#insert the obligatory “all of you are insane and should stay together for other people's safety”

[what-have-i-unleashed]

another mtt(poly) headcanon #4

(cw: violence, possessiveness, general toxicity all around)

the trio leaves marks on each other to let everyone else know that they're taken. but not only that, there's a sick satisfaction in knowing that they've inflicted wounds so deep in each other that every time they look at each other the evidence is right there for all to see.

killer is the one to make dust mute. a spontaneous decision made on the whims - a slice to the leylines in the vocal cords rendering the other voiceless. the last thing dust utters before losing his voice forever is a weak gurgling laugh. afterwards, killer will make sure the wound leaves enough scars behind of course. he gives dust so many turtlenecks to hide the scars, and dust also starts to wear the scarf to conceal them even more. but it's fine if no one can see killer's marks on dust, because the fact that dust cannot speak anymore is enough of the deep claim he's made. every time dust unconsciously touches his throat. every time dust changes his clothes. killer can see all of it.

dust is the one responsible for horror's burn marks. dust (and killer) always thinks that horror is the weakest, and so he must be put under protection. dust needs to mark horror, to let everyone know he's off-limits. and so he uses his volatile magic to burn a mark on horror's face. he's just holding horror's face gently in his hand, and in the next moment horror is thrashing when he feels the unbroken half of his skull burn and burn and burn. dust just tightens his grip on horror, his expression concentrated as he watches his magic work. the attack doesn't shave any of horror's hp, because it's not made with malice. and afterwards dust will attentively take care of horror of course, bandaging him up and feeding him nutritious food for a speedy recovery. horror face will have some blackened burns that dust will often caress with soft kisses and coo over. every time horror grips his eyeless eyesocket, it will feel painful.

horror is the one to crack killer's soul. he knows that with reset abilities killer can just load back to a point where he doesn't receive any injury. so horror has to be more creative about leaving marks. he observes killer and he prepares like any good hunter would. but killer is always unpredictable. so one day killer and horror will have a disagreement. a fight. and in the throes of passion, with their magic clashing all over the place, they both hear a familiar crack. killer is taken off guard, and horror stops in panic. horror stares at killer's soul. it looks... fine? it's in its usual shape at least. but horror could feel it earlier when his magic penetrates into killer's target-shaped soul. so they're both flummoxed over what just happened, but for entirely different reasons. later on, there would be signs - killer being off-balance, his soul oftentimes uncontrollably trying to change shape, and so on. horror would be worried, but also kind of delighted over the weird conditions that killer's soul is in. he did that.

[misssophiachase]

For Klaroline AU Week: Day 1 - All Human. This is a continuation of my story, you can read chapter one (Meet the Mikaelsons) and chapter two (Creative Control) HERE

Synopsis: Caroline is the long-suffering producer on America’s number one reality television program “Meet the Mikaelsons.” The wealthy, English family are difficult but Caroline has to stick it out so she can get the promotion she’s been eyeing. Enter arrogant, second-eldest sibling Klaus Mikaelson who has every intention of messing with her plans. Inspired by Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

Reality Bites - Chapter 3: Doctor Feelgood

Flight AA372 - LAX to Los Cabos International

“You should probably put your tray table back in its upright position for take-off,” Caroline’s eyes were closed but the instant she heard the familiar English accent, they flew open. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“I assume you’re not going to bother with the tray table then?” He gestured to it curiously. She rolled her eyes and snapped it back into place, almost breaking it in the process. 

“You didn’t answer my question, Mikaelson?” 


“You’re making a scene, love,” he whispered, looking around the airplane. 

Caroline realised he had a point. She was so used to being able to yell at him on set without prying eyes, she forgot about unwanted, public attention to one of the newest reality stars on television. 

“What are you doing here?” She whispered. 

“I’m in the window seat,” he motioned next to her. 

“You are not.”

“Would you like to see my boarding pass?”

