Tag Archives: Tai Lopez

Who to emulate?

I must admit reading is addictive! I thank James Altucher and Tai Lopez for talking about how much they read. I heard them talking about reading on their podcasts and was intrigued by how much they learned from reading. As a person who likes to share and help others reading is fuel for my fire. And copying them could lead to their success. So I challenged myself, friends and followers to also read a book or more a week. After all other successful people also read a lot every day including Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. But then I read more and learned more about Gary and his methods of madness .

So emulating Tai and James seems like a logical thing to do to find success. But maybe you don’t like to read but you feel like you should because other successful people do. Here is something to ponder. James Altucher and Tai Lopez read a lot and are both considered successful by many people. Contrast this with the habits of Gary Vaynerchuk who has read less books in his lifetime than Tai and James read in their average week.

So you can’t emulate Tai and Gary or can you? And another contrast appears when you compare Chalene Johnson to Gary Vee. you will notice she doesn’t want people to be all about the hustle but rather to have a great work and life balance and she likes to take off for a month or two at a time. I did hear Gary mention he had a good week or two vacation. I’m wondering if he will start to enjoy less of the grind as his kid grows up a bit. Maybe he will look into Chalene’s methods in the years to come.

Gary doesn’t read so what does he attribute his success to? Well he hustles aka works a lot, works efficiently and knows where to put the effort which he calls “Clouds and Dirt”. But how does he learn and keep a pulse on what works in the advertising world and what startups he should invest in? He says he watches people to see what they are doing, he watches which mobile apps are in the top 150, he reads websites that collate stories. Compare this to James Altucher who tries not to know what is going on by avoiding the news and media and suggests to only read things that have passed the test of time. And James used to be a regular on the cable networks as a guest so he advises to avoid watching the news since he has seen how it is curated. Yet James also invests in startups. If you are trying to replicate success by taking the action of successful people the action you copy will be very different depending on who you emulate. So who or what should you emulate?

So what do you do? Should you emulate all their actions to cover all the bases? Reading lots of newspapers and a book a day like Tai? Maybe avoid books like Gary Vee? Oh wait you can’t do both of those or can you. How are they both so successful with different approaches? I’d like you to consider that each of them just like each of us should do things we enjoy. They find success is doing what they enjoy. I think Gary really enjoys watching people in person and online to learn so much so he said he thought a dad got the wrong impression when he was watching the guys daughter to see what she was doing on her cell phone. He really wants to know which apps and sites people are using. James Altucher says he still knows what is going on in the world because people will tell you about the important things. I can attest to that! I’m betting James learns a good deal from his weekly podcast where he interviews people who surely bring up some of the day to day topics along with the topics for the episode. Oh he interviewed Gary V which I thought was great and now has me putting the Crush It book on my list to read.

Back to who you should emulate. Some of their actions will vibrate with you in a positive way while others feel like a chore. Trying different things that intrigue sounds great. We all will create our own mix of things we do that lead us to success.After all we can’t emulate all of someone else’s actions, doubtful they even know all the things that bring them success.And the chances of us continuing to emulate actions for months and years is tied to how much we enjoy them. Especially if these are things you are doing on the side versus a job. Try many things and see which ones feel the best and resonate with you. So commonly referred to as following your passions or better yet following your bliss.

Creating Content
Lots of people like to learn from podcasts or audiobooks yet I’ve never heard James, Tai or Gary say they listen to a podcast a day. Yet they all produce a podcast a week and Tai put out 4 podcasts on April 13th and probably more snap chats and live broadcasts than that. I know I average listening to more than a podcast a day because I have the time to and I enjoy learning from audio. Now what kind of fame can I get by saying I listen to 3 podcasts a day probably not much since it is rather common. I’d be willing to bet Gary and Tai produce more podcast and audio content than they consume. I reckon they enjoy spending their time creating content more than taking in others content. And I believe their success which many people want to emulate comes from their creating content which is what they enjoy doing in their daily life. I heard Tai say “Social Media should enhance your life”. I hear that and apply it with a much broader brush saying what you do each day should enhance your life. And I suggest what you do the most each day should surely enhance your life! I’m thankful that James Altucher said everyone should do a podcast of their own because right about that time I was told I should stop doing my “business / freedom” podcast and focus on a niche like “autocross”. Hearing James suggest podcasting helped me realize I should keep doing something I enjoy. James also said having a podcast gives you good opportunities to interview a lot of people! Plus it is good practice to interview people for you and yourself. Back to the creating content thought, these people only have a following as well as products to sell because they produce content from: articles, books, podcasts, videos, video programs, newsletters….

A little side note for those of you who listen to podcasts. I agree with Chalene Johnson’s suggestion to focus your listening to podcasts on the subject you are currently learning about or implementing. This has really helped me get momentum to take action on varying tasks from permaculture farming to Facebook advertising. I’ve found it irresistible after learning about all the benefits as well as how to implement a Facebook video ad for example. A random thought for those of you who listen to a lot of podcasts: maybe you can take notes from each of the good ones and put each of the tips in a post like this, blog, or video which will save people time and lead them to great resources. I listen to and recommend the podcasts of all four of these individuals (Chalene Johnson, Gary Vaynerchuk, James Altucher and Tai Lopez). I have contributed to each of them buy buying their books, online courses and attending their conferences and they have contibuted to me. They all give lots of great content for free which is another thing you can emulate if you are looking to follow in their footsteps. I want to thank Cole Hatter for putting together the Thrive event which is where I was introduced to Tai Lopez and Gary Vaynerchuk. I hope Cole gets all four of these speakers for his next Thrive event.

Have a great time finding you bliss! And share your thoughts with us (you will be creating content :).

Kinch Reindl