Brandon Nankivell's Blog

https://youtu.be/c6NM3rSXJWw?si=Bxux7psPiglJ90mm

Technsports & Back From Burnout YouTube Interview Notes

Tech started eBay when running a computer repair store, would make a deal to get customer’s broken stuff and resell it on eBay

Largest eBay seller in clothing categories for 15 years

Most amazing thing to Tech, even after 15+ years, is that you can buy something for $1 and sell it for $100

This opportunity won't be around forever

Prices are going up, you can either lower business costs or raise prices. Lowering costs doesn't work: Tell your employee you're going from paying them $20 to $12…

Go for high sell-throughBetter to sell all the time for some of the money than some of the time for all the moneyCompounding: If someone offered me $800 for a $2,000 item, I’d probably sell it because I could buy 100-200 items with that $800 that have an ASP of $25. Sell them, then use the profits to buy more items…

You work for your employees, they don't work for you (🧠💣)

You gain more respect from employees if you do what you ask them to do (listing, accounting etc…)

Employees trust you when your business is consistent - have systems in place and a backlog of stock for weekends and off-days

Niche down to scaleAn Everything store can be good if you have a full-time job, hunting for the highest profit itemsWhen scaling up, focusing on specific categories of producs helps to simplify systems and processes. If your employee has to learn how to list and package a baseball bat, a plant seed, a jordan sneak, and a secret-rare LOB 1st edition Blue-Eyes White Dragon Yugioh TCG card… Its gonna get complicated and dysfunctional.Niching down saves time at the thrift. Can be in and out in 5-15 mins instead of 2 hours and on to the next one.You can get clothes quickly and in abundance, AND there's no customer service like there is with electronics: “Everyone knows how to operate a shirt”

Money is only made when stuff is listed

Tech enjoys working more than golf, so he works, and that includes listing

Tech makes it a non-negotiable to do whay he says he does and 250 listings a day, even if that means sacrificing sleep

Tech’s brick n mortar store sells ‘un-ebayable’ products - ones that are cool or quirky but don't have keywords like (harley davidson shirt)

Tech is old-school, doesn't listen to podcasts or read books, just does the work

Tech's name is his store, his community, his socials - his whole reputation so that helps keep him accountable and discplined

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In other words:

“If you don’t act how I want you to, then f*** off!”

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‘Good Vibes Only' 🚩 was originally published in One Percent Wiser on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Fly-boy braces himself for his last smack.

You’re an Aussie and it’s summer.

You left the door open and now all you hear is…

https://medium.com/media/7a32d9c309243232cce4d6eded4bee1a/href

Time to clap the f*cker!

You, moments before the funeral 💀

But wait.

Why is your instinctual reaction to kill the fly?

Is it because…

https://medium.com/media/08c67bebd8417e1e5d41b08cf7214f78/href

Okay, so the fly bothers you.

But why?

Is it really that bad?

It makes noises.

It walks on your face.

What would happen if you sat still and did nothing for 2 minutes?

What would happen if you whole-heartedly accepted the fly?

Have you ever tried?

If Yes — Be honest, did you really accept the fly?

If No — Try it next time and see what happens!

If you’re still reading this and thinking…

But Brandon, it’s just a fly, what’s the big deal?

Consider the following:

When you feel bothered by the fly, what emotion are you experiencing?

(Pssst! It’s anger.)

Is that an emotion you want in your life?

If Yes — Read my article on why anger sucks.

If No — Great! You don’t have to.

You can feel peaceful if you really want to. Simply do nothing but accept the fly whole-heartedly.

This also applies to mozzies.

(‘mosquitoes’ for you non-Australians.)

Last month I was hungry to understand more about Islamic faith and I discovered a gem of a video describing the magnificence of a mosquito’s life.

My appreciation for mosquitoes skyrocketed in less than 2 minutes.

https://medium.com/media/794e8d4c9a3fcd01731aca6fc5eaafd2/href

As I type this, a mosquito is drinking blood from my right wrist.

And to that I say,

Happy drinking, mosquito!🦟🩸🙃

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To Kill The Fly Or Not To? was originally published in One Percent Wiser on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.

-William Shakespeare

Anger is no exception. It is an emotion. It has pros and cons.

What are the pros?

What are the cons?

Here’s what I came up with:

Pros

I feel powerful and energizedPeople listen to meShit gets done

Cons

I do things I regretI say things I regretI blame othersI instil fear in othersI don’t take responsibility, so I stop myself from growingIt impairs my judgment and decision-making abilityI repel my loved onesIt wears out my adrenal glandsI put stress on my body and mindI can’t be peaceful while I’m angry

Anger is a choice.

