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You're listening to Operation Self Reset with Jake Nawrocki. Now where did I put that reset
button?
Hello and welcome back to Operation Self Reset: the one and only place where you can change
the way you think, act, and believe in yourself. Again, thank you so much for taking the time
to listen to what I have to say and thank you for the responses that I have already
received online, the comments, the questions, and concerns that you guys have offered to
me. I appreciate the feedback and I love the communication so far. Keep it up, and this
should grow into a huge community. And maybe, depending on how big it will get maybe we'll
all go to Florida and have a big party or something to celebrate this great success.
I don't know.
But today I want to talk about something that is very near and dear to myself, something
that I had to get over to become successful. Well, not really successful, but I will explain
more in a minute, and I want to talk to you guys today about fear. What do you fear? Now,
I'm not talking about the things that scare you like getting in an elevator packed with
people. You know, funny quick story about any elevator. When I went to college, I stayed
in the dorms and there were about 13 floors I remember in one of the complexes and I was
not on this elevator, but it was a rumor that got spread around and it was in the local
paper and everything like that. Some kids were traveling up and down the elevator one
night and decided to get as many people as they could into the elevator. Guess how many
kids that they jammed in a standard elevator? Not ten, not 15—22. There were 22 kids in
the elevator and because there was so much weight it actually fell all the way into the
emergency shaft below ground where the springs are housed, and the kids were sitting in there
for about two to three hours before the fire department could really start pulling them
out one at a time. There were so many kids in there that they were standing on each other's
shoulders, and then a couple of the kids were freaking out, and then the lights were flickering
on and off, and it was getting hot down there. So, luckily, I was not in that elevator because
that would've been a nightmare.
So, that's not the fear I'm talking about today though. Could you imagine yourself in
an elevator with 22 other people? Just random people. It's getting hot. The lights are flickering.
People are starting to freak out, and you knew you were gonna stay in there for about
one to two hours. Oh my gosh. Good Lord. That, that's fear. I don't want that. No way. So
I want to talk to you guys about what do you guys fear? Obviously, with Operation Self
Reset we're talking about changing yourself, right? And the only way to really change yourself
is to get over certain events, certain things that are holding you back. And that's what
I mean by fear. What are the events, the things, the emotions, the ideas that are holding you
back from success, from achieving your goals? But I'm also talking about the fears that
just make our gut turn in knots. The fear that makes your voice quiver. The fear that
just makes your whole body kind of go limp—what is that fear for you?
Well, I'm gonna tell you my fear, and why is that? Because I'm the only one talking
to you right now. And hopefully at the end of this episode you guys can identify your
own fears and then post them on the comments on the website or leave me a voice message
on the website, and I will go over everybody's fears—not everybody. I'm gonna go over a
couple, and we'll talk them through. How can we improve on our fears and get over them.
So the reason why I really wanted to bring this subject up is because I was thinking
to myself, "What was my first step when I realized that I wanted to change who I was?"
When I went through all the processes of exploring myself and traveling and talking to different
people and stuff like that, what was the one fear that I was freaking out about? Well,
my one fear that I identified was putting myself out there. That was my fear—of getting
over the tactic of thinking to myself, "My gosh, other people might find out what I'm
doing, and they might start making fun of me." That was my biggest fear which is really
weird. I didn't mind meeting new people. I didn't do any public speaking, but I didn't
mind getting in front of groups and telling them my story and all that stuff. It was more
of the people surrounding me finding out what made me happy, what was my passion.
And so the reason why I bring this up again is because it relates to a story that I'm
gonna share with you, and it has to do with my first invention and it was called the TailgateSpotter.
