For perspective, I feel like I say it 1000 times in a week; limits are meant to be overcome, not yielded to. When I hear someone say, I can’t do this because of this, or I can’t do that, I immediately hear laziness in the terminology. It’s a lazy approach to life because skills are often needed to be developed to achieve a task. And when people tell you that something can’t be done, it’s because they are too lazy to do it, plain and simple. I understand limits, but as I talk about constantly in my new book, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, perceptions of what is achievable today will be shattered tomorrow with lots of practice. That is certainly the case with various fast draw competitions that go on all over the country that are less known to most of the world because they exist in pockets of Americana. We seem to understand these kinds of things in sports, where rookies improve with experience, and that few people expect a newly drafted football player to go straight to the NFL and be a superstar. It takes time and development to become great. And that is true too in how we make all our livings. When I hear someone tell me that it takes this much time to do this kind of thing, that is never a fixed value. But is only a point of reference that should always be pushed for and achieved. That is why I suggest that all business people stop thinking in controlled statistical ways and always look for innovation opportunities to explore what can be done, not what lazy people tell you can be.
Bullwhip Speed and Accuracy
Every year that I do the Annie Oakley Wild West Show in Darke County during the last weekend of July each year, I go through this process. It’s always one of the fun weekends that I give myself to keep the world in focus. I love Darke County, Ohio. It reminds me of many towns out west and brings the heart of America close, so it’s easy to see. And this year was no different. We have the bullwhip competitions that I always participate in, where many of these ideas about business have matured over the years and eventually evolved into the themes of this book. Now that I am one of the elderly participants, the competitions have become a period of self-reflection for me rather than a nervous do-or-die thing with legacy performers from years past. As I also talk about in The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, young people need more than anything a reputation to launch them into life. Well, I have my reputation well intact, and nobody can ever take that from me, even if the thing we are doing is relatively tiny in the scheme of things. The bullwhip competitions of Annie Oakley for me were always a big deal because the people who do them are unique. The activity is out of the box, and you develop a genuine respect for the people who share that space with you. And the competition pushes you always to get better. And once you push yourself to get better and have success, you realize that the same holds with just about everything in life, including decisions that cost millions of dollars either way if success or failure is utilized. That may be the life I’m in now, but over the years, my grounding in these cowboy arts always kept things authentic to me and gave me perspectives that nobody else was considering, even though they probably should have.
The two videos I’ve included in this article are from two bullwhip competitions from this latest 2021 Annie Oakley show. I always do pretty well in those, but the value in winning has diminished a lot over time. What matters most to me, what has become an obsession of sorts, is managing all the competition variables in these kinds of things. In both competitions, the goal is to cut as many cups off the target stands at the fastest rate that you can. One competition, the Speed Switch, requires you to do so with both hands. The other, Speed and Accuracy, is all one hand and in sequence. If you miss a cup, it’s a 5-second penalty. You get two attempts at each cup. You have to stand six feet from the target and not cross the line with your feet. The time starts on your first crack. Those are the rules. That is the way participants interact with the competition. Like in all things in life, that is how we plan to achieve success, cutting as many targets as possible in the fastest time you can. What fascinates me is all the variables that come up in pressured events that can wreck those plans. The people who usually win at these things, whether they are in bullwhip competitions or big business deals, can manage those variables.
Bullwhip Speed Switch
Many talented people are good at the exhibitions in the bullwhip world, but not so good at the competitions. Without the pressure of time, where they can show off the skills that they’ve practiced for hundreds of hours, they are magnificent world record holders, and it looks great for an audience. But when they apply the same methods to a timed competition, things go bad and don’t look so good. It has always fascinated me how the difference between the two is so applicable to life in general. People who study and practice a lot in life can put on a great show. But when the pressure is on, they usually choke. That choke is what people tell me thousands of times a week and expect me to accept because that has become fashionable in the world, to accept failure. Instead, my thing is to get comfortable with pressure and danger and learn to manage the variables. Not to yield to them.