Caroline really couldn’t believe her luck. It was as if Klaus Mikaelson’s job in life was to gradually tip her over the edge.

She stood up, moving slightly so he could pass. As he did, his body grazed hers and Caroline was trying to ignore just how good and right it felt. It didn’t help that his spicy aftershave was infiltrating her nostrils and messing with her composure either. 

“Since when do you travel coach?” She hissed as soon as he’d sat down. 

“Since always.”

“Liar,” she shot back. 

“Fine,” he conceded. “I didn’t want to be stuck on a private jet with my siblings, I’d probably be tempted to throw one, if not all of them, out of the plane without a parachute.”

“Kol, would be the first to go, right?” she couldn’t help herself. 

“There would never be a question about that,” he grinned. 

As much as she wanted to hate him, they’d have these fleeting moments where she wasn’t a producer and he wasn’t rich, reality television royalty. They were just two people enjoying each other’s company. Unfortunately, it never lasted past about five minutes. 

“So, how is it that you are on the exact same flight as me?”

“You don’t own this flight you realise, Forbes?’


“Fine, how did you come to be sitting right next to me then?”

“As co-producers I thought it would be useful, you know in case we needed to discuss anything before arrival,” he murmured. 

“You’re going to crash your ex-girlfriend’s wedding,” she replied. “I think we’re all on the same page about that. You know unless you’re getting cold feet?”

“Why? Are you?”

Caroline was taken aback by his comment and the way he was gazing intensely into her eyes at the same time. There was no denying he was extremely attractive, and those dimples had a mind of their own, but Caroline had to keep reminding herself that he was an egotistical, arrogant celebrity that she wouldn’t be in her life much longer.

For some reason she didn’t like thinking that. Caroline decided to blame it on temporary insanity and his ability to insert himself into every part of her life.

“Why would I be getting cold feet? We’ve only been planning this for the past week.” 

Caroline thought planning this plot line would be just like everything else but for some reason it had irked her more than anything.

Hayley Marshall was a doe-eyed brunette who was the face of an International Cosmetics Company. They had dated on and off during college. Klaus acted like she didn’t mean much to him but the fact he wanted to crash her wedding and instigated the trip to Mexico didn’t sit well with Caroline, although she wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe there were more unresolved feelings between them than he’d let on. 

“Of course,” he murmured. “I just meant we need to discuss our accommodation arrangements.”

“Our accommodation arrangements?”

“You have this thing about repeating yourself, has anyone ever told you that?”

“And has anyone ever told you that you have this annoying habit of not answering questions, mine in particular?”

“Touché,” he smirked. “I thought it best that we stay together the next few days.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, I think you heard me.”

“Klaus!”

Given the amount of crew, not to mention privacy required they had booked out multiple private villas on a secluded beach. Caroline had her assistant book her at a resort which was only ten minutes away by foot. 

“I’m not enamoured about staying in the family villa, there’s only so much I can take from Rebekah preening in front of the mirror and Kol singing off- key in the shower.”

“You have your own villa, princess,” she muttered. 

“And it boasts two very spacious bedrooms,” he murmured. “It seems fitting that we stay there together, you know for work.”

“I cannot believe you,” she growled. “First you take half my job and now you’re making accommodation arrangements? I have a perfectly good room booked at the nearby hotel.”

“Well, you did,” he offered. “I had your assistant cancel it.”

“You did what?”

“And given it’s peak season I think you’ll find it difficult to book anywhere else at this short notice.”

“You are unbelievable!”

“As you keep telling me,” he murmured.

“What is going on here?”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“Yes, you do,” she shot back. “Why are you suddenly so clingy?”

“Okay, just so you know, Klaus Mikaelson doesn’t do clingy.” 

Now that Caroline was thinking about it. Klaus had been acting even stranger than usual the past few days. He’d become less adversarial and more inquisitive. Less arrogant and a little more insecure. Which was completely out of character. 

Then it came to her. 

