Who Am I? – Chapter 2: Take the Red Pill, Quit the Quo

“So who the hell are you?!” “Who are you to tell me what I should be doing?” “What’s all this quo talk?”

These are perfectly salient questions and in this section I’ll try to answer them and more…

My name is Adam Barratt and I have a passion for personal development, achievement, and for want of a better word, the ‘irregular’.

I love travel, adventure, comedy, spirituality, cosmology and quantum physics. A mixed yet exciting bag! I am an entrepreneur and free thinker, looking to do what I can to enlighten myself and others… and also have a lot of fun in the process.

My mission is to help myself and drive myself forwards as well as help as many people as I can do the same. Hence these books, blogs and all. This is where it starts, but not where it ends.

So firstly I’ll tell you where I am at the time of writing this book…

I have achieved some small successes in my time but nothing majorly noteworthy… as yet… but I am working on it. I have had times when I’ve been doing pretty well and times when not so well.

So who am I to tell you what to do and why should you listen?

Glad you asked. I have had a rich and chequered history. The reason I haven’t achieved any major success in any single endeavour is my propensity to:

a) Not have a single clear goal and
b) Want to do everything

The downside is not a high achievement in a particular field. But there are huge pluses. I have tried many things, been to a few places, worked many jobs, tried some more things, read a fair bit, been up, been down, sampled different industries/vocations. I have also been held back somewhat, whether it be by myself, society, ‘the system’, it matters not… what matters is shattering the shackles and coming through.

I am now someone with a vision, a plan and a little fire. All of which makes me who I am and stands me in good stead to deliver a message. I am just like you, but perhaps at a different stage of the journey.

Firstly, don’t listen to me per sé. I’m not an expert by any means but I am extremely clued up due to the way I’ve lived my life, what I’ve read, watched, listened to, the people I have spoke with, research I have carried out, an open mind, an inquisitive and analytical brain, a ‘why?’ attitude, reasonable intelligence and hopefully an ability to write.

But you should make your own decisions. Perhaps start with questioning things, challenging them maybe… then do your own research, draw your own conclusions and do your own thing.

I have probably achieved more than I think but some of us tend to play things down and underestimate things. Either way, the first part of my life has played a strong role in setting me up for the next parts.

In a year or so, I will follow this report up with my second book. And yes, you can hold me to that. In that book I will extend on what I’ve written here, add more personal development insights, my travel experiences and the success I have enjoyed since writing this first book. It is an interesting experiment, and it will be good to see what I (and you!) can achieve in a year.

I will have increased my income, I will have travelled more, met more people, done more interesting things, continued the blog, perhaps built on other projects, got fitter, hopefully taken up martial arts again, learnt some Spanish and play a musical instrument fairly well… and of course I will have written 2 books!

In the second book I will also include comments and success stories from my readers which will add an extra dimension.

But my main point of the blog, the books and anything else is to wake people up to live their dreams. It also has the bonus of keeping me awake and striving for my own dreams.

I am fighting for a cause. A great cause. The ultimate cause…
Doing what you want to do and being who you want to be!

That’s it really. That sentence sums up the ethos of the book and blog perfectly… the rest is an extension of this principle just said in a variety of ways to hopefully get the message across and spur you on.

So that’s the principle, what else is it about? Ok…

Looking out of the bubble we are wrapped in, not accepting the way things are because ‘they are the way things are’, waking up and smelling the coffee, not conforming to the worldview of others, staying true to our deepest desires, traveling, adventure and whenever or wherever we can comedy… deriving humour from all that we can. Getting better.

We need to continue the process of personal development, whilst having a laugh, having some serious fun and keeping ourselves and others entertained.

It’s about living life on your own terms… and ultimately, it’s about… FREEDOM! Being free… whatever that may mean to you.

A worthy goal I’m sure you’ll agree, join me for the ride!

My Entrepreneurial & Financial Freedom Pursuits…

I’ve tried a fair few business/internet marketing ventures along with various other potential ‘make money’ things.

You name it, I’ve dabbled… or at least had a little look. I have achieved some success with these endeavours but I want a damn site more and on a consistent basis. The problem is frittering between different potential avenues and not focusing on one until it’s a success, add in work and life you end up running round in a merry circle chasing your tail. Key is to concentrate on something for a sustained period of time.

So what I bring to the table is passion, drive and commitment to make us a success and some very clear ideals. What you need to be is a willing student. A rabid reader – not just what I write but many others on a similar path. We are all learning constantly… we are all students and we are all teachers. Remember that and we can perhaps go some way to reaching those ideals.

When it comes to work, I have found myself jumping through hoops, dancing to a rather tired old merry-go-round, multiple menial jobs in several industries inter-dispersed with making money off my own back (or certainly attempting to and much research and study) and exciting travel expeditions. I’ve been dancing to this tune most of my adult life.

I could have gone on to be successful any one of these jobs/careers, quite easily, but I didn’t want to then and I certainly don’t want to now. I’m prepared to work at these places (resentfully) merely to keep afloat and get the required funds to keep the dream alive. I have to eat at the end of the day.

But anything over and above that is a complete waste of time. I’m not gaining anything on any level and not really contributing anything worthwhile… other than perhaps helping to make some fat cats rich as they have played the game in such a way where they can reap the benefits of this lunified merry-go-round.

I could easily get promoted, earn a few more grand, but for what? As we all know we tend to live to our means; our lifestyles change slightly, we pay a little more tax but we step our lifestyles up a little; maybe more clothes, a more expensive car (or a car if we didn’t have one), an extra night out a week, or it disappears into the system in any number of ways.

So we earn a little more but ultimately aren’t any better off. We probably end up worse off as we have increased responsibility at work, need to work longer hours, more pressure, more accountability, maybe take our work home with us.

I’d rather be at temp or fairly low level. Do a good job, sure, and they will want to keep you and promote you but I’d rather not get sucked in… I have bigger fish to fry (or at least different fish).

Basically, it’s not for me. Each to their own of course. If you like being part of a corporate machine and enjoy the process layed out above then that’s absolutely fine, best of luck with it. But for me and a lot of other people this just doesn’t cut it.

This is not because I lack ambition, in fact quite the opposite… it’s because I have bigger ambitions. To break free from that machine, work for myself, on my own terms… perhaps earn less money and have that all important freedom, but ultimately retain that freedom and earn far far more money. I’ll give it a good go anyway!

I can’t begin to tell you the amount of temp jobs I’ve done, recruitment consultants I’ve had to chase and much more associated hilarity that goes with this territory (perhaps I’ll elaborate one day!). Make no mistake, everyone is out for themselves and don’t really care about you so it is really time to take some good care of yourself, look after number one and those others around you who are able and willing.

But it’s not about me… it’s about you, or rather, us. Onwards!
Join me on our collective jolly juggernaut…

Next up: The Dream Chasing Paradox