To The Moon Alice! To The Moon!
Awhile back a friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video where I witnessed the most spectacular powered activity I’ve ever seen. A real-life jetpack. Not just any jetpack, but a water jetpack. I just about pooped my pants with excitement immediately wanting to know “WHERE CAN I FLY ONE!?”
Well, a couple days ago I had the opportunity to meet the inventor, Raymond Li, and take 2 flights on a JetLev R200 jetpack. The first flight was, ahem- more difficult than expected. But the thrill was over the top. You are flying- and you’re amazingly agile. Agile to the point of it taking 0.08 seconds to go from upright at 15 ft in the air to face planting into the water at the flick of a wrist. I felt a bit like a hummingbird- and the view up made me giddy like a school girl.
At a young age, Raymond saw the James Bond movie, ‘Thunderball’ and the infamous scene where Bond uses a jetpack to escape the guys who were after him and was inspired to create a jetpack. In case you missed the movie, here’s the clip. As with most youth, the crazy ideas tend to be the ones that society sort-of knocks out of you by ‘knocking some sense into you’. Bad society- you really need to stop that. Years later Raymond heard the calling of his childhood dream of flight and decided it was high time to pursue it.
Many years and prototypes later, JetLev now exists.
The coolest part about hanging out and talking with Raymond last weekend was being reminded of the struggles everyone with a dream faces. The harsh reality is that not everyone will support your dreams, even if they say they do. Comments like, “I just don’t want to see you get hurt,” are really the dream killers, because they come from people who do genuinely care about you- but here’s where subconscious psychology comes into play. Where will THEY be if you’re driving towards your goals? They would be without you around. They would be looking at you venturing into the scary waters of the unknown after your passion- waters they themselves are scared of; and you should be scared to- they say. One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome in pursing my dreams was that of knowing WHEN and WHO to delete out of my life.
You might be thinking, “huh? What’d he just say??”
Yup, deleting. There is only so much capacity in one’s life- only so much time in the day and capacity in the brain to hold thoughts and ideas. If you don’t make a concerted error to delete the stuff that isn’t getting you towards your goals (and keep it out) and letting ONLY the stuff that is getting you closer to your real goals in- you won’t actually achieve them. There are many different philosophies on success; is it more mindset based or is it skill based? Nature verses nurture is the root argument. I think its a blend but also a transition. A transition to being darn near 100% mindset by the time we’re adults.
Deleting negative, self-deprecating thoughts is the place to start. Action plan for you reader is count the number of times you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts tomorrow. Then look at them. Carefully. How can you delete them from your life? I challenge you to make a commitment to delete them in 2012- all of them. Take them one at a time and talk through what your goal is for the negative thought. “I’m fat.” (negative). “I want to be fit” (goal). And everytime you catch yourself thinking the negative thought, stop and speak to yourself. “No, I’m not fat. My goal is to be fit by March and to do that I will workout 3 times a week.” While this sounds completely trivial and something your ‘friends’ may think you’re crazy for if they caught you saying these things to yourselves- its the starting point for changing negative patterns and the starting point towards achieving your goals.
Meeting other entrepreneurs who have had the guts to forge ahead when their friends told them they were crazy, when they’re families abandoned them and when it seemed almost to themselves that they might actually fail- is the most inspiring thing in the world. It reinforces that anything is possible. When someone who has committed to their dreams has a friend who doesn’t support them, they realize its time to get new friends. When someone who hasn’t committed to their dreams has a friend who doesn’t support them, they give up the dream.
Back to the topic at hand- JetLev. This company is just getting going so the only place to actually fly one of these things right now is in Key West, unless you do a special group deal, which is how I was able to fly one last weekend. I was actually with the Maverick Business Adventures group for a 2 day year end summit event which included getting the opportunity to see this new technology and talk with the inventor. However- expect JetLev R200 to be far more available by the summer as they have people contacting them left and right to open up rental facilities.
If a young boy from Hong Kong can say, “I want to build a jetpack!” and then actually follow through and do it, what are you capable of? I suggest you dream big.
Mike