good. If you never o!en the doors for business, you will never find out that nobody may want to !atronize it. If you never shi!, you can never fail, and thatʼs quite a!!ealing.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4"

But if you never shi!, you will also never accom!lish anything. $he end result of workIre!eat, workIre!eat with no shi!!ing is the same as never beginning the !roject at all. Or rather, itʼs much worse because you waste a ton of time doing all that work before giving u!. If youʼre going to give u!, at least do it early, before youʼve s!ent weeks or months or years !ursuing something youʼll never act on. If you want success in anything, you must ship. 6eriod. One day, you must sto! working on whatever youʼre doing, and !ull the trigger. $he manuscri!t in your closet is hel!ing nobody. 6ublish it. 1ven if you think itʼs terrible, !ublish it. 6ublish it under a !seudonym if you must, but !ut it into the world and let it take its lum!s or soar on its own. 6ublish it so that you will know that youʼre done with it and can move on to the ne#t book, and make that ne#t book better. $he business !lan that you havenʼt !resented to the bank for a loan does you no good. 6resent it. If you get rejected, refine it and try again. If you want to ask someone out on a date, ask. If youʼve finished that handmade birdhouse, !ut it u! on eBay for sale, or at the very least !ut it u! in your backyard. If youʼve !olished that s!eech, get u! on stage and give it. .ou can never succeed with something that is never given a chance to succeed. Or, as %You miss one hundred percent of the shots you donʼt take.& ayne =retsky said,

2o take those shots, and acce!t that yes, sometimes you will miss. Itʼs okay. $hatʼs what the last ste! of the formula is for.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4)

+our homewor,
2hi! the thing you need to shi!. .ou know what thing Iʼm talking about. Itʼs that thing you finished awhile ago but then either !ut in the closet or ke!t working on, and working on, and working on because you really want to /!olish0 it. 2to! waffling. 2to! !olishing. Itʼs done, okay+ 2o shi! it, and commit to being okay with the results regardless of whether it soars or falls flat because even a flo! is the valuable feedback youʼll need to do better ne#t time.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

4*

A caveat about perfection
9ust now, at least half of the !eo!le reading the last !age thought about the thing they need to shi! and convinced themselves that okay, okay, they will shi! it... but not just yet, because they need to get one more thing about that !roject right first. ( lot of !eo!le who never shi! do so because they want to get whatever theyʼre working on !erfect before they do. (nd while that may sound good on !a!er, itʼs cra!. )et me share a little secret with you- 6erfection is for cowards. 6erfection is a delaying tactic used by !eo!le who are afraid to shi!. &othing can ever be perfect. $he greatest !ieces of art and the greatest businesses and the greatest movements in the history of mankind were born with huge flaws. :o you think (!!le was !erfect when 2teve 9obs and 2teve ozniak started it in ;@J>+ :o you think 9obs ever held u! his hands and said, / ell, hang on a second there, oz... I want to make sure we !erfect retina dis!lay touchscreens for i6ads before we release the (!!le I with the handmade wooden case0+ Or, instead, do you think he did the best he reasonably could with what he had at the time, and then im!roved and launched further iterations later, content to im!rove over time+ ,ell, Bill =ates didnʼt even own an (ltair com!uter when he contacted its maker to let them know heʼd develo!ed an emulator for it... but if he hadnʼt lea!t boldly and im!erfectly, the world wouldnʼt know &icrosoft. :o you think 6icasso was ever totally satisfied with one of his !aintings+ (sk any established author, today, what he or she thinks of their first !ublished book. $hey may hate it. $hey may be embarrassed. But theyʼll also understand that without that first im!erfect book, they never would have gotten to the better books that came later.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

5+

.ou will never be !erfect, so you might as well sto! trying to be. 2hi! what you have now, with warts and all. ould you rather have taken an im!erfect ste! toward your )egendary life, or would you rather have !roduced an absolutely !erfect and flawless !ile of... of nothing at all+ Be bold. $ake im!erfect action. 2hi!.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

