Dan Arnautu

@Joseph Maynor The 7 Habits is pretty rough for a beginner imo

Career/Business Day 1 | Wednesday |Guitar Teaching I remember that when I was little, the last thing I wanted to do in life was teach. I realized that came from a skewed perspective on my part. I was confusing correlation with causation. I thought that just because most of my school teachers were doing the same thing everyday, in the same format, just punching the clock and dealing with brats everyday, that that was the way it had to be as a teacher. But, as soon as I got my first mentor and real guitar teacher, oh boy did it look like a 180 degree shift. You could not put a boundary between this guy's work and his passion. There he was, playing his guitar all day, having fun, going out with his students and making them close friends and ”allies”. He did not see teaching guitar as a job, but as a work of art, his deepest passion and as his way of making an impact on the world. His business looked like it was an automated fulfillment generating machine. He earned all the money he needed and wanted while not working in the real sense for even 1 second of his life. His work was and still is location independent and he gets to interact with his ”once idols, now friends” on a day to day basis. He is able to take vacations whenever he wants, for as long as he wants and how often he wants etc. I quickly told myself that: ”Oh my god, living a life like this is really possible for me". The whole paradigm of ”money is hard to make" quickly shattered before my eyes. Right now, I just launched a prototype website and will soon try to get experience as a teacher by teaching beginners. I actually believe that I would be able to teach and coach intermediate to intermediate-advanced players but I would rather not bet on it and get a feel for the field first. I consider my communication skills to be much more developed than that of most guitar teachers out there. One thing that helped me a lot with this is that I got to refine and still get to refine my communication skills on my road towards getting my philosophy degree. My current goal is to be able to make a stable income as a guitar teacher alone and then find out ways to be able to cover all of my expenses with passive income sources. Also, after I will start generating a good income from guitar teaching I may shift my focus towards other projects and keep teaching part-time or create online courses. Who knows? Teaching may become a full time thing after I finish college for about maybe 4-6 years, as it is a business and it's hard to get it off the ground. Though, I never feared hard work, and neither should you if that work is a play and gets you closer to the life that you want to live. "Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts.... Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day--if you live long enough--most people get what they deserve." -- Charlie Munger

It's very odd when I hear some people that they are not readers. They are ”doers”. Well, everyone else also learns by doing. I learn by doing, but I also read books, watch lectures and listen to audiobooks. For me it's kind of like hearing "Walking is not for me. I tried it. I don't like it and it doesn't work for me. I'm gonna find another way to go about." What are your thoughts on this? Are there people out there that just don receive information well through reading? What's the catch? It's all the same to me. And considering that reading and writing are human constructs, I don't think that there is a gene that makes you a ”reader” or not. I hated books until 1 year ago and that was because I didn't give myself enough time to adjust and didn't read good books.

The channel PsychedSubstance on Youtube said that contrary to popular belief, weed ca be considered a mild psychoactive substance (from the THC) and you can get deep insights depending on how developed you are and what your intent is. I personally am a deep right brain thinker and was always more sensitive and receptive to any kind of substance (1/4 of a normal dose is usually enough to feel the full effects - although I tried only weed yet). I feel I had some insights yesterday but that may be just wishful thinking and misinterpretation on my part. I you want I can describe the experience in case you think am not just getting ahead of myself. What are your experiences?

@Genghis Khan Well, if Trump is orange, that does not mean that all politicians are orange. Not all politicians treat problems as superficially as Trump does. Gandhi, being in the forefront of the indian nation and the nonviolent resistance, sometimes his followers would go amuck and kill guards and other british people (which was against what he preached). He knew that the system (the majority of the indian society) would stop the error (killing guards) if the leader (him) would not eat until the killing stopped. That proved that he looked at the indian nation and his followers as a system with levers that can go either good or bad if a certain decision is made. The criteria to determine their level in the Spiral Dynamic model is their documented actions and way of approaching problems during their years of active work.

@Genghis Khan Obama Gandhi Sadhguru Alan Watts I will edit and add more when they come to mind.

@Anirban657 Well, your problem doesn't seem to be being an introvert. The root problem seems to be a fear of being judged or not being good enough. Do some introspection and look up some of Leo's videos related to this topic. He has one on communication skills I remember. Also, the one on uncovering your childhood vows may help too.

@Dantas Yea but they still consume information through other channels. What gives? What makes them think reading is not for them if they still consume things like documentaries, video courses, blog posts etc?

@Lou7 Hmmm: Librarian Security Guard Online Reviewer Ebay Flipper Assistant Social Media Marketer

@Huz Dude, your culinary art is amazing. Put up a website with a portfolio already. I almost turn vegan just by looking at the food.

@art I get it. Although it would take a lot more convincing to make Leo consider this. Good luck.

