Life Update + Mini Book Review on "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck" by Mark Manson

Hi, to anyone who's reading this post! I hope you all are having a wonderful day! It's been so hot here in Japan! It's actually been so hot that media from overseas write about it in their articles! Anyways, these heat waves are not here to play, so please keep yourselves hydrated! Make sure you drink lots of water, and try not to spend too much time outside. Also, make sure people around you are keeping themselves hydrated as well!

So, about myself and my life... It's been pretty good. I've been procrastinating to come here and write something for the past 2 months, and I thought this procrastination must end! So I just sat down and started typing.

Yeah, overall, things are going well with me. I still love my job. I've got used to what I do now more than when I last posted something on this blog, which was in May. The more I learn, the more I know that I need to know more.

Oh, and I've sighed up for a gym this month. It's actually a boxing gym, but you don't get to punch people in their faces actually. It's not scary and violent at all. I don't know how it is called in English, but what I do is called "kurayami boxing" in Japanese. "Kurayami" means darkness in Japanese. So you basically punch a sandbag in the darkness. And it's not just that. While you work out, music (mostly EDM) is blasted in the training room. Yeah, you could say that it's like a club. The only difference is that people in the club will be drinking and dancing and twerking, but we, the kurayami boxers will be exercising while enjoying the music.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to exercise regularly. And I actually did start working out. It feels good. I'm not a work-out fan, but with some darkness and music, I thought I would be able to enjoy working out. I went to their trial session last month, and I really enjoyed it. It was far from being easy, though. I was freaking tough, but totally worth it. I got muscle pain all over my body the next day, and for about a week since then, I had had difficulties going up and down the stairs at train stations, or making even more simple everyday movements, such as sitting up or standing up.

I wanted to sign up immediately and get the membership, but I couldn't because the gym was very popular. They told me to wait for a month and that I could start from August. And the month of August has just started, and I attended a session for the first time as an official member yesterday! This time, to my surprise, I didn't get muscle pain as much as I did last time. Maybe my muscle has got stronger. I'm not sure if it's true, though. Well, in fact, I don't think that muscle can get stronger that easily. Anyways, I've made a promise to myself that I would go to the gym at least twice a week! Hopefully, I will get a body like Victoria's Secret Angles someday! lol

Besides those things, I've started saving some money, which is also listed in my New Year's Resolutions list. I know it's going to take some years, but I will keep on doing this till I have enough money to go to a grad school. To cut up the costs and save more money, I try my best to prepare my own lunch to work so that I don't have to spend money to get lunch outside. I was worried at first about whether I can continue the habit of cooking at home and bring my own lunch, because I'm a lazy person by nature. But so far so good! I actually feel bad on days when I don't bring lunch for small reasons, such as waking up late.

Oh, and I don't necessarily have to mention this, but I broke up with my boyfriend. No no, no drama. No broken plates or screaming or anything. It's just we ended the relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend. We're still friends and if we want to contact each other, we are always free to do so; we never have to hesitate. I'm not going to dig on how or why we separated, of course. But as a fact, I tell you that we just broke up and I am single now. I'm open to seeing new people, but I'm not in the mood of serious relationships as for now.

And lastly, yes, I've been reading books as I always do. Well, to be honest, this habit of mine kind of slowed down last month, but I'm pretty sure I never ended the day without reading even during that month.

One of the books I read recently is called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. It is a wonderful book that everyone needs to read! It was written by Mark Manson. To be honest, I had never heard of him before I picked up the book at a local bookstore, but he is a blogger and gives people life advice. If you're interested, you can click here to see his website.

I really love this book because it adopts the minimalist approach. You know, in the culture of more is better, minimalism is liberating. Mark says that people give way too many fucks, and that would basically tire us out. He tell us many times in his book that we need to be selective about what to give a fuck about. We need to give a fuck about something because otherwise, our life will be meaningless. We need to save fucks for things that really matters to us. And to do so, we need to choose the right kind of metrics measure ourselves. If your metric of happiness and success is how many followers you have and how many likes you get on Instagram, you never will be happy. Metrics that are based on external factors aren't good metrics. On the other hand, metrics that are based upon internal factors, such as being honest, are the good ones.

