I get up and nothin’ gets me down. You got it tough, I’ve seen the toughest around. And I know, baby, just how you feel. You got to roll with the punches and get to what’s real.

I get up and nothin’ gets me down

You got it tough, I’ve seen the toughest around

And I know, baby, just how you feel

You got to roll with the punches and get to what’s real

VAN HALEN

Separating the wheat from the chaff. Isn’t that truly one of life’s biggest lessons?

As we age and fall victim to useless meetings, opportunities that (upon closer inspection) were not so opportune, and people whom we would have been far smarter to avoid, we eventually hone an internal barometer of what is a good fit in our world and what is less likely to pay off.

This internal guidance system empowers us to venture into fertile new territory, and, if we are auspicious in our journey, we one day find ourselves on the precipice.

As we look down into the promised land, we see all that we have forecast, all that we have dreamed of, all that our inner being has worked towards… in the valley below.

But the one thing that holds us back is fear. (Or perhaps, good reason.) We are quick to raise doubts. Doubts which stem from countless life experiences, stories, anecdotes, films, books, the news and our rabid imagination. They are quick to extinguish that inertia and quickly replace it with every last reason not to take that critical next step.

So we stand on that precipice, with all of our dreams ahead of us and all of our nagging doubts and intrepid fears surrounding us. We are, for all intent and purposes, in our unique virtual world, imagining a future that only we can see. It is so vivid, so real, so visceral that it could not possibly be an illusion (could it?). Mine was an Illusion Factory, but that’s another story… (or is it?)

Life is far too short to squander. The older you get the more you see this to be absolutely true. Do you want a life of your dreams liberated, or do you want to live a life of quiet desperation?

With the proverbial angel on one shoulder coaching you to go forward, and the devil on the opposite shoulder scaring the living shit out of you…. You finally come to a decision…..

Ah, might as well jump (jump)

Might as well jump

Go ahead and jump (jump)

Happy Sunday!

TURN YOUR AUDIO UP LOUD!!!!!!

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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!