4 days earlier

“What do you mean you fired the medic?” Caroline hissed, trying to keep her voice down and not alert the rest of the crew. 

“I didn’t fire the medic,” he shot back. “She quit yesterday. Apparently, she didn’t appreciate Kol’s attempts to woo her.”

“Woo her? Who are you?” She muttered. “And you only felt the need to tell me this today?”

“Well, I’m sorry but I’ve been busy wrangling my siblings from almost killing each other. Whoever thought tennis racquets weren’t a lethal weapon never met my family.”

“Welcome to my world,” she growled under her breath. If Klaus wanted to be co-producer, then he could deal with his sibling’s antics too. 

The Mikaelsons were holding their annual mother-son tennis competition. It had begun when Finn was younger and had become one of the main events on their social calendar.

This year, it was Henrik’s turn to be initiated into the tradition. Given Esther’s competitive nature, Caroline felt immediately bad for him. It didn’t help that her sworn enemy, Macy Roberts, one of the famed Housewives of Beverly Hills, was competing with her son too.

Turns out giving two society queens tennis racquets wasn’t the brightest idea, even if it did make for good television. They’d yelled cut as soon as the obligatory cursing had died down but turns out there was no medic to check their injuries.

Macy seemed to have only sustained some bruising, but Esther hadn’t fared as well.

“It’s bloody broken, I know it!” Esther wailed. “I need some Oxy-Contin, straight vodka on the rocks and my lipstick touched up, not necessarily in that order.”

“See, she doesn’t even need a medic,” Klaus shrugged his shoulders. 

“You are unbelievable.”

“You really need to stop complimenting me, love,” he smirked. Caroline was far too stressed then to call him out on that stray endearment. 

“I can help,” Kol offered. 

“Where’s your medical degree?” Klaus asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I dated this girl once, a med student, she used to practice on me by…”

“Please don’t go any further,” Caroline groaned, trying to work out whether it was in their best interests to take Esther to hospital given all the unnecessary interest it would attract, especially given how she came to be injured. They didn’t sign non-disclosure agreements for no reason. 

They needed something more discreet. Then an idea came to her. 

One hour later

The bell rang out and Caroline rushed to the front door. Opening the door, she immediately smiled; he always had that effect on her. 

“Why do I always seem to be bailing you out, Care Bear?” 

“Just lucky I guess,” she grinned. “And what have I told you about not calling me that.” He dropped his bag and she jumped into his arms, excited to see him after all this time.

“Not to do it,” he teased, putting her back on the ground. 

“Care Bear? I’ll have to add that to my repertoire,” Klaus chuckled. Caroline fought the urge to roll her eyes, of course he was eavesdropping. “Who is this?”

Caroline pulled back, annoyed that yet again her annoying co-producer had interrupted. 

“Klaus Mikaelson, this is Enzo St John,” she introduced the two. “Our medic for the afternoon.”

“How do you know each other?” 

“Enzo is my best friend Kat’s cousin, we grew up together, well until he decided to leave the country on us.”

“Duty called,” he smiled. 

“Enzo decided to go and join Médecins Sans Frontières.”

“Doctors without Borders?” Klaus asked, his tone telling Caroline he was clearly impressed but was trying to play it down. 

“I’ve been in Burkina Faso most recently,” he explained. “But came home for some downtime, see what my cousin has been up to and of course to save Caroline, yet again.”

“It was once and you know how handsy my prom date was,” she said. 

“It was my pleasure to punch him out,” he smiled. “How is Stefan Salvatore doing these days?”

“I have no idea and don’t care,” she muttered. Klaus coughed interrupting their chat. 

“Well, maybe it’s best we get to the patient?”

“Can someone please give mother a gag? She is howling like a banshee,” Rebekah muttered, walking into the room. “And who do we have here?”

“I’m Enzo,” he introduced curtly. “I assume I’ll be taking care of the banshee?” 

