Today I have a very special post for you.

I am going to share with you the BOLD & DETERMINED MISSION.

I am going to share with you picture proof that what I am saying to you is true.

I am going to share a confession with you.

I would like to ask one question of you before you read this article: Do you aspire to be a better man?

I don’t mean would you like to become better, everyone would like to become better, I mean are you actively changing your life for the better? I AM. Everyday I work to achieve more.

My mission with BOLD & DETERMINED is to help as many of you guys as I can develop PRIDE.

Pride is a dirty word when you have none of it. Having pride is what makes all the difference in the world from being a boy, a feminized dude, or a Man.

I hear guys making jokes all the time, feminized guys, pretending to be masculine. They will put on a comically deep voice and say “YEAH, I’M A REAL MAN! HAHAHA” and then all their little friends will laugh.

The thought of actually being a man is unreal for a lot of dudes or guys or bros. It is impossible for these types of fellas to say “I am a man”, without a trace of irony or jokiness, and mean it.

Friends, I will tell you right now, without a hint of irony or sarcasm, I am a man.

Let me tell you what it is to be a man:

• Stand tall. 
• Stand proud. 
• Make eye contact. 
• Say exactly what you mean and mean every word you say. 
• Don’t defer to the weak.
• Admire the strong and pity the weak. 
• Don’t talk, talk, talk all the time. 
• Speak with authority and conviction. 
• Never speak about things you know nothing of. 
• Don’t apologize for the mundane. 
• Do not be ashamed of the superior and do not make excuses or apologies for the inferior. 
• Be strong, be proud.

Now, friends, it’s easy enough to type these words and make you nod your head “yes” but I will go the extra step and show pictures of myself without a blur or black box covering the face. I want you to know that I am real, that I exist and that what I say is not bullshit or just talk, talk, talk.

As you can see from the picture I go the gym regularly to lift weights. I don’t eat fatso foods. I keep my hair clean. I keep myself looking good. I take pride in myself.

I know that when I walk into a room I am going to be noticed. I will be noticed because I do not walk meekly.

I am not saying this to be braggadocious.

I am telling you in no un-certain terms because there is no other way to put it. I want to prove to you that you can be a winner.

I am saying this to you because it did not used to be so. I was not always this way.

I have a confession to make:

I used to be skinny.

Take a look…

Fake mustache (for comedy, haha) and girls jeans.

You see, friends, I know all about being skinny. One day, I flexed my biceps in the mirror and my upper arm was the exact same size as my forearms. Even worse than being skinny, I had no pride. I had skinny guy syndrome: I was weak, I was a devout liberal atheist (the know-it-all kind), and I was broke as a joke.

Not only was I skinny, but I was a loser. A skinny loser.

When someone would say to me “I am proud of this or that”, I would jealously think down on them. They weren’t as smart as me, a smug, liberal goof.

I did not build anything. I didn’t work hard. I did not try to better myself and I looked down upon those who had pride in themselves. They were better than me, but I didn’t want to admit it so I made jokes.

When I met people with confidence, pride and drive I would make fun of them behind their back. I would get together with my loser friends and we would make fun of guys who were better than us. Plain and simple. “He goes to the gym, makes a lot of money, has clean hair he must have a little dick hahaha“.

I would brag about how much porn I watched and say “It’s no big deal. Everyone does it“. I would brag about never working out and eating anything I wanted. I would brag about not gaining any weight.

The worst part of all - I did not realize I was a loser.

I Had the Skinny-Guy Mindset.

It was not until I actually started lifting weights that I realized how wrong I had been about physical development. I thought there was no need for it – and I was dead wrong.

You see, being skinny does not make you a bad person. No. Having the skinny guy mindset makes you a bad person.

The skinny guy mindset is one of weakness pretending to be strong. Making excuses for weakness and the weak, trying to shit on everything that is strong and good.

The skinny guy mindset is one in which you actively try to bring everyone above you down to your level – even if you do not realize it.

But I found my savior: the Iron.

With weight training comes strength, with strength comes pride.

You see friends, it is not only about lifting weight and pumping up. It’s about developing pride. Pride of body, pride of mind, pride of soul.

I want to see you develop the Body of a Spartan and the Pride of a Lion.

I want you to know that you can change. I want you to know that can become better. I want you to know that you can evolve.

All it takes is one very small change of mindset.

The body will follow what the mind says. When your mind believes it your body knows it’s for sure.

I’ve got money in the bank, muscle on my arms and pride in my heart all because I changed my mindset and anyone can do the same.

On your “journey” you will get people, lessers, who question you or mock your decision. Doesn’t matter.

It’s for you, it ain’t for them. They can rot and you can grow.

Remember one thing friends, there is no overnight solution. A life change is required. The transformation pictured below took me 7 years, but anyone with a bit of knowledge can do it faster than I did.

See 30 Days of Discipline for mind and Body of a Spartan for body.

See the archives of Bold and Determined for a swift kick to the ass.

Until next time.

Your man,

-Victor Pride

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Location: Bangkok

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There is one little secret you need to know if you want to make an income without a 9-5 job.

It’s a secret that everyone knows, an open secret, but is just so hard to grasp for some reason.

What is the secret to making it without having a 9-5 job?

The secret is you must live below your means.

Far below your means.

That does not mean you need to live in filth like an animal, it means you need to pay as little money as humanly possible for you to live. If you can live for free, so much better.

Typically, when someone gets a job, a “good job”, their life expenses increase as well. They will usually rent a nicer apartment or “buy” a nicer house (with a mortgage) and they will typically purchase or lease a new automobile. These are big expenses and they come with many hidden expenses like higher insurance premiums.

As the income goes up their spending goes up to match it.

Bills, bills, debt and more bills. More money, more stress as they say.

With so many bills there is no way a normal person can just quit their job and focus on an entrepreneurial endeavor.

I hear that all the time. “I can’t quit my job, I have bills to pay!“.

The secret is to get rid of the bills.

A car payment isn’t necessary when an automobile that will get you from point A to B can be purchased with cash. An expensive home isn’t necessary if you wish to achieve more.