Also, Mark tell us that we need to know that being normal is totally fine. I dropped out from Twitter and Instagram because I felt like the world was screaming at me saying, "Look at me! Look at me! Look at how cool my life is! Look at how different I am!" I knew that what they post aren't the valid representation of their whole lives; people choose what they post on the Internet and what not to. But still, it was overwhelming, and I thought I wouldn't be able to have a healthy relationship with SNS. This book made me felt like it was telling me that I'm totally fine feeling this way. Recent culture tells us to be different and stand out. If you end up being different and standing out, that's just fine too. But you don't have to feel like your mediocre self and mediocre life is inferior to anyone's life.

And stop trying to be happy all the time, Mark teaches us. We should value suffering more. Without suffering, there is no learning. Important lessons are learned from suffering moments, not from happy moments.

I tried to lay out some essence from the book, but I'm bad at summarizing things. If you want to know what the book is about, the best way to do so is to go check out the book yourself, not reading my blog post. lol

Alright, I think I've written enough. Hope to see you in my next post. I don't know when it will come up, though. See ya!

On Being the Queen of Negative Feelings!

Hello, hello! The last time I posted was in September, and I did not post anything last month. I always write that I should post more, but I always end up not posting so much. Actually, I need to write blogs as many times as I can, because I will be graduating next March, and will start working full time from next April, which means that I'll probably be busy. It's not that I'm not busy now, though. lol

So, first, let me talk briefly about the book I just finished reading today. I was reading Treatise on Tolerance by Voltaire. It was published in 1763, more than 250 years ago, but the book still offers many important issues that need to be discussed. Indeed, "tolerance" is a very hot topic for the world today. Yes, tolerance is important. We should not attack people for having a different view or opinion from ours; we should accept them, or overlook them, even though we don't necessarily like what they are saying. But that is not always easy, and as a result, there have been numerous cases of conflict, persecution, massacre, etc., throughout history.

But we cannot just end our discussion by concluding that tolerance is important, and that we all need to be kind and nice to all kinds of different opinions, and accept them. Do we have to accept ALL kinds of opinions and views? Ok, so now this person is planning to start a religion that justifies murder. Do we need to overlook this kind of religion? Or are we allowed to be intolerant when certain things happened? If so, how can we decide when to be tolerant, and when not to be tolerant?

Voltaire was quite optimistic about reason and rationality in people. He thought they would beat religious fanaticism and superstitions. He seems to be a quite liberal man, but even he makes discriminatory remarks in the book. Well, you cannot blame him altogether because of those remarks, though. It's because of the time when he was alive. It's not always easy to decide what is right, and what is wrong. Different ideas are preferred, or thought to be true in different periods of time, and in different places. I wonder what would Voltaire say about the world today, if he was still alive. There are still many cases of murder under the name of God. Will humans ever find an answer or solution on this issue?

Now, let me write about something else from here. I am writing about how studying saved my life, and made me feel much better. The world today is obsessed with being, and staying happy and positive. It's like the world is telling me I shouldn't be sad. You should be happy, and you should strive for happiness; you live to be happy. But I can't really find my space in that kind of atmosphere. I am not a happy person. I have struggled because of that; I am not how I am supposed to be. I have always thought, "Why can't I feel happy and positive like everyone else?" But now, I know that I don't have to feel like I have to feel in a certain way.

If you have read my other posts, you know my mother was very strict. When I was a child, she didn't allow her children to have long hair. You know, long hair requires longer time for blow-drying, and you need to arrange it into different hairstyles. School teachers will not allow you to participate in physical education classes with your hair down. Basically, if you have long hair, you will need to take care of it. On the other hand, if you have short hair, you don't have to worry about any of those things. So my mother preferred the latter choice. Moreover, my mother was the one who cut my and my sister's hair. She was not a hairdresser, so we couldn't expect her to give us a cool, sophisticated hairstyle.

Nowadays, having short hair is cool. There are so many famous people with short hair. But when I was in elementary school, most girls had long hair. Not everyone had long hair like mermaids, but at least their hair was long enough to be tied with hair ties. So just having short hair would stand out. When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, I was bullied. I had just transferred to a new school that April, and the kids there weren't really welcoming. Like I said, my short hair made me stand out even more, and I wasn't born with a feminine face. Kids at that time thought all girls had long hair, and short hair was for boys. So, it didn't took long until they started to make fun of me by calling me a boy.