“It’s only funny when I say it,” she drawled, sizing him up. Caroline could sense the tension from a mile off but she wasn’t sure whether they wanted to kill each other or rub up against each other. 

“Right on that note,” Caroline interrupted awkwardly. “Let’s go outside, shall we?”

“Why do I feel like I’ve entered the twilight zone?” he asked as she led him toward the tennis courts.

“Because you have,” she murmured, attempting not to laugh aloud. 

Enzo was an instant hit with Esther, no doubt due to his nationality, good looks and charm which he possessed in spades. 

She also decided that he needed to come to Mexico and play medic. Klaus and Rebekah thought otherwise and had tried to change her mind but being the matriarch of the brood, they all knew it was pointless.

Caroline had a feeling it wasn’t too much of a hard sell after what he’d come from. Although Caroline wasn’t quite sure he was ready for this type of jungle. 

“This is about Enzo,” she drawled. 

“Excuse me?”

“Now who’s asking the questions,” she huffed. “You don’t want me staying at the same hotel as him in Mexico.” 

They’d arranged their travel together, Caroline hoping to get some downtime to chat with one of her oldest friends. There had never been anything between them, their relationship was strictly platonic.

Also, Enzo loved himself too much to love anyone else but obviously Klaus didn’t know that. 

Caroline put it down to the fact Klaus was determined to ruin her life for whatever reason she had no idea. 

“That is so not true,” he growled. 

“Why don’t you tell me the truth for once, Mikaelson? I’m growing incredibly tired of this arrogant bluster.”

“Says the woman who uses insults as a defence mechanism?”

“Are we interrupting something?” Caroline looked up into the warm, brown eyes of Enzo. 

“Not at all, in fact we were just talking about how excited Klaus is to have you along for the trip,” she smiled, nudging Klaus in the ribs as she said it. “Hold on, what do you mean we?”

“You can’t go to Mexico and take my cousin with you and not expect a few extra guests, Care.” Katherine and Bonnie stood there, bags in hand. 

“You did say there were two bedrooms, right?” She asked Klaus sweetly, happy that she’d beaten him at his own game this time, or so she thought. 

You can read this chapter and follow the story HERE or HERE

[topicprinter]