You guys can go check it out: TailgateSpotter.com. And the way that I thought of this invention
was because I read a book called The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and that inspired
me to have a passive income and he talked about a lot of people how they created businesses,
had ideas, inventions, kind of knick-knack kind of things, and they created great wealth
because of that. So as I'm reading the book, I'm always thinking of different products
and business ideas and stuff like that. Well, when I was traveling to the east side of Milwaukee,
I stopped at Home Depot to pick up cabinets. I was rehabbing one of my real estate properties
on the east side of Milwaukee there, and I went to Home Depot and they delivered 16 cabinets
of all different sizes and they put it in the back of my pickup truck, right? When they
put it in the back of my pickup truck, I literally thought I closed the tailgate, right? Well,
I'm not gonna ruin the end for you. So I'm driving to my properties. I'm jamming
out to the radio. It's a beautiful day. I'm on the expressway. Now, this expressway goes
through the heart of Milwaukee which is a very popular expressway. So as I'm traveling,
literally there was nobody in front of me, and there was nobody behind me. Of course,
there were more people coming, but it just felt really eerie. I was just jamming out
to the radio, hanging out. I had my arm outside. I was living that Bon Jovi song—living on
the edge, take my hand. Yeah, that song, but I didn't realize that my cabinet was also
living on the edge because it was getting ready to fall off of my truck. And sure enough
as I was proceeding up kind of a little hill in the road, my kitchen sink base cabinet
fell out of the back of my pickup truck and landed in the third lane of the expressway.
Now, I don't know if you guys know what a sink base is, but it's 36 inches long by 24
inches deep and it's solid wood. I mean that thing is a very large cabinet. So, obviously,
if somebody is proceeding on the expressway, they should see it hopefully, right?
So as that thing hit, it was like a big smack! And I look in my side mirror and I see that
thing spinning, and I'm freaking out. I instantly get that gut feeling in the pit of my stomach,
and I'm like, "Oh my gosh!" Well, there's no way I'm gonna slam on my brakes and go
and get it because I'm going like 65 miles an hour—because that was the speed limit
and I don't speed. And so I immediately pulled over in the right hand lane, in the emergency
lane, and I got on my cell phone. I'm calling 911. Well, like I stated before, there's nobody
around me, and as I'm sitting there I'm on the phone with 911. I'm looking in the side
mirror and I'm staring at the cabinet, just sitting there, and I'm thinking, "My god,
somebody's gonna hit this. My gosh, somebody's gonna hit this." And you ever hear that, "Oh,
you know, if you believe it, you can achieve it." Well, I believed, and I knew somebody
was gonna hit that cabinet, and well, guess what, somebody did hit that cabinet.
There was a white sedan that proceeded up that little incline. He saw the kitchen cabinet.
He locked up his brakes and dashed, dove into the emergency lane, the left-hand emergency
lane. Right behind that white sedan was a Jeep Wrangler, and that thing had no time
to stop and it plowed right into it. I mean, it was like the 4th of July. That thing blew
up like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. [08:06]. That was my very high tech crashing sound.
And I had my hands in my face. I thought, "This is ridiculous." Well, I hung up from
911 because, of course, what's the point now? I mean, the cabinet is in a million pieces.
That guy pulls up right behind me. We get out and he was actually—I mean, not cool
about it but he was okay. I mean, he was nice about it. He understood it was an accident
and stuff like that. We exchanged information and proceeded on our way. Well, I obviously
felt so bad. I was so embarrassed. I thought, "My god, what the heck was I thinking? I didn't
even know my tailgate was down. Whatever." Well, the reason I couldn't see if my tailgate
was in the up or down position is because I had kitchen cabinets blocking my view from
my rearview mirror. And I don't know if you guys have a pickup truck, but in your side
mirrors you cannot see the location of your tailgate, right?
So as I'm driving down to the east side, I feel like crap. I'm embarrassed. I'm hating
myself. I'm thinking to myself, "Huh, there must be other people out there like myself.
There has to be a better way, right?" So I start thinking, "Huh, I wonder if there's
like a device you can put on your tailgate to let you know if it's in the up or down
position without getting out of your truck and all that stuff, right?" So I go home that
night and I start browsing online. Google searching and everything—any keyword known
to man that has to do with a spotter or a location device on the tailgate. You know,
a sensor or something like that. There was nothing out there. I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh,
this could be my moment, right?"
So I start fiddling with stuff, like prototypes, and I have blocks of wood and Velcro and magnets
and wire and pieces of steel and glue and tape and all this crazy stuff, right? So it
took me literally about five generations to narrow this bad boy down into a simple device
that attaches to the back of your tailgate to let you know if your tailgate's in the
up or down position. What it is is it's a magnet that adheres to your tailgate and there's
a little pole with a little flag, or my logo, on the end, and when you're sitting in the
driver's seat of the truck, you look in your side mirror and you can know if the tailgate
is up or down depending on the location of that flag, right? Brilliant idea, you know?