5#

#TEP 0: Repeat
One of the greatest tragedies in life is when someone actually has the guts to begin a !roject, to !ut in a ton of work, to shi! it... and then, when it doesnʼt go as well as theyʼd ho!ed, they quit. It doesnʼt feel like quitting, though. It feels like this thing we call /failure.0 It feels like something outside of you has decided that you wonʼt have what you want, but thatʼs just a !erce!tual error. $o see what I mean, letʼs define two ty!es of failure " one of which shouldnʼt really be called Kfailure,ʼ and one of which doesnʼt even e#ist)I$$)1 8(I)D*1 is what ha!!ens when you try to jum! a hurdle and miss, falling on your face. Itʼs what ha!!ens when you try to sell a !roduct and nobody wants it. Itʼs what ha!!ens when nobody reads what you write, when you get rejected, when you donʼt !ass a test, or when !eo!le give you critical reviews. BI= 8(I)D*1 is something that ha!!ens to you, from the outside, that makes you unable to achieve what you want. $he first one isnʼt really failure. Itʼs sim!ly feedback. Itʼs an unsuccessful attem!t. $he second one doesnʼt e#ist. 6eo!le give u! on a thing when they e#!erience a little failure and erroneously believe itʼs a big failure. $hey fail the test and think it means theyʼll never !ass. $hey !roduce a flo! in a given endeavor and think theyʼll never !roduce a success in that same endeavor. )et me ask you something I once heard $ony *obbins ask- 0ow long would you give your average, healthy child to learn to walk" (ssuming the childʼs legs and motor skills work okay, how long would you let him !ractice walking before you !icked him u!, !ut him in a stroller forever, and said, /.ou !oor thing3 at least you tried0+

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

5$

$he idea of letting a child kee! trying until he succeeds seems obvious " and yet we, as adults, try things once, fall over, and then cut ourselves off from trying again. (nd our friends and family say, /.ou !oor thing3 at least you tried.0 If you o!en a store selling hand'knitted oven mitts and have to close it when nobody buys your wares, thatʼs a little failure. $hatʼs an unsuccessful attem!t. It is not /big failure,0 because /big failure3 does not e#ist. hen your oven mitt store closes, you have two o!tions. O!tion one is to quit. O!tion two is to try something else. .ou might try selling your oven mitts online. .ou might sell at a craft fair. .ou might get your oven mitts licensed by a big bo# store like Bed Bath L Beyond. .ou might create a video course on how to knit your own oven mitts, and try to sell that. .ou might get a job in an oven mitt knitting factory. (nd if none of that works " if it becomes obvious that nobody wants hand'knitted oven mitts " you might !ursue a totally se!arate, unrelated method of making income, and knit oven mitts in your s!are time to give away for free. .ou cannot fail. .ou can only quit. /)ittle failure0 is !art of the learning !rocess. Itʼs as natural as breathing. ( kid fails to ride a bike dozens or hundreds of times before he finally discovers his balance and rides successfully. 1ven evolution is defined by failed attem!ts. 8or each successful ada!tation " for each fish that crawls out of the !rimordial ocean and manages to breathe air " there are millions u!on millions of dead ends in fish that crawl out of oceans and suffocate. 1volution is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand ty!ewriters for all eternity, trying to !roduce 2hakes!eare. $here are a lot of botched manuscri!ts, yes " but the relentlessness of effort has created the world we see around us. If you want to become )egendary, you must be tenacious. .ou must risk other !eo!le saying that youʼre a dog with a bone, that you wonʼt give u! on that thing you want to do, that youʼre obsessed. .ou should be obsessed about the things that matter to you. I have a friend who once told me, /ʼObsessionʼ is a word that lazy !eo!le use to describe dedication.0 (nd itʼs true. 8ail with courage. 8ail with a smile on your face. $hen, try again.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

53

+our homewor,
$hat thing you tried, and that didnʼt work+ $hat thing you wish youʼd been able to succeed at+ $ry again.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