You need money to live. There is no way around that but if you spend the majority of the money on your home and auto you have a tiny, tiny chance of ever breaking free and making money as an entrepreneur.

Buy what you need and only what you need and don’t buy luxury. Save the luxury. Standing in line for the new $400 phone is a waste of your time and money.

The right time to buy luxury is when luxury seems cheap to you.

You need to keep your money as a padding in case and in those inevtiable lean times you need a place to live that will not be too hard to pay for. You don’t want to spend all your time and energy just working to try and pay rent. Your time and energy should be spent on other things, like building your business.

I know what it’s like to have a hefty mortgage during the lean times. It’s like a noose around your neck. It’s anxiety and stress and it’s no way to live.

I am able to do a lot of things and visit a lot of places precisely because I live damn near for free. My rent is $500 per month presently and fully paid up through the end of my lease. It is a very smart to move to pay up your living arrangements in advance, as far in advance as you are able to. It’s a stress relieving feeling to say to yourself “Well, now my home is paid up for the next year, how should I spend my time now that I’m not worried about paying rent?“.

The answer, of course, is to spend your time making more money and buying freedom. The answer isn’t to slave away for your boss man, making him rich so you can barely get your mortgage paid.

I’ve been on both sides of that coin, and I’ll tell you my way is better.

A lot of people can’t get by without buying all the new toys and digging themselves deeper into debt. Fine for them. But not fine for me, and I damn sure know it’s not fine for a lot of Bold and Determined readers.

Live below your means. Live Spartan. Make the money, put in the work. When the new luxury home seems cheap to you that is the right time to buy.

And if it isn’t cheap, hey, just make more money until it is.

Your man,

-Victor Pride

Date: Monday, June 10, 2013

Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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We have all been there. Sitting in traffic, waiting to get to the job we hate, sitting in the office waiting for 5 o’clock, counting down the minutes to the weekend, which is never long enough. All the while dreaming we could have our own business, maybe our own internet based business, so we could leave this rat race behind and get to livin’.

The good news is you can leave the rat race, you can start your own business, and you can become free and happy. Today, with the internet, it is extremely easy to start your own business. I have done it and thousands of others have done it. It is only as hard or as easy as you want it to be.

But why should you start an internet based business?

Here are 13 reasons to start an internet business…

1) By running an internet business you will have more free time to do the things that matter in life

Being stuck in traffic everyday, taking orders from the boss, waiting on your paycheck (with taxes conventiently removed for you), asking permission to take your holiday is no way to go through life.

Running an internet based business will give you the time to do the things that matter and let you not do the things that don’t matter. Spend more time with family, spend less time with family, spend more time travelling, spend more time doing anything you please.

Without a 9-5 noose around your neck you’re free to come and go and do as you please. I just spent a week at a tiny, little known beach in Cambodia called Otres Beach, riding jet ski’s and getting tan. That would have been completely and utterly impossible if I had a boss and an office to report to.

2) With an internet based business you can control your income

When you have a job you make a set amount of money, no matter how hard you work or how well you do your job. The opposite is true when you run an internet based business. Your income is directly tied to how hard and how well you do your job. The sky is the limit when it comes to making internet money. The choice is yours when it comes time to decide how much you want, or need, to earn. Make the decision to earn more and you can, as long as you do the work.

3) With an internet based business you can work from anywhere

Again, no more getting up at the crack of dawn just to go sit in traffic and wait and wait. When you run an internet based business you can work from home, the local coffee shop, the library, or abroad. Anywhere you have an internet connection is where you can work from.

Say hello so sunny skies and goodbye to drab and lifeless grey offices.

4) You can feed your entrepreneurial spirit without breaking the bank

Not everyone was meant to live life as a corporate cog in the machine. Many of us are entrepreneurial minded but are just too afraid to take the leap and go for it. With an internet based business you have tiny start-up costs and low to no overhead. It isn’t as risky as starting a local brick and mortar shop where you have to pay rent, pay for product, and pay your employee’s salaries. To start an internet business is almost free. You simply need a domain and a website, that will run you about $20 to start.

5) People spend money on the internet, your business can get a piece of that

Internet spending is predicted to account for 40% of all retail sales by 2020 and 84% of the world’s internet users now shop online. That is a huge amount of money online just waiting for you. I spend a great deal of my own money online, I don’t like leaving to go shopping if I don’t have to. Most people are the same, they want to buy from the comfort of their own home.

6) Your internet business is open 24/7

Rather than be open for a limited time, like most brick and mortar shops, your online business is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. That means you can make money while you sleep. Imagine waking up to see page after page of sales your website made while you were counting Sheep.

7) There are no geographical limitations when you run an internet business

You can be based in Nowhere, Iowa and sell your products to India, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. The only limitations online are the limitations we place. With such a huge client base, the whole world, you can access a much wider base of clients and customers. Bold and Determined has readership and clientele from USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Singapore, South Africa, India, Nigeria and many other places I didn’t even know had internet.

8) With an internet based business you have more job security

There is no such thing as job security unless you create it. Your employers want money, rightfully so, and they don’t particularly care how loyal you are and they will do what is necessary for profit not what is necessary to keep their cogs happy. You cannot rely on anyone or any company to employ you forever. You can only ever rely on yourself and one thing is for certain: The internet isn’t going anywhere. I hear a bunch of silly conspiracy theorists worrying about the day the internet gets “shut off”. Friends, there is no on/off switch for the internet. It’s here, it’s here to stay and every damn person you know is addicted to it. I’m addicted to it as much as anyone. The obvious solution here is to make money from your addiction, you will be online anyway so you may as well be making dollars while you do it.

9) When you run an internet business you can better control your companies image and reputation

With bad press and a bad image a company can go under in no time. When you run an internet business, and are internet savvy, you can much better control your company image and reputation. Provide a good product or service and your reputation will be stellar. Be a killer, sure, but be an honest killer.

