Mexico City To Guadalajara

Click on the picture for a better view of the Pyramid of the Moon, from a top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Theotihuacán.

I've been travelling Mexcio *hard* this month -- from Acapulco to Taxco to Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca City to Puebla to Mexico City.

I'm on my way to Guadalajara tommorow morning, totally psyched.

The internet has been difficult out here, which is why I haven't been able to post up the blog-crack for the week.

It's been an incredible mix -- I've witnessed incredible beauty and history and cultural diversity, as well as oceans of unspeakable poverty during the drives between the more pleasant areas.

I'm going to be hitting up a post with a ton of pics from this month later in the week. Stay tuned.


Tyler

Real Social Dynamics Hits Up Italy

Ever since we switched up from the big group programs with the whole crew to the small ratio personalized bootcamps in set cities, we've done "Executive Retreats" once every six months to get a chance to hang out.

This summer we're in Italy, visiting Puerto Cervo right now. A lot of craziness going on out here.

Anyway I've got two blog articles about 90% complete, and it's driving me nuts that I can't get the internet access that I need to finish them right now.

Connection (and keyboard) out here is super bad...... *shrug*

I'll have to wrap them up and get them posted, hopefully when I get to the next city.

Keep your eyes peeled. I'm still on top of all this.... :)


Tyler

My Career

I've got massive deadline to prepare for the "Transformations" release, which is coming out August 1.

A million things to do... A million things to do...

That being the case, I'm alotting myself exactly 25 minutes to write up this week's blog.

It'll probably wind up being an hour but let's do it.

This week I want to talk about my career and what's got me to this point.

I get a lot of questions about what I'm doing and what my future plans are, so thought I'd write a bit about it to give people a better perspective of where I'm going and where I've been.

First up, as a "figurehead" I'm probably about the furthest thing from the hang-out and party Vincent Chase archetype that you can get.

I maintain involvement in all management aspects of Real Social Dynamics, from promotions to web development to creative content.

It's never a good idea in business to try to be the guy who does everything (as opposed to delegating) but I have a working and up-to-date involvement with everything that goes on.

I'd say that my two my Herculean tasks are working with instructors to keep their skills and live program quality at top level, and generating content via massive amounts of research and creativity.

In order to get to where I'm at I've pretty much always had to have a consistency that few people are willing to maintain...

If that's meant going out 7 nights a week for years on end to get my POOO-AH skills as sharp as they can be, or constantly researching and re-structuring my workshops to get client results up higher and higher -- I've done it day in and day out.

For better or worse I'm an all-or-nothing type of guy...

If I'm not working every day I'm probably not working at all, so maintaining momentum is *everything* to me.

When I've got momentum I'm good to go for 14-15 hour workdays but if I take a long break I find that it's always an nightmare to get myself back on track. That being the case I like to take short, high-impact off-time like hiking in the Hawaiin jungle (mountains, waterfalls, etc..) or surfing on the kick-ass beaches out here for an afternoon.

Then I get back at it...

I essentially view fun as being a neurological recharger. It instills a self-reward system and allows me to shake off any built up tension or stress that I've built up and then -- bam -- I'm ready to go again.

A lot of people wonder why I have this mindset...

The simple reason is that I WAS NEVER "SUPPOSED" TO GET HERE.

I was never "supposed" to be anything in life. I was never "supposed" to make it this far.

Growing up I had failing grades in school and was always being pushed into alternative learning programs for kids with learning disabilities.

I was constantly in trouble in school and in the principle's office, or getting into problems with the other kids. Most of my friends were in and out of jail although I was lucky to avoid all that. I was prescribed all sorts of medications that they gave to kids like me who supposedly had Attention Deficit Disorder and Depression, even though I never took them.

For all intents and purposes I was basically meant to be the guy who if I could get through high school and land a menial job, I could at least live out my days in small-town Canada drinking beer and complaining about the government to my equally dysfunctional kids.

......and that would be if things would have gone *well*.

The big break for me was when Mike Harris (the Premiere of Ontario at the time) legislated a "Work For Welfare" program, and I was forced to start attending school five days a week instead of my previous two.

I was 19 years old in my sixth year of high school, and I remember getting back my first semester report card with straight A's.

I'd always scored poorly in school and it had never occured to me that if I would have just showed up instead of cutting class that I might actually do alright. I sat there vexed in utter disbelief and I had this nerdy European buddy who used to sit beside me like "Ohhh you could get into university with those grades..."

At the time I'd never thought I'd graduate High School and I thought of College as being for "Snotty dickheads with rich parents" so the idea of getting into a post-secondary institution was totally outside my frame of reference.

The story of how I got into Queen's University would take too long to really explain in this article, but I basically pulled every string in the book to make it happen. You guys can imagine the mental-clutter I dealt with on a daily basis, walking that old historical campus basically thinking "I don't deserve to be here... I'm such an imposter... These people have no idea who I really am..."

Overall I'd describe the first two decades of my life as being an amalgam of anger, depression, anxiety, and utter self-delusion.

I'd never go back to it... for anything.

Anyway, meeting Papa was my next lucky big break.

Papa pulled me out of Canada and introduced me into all the major cities of the world and taught me about what it means to live a life of abundance and success.