TLDR: I bought a site on reddit for 4K, partnered with another redditor, and together we spent 2 months completely retooling the business. We followed this up with 3 months of marketing, and we’re now less than 30 days away from $100K in revenue.This is a post on how we did it.(Read time: ~15 minutes).Grab a cup of coffee and get comfy! I’ll get right to it.THE INNER WORKINGS OF A SUBSCRIPTION BOX COMPANY.So about 6 months ago, I came across this thread from a guy looking to sell a website he owned:I contacted him and found out that it was wetshaveclub.com, a wet shaving subscription box. I felt like I could make it work given the fact that dollar shave club had proven out the model. “Ok, Let’s do it!” This was the extent of my analysis on this. The site owner sent me a screenshot of his revenue, I offered about 15X his monthly profits, and we wrapped everything up that same weekend. We skipped the usual back and forth dance people go through when they’re buying websites. I sent over the money, he sent over the passwords, and that was that.I reached out to redditor u/kaster who I had been talking to on skype for some time. He had read my original series of posts, followed it to launch and grow a local business to 40k/month, sold it, and spent a few months in Costa Rica on vacation. We had never met, but I felt like he would be the perfect person to work on this with me. This is a guy that does not play around when an opportunity presents itself. Case in point: A few weeks later he was in his car for a 5-day drive from California to the east coast so we could work on this. (Kevin’s Facebook post as he was hitting the road).Ok, so here’s what we did to get moving:Step 1: Website RebrandingThe original website needed some work and we set out to change the look and feel of it. Design is critical, and even more so with a consumer product where emotion is a large component of the buying decision. Click to see of our branding efforts.Step 2: Expanding the Product line and raising pricesSo the original service only delivered soaps and at a price of $12 per month. We felt that we had to double that price to make this worthwhile. In order to do this we had to expand the product line and provide more value. Click to see how we expanded our product line.Step 3: Box RebrandingSince we were now shipping more products (and we had rebranded the site), the next effort was to find a box that worked. We called around to different box suppliers and had them send us samples. We settled on Salazar packaging. We sent them our box design and they got on it. Click to see our box rebranding efforts.Step 4: Increasing prices and adding annual optionEverything so far took us about 2 months of balls-to-the-wall work, but things were starting to shape up. We were then able to increase prices to $29 for the monthly box instead of $12. We also added an annual version at a reduced monthly rate to see if people would prepay for an entire year. And they did. Click to see our new pricing options.Step 5: MarketingSo with our conversion rates up, and our box at a higher price point we were able to unleash the hounds. You’ll see that most of what we do is completely free marketing mixed in with a few paid sources. Click to see how we drive traffic.Step 6: Ordering, Warehouse and ShippingSo with the results of our efforts, we needed space. We were shipping from our living room and while I had a small office, there was no way we could do it from there any longer. So we found an office/warehouse, moved in 10 days later and got everything set up. Click to peep the warehouse.Bonus: Our new office.So the result of all this work: We’re going to hit $100K in revenue in the next 30 days, and just passed $78K (Obligatory screenshot). We did $22K last month (Cratejoy screenshot)-They have pretty awesome analytics btw, and we’re on pace to do $35K in September. We think we can hit our first $100K month in 6-12 months and join the ranks of /u/bandholz from beardbrand.com. Dude knows his stuff and I respect how much he shares with the community. In some ways I think we’re cut from the same cloth, he’s just smarter and better looking!What Comes Next: We’re launching an accompanying ecommerce store. This way, when folks find products that they like in the box, they can order more of them. In addition, we can expand the product line a bit to include additional grooming products and other men’s accessories. Click for a sneak peak of the upcoming store.TAKEAWAYS FROM ALL OF THIS!This is hard work and we made a lot of mistakes and will continue to make more. We’re working every day on providing a better customer experience and trying to improve the product line. We went into this not knowing a thing about selling and shipping products, logistics, inventory, warehousing, or even wet shaving for that matter. But we live in the information age. Anything under the sun can be figured out if you’re resourceful enough and willing to bust your ass until you make yourself an expert in that thing. We’re not well connected, nor do we access to a gazillion dollars in VC funding. We just work. Hard. And we’re just getting started.The companies that made this happen:Cratejoy.com for our subscription box web platform. (Awesome service and Amir rocks!)Salazarpackaging.com for our box (Great to work with)Sonicprint.com for our inserts (Karen is the bomb)99designs.com for our design work (I wish I owned this company)Uline.com for our warehouse shelving and box fill (Their delivery speed is insane)Shipstation.com: (Integrates with cratejoy to handle our shipping. This gives us life!!)Endicia.com: (Integrates with Shipstation so we just print labels