I like that word, bloatware. Kind of sounds like a Spiderman villain.
Or what Jabba the Hut wears for underpants.
In information technology it’s the term for unnecessary and forgotten software running in the background on your system, slowing down your more important processes.
How much bloatware do you have, not just on your PC or Mac, but in your business processes, and even in your daily routines and activities?
C’mon now…be honest.
How much could you throw overboard without missing it an hour or a day later?
How much more efficient would it make you?
I am in the modern habit of using “bandwidth” as a catch-all word for a lot more than just the amount of frequency range you can send or receive.
In fact, my Oxford language dictionary search even has definition #2 as: “the energy or mental capacity required to deal with a situation.”
Bloatware could catch on like that.
If it does, tell ‘em you heard it here first.
Because, and this is important: bloatware in our attitudes and our so-called realistic certainty can lead to a lot of self-limiting handicaps, both business and personal.
You just KNOW that the market is volatile, so what’s the use investing?
You just KNOW that you have to be “lucky,” or “in the right place at the right time” to be a business success.
And I cry, “bullshit.”
This is why (and I’m not the only one who says this) you should NEVER tell your closest family or friends about your greatest new business idea, invention, process, inspired income-producing activity.
Keep that shit to yourself.
Nobody will rain all over your parade better than a “well-meaning” loved one, telling you it’s too risky, you’re insane for taking that kind of a chance, etc., etc,. blah blah blah.
Once you’re no longer a child it is best to choose wisely those with whom you would share your child-like enthusiasm.
Your joie de vivre for your latest idea is not going to be shared by anybody at your family reunion, unless you happen to be one of the lucky few with genuinely supportive relatives.
Trust me.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the pure white-hot energy of the belief of a small child in their own potential, their own possibility.
You know how kids are before the world beats them down, starting in most cases right in their own home, with a whole lot of noise like this:
“You have to be realistic.”
Grrr. I hate that phrase.
“You have to have a good advanced education to get ahead in life.”
Said Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Ted Turner.
Not! All dropped out as undergrads, and never went back.
By the way, disclaimer: if you’re currently in school, stay there, unless you have a million or billion-dollar idea already. Okay?
Don’t go telling your parents you’re done with school because Eric said so!
Anyway, here’s another one: “you already have a great job, why do you want to risk that on something you don’t even know will work?”
“I’m telling you this because I love you.”
Ehhhrt! Wrong answer! You’re telling me this because you’re coming from your own inner locus of fear.
A sugar-frosted dog turd is still poop.
You can be what you want, limited only by your own imagination and willingness to work for what you want.
Anything.
Did you know most of the world’s billionaires are self-made?
That means they accumulated enough assets and resources for a thousand lifetimes within just one.
They did not “inherit.” They did not “get lucky.”
They figured it out, and I’m willing to bet, though I’m millions away from my own first billion, that they share a gritty mindset to some degree or other, in common.
Nobody’s running a bunch of “that’s too risky” dogshit past Richard Branson.
Or Warren Buffet. 91 years old, and still firmly at the helm.
I think some of this mindset can be likened to, compared to, child-like enthusiasm.
Minus the bloatware of “realism” and “safe comfortable careers.”
The first time I read this next thing it hit me like a slap, because I immediately saw the truth in it.
Check this out. I’m not going to remember it perfectly, but it goes a little like this:
A kindergarten classroom, full of presumably 6-year-old kids, was asked, “How many of you know how to sing?”
Every hand shoots up, full of confidence. You might say, full of child-like enthusiasm.
A 10th grade classroom, asked the same question? Less than 20% raises their hands.
What happened to these poor kids in 10 years to kill their self-confidence?
Well-meaning family and friends, perhaps? Telling them they’re special all right, but probably a lot more special at something else?
Or being told outright, “You can’t sing.”
Every single damned thing ever invented began with an idea.
With imagination. The one true difference that sets the human animal apart from the others, in this man’s humble opinion.
One of the most damaging examples of bloatware in your psyche is limiting beliefs.
You get them as a kid. I did. Here’s one:
“He only has that beautiful girl because he has money.”
My dad while watching TV back in the day, repeatedly.
See the problem with this? It makes it sound like money itself is a problem.
Which is like saying oxygen is a problem.
You have to have both.
It’s just that people with less money are taking small sips near the airlock to survive.
While those that have a money-mindset have more freedom.
Do you have a million-dollar idea that could bring more value to people, even change the world, and make you money in the process?
Raise your hand! You CAN sing, dammit! And if you can’t sing as well as you like, keep singing until you get better!
Capicè? Comprende?
I’ve quoted this into the ground, it was even on my Facebook profile for a few years, but it’s totally appropriate right here:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, either way you’re right.” – Henry Ford.
We are in the business of making you more profitable in your business.
Let me make something perfectly, abundantly, clear:
You need to be in the business of making yourself more profitable.
In the cosmic game of Texas Hold ‘Em you need to go all in.
With a child-like enthusiasm, and…
…check your bloatware bags at the door.
If you want to know more about how we can help, reach out.
Click that “work-with-me” link, and let’s talk for an entire hour, no upfront cost other than your own valuable time.
I do this with a childlike-enthusiasm, too.
Let’s talk!