Papa is a very interesting guy, probably the most resourceful person that I personally know. He has a worldview that can be narrow at times but also disturbingly accurate in many respects. His view is that there are people in the world who make it and people who don't. The people who "succeed" have a work ethic and core values and willingness to shoulder risk that allows to them to make it in life..... and the people who fail to cultivate these qualities live out an existence of being a "have-not".

If you've ever seen the Japanese anime TV series of "Street Fighter II" -- I've always thought that Ken dragging around Ryu all over the world to learn from the masters and achieve self-actualization was a lot what our experiences were like. I'd love to write a book about it someday as it was without a doubt a hard-knock real world education at rapid speed, with all sorts of funny stories and debauchery along the way.

Both Papa and I have polar opposite skills and personalities and very different goals, however we also have mutual understandings and similar overall commitment to RSD.

Regardless of head-butting throughout our five years of working together, this has allowed us to specialize in our respective duties and cover all our bases extremely well.

We've really come a long way...

Back in the day we used to have to sneak into buildings under construction or abandoned school rooms to teach our programs. Usually we'd have to sleep on people's floors 2 hours outside of town and take a bus into town in the morning on 4 hours sleep to teach the next day.

We were always broke and hustling for the money to pay the airfare to get to the next city where the next program was, trying to avoid being stranded in a foreign country or city with no way home. My voice was always shot from teaching and chasing girls every day, and it actually took me several months of near vocal rest in 2005 to clear up the nodes that were developing in my vocal chords.

At the time I'd dropped out of college to get RSD off the ground, and my biggest goal was to get the money to go back and finish. I had to live in a walk-in closet in Project Hollywood for 18 months, because when everyone left it ran Papa and I several hundred thousand dollars into debt as he was the lease-holder and there wasn't a person on the planet who wanted to rent out the empty rooms (we bartered them for whatever we could get, which wasn't much...).

Being that far in debt at 23 years old was about as unsettling as you'd imagine it to be. I used to wake up at night with anxiety attacks on a semi-frequent basis.

It's funny because when I finally got back to college, we had a hard-earned professional reputation, we'd almost paid down the monster debt from Project Hollywood, and I had a great girlfriend to boot. Everything was all good and I felt like I'd almost "made it".

Then in September 2005 when I was still 24 years old, a New York Times best selling book by an ex-roommate comes out that basically rips me a new one.

Instantly the majority of my friends and professional relationships in the community stopped returning my phone calls. The same forums that were previously filled with awesome articles and kick-ass program testimonials were suddenly saturated with all sorts of anti-RSD sentiments and I couldn't even write a simple post without stirring up a flurry of hate.

Believe it or not, to this day I still get "I hope you die" type messages in my email and unpublished comments on this blog from time to time -- although I'm sure that none of these are remotely credible.

Mentally I was somewhat burnt out and really looking forward to that year away from RSD that I was supposed to spend focusing on school.

Still, out of nowhere the brand suddenly had a pretty nasty black eye and I was now called upon to be more resourceful and clear-thinking than I'd ever been.

Oh yeah, and I had to finish college at the same time... *shrug*

With a lot of creativity, research, persistance, and outside-the-box thinking I managed to not only save the brand but also to get us back to the top. People often say "That book did nothing but good things for you guys" and that's a tremendous compliment because it means we made it look easy.

There was a lot of the fear and uncertainty creeping into my mind at the time, and it really forced me to work out my "inner game" and get myself focused on what I really wanted and not what I was afraid of.

All during that time I had to keep on a strong face for all the people who count on me. I never had the luxury of complaining or thinking "I'm so frustrated... I don't know if I can really do this..." It's always had to be "This is gonna happen... We're doing this... There's no question about it... Everything is fine..."

Anyway, these days everything is good.

RSD is going strong. I've spent the last several years developing myself as a writer and a public speaker.

In the next few years I have a clear-cut path of what it will take to take this in the direction that I want it to go. The things I've been doing and that I'm going to do have never been done before, and I'm going to take it a level that nobody has ever seen.

At this point I feel like I've seen it all and nothing can stop me.

Things may continue to go as good as they've been going, or they might fall apart again.

Who knows??

I've re-wired my mind over the years to work effectively under pressure, and I've had an education that I couldn't have gotten in the finest of institutions. I'm 100% at ease to deal with whatever comes my way.

The situations I've put myself in have forced me to develop at rapid speed, and while there have been growing pains, it's allowed me to learn more about what I'm capable of and how resourceful I can be when I'm put in a position where I haven't got a choice.

I think I finally realized how lucky I am when I was talking to a married couple who are friends with my girlfriend, and I telling them about what brought me to Hawaii.

They looked at me and they were like "That's so f*cking cool..."

This surprised me, but it finally "clicked" at that point that while I'd been had some bumps and scrapes, I was lucky to have a lived a life that was challenging and interesting and that forced me to become that person that I've always been capable of being.

I feel like I'm living the dream and that my thirties and fourties are only going to get better and better.

Maybe that's just rationalizing and trying to make sense of my past. But I haven't met a single successful person who regretted what they've been through, because they know that that's an intrical aspect of what makes them who they are.

Anyway, as a so-called "self help guru" I guess it's my job to be open about my personal journey in the hopes that people in similar circumstances can read them and make better sense out of their own lives.

Hopefully that's been the case for somebody out there reading this.

Tune in next week for more ramblings on dating, self-actualization, and whatever else comes to mind!!


Tyler

The Joys of Being On The "Y-List"

So the other day a close friend of mine, whose name will go unmentioned for privacy's sake (you all know him though -- he's from Real Social Dynamics) calls me up with a story............