It would have been much better if I had loved my short hair. But I did not like my short hair; I never did. I had always wanted long hair. I had always wanted to feel my hair on my back. But my mother never let me grow my hair. I couldn't go against my mother. So, things were much tougher. I was bullied for something I didn't intend. Even so, I couldn't tell me mother that I had been bullied at school. I would thought that she would get mad, and scold me for being bullied, and for being weak. I would do anything to avoid being scolded by my mother, so at home, I just kept shutting my mouth about the bullies.

I also thought that if I had been pretty, they would not have bullied me. I was never confident about how I look, and I this incident made me think that I was indeed ugly. I was bullied because I was ugly. That's what I had been thinking. At that time, I avoided people's eyes. I was afraid of them. I thought every single person who looked at me would think that I was ugly. Even if they didn't tell me so, I thought their eyes said so. If people near me were talking, and laughing, I thought they were talking about how ugly I was, and laughing at me. I know that was not true now, but at that time, I just thought so.

There are so many things I want to say to my mother. But I don't think I will ever tell any of them to her. I don't trust her. For me, there is no trust relationship between us. So many people say that their moms are their best friends. But I don't have that kind of feeling towards my mother. She was always a parent, not a friend of mine. She was the one who dictated me. I don't think she was a good mother, nor she was good at being a mother. She has abused me, and my sister. For me, it is really hard to say that I appreciate my mother. Yes, she has been working hard to pay my bills. She prepared food so that I could eat everyday. Oh, not everyday, to be honest. She would sometimes punish me and my sister by not letting us eat. Anyways, I know she worked hard, and nobody is perfect. Nobody can be a perfect mom all the time. But that doesn't mean I should overlook, and even understand all those abusive attitudes and behaviors of her towards her children altogether, I think. She never said sorry for those behaviors. I think she never will.

People seem to love their families. I know not everyone does, but those kinds of posts don't really show up, do they? I feel like everyone is supposed to love their families, and be vocal about that. I don't like my parents. I love my sister, so I won't say that I hate my family, but I don't like my parents. Children cannot pick their parents, and I was no exception. And I feel sorry for myself.

They say that I should thank my parents. Kids should thank their parents, they say. If you can't, that means you are a bad kid. Parents do make mistakes; their humans after all, and humans do make mistakes. But kids will understand eventually. That's what they say. I disagree. I am not obligated to understand my mother. I don't like this whole atmosphere that society has. Wrong things are wrong. I don't understand, and accept her abusive behaviors. And that's not because I am a bad kid.

I am not a bad kid. It's just I wasn't born in a good family. I wan't born in a family, where parents would listen to their children, and allow them to act, and say things freely. They wouldn't make their kids feel that they shouldn't tell what they really feel because that would upset their parents, and they will get scolded.

Studying philosophy has helped me a lot. Philosophy doubts everything. Philosophy takes nothing for granted. Philosophy has taught me I don't have to think in a certain way. Philosophy has taught me that it's totally fine to doubt things that the majority of people seem to think to be undoubtable and undeniable. I don't have to think in a certain way, and I don't have to think that I'm wrong, or I'm a bad person, because I cannot feel the same way as other people do. I am not a happy person, when people are supposed to strive for happiness. I am the queen of negative feelings! lol

And it's not just philosophy. Studying will show you that things are not always clear-cut, and it can be really hard to decide what is true, and what is not, or which choice among different choices is the best. I have learned this by taking classes at school, and also by reading books. I also have learned critical thinking. Thanks to what I have learned, I feel much better about myself. Your physical environment around you can be very small, but reading and studying have taught me that the world is big and wide, and that so many ideas have been presented. You don't have to agree with the majority, and you don't have to feel sorry for yourself for not being a part of the majority.

So... thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this post. If you made it this far, wow, you are a patient reader! lol No, I mean you are an amazing reader! I hope to see you in my next post. Till next time!

What Have I Been up to Lately? Being a Bookworm!

Hello! I hope you all are having a great summer! Or winter, depending on where you live... So the summer vacation has begun! This one will be my last summer vacation I can have while I'm still a student, and I want to make it a good one, but so far, I haven't done anything summery this summer! Oh, I've had lots of beer, so maybe that counts as something summery. lol But I'm a true fan of beer, so I drink lots of beer even in winter! 