10) With an internet based business your customers have access to more information and product

With an internet business the sky is the limit in regards to the information and products you can carry. All this means better information and access for your customers. You can have as many or as few products as you want, you can have as many or as few websites as you want.

11) It’s easy to automate your internet business

There are almost an endless amount of products available to help automate your business and make you money while you sleep, eat or travel. Four websites, each making $500 per month automatically is a real nice piece of side money. Double that money and it’s a real income. Triple it and you’re doing quite well.

12) Anyone can start an internet business, from teenager to senior citizen

The beauty of running an internet based business is that anyone with a computer and internet connection can do it. From teenager to senior citizen, white or black, disabled or able-bodied, the internet has no bias. All are welcome and all can make money if they are willing to put in the effort and take action and, most importantly, do it consistently.

13) Running an internet business is more fulfilling than working for someone else

Running your own business is infinitely more fulfilling than being a corporate cog and taking orders from others.

As you can see, starting an internet based business makes sense.

Friends, we have all wanted to leave the rat race and get a bigger piece of the pie while not wasting our lives away behind a cubicle. The one way that everyone in the world can make their own money and make their own schedule is by starting an internet based business. Remember, there is no better time than RIGHT NOW. The first step is simply to take action.

Actions, not words.

-Victor Pride

PS – Spartan Entrepreneur is the easiest way to get started online. It is available today for 24 hours only.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Location: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

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Monday morning, friends.

The best day of the week. If I could make everyday Monday I would.

Hell, I spent my weekend shooting an AK-47 at coconuts and throwing grenades into the lake in Cambodia and I’m still ready as hell for Monday.

I like to play around on the weekend like everybody else, but Monday is always business as usual here at the Thunderdome.

A couple little tricks to not hating Monday include:

1. Not having a job.
2. Kicking ass on the weekend instead of “lounging” or “chilling”.

Ask Bob in accounting what he did over the weekend.

“Hey Bob, how was the weekend?”

“Oh, hey Tony. Yeah, it was pretty good I guess. The wife and I got caught up on our netflix rentals, then we went to the home improvement store and she spent all my money haha. The weekend sure does go by quick, don’t it!”

I haven’t actually had a conversation like that in years and, uh, personally I’d prefer to die than go back to living the 9-5 office life.

But I don’t have to choose death, see I’m so doggone smart I’ve figured out the secret. Do you want to hear it? Work for yourself instead of working for other people.

Now I’ve exposed the secret to freedom. Stop making someone else rich and do it for yourself.

But! Don’t just do anything. Do the smart thing. I had a conversation with a hotel owner here in Cambodia. We got to talking about profit. The guy makes $1,000-$1,200 per month. I tried to keep a poker face, “uh huh, I see” but I was a little shocked at how measly his investment was paying off. He had put in about $60,000 to remodel the place and now he’s living on peanuts. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Bold and Determined was less than a $30 investment for me and currently gives me over $6,000 per month in return. And I don’t have to sit in a damn hotel all day, worrying about occupancy rates, worrying about my Cambo employee’s embezzling, worrying about the damn second coming of Pol Pot dragging me down to S-21, worrying about this and that and every little thing.

So much stress for so little reward and I want no part of it.

I’m too modern and enlightened for that. I want minimum risk for maximum reward.

What I want is freedom, and I’ll buy it with money. Sitting in an office all day making your corporate shareholders rich isn’t freedom, beng tied to a location isn’t freedom, but making money wherever you go and whatever you do, well, that’s freedom in my humble opinion.

Once you figure out how to get dollars into your bank account without asking your boss for a raise you have a very special piece of knowledge. The knowledge that if you did it once you can do it again and again and again and again and again.

I’ve done it twice in my life in two polar opposite fields. If the heavens start to rain on me and for some reason Bold and Determined let’s me down, hell, I’ll just do it again and again and again and again and again.

It starts over again every single Monday. There’s always another chance to make it right.

-Victor Pride

Long time readers and new readers alike will all know that here at the Thunderdome we are big on strength, weight training and muscular development.

Recently a study came out that confirms what I can already see with my own eyeballs: men with upper body strength are less likely to support wealth redistribution and men without upper body strength tend to favor the nanny state.

Professor Michael Petersen said: ‘In all three countries, physically strong males consistently pursued the self-interested position on redistribution.

‘However physically weak males were more reluctant to assert their self-interest – just as if disputes over national policies were a matter of direct physical confrontation between individuals.

Obviously I don’t truly care what the study says because I already know weak bodies tend to have weak minds.

I know it’s true because I used to be a skinny twig and I used to self-identify is a liberal. When I started getting strong and started making more money I changed almost instantly and started to despise liberal nancy boys for what they are, Rats.

You see, friends, working out with weights and building a body will give you one very important thing: confidence.

It will give you confidence for two reasons. 1) You will know what you can achieve and overcome when you put your mind to it and 2) People will stare and give you compliments daily.

Weight training and bodybuilding can teach you how to overcome obstacles, how to achieve goals and how to push past your pain barrier. The gym can help you become more successful in life, in every way that matters.

When you are physically strong people treat you better, they smile for you more and they rush to do things for you. When you are a weakling you get spit on and that’s why you like and identify with the nanny state so much, because you don’t have to do anything for yourself and you are provided for.

But being provided for is for women and high estrogen males only. Men take, do and build. Men do not rely on others to be taken care of.

I was combing through some old photos the other day and what I found shocked me. I found some shirtless pictures of myself. If I had to use one word to describe those pictures, that one word would be “yuck”. I looked like 160 lbs of estrogen from years of eating macaroni and cheese instead of steak and drinking coca cola instead of water.

I hear this word “genetics” thrown around all the time as an excuse to be a slob. “If only I had good genetics boo-hoo”. Friends, “genetics” is an excuse to be a non-achiever. Genetics don’t mean anything. The estrogenic food you eat and the lack of activity is what makes your “genetics” bad. Anyone on earth can build a body but the longer you put it off the longer it will take to achieve.

It starts with four things.

