I’m not really sure if fundamentals can ‘technically’ change or not since they are “fundamentals” & all (the foundation and most basic part of our beings)…but I’d like to think that I can change whatever about myself when ever I want, or need to.

I was very quickly getting sick of my life (I recognized a pattern about two weeks ago), doing the same things that I’ve always done and expecting to get different (BETTER) results.
The end outcome wasn’t changing, so I decided to make it change…I only have one life and I better be the best ‘Chais Meyer’ that I can be! I always have the opportunity to compare myself to the countless other 27 year olds that have already made millions of dollars, sold multiple business and met the president of some far off country…but where would that get me? Life is based off of ‘Cause and Effect’ & what I did ten years ago, one year ago, or one week ago helped create a road map to where I AM today (as good or as bad as that is). The question that comes to mind after realizing this is, “What am I going to do today (the Cause) to change my future (the Effect) for the better?”
I can no longer be the victim because I AM THE VICTOR…and I need to start cusing acting like it!

“Take Responsibility for yourself and change your cusing fundamentals!”, I yelled at myself in the hotel room.
No one is going to take you by the hand and make you be better, stronger or smarter…YOU are the only person responsible for you!
DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME READER!?! YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU!

For me, that means sleeping less (from 9 hours to 5 or 6 a night has been good so far), learning more (applying myself and dedicating one hour or more each day to learning something that will better my tomorrow), applying myself (TAKING ACTION, ideas are great but their just ideas if they never get implemented) and limiting the amount of time I spend on things that distract me from progression (AKA. Disc Golfing and the above ;)!

Keep Pushing & Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

[image used from: http://studio.angoulvant.net/tag/3d-fundamentals/]

This image is great because the guy in this picture looks as proud to have $17 as we are.

This was truth about 5 days ago…I looked in my online personal checking account and saw a dollar sign “$” with the following numbers “17.00″. Unfortunately, this was not a mistake by Wells Fargo, they did NOT accidentally move the decimal point over two places from the end of the number, we actually had $17 in our checking account.

This is not a pity cry or a call out for help, I am proud to have $17 in my checking account!
Why? Because this is ‘the real dirty’ of not living a typical 9-5 lifestyle, of working for ourselves and putting all of our extra cash and resources into our businesses that will someday repay us for scraping by in order to feed our businesses.

Could we do it another way? Could we work a full time job and also make our businesses grow?
Yes & Yes.

There’s no right or wrong when it comes to living life the way you want to. For us, it’s all about constant progression…if we are moving towards a growth direction and we’re seeing constant change for the better (personally and professionally) we are willing to have a harder short term (and a better long term). On the other hand if we’re sitting back, blowing our money and wasting our time, we deserve to be in a tight spot without the reward of our business growing for the future. The fact of the matter is that we’re running, pushing, and sometimes fighting to get what we want…we plan to have a huge financial turn around during these next 6 months…and that news will be even more exciting to share!

Business is not always easy & it’s sometimes dirty, but as long as you have a higher purpose, bless others (individuals and businesses), and work with more passion than the next guy/gal…things will eventually go your way.

Have an Awesome day & don’t forget to thank your God for what you have!
~Chais & Shawna Meyer

A buddy of mine (Mike Nyffeler) sent me a link to this video today, and it really helps me see ‘what we really want out of life’…Purpose.

Take 10 minutes and watch this video, it will reinforce some thoughts you may have about your own life and what drives you.

I was shooting the shit (AKA. Talking) with a buddy of mine, in my office today. We started talking about business and happiness. The conversation was started by him recognizing my chalk board walls and the writing that is on them. (my wife and I painted 50% of the walls in our office with chalkboard paint to help us visually layout our ideas and thoughts everyday)
This particular section of the wall was designated for our “Star Customers”, the customers that do everything right and then some. This list is ongoing and ever changing to help us identify what makes up our Star customers and how we can get more of them.

For us, a Star customer recognizes growth potential in themselves and their business, they want to learn and better themselves rather than having someone spoon feed them everything. Knowing this, we can manipulate our current business systems to reward these Star customers. This is not standard business logic, “rewarding customers, it will never work, we’ll lose money on that”, says corporate America.

We’re starting to see this ‘new agey’ business logic with a lot of young business owners because they’ve seen how happy customers (and employees) make for an extremely profitable and Happy business.

Maybe I’m noticing this new model in more businesses recently because I’m reading Tony Hsieh’s (CEO of Zappos) new book, “Delivering Happiness” (http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com), which is absolutely incredibly! This book is an overview of Tony’s life (Personally & Professionally), with his wins and losses along the way. He’s inspired me to be better at focusing on happiness instead of money, and then the money will take care of itself.

I’m striving to make every business I’m involved with a true success (according to my customers and employees), not Gross Profits. My wife & I are super passionate about this and challenge you to look at life this way. Take a look at Tony’s new book and tell us what you get of it, here’s the Amazon link if you’d like to buy it and check it out (http://www.amazon.com/deliveringhappiness).