"Dude... The weirdest thing happened to me last night... I brought this girl back to her place and we hooked up... Afterwards I look around the room and see pictures of her with this guy all over the place, and there's this copy of "The Game" sitting on her nightstand... I ask her about it, and she tells me that I'm her boyfriend's favourite character in the book and that she wanted to get revenge on him for cheating on her... I sat there in shock for fifteen minutes and then bolted the fuck out of there..."

LOL.... WTF?!?!

This poor dude's favourite book had come to life to bang his girlfriend.... Ouch!!

Of course, that's just an average day in the life of being a "Y-List Celebrity".

Jeffy has this joke that he's on the Z-List and I'm on the Y-List. After "The Jeffy Show" and "The Blueprint" come out, I'm going to be moving up to the X-List and he'll be moving up tot he Y-List.

That's right baby....... We're moving up in the world!!

The basic way I could compare my life is sort of like being a comic book artist or a Star Trek character.


I don't get approached by hot girls looking to hook-up with me like Vincent Chase from Entourage, but rather, by a neverending stream of GUYS......

Haaa!!

Anyway, I'm usually approached on the daily by guys who spot me when I'm out. It's only a few times a week in Honolulu or South America, but I've seen it upwards of 50 times a day in places like London, NYC, LA, Sydney, etc...

Basically, wherever I go I'll see guys sort of staring at me in my peripheral vision -- looking all confused like "Where do I know that guy from??"

Usually they'll either start following me around or they'll start whispering to their friends all "discrete" and then come over and say hi.

There have also been a few times in nightclubs where I'll have a guy show up and say "Are you Tyler??" and when I say yes he'll start jumping up and down and like 15 guys will jump out of NOWHERE like the Robin Hood band of "Merry Men" and start snapping pictures and striking poses.

I can't express in words how funny this is.

Usually the convo's revolve around topics like......:

-"Hey... I need a MALE opinion on something... HAHAHAHA"

-"I saw how you ordered your sandwich from that waitress over there... That was smooth."

-"I feel like I'm qualifying myself to you right now... I'm not, but, like, I feel like I'm being sucked into your reality..." (total mind projection btw)

-"Hey I love the book "The Game"... Which one were you again?? Were you the one that had sex with Katya??"

-"OK, I want you to answer me honestly... What do you think of my bodylanguage?? Is it alpha??"

-"Is it true that you can steal a girl from her boyfriend?? That's so crazy... Hey wait a sec -- you don't think you could steal *my* girlfriend do you??"

-"Hey bro, I know you probably get this all the time, but I'd love to see you just TAKE OVER this whole venue... You know, like, just LORD this whole place..."

-"What club are you guys going to tonight?? I don't want to take the program, but, like, I just want to sort of observe..."

To me all this is sooooooooooo funny. My life is totally absurd.


I haven't really figured out HOW or WHEN the community got to this point.

I've had my face out there on video since 2003 and this sort of thing was never happening back then.

I think it's only been in the last year or so that it's evolved in this direction.

Now bear in mind, I'm just trying to be funny here and I'm not complaining about any of this AT ALL...

Truth be told there's a lot of guys I meet who are laidback and super cool (even that I hang with) -- and deep down I'm sure I love the attention.

I actually think it's totally lamo that anyone who'd put themselves in the public spotlight would ever whine about something that's predictable and that they willfully did to themselves.

It's like a girl who tarts herself up in skimpy clothes and then goes on and on about how people are staring.

......it just doesn't make sense.

Still, I've seen a lot of other guys who have high-profiles in this community express frustration about having lost their privacy.

I can definitely say that despite the sort of funny, ironic outlook I've developed towards all this -- it took me a LONG time to get myself to this point.

My first three or four years in this position were a huge, huge adjustment for me.

I mean, it messed with my head on a lot of deep levels, and there were a lot of challenges that I absolutely was NOT equipped to deal with at that time.

You might say that I was "In waaaaay over my head..."

The first and foremost mindscrew is the "OBJECTIFICATION" you encounter when you start to get a bit of status -- whether it's in my situation, or any other.

What "objectification" means is that people view you as a "source of value" rather than a human being -- basically interacting with you through a lens of what they can get from you.

If they're cool with you, it's not YOU they like -- but the IDEA of who you are and the STATUS or SKILLS that they get by being around you.

This messes with you on a core level, because your sense of value as a human being is being tampered with.

On the other hand, if they're NOT cool with you it's usually because they're getting some kind of artificial ego kick out of it.

Like, back in the day guys would come up to me and be all cool and friendly. Then the next day I'd be on the internet and see a post like "I met that Tyler guy on the street yesterday and he didn't even do any approaches.... He's just a regular guy like me or you!! What a big fag!!"

It's not that it was a big deal or anything (as we always say "Never care what anybody thinks of you"), but these were decent people that I thought I had good conversations with -- and as a 23 year old kid it had me all paranoid whenever I'd talk to people like "Is everyone I talk to analyzing everything I say through some sort of fucked up lens??"

If you understand the ego, you know that the essence of a "HATER" is a guy who looks for anyone he thinks is popular and then comes up with rationalizations for why he's better than them. The whole mindset is like "If he's a PUA then I must be a SUPER PUA!!" -- basically just looking for "reference points" to pole-vault off of mentally, even if they're delusional.