Anyways, stay safe and healthy, everyone! Drink lots of, lots of water, and stay hydrated! Drinking water is very important! My mom would always say that you have to drink water even before you feel you're thirsty. Feeling thirsty means that your body is already dehydrated, which is not a favorable thing to happen to your body. So you should make sure that you take in some water periodically, as well as when you're thirsty. 

And you that also applies when you are in an air-conditioned room. When you're outside, it's easy to remind yourself that you should drink lots of water, because it's hot outside, and you sweat a lot. But when you're in a comfortable, air-conditioned room, because of the comfortableness, it's easy to forget about keeping yourself hydrated. Actually, the air that air conditioners blows out is very dry, so it can make your body, and also skin dry. So, DRINK WATER! 

Lately, I've started to do something new: selling my English skills. No, that doesn't mean that I've been teaching English, if that was your guess. Actually, I've been working as an amateur translator! "Coconala" is the name of the app that I've been using, and you can use the app for both selling and buying skills. And there are many kinds of skills; it doesn't have to be just language skills. Some people sell their computer skills, and help people develop their webpages. Some people sell their skills to help people lose weight. Some people are good at graphic design, and create icons and logos for their customers. And of course, these skills aren't the only ones you can sell and buy. If you're interested, you should try the app! But I'm not sure if you can use or even download the app from overseas. If you live in Japan, you should be able to download and use the app, and if you live outside of Japan, you should check if you can use the app or not first. (Sorry!) 

As I've said, I'm selling my English skills, and since I started the app, I've got some customers who wanted their documents (e.g., contract, instruction, statement, thesis, etc.) written in English to be translated into Japanese, or vice versa. Translation is fun, but it can also be tough. When I'm reading English, I'm thinking with an English brain; when I'm reading Japanese, I'm thinking with a Japanese brain. This means that the ability to comprehend English sentences, and the ability to translate what I have understood in English into Japanese are distinct. If my task was just to read the document and understand the contents, it would me much easier and quicker, than having to translate it into another language. Translation takes a lot of time. But I'm not complaining. It's true that translation is very time-consuming, it can be hard sometimes, but overall, I like it. I am currently working on a long thesis (28 pages in total! ), and I won't take another order until I've finished it, but I'll start taking new orders from next month, so if you have any problems, go to my page at coconala! My name in coconala is: yesimyuki. 

I've been reading a lot of books this year, and here, I will list up some of the books I finished reading recently. 

• Poor Folk by Dostoevsky
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 
• The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh 
• Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky 

All of these aren't too long, so go pick of one, some, or even all of these at your local bookstore or library, if you're interested! 

"The Loved One" is the shortest one of the 4, and if you're looking for a good laugh (i.e., a sarcastic laugh! lol), that should be your first pick. The book was published in 1948, and the story is filled with irony on how America (at that time, from the view of the author) turns everything, like even funeral, into business, a man who is brilliant at work, but dominated by his mom at home where he lives with her, a poet who takes poems from books, and send them to the woman he likes as if he was the author of those poems, etc. I can't say too much here, can I? I don't want to disappoint you by giving out too much information. 

Other ones are awesome too, even though I'm not talking about their stories and stuff here. If you are skeptical about the idea that development in science and human rationality will bring a bright future, and that these 2 things are what we need to aim for, you would love the books. If you think modern humans should worship human bonds more, and if you have or still want to have hope in humanity, you should read them. If you think that struggles, suffering, and hardships are what make us stronger and human, go read the books to find out that you are not the only one to think so. 

I was especially impressed by "Notes from Underground" by Dostoevsky. It was published in 1864, but the message is terribly new. I was quite shocked by how well and accurately Dostoevsky foresaw the future (which is now present). You can also see this from reading Part 1. It is not a fun, cheerful book as you may have already guessed, but there's an extremely important message we all need to see in this book, and I highly recommend reading this book. 

The book I'm currently reading is called "Reveries of a Solitary Walker" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and it is also very interesting. I'm having lots of fun reading it. This is the first time for me to read a work by the famous French philosopher, Rousseau, and I'm hoping to get to know a little bit about him from this book. 