I have done those contests for many decades now every year at the Annie Oakley event, and not a single one has ever been the same. Sometimes the popper blasts off the end of my whip. Sometimes the whip gets caught on the target stand, as happened this year. Sometimes we perform on grass, sometimes on smoothed concrete where the whip slowly slides all over the place. Sometimes the wind kicks up and throws off your aim. Sometimes, a speedy guy will have luck catching most of the targets on their first run, forcing you to go faster than you are comfortable with. All those variables are what make the good from the bad. It’s not the skill; everyone who competes has talent. But it’s in how you manage the variables that matter most.
Its all in fun, but is it……………………..?
Ultimately, that is one of the big takeaways from The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business. I’ve been a professional in the industry for more than three decades, and I work with people who also have a lot of experience. Everyone has lots of experience; they go to college, get trained and try to do the best they can. My point is that little things like these extra little competitions I do, such as bullwhip competitions force you to adapt to all the things they don’t teach you in an orthodox society. How can you use your skills to accommodate all the things that happen that you don’t control? Can you still win then? Well, of course, you can. But what makes me madder than a hornet that some kid has stuck a stick into its nest is when someone tells me something can’t be done because they have not learned themselves how to manage variables in their life. That they accept that anything outside of their skill level is a mystery that they automatically yield to. To me, that is just the kind of thing they should all be training for, in having the skill to do the job, but in honing those skills so that they can adapt to the variables that come up along the way. That they can successfully manage the situation when it’s never optimal and still succeed.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter’s Guide to BusinessClick to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business
Before delving into the murky waters of why Fifty Shades of Gray the novel has been such an overwhelming success, I can’t help but recall when the women at the Lakota School District advocating perpetual school levy tax increases decided to gather pitchforks and torches in an effort to run me out of town because of what I said about them. They did so with the assumption that all men in the world had been converted through the progressive feminist movement into the vile and worthless “Beta Man.” (TO REVIEW ALONG WITH THE “EXPLICIT” WLW RADIO INTERVIEW, CLICK HERE) To a large extent the levy women had good reason to believe it based on their personal experiences. I was a bit shocked that more men didn’t show their support in public, but rather approached me quietly in private, at gas stations, at local shopping areas to tell me that I represented what they truly felt and had always wanted to say. I shook their hands and consoled them with my thanks, but all the while I felt terribly sorry for them, because they had been taught by a confused society that they should be “Beta Men” and they stood before me powerless armed only with the ability to thank me for speaking on their behalf. One person that did see through the media smokescreen was the author of The Whistleblower who was the first to publicly show support for my controversial appraisal of the typical tax increase advocates in public schools, whom I termed “latté sipping prostitutes” because of their desire to sell themselves with tax increases in turn for raising their children in the nurturing arms of a government school which they were too lazy and insecure to do themselves.
For those who do not know what a “Beta Man” is and are requiring context Bill Whittle summed up the situation wonderfully in the video below. An example of a Beta Man as given in Bill’s video is Alan Alda and Woody Allan, both progressive “forward” leaning males. Unfortunately our society, and our women do not really want such men, even though it has been fashionable to pretend to as is in evidence by the sheer number of women who have made the recent novel released only on June of 2011 by E.L. James called Fifty Shades of Grey the bestselling book in the world. Fifty Shades of Grey has sold over 40 million copies worldwide in 37 countries outselling the entire Harry Potter series within one year. The answer as to why is contained in this video.
Beta Men are unremarkable, careful men who avoid risk and confrontation. Beta Males lack the physical presence, charisma and confidence of the Alpha male. In the animal kingdom, the Alpha Male is the dominant member of the community. Not everyone can be an Alpha Male, but females tend to like them most over Beta Males.
