Going over James Neville-Taylor’s book "From Beat Down to Back Up and Beyond: How A Suicidal Addict Achieved Success Against All the Odds (And How You Can Too...)” gives one the opportunity to harvest nuggets of wisdom from many authors who wrote before him about winning. He identified several books that helped him steady his path toward success. But clearly, I could easily pick up priceless gems from him; I think they glitter even solely from his context. Examples:
1.
On page 57, he cautions us not to fall in love
too much with the comforts of home (like the eaglet who could not overcome the
fear of flying):
"The problem for most people
is that they can go back to comfort, or at least a more comfortable scenario
than what they have now. Unless you are incredibly strong-willed, you will quit
when times get tough if you have something to fall back on. When you have no
other option, you don't give up when it gets hard or uncomfortable or someone
tells you to start being realistic and get a 'normal' job. You battle it
through to the end and keep attacking it until you start to see the results you
want. That is what winners do, and that grit is the only thing that separates
the winners from the quitters."
This resonates with me because,
despite trying to earn from affiliate marketing since 2008 (if I am not
mistaken), I kept returning to my regular job whenever I get disappointed over
dismal results from my paid ads. The regular job has been my refuge. Not
knowing any better, that is where I find security and relatively comfortable
living.
Like James when he realized he
needed to change course and turn his fate around, I invested in information
materials and tools (those that I could afford at least). The single-space, A4
size paper print-out of my purchases from Warrior+, JVZOO and Clickbank, for
example, could easily consist of 20 pages. But nothing much came from those
misdirected investments. Thanks to this book, I have never felt as confident as
now.
2.
On page 66, I guess many people, not only
entrepreneurs who strive to deliver the perfect product or service to their
customers or clients, should derive assurance from these lines:
"People are too concerned
about how they are coming across to worry about what you're doing. You will
focus on your own mistakes far more and far longer than anyone else and be your
own worst critic. Try and be your own best cheerleader instead."
3.
On page 80, he challenges the readers what is
holding them back, or what keeps them from achieving more.
"If you're consistently
worrying about consequences and falling down, you will never go for it and get
anything done. I got to the point where I could constantly attack things, which
meant I got ten times more done than someone who wondered and worried about the
consequences. It was a hard lesson to learn after being so harshly punished for
my mistakes growing up."
4. Then on page 87, he warned even more against the comfort bubble trap.
"Stepping out into the
unknown, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and pushing out of your comfort
zone is one of the hardest things to do, but it's also the most rewarding.
Outside your comfort zone is the growth zone. If you never venture out of your
comfort bubble, then you never grow as a person. You stay the same, never
reaching your full potential, and that's a tragic waste."
Yet the most riveting part of the book is the gradual
unwrapping of his life story. This makes the book unique, a generational story
of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, as it were, in ways that one
wonders if the mightiest of AI programs could have weaved its plot together and
venture at the same ending.
For ordinary mortals like me, James' transformation from a
hopeless case to a messenger of hope to countless souls was beyond ordinary.
The notion of him being able to overcome the recurring humps the way he did,
occasioned by flash backs of his cruel past and struggles under the weight of
his emotional baggage, matches the tales that happen only in the movies.
Indeed, this book must be worthy of a Hollywood run or a
Netflix series. I would be glad to offer doing its script, LOL! (Modesty aside,
I also sell titles on Amazon, if that implies anything, but the point is that
not a few would do anything just to be associated with his name.)
At the beginning James says his purpose in writing the book
would have been achieved if he could "just reach that one person and
inspire them to greatness" ... for who knows "how many millions of
lives will be affected for the better because of that one person and the ripple
effect they'll create?"
A movie based on his true to life story is sure to move
millions to greatness. Its core message of "not giving up" and
keeping the drive to do more can make believers out of spectators. Those who
have been associated with his programs (e.g. Rapid Profit Machine and Massive
Affiliate Blueprint) can be expected to follow his lead, to grind it out no
matter how the going gets tough and be successful affiliate marketers
themselves over the long run.
Although he acknowledges the guiding hand of a higher being
on the day he fortuitously checked his airline booking for an event in Italy,
many believers would perhaps agree with me with the observation that
"Someone or Something" must have looked over him--like He/She/It has
looked over all of us--from the time he started to suffer verbal and physical
abuses at just 5 years old. Even long before he decided to end it all as a
young adult, he was just a slip away from morbid consequences.
One final inconsequential note: I wish to let James know
that I'm from the Philippines and am sorry to know he outsourced virtual
assistants from my country who not only performed poorly but even tried to
steal money from him. I understand outsourcing VAs from the Philippines is
widely talked about as an option for the big dawgs, figuratively speaking. I
vaguely recall (and I am not even 50 percent sure) Russell Brunson (of
Clickfunnels) said in one of his books that VAs from either India or the
Philippines are relatively cheap for such a high quality of work they produce.
This evidently is not true in his case, and I wish I had the standing to
apologize on behalf of my kind.
