Credit: Dj Fuji
Exceedingly few people are aware of this, but every year leading up to and directly after The 21 Convention, there is a lot going on in my personal life. Obviously the time surrounding the convention – be it in North America or Europe – is absolutely critical and highly important to me. I love this convention like nothing else, and the time near the live events is especially exciting and event filled.
That said, no matter how highly I value my time and organize it into the most effective way possible for the live events, anything else absorbing my time and mental attention during that “crunch period” is a distraction, unless it is absolutely necessary, or used a means to relax, unwind, and recharge my mind.
While there is more to my life than this convention, I do see the bulk of my personal life during these particular times, as a distraction, and cuts can, have, and will continue to be made for those time periods.
By the same token, I have not been able to focus myself to the degree I am capable of and desire throughout the course of the past five 21 Convention’s, in a year round sense.
This was primarily due to my academic enrollment at the University of Central Florida, which as you may have guessed, ate up a significant amount of my time and mental attention.
Well, while I don’t have too much left to go, I am taking a year off.
And yep, you guessed it, I have taken significant heat from my friends and family for this.
I simply can’t devote another second of my time or ounce of mental effort to something that would take away from The 21 Convention during such a critical growth period. Not one second, not one ounce. This convention is something I deeply believe in because I have come to believe in myself, and the individuals that have chosen to get involved with The 21 Convention, and as such, I find sticking pencils in my eyes more appealing than staying in school at this very moment.
This convention is meant to reach it’s peak potential, and the time has come to free myself and make that happen.
As a direct result of this freedom, this will be the first year The 21 Convention has the full, undivided attention I have desired to devote to it since the very beginning.
Which admittedly, is a bit scary for me personally. I will now have the opportunity to test myself, the beliefs I hold behind, and the dreams I have for, The 21 Convention.
I have sold most of what I own, and the rest is either with friends, family, or unfortunately stolen. In any case, I have cut my living expenses down to almost nothing, and will spend the year backpacking non stop (I will be sharing further trip details on my blog) – although obviously, part of that time will be spent in Europe to promote the convention being held there next June in London.
What does this mean for you as a fan, attendee, or speaker?
It means the quality of this entire convention is about to improve, dramatically, at it’s core. Be it the website you are now viewing, the news letter soon to begin, the community forum, the immense amount of free video content, the documentary series, and not even but especially the live events being held in London and Orlando this year.
I will now have the time to do the things I have always wanted to, yet not been able to due to the life circumstances I have chosen to put myself in up to this point in time.
Hence, I am calling this coming year the year of The 21 Convention. The first year, I, as the founder, am totally 100% free and independent to further push this convention in the direction of it’s peak potential.
Like I said, a bit scary, but exciting as hell =).
Two live events, four days each, thousands of miles apart, bonus events and dinners, a documentary series to continue, and nearly 50 hours of high definition footage to release free to the world – it’s going to be a busy year.
Not to mention, I am shooting for the stars this year at BOTH events in terms of the speaking line ups. This is the number one men’s convention in the world, and while the speakers have consistently come to reflect that better and better at each event, it’s time that reflection was crystal f**king clear.
As far as I am concerned, no speaker is off limits. While I have my own speakers in mind, if you can name them, I will contact them and do my absolute best to get them to the event should I choose to have them, regardless of how much money they are worth, or how “impossibly” hard they are to contact – I will find a way.
To suggest a speaker – and remember, no one is off limits – contact Info@The21Convention.com.
Stay tuned, more to come … and by the way, big props to rising star of The 21 Convention and The Community Tapes, Dj Fuji, for being the first speaker to confirm for both 2011 events on his blog.
Anthony: I don’t know you could have made this year’s convention any better, mad props for making it what it was; even madder props for setting the stage and my expectations even higher.
Since you asked, I’ll give some recommendations. I would very much like it have more business content, especially starting a small business. I’m sure you can find a bunch of small business owners, especially young ones, with interesting things to say. I would love to hear a dating coach for example delve into the area of starting and running a service business.
You could also find someone who’s good at speaking about early career stuff (like networking, interviews, job hunting etc.), but at the same time someone who’ll cut the bullshit and give an unconventional/contraversial point-of-view (rather than the advice we would get with a standard university career counselor).
simz
Rob Dyrdek
Joel Bauer
Tim Ferriss
Kevin Rose
Ron Paul
Ha, Kevin Rose would be interesting. Not familiar with the first two guys. Tim Ferriss is one of my top picks. I will do something special on my blog this year to really push him to speak at one or both of the events.
Rob Dyrdek is a professional skateboarder and entrepreneur, hes been in the show Rob and Big on MTV and has his own show now called Rob Dyrdek’s fantasy factory
Great idea simon! And also one of the things I’ve been experimenting with for a while now.
As for speakers on the subject I think someone like Charlie Hoehn (http://recessionproofgraduate.com/) or Colin of Exile Lifestyle (http://exilelifestyle.com/free-personal-branding-ebook/) could be cool! They are both pretty young and really interesting when it comes to unconventional job hunting.
I’m also writing about the topic everyone now and then (http://jonassandstrom.com/how-to-create-your-own-opportunities/) and actually have a follow up post coming in a while.
@Anthony, This year will be MASSIVE!