from our computer. The truth!)Stripe.com: Payment processor (You already know)Perfectaudience.com: Re-targeting (Works. Well! ROI positive and helps with branding too)Kabbage.com: $15,000 Line of credit (Surprisingly smooth experience)Gleam.io: Contests (Super awesome set up and easy to add virality to your contests through sharing)TeamBeachBody.com: (haha, we do insanity every morning before work! Thanks Sean T)If you’ve made it this far, props.This is where the case study ends!But if you’re interested in taking a look at the mindset that has gotten us to this point, read on.Launching something:I read almost every front-page thread on r/entrepreneur and have done so for the past 2 years, so I know a lot of folks are stuck right now with coming up with something to launch. Here’s what I would do if I wanted to start a new business today and had no idea what to do next:1) Check your bank account for something you’ve spent money on in the last 12 months. Bonus points if it’s a recurring service of some sort (Your customer lifetime value is instantly boosted, and you can thrive even with a high customer acquisition cost). Either way, you know it’s something that people already spend money on. This simple rule eliminates fantasy ideas: “If I get enough members I’ll figure out how to monetize it later.” Later never comes, so ideas like these don’t get a minute of my time. The only things I work on are things where I can make money starting on DAY ONE!2)Narrow down the list to things where a lot of people are making money in that industry. Competition is good. I know, this goes against everything you’ve learned somewhere. But the more thriving competition you find, the more money is being made, and the larger the market. Join the party, throw your hat in the ring, and be at least as smart as somebody there. Most people search for a great idea with no competition without realizing that this makes it almost impossible to start something.3) Narrow things further to something that can be delivered with a simple but well designed website that cost no more than a month’s salary. If it’s a product, you’ll then have to find someone that will let you re-sell his or her product. If it’s a service, you simply have to find someone that already provides that service. In both cases (product or service) you’re just re-selling something, and with a well-designed website, you’ll double your chances that your supplier will feel comfortable enough to let you resell their thing. Yes, good design is important for both your customers and your suppliers! Don't launch with bad design!!! MVP or not!4) When you get that “Yes” from a supplier, make sure you set things up so that you’re not in the customer’s way. Make things as easy as possible for them to do business with you. Seriously, remove all hoops. They should be able to do business with you as easily as they do business with Amazon. If you don’t need that extra field on the form, get rid of that shit. As easy as humanly possible!5) Market your thing until you pass out. If your thing is something that really speaks to a person’s identity like grooming, fashion, makeup, fitness, etc. you can kill on social media (twitter, instagram, Facebook, YouTube). If your thing is more detached from a person’s identity like say a car wash or home cleaning, your best conversions will come through search (adwords, seo, yelp).A few additional thoughts:I think that a lot of “startup best practices” work well for people that have access to funding. For the rest of us, some of the generally accepted ideas end up pushing folks further away from launching something. Consider:Validation: Validation in my opinion is for fantasy ideas. If you stay away from having to come up with an awesome idea, you won’t need validation in the first place. There are plenty of things you can do that other companies have already validated for you. And when you find that thing, stop worrying about competition. Competition IS the validation.Competition: Stop measuring this by quantity. One of the first things you’ll hear is “the market is oversaturated”! This is meaningless, yet this single phrase has stopped more potential entrepreneurs in their tracks than…well I honestly can’t think of anything that beats this. Start looking at the quality of the competition instead, and you’ll often find that the market is saturated with a LOT of bad players, and they’re making a LOT of money despite being so bad.** This is the perfect situation.Business plans: This often ends up being a way to push action further down the road. If It’s longer than one page you’re wasting your time. Download something like this, fill that bad boy out, and get to http://ift.tt/1usFNjQ: Unless the company can pay for it, it’s not happening. So this only happens AFTER the company is making money. One more excuse...GONE!Business Analysis: Demographic data, market analysis, the economic outlook... blah blah blah. More ways to kick the can down the road and to feel that you’re doing something when you’re really not. I just get to work. If a lot of people are making money doing this thing, the startup cost is low, and there is no sorcery involved, it can be done!Fear of your idea being stolen: Ideas hold little intrinsic value without execution. However, you can start to extract value when you get feedback on it, massaging it, push and poke it, and really run it through the wringer. And the only way to do this is to tell people about it. This goes against our most basic instincts because we’re fearful that our ideas might be stolen. Well the reality is, most people are sitting on the bench with a gazillion ideas of their own that they are not executing on. You just added one more to that list. Either way, if an idea cannot survive competition it’s probably not that good in the first place. In addition, what happens when you launch? You can’t run a business without telling anybody about it. You’ll often get this response, “ But I’ll lose my first-mover’s advantage?”