With girls it's even wackier.......

Oftentimes I'll be talking to a girl who knows about RSD and she'll be like "I can tell you're doing something to me... It's not going to work you know..." Of course I'm not even doing anything, and then when I don't TRY to get her in bed she gets angry because she didn't get the validation.

One girl even sent me an email vividly describing our brief conversation as a "roller coaster ride" and that she was absolutely sure the button she found missing from her blouse I'd somehow flicked off without her noticing like Joey from the show "Friends".

Othertimes I'll meet girls whose boyfriends make the STUPID STUPID mistake of saying "Don't talk to that guy, he's a big evil player..." and they'll approach me and try to see what I'll do. When I don't do anything they push harder and harder for a reaction out of me and you can only guess where that goes. Sometimes the boyfriends will even SEND their girlfriends to go approach me -- which is the about DUMBEST thing they can possibly do because the GF's unconscious minds are registering that they're "reacting" to me.

The thing is, when you're in a position with a lot of visibility people just have a hard time being NORMAL around you.

It's rarely "Yeah I met that guy, he's a chill dude..." but more often "He's a super-hero..." or "He's a fukkin dick I hate that guy..." -- and no matter what you know the response is going to be EMOTIONAL.

Yeah, it sounds cool to have people looking up to you, but the truth is YOU CAN NEVER LIVE UP TO THE HYPE because you're only human -- and they're always going to be disappointed or even bitter when they find out the dude they followed dogmatically isn't as infallible as they thought.

Beyond that, the major mindscrew is all the "yes-men" that you get surrounded with.

I've learned the hard way that your only "REAL" friends are the ones who have nothing to gain from you -- other than to hang out and relate with you and have a good time.

If a guy wants or needs something from you, you really can't gauge what his personality is like until the whole status dynamic has come into equilibrium.

Then, and ONLY THEN, do you start to know who the person really is.

That's not to say that you should assume the worst, but rather, that you should just enjoy the comraderie aspects and reserve judgement until you've there's more of a history in place. The same rule applies to girls as well, really.

A few years ago two of my CLOSEST CLOSEST friends bailed out and never spoke to me again when they tried to start up their own copycat dating company. It wasn't even the new company that bugged me, but that these guys were like BROTHERS to me who I'd have thrown myself in front of a car for -- and I was never going to be hanging out with them again over some petty bullshit.

It was like having a price-tag put on the friendship -- "How much would you pay not to be friends with me anymore?? What am I worth??"

I'd never encountered something like that before and I felt bad about it pretty much every day for over a year.

Then there's the media and press, who are so friggin' creepy in the way that they'll act like best friends to your face and then publish some sort of trash about you just to cater to their audience.

Or the people who offer friendship only later to try and ask you for a job -- and say that you "owe" it to them.

Really, I've had COUNTLESS incidents like this...

If I were to go through all these incidents I'd have to write the next "Atlas Shrugged" so I'll let you guys use your imagination.

Any ridiculous bullshit that you can imagine, I've probably seen it and lived it.

Anyway, the direction I'm taking this in is that I got to a point where I had major trust issues with people and I became very emotionally closed off.

Usually I felt defensive and paranoid -- like I had to be "TYLER" (ie: Mr. Charisma) even if I was just out trying to get a bite to eat.

For about two or three years in all this I used to wake up all the time with anxiety........

I could feel my heart racing and my mind was running through all the things everyone expected from me -- instructors who relied on me to fill programs, students who expected me to "fix" them, audiences who wanted the 10 out of 10 charismatic speach, readers who wanted the perfect book, people on the street who wanted me to connect with them in the same way that they connected with me.........

It was like being in a whirlwind where I couldn't distinguish who my real friends were anymore -- and I had massive doubts about whether or not I could keep my game-face on for everyone who counted on me to be a source of grounding energy.


Think of it like being surrounded by a fog. You're trying to see what's going on and keep yourself moving forward, but your reality is being constantly pressed upon and messed with.

If you've seen the movie "The Beach" where Leo DiCaprio goes insane with that guy "Daffy" talking to him about all sorts of conspiracies in his head, that was basically how I felt from ages 22-25.

Awesome movie, btw........

See, you've all heard of "Success Barriers" and most of the time we look at them as being bad.

The thing with business is that you're "supposed" to always do the things that are best for the company and keep the brand awareness expanding.

Of course from a BUSINESS perspective (ie: the old dogma "the only purpose of a company is to make maximum profit for the shareholders") this makes perfect sense -- so whenever there's an opportunity to increase visibility everyone's expecting you to go for it.

But what if you're NOT READY to be a piece of fucking PUBLIC PROPERTY yet??

There's a very GOOD REASON that those success barriers exist in your mind, and it's to PREVENT YOU FROM GOING INSANE.

A high-visibility individual is special in that they're capable of dealing with the tsumani of social pressure that comes from all the various public opinion and still keep their sense of "reality" intact.

Some people are born with this and others cultivate it over time, but fundamentally there are a lot of people who just aren't ready for it and wind up going all out "self-destruct".

A few of my buddies are looking to do a Reality TV show right now, and that was one of the first concerns I had when they spoke to me about it.

After several years of this, I'm personally just *starting* to get into a zone where I think I *might* be ready for that kind of attention, and I think about whether or not they know what they're in for -- all the effects to your ego, your sense of reality, your friendships and whatnot...

