How You Can Turn Laziness Into Accomplishment

From the desk of Victor Pride

Subj: How to use “laziness” as fuel

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I’ve just returned from Chiang Rai, Thailand. Chiang Rai is in the very north of Thailand, bordering on Laos and Burma. The area is known as the “Golden Triangle” and is famous for “previously” being a heavy opium producing area.

I spent a lovely few days riding a motorbike around the mountains and around town and doing a bit of hiking to get up to the famous Khun Korn waterfall.

On the evening flight home I was reading a book on my iPad kindle “app”. The book I was reading is called How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne. I found myself skipping page after page. Not because I didn’t like the book, but because I found myself agreeing with everything I was reading. It was like reading a book that Uncle Victor might have written.

I came to one page and read a quote that had me chuckling in recognition. The quote goes like this:

For years, whenever it was appropriate in conversations, lectures, and writing, I’ve casually mentioned one or more such things as: I have no interests in governments, groups, crusades or religions; I’m lazy and have learned to live with it and enjoy it; and I see nothing wrong with being selfish.

“Ha ha” I had to say to myself in recognition.

You see, I have a confession to make. You caught me red handed….

Not only do I have zero interest in going on idealistic crusades or in belonging to any groups, not only am I selfish without remorse, I am also lazy.

“Huh?! Say it ain’t so Vic!‘

Let me explain…..

I’m not lazy in a wake up at noon, sit at home, smoke dope, eat snacks, don’t shower or shave and just watch TV kind of way. I’m lazy in a different way. The list of things I don’t like to do is endless. The list of things I like to do is considerably shorter. So I just don’t do things that I don’t like to do. Since I don’t do or rarely do things I don’t like to do I have free time to do as I wish.

Google defines “lazy” as not inclined to work or exertion.

But for this purposes of this article I don’t like that definition, and I don’t like “standard” lazy people. I am going to cheat a little and use my own definition of laziness.

The B&D definition of laziness, in this instance, is not being inclined to work or exertion when there is no clear benefit to do so or; the act of not doing things you don’t want to do or; the act of not doing things that don’t benefit you.

Using the above B&D definition of laziness I’m going to give you two tips to not only be lazy and be OK with it, but actually turn laziness into a way to accomplish more.

The 2 ways that laziness can help you accomplish more

1) Eliminate competition by not having any competition in the first place

Laziness can help you cut out competition. Rather than starting a business in a competitive market the easy, peasy lazy way to cut out competition is to start a business that has no competition. If there are 500 bakeries in town it would be silly to open a bakery. Why compete and fight tooth and nail to get a piece of the pie when you can simply start something new and therefore start at the top.

It’s the difference between being a regular schlub starting at the bottom and working his way up the corporate ladder and being a man who starts his own business, in his own niche, and shoots straight to the top rather quickly.

I remember quite vividly visiting Beijing, China. In the area where all the foreigners hang out to drink and eat BBQ the Chinese have their own little stands and carts to sell knickknacks and things. I remember walking by at least 20 carts, in a very small area, that sold the same cigarettes and cigars. About every 10 feet there would be a man or a woman with a cart selling the same exact things as the man in front and the man behind. They were all selling the exact same items within a tiny radius of each other.

I couldn’t help but think a) how they could possibly make enough money to make it worthwhile and b) how they could be so stupid to sell the exact same thing right next to each other. You could never call these people lazy, they’re there from dawn to dusk every day, but you can easily call them stupid.

Instead of selling the exact same thing they could have opened their tiny little eyes and started selling something that no one else was selling. You can’t possibly be the #1 salesman selling the same thing as 100 other people next to you, but you can easily be #1 if you are the only one. It’s dumb to compete in a saturated market when you can dominate in a new one.

Standing around doing the same thing as everyone else is a waste of time and a waste of life. Do it new, do it better, or don’t do it, but don’t do the same. You’ll simply never get ahead if you stay in the middle and the “lazy” way to get ahead is to do something new that has no competition.

2) Outsource the tasks you don’t want to do

If there is some activity or chore that you don’t like to do then just let someone else do it.

I haven’t cooked a meal, cleaned my laundry or cleaned anything at all in over a year. I can’t even remember the last time I did either of those things. I don’t even make my own morning coffee.

I’m too lazy to do those time-consuming activities. I have ass to kick and I don’t want to waste my time farting around in the kitchen or mopping the floor.

But household chores must be done so I, wait for it, OUTSOURCE. Yes, I have those things done for me.

A man doesn’t need to do everything for himself. You don’t need to be cooking, cleaning, ironing, scrubbing floors and working on your business or working your job and bringing home the bacon. These household tasks can be done for you.

In a bygone era this style of living was standard and normal. Women cooked and cleaned, men earned the bread.

In our world it’s considered lazy or “unfair” for a man to not help out around the house. Who cares. Life is a thousand times better when you don’t have to worry about getting the cooking and cleaning done. Get yourself a little helper bee to take care of the housework so you can focus on business and your quality of life increases. If that’s laziness then you can call me lazy all day and night.

BONUS: How to be successful as a lone Wolf

I often get questions like “Victor, how did you find all this stuff out? Did you have a mentor like Rich Dad/Poor Dad or did your father teach you all this stuff?” and the answer to that question is no, I never had anyone like that. I’ve been a lone Wolf since I was 12 years old. What I know comes from experience and self-learning.

In fact, when I was a young man I was the subject of jokes about my “laziness”. An older family member would always tell me about the wonders of getting a degree, getting a good job in I.T., getting a 401(k) and retiring like a king. Even as a snot nosed punk I knew that advice was terrible and didn’t particularly follow it.

So you can believe me when I tell you that if you don’t have a mentor, if you don’t have a good teacher, if you don’t have a role model, or if you don’t belong to this group or that group it’s not the end of the world. Everything you ever wanted to learn about anything is available at your fingertips. At the click of a button you can learn anything you want. I am an entrepreneur because of the internet, no two ways about it, and I was lazy as can be until I started my own self education.

Being a lone Wolf can help you tremendously and I will tell you exactly how: As a lone Wolf you can feel free to disregard advice from Sheep.

Sometimes I get emails and comments along the lines of “But Victor, not everyone can do what you do!“. Guys, you may as well email me to say the sky is blue. If everyone could do what I can do then I would be out of business. So let me tell you the #2 benefit of being a lone Wolf: you are out of the ordinary and you are capable of doing extraordinary things IF! you want to and IF! you focus on it.

If you’re a lone Wolf worried about how best to fit in, my advice is to stop worrying. Don’t worry about fitting in. Being a lone Wolf is a gift because it gives you an outside perspective.

If you really wanted to fit in then all you need to do is stop reading Bold and Determined - The Website for Winners ™ and start reading gossip magazines in the office breakroom during your 45 minute pre-approved lunch break.

To each their own but I never much liked working around an office, pushing papers and attending HR meetings. I like to kick ass, lift weights, make money and climb mountains in northern Thailand on Tuesday afternoons so that’s what I do. I’m able to live like that because I avoid all activities that I don’t enjoy or that don’t get me closer to my goal and I don’t worry about “fitting in”.

Maybe that’s just me though.

Until next time.

Your man,

-Victor Pride