54

A caveat about not bein% a dumbass
7ow, donʼt be a total idiot about this. 1instein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and e#!ecting a different result, and itʼs true. .es, ste! four is /*e!eat,0 but that means to re!eat the previous three steps, not to re!eat the exact same thing that you 4ust tried in the exact same way. hen you try something and it doesnʼt work, learn from that attem!t. (djust your a!!roach and try something different ne#t time, building on what youʼve discovered.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

55

A caveat about the .ip
Iʼve said that you canʼt fail3 you can only quit. hat I didnʼt e#!licitly say " but which youʼve got to understand " is that sometimes itʼs okay to quit. I started working on a 6h: in genetics when I was ??. I hated the work, and it was literally giving me !anic attacks, but I didnʼt want to give u! because I donʼt like to quit. It felt like this was something Iʼd committed to, so I should kee! trying until I succeeded. I told myself to tough it out until I got that 6h:, no matter what. 8ortunately, I didnʼt labor in idiocy for long. (fter about four months, my !anic attacks got bad enough that I was forced to confront two truths. 8or one, I was !ursuing the 6h: for a really dumb reason. &y reason was /I wanted a 6h:.0 But for what+ I want a !iece of !a!er+ hy would

(nd two, I realized I didnʼt actually want the fucking 6h:. (t all. I hated the work3 I hated the environment3 I hated my hour commute3 I hated that I didnʼt see my wife much and wouldnʼt see my kids much once I had them. I realized that if I succeeded " if I got the 6h: " that my reward would be to kee! doing more of the same. $he fact that it took me so long to realize that still gives me chills. 2eth =odin calls the !lace in any endeavor when you e#!erience difficulty and resistance /$he :i!,0 and e#!lains that the reason so few !eo!le succeed is that when they e#!erience the :i! and the going gets very hard, they quit. ,e then adds 4and this is the really im!ortant !art5 that most of the time when you hit the !ip, you really should (uit. e can only do so much, and we can only truly be " or would truly want to be " e#cellent at a small !ercentage of the o!!ortunities that cross our !ath. $he sooner you recognize the areas in which youʼd be better served by not !ushing through the :i! and quitting now, the better.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

56

I could have !ushed through the :i! with grad school. But if I had, Iʼd have been a miserable and !robably a bad scientist. hy would I want that+ Be obsessed and never give u! on the things that matter. But also, quit the things that donʼt matter as soon as humanly !ossible.

*ut wait111 thereʼs more2

You deserve a bonus section, right"
What follows are 4ust a few notes. ' few details. ' few things to keep in mind while youʼre out there becoming Legendary. .heck ʼem out. #heyʼll help you along your 4ourney.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

5*

+ou are already Le%endary
&aybe youʼre ins!ired by what youʼre reading here. &aybe the idea of becoming )egendary is com!elling. But maybe also, in a way, it still sounds kind of... well... im!ossible. If thatʼs the case, I want you to think very carefully about something$here is something that you are e*cellent at that other people find impossible. &aybe youʼre very good at being creative " at art, writing, com!osing, or something similar. &aybe youʼre great at math. &aybe youʼre strong, or fast, or tough. &aybe youʼre rich. &aybe youʼre an e#cellent networker and have great connections, or maybe youʼre just really good at making friends with !eo!le you come across. &aybe youʼre a great !arent. &aybe you have a beautiful garden or lawn. &aybe you have great fashion sense. :o yourself a favor and go to =oogle and s!end some time searching for information on how to do what it is that youʼre e#cellent at. .ouʼll find stories of frustration from !eo!le who canʼt make it work " !eo!le who would give anything to grow beautiful red roses or get their teenager to talk heart'to'heart with them. 2o if looking at !eo!le who have reached your goals gives you feelings of awe and des!erate jealousy, just remember " there is something that you can do that causes the same feelings of awe and des!erate jealousy in someone else. .ou may have gotten used to your own )egendary ability or achievement, but that doesnʼt make it any less amazing or )egendary. $hink about that the ne#t time you see something you wish you could be, do, or have... and think that you could never get there.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6+

Practice ma,es perfect
$he notion of taking small ste!s every day over a long time in order to reach a big goal is a really im!ortant one, so Iʼm going to re!eat it in a slightly different way to make sure you get it. (t the age of seven, my son (ustin is already a much better illustrator than my wife. 7ow, thatʼs not saying a lot3 *obin never really tried to be very artistic. But it is true that he can draw better than her, and some of that might be due to the way his eye talks to his brain talks to his hand, but a lot of it came from daily !ractice. (ustin likes to draw, so he draws. (nd the more he draws, the better he gets. $he last section was about how youʼre already )egendary in some way. $hink about that right now. $hink about that talent you have " that e#cellence that, in all !robability, you havenʼt been giving yourself enough credit for.

