Do you eat your vitamins on a daily basis?
Or do you skip out every few days because you forget?

Not gonna lie, I’m the latter.  And you probably are too.  You see… I realized that vitamins are what separate the successful people from the mediocre-ly successful ones.  Michael Jordan probably practiced on time every single morning 99.9% of the time, Jamie Foxx practices the entire movie script before the first rehearsal – so much that he even remembers the lines of his co-actors, etc. etc.

It’s the super small (deceivingly small) things like remembering to eat your vitamins every single day that shape you into a consistent, reliable, and consequently successful person versus a person that just eats them when they remember.

Do you want to be mediocre?  Or do you want to win?

Eat your vitamins for the win.  I’m starting today. How about you?

Image courtesy of ABC News

I’ve recently been reading books about success, efficiency, and productivity and discovered a very interesting topic with varying opinions:

How much information should you digest on a daily basis?

While some believe absorbing excess information is unhealthy and unnecessary, others vouch that reading the news everyday and staying on top of current events is crucial to one’s ability to succeed.  Tim Ferriss, for instance, writes about information diet and how he hasn’t read the newspaper in years and only reads Inc. magazine to stay on top of his game (purposefully exaggerated IMO).  Others like actor James Franco are knowledge whores and keep their minds exercising and moving at all times with new information, from Wikipedia:

“Having received permission to take as many as 62 course credits per quarter compared to the normal limit of 19 while continuing to act, he received his undergraduate degree in June 2008 with a GPA over 3.5.  He moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University‘s MFA writing program, New York University‘s Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking (NYU), and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, while occasionally commuting to North Carolina‘s Warren Wilson College for poetry. He received his MFA from Columbia in 2010. Franco is a Ph.D. student in English at Yale University and will also attend the Rhode Island School of Design.”

OK James Franco is an extreme case lol.  Of course it also depends on one’s definition of ‘too much’ information.  I personally have made it a habit to read the news everyday (almost every hour actually) and find that it helps keep a social conversation flowing (though that’s not the reason why I follow the news).

What are your thoughts?  Minimalist or Know it all?

Taking action is so awesome.

Our mini-album release performance in February 2010.

In my last two posts, I wrote about taking the driver’s seat and grasping control of my career and artistic direction. It is has been an amazing ride in the recent four to six months for my bandmates and me (and it’s just starting ).

In my last post on November 25, 2009, I wrote the following goals for our band:

1. Break the 1,000 fans mark on our Facebook page.
2. Hit the radio airwaves.
3. Release our own album next year.

Well, guess what?  No. 2 and no.3 are done.  We released our first mini-album on February 10, 2010 and as a result, we’ve been featured on two major radio interview shows. Check and check.  Goal no. 1 is in the process of being completed (I forecast completion in two days max); at the time of this writing, we are looking at 947 fans (and that number shot up from 774 fans within 48 hours due to a TV show appearance we did two days ago).

On national TV earlier this month.

The fact that I am mentioning all these figures and accolades are not for showing off or asking you to bow down to us. :p  Not at all!  I just feel compelled to write this post today simply to tell you that if you: 1. make goals and commit to them, 2. take action on your passionate ideas, and 3. stay consistently fervent on achieving what you set out to achieve, … you’re going to see some pretty phenomenal results.  I kid you not.

Since October of last year, our band has achieved many of the landmarks that a ‘signed-and-backed-by-a-huge-label-band’ achieves with only the smarts, courage, and passion of a few stubbornly hopeful individuals.

Some crowning achievements:

1. Getting radio airplay
2. Going on a major TV show
3. Winning a nationwide songwriting contest
4. Releasing an album
5. Getting accepted to perform at the Woodstock 2010 of Taiwan (Spring Scream)

What’s even more inspiring is that we’re actually making profit from our ventures because we are literally our own bosses (i.e. no big brother entertainment agency snatching a huge chunk of our income).  One thing that I’ve learned more than anything is the importance of a strong movement.  And by that I mean the friends and family that help build the fundamental roots to uplift a product (in this case, our band Cool Silly).  We have such amazing support from our close friends and it is truly indescribably touching just knowing that they are there for us. So, special thanks to all of you guys and gals!!!

And as usual, some upcoming goals for the band to be completed within the next 6 months:

1. Sell 500 mini-albums (on our way)
2. Shoot a music video
3. Surpass the 2,000 fans mark on our Facebook page
4. Perform in China (in the works)

If you’ve read this far in to the entry, I read somewhere once that goals are dreams with deadlines and that a goal without a deadline is just a wish. Bottom line: Take action on your passionate ideas!   Set goals with deadlines and stay committed!  If you come up with cool ideas and halfass execute them, you are simply wasting your time.  Go full throttle!!!  You will be on your way to awesomeness in no time!  I leave you with a nice quote:

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.

Now GO!

I have a problem.

Yes I will admit it.  Perhaps you share the same problem…

What is my problem?

Committing to the end.

Now I am referring specifically to ambitions and ventures in life.  In the past few years, I have created or delved in several projects, including the following:

• Talkmatic.com – I started a podcast website with episodes featuring the likes of Robert Scoble, John Chow, and Meebo co-founder Seth Sternberg.
• Styic Entertainment – A company I co-founded and built up here in Taipei, Taiwan.
• My own music album – I released an album in Asia a few years back, now on iTunes.
• LawYours – I created an event in Palo Alto that brought together web startups and law firms including Heller Ehrman and Gunderson Dettmer.
• Geekwhat.com – I built this website from the ground up, attracted a worldwide audience, and monetized the blog.
• and more…

The point of this article is not to flaunt my achievements, but in fact to point out my weakness i.e. commitment.  Although I achieved the above milestones, I believe that if I had continued to commit my passion and skills toward any of these projects consistently and with perseverance, I would have built something even greater and more successful. But I did not.  Many people have great ideas, but don’t execute on them.  I have some decent ideas and make it to the step of executing, but unfortunately I don’t persist as far down the line as I should.

So my vow is to fight it out.  To stop giving things up halfway through.  To take a passion project to the end. I think it is a blessing to truly know what you want and have access to the tools to make it happen.  I need to be more aware of this blessing and really milk it for all its worth.

I will succeed and achieve my passion project.

I’ve been thinking about the path to becoming a successful musician. I’m sure a lot of aspiring musicians are thinking about this 24-7. After some contemplation, here are Tony’s 5 steps to musical fame:

1. Work your ass off and become good excellent at whatever it is that you do. This is where passion kicks in. If it’s guitar, take lessons and practice many hours a day. If it’s singing, your vocal chords should be on your mind 24-7.
2. Get your name out there. Start performing. Tell your network of friends. Keep performing. Distribute your music.
3. Get noticed and signed by a good company/agent. Sign a contract with a solid company and have them invest in marketing your music. This is a pivotal point. Basically, you are looking for $$$.
4. Write hit stuff and become successful. The catalyst. A combination of luck and hard work. Get a hit out there. Become famous.
5. Sustain success. Self-explanatory.

That’s pretty much it Short and simple. #4 is key. Working your tail off touring and getting signed by some company is not too difficult as long as your persistent. But #4 is hard to control. It’s up to the public and whether the pieces fall in place for you.

I guess this applies to getting your startup noticed (or acquired by Google) somewhat too…