Make others Happy in Life and you will be too!
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

This is a really interesting question, part of me believes that we’d like to know everything that’s going on in our world…but I’m not so sure if most people really do want to know some of the shitty stuff that happens out there...

‘Is Ignorance Bliss‘…to you?
If you don’t know, try asking yourself the questions below and see if you can come up with an honest answer for each one (would you really want to know?).
- Would you want to know if everything you’ve “known” about Your religion turned out to be a farce, made up by people in power for control?
- Would you want to know if the majority of wars were started to help a few individuals/companies make an extra buck?
- Would you want to know if our government was corrupt to the core?
- Would you want to know if your significant other has been cheating on you?
- Would you want to know if you’re favorite athlete or movie star had been manipulating the system (with drugs, steroids, breaking the law, sleeping their way to the top (AKA. Sex for Success), etc.) to make them who they are today?
- Would you want to know every person that dislikes you and why they do?
- Would you want to know if the life you have lived up until now has been a total lie and is orchestrated by someone else?

If you answered no to any of these questions than you’ve decided that ignorance is bliss you in some circumstances. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, I just wonder why we as humans don’t want to know the 100% truth all of the time, shouldn’t that make us better people? Can we be our best without knowing the truth?

I don’t have an answer to these questions yet, it was just a thought I had the other day and I wanted to get other peoples’ take on it all.
What are your thoughts? Is there something wrong with the ‘Ignorance is Bliss’ mentality or do we need it to stay sane in our world of chaos?

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you & have an Awesome Day (Even if you really don’t want to know what’s happening during the day today ;)…I’m Kidding!
~Chais Meyer

I just watched a talk about Happiness by Professor Srikumar S. Rao and Loved how simple/right on his concept of happiness is!

This talk intrigues me because of how we deal with happiness day in and day out and what the majority of us thinks creates ‘real’ happiness.
We put conditional elements of happiness into a little imaginary box (This box could include any number of things; A new job, getting married, a promotion at work, the house our dreams, the perfect vacation, etc.) and we say to ourselves, “If only I can get that little box (no matter the time or sacrifice), then I will be truly happy”.

I don’t believe that the statement above is totally negative, we should have goals, dreams and ambitions…but these obtainables shouldn’t be the definition of Happiness in our lives.
We need to learn how to be happy, even if we have nothing ’special’ to speak of.

When happiness is dependent on the if/then statement, we set ourselves up to live an unfulfilling & depressing life…Be careful, because this could be a very poisonous mindset!
Let your daily happiness drive you to be a better & more full person.
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

…is an amazing line in the film “Lemonade“.

It is so true that we can take what life throws our way and just see negative side affects. If we look deep enough into our individual situations we WILL find good.
In fact, the good will very much out way the bad, after we get over the initial shock!

If you can, please take 35 minutes, and watch this inspirational film about turning Lemons into ‘Lemonade’!
It’s worth missing one of your favorite TV episodes for.

Live with Passion & don’t forget what you love!
Have a great Day!
~Chais Meyer

Resources from the Film:

• The Lemonade Website: (for additional details about the movie) http://www.lemonademovie.com/
• The Male Copywriter Website: http://www.malecopywriter.com/
• Please Feed the Animals Blog: http://www.pleasefeedtheanimals.com/
• Red Eye Roasters Website: http://www.redeyeroasters.com/

After a recent technological disaster, I realized that there really is a HUGE difference between skill and luck (and I’ve been lucky A LOT).

I took on a project for a local Doctor and I came up severally short! I was asked by this doctor to JailBreak his iPhone (allowing it to work on a competitor to AT&T’s phone network)…
This is normally no big deal and I’ve ALWAYS come out ahead on technology projects like this, without a flinch! To help somebody Jailbreak their iPhone, I charge $150 for the knowledge, actually  JailBreaking it, and filling in the voids that Jailbroken software has for the iPhone; I make them work like they should.

For people that understand technology, especially when it comes to iPhone Jailbreaks, this is NOT a very complicated task. The really smart people out there are the ones that come up with the Jailbreaking software in the first place, guys like me just use their knowledge to benefit from (of course I am actually providing a good service to people that don’t feel comfortable doing it to their phones in the first place).

So why did I find out that there’s such a big difference between skill and luck? Well, I’ve always taken for granted the skills that goes into creating this Jailbreaking software (A new jailbreak is created every time a new version of the iPhone software comes out…that’s how it works, they stay in sync). I’ve always assumed that whenever a new version of the iPhone software comes out, there will always be people smarter than Apple and they will go ahead and create a iPhone fix for us everyday folk.
On this day, my mindset was no different and I decided to upgrade this customer’s iPhone to the latest Apple Software. I figured that a Jailbreak had already been created and it would be pud for me to go to the next step. I upgraded the iPhone to 3.1.3 and then proceeded to look for the matching Jailbreak software…I started having trouble finding the appropriate software I needed, so I dug a little deeper. Before I knew it, I’d been researching on the internet for 2 hours for a fix and I realized a fix DOESN’T EXIST!