!ow did you achieve that thing that millions of people are out there searching the internet for, desperately wanting to be like you# You practiced.

,ow did you become a great !arent, a great networker, a vice !resident of something or other, run a marathon, or do whatever it is that makes you amazing+ ,ow did you achieve that thing that millions of !eo!le are out there searching the internet for, des!erately wanting to be like you+ .ou !racticed. (nd like (ustin, you !robably didnʼt even think of it as !racticing. But if youʼre a great wood carver, Iʼll bet youʼve s!ent a lot of time carving wood, !robably just because you enjoyed it. Iʼll bet that you created some horrible carvings early on, and Iʼll bet that when you did, you didnʼt quit and declare that it was just too hard. Because you were having fun and not thinking of it as work, Iʼll bet you learned from those bad carvings and did better the ne#t time. Iʼll bet that your wood carving abilities today are better than they were five or ten years ago.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6#

If someone asked you to teach them how to carve and lamented how much better you were at it than them, youʼd !robably say something like, /It took me a long time to learn how to do this well, and it may take you a long time too... but if you !ractice, youʼll get it in time.0 &aybe itʼs time you take your own advice. $he only real difference between your journey to what you want and your journey to what you already have is that the former may feel like work and !ractice and the latter !robably did not. But the ste!s and the work and the long, slow !rogression that may take years to develo! are the same regardless of what you call it or what it feels like.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6$

I%nore others
6eo!le are going to tell you that your ideas and as!irations are stu!id or foolhardy or im!ossible or a waste of time. Itʼs inevitable. $he first cha!ter in the story of every great success inevitably includes the term /that dumbass.0 $he right brothers were dumbasses to think !eo!le could fly. $homas 1dison was a dumbass for not giving u! after a thousand failures with light bulb filaments. 7elson &andela was a dumbass to think he could end a!artheid, and he was a su!er'dumbass when, !roving his critics right, he got his dumb ass thrown into !rison for ?J years.

You donʼt have to tell them theyʼre a dumbass for staying in the Matri*, but think we all know what the real score is.

hen !eo!le im!ly that youʼre a dumbass, consider the source. (re they living their dreams+ (re they on the way to becoming )egendary+ ill !eo!le look back on their accom!lishments and marvel at the amazing legacy they left behind them+ .ou donʼt have to tell them theyʼre a dumbass for staying in the &atri#, but I think we all know what the real score is.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

63

Accept that you will %et confused
( few months ago, I decided that I wanted to start !laying the game :ance :ance *evolution. hen you first start !laying it, that game is hard as hell. .ouʼve got to hit this arrow with one foot, then this one with the other foot, then somehow get back to this one, then hit two at once. Itʼs like fast $wister with a soundtrack. 7ot only was I terrible at it, but I couldnʼt !ossibly see how Iʼd ever get any better. 1very time I !layed, I was confused and frustrated. &oving between levels " from 7ovice to Basic, to (dvanced, to 1#!ert " were quantum lea!s. I couldnʼt do any of it. I donʼt know why I ke!t trying, because my !rogression just consisted of failing while moving faster. $hen, one day, I realized that I could do anything on Basic. (nother day, I realized that :ifficult had quite suddenly and une#!ectedly become easy, and I wondered why I used to think it was im!ossible. $oday I can do a lot of the songs on 1#!ert.

