Dave Chappelle and "Success Barriers"

Let's start out today's piece with a classic, classic clip of David Chappelle from the Chapelle show -- "Black Bush"

If you haven't seen it, watch it NOW...

Anyway, this leads me into today's thoughts -- SUCCESS BARRIERS.

Everyone has a concept of what they deserve.

It could be out of life, women, finances, travel, whatever...

Let's look at David Chappelle -- a very relevant example.

From what I can tell, he's a real cool, laidback, genuine dude.

He put his time in, paid his dues, built a style that worked for him, and got congruent to it...

I'd say that I loved his stuff because more than anything, it was a TRUE expression of his personality and not just some carbon copy commercial formula of what he thought would sell.

It was the type of stuff you could really learn from on a lot of subtle levels -- just from his attitude, the way him and his crew clowns around... you can catch a piece of that vibe for YOURSELF.

Anyway, after two awesome seasons, Comedy Central offered David Chappelle a ***50 MILLION*** dollar contract to do a third.

There's no doubt in my mind that if Comedy Central had done their math and was willing to offer it, he DESERVED it.

But unfortunately (both for him and us), his "value" just hadn't CLICKED in his head -- and he bailed out of the production of his third season.

I guess that kind of success was just "outside his reality".

He had a million reasons for it, but at the end of the day, I think there had to be a way to work it out.

Instead he went off to Africa (correct me if I'm wrong -- it was a rumour) and went MIA until it all blew over and his contract was dead.

So what does that have to do with YOU?

Well, from my years running live programs, there's no doubt in my mind that "success barriers" are probably one of the most major challenges that I see guys running into.

People are always just tripping all over themselves...

Now you're probably reading this thinking "I don't have a success barrier... If I had a hot girl on my lap, I just do my thing... Whatever."

Maybe that's true and maybe it's not...

But I'll say this -- for every ten guys I know who say think they're pimps, about nine of them feel NERVOUS and act AWKWARD and TALK THEMSELVES OUT OF EVEN A SURE THING -- at least in the presence of a hot enough girl.

The girl gives her phone number, she wants you to call, but you start bragging to your friends that this great girl likes you -- and suddenly, she's gone from being a PERSON to an OBJECT and a PILLAR in your self esteem whose validation you're afraid to lose.

So maybe you don't call... Or if you do, you can't be the same cool guy who got her number in the first place.

See, your concept of how much success you should have -- money, women, travel, etc -- are all STATUS related and INTERTWINED.

Back in the caveman days, if you had too much status and couldn't step up to the plate, some other caveman dude would usually come by and bash your head in and punk you for what you've got.

To deal with this, you evolved "success barriers" to hold you back from situations that you didn't have the jam to back up.

Luckily, we no longer live in the caveman days... And although drunken retards will come hit on your girl from time to time, there's usually very little actual threat.

Anyway, in light of all this, I'm thinking a lot about my own success barriers, and I'd always encourage everyone I know to consider THEIR success barriers as well.

And the next time you hit a success barrier and start to doubt yourself, just remember David Chappelle's "Black Bush" skit -- and consider how F-ing FUNNY and TIGHT it is compared to all that other stuff you find on TV, and how even HE didn't realize his own worth.

Chances are, you might have a lot more value to people than you realize.


Tyler