@Annica No problem. Carefully evaluate the pros and cons. For me it was a good strategic move to go to university for a number of different reasons (earning a degree not being even one of them, lol). It can be a good strategic move if: You don't need to pay for it (in my country higher education is entirely free of taxes for a limited number of people) If this is the case, you can use 10% of the time towards schoolwork and the rest to discover yourself, grow and learn to live independently (going directly into the workforce won't give you time to figure out what you really want and learn). I used these soon to be 3 years in order to get a headstart on life and figure out what I want from it and who I really am. I didn't party or do anything like that. Do this only if you or your parents don't have to pay for the education, but only for your expenses. This is the plan I followed in these 3 years: My parents couldn't bother and influence me and my decisions/mindset or changes I want to make in my life. Being alone in a different city helped with looking at things objectively I planned to become a knowledge sponge (read over 40-50 books on topics ranging from nonduality to business, to marketing, sales, mastering emotions, handling people etc.) --> aka getting a headstart in life. I started to study with a music career coach and guitar teacher in order to get my financial situation and professional career handled as soon as I step out into the real world I started doing self-improvement hardcore because this may be the only chance I get at a massive amount of free time before a 30-40 year career span. (you need to build the infrastructure for your future success and build a solid theoretical and practical foundation for your life) This includes: changing my diet/habits/self defeating mindsets entirely changing the way I approach life getting to know about how human psychology works etc. I started to distinguish fake friends and temporary friends from real friends I started to do a lot of exercises and courses to figure out what my strengths are, what my weaknesses are, what needs to be fixed, what doesn't, what my long term vision is, what my goals are, what I want my life to look like, what are my unconscious beliefs etc You get the big idea. This can be a huge chance to become one of the 1% of people who get to live life to it's highest potential if used wisely. But it's also context specific. Again, weigh the pros and the cons for YOU and not for the average psychology student or youngster or whatever.

@phoenix666 Good input. @Anicca Also, be careful. Academics are very sneaky in making you adopt their beliefs. They have the rhetoric and social skills to do that even though they are unconscious to themselves doing it. They for example can easily make you disregard all eastern teachings as hippy woo woo stuff or make you antagonize different paradigms of thinking or religions and thus resulting in you becoming close minded and not being able to adopt different perspectives (just because an intellectual told you so). --> funny thing is, they also tell you to not listen to authorities for authority's sake

@art Not sure if searching for an excuse to jerk off or .... It would help for you to elaborate on this. How do you think masturbation is a tool for growth?

@Anicca It's easy to argue the positives but I'm gonna emphasize the negative and it's up to you to figure out your own answer answer. September of this year marks the beginning of my 3rd/final year of my philosophy bachelor's degree. Let me tell you some insights from being in an academic environment for 2 years: Yes, there are inspiring people in academia, but it's the same with any other location. University is not special in any way. I bet I could've met the same amount or even more awesome people if I had been on my own. It's a matter of how proactive you are. You won't learn about psychology more in college than if your were researching on your own. Trust me. All they teach you is available online. University just keeps you from slacking off and keeps you accountable with the work that you do. It's good if you are a lazy type. You can just go to a student enrolled there, ask for their curriculum and get the texts yourself from the internet for free. Also, a lot of people say that having a professor can help you understand concepts you wouldn't understand otherwise on your own. That's entirely false. You can find easy to read summaries even for the most difficult readings (ex. The Critique of Pure Reason, The Phenomenology of Spirit) Nobody cares about degrees anymore. If you are going to university solely for the degree, failure and wasted time are guaranteed 99%. You don't need any degree to start a school. Learn what's needed and then start an (education) business. The academic ladder is just as soul sucking as the corporate ladder - if you thought that philosophers and scientists are more developed than regular people, you're gonna be in for a rude awakening - all of them are still caught up in dogmas, social conditioning, emotional problems, political games etc. - if you regard ”regular” people as being chimps, academics are just more intellectual chimps or chimps with more information that you can find on google in 3 seconds I've watched them up close and personal and I usually have conversation's with Phd's in science and philosophy on a day to day basis. If you want to get in academia, you are just getting into another deep rabbit hole of politics and social hierarchy. Just more people throwing shit at each other, trying to prove their own theory and disregarding all else, chasing nobel prizes and what not. The search of truth is not what it used to be in antiquity. Start an educational youtube channel and create a website instead. Start to create content.

In the video on ”Contemplating your own death” you said you were already 30 and would be lucky to live another 30 years. Why do you see such a short life expectancy in your case? That only amounts to being 60 years old. A lot of even neurotic and unhealthy people live to 80 for some reason.

I"ve heard him talking about psychedelics and altered states of consciousness but I can't figure if he achieved enlightenment or not. What are yout thoughts on this?

What is your take on fiction books? Can they be used effectively for growth? I saw a comment where you said it's ok to read both fiction and non fiction books depending on what you want to get out of them.

@Vaishnavi I've watched 3 idiots. It really shines a new light on the educational system.

@nightrider1435 Well, that's odd. Haha

@Dantas @Dizzy Interesting picks! Thanks for your input!

@Shubh_5SInclude only relevant information for your lessons in the the ”About the Instructor” section. Being a jack of all trades doesn't help your reach. It actually hinders it. Also, improve the audio and video quality of your courses. If you know how hesitant you are to give 10-25 Eur on a course, you would know how prospective clients feel when they look at the course previews. Also, you need to look at it from a way broader perspective. How is what you are doing different from the competitors? Why would people buy your course and not go to someone like Rick Beato for free (who has been a pianist, producer and artis for all his life and knows many worldclass performers)? I know you are just starting out and you have good intent, but I can't see too much strategic thinking behind your actions. The delivery is pretty dry and robotic. If you are not way more knowledgeable than other piano players, you have to stand out through your own particular style and make people come to you for that. If you make classroom like presentations, people will get bored the fuck out and they will not look at your course. Create a website, provide unique, valuable information every week for free and then people may look at your course. Until then, you barely have any credibility. Take a sheet of paper and make a longer term plan for yourself with all the strategies you need to implement, resources and tools you need etc.

@makedonche Talk to your doctor, lol. We don't know better than him.

@PippieStrueg I think I'm gonna build testimonials organically. Thank you for taking the time to answer though.

Hey guys, so I'm just trying to launch a guitar teaching business. My website is almost ready at http://danarnautu.com , but I haven't had a client yet and I wonder if testimonials from people I collaborated with would count (friends from music universities and what not) or if I should remove the testimonial section until after I get my first clients. What do you think? Thanks in advance!