It didn't scratch the car. It was cheap to make. It was, I feel, and I still believe
a really good design. It was one of those things I'm just so proud of this thing, right?
Of course, I told my family, and I didn't tell my friends because I was embarrassed.
I didn't want to tell them that I'm working on my invention in my basement because they'll
say, "Invention? Why don't you just go drink with us?" So, as the prototypes continued,
I finalized my last one. I got it down perfect. It looked good. It functioned well. It kind
of made sense and everything.
Now, before I say it looks professional and looks really good, now, again, this is me
making this in my basement, so this isn't a piece of molded plastic that looks like
you could go buy this at Walmart. Of course, it looked a little bit handmade, but still
very impressive—what I feel. If you guys have a chance, go to the website: TailgateSpotter.com.
When I finally finalized that last prototype and I knew that this was my invention, this
was my moment to release this to the world and let the world buy Tailgate Spotters and
make me filthy rich. Ha, ha, ha! I realized I felt an internal gut-turning, nauseating
feeling, and I knew what it was as soon as I finished the prototype or the finalization
of the TailgateSpotter. It was releasing it to the public.
Now, it might not sound like that big of a deal. You're probably thinking, "Come on,
Jake. Toughen up." Right? But it was one of those things, mentally I was thinking, "Oh
my gosh, now I'm gonna have to start a Twitter account. I'm gonna have to maybe start a Facebook
account. I'm gonna have to produce YouTube videos. I'm gonna have to put this out there.
I'm gonna have to start telling my friends and family and coworkers and relatives and
all this stuff." And I just felt embarrassed which was really weird because why should
I feel embarrassed? This is something I'm proud of, you know? I had a situation that
did not turn out well for myself, and I made a product to solve the problem, right? But
for some odd reason, I just couldn't get over that. So I knew mentally, "Okay, well, I obviously
have to still create the website, make some videos and stuff like that before I even start
pushing this out there." So I was thinking, "Alright, so I got some time." So I was still
motivated. I was still feeling good about the whole situation, and when it came time
to finally push that publish button, I again had that nauseating feeling. But I thought,
"You know what? There's so many people out there that have these brilliant ideas and
they do nothing with them." You might be listening right now and you have an idea that is just
in the back of your head and you're thinking, "I don't want to tell anybody about this because
this is so good. I mean, this is revolutionary. This could change everything." But yet, what
have you done to bring that to life? Nothing! You need to! If you're listening and you have
that idea, please, take the first step and do something about it. Get it out of your
brain and put it on paper. When you put it on paper, then start your prototyping. Okay,
that's a whole another podcast. This is about fears.
So anyway, so I finally press that publish button and on the website I had my videos;
I had pictures; I had testimonials; I had the Buy It Now button; I had the free shipping,
question and answer page. All this stuff. It looked good. I was so freaking proud of
it, and to this day I'm so proud of it because I'm able to share with you guys my process
of getting over my own fear. And at first when I launched it, I thought, "Okay, cool.
I don't really have to tell anybody about this because there's gonna be people online
that are just gonna find it and buy it, right?" Well, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours pass. Nobody
bought one. Then weeks go by and a couple of weeks go by. Nobody continued to buy any.
Now, of course during the process I started handing out some to my friends and family.
And my coworkers as soon as they started finding out, they were laughing their butts off at
it. And, you know what? It was all in good fun. By no means were any of them very harsh
or said, "That was a waste of time. You're so stupid." They weren't very negative. No,
none of them were. It was all in good fun, but it was embarrassing for me because they
were just relentless, you know? It was as if somebody broke a cup and then they say,
"Hey, if there was only a simple-to-use device that could attach to this cup so I wouldn't
have to drop it." It was just every single day, and I laugh about it because it was pretty
funny. But once I started getting over that fear, after my coworkers found out, it started
to lessen the load on me. You know, I started believing, "Okay, not bad." I got over that
initial fear of putting myself out there.
