January 29, 2021by Brian WeinerNo CommentsChanging The World One Thought At A Time.

It is possible to stumble, right before you summit. Stand up. Dust yourself off. And climb all the way to the peak. No matter what.

When we are enthusiastic, and we presume that the end of a journey is directly within reach, we are sometimes tempted to let down our guard, because the outcome seems almost predetermined.

And out of nowhere, we are susceptible to taking a significant fall. When this happens and we find ourselves discombobulated and out of sorts from what we thought we were about to experience, a direct vulnerability is exposed.

How we choose to deal with that vulnerability determines whether or not it is temporary or permanent.

Often times, it is our own ego that becomes the determining factor. The awkward nature of taking a significant fall just before we appear to be crossing the finish line can be more debilitating to some people than it need be.

When we are going at full velocity with everything that we have and we are working with a single focus, the susceptibility to an outside variable becomes increased and due to our myopic focus of crossing the finish line, we might still find ourselves falling before crossing the line.

This is not only human, it is very common. I won’t belabor the point with continuous stories of people who suffered a significant setback just before the eureka moment of breakthrough. But if you investigate the majority of very successful people, there is that moment. 

When we watch a movie, Hollywood is very focused on this exact moment. Some writing instructors called this, “the apparent defeat,“ because the protagonist looks like they are just about to succeed… and then everything falls apart.

We, as an audience, love this dramatic tool and the best of all movies use it because there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the protagonist get right next to their objective and then suddenly it looks like it’s not going to happen and we are all holding our breath for the protagonist because we are craving that happy ending.

So as you are catapulting forward toward your finish line, and you find yourself taking a fall, summon your internal Burgess Meredith (the trainer in Rocky) and find that internal voice that says, “Get up, Rock!“ Then get back on your feet and cross the finish line. No matter what. 

I hope you have an amazing 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!