It's like Jay-Z says in the 'Hollywood' track on his latest LP -- "Fame... It's the most addictive drug in the world... You can look in the mirror and not see what you've become..."

I'm sure there's lots of guys reading this saying to themselves "I could deal with that no prob at all..." but until you've actually DONE IT it's really all talk.

In my case I've really tried to stay out of the major spotlight and allow myself time to cultivate some real substance, because I've always felt that when it comes to the spotlight, those with authencity achieve the longevity and those without it come-and-go as passing fads.

I'm cocky about my strengths but I also know my limitations (I have many) and always have a gameplan to progressively chip away at them.

Anywayzzzzz..........

Over time I feel that I've really come into equilibrium with all this.

I've learned the ins-and-outs of my position and I've become very astute at reading people and where they're coming from.

I think it's also been especially important for me to learn from other people who've walked the same path, and to understand that most of what I've been through has been common for virtually every other person in my shoes.

It's so funny to be chatting some of my higher-profile mentors in the self-help industry, and they'll say "I bet x,y,z happened to you..." and I'll be like "WTF?? How did you now that?!"

Of course, it's because it's happened to EVERYBODY...

A universal principle of "coming into your own" is that "You've got to know that the more personal a wound is, the more universal it probably is" -- which means that when you understand that other people have been through the same thing it allows you to stop IDENTIFYING with it and realize that it's a part of a larger age-old story.

In terms of what I'm talking about right here, I'm talking about it because I want other people who go through what I go through to achieve that same level of understanding.

At this point I feel like I've really processed it all, and I feel like I'm LOVING where I'm at......


It's the dawn of a new era for me. I don't know how else to describe it.

Everything is clicking. I've eased into my role and found my niche. I'm finally more at ease with the world in which I live, and I'm keen to really get it cracking.

Anyway, I think the way I'd like to wrap this up is to offer the core insights I've taken from all of this, just to make them crystal clear.

So here it goes...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT BEING IN A HIGH-VISIBILITY ROLE...

10-Always assume the best in people. Never let old wounds make you assume the worst. That can only be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

9-The best way to talk to people is just to make your self fully open to them. Don’t put pressure on yourself to play the role they might or might not expect from you. The greatest gift you can give to them is just to be “fully present” and listen to what they have to say.

8-Be the kind of guy who people would hang around with regardless of your so-called status. There’s an old trap where when you get status you start acting badly because you know you can get away with it, and then wind up in a constant cycle of people coming into your life and leaving when they’ve taken all the value. Ask yourself if you’d hang out with yourself if it weren’t for the status. If the answer is “no” then change.

7-Always remember that the people who love your work are the ones who put you in the position you’re in. Appreciate them with everything you’ve got. Never allow yourself to think of it as “inconvenience to your chill time” because your chill time only exists BECAUSE OF THEM.

6-Create a routine that’s as “normal” as possible. Have buddies who you play sports with and hang out with, without any talk of your job. Never, ever read your press. Stay away from any internet site's opinions of you. If it's necessary for feedback, have people skim them and pass you along what’s useful. You’d be absolutely amazed at how when you’re getting crucified in the press that if you JUST DON’T READ IT it’s like it doesn’t exist, which allows you to operate at your best. Believe it or not you can actually maintain a fully normal life by just going about your job and viewing all the people who know you as an EXTENDED FAMILY almost like living in a small town community, just on a global scale.

5-Never take the props too seriously because then you’ll have to take the criticism seriously as well. As long as YOU know who you are that has to be enough. You always have a few people who really connect with your stuff, but the vast majority will be frighteningly fickle and jump ships as soon as something better comes along. That's fine, just do YOU.

4-All press is good press. When you’re in the spotlight you are official public property. Opinions are like assholes, everyone’s got one – even entire blogs full of them. If you can’t handle it, go home.

3-Strive to continually improve and grow and offer more value. The temptation is to create something and then rest on your laurels, which if you give into it you’ll find yourself constantly paranoid about being “replaced.” If you continue to innovate you’ll never have to think about that. Always be proactive and solve the larger issue by continuing to grow, instead of reacting and trying to protect what you wrongly believe is a finite amount of creative material. Be willing to allow other people to take credit for your ideas, as its' an inevitable aspect of having “arrived” and you'll never stop it entirely. Nobody cares who "came up with it" they only care who offers THEM the most value. Use the energy you’d spend making a stink about it to be more and more creative and offer more and more value.

2-Fuck status and coolness and all that shit. Stay true to your real friends, and know what’s authentic from what’s hollow. If you look at the people who’ve stayed relevant for a long time you’ll see that they have a lot of so-called “dorky” friends who you wouldn’t expect them to hang out with. They might even have a girlfriend or wife who isn’t a “perfect 10”. There’s a good reason for that. It’s because they’re real.

1-Know what it means to be “grounded”, “humble”, and “down to earth”. Those three expressions are like your lifeline to the real world.

…if you want a fourth expression, btw, it would be “know how to laugh at yourself”.

That’s it!!

Thanks for reading.


Tyler

Back In Honolulu.......

I've been back in Honolulu for two weeks now and I'm loving it.

The last few months I spent in Brazil, Argentina, and then Australia doing the Real Social Dynamics tour of glory. It's great to be back.

I was flying in from Sydney and my passport is just totally shot. It's been with me since 2003 and it's the entire booklet is filled up with stamps, but not only that -- on my way out of the Sydney airport I found out that it wasn't scanning properly.