1. Yes, I will go to the gym minimum 3 days per week from now on.
2. Yes, I will put in the hard work.
3. Yes, I will eat better.
4. No, I will never mumble another excuse for as long as I live.

Now I want you to walk to the mirror, take your shirt off and snap a picture. In a year or two or five or ten I want you to look back at that picture and laugh at how disgusting you used to look.

I always get a lot of flack on the internet from high estrogen males who like to tell me muscles are fake, it’s not functional strength, girls don’t like muscles blah blah. They will say anything to make themselves appear better, but they won’t actually do anything to improve. They will tell you degeneracy is normal and the best. But I know the truth and you know the truth. Life is better as a strong man, in every way. Girls smile at you so much more, you have better posture, you have knowledge in your strength, and you have pride. Rodney Dangerfield got no respect because he was fat. If he looked like Superman it would be a different story.

Do yourself a big favor, go and buy a gym membership.

Buy some iron for the garage.

Do some pushups.

But for God’s sake, don’t look like a slob for even one second longer.

-Victor Pride

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Body of a Spartan is the best weight training book on planet Earth. Danger and Play recently did a review of Body of a Spartan, you can read it here.

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Source for the study mentioned above can be found here.

Monday, May 20

Subj: Control, options, ownership

____________________

ABC. The most important rule for being a winner.

Always.

Be.

in

Control.

ABC. A- Always, B-Be, in C-Control.

Be in control of everything in your life, leave nothing in the hands of others, and always keep options.

Control your money, control your earning, control your woman. Leave nothing to chance when it can be controlled.

You have to have money and money making ability to control your life. You cannot be in control if you’re broke, you cannot be in control if you beg your boss for you bi-weekly paycheck that has been thoughtfully taxed in advance for you.

Control your earning

When you have a job as a wage slave you don’t pay taxes. You aren’t a taxpayer. They take taxes. They say “oh, that’s mine. Here, you can have the leftovers“. And, as a wage slave, what do you always say? “Damn taxes! Barely leave me any room to breathe!” and then you dutifully go back into work day after day, again and again, complaining the whole time, and waiting with your handout for your de-taxed paycheck.

When you are in control of your money, as in you do not have a boss, you pay appropriate taxes. Taxes are not taken from you they are given.

As a self-employed man of destiny, an entrepreneur, you control how much or how little your earn. You don’t call anyone boss, you don’t run in fear of disappointing your boss. The world is on your shoulders, and that’s the way it should be.

Control your money

Never leave all of your money in the hands of others. Never fall into the trap. “Oh, I have a company 401k, I’ll be fine“. With your money and your future you’ve got to take action and keep a watchful eye on your money and not let a team of complete strangers control your investments.

What is it they say? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. For your money you can multiply that rule by 1000. Never, ever, ever, ever keep all of your money in one spot. It cost me $7,000 to learn this lesson and it was worth every penny because I didn’t lose $70,000 or $700,000.

Always keep multiple bank accounts with a balance and always keep cash around the house. Cash is king and you never, ever know when your bank accounts are going to be inaccessible. Put your cash in a safe or hide it in plane sight with a diversion safe.

It pays to be a little paranoid because you never know what will happen. When I was in China my bank just decided to close my account. Huh? Yeah, it’s just closed now. I called them to get it fixed and they said sure, no problem, just come in to the nearest branch and we’ll get it fixed. Oh sure, I’m only 7,000 miles away. I lost a dollar for every mile through late payments because it was a business account and obviously business payments stopped until I could get it fixed. Thankfully I was ok because I had another bank account and I had cash, but I was still out 7 G’s.

Because of that little lesson I now have 7 bank accounts spread across 3 countries, an additional two nominee bank accounts, credit cards and prepaid debit cards. I keep balances spread out, I am not playing around and you shouldn’t either. Never let one bank control your finances.

Pay in advance

Whenever you can, don’t pay anything on credit, do the opposite and pay everything in advance. Don’t put anything on credit. When you have bills you are a slave. Pay everything in advance and you have peace of mind and no one is going to give you the old “you owe me money” bit. Paying in advance is power, paying on credit is slavery.

Think of a credit card only as a delayed payment debit card. I have my gym membership, my web hosting and one other bill directly billed to my credit card every month and I pay it each month before any interest is due. You can also use your credit card to take advantage of frequent flier miles and other nice programs, but never, ever, ever use your credit card just to buy stuff you can’t afford to pay cash with. IF! you are to use credit cards it should only as a strategy to build your credit or to get a bunch of free stuff with your credit card points.

Live below your means

You don’t have to live like an animal but you should not be stressed or anxious about paying your monthly bills. If you pay everything in advance you don’t even have to worry about the big bills. But if you aren’t in a position to pay everything in advance you need to choose your home and your automobile wisely.  A house and a nice car is not worth the anxiety if you are living beyond your means. Always pay cash for your car. I had a 5 year note on my pickup truck, that’s 5 years of payments to drive from A to B. Never again will I have a car payment, and since then I have bought 3 or 4 cars always paid in cash in full. A car is a car is a car, paying monthly when you can pay once is stupid. If your car costs 2k or 30k doesn’t matter, only buy what you can afford. If all you can afford is a 2k car then buy the car and work your ass off until you can buy that 30k, 40k, 50k car. Let that motivate you to achieve but don’t go beyond your means.

Back in the States I had a $1600 mortgage for a 3 bedroom house. It’s stupid to pay so much for one person so I rented a room out to a local college kid and got a little money back. Now I have a central condo in a large city and my rent is paid up through the end of the lease and I have less stress.

You need to live below your means so you have some padding in case of hard times, especially if you are an entrepreneur. As an added bonus when you live below your means you have money to buy anything you want. When I had a job and a set income I was always poor and had to save up to buy anything. Now I don’t “save up” for anything, if I want something I just buy it. That’s because I live below my means and don’t spend haphazardly. In a regular month I buy food at the grocery store and pay monthly bills like electric and internet. I’m not throwing money away on a car payment, house payment, the newest electronics, restaurants, or all that stuff that todays modern enlightened man can’t live without. That means when I want to buy something I just go and buy it and don’t fret. When I want to go on vacation I just go and don’t worry about saving pennies. Of course it should go without saying when I buy something or go on vacation I always search for the best deal.