. Well good. I would never want to be the first mover anyhow. First movers bare a tremendous cost in educating customers. Most of us don’t have the money to bare that cost. The folks that are second and onwards, can just slide in and benefit from all of that work. For example, I don’t have to explain the concept of a subscription box service sending you shaving equipment every month. Most people already know what this is, thanks to Dollar Shave Club. Bottom line: Try to get over this stuff.Find something you’re passionate about: Nah son. Find something that is viable. I’m passionate about table tennis, but I’m not looking to turn that passion into a business. When it comes to business, I’m far more passionate about providing a good product/service that has good margins, than about being able to marry that business to any hobby or other exciting pursuit I may have in my regular life. This way, I’m free to work on the best opportunity that arises without limitation. And honestly, quite often the least sexy industries are where the big money is being made. So while most of the brainpower is busy chasing sexy mobile apps and such, you can make bank by selling ugly widgets or providing basic services. It’s tough to pay bills with app downloads.A note to Engineers and consultants: Resist the urge to complicate things. For technical folks, it seems like the inclination to complicate things is overwhelming. So a problem like “find people that need lawn service and connect them with people that provide lawn service” becomes, “well how about we use Zillow’s APi to pull a picture of the lawn, and the customer confirms it by drawing an outline of the area to be serviced and we tie that into Google maps and feed everything into a pricing algorithm”.... and on and on. Unfortunately, many of these guys do not make it. More often than not simplicity wins. Get out of the customer’s way.Start something small to get practice: You don’t get good at running marathons by reading about running marathons. And you don’t get good at business by reading about business. You get good by doing. And doing it over and over again. But just like you wouldn’t expect to win the first marathon you entered, why put so much pressure on yourself to win at the first company you start? Or worse yet, paralyze yourself with fear into never running at all because you’re afraid you won’t win? It doesn’t make sense with marathons and it doesn’t make sense with business. So while a lot of folks over-analyze every minutia about the thing, people like Kevin and me would have already downloaded a training regiment, bought a pair of shoes, and hit the bricks.What if I fail? Nothing happens! It’s literally the most mundane non-event imaginable. I spend a day or two wrapping up any loose ends, head to the movies or do something fun, and by the next day I’m already figuring out what the next thing is. My personal experience hasn’t been “Try->Win”, it has been more like “try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try, fail win, win, win, win.” With each failure you get better, and then things just start to come easy. Don’t be afraid of failing, it’s like the best and cheapest MBA you’ll ever get.Naysayers: If you’re doing something...I mean anything, you’ll meet them. Whether it’s in real life, on the Internet, or wherever else. Sometimes it’s even your friends and family. I keep an imgur album of the best ones I come across. Sometimes for a little motivation, and sometimes just to look back and smile. For example, recently I mentioned in passing that my next big project will be a restaurant, and I already have a list of comment screenshots explaining why I won’t succeed. :-)Here’s one of my favorite ones from a few years back when I was making $4k per month, from what was a new company at the time. This was the top comment on Hacker News.That little company now pays me a 6 figure salary. What intrigued me about this comment was the fact that it was so thoughtfully written. This wasn’t a troll. This was someone that provided a seemingly well-reasoned analysis of where he thought I would be in 12 months, complete with business school type analysis: barriers to entry, competitive landscape, etc.So why is this important? Because this is exactly what many of us do to ourselves.We have a naysayer living permanently inside our heads that is constantly appraising and analyzing every business idea we entertain. And the analysis sounds just as reasoned, and well thought-out and measured as the one I posted above. Not a bad thing on its face, but the guy in our head typically skews negative. Shut that dude up! Or you’ll analyze and over think and what-if every single idea until you convince yourself it won’t work. Over time this messes with your confidence, and you end up paralyzed. Say what you want about the guy, but Kanye was right about this: Most people are held back by their perception of themselves! It’s a brutal feedback loop.At some point we have to just say “Fuck It” and get to work!Okay peeps, hope this was helpful to at least one person. Oh, and for making it this far even if you skimmed…:-)AMAEdited to add our Facebook Group where we continue this and other business discussions:And where you can download this in PDF form (along with other writings of mine).And my twitter page.