As I was landing in Honolulu I wanted to go home sooooooooooooo bad, and I was looking at my house as I flew over the island just fucking FIENDING to get back -- still wondering if I'd clear customs.

On my way through I was ecstatic to find out that it scanned perfectly on the American passport scanners, so I got through no prob and made my way home. I'll be getting a new passport this month FOR SURE.

Anyway, as I landed I remembered how clean the air is here. The air in Hawaii is phenomenal, and as soon as you arrive in the open-air airport you just know that you're here.


Oftentimes I'm asked why I live in Honolulu as opposed the home base back in Los Angeles, and the reason is that I try to make use of the outdoor facilities here every time I allow myself an afternoon off.

Usually I surf about twice a week, and the water here is warm and clear. The waves are POUNDING -- like off the hook awesome.

If you've never been surfing or bodyboarding in real waves, you've got to do it.

It's a life changing experience. The power of the ocean is UNREAL. It pounds on you and thrashes you and will kill you if you're not careful.

You see those surfers on the video and they make it look easy, but in reality if you fall off the board in some of those waves it's a serious hazard. These guys often go under for like 2-3 minutes at a time and have to hold their breath.

When you get thrown under waves like that you just get tossed around and dragged along the bottom. It hits you HARD and it just makes you become OBSESSED with conquering the power of it.

It's seriously fun, for some weird reason..........


I've also been out swimming with a pack of dolphins since I've been here, and visited the other islands Maui and Kauii.

I bumped into Pierce Brosnan (aka -- James Bond) while I was in Kauii, wearing a dorky khaki outfit with a safari hat and sandles.

It was pretty bizarre to see DOUBLE-O-SEVEN feeding his kids icecream, but it also taught me the value of dressing like a chode when I go out if I'm in need of privacy.

The highlight of Kauii was the Napali Cliffs, which is where they shot Jurrasic Park and King Kong.

It's basically like being in a cartoon.......


In Maui the highlight was driving the Hana Highway and the roads up North of Lahaina. These roads are running along the sides of the mountain ranges, and if you drive more than a foot or two to the right you fall down the cliff and die.

There are all these scattered isolated little villages inside the roadways, which most people are too scared (or smart...) to drive.

I was actually with my girlfriend and commenting how scary the roads are, and we looked at the roadmap and noticed the "Insurance is not valid on these parts of the roads" right on the spot that we were driving.

We were like "Ummmmm, yeah that explains it...."

I later took my mother on this same trip, and basically shit a brick while I drove her through these ridiculously trecherous roads.

My mom reads this blog every day, incidentally, and that's her with me in the photo right here...

Hi mom!!


I haven't been to the Big Island yet, but I want to go there to see the volcanoes. There's actually a huge volcano right behind my house but it's extinct and I want to go and see a LIVE one with lava spewing out of it and all that.

Anyway, this is a great place and it's been good for me in terms of getting work done. That's really the main reason I'm here.

I do a 15 hour workday 5 days a week, and a 7 hour workday on the weekends.

The eight hours I take away from work twice a week I use as "HIGH QUALITY LEISURE TIME" and hang out in the types of places you see in these pics -- doings all sorts of outdoor activities and such.

Staying in and watching television wouldn't be a high enough quality leisure time to keep me feeling good and working at that level the rest of the week.

Could you imagine only having off two little shots of time off every week and using it to WATCH TV?!?!?!

Any of you guys who still watch TV, seriously, throw that shit in the garbage.

The other time off I get is running bootcamps every other weekend, which I LOVE -- and also, I live directly in front of the ocean with my work area out of the balcony so that makes the long hours a bit easier than if I were in, say, a cubicle.

Recently I re-did the "30 Day Challenge" which was also my first time away from work in a while. You guys call going out to chat up girls as "requiring dedication"?!?! Y'all need to get a real job!!

Anyway, I figure I'm living the dream out here.

I have to work hard for it, and I have more responsibility on me than a guy my age ought to have to deal with -- but I've set up a life of my own choosing and I'm happy for having accomplished that.

Hopefully it encourages others to do the same.


Tyler

Jeffy's Mullet Going Away Party!!

Watch in amazement as Jeffy's signiature "TALL HAIR" is mowed down into a menacing thug-like masterpiece.

Hit up Jeffy with some love for the new dew!!


Tyler

Considering Biking South America........

It´s looking like I may have to return from South America sooner than expected to fulfill upcoming promotional obligations for RSD.

That being the case, I´m toying with the idea of using the return to the States as a chance to learn how to ride motorcycles.

That way I could return in fourth quarter 2007, fully mobile.

I was tripping around on the Greek islands last year with the crew -- using MOPEDS... LOL.... High powered stuff... It was awesome though.

I´m understanding Spanish better since I´ve been down here, but before doing a hardcore trip like that I´d also want to be decently fluent.

Do any of you guys ride? How long does it take to pick it up? What´s biking South America like?

Gotta see if I´m able to pull this off or if it´s unrealistic. I´ll keep you updated.


Tyler

Adventures In Rio

Quick vid of the slums in Rio.

So........

Rio was an eye-opening experience.

The plane ride in was like a never-ending marathon.

I was emptying out my apartment all night in Honolulu and slept only an hour from Hawaii to Los Angeles.