Progressive politics were designed by Beta Males for their own advantage, in an attempt gain access to the opposite sex with intellectual aptitude instead of physical prowess. Feminists, a progressive creation, would have society belief that “Beta Men” are what they want, so men have adapted much to their own detriment. Socially women will proclaim that they like Beta Men—and this is a quote from the link above—“because Betas are wingmen, collaborative and conciliatory. In human terms, Betas make the best mates. They do more in the house, and probably in the bedroom, because they know how to hasten the greater good. The Beta has poetry in him, and a touch of youthful idealism. He’s sure of who he is, and not constantly trying to prove his value in materialistic terms. The Beta can earn a lot of money, or a little, but the money’s not the thing; he profits because he works well with others.” Awwww, isn’t that so cute? No wonder our society is so messed up. All of that is idealistic tripe created by idiots in the progressive movement, and has no truth to the biological desires males and females yearn for in each other’s company.
Meanwhile those same women who declare publicly their love of Beta Men, who sip their lattés and plan community group hugs so they can pass school levies to save their children from the world, are running to the book store with dilated pupils to purchase Fifty Shades of Grey.
Fifty Shades of Grey is about a 27 year-old billionaire named Christian Grey suffering from physical abuse as a child, which he manifests in the bedroom as a BDSM master. (Bondage and Sado Masiciasm.) He does not seek healthy sexual relationships built on traditional romance, but submissive women who will be totally compliant sex slaves to him. In the very, very popular novel 22 year-old Anastasia Steele signs written contracts to Grey which is a dominant/submissive agreement part of which Ana is not allowed to touch or make eye contact with Grey, especially during sex. She is often tied up, spanked and beaten with leather belts in order to satisfy the sexual desire of Grey.
For millions of women, they see themselves in Anastasia Steele. Most women have the fantasy of being able to “redeem” a troubled man through their sexuality so Ana’s journey into bondage allowing herself to be beaten badly in order to “redeem” the man who took her virginity is a common issue most women suffer from. Many women find themselves in relationships that are abusive because they gave themselves sexually to a man, and are determined to use their love and sexuality as the ultimate “mothering” device to save a man from himself, just like they believe they can “love” a child out of all life’s dangers with a simple hug. (It’s a biological thing and has nothing to do with reality.) But what makes Fifty Shades of Grey particularly enticing is that Grey is a billionaire so the trouble of income supply is solved, which women require to build their lives and families with. For most women to relax and enjoy sex, the issue of money must be removed, so for the sake of this story, the main male character is a billionaire—problem solved. It’s also convenient that Ana is a young woman just leaving her college years behind and about to enter the work place. For many women, even if they are in their 40’s and 50’s, they see the decisions they made at 22 and 23 as being those which set their lives in motion, and the “what if” scenarios constantly play out in their minds. This makes it easy for them to put themselves in Ana’s shoes which is a brilliant literary device that the author E.L. James used to make this book so much more popular, and powerful than typical pornography or romance novels.
E. L. James started this journey as a self published first time writer printing on demand with a very small publisher, very similar to my first novel The Symposium of Justice. The book took off with online sales and message boards, not through the traditional marketing channels. The mainstream media would not have allowed this book to get off the ground through their critic checks and editors. It was the will of the people, particularly women that made Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels runaway smash successes that have been picked up by film production companies. To date, Warner Bros., Sony pictures Paramount, and Universal Pictures all showed intense interest in the literary rights. It was Universal Pictures working with Focus Features who won the rights to the trilogy in March of 2012 and being produced by the makers of The Social Network. Once the film rights were secured, the mainstream media began to cover Fifty Shades of Grey legitimately. In just one year the first time author E.L. James has become one of the world’s top 100 influential people.
The reason Fifty Shades of Grey is so successful is it satisfies the deep biological desire that women have for men who are Alpha, and Christen Grey from outward appearances would seem to be everything opposite of a Beta Man. He’s rich, powerful, influential, and in bed, he is in complete control, and Ana agrees to go with him to sexual places that most women only allow themselves to think about. But consistent with the modern “progressive” teachings Christen Grey has inner problems that Ana wants to help heal; by making herself into a “sacrificial victim” she hopes to bring about his redemption through her ability to take his abuse. This paradox is the recipe for most of the world’s unhappiness.