Control your intimate relationships

Getting married is an act of surrender, of defeat. When you get married you give 100% of your power to a woman. Women only respect you when you have power over them. That is as true today as it was in 1950 or 20,000 bc. That’s why married men walk around like broke-dick dogs, because 99% of them are broken dogs. That’s what happens when you give your power away. A married man has no power whatsoever, his wife and the courtroom have 100% control over his children, his income and his assets. In return for what? There isn’t a single benefit for a man to get married. When you get married you sign away control.

What is it the feminist pigs always say? It’s not the 1950′s anymore! And they’re right. You don’t have to have a job, you are free to do as you wish, to go where you wish, to make as much or as little as you wish. Today anything is possible. The irony is that living like a modern man, in debt up to his eyeballs, married to a good for nothing slob, working a job he hates, fat as can be on his way to diabetes, is probably a lot worse than a life in the 50′s.

Personally, I live a sort of alternate reality version of the 50′s. I keep a woman around and pay all the bills and she does 100% of my housework and everything else I tell her. I rely on her to cook, clean and suck. She relies on me for safety and security. That is complete control and I could find a new girl in a nano-second but I am happy and she is happy so there is no need.

Now I know there are a great many websites telling you to never, ever provide for a woman, never be a beta provider, never give money yadda yadda. These websites are written by guys who have a very hard time attracting women but they are 50% right. I would NEVER give money to or financially support a modern western woman. If I were a western man I would be a cad until I found a non western, non feminized, non empowered, non undignified woman. If you find the correct woman it is not only acceptable to provide it’s also the only way to have complete control of your relationship. The reality is that money is power, women are attracted to both money and power and when you are the sole source of $$ for a woman you have complete control over her and, if you are appropriately selfish, she will dote on you all day and night, just like in days of old. It’s completely true that modern women make money and have options, and that’s a huge reason why they are terrible as wives and girlfriends.

You need to have options for other women, at all times. That doesn’t mean you always need to have 10 girls in your phone or your instant messenger ready and waiting, it just means you need to keep yourself in a state where it’s easy to attract and keep women. The reality is that I am blessed to be tall and handsome BUT! if you are not so handsome there is hope and I mean that sincerely. Money and a dominant disposition is your salvation. Women are attracted to men with money and always will be. That doesn’t make them gold-diggers, it makes them women. Men love titties and ass, women love money and that’s life, baby, no need to cry about it.

OPTIONS!

Always keep options open. Options, options, options. Options are how you stay free. Keep many bank accounts with balances spread over each. Be an entrepreneur and make your own income. Stay out of debt always. Don’t leave your investment strategy in the hands of strangers. Keep options with other women. Have options and ideas for making a real income, not a “dream job” but a real way to make green dollars and red pennies. Your other options don’t need to be acted upon, they just need to be there, in your mind, ready to go if a change is needed.

I have two options for making money if for some reason Bold and Determined doesn’t work out for me. I can build another online venture that I’m positive will provide for me. Alternately, I can move to any mid to large size American city and make money in real estate within one month. Even though I am putting all my effort into Bold and Determined, and it is providing me a nice life, I have the other options in my head at all time, ready to go if need be. And both options are completely under my control, I’m not relying on interviewing with some little girl in HR, going for a second interview with the gay Mexican HR manager, and then going through sensitivity training all so I can receive a tiny little bi-weekly paycheck already de-taxed. Not for me anymore, no thanks.

Until next time, friends.

Your man,

-Victor Pride

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Photo By Flickr user James Temple (Flickr here) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Big arms. We all want them. Every day in the gym you’ll see fellas pounding out curls for the girls, trying to build up their arms.

The thing about arms is that for some guys they are easy to build, for other guys they are hard to build. Next time you are in the gym you can take a look around and you may notice a few things.

1. Guys that have big arms will typically have a small chest and will typically have narrow clavicles
2. Guys that have big chests will typically have small arms and will typically have wide clavicles
3. Guys that have both big arms and big chests look phenomenal, but they are few and far between

Personally, I fall into the big chest, weak arms category. My biceps just don’t like to grow. Not to mention my arms are long as hell, like the wings of an Eagle. I don’t have any sort of biceps “peak” whatsoever and my wrists are so small that my 85lb girlfriend can almost wrap her thumb and middle finger around them.

I was not blessed in the arms department. Even with this lack of “arm genetics” I have built my arms to a decent size and routinely receive compliments about them.

I believe I have found the solution for building big arms even if your “arm genetics” are subpar. That solution is building thickness. Since my arms do not have any sort of nice shape or impressive peak, and never will, the only thing I can really do is make them as thick as I can.

The way you build arm thickness is…..

HAMMER CURLS

Hammer curls will build thickness in your brachialis and brachioradialis muscles, making your arms bigger and thicker, even if they don’t have a good “shape” to them.

Step 1 – Hammer Curls

They are called hammer curls because you hold the dumbbells like you would hold a hammer. Perform hammer curls one arm at a time, left arm, right arm, left arm, right arm repeat. Like you’re hitting a nail with a hammer, but slower. Be sure to squeeze your upper arms at the top of the movement for maximum pump effect.

I like to finish my arm workout with 2-4 burnout sets of hammer curls. The best rep range is 8-12 reps. You want to pick a weight that is challenging but one that will allow you to get all your reps in. It is perfectly acceptable to cheat on the last 3-4 reps of your set. I can now do this exercise with 75 lb dumbbells for 10-12 reps, but I will usually stick with 45 lb dumbbells for my sets. Pick whatever weight is challenging for you, doesn’t matter if it’s 25 lbs or 45 lbs or if you use pink dumbbells. This exercise is more about the pump, it’s not a strength exercise, and you should feel a tight pump at the end of your sets.