Often it feels like it’s an instinctual reaction that you have no control over.

But is that true?

Conclusion

Anger sucks.

What would you rather feel?

Choose that!

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You know the feeling.

There’s just you and your thrilling activity of choice.

Everything around you fades into nothingness.

No thoughts.

No problems.

No worries!

…Aaaaaaaaand

You’re back.

The day is almost over.

It’s Monday tomorrow.

Back to work.

There’s bills to pay.

So what happened?

Why did your bliss come to an end?

Let’s start by understanding what flow state is and how it begins.

What is flow state?

A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Right.

Why does nothing else seem to matter?

Because you are so involved that there is no room in your concious experience for anything else to matter.

So you’re left with a sense of oneness. Unity. Single-pointed focus.

You may not even feel that there is somebody (you) who is focused.

There is just pure focusing.

Focus itself.

Notice how there is a lack of distracting thoughts active in the mind.

Yet when you reflect on your daily life, you can observe that you’re constantly distracted by thoughts.

There is conflict, anxiety, fear.

There is duality.

This and that.

But in flow state, there’s just this.

This moment.

Focus or die.

How flow state begins

You recognise an activity requires your full attention to survive or perform effectively.

So you choose to focus like a seagull eyeing a hot chip. Aka enter flow state.

It can feel like no choice has been made because it happens like lightning.

One minute you were chillin, nek minnit you are in another universe:

And then there was bliss.

When you boil it down, flow state is doing any activity in life without distracting thoughts present.

A thrilling activity like surfing, mountain biking, or slacklining can assist you in getting into flow state, but it isn’t necessary, nor is it sustainable.

What if you could always be in flow state?

You can!

You’ll be able to do everything you do now, minus unprompted distracting thoughts.

By adopting a meditation practice, you can train yourself to be in flow state at all times.

This is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

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To clarify and develop my understanding of myself and the world 🕉️To assist in opening your Heart so that inner peace prevails 🕊️[image error]

What Is The Point Of These Articles?

To guide you to inner peace.

🕊️

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You may have seen studies that conclude that a thought is correlated with particular neuro-activity in a specific area of the brain.

But that doesn’t prove that thoughts are stored there.

According to philosopher David Hume, we can never directly observe causation; instead, we only see one event followed by another.

Belief in causation is based on a habit of the mind, rather than a necessary connection between events.

For example, Larry hits his head on a rock and part of his cortex gets damaged.

As a result, he can’t remember his wife’s name.

That’s proof the thought (memory) of his wife’s name was stored in the now damaged part of the brain, right?

Nope.

There was simply an observation of something happening, and then another thing happening, and then your mind has assumed a link between the two and made a conclusion that thought is stored in the brain.

Does that make sense?

If not, read from the top again until you understand.

This is cause and effect debunked.

Also consider that thoughts aren’t physical. You can’t touch them anywhere in or on your brain.

If you tried, you’d just be touching brain matter or neurons. Not the thought itself. But even this is an illusion.

See my article on Materialism Debunked.

For a more comprehensive explanation with responses to objections you may have, thought experiments, and practical exercises…

…watch the following video on why brains do not exist — by Epistemologist and Metaphysicist Leo Gura from Actualized.org:

https://medium.com/media/93632585ff42a7e08758ff34c6f0e541/href[image error]

Worry is fear of an uncertain future outcome that could be troubling.

Concern is recognizing an uncertain future outcome that could be troubling.

Worry is emotional whereas concern is not.

I can be concerned about my brother becoming ill without being emotionally affected by it.

But if I am worried, then I experience fear and am adversely affected.

Therefore, not being worried doesn’t mean you become an unemotional robot. Instead, you’ll be concerned and feel compassion.

Worry transmutes into concern when understanding is attained. Start by understanding fear:

https://medium.com/media/bcda2f2c7e85536853184690490c07b8/href[image error]

Because what is stopping Nothing from becoming something?

Nothing!

So something appears.

If you didn’t understand, start from the top and read again. Contemplate until you get it.

What is Nothing?

Nothing is not a silent, black void. It is inconceivable.

The closest you can get to conceiving nothing is to actually experience Nothing (nirvikalpa samadhi).

Or, according to Gurus, the dreamless sleep-state mimics the experience of Nothing.

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