The feminist movement not sure how to react to the lust women have for Fifty Shades of Grey have attempted to say that Anastasia Steele’s desire to be tied up and beaten by an outwardly Alpha Male, but inwardly Beta Man who needs redemption through female sacrifice is reflective of women earning the right to achieve organism by any means, which is therefore liberating. But in all honesty, feminists are horrified by the implications that so many women find the plight of Ana so appealing, because in essence, it shows that women desire not just in their roles in the bedroom, but in matters of life, to be submissive to a man, and that the Beta Men of progressive creation is resented, even despised.
I knew what I was saying when I said what I did about the women who were most vocal about tax increases for our community schools. Their own inner sickness was attempting to upset the economic balance of our district at the cost of declining business and more foreclosures for members of our community. Some of the most unhappy women I have ever known found themselves attracted to men they thought were Alpha’s, but once they married bitched into Beta Manhood through constant complaints and strings of insecure utterances, just as Anastasia Steele fears that she’s not attractive enough for Christen Grey, so too are most women afraid that they cannot keep their men as age robs them of their youthful beauty. So they tend to take on the dominate role of sexuality making their men submissives, converting them into Beta Men. After a few years of marriage the men feeling resentful of the women “robbing” them of their manhood seek younger women that they can more easily dominate and manipulate while their wives seek cerebral fantasies of themselves being dominated by a rough and tumble Alpha Male. After ten or more years of marriage the couple find themselves hating each other but keeping their relationship intact for financial reasons, and family unity. Now that Fifty Shades of Grey has hit the scene, women at least in the bedroom are starting to accept playing submissive roles to their husbands to enhance their sex lives, which might actually save a few marriages. But often the damage is too far done and the emotional baggage is too great.
But the domination/submissive sex roles are extremes driven by years of progressive politics. Human beings are not happy with these progressive role changes, and it shows in their lives. In my upcoming novel Tail of the Dragon, the sex in it is what I’d consider healthy between the man and the woman main characters even though it might be considered over-the-top and extreme to those with quieter sensibilities. The intention is to show a healthy relationship between a man and a woman who aren’t so mentally dysfunctional that they have to resort to sexual bondage to bring balance to their lives. But obviously, there is a lot of dysfunction in our modern society and it is a global problem, as indicated by the blistering success of Fifty Shades of Grey.
The heart of the problem is Beta Men. They have allowed themselves to be pushed around and turned into the submissives of their relationships, and that is not what women want. Feminists will say that both sex partners should be equals, but that does not agree with the biological yearnings that a man has for a woman, or a woman has for a man. The pursuit of equality like most progressive political platforms is a quest to reinvent the desires of the human being with social engineering designed by the academic élite. It has nothing to do with reality and the observations of sexual behavior. The Beta Man just by their very existence are much more damaging to society because in their inability to satisfy women, they perpetuate divorce, encourage progressive politics, and indirectly raise taxes as women who are on the hunt for anything but the Beta Men in their lives look for causes to support which range from local school levies to Obama’s Presidential campaign as a psychological substitute. The intent of these exploits are not solving social ills as these participants might attempt to convince themselves, but to keep an eye on the horizon for their own version of Christian Grey so they can save them with their love and sexuality. But what they get back in return is a society of Beta Males who cry too much, and seem too eager to do the dishes which society says is good, but leave women sexually starving. Women want a man to do as Christian Grey does everywhere and at anytime without request. It might bring some embarrassment, and regret in hindsight, but it is these images that fill most female fantasies.