Now, what did I learn about that and what do I want to tell you guys that you guys can
implement in your own lives? There are going to be things that you are interested in. There
are going to be things that you want. There are going to be things that you just have
the passion and desire for that other people don't. Whatever it may be: your hobbies, your
book readings, whatever. There are people that you know that just don't care about that,
and that's okay. And that is literally A-Okay. Because you know why? They don't care. As
much as you think that they care and they're gonna bring the pain on you and they're going
to rip on you and they're gonna make you feel lousy and you're gonna feel like you wasted
their time. No! That's not their time to waste. It's your time. Whatever makes you happy you
have to do for yourself. That's why I said a couple of minutes ago about the whole invention
thing. If you have this idea and you feel it's so good, you need to get it out of your
head and start acting on it. That's the number one thing a lot of people do when they have
these ideas for a business invention, the way to change the things surrounding them,
is that they always want to do it but they never take action.
So bringing it back to my fear of putting myself out there. After I got over that hump
of letting my coworkers know and the people surrounding me know, the response was funny
and they're ripping on me at first. But over time, you wouldn't believe how many people
came up to me and said, "Hey, Jake, how is that TailgateSpotter thing going?" And I started
laughing, "Ha ha, yeah, I haven't sold any. Yeah, whatever. Blah, blah, blah. Sure, what
are you gonna do? Rip on me?" And they said, "No, no, no. I think it's a great idea." And
then they would start pouring out their heart and soul to me. They'd say, "You know what?
I really have this deep down invention. You want to hear what it is?" I'd say, "Sure."
And they would pour out these inventions to me, and they'd say, "Oh, this would help so
many people and this would help that guy" and so on and so forth.
And I realized that by putting myself out there I started letting other people take
action in their own lives. It was so weird! The number one guy that was ripping on me
the most, pulled me aside and was asked, "Hey, how did you do this? How did you file that
patent? How did you find a logo? How did you design this and how did you make the website?"
and all that stuff. And I'd say, "Yeah, I did A, B, C, and D, and I went here and there."
And I felt appreciated. I felt like, "Wow, you know what? When I put myself out there,
the people that are surrounding me will feed off of that. They'll want to improve themselves.
They'll want to get better themselves and realize that they have it within them to make
inventions and products and stuff like that." So don't feel that your fear is limiting only
to yourself. Your fear is scary only to you, but the possibilities of improving the people
around you once you get over your fear is amazing. The feelings that will surround you
and your closest relatives and coworkers will just be amazing.
So my question to you is what's your fear? Your number one fear. I was just talking and
interviewing a public speaker, and he said the two fears that freak everybody out are
number one: public speaking; number two is death. So what are the fears that freak you
out? And I'm not talking about a physical fear like a knife in your face or the dentist
or something like that. I agree with you: that stuff is pretty crazy. No, but I'm talking
internal fears. Is it rejection? Is it just not feeling appreciated? Is it not feeling
loved? What is your fear? And I want you to go to the website: OperationSelfReset.com.
Write that in the comments or feel free to leave me a voice message. I have a voice message
mailbox on the left side of the page. Record your fear and I'll compile all the fears and
stuff like that and we'll go over them together, because the only way to improve yourself is
to get over your main fear.
Now, of course, there are other fears that affect us, but there is always that one fear
that freaks you out and what is yours? Mine was embarrassment from coworkers and putting
myself out there, and I realized once I got over that life is amazing. I feel more confident.
I feel that I can open up and tell people what I'm doing and not feel ashamed. So tell
me yours. We'll get through this. Again, thank you so much for taking the time. Go to OperationSelfReset.com.
Also, to check out my invention: TailgateSpotter.com. www.TailgateSpotter.com. Check out the videos.
They're pretty funny, I think. And let me know your thoughts on that. So, again, I'm
not selling this product. You don't even need to buy it. I'm not even making it anymore,
but it's something I want to keep around for my kids and let them know that they have the
ability within them to achieve whatever they want. And that's, again, what life is all
about. Don't hold things in. take action and do it. Now that's a whole another podcast
about taking action. Again, thank you so much. Go to the website. Go to TailgateSpotter.com.
Tell me your thoughts. Tell me your fears. Make it a great day. Enjoy life. And we will
catch you on the next episode. See ya!