Then I slept only 4 hours in LA to get up early for the Rio flight and managed to miss it, and had to reschedule for early the next morning.

Seven hours of sleep in three days. I was walking around like a zombie. Dry-heaving and couldn't feel my face. I've got to learn how to sleep on airplanes.

Finally I arrived in Rio, and I was definitely tripping out. The idea of moving to SOUTH AMERICA as a Canadian is a total mindscrew -- my references being like Chuck Norris type movies with guerrilla soldiers jumping out of trees with machine guns and blasting the place up...

The biggest thing was that I just couldn't PICTURE it. Everything I've ever done in my life I could visualize beforehand. I just couldn't figure how what I'd read about it could be real. I couldn't imagine myself there -- it wasn't piecing into my reality.

Honolulu was pretty much the most peaceful and luxurious place I've ever lived.

I was living beach front. Not beach VIEW. Beach FRONT.

Like my bed was out on the "lanai" (balcony) and if I drop a rock out of my window it lands on sand. When the sun set I would go out front with my girlfriend for a swim. The back view was Diamondhead mountain and Kapolani park and the front was a full panoramic of Waikiki. I was in a sweet spot where it never ever rained, even if it was raining all over the rest of the island. The surfing was incredible. I had a great group of friends. I took trips to North Shore and Makapuu beach every weekend. I fell asleep to the ocean every night.

Bear in mind I work very, very hard. Most days from morning until night. But that's what made the lifestyle I had so sweet. Unlike most people who take it for granted, I appreciated it so much because I EARNED it.

Anyway, arriving in Rio with Papa I was in a sort of a sleepless trance.

We get out and there's this setup with girls trying to hustle you to take their taxis from behind a glass wall, all jumping up and down so that you'll choose their company. I busted out the camera to tape it but they got kind of shy. It was totally ridiculous.

The drive in from the airport was lined with miles upon miles of "favelas" which are the Brazillian shanty-town ghettos.

These favelas are like never-ending. They look like the post-armageddon movies stereotypes, all burnt out and falling apart.

The entire drive in had this. Miles upon miles of it. Never ending shanty-towns.

These shanty-towns are laced in throughout the city. My hotel was really nice, and had a shanty-town on the hill directly across the street. All of Rio is like this. It's a part of the culture.

I got into my hotel and crashed out to the sounds of pounding samba drums outside.

About three hours in to my sleep this hyped up Brazillian dude walks into my room and starts yelling at me like "What are you doing in my room?!" I'm totally disoriented and thought he was there to rip me off.

With everything I'd read, it was funny because in Greece a taxi driver tried to scam me right on the drive in from the airport -- so I thought this would be the same with a stereotype playing itself out the second I get off the plane.

I think to myself "How can I determine if this guy is lying or not?" and quickly go into his bathroom stash to see if the writing on his toothpaste and shampoo is in English or Portugese.

As it turned out, I really WAS sleeping in this guys' room. His stuff was all written in Portugese. The hotel people had given me the wrong room and I thought all the stuff laying out belonged to my friends who'd arrived a day earlier.

I moved out of this poor guy's room and hit up a good 12 hour sleep, then got up at about 5am and booked a driver to take me around the shanty-towns that I'd seen on my drive into town.

It's funny because I log onto RSD Nation and I see a guy saying "Be careful, there's 142 people killed in Rio in the last two weeks" and the next guy writes "Don't worry, that's only in the shanty-towns... There's no way those guys would go there, they'd have to be idiots..."

I'm thinking "Ummm, actually that's directly where I'm going in three hours."

Anyway, I grab my buddies Nathan and Harsh and we go hit up the shanty-towns.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable and had a deal with the drug dealers to keep us from getting robbed or kidnapped or shot in the face.

Shanty-towns are a definite eye-opener. I've heard there are worse in India and other countries but this was the most poverty I've ever personally seen.

Apparently the people who live there came from the rural communities looking for work, and the government allows them to take concrete and build houses for themselves up in the hills. If they live there for five years they get to own their very own shanty-shack.

Let's just say that I will never feel sorry for myself ever again. These people have NOTHING.

Victim-talk is pretty much off my radar. I won't be able to listen to it anymore. Or at least, I won't be able to relate to it. Life in North America is truly a soap opera.

The fevalas are run by drug dealers, and the young teenagers act as the police.

I was driving through and see these two kids, one with a machine gun and another with double fisted magnums, sort of strutting down the street.

I'm sure these kids get killed regularly, as they have to fend off other drug dealers who are trying to take over their territory.

The people remind me a lot of how cats look, in the sense that they sort of lounge around with nothing to do. They seem in some ways happier and more relaxed than North Americans do, but I'm sure that's also a peace that comes with having very little hope and nothing to lose.

Later on we hit up the various clubbing areas. Lappa was this big free for all -- very dirty, although some of the clubs in the area were cool with live samba music.

The other highlight of the trip for me was seeing the huge Jesus statue overlooking Rio (I believe it's called the "Corcorvada" -- spelling??)

Apparently it took them 70 years to get this huge monument up the mountain. It's huge, and you can see it from any point in Rio.

Anyway, I've just arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina -- which will be my new home for the next while.

I'll let you guys know how it progresses.


Tyler

Moving to South America

Posting from the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta -- just landed from Los Angeles and heading to Rio De Jineiro for Carnivale.

So...

I'm moving to South America.

After I finish in Rio I'll be flying over to Buenos Aires in Argentina and setting up shop.