&ost new skills are like that. .ou will start trying them and feel confused. .ou will !ut in your time trying to learn them and feel totally baffled all the while. .ou will slog on, wondering why youʼre bothering at all because youʼre not making an iota of !rogress. (nd then, quite suddenly, it will make sense and youʼll get it. .ouʼve got to understand that being confused while learning is natural. :onʼt e#!ect to see !rogress all the time. 1ven though it may not feel that way, youʼre always !rogressing. .our learning brain is smarter than you, and it doesnʼt always bother to tell the rest of your brain that itʼs actually im!roving.

You will slog on, wondering why youʼre bothering at all because youʼre not making an iota of progress. ,nd then, -uite suddenly, it will make sense and youʼll get it.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

64

Pay the price
&y friend 9on &orrow, who I mentioned when I talked about the )ie of Im!ossibility, once gave me this advice'hen you decide what you want to do, donʼt .ust figure out what it is and how to get there. /ind out what the price of that thing is, and go ahead and commit to paying that price. In other words, what you want doesnʼt come free. In earlier sections of this manifesto, Iʼve given you a few com!onents of the !rice of most things- doing hard work, o!ening yourself to criticism, acce!ting the setbacks that youʼll be inclined to call /failure.0 Before you start !ursuing any goal, think about how much hard work will need to go into it. $hink about how much time youʼll need to dedicate, and if there are other things youʼll not be able to do 4watching $% is an easy one5, then make sure you know what youʼre giving u!. 2ometimes thereʼs a monetary !rice. 2ometimes thereʼs a !rice in terms of what others will think of you. $hink about all of it so that you can get a true !icture of what your !ursuit is going to cost you. $hen make damn sure youʼre okay with !aying that !rice. If youʼre not, donʼt begin. Itʼs better to decide early that the !rice is too high than to waste a bunch of time before quitting, or !aying a !rice you donʼt truly want to !ay. 8or e#am!le, hereʼs 9on again !ara!hrasing billionaire 8eli# :ennis!e said, %You have to be insane to want to be a billionaire, because you have to give up everything. 0ive up having kids that love you. 0ive up having spouses that love you. 0ive up having friends that love you. 0ive up having anyone that cares about you. 0o ahead and commit to be alone and fighting your entire life. You want to be a billionaire# $hatʼs how you do it.& .an you be a billionaire+ Of course. But are you willing to+ I wouldnʼt !ay that !rice, !ersonally, but if youʼre willing to !ay it and would like to be a billionaire, then best of luck to you. :onʼt just !ick your goals and dreams of the blue sky. &ake sure that youʼre willing to !ay the !rice required to have them, and then !ay it.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

65

Live consciously
I have my biases. I want to s!end time with my family, be in sha!e, and have a decent amount of money and a lot of free time. But what youʼve got to understand is that those are my biases, and mine alone. If, in this manifesto, Iʼve suggested that you should aim to be rich, thin, or family'centered, I hereby take it back. Be what you want to be. I wouldnʼt want to be a smoker, for instance. If I did smoke, Iʼd have a very immediate goal to quit. But thatʼs not the same as saying that nobody should smoke, so if youʼre a smoker and want to remain one, more !ower to you. If youʼre !oor and want to stay !oor while you !ursue a different goal in a different area, thatʼs totally your choice, and itʼs okay.

)ive consciously, fully aware of the decisions youʼre making, why youʼre making them, and what those decisions are likely to mean for you and for your future.

hat I ask is that you truly understand what youʼre doing. I ask that you live consciously, fully aware of the decisions youʼre making, why youʼre making them, and what those decisions are likely to mean for you and for your future. 1very decision " even so'called /right0 or /good0 decisions " has a !rice. &ake sure youʼre aware of the !rices youʼre !aying, and make sure youʼre okay with !aying them. If itʼs what you want, itʼs fine to decide consciously to live life as a !au!er. But what many !au!ers do is to become !oor accidentally, through unconscious decisions. $hereʼs a big difference.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