Alright, that's all for today's post! I need to go now to continues translating the thesis for my customer. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you guys soon in my next post! 

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Hi! It's been two weeks since I last posted... But this was not because I was busy, to be honest. I had much time especially the last weekend of April and the first few days of this month. But I had been out of my house, and spent time doing different things which aren't worth mentioning here. lol

To tell the truth, I am so glad that I didn't quite blogging. I say this because I'm really bad at keeping a journal. At first, I never fail to open my notebook at night, and write a few paragraphs or so, but unfortunately, this good habit doesn't live long in my life. I have tried to keep a journal several times throughout my short lifetime (It's an ongoing process, of course; I don't have any plan to pass away at this point.), but none of the trials ended successfully. Well, in the first place, think about it. I wouldn't have to have my own blog if I were a capable person who makes journal entry everyday. What I write here are merely my soliloquies. The only difference is that whether the writings are public or private.

Ok, so that was my casual talks before I get right into business. lol As it says on the title, I am going to talk about a book called "Animal Farm" which was written by George Orwell. Yes, it is a fairy story about animals on a farmland, and yes, it may sound like a happy, peaceful story, but it is not. Oh, before I go in, please just let me remind you that I will reveal the basic outline of this story. If you do not wish to know anything about the story line, I have to suggest you to stop reading this post. Alright, so I read a copy of the book published from Penguin Books, and on the back of the book, it says:

"When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and plenty. But as a cunning, ruthless elite among them starts to take control, other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is gradually replaced by another. Orwell's chilling 'fairy story' is a timeless and devastating satire of idealism betrayed be power and corruption." 

Yup, that's how basically the story goes. The animals on the farm were living a miserable life, and that was Mr. Jones and all other humans' fault, they thought. Or at least some of them strongly felt that way. Others were just not clever enough to think critically, and process their opinions, or just weren't that interested or enthusiastic, but took part in the rebellion as a result. Humans have been dominating their life, abusing them, and exploiting them, and they have come to think that they didn't have to let it be that way. And that ended up being a rebellion against humanity, and the couple who owned the farm (Mr. & Mrs. Jones) were exiled from their own farm.

Soon after the rebellion, the farm seemed to won peace and freedom. But it wasn't long before one specie (i.e., pigs) started to take a lead of the entire animals. They were doing all the "brain-works" for the animals and for the farm, and didn't engage in labor as much as other animals did. And among the pigs, two leaders emerged: Napoleon and Snowball. The two was always disagreeing with each other on every discussion. And the rest of the animals were mostly not clever enough to think which side to take, and they seemed to go with the one who was present in front of them and speaking. When Snowball was presenting his opinions, they thought he had a better idea; when Napoleon was preaching to them, they thought they should agree with him over Snowball.

But on day, to their surprise, Snowball was exiled by Napoleon, and Napoleon have come to become the sole leader of Animal Farm. From that time on, whenever bad things happened, Napoleon claimed that Snowball was the mastermind. You wouldn't really know whether Napoleon was correct, and Snowball was actually the bad guy behind the scene, but the pigs always found ways to convince their comrades. And now you already see the way the rebellion is headed. Now it's hard to see the goals and ideals that animals had imagined before and at the beginning of the rebellion.

There was a set of rules which was called "The Seven Commandments," and it was supposed to function like a constitution. The commandments were set right after the rebellion, and those were the rules upon which all animals should live. But the commandments were "adjusted" whenever the pigs wanted to, and the adjustments were always done at night when the farm is asleep. For example, one of the rules was: "No animals shall kill any other animal." But one day, Napoleon massacred animals who planned to set up him or had thoughts of treason against him by secretly allying with Snowball, in front of all the other animals. The next morning when they saw the commandments, it read: "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." Of course, the animals do feel like something has been changed (The commandments are written on the wall with a white paint, and can be read from a distance.), but one of the pigs named Squealer who is really good at giving speeches and convincing people to believe what he says, always made sure to convince the animals that they had false memories by asking them, "Are you REALLY sure you didn't memorized it wrong? Can you prove that it was different before?"