Step 2 – Take the Right Supplements

There is only so much size and thickness you will build naturally, and if you have been training hard n’ heavy for 3+ years you have likely reached your genetic limit. To put on size over your natural limit you will have to use not-so-natural methods.

There is an over the counter product called Epistane that will put slabs of thickness on you, but it’s not a joke product like creatine or protein powder. It’s a real deal hormone manipulator and should not be trifled with. Before you use Epistane you should have been lifting for 3+ years and be minimum 22 years old and you should be serious about getting bigger. In no uncertain terms, Epistane is an anabolic steroid that happens to be legal and if you don’t have a real interest in getting mucho bigger you can skip this step.

Epistane can shut down your natural testosterone production so in an ideal world you would want to use a “Testosterone base” with your Epistane. A “Testosterone base” is the exact same thing as using Testosterone Replacement Therapy. A lot of people will use Epistane without a Testosterone base and be fine, but I’m going to give you fair warning and say it’s a better idea to use a test base.

For Americans to acquire Testosterone legally I suggest you visit your kindly local doctor or anti-aging clinic and get a prescription for Testosterone. For Brits you don’t need a scrip because it’s legal for you to use Testosterone. For Aussies you’re out of luck unless you visit Thailand.

If you cannot use a “Testosterone base” you may need to use “Post Cycle Therapy” (PCT) products to restore your natural Testosterone levels after you stop taking Epistane. The need for PCT will vary from person to person, unfortunately there is no one size fits all program.

30-45 mg’s per day (2-3 pills) is enough to see substantial gains from Epistane.

Victor’s personal experience with Epistane: Fellas, Epistane works unbeliavably well. Pumps beyond belief that last all day and size you’ll never possibly get naturally. It also works as a bit of an anti-estrogen and dries you out, making your muscles hard as hell. It’s an excellent product for both gaining weight and losing weight. I used Epistane for two weeks and I was the biggest I have ever been and my abs were the hardest and driest they have ever been. I even got more smiles from the girlies when I used Epistane. It works as advertised, no two ways about it.

Step 3 – Shave the Hair

One tip to make your arms look bigger and badder:

SHAVE THE HAIR!

I know it sounds homo but I don’t care. Hairy arms hide the veins and make your arms look dirty. I have hairy arms, I had hairy arms for damn 30 years, I shaved them finally and they started to look good. My arms never looked good until I shaved the hair and then they instantly looked good.

Rather than shaving all the time you can use a hair removal cream called Veet to remove the hair. You simply rub on the cream, wait 10 minutes, and then scrape off the hair with the scraping tool that comes in the box. I suggest you have your girly friend do this for you because it’s boring but she probably enjoys doing things like that. You can purchase Veet online or at any local drug store or supermarket.

An example workout routine

I will typically work biceps and triceps together, I don’t like hitting “bi’s” one day and “tri’s” another day. Arms is arms and I work them as a whole.

For biceps and triceps I will typically start out with one exercise I can go heavy on, pyramiding weight up with each set for one final heavy set. Then I will drop the weight down for my next 2-3 exercises and concentrate on the pump.

Biceps:

Barbell curls, 5 sets – 1 set by 20 reps, 1 set by 15 reps, 1 set by 12 reps, 1 set by 10 reps, 1 set by 8 reps (going UP in weight with each set)

Dumbbell curls – 3-4 sets by 12 reps

Hammer curls  - 3-4 sets by 12 reps

Triceps:

Close grip barbell bench press 1 set by 20 reps, 1 set by 15 reps, 1 set by 12 reps, 1 set by 10 reps, 1 set by 8 reps (going UP in weight with each set)

Skullcrushers 3-4 sets by 12 reps

Rope pulldowns 3-4 sets by 12 reps

…and that’s all she wrote, bub. Arm day is finished and now you can go enjoy your coconut smoothie with added egg whites. If you’ve got an arm workout you are already happy with just toss in a few sets of hammers curls at the end and thicken those guns up.

With a little down and dirty American work ethic and proper supplementation you can transform those spaghetti arms into something you can be proud of.

Until next time,

-Victor Pride

I used to be a real down to earth, go with the flow, “yeah, hey man it’s whatever” kind of guy. I was also poor.

When I started making money I started demanding things and I started getting things done my way. I started saying “no” as easily as most people say “yeah, uh, I guess that’s ok”.

I went from an average of a few hundred dollars in my bank account to having an average of 10, 20, 30 or 40 grand with more always on the way. And guess what happened? I stopped taking bullshit.

I make a lot less money now but A) I make enough so that I am completely free to go anywhere B) I have zero debt and my monthly expenses are less than a grand and C) I can afford to purchase anything I want and I don’t worry about putting food on the table.

Do something I don’t want to do? Not even an option. Someone telling me what to do? No. Relying on other people to pay me? Nope. Following the schedule or plans of others? Negative. My word goes? Yes.

You want to increase your testosterone but you are scared of the needle? Make more money. Money will make a man of you.

When you’ve got money in the bank and a pocket full of cash you don’t accept baloney. When your waiter brings you the wrong meal, instead of saying “oh, it’s ok I guess. I’ll just eat this” you’ll say “this isn’t what I ordered. Take this back and bring me my steak and baked potato” and you’ll say it without apology and without pleading. You’ll stop asking permission and you’ll start demanding. You won’t ask, you will tell.

When you have money you have balls. You are in control.

A lot of males are scared of money and scared of success. They’ll say things like “I would NEVER do that just for money! I would NEVER try and make money from that!“.

They say this baloney, and act this way, to feel morally superior. Morally superior in their poorness. Good for them. That makes it easier for the rest of us who aren’t afraid of money. That makes it easier for you to become a big dog.

Acting moral is the act of being the best at following orders. The most “moral” people are the best order takers. When a person brags about being too moral they are bragging that they do what they are told better than you. And you should be happy for them, the world needs customer service representatives and IT professionals to help fix your computer.

“I do everything I’m told and I never get ahead! I just don’t understand!” they always end up saying.

Tough one to figure out, isn’t it boys?

I’ll have to ponder that riddle over the weekend and see if I can possibly find an answer.