66

&hat to do when youʼre afraid or mad3 or when thin%s really seem to not be wor,in%
$his isnʼt an easy journey. (s Iʼve suggested, there will be times when you feel like youʼre getting nowhere, making zero !rogress toward your goals, and failing 4/little failure05 constantly. $here will be times when !ressure from others becomes unbearable, when youʼre laughed at, when nothing is going right, when you get scared. hen that ha!!ens, my advice is to do a bit of analysis to make sure the !ath youʼre on does indeed seem to be the right one, and then to dig in dee!er and work harder. (ll humans are creators. (ll humans are artists. hat we create may not always look like art, but it is. Bom!assion is an art. Building and re!airing things is an art. *elating to others is an art. In every moment, the things you do that make a difference are acts of creation. (rt is intensified by well'directed emotion and intensity. 4$he more common way to say the same thing is, /art comes from suffering,0 but thatʼs unnecessarily !essimistic. (ll sorts of truly human situations create good art, not just the bad ones.5 2o if youʼre feeling intense, use that intensity to create more of your own uni(ue art. Bhuck :. from 6ublic 1nemy said, / hen I get mad, I !ut it down on a !ad3 give you something that you never had.0 In other words, he doesnʼt just get !issed off. ,e gets !issed off and writes lyrics. $hereʼs a lesson in that. Oh, and while weʼre at it, letʼs e#!ose the !ersistent bullshit myth of the unshakable idol. :o you think the !eo!le you look u! to " the !eo!le you see doing )egendary things " are always confident and sure of themselves+ :o you think they were born being amazing, and never suffered through " and maybe even continue to suffer through " what youʼre suffering through+ hat about me+ :o you think Iʼm never nervous+ :o you think Iʼm never afraid+ 1#cuse me while I bark ironic laughter.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6"

$ind others li,e you
$hereʼs an e#!ression- /If you lie down with dogs, youʼll get u! with fleas.0 If youʼre going to be )egendary, you canʼt lie down with dogs. .ouʼve got to find other !eo!le like you " !eo!le who are also living life consciously and deliberately, traveling down the same !ath. 8ind !eo!le who are after what youʼre after. 2!end less time with !eo!le who donʼt share your o!timistic attitude and as!irations. *ead things you find ins!iring and that make you want to become more )egendary. atch things that u!lift and ins!ire you. )isten to ins!iring audio in your car instead of idiot deejays.

1utting more )egendary stuff into your brain will re"acclimate you to the idea that )egendary is possible, )egendary is right, )egendary is the way to go.

$he more you surround yourself with what you want to become, the more likely you are to become it. *ight now, you might be surrounded by the world I describe in !art one of this manifesto " in the &atri# instead of out here in the real world. 6utting more )egendary stuff into your brain will re'acclimate you to the idea that )egendary is !ossible, )egendary is right, )egendary is the way to go. If youʼre lying down with dogs, sto!. )ook around. 8ind others like you. 8ind communities. Interact. $alk about )egendary stuff. 2tart lying down with )egends, so that you can get u! )egendary.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6)

Thatʼs it1
$hatʼs !retty much all you need to know. hat, too sim!le+ 7ot enough ste!s+ 7ot enough !ages+ 7ot enough secrets and techniques and tricks+ 7o secret codes, no admission to secret societies and good'old'boy networks+ 7o certifications or classes or tests or hidden back doors+ )ook, Iʼm sorry to give you such a sim!le formula, but it really is that sim!le. :onʼt believe me+ (sk anyone you think is doing or has done great things and theyʼll tell you. To &e1ome 2e en,ary0 yo!.3e ot to &e in /!rs!in (hat yo! (ant0 then ,o the (or% 4in1'!,in a,5!stin as yo! o an, 'earnin 0 &!t most'y 5!st !ttin it o!t60 shi/ it (hen yo!.re ,one0 an, then a,a/t an, re/eat !nti' thin s start to (or%. $hatʼs it. I know itʼs sim!le. If that makes you uncomfortable, I su!!ose you could do it while solving linear algebra equations and juggling tiki torches. D! to you. 2o why, you might be asking, do so few !eo!le become )egendary if itʼs so sim!le+ $here are two answers. 8or one, most !eo!le donʼt realize how sim!le it really is. *emember my /!rison for your mind0 analogy from the beginning+ &ost !eo!le are still there, still !lugged into the &atri#. $he other reason is because while the !ath is sim!le... it most definitely is not easy. ,aving the guts to get u! and take action isnʼt easy. 2howing u! every day and working is very hard. 2hi!!ing what you create or committing to do what you want to do makes you vulnerable and involves e#!osing yourself to rejection and criticism. $rying again from scratch after a letdown is haaaaard.

