Catching Up with Jimmy Naraine
A while back, I had the chance to e-meet Jimmy Naraine. I’ve always been a big fan of his and admired his coming-of-age story and how inspiring the stories of his struggles are. His work has impacted me deeply and was lucky enough to have been in contact with him so when I had the chance to catch up with him on Instagram live, I was beyond excited. We discussed how he managed to change his difficult situation into the success story that he is today. So let’s get into it.
An important background that we need to establish is that Jimmy started from nothing, and I do mean nothing, climbed his way up the corporate ladder in Goldman Sachs, and became the entrepreneur that he is now.
Jimmy was born in post-communist Poland, meaning that the economy was very bad at the time he was growing up. He had a dream to travel the world, but he didn’t think it was possible, thinking that it would always stay that; a dream. He had encountered racism in Poland, had anxiety, and had no means of getting a head start in his early life which made his story just that much more inspiring to me. But here’s the thing, Jimmy knew early on that just because that’s his starting point, doesn’t mean that he can’t do the things that he wanted to in life. He thought that if there are a lot of people out there who had managed to face much bigger challenges than he is and succeeded, then why can’t he? This is where he found the concept of bending reality to your will, creating your own reality.
In our interview, Jimmy explained how we often think that there can only be one reality, one destiny meant for each individual and that this is just how the world is supposed to be, but what we don’t realize is that everything eternal is simply just a reflection of what’s going on in your head.
You shape your own reality.
And once we realize that we can bend reality to our will, we will have the power to change not only our mind but also the situation around us — this is what Jimmy had done early on in his teenage years; focusing on the possibilities which make more of them pop out seemingly out of nowhere.
All he did there was change his perception of reality. He made some things happen, hit a roadblock, changed his perception made things happen, and so on and so forth. He goes on to say that you need to change your perspective, keep changing it and keep adjusting, that’s how you can make things happen for yourself instead of surrendering to whatever perception of reality that you may have had at that point.
He goes on to say that people think celebrities don’t have problems, but here’s the thing, everyone’s got em, and it’s not about having or not having problems, but more about what you’re going to do about them.
That’s very inspiring to me because, those who know me, know my background and know the struggles that I have had in the past. It’s just good to know that I have taken the right path instead of succumbing to my perception of reality and never making anything out of myself.
I then asked Jimmy a question. It’s quite simple, but the answer might be inspiring for others; if you had to choose between an opportunity to build a new business that can both make you money and new experiences or recreate yourself because you need to grow again as a person (meet new people, learn new things, but no money in it), which one would you prefer?
He then went on to say that he would choose option number 2. He went on the explain that it’s important for you to grow and meet new people and how it’ll eventually be your biggest asset. But then he went on to say that it also depends on your personal circumstances. Are there more things that you can give more leverage in life? Number 2 is a great option but if your monetary option is so big that working in the short term can bring you something big and bring you something bigger in the future, then that’s probably the option that you should prioritize in the present.
Jimmy likes to not only be optimistic but also realistic. But if we’re talking about black and white scenarios, you should pick something that will allow you to grow. Most people also forget that they are their business. They spend the majority of their time learning about business but not about personal growth. This is because it doesn’t really matter if you’ve built your network, your channels, but because you don’t develop yourself, you will not have what it takes to be a good leader and you’ll end up sabotaging yourself and lose everything in the process. This is why it’s so important to build the foundation for your business; your personal development.
Sometimes there’s that breakthrough factor when you’re in hustle mode, you’re ultra-focused and you feel like you can achieve anything in life, but if you’re not doing the right things, then you’re probably not even getting close to your goals in life. Other times there might be that one golden opportunity that you don’t notice which may make you uncomfortable in the short term, but will give you tremendous results. This is something that you should think about long and hard and not toss away just because you thought of the discomfort that it may bring in the short term without thinking of the benefits that you may have in the future.
Jimmy made some great points in our interview and I’ll explain more about them in the next article. He’s a very inspiring figure with a lot of great things to share with the world and I feel very lucky to know and interact with him and learn new things with him all these years.