See you Monday,

-Victor Pride

Monday, April 22, 2013

Subj: $$$$$$$$$$$$$

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Friends of Bold and Determined, you may have noticed a dearth of posts in the last 6 months. I took a detour into bodybuilding, with all that entails, and as I have said many times multi-tasking is for girls. You do one thing until you have it complete and then you move on. My build is now how I wish it to be, more or less, and during that time my business grew and supported me with no hiccups. All is well. Now…….

This month I have had to make the decision many times to either renew some domains I purchased one year ago or to drop them. I ended dropping a ton of domains, because they were quite stupid, but it reminded of how motivated I was one year ago. One year ago I was beyond determined to make my money 100% online and to make Bold and Determined my lifeblood money maker. And I succeeded. I have been able to do minimal work for 6 months and not only make a livable income but my business actually grew during that time. I can quite literally do nothing for a month and have money coming in.

Not working is fine and dandy if you have other endeavors you are working on, say taking your bodybuilding to the next level, but one has to realize that having a great build is not the most important thing in life. The most important thing in life is having an ever-increasing stream of money, security and freedom and having a reason to require money, security and freedom. The future is coming for all of us and each of us should be prepared. And as far as I am concerned men should be constantly building, and for the future an empire should be built. To me, building an empire is the only worthwhile life goal. Follow the lead of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger. He built the world’s best body, but he was not satisfied with merely being a body, he went on to create an empire and no matter how much of a liar he is, no matter how much of a sociopath he is, no matter how out of his mind on steroids he is, no matter how many maids he fucked he is still an admirable man worthy of study and emulation.

It has recently come to the forefront of my mind that my mood is directly influenced by money. How much I have right now, how much I have coming to me, how much I plan to make, how much I need to spend, how I will acquire it etc. After having this revelation it has occurred to me that the only thing I care about is this: Seeing dollar signs in my email when I wake up in the morning.

More important that how great my abs look, more important than how full my upper arms are, more important that how good my girlfriend sucked my dick, more important than good news from friends and family, more important than anything, for my mood, is how much money is coming to me and the process and building up that money. If I don’t make as much money as I want then I am in a dark mood and the remedy for that dark mood is $$$$$, just as the remedy for hunger is a plate full of chicken and rice.

Many will say silly things like “Well, you should just be a man and get your emotions in order and never show anger“. My emotions are in order, when I don’t have the money I require I get angry and volatile, I don’t fix that by shrugging my shoulders and saying “Que sera, sera“, I fix it by making some money. If you do not have what you require you should be mad as hell until you fix it.

If I don’t wake up in the morning to an email full of orders I am not going to be in the best mood possible and just as when my belly is hungry I can be volatile. When I am well fed then I am calm, cool, pleasant and happy. The obvious solution to always be in a great mood is to constantly be improving the money situation.

Money buys freedom. Freedom from calling another man boss, freedom of location, freedom of time, freedom to say “no”, and freedom of anxiety from not having any money.

“You have just received a payment” is music to my ears. And if that email says something else, well, I just don’t care.

There is a lot of this “Stay hungry. Always be hungry” type of mindset which I do not necessarily agree with. It is impossible to be well fed and hungry. If you’re hungry, you eat until you are full. Being hungry sucks. I say Always Be Building. You don’t have to be hungry to be a builder, you just need a goal, a commitment, time and a reason. Take as many detours as you like, but keep that end goal firmly in your mind. Right now I make 3.5 grand per month doing nothing because of what I built  2 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago, and even the work I did these past 6 months. Now I expect to make 8+ grand per month doing a lot more work. For the fellas interested in how I do it I basically spelled out my entire game plan in the So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger series. What I did was not hard, I don’t like hard work. I like simple and I kept it simple and maybe more importantly I enjoyed what I was doing so much that I would even forget to eat. The most simple thing in the world is to do your duty day in and day out, time after time, day after day until it is where you want it to be. That’s all I did, I kept at it for 2 years until I had it where I wanted it, and right at the end of those two years I kicked it into overdrive. Routine, overdrive, routine, overdrive, relax, overdrive, routine. This is how you build something special.

-Victor Pride

PS – Make one dollar this week doing something new. Make two dollars next week. If you can make one, you can make two, if you can make two you can make four. If you can make four, well, you can make anything. I’d say good luck but it would be a lie, luck is made by you and you only. All that luck shit is in your head, consider yourself lucky and you will be. I’m the luckiest man in the world and I mean it.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Location: Bangkok

Subj: 3 ways to make money from your blog

Previous entries: So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger Part 1 and Part 2

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Money.

Money is freedom and power. I used to be a bit of an “easy-going, go with the flow” kind of guy. Do you know what happened when I started making money? I started getting things my way and I started saying no a lot more. I became much more demanding. Money is power. What I do now, write words on a computer screen and receive money back, is FREEDOM. In my last gig I was tied to a metropolitan area. I made better money than I do now, and would have become wealthy had I stuck with it, but I was tied to a certain city and I wanted freedom more than I wanted a million bucks.

Now when I look around I am truly amazed at what I have and where it came from. A religious man would say I am blessed. A lazy man would say I am lucky.

I would say I am creative. Not in the sense that I am a great artist or that I’m super talented at computering or that I’m too cool for school. I am creative only because I created what I wanted. If I can do it then certainly a percentage of other men can do it as well. What is that quote?

“What one man can do, another can do” – The Edge

Ok, friends. Let’s not beat around the bush anymore, let’s talk about money and how to acquire some of it from your blog. There are 3 basic ways to make money from your blog.

1. Selling advertising
2. Affiliate marketing
3. Creating and selling your own product

Before we review each step, let me ask you two questions:

1) What is the most important day of the week? Monday, of course.

2) How do you wake up on Monday feeling refreshed and energized? You check your email accounts and see how much money you made while you were farting around over the weekend. The greatest feeling in the world is seeing a bunch of dollar signs waiting for you. And if you don’t have any dollar signs waiting for you when you wake up, it’s time to create some.