No problem right? I can just undo what I’ve done and go to an older version of this fix…right? WRONG! This particular iPhone software upgrade changes things inside the phone that CAN NOT be undone! THERE IS NO FIX OUT THERE! Even the biggest brains in the iPhone tech world are saying that they’re not sure if this version of the iPhone software will ever be able to be Jailbroken.

What does this mean to me? What does this mean for this Doctor who put the fate of his iPhone in my hands?
It means that I fucked up…big time! I made a completely Rookie mistake by upgrading the iPhone before knowing if there was a fix out there! This Doctor CAN NO LONGER use this $600 phone for an unknown amount of time…it is essentially an iPod now. All because I thought I was skilled in iPhone Jailbreaks, because I’ve never messed before, I thought I was invincible!

At that moment I realized there’s a BIG difference between Skill & Luck!
I had been extremely lucky at every point until that moment. Luck, that relied on other peoples skill to make the impossible possible!

I still am not able to fix this guy’s iPhone, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to. I may have to buy this $600 piece of equipment from him (because I jumped the gun on a very simple thing)!
I learned a very important lesson that day, Never jump into something just because you haven’t failed at it before…Make sure to do your research, which allows you to under promise and over deliver!

Please learn from my mistake(s): Know what you’re talking about and know what process goes into accomplishing ‘your goals’…before you find yourself in a sticky situation!

Thanks for reading and hopefully learning!
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

This past year I’ve been doing contract labor (creating/building an educational system and identity) for a local electronics business that I used to work at, called Computer Hardware (while we’ve been building our own businesses). I’ve done what I was brought on board to do and now I’m going on my way again.

‘Going on my way again’ seems to be a little more scary this time than it was the first time. I’m not exactly sure why…maybe it’s because I’ve become accustom to the monthly paychecks that I’ve been getting for my services. Or maybe because I’m thinking like every other employee again (ARGH…) & I’m scared to leave a “secure” job to rely 100% on myself.

It appears to me that the ‘employee mentality’ creates a sense of fear & stagnancy that needs to be broken away from in order to enjoy life to the fullest (for me anyway). When I rely on an outside business (not my own) as the source for my main income, I forget to push/challenge myself to be the best I can be. I become ‘comfortable’ with how things are, and it becomes nerve wracking to walk away from the easy money.
Why do I call it ‘easy money’? Because, working for someone else (even as a contract employee) I get paid even during the shitty months when the business may not make a profit; it’s the owners responsibility to come up with the money for his employees!
What happens when I have a shitty month with my own businesses? I go hungry or I don’t pay my bills on time! A little different way of thinking & living.

Since I’m going to be relying solely on myself again, I need to take a new look at my life and prioritize which businesses will provide me with actual monthly Cashflow and which businesses are a good idea for the future (AKA. Time suckers that provide no cheddar right away). Don’t worry, I’ll share this with you!

This new phase of business has happened before and I’m on Round #2, with more experience, knowledge, and determination than ever before. Now is the time that I need to prove to myself that I can apply everything I’ve learned and fought for to become more successful than ever.

Bring it on Round #2, Just Be Gentle!

Believe in yourself and make the best of EVERY situation, even if that means working 12-16 hour days to make it happen (I most likely will be…).

Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

I’ve often wondered to myself if it would be possible to start a business that just sells business ideas.

I am in love with the thought process of our current market (whenever the market changes) and what types of businesses could succeed within it. I like to push the envelope with outrageous business ideas just to see if they would work, as well as solving solutions to common everyday problems.

I’ve started an idea list of possible businesses and possible products that could and help and/or entertain people. I don’t have enough minutes (or energy) in one day to accomplish all of these ideas at one time…so, they remain on the list.

Now here comes the questions:

• What if I could sell these ideas?
• What if I could provide a single person (that has time and money) with the ins and the outs of my business idea and the ways that they could attempt to make it successful?
• Could I sell these business ideas?
• How much could someone make on a business idea?
• Could I give the idea away and get royalties on any success that was made because of it?
• How would I build my reputation to the point where people who don’t even know me, know I have a money making idea that they would be willing to buy and run by themselves?
• Would it be more advantageous for me to hire my own team of people that would essentially facilitate and operate all of my ideas for me?
• If I sell an idea to someone with money, would they be capable of making it successful? After all, they couldn’t think of this idea…
• Is there a business model out there like this already that I don’t know about?
• If so, how did they get things started?
• Is it worth selling ideas? I mean if they benefit society they shouldn’t just be sitting on my notepad, should they?
• Could I give the ideas away (open source) and have them benefit others without myself getting any $$ or recognition?
• What should I do?

As you can see, I have a bunch of questions and would love to have answers for them, What are your thoughts?

Just a bit to think about…Let’s make something happen with unused ideas!

Keep pushing your mind to the limit, nothing is unattainable!
Have a Great Day!
~Chais Meyer