There were many times when the animals didn't get enough food because of the harsh weather. But Squealer always reported them that they were having more harvest and food than previous years, which false statistics, but the animals couldn't tell the the reports were false because they couldn't really prove it, and the pigs knew it. Even during the hardest season, when the animals was starving and hadn't had enough food, the pigs and the dogs (i.e., the guard of the pigs) had plenty of food to eat.

In the end, the pigs had become just like human being, the ones toward whom they had the greatest hatred. They started sleeping in bed, wearing clothes, and drinking alcohol just like humans. When the animals witnessed the pigs partying with humans, they now couldn't really tell which was which. ...And that's the end of the story.

The book was published in 1945, and Orwell wrote this story to tell people the real situation of Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution. I am glad that I read this book since it's very alarming. From the third person's viewpoint, it is always clear that the rebellion is starting to head to a weird and dangerous direction, but the animals do not have ways to stop that even if they noticed that something was wrong. For them, it is impossible to point out the problem with full sentences, and they don't even know when and why exactly the rebellion went wrong. It just happened, and they had already become just a small fraction of the entire system and the events. The books was published more than 70 years ago, but the it doesn't sound like an old story from the past, which is surprising and frightening. This can really happen! And it is an important thing to keep in mind. Totalitarianism is not the story of savage, inferior countries of the past or far away from yours. It could happen anywhere, and yes, even today. I feel like more and more people have become aware of this, and been feeling cautious about our societies due to the current political situations we face today.

Again, I am really glad that I got the chance to read the book. I wanted to write about Orwell's life, but I won't at least in this post since it would take up too much space, and it's actually impossible to sum up his life in just a few sentences. I will just say that he had an extraordinary life.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you in my next post! Bye!

Business for Punks!!!!! (A Book Written by a BrewDog Founder!)

Hi! This time, I want to introduce a book that I have recently finished reading. I mentioned the book in my earlier post, but at that time, I could not fully talk about it because I hadn't finished it at that time. But now I have! Yes! For a non-native speaker of English, it is actually an accomplishment to be able to say that I have read a whole book written entirely in English. And it's not a skinny book for beginners, you know? There's nothing wrong with skinny books for beginners and people who read those kinds of books, by the way! But finishing an English book which is read not by English learners like me, but also native (and mature) English speakers is making me feel so good about myself.

Ok, now let's move on to really talk about the book... The book is called, "Business for Punks," and it also has a subtitle which says, "Break All the Rules - The BrewDog Way." The author of this book is James Watt, and he is a co-founder of BrewDog. And yes, BrewDog is a brewery, and it was found in Scotland in 2007.

Now, let me talk about how I came to pick up this book in the school library. In order to get to this, I should first talk about how I was introduced to BrewDog and their one of their products. It was on Christmas Day last year that I tried Punk IPA for the first time ever. Before that, I had never heard of the company or their products, to be honest, which now I think was a total shame. My boyfriend and I went into a so-called "British pub" which was newly opened in his neighbour. We both love drinking, so you know, a new place to have drinks, and we needed to check that out. So, we went there, and on the menu, I found a beer called Punk IPA, and it really dragged my attention. It looked like it had a cool label on it, I am a beer lover, and I love punk in the first place. I love punk music, and punk spirit in general. So, it was natural that I ordered it, and gave it a shot. I have made lots of mistakes in my life, but sometimes, surely, I do make great choices. I didn't have lots of information about the beer; I didn't know about the company, and I had not idea how the beer would taste like. But oh my gosh, it was delicious!!! I had not had a beer which had a taste like Punk IPA! It was very hoppy, and... just so good! (I am so sorry, I am really bad at describing tastes...) I knew that I would come back to the store for that beer from the moment that I had the first sip. It was that good! I looked up "BrewDog" on Google, and found some information about the revolutionary brewery. You won't be bothered to look up online to gather some information about the product you just happned to encounter, or the company whose making it, unless you're interested in them so much, right? So... yeah, that was how I came to know BrewDog and Punk IPA.

Then, how did I find the book? To be honest, that was nothing but a coincidence. As I entered the school library on the third of February (I know the exact date because I tweeted a photo of the book on the day I encountered it. lol), I caught something blue, which seemed to me was similar to the shade of the label of Punk IPA, in the corner of my eye at the bookshelf next to the entrance. I looked back. And it was actually a book written by a co-founder of BrewDog! I don't know why this happened, though. I mean, why would I know why it happened?! lol I didn't know James had written a book on his business philosophy, and the school library does not know about me, and what I'm interested in obviously! But thank... Umm, I don't know whom I should be thankful for... lol But uh... thank you, whoever up there, and have a control over destiny or whatever you call it for letting me discover this book!

