Learning how to defend against punches, chokes, and grabs is great. Learning how to defend against laziness, temptation, provocation is better.
Learning how to monetize a website, blog, or article is great. Learning how to write more clearly, concisely, and consistently—is better.
Learning tactics to promote yourself, a product, or service is great. Learning how to make yourself, a product, or service more remarkably great—is better.
It’s easy to invest most of our time into learning what’s sexy. UFC style self-defenses, multiple channel monetization, maximizing reach and distribution. It’s hard to invest time into learning the less-sexy, foundational stuff. But, it’s those foundational skills that give the “sexy” stuff life.
Because what’s the best way to defend against a punch? By never getting into a position of being punched. And how do you do that? By learning foundational character development skills of how to be confident, disciplined, and cool-tempered.
What’s the best thing you can do to make money online? By creating something that serves a need and is thoughtful and generous. Not by creating superficial content, taking short-cuts, or cleverly fooling people into payment plans and sexy funnels.
This is even true for how people see each other. What makes a person sexy? You might argue something about a person’s appearance, but that fades quickly if it isn’t matched with a sexy character. Ashton Kutcher said it perfectly:
“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you. It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful and be generous.”
And so I pass it onto you: be smart, thoughtful, and generous. Especially with how you spend your time. Are you investing in foundation or drooling over what appears to be sexy?