Author: Brendon Komene

Today I made a definite decision to STOP chasing money and learn to accept the amount I currently earn and be grateful for it.

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t like more of it, I absolutely would – who wouldn’t?

I’m simply stating that I will no longer sacrifice time spent with my family and my purpose in order to make a few extra dollars. Something I’ve learned in the last 10 years of living in Australia is that making money to buy things is great but it’s not fulfilling.

” Blingin’ it up big time “

Just over a year ago I caught up with an old mate that was living the bachelor lifestyle. He has no dependants, is single and earns in excess of $200k per year. He travels frequently, drops more money on a night out than I do on my weekly expenses and is blingin’ it up BIG TIME. Sounds cool right?

A few weeks went by and I hadn’t heard from him as I was busy setting up my courier business and dedicated every moment I had to chasing my own money. Finally he called one day and said: “Hey, I just got back from another holiday, I had a great time and oh yeah … I’m quitting my job.”

” He just wasn’t happy “

Curious, I thought he must have another job lined up because why would you give up all that cash right? he said “nah, I’m moving overseas to train MMA every day for the next 6 months” and because he just wasn’t happy.

For all the money he made and the ‘things’ that it allowed him to do and acquire he simply wasn’t happy and that was that.

At first I was shocked but I understand that although things seem great from the ‘outside’ thinking certain people have got it all figured out you realise that we’re all just trying to find our way in life and I admire him for having the courage to let go to something more fulfilling.

He did this because he wanted to. Does it have to be any more technical than that? The fear of poverty is part of most people’s way of thinking, that feeling of ‘oh I can’t do that because I NEED money for this’. We let that fear dictate who we are allowed to be, constantly accumulating material things in the pursuit of happiness.

I’m really proud of my mate for his decision and when he returned he found better working conditions and seems happier for it.

Have you ever really looked at the things you own and noticed that you probably have more than enough already? That you maybe only use a third of the things you have and the rest are just taking up space. I have and that’s why I’ve made another decision to give my things away to people who can put them to better use. But that’s for another post.

 

 

 

 

One of the best things about being a dad is hearing my son say his name. I ask him nearly everyday just to hear his tiny little voice reply “my name ish Bookwin Conami ” (Brooklyn Komene). It gets me right in the feels like I’ve truly accomplished something by having a son to carry on my father’s name.

So I make the most of every moment I spend with him you see he’s only 4yrs old and I wasn’t really around during the first 10 months of his life. Not in the way you might think, let me explain.

I’ve been working on passion projects for the last 5-7 yrs which took up a lot of my time. I would spend countless hours in front of my computer learning, designing, breaking & fixing software to accomplish my goal of building a Facebook Like button for the shopping mall. (Read more about it here)

So while my son was in the most important stages of development I was typically in my home office coding stuff and although I was ‘physically’ there I wasn’t there for him emotionally (much) as my mind was always on other things and I kept telling myself I would not make any excuses for not doing my ‘work’.

What I wasn’t aware of back then, that I am now, is that I was so caught up in ‘what’ I was doing that I lost sight of ‘why’ I was doing it leading to much confusion and being mentally exhausted. I had no real direction and my mind was on other things instead of appreciating the time I spent with my son.

” everything I do, every day for the rest of my life “

But now things are different, this year I discovered my purpose which is to help people by sharing the knowledge I have accumulated. Learning this made things so much easier because I only do the tasks that are in line with my purpose resulting in less things to do and more time to focus on my family.

I am no longer concerned of where my focus should be because everything I do, every day for the rest of my life is my focus and that gives me peace of mind and faith that I am doing the right thing by everyone especially myself.

To the title of this post – I am neither and if you’re not familiar with the ’92 film starring Bridget Fonda then here’s a quick recap: A chick advertises for a flatmate who wants to steal her life and it all ends in tears.

The importance of being yourself.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but what value does it hold for the imitator if they don’t have similar attributes? Maybe they believe that by copying you they will eventually find themselves? So the only way they can feel good about themselves is if they pretend to be someone they’re not.

There’s so many things to address here but I’ll keep it simple and start with this:

” Be unapologetically YOU “

If you think you’re weird – be weird.

If you think you’re creative – be creative.

You get where I’m going with this right?

Just be you and don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks. Often people actually do know who they are but for some reason they are afraid to admit it and act naturally for fear of ridicule. You are who you are, this life isn’t long enough to go around living a life that is dishonest.

We only get a fragment of time to experience, share, love, laugh and grow so why would you want to be something or someone you are not. You’re not here to please everyone and you need to put your own happiness first for you will never attract the full life you want until you start really being yourself.

Take the character in this movie – the crazy one. She’s bat shit crazy but that’s cool, there’s a niche for that, there’s a Facebook page she could join and interact with other bat shit crazy chicks and hang out and discuss shit by bats that happens to be crazy. She may find that by acknowledging who she is to the world that she will find others that help her dig a little deeper to find the core of the craziness and direct her energy towards something a little less fucked up.

Being yourself allows you to have a starting point and from there you can find out what truly motivates you so that the things you don’t like about yourself can have an opportunity to grow into things that you do like LOVE about yourself.

 

 

“Don’t apologize for being you, that’s like saying sorry for being real” – Brendon Komene

 

” Ideas are shit, execution is the key ” – Gary Vaynerchuk

I whole heartedly subscribe to this statement,  now that I understand it.

I have always been an ideas guy. Everyone who knows me knows that. If people were doing one thing, I’d take it and do it another way like the blockbuster movie with the twist ending.

But a lot of the time I had great ideas that I did nothing with and still thought I was actually achieving something. HOLD UP. Run that back and read it again ……

” I had ideas that I did nothing with “

and somehow I thought that was something to be proud of. Hmmm …

After doing an honest self evaluation and learning from others that the most important thing is ‘taking action’ to bring your idea into reality otherwise it’s merely a dream. Think about that for a moment, how many ideas have you had that you never did anything with? Here’s your chance to back it up as this blog and my purpose to help people is my chance to provide tangible evidence of my beliefs.

You may find that your idea(s) lead you to discovering your life purpose in which case I encourage you to go down that path as I have but you won’t know until you take action and execute.