Alright, so if you think my personal anecdote is so boring, I have a good news for you! All the rumbling is finally over, and now it's time to go over the core messages which James is telling to the readers. I can't just go one by one, of course, so I'll do what I can do to introduce (only) a few of the essence of his words of wisdom.

First, he teaches us that we shouldn't be starting a new business. Instead, we should start a revolution, or "crusade" in his word. It's about your passion, mission, and how you want to make a change in this world, rather than creating a mean to get profits, and earn money.

"Businesses fail. Businesses die. Businesses fade into oblivion. 

 Revolution never die.

 So start a revolution, not a business."

I am not a specialist in business, nor do I have a plan to start a new business, but I can't agree with this enough. Some people say they want to start a business, own a company, and so on. Ok, I get it... if you're like 5 years old. But they're actually much older than that. They want their companies, but they have no idea or mission. I have been pointing out that that is not how it works, and how you start a project, but now I can verify what I am saying even more because of, and thanks to this book.

Second, James talks also about the importance of founding your brand, and creating your fandom (i.e., marketing). When you buy a product, it's not just about the product, right? The image of the brand that makes the product always follows. You buy a product not because it has a good quality, but also you support that brand. People love brands that they feel they can relate to, and people love brands that are engaging, and willing to be open, and close to them. If a company has a clear, straight passion, mission, and philosophy, they will build fandom. And fans want to support the company and the brand. They will proudly buy, and use the companies products, talk about them online, which is a good way of spreading your brand and products without having to pay a lot of money. If you have a clear vision, good product, and a well-established brand, each fan of you will automatically be ambassadors.

"By engaging and connecting with consumers, you can recruit them to your crusade. By properly laying the foundations, they become actively complicit in your mission, and in turn help you succeed." 

"Customers want to buy into a business that they can believe in; they want to buy from a business that bleeds, loves and laughs in the same way they do and that stands for the same things to boot."

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I love wearing makeup. And I feel like I see many cosmetics brands are following this rule. Customers are fans for each brand. They are not just looking for good mascaras, brow products, etc. They want products that have that logo they love on them. They don't just trust the products; they also trust the brand. And when a brand launches a new product, the loyal fans are waiting, and craving to get one. Ok, so I just wrote about cosmetics industry, but you can do (or should be doing, I should say!) the same thing in every business.

And lastly, James tells us that if you're ever thinking of starting a business on your own, you need to be goddamn strong. And this means you need to take risks, be selfish, and be unreasonable sometimes to protect your mission and passion.

"On many occasions you are going to have to be ruthless, brutal, cold-blooded and cynical. This is OK. As long as it is done for the long-term good of what you are trying to achieve." 

"I love ignoring advice as much as every stupid muppet loves giving it to me. My advice, to those seeking advice, is don't even bother. Advice is for freaks and clowns. The thing about being driven is you need to know your own way." 

James says that everything you do needs to be motivated, and backed up by your mission. People will come up, and try to give you advice. But they don't know share the same passion and mission as you do, they don't really care about your company, and they're not going to take any responsibility if something (bad) happened to your company because you followed that piece of advice. But you care about your company because your life depends on it, you are going to have to take responsibility for anything that happens to your company, and you have the passion and mission. So, you should go, and do whatever what you believe in. Never try to please everyone. Stick to your mission, have faith, and work hard. That's what James is saying.

Alright! I won't give away too much information about what is written in the book, so if you want to find out more, you need to go get that book yourself. I actually want to say more to be honest, though! lol But before I start leaking more information, I probably finish this post. I really, truly enjoyed this book. My heart was pounding when I was reading this book! For real. My inner... uh, no, I think I am openly punk... Whatever. My punk spirit was very satisfied. And guess what? This book made me love BrewDog even more! I am being loyal, and I am actually writing about the company and their product on the Internet, so this is marketing too, right? lol

Ok, thank you for reading, guys! I hope I see you in my next post!