Why am I doing this?

I'm interested in experiencing a different culture, and I'm also interested to learn more about how the world works outside the glorious golden bubble of Canada / America / Australia / Europe.

More than anything I've become increasingly curious about what's happening to the world and to find out if the perceptions created in the media are true.

My buddy Alec turned me onto Buenos Aires in particular, as he was initially interested because of the previous economic collapse that pushed their currency to a fixed match of 1/3 to the US dollar, which supposedly gets you about triple value for your money.

I'm sure there are all sorts of issues with "gringo pricing" and that it may not turn out to be as tight as we expect, but we'll see.

He also sent me a cool blog link, which if you're interested you might want to check out --> http://expat-argentina.blogspot.com/

Supposedly it's a very European city, although that's not my purpose for going there and I'll believe it when I see it.

If it works out I'll let you guys know and it might be something you're interested in checking out.

Obviously I'm somewhat sketched out at the idea of moving to South America.

Growing up in Canada, it's continually pounded into your head "Yeah you might live in a neverending snowbank... But you live in the country with the strongest social safety net in the world... You'd better be happy you don't live in the rest of the world because it's a shithole where people constantly starve to death and spontaneously explode from random super viruses."

But I've decided to follow through on this, so hopefully everything turns out cool and I have lots of vids and articles to throw up on here as well.


Tyler

Real Social Dynamics hits up Carnivale

Since we don't get to hang out as much as we used to, every six months we do a Real Social Dynamics executive retreat to a place that all the instructors vote on...

This time we're hitting up Rio De Janeiro in South America for the biggest party in the world -- Carnivale!!

The guys are obviously psyched.

Today Ozzie emails us with his usual...

OZZIE WRITES:
.....my dick can not get any harder. i got a permanent hard on for rio. i will come down with the wrath of 10000 suns. i dont give a shit anymore. this shit is for real. we gonna growit, smoke it, sell it ..we are gonna run the city like the mother fucking mob...i pull out my shotty like john gatty. i digress. fuck!

I really couldn't have said it any better myself.

This is my first trip to South America and I'm psyched and nervous simultaneously...

I'm planning to live in Buenos Aires as a cultural experience after the Sydney Superconference in Australia and this will be my first taste of what's to come.

Will keep you guys up to date -- will have photos up for suuuuuure... :)


Tyler

Sucked Out To Sea... :)

I was out body boarding with my buddy Russ the other day at Makapu'u beach on the East shore of Oahu. Awesome place.

If you've ever been surfing at a real beach (as opposed to a tourist beach) you know that all the locals make it out to look real easy, like eight year riding the waves all "Weeeeee!!" Then you get out there and the first wave just PUMMELS you.

I'm pretty much used to it after living here six months, even enjoy it, but the other day we were out body surfing (boards left on the beach) in maybe 3-5 foot waves and got sucked out.

We were out there maybe half an hour when I suddenly realize I'm not able to touch the ocean floor anymore, and the waves are just coming in one after another as the ocean is basically blowing it's load... :)

At first I figure it's no big deal, but the waves keep pummeling in, over and over, and I'm having to jump up for short 2 second burst of air before I'm sucked back down under the waves.

I'm swimming as hard as I can but I'm still being sucked out by the undercurrent -- I look over and see Russ is having a hard time as well. Most of the people closer in have been pushed back to the beach and we're like the only guys out there.

This lasted maybe 5 minutes (felt like an hour) as I saved my energy while being pounded under, and then would use what energy I had left to let the waves sort of push me back in, in between being pulled back out again.

I made sure to gasp for air with precision every time I came up, get a quick gulp, and then go back down, until I eventually made it back in the 10 feet necessary to get my feet on sand and push my way back in.

Russ made it in like half a minute after me, and I had to keep looking back to see where he was at in case he didn't make in on his own. He did though, no prob.

Anyway, it was really no big deal and I'm sure that everybody who plays out in the surf has these types of experiences.

At the time I didn't really acknowledge it my mind as being a potential problem. The only thing I was thinking was how to get back in. I just did what I had to do, did it properly, and I was fine.

After I got back in I basically collapsed in the sand and realized I probably didn't have much energy left. Another minute and I'd have really had to tap deep into the reservoir, because I was pretty much finished.

The big lesson from this for me was not to get too cocky and let the waves creep up on you and grab you out before you know what happened.

Local Hawaiins are always telling me this, as I'm sure dumb tourists like myself get annihilated out here on the regular.

Play it safe!! :)


Tyler

New Years Resolutions -- Video Style!!

Just dropping my resolutions on video for 2007 -- let's get it done!!

Tyler

New Years Hawaii

I've been living in Hawaii for the past six months, working like a DOG and writing The Blueprint.

It's a great place to get work done --> no temptation to go out clubbing every night, like in Hollywood where it feels like EVERY night is a "once in a lifetime" event.

I've been living in a great beachfront pad right up until today, but now that the lease has run out I'm moving into a decent place deeper into Waikiki.

Unfortunately, it's high-season in Hawaii right now which makes it hardcore difficult to find anything decent -- and as a result, I'm moving into a hotel for the next 10 days until the apartment opens up.

On the upside, I'll be getting a lot of Starwood points.. LOL -- "high society baby!!"

The fireworks show tonight should be pretty tight so we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, hotel or no hotel, I'm back to my usual grind......


Tyler