Sawadikaaaaaaaaa

Or some shit.

Fuck me, I literally haven't slept at all in the past 30 something hours.

Hard to believe that it was just yesterday that I was feeling sad that I would be leaving Australia. I've been in Thailand for a few hours and I'm already like, "Australia who?"

Yesterday I spent a few hours just wandering around Kings Cross. I also took a trip to Bankstown, ostensibly to pick up a new pair of eyeglasses.

But really, I wanted to say goodbye to my old coworker. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to come as far as I have in the past 9 months.

That said, he doesn't know that I booked a one way ticket. He thinks I'm coming back. I kinda feel bad for him, because I can see that it's hard for him to work without me there.

But a deal is a deal. And he wanted to take over the kiosk.

Business is business, right?

We had a quick cup of coffee before I left and he asked me a few more questions about operational stuff. I tried to help him as much as I could, but the kid's problem has nothing to do with logistics.

It's all motivation, baby.

There's a famous book written by Victor Frankl called, "Man's Search For Meaning."

The author is a Holocaust survivor who managed to make it for three (maybe four?) years through Auschwitz. His reasoning is that he was so motivated to tell the story of the atrocities of the Holocaust, that he found a way to survive despite the odds being stacked against him.

A bit of survivorship bias? Perhaps.

Now that I think about it, I might have a bit of that myself in regards to my coworker.

My point here is that in the book, Frankl says that if you have a strong enough reason, you can do anything.

This is a very popular mindset in the business world. "If it is to be, it is up to me," and other quotes serve to make successful entrepreneurs feel good about themselves while giving the unsuccessful ones hope that they too may make it some day.

This is also true in sales. You can't just laze around and expect to make a lot of money as a salesperson. You have to go out and kill the wildebeast.

The lion doesn't "kind of" go out and try to kill his prey. He doesn't half-ass anything.

He goes out and fucking tears apart whatever he wants to kill with 100% effort. It's all or nothing.

That's how it is in sales/business as well. There is no halfway work. You are either working at maximum capacity or you aren't.

This is exactly why I've mentioned that sales (kiosk sales in particular) is extremely taxing. Imagine that every day you start from 0 and have to end the day on a respectable number.

It doesn't matter if you're sick or tired. It doesn't matter if it's Monday and the mall is slow. It doesn't matter if the day before you sold for $1500.

Every day you start from 0. And every day that you don't sell is a wasted day where you could have been doing literally ANYTHING other than subjecting yourself to emotional stress.

Yes, it does help to work as an exercise in character building. And by the time you're done with the day, week, month or year that you've been working (nobody does this job long term), you feel like you just finished Marine Corps boot camp: fucking unstoppable.

Still... when you're on the kiosk, you need to be there 100%. This kid is not there 100%, and it hurts me to see him like that because from my experience I know that this test is not graded on a curve.

It's pass or fail in the business world. Either you make enough money to keep going or you don't.

But then again, it's not my problem anymore. When he worked for me, it was. The second he decided to take the reins and become the boss, I'm out.

Look, I'm not going to say that I don't believe in him. He's the best worker I've ever worked with and I've worked with hundreds. The guy literally does not quit.

But if I was a betting man, I would bet against him because it doesn't look like his heart is in it.

Now, I would never say that to him because as a friend I wanted to be supportive. "Yes, you can do it. You can do anything you put your mind to."

But if I were in his position there's absolutely no way I would have extended our lease there in Bankstown to continue.

Granted, I've made a lot more money than he has in the past few months. But regardless, we've been in a small town mall for 8 months and cleaned the place the fuck out by now. We literally know the entire neighborhood at this point.

The rent is cheap and the mall is relaxed about the "rules," so it's a good place to start. And my associate is risk-averse, so it's a good fit for him.

Honestly I don't see him lasting there more than two months.

He kept asking me, "You're coming back, right?"

I think somehow he knew that I wasn't coming back. I'm not sure how he knew but motherfucker asked me that like five times. Maybe he expects me to help him?

We made our goodbyes and I headed back to the city. I still had a few hours to kill so I went and wandered around this park that's close to my old hostel. Rushcutter's Bay. Beautiful place.

Once it was time to head to the airport I said goodbye to Tony, the owner of the hostel. Can't believe I stayed in that place for nine months. When I got there I said I would only stay for a week.

It was weird to leave. But then again it's always weird to leave one of these places that I stay in for so long. The minute after I leave it's like I get amnesia, but the anticipation of leaving can be scary.

You always get these thoughts, "Am I doing the right thing? Will I miss it here? What if I'm making a mistake?"

Fuck that shit. Time for me to get my life together.

Headed to the airport and began the fucking long ass journey that took me to where I am right now: lying on the top bunk in my new hostel, smack dab in the "diamond in the rough" that is Phuket Town.

I like to think that I chose this place on purpose because I'm a cultured traveler. But that's not even close to true.

I chose this place because:

1. I want a cheap place to live where I can focus on making money online
2. It's close to the beach in case I want to go
3. I can get a cheap apartment if I get sick of the hostel life
4. This was the cheapest flight for the dates I wanted to leave ($250 one way from Oz!)

I won't bother going into the various flights I took and my experience at the airport. It was fucking airports and flights, okay? They suck. Really want to hear me complain about it?

When I got to Phuket Town I wolfed down some street food ($4 for a bunch of chicken and sticky rice, plus a diet coke), posted a few pics on my Instagram pages and now here I am, Steeming it up.

Next up on the menu is going to try and get some prescription goodies from one of the wonderful pharmacies here in the area. Hey, I need them to work, okay? I have ADD or something. Don't judge me.

Also might try to have sex with this chick in my room. Hope she doesn't use Steemit.