September 2, 2022 by Brian Weiner No CommentsChanging The World One Thought At A Time., Lessons From The Mountain

Do not live for the expectations of the people around you. Live for yourself, for your dreams, for your happiness.

Do not live for the expectations of the people around you. Live for yourself, for your dreams, for your happiness.

Are you following your dream?

Is it coming at a penalty (of sorts) in life?

Working to keep up with everyone else’s expectations can be a path paved with disappointments and compromises of many forms. It is a lifestyle option that some make, and most shy away from. It has been referred to as “marching to the beat of a different drummer.”

It is a journey that comes with a lot of disparate emotions that many will timidly shy away from.

The loneliness of being on a path that only you can see is palpable. There are times when it is fraught with doubt, despair, fear, trepidation, insecurity, worry, and sometimes… nausea.

Why do it at all?

Because it is there.

(I have yet to find a better answer than this one) It is the stock answer that climbers use to explain why they would climb Everest. You could not pay me to climb Everest, even if there were a trillion dollars at the top and a complete assurance of global peace and personal immortality, I would never try it. Others might feel similarly about different paths that each of us opt to take.

That is what makes the journey so special. Presumably because so many others would not attempt it.

If your heart cries for you to give something everything you’ve got, regardless of risk, consequences, circumstances or the scrutiny of others, then you simply have to do it. You have to let others live their own lives and you must live yours (to the fullest capacity possible!)

I do not want to arrive at the end of the journey in a calm and peaceful state. I want to arrive with my hair disheveled, my clothing partly torn, my eyes ablaze and an ear to ear grin, saying to myself, “let’s do it all over again!!!” I cannot imagine any other way to envision life and the opportunity it provides.

Your choice to live like this will draw attention and garner comments, some good and others, not so much. If I have learned anything in my 43 years of running The Illusion Factory, it is that you are never, ever going to please everyone. Not even close. So you had better be working on pleasing yourself, because you are the consistent variable in your life.

This life choice is not for the weak of heart. It can (and will) take you right up to the edge. It will drag you down to the lowest of lows and catapult you to the highest of highs. There are most certainly much safer, and saner choices to make in life.

The choice is yours.

Happy Friday!

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Written by Brian Weiner

When I was 5 years old, I discovered that the lemon tree in the backyard + dixie cups + water and sugar and I was in business. I have been hooked on that ever since. In 1979, I borrowed $14,000 to create a brand new product... photographic greeting cards with no text on the inside, called Paradise Photography. That was the start of The Illusion Factory. Since then, The Illusion Factory has been entrusted by all of the major studios and broadcasters with the advertising and marketing of over $7 billion in filmed, live, broadcast, gaming, AR, VR and regulated gaming forms of entertainment, generating more than $100 Billion in revenue and 265 awards for creativity and technology for our clients. When I took a break from film school at UCLA to move to Hawaii, my mother did not lecture me. Instead, she took 150 of her favorite aphorisms and in her beautiful calligraphy, wrote them artistically throughout a blank journal. That is the origin of the Lessons from the Mountain series. Since then, on my journeys to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise, I have spent countless hours contemplating words of wisdom from the sages of all races, genders and political persuasions, constantly accumulating the thoughts to guide me on my life path. I hope you enjoy my books. Please let me know your thoughts, as I highly value your feedback!