JOHNNY B. TRUANT

6*

Itʼs not easy at all, and thatʼs why so few !eo!le achieve truly amazing things. Itʼs why so many !eo!le live ordinary, unlegendary lives. Itʼs why so many !eo!le colla!se on the couch and eat Bheetos and let #hreeʼs .ompany reruns lull them to slee! between one twelve'hour !eriod s!ent doing things they donʼt enjoy and the ne#t twelve'hour !eriod s!ent doing things they donʼt enjoy. Itʼs why so many !eo!le live their lives on auto!ilot, with nothing to really get e#cited about from one year to the ne#t to the ne#t. Itʼs why most !eo!le, at the ends of their lives, look back and think, /&eh. $hat was okay, I guess.0 I donʼt want that for myself. (nd if youʼre anything like me, you donʼt want it for yourself, either. )iving a )egendary life takes a lot of work, but itʼs worth it. By living a )egendary life, you make a difference. By living a )egendary life, the world will know you were here, and know that you made your corner of the world a little better.

,t the end of my life, want to look back and say, %$hat was fucking awesome2&

.ou know how, in +raveheart, &el =ibson said, /1very man dies, but not every man truly lives+0 Itʼs true. (t the end of my life, I want to know that I lived as much as I could in the time I had. (t the end of my life, I want to look back and say, /$hat was fucking awesome83 :o you+

#he next step
f youʼre ready to begin becoming Legendary and are wondering what to do next, have a highly optional suggestion for you. run a community called %veryday Legendary that takes the idea of 2taking small steps every day toward becoming Legendary3 to the next level, for those who are interested. tʼs filled with people like us — people who are, right here and right now, devoting their lives to breaking through the world of mediocrity and limitation. #hese are people admire, who are creating ama5ing, inspiring lives. n this community of ama5ing, soon*to*be*Legendary people, create several lessons each month and lead the kind of discussions that keep all of our minds in the world of epic doings — my own mind very much included. &ow) n the spirit of everything youʼve 4ust read, want to stress that you do not, in any way, &%%! %veryday Legendary in order to achieve anything you want. #here are no super*secret %asy buttons inside, and no magic fairy dust — 4ust a lot of tips and real*world experience, the fellowship of like* minded purpose*driven people, and a lot of 2doing the work,3 because the unsexy truth is that thatʼs what true success is made of. You can check out %veryday Legendary at %verydayLegendary.com, or by clicking this link.

#hare the Le%endariness
:id you enjoy reading this+ :id it make you want to dedicate your life to becoming )egendary+ If so, here are some ways you can s!read the message and hel! more !eo!le un!lug from the &atri# and begin their own journey to becoming )egendary-

T(eet a&o!t it

7hare it on 8a1e&oo%

7hare it on 9oo 'e:

About the Author
Johnny B. Tr!ant is a !rominent writer and blogger in the fields of human !otential and entre!reneurshi!, as well as a !ublished novelist. 9ohnny hosts two !o!ular weekly !odcasts " one for writers at 2elf6ublishing6odcast.com, and one for his fiction audience at BetterOffDndead2how.com " both of which are available in the major !odcast directories as well as on 2titcher *adio. 9ohnny is also the creator of the non!rofit Badass 6roject, which celebrates so'called /disabled0 !eo!le who kick the asses of most !eo!le who dare to call themselves /able.0 ,e makes his home online at 9ohnnyB$ruant.com, where his mission is to wake u! anyone who is com!lacently slee!walking through lifeM using any means necessary. 9ohnny also runs 1veryday)egendary.com, an awesome membershi! community for legends in training. .ou can join the !arty here.

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