ADVERTISING

You get traffic, you place ads on your websites, people click those ads, you make a percentage.

I don’t rely on this model, I hate advertising for other people’s products and you will not see many ads on Bold and Determined except for products available exclusively through Bold and Determined. There are 3 types of advertising you can place on your website.

1. You can sell adspace for a set monthly price
2. You can place ads where you get an amount of money each time someone clicks on the ad
3. You can place ads where you receive a commission from any sale that came from the advertisement

Many people choose to run google adsense, which I believe is a truly stupid waste of time and resources. With google adsense you can only make pennies and you need HUGE traffic to make a living AND you are sending your readers AWAY FROM YOUR BLOG TO A POSSIBLE COMPETITOR. You want your readers to stay on your website, not to be so damn bored they click on an obvious ad to try and find something better. Google adsense also looks extremely ugly and your blog needs to look good. Google adsense is pointless for bloggers.

There’s a blog called Expat-Chronicles which is a perfect example of what not to do. The guy is a VERY entertaining writer but he isn’t doing many things right to make a nice living. For example he had this to say about google ads:

I have Google Ads on this site, and they pay about $100 every three months. That’s $400 / year, MAX. And that’s five years after starting.

He makes a piddly $400 per year on google adwords but, get this, he has google adwords in 3 (THREE!) prominent locations on his blog, cluttering up the layout and making it look like poop. All for a dirty, tiny $33 per month. I make much more than $33 per day and I don’t have any google ads, or even any ads at all. Google ads can and should be REPLACED. Everyone on planet earth knows what a google ad looks like and they aren’t being clicked anymore. If I were the writer of Expat-Chronicles I would yank all the google ads and replace them with ads for my own product. $33 per month is pointless and to have 3 spots for pointless ads is, well, also pointless.

Advertising Tips to Remember

It is best to LIMIT your number of ads, rather than plaster ads everywhere. If you have a choice between chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream that’s a very easy choice to make, and I will have vanilla 10 times out of 10. If you have a choice between 37 flavors of ice cream your brain is overloaded with choices and options. If you see 500 different ads flashing in your face you don’t want to click any, but if you only see one or two it’s an easy choice to click and see what the fuss is about. Simplicity. There isn’t a need for complication. Make things easy, don’t give too many options. When you go to McDonalds you know you’re getting a cheeseburger and fries, when you go to a Chinese restaurant you have no idea what you’re getting, they all have 100 options on the menu. Too many choices = no choice made. Make the choice for your readers, they are relying on you.

If you want to get jacked like ol’ Big Bear then pick up Body of a Spartan. If you are feeling like poop and not accomplishing anything then pick up 30 Days of Discipline and start kicking ass. Those are your two options. It’s not worth those few pennies that google will pay me to take you away from my site.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing is terrific. You refer a product to someone and you get a percentage when they purchase. This model has worked since the dawn of money. You bring someone to me, they buy what I have, I give you a cut. If you like a product, surely a percentage of your readers will like the same product, so if you promote it and some of your readers purchase then you make a percentage of the sale. This is win-win for everybody.

The world’s biggest and best affiliate marketing product website is clickbank.com. I have been using clickbank for a long time and they have never done me dirty and have always paid me on time. This is BIG in the internet affiliate marketing world, making sure you get paid. With many fly by night operations and horror stories of shady operations that never pay you you have got to make sure you deal with reputable companies. If you want a product to promote, you can be sure you will be paid your earnings with clickbank. Some other reputable operations include Commission Junction and  ShareASale.

How do you find a product to promote?

Simple. Only promote what you use yourself. Go to the website of the product that you endorse and search near the bottom for an “affiliate” link. If there is no option so sign up as an affiliate put your game face on and send them an email asking if they have an affiliate program.

In the past I promoted a product called Superdrol. It’s a product that I believe in for one reason: It’s the most potent muscle building hormone on the face of the earth. It is now illegal and if I could go back in time I would buy 50 bottles of it. I feel comfortable promoting it because I used it myself and it worked unbelievably well.

Promote products you use and believe in and you can sleep well at night. I believe in killing with a conscience. When you do anything and everything for a buck you are always going to be struggling, but when you are genuine and believe what you say it will be obvious to everyone else. I’m even swayed by this. When someone who’s opinion I respect speaks favorably about a product I run out and buy it.

CREATING YOUR OWN PRODUCT

This is the best choice for bloggers and the method that I believe in the most. You can create as many products as you want, of course, but it seems to me the few options the better. One or two flagship products works well for me. Your own product is the representative and embodiment of  your website and your philosophy and you should go above and beyond what is available for free.

Creating E-Books

The cool thing amongst the cool bloggers is to say “Don’t sell e-books! That’s so gauche!“. I have seen many of those too cool for school bloggers up close and personal and they are all skinny hippies with dirty hair and their too cool for school nonsense is irrelevant. E-books are books, simple as that, and books are great. Reading and learning is for winners, being too cool for school is for nerds.

The only rule for creating an E-book is that you should know what you are talking about. Walk the walk before you talk the talk.

For some tips about how to create an e-book check out How to Write an E-Book for Fun and Profit (10 Easy Steps to Creating Automated Income). For some tips about how to sell your product be sure to read Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman and The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy.

Creating Technical Products

You can create other things like “apps” or themes, but I can’t tell you how to do that. I’m not up to date and hip on all the new technology. Just last week I purchased a smart phone for the first time in over two years, after my dumb phone stopped working. I used my new piece of technology today to take a picture of myself at the gym and was a little startled to realize the feminist harpies were right, I do look like a caveman, and cavemen don’t give advice about technology. Check out Brian Gardner for an example of a blogger who also creates and sells technical products. The guy creates the best WordPress themes I have seen, see StudioPress, and has a great blog as well.

There are unlimited products you can create and monetize, you are limited only by your creativity. All you’ve got to do is get to creating.

Make your blog exciting. Make the titles exciting. Make people want to read. Give away valuable information. Do your creating, and you will have your own little ATM machine.

-Victor Pride, over and out