To have such a relationship in their lives women do not need a contract like the one that Christian Grey made Anastasia sign in the novel Fifty Shades of Grey. All that is required is a marriage contract where the man and the woman agree to take care of those types of things for each other without all the rules that a progressive society has instructed in an attempt at social engineering. Sex should not be used as a bargaining chip, where it is given or taken away like a mother takes candy from a child in order to mold the behavior of the child. When such a thing is done to men it turns them into Beta Men. They change their behavior to make their women happy. But the women find they aren’t attracted physically to Beta Men for obvious biological and psychological reasons so they either have an affair with someone else, or they read books like Fifty Shades of Grey. The incredible sales of that book do not speak ill of the author E.L. James but of a society that has run to her material like their very souls are on fire seeking BDSM to extinguish themselves.
The anger over my comments displayed publicly in The Whistleblower was not one of impropriety on my part for speaking metaphorically about the antics of my opponents advocating tax increases upon the community for which we all live, but that they hoped I did not see what they were really all about. They hoped that their secret was well hidden because they had surrounded themselves with Beta Men and hoped the illusion was foolproof. But it wasn’t because I know many of those critics are among the many that are salivating over Fifty Shades of Grey and deep in their minds conducting their own symphonies of BDSM.
That is why hundreds of men and women thanked me afterwards, but not with boisterous appraisals, but rather quiet winks and nods of acknowledgment because I said what everyone was already thinking, but nobody dared declare because the world has been taken over by the Beta Men fashioned by women who got what they thought they wanted, until they read otherwise in a book by E.L. James. And for those who want to read how a healthy relationship should be between and man and a woman, I might suggest my new book Tail of the Dragon. It has the sex, but without the handcuffs and bondage contracts. It’s better if women indulge in such things freely without having the ability to blame thoughtless surrender as a sex slave to a domination addict. Its OK women to be sexually submissive. Have the courage to admit it and don’t bring to the world more peril at the hands of the Beta Men. The fuel that drives the outstanding sales of Fifty Shades of Grey is the suppression of human desire in a sexual context caught up in a political struggle brought about by the progressive movement. The real desire of human beings comes about in their art, and if Fifty Shades of Grey is any indication, there is a lot that is very, very wrong with the way we conduct our lives in virtually every context. And that realization does not merit more of the same, but rather drastic revision which leaves the handcuffs and leather belts under the bed, and the orgasm under the influence of free will. To learn how to do that, I would suggest reading Tail of the Dragon.
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This is what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
It was the conclusion of a particularly difficult week when I read on The Blaze.com that a group had formed to watch out for hostile Tea Party Members, this coming on the heels of the 8/28 Rally, which may have been one of the most peaceful gatherings of such a large crowd to ever migrate to Washington. Locally, I had several colorful debates with a number of individuals regarding a school levy, which is the second attempt in less than 6 months. The article in The Blaze hit a nerve with me because as I looked into the group that was performing this “Watchdog” of the Tea Party, and saw what they considered to be “hostile, or extremist” behavior, it was apparent to me that I fell in that extremist category just by breathing air. And that the problem wasn’t in some far away land, but the same rhetoric was being applied by local union members and dedicated parents to create the same PR campaign against opponents of a school levy.
I was thinking about all these topics a few months ago also, when I sat down for a steak dinner with some of my friends after the Annie Oakley Western Showcase at the Darke County Fairgrounds, hosted by Gery Deer. Chris Camp had taught me a trick that he was doing for his shows all over the country that I wanted to try, so as I have been working on that trick, these other political problems stayed at the front of my mind, leaving me to come up with a thesis of sorts, which culminated into this video.
Enough said.
After my initial post of this, I am honored that the hottest thing regarding internet news The Blaze did a feature of this video once they heard about it.
Hope those guys keep up the great work, because I am seeing them publish stories quickly, and of a large array of topics that are hard-hitting and to the point. Too bad the rest of the media hasn’t been doing this kind of work all along, because America wouldn’t have slipped into this propaganda war that we are currently in.
The Overmanwarrior 