/Jonas
The speakers this year were amazing! Stoked for the footage to be released.
Hopefully I’ll get the chance to talk to Ron Paul this weekend, I’ll definitely mention the convention to him. He may be busy with the campaign if he runs for President though. Rand Paul is another great option. Would Tom DiLorenzo or Tom Woods be a good choice? They might fall outside of the ‘mens-success’ theme.
See ya this weekend!
-Daniel/Doctor D
PS. I heard the Ladies of Liberty Alliance after party Friday night is going to be good (and they’re hot).
Just bought my ticket to the Liberty Summit, excited to be there as well, hope to run into you to. And definitely appreciate mentioning it to Ron Paul. While I’m extremely cautious about taking this convention political in any way, Ron is a guy I’d make an exception for in a heart beat. Agree or disagree with the guy, he has passion and conviction in his voice like few other men currently alive do – something everyone can aspire to and appreciate.
As for Tom and Tom, I think Woods could do really well at the convention without necessarily getting into anything political. Ill be sure to talk to him at the event if I can find an opportunity (something tells me he’ll be easier to meet than Ron Paul who is something akin to a rock star at this point).
Totally lookin forward to the Lady Liberty thing. Let’s rock =)
Thanks for the encouragement Jonas. Look forward to hanging out again. Ill be sure to stop by Sweden again next year!
The speakers are excellent suggestions, especially Charlie. Will look into him this year for sure.
Totally agree with Simz. I’d like the 21 convention to reflect the real world knowledge and experience on things you’re SUPPOSED to know but that no one ever teaches you. Dating is a big topic but there are a bunch of other topics that school or traditional education also leaves out. For as much school as we do, even college and grad school leave out things like etiquette, dating, social interactions, humor, investing, belief systems/inner game/confidence, etc.
I’d like to see the 21 convention represent a real-world ‘Man’s Guide to Life.’
I’m with you on that second sentence and last sentence to the MAX. Developing a sense of humor could be a really cool topic to. Never thought of incorporating that before, thanks for the idea.
Good-stuff. Midgame?
FREAKIN’ AWESOME! I’ve been dieing to get out to your convention for 2 years now. Been spreading the word out in Cali. You’ve inspired me to stop living in my car, be a man, get off my ass, eat right, work out once a week and start a biz. I’ve left everything behind, moved to Vegas, made a deal in Spain and just got back and had an interview with CNN 2 days ago. I think it’s bad ass that your focusing all you energy towards the 21 convention. I’m most def goin to the next one! Anytime you wanna game in the Virtusphere it’s on the house.
I love how a lot of people will read this and be like “wtf? Once a week workout is an accomplishment?” haha. Props man, thanks for the kind words. You taking these actions is in part what motivates me to do what I do. Look forward to meeting next summer in London, Orlando, or both!
I had a Badass time!! this year at the Convetion… Props to Anthony for making the convention a solid, well-rounded event that improves leaps and bounds every year. Just throwing some ideas out there I would love to see the convention broken into certain days that focused on one particular interest such as Day 1 – Business and Entrepeneurship Day 2 – Dating and Pickup Day 3- Fitness and Eating Day 4- The best of Everything. I would throw out an idea for having a get together one night where everyone could bring their business cards and network. The older guys could give advice to the younger guys. This could be a great, creative brainstorming session for entrepreneurs. I really liked the approcah camp the 1st night and would love to see that continue. I really like DJ FUJI idea with having social interactions, etiquette, and humor worked in.
Good luck on your travels See you in 2011
The Twenty-One Convention– World’s LEADING Men & Women’s Success Empire 2020
Joel Bauer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBxeDN4tbk
How to Persuade People Who Don’t Want to be Persuaded
I second Rob Dyrdek-look him up on youtube, he’s not involved in anyway with the community or anything like it, but he absolutely EMBODIES the spirit of success/happiness/etc and everything that we look up to in the so called community. he would be the absolute bomb.
-Anthony Robbins
-David Deida
-Eckhart Tolle
-Donald Trump
-Brad Pitt
Hey… only my opinion but you overachiever types slugging it through college while doing things others will never do in their lives let alone at your age- give this message to your naysayers.
The world is changing. Really. Look around you. Iphones(?), 2006 they did not exist? Now there’s 200 million and a $1 billion app market. MIT has 2,000 courses offered online- FREE.
Question- are you really going to college to get an education or to get a rubberstamp into the collective that filters the masses by the degree you have? Do you really believe that in today’s world there is an established curriculum that is not behind the curve of the lightspeed innovation we must accept as the tempo of our culture? Do you really believe any future employer- a concept in itself that is becoming obsolete- is going to view massive entreprenurial accomplishments in lieu of a diploma as being inferior to the next 50 guys looking for the job? More importantly, do you really believe that high exposure networking with influential people will yield fewer opportunities in the future than a degree that hundreds of thousands of others will also get and appraoch the world through traditional channels of job-getting through marginal advantage and/or randomness?
There’s lots of bad reasons to drop out but if you can meet the principle purposes of a college education without it (exponentially easier today than 10 years ago)- Networking, Knowledge/Expertise in your field of choice, and establishing a foundation for a desirable career, and demonstrate exceptional capabilities in the real world to any prospective future employer (if you were to need one), then why the hell would you stay in college?
Best of luck!