On my 21st birthday I shared a list of 21 lessons I’ve learned during my short spell on earth. On my 22nd birthday I worked for weeks on a free 2 hour video course called Cloud Blueprint. And if there’s anyone really good at guessing, then you probably know that today is my 23rd birthday. I thought for a long time about what I wanted to share here. I knew that I didn’t want to share something “personal developmenty” and I already have a big marketing related announcement coming in the next few days, so I decided to do something else.

That something else, is just to be personal.

If you can’t tell from the various places I post online, I really don’t care for being famous or recognised. I used to happily have videos of me all over PluginID and photos around the web, but I would rather have my work be well known rather than me personally as Glen Allsopp.

That being said, I know part of the reason some of you come here is because you connect with me and my story of struggling for a really long time to make it online. So, today – though I still don’t want to be famous – I’m going to share some random events from the last few weeks of my life.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you’ll probably know that I once again said goodbye to all of my friends and familiarities and moved to a new continent. Asia to be more specific. My whole life has been neatly packed up in a suitcase (and is now messily spread out around my temporary apartment) and I’ve constantly had AirAsia.com open in my browser tabs, picking my next destinations.

I did say they were random…

• I was approached by the tiniest Asian girl in the world at 9pm asking if I wanted a threesome. When I asked “with who?” I was pointed to the tallest Asian guy in the world (taller than me, and I’m 6’3″). I declined…honest
• I’ve driven around the side streets of Bangkok at 5am helping a fellow traveler try to find his backpack after he thought the side of a Tuk Tuk (?) is home for your personal luggage. It isn’t.
• I literally had to force a hairdresser to accept my money because even though she only makes about $500/m, she said she “only charges Asian people”.
• I witnessed my first fake lady garden in the middle of a packed nightclub
• I rented a scooter for the first time in my life and ended up stuck in some side alley because it had no petrol (the Empty dial is on the right, instead of the left like I’m used to). I was then rescued by a man named Omar who pushed me with his foot on my scooter while he drove his to a garage. Thank you Omar.
• I’ve been driven around countless streets by a Taxi driver to try different ATM machines because I couldn’t get any of them to give me money. It turns out I had forgot to warn my bank that I was moving to Asia so they had temporarily blocked the account. The taxi driver also had to be forced to take my money
• I’ve had guys try to fight me in a club because their girlfriend walked up to me and asked “why do you look so happy?”. I guess they thought I was hitting on her.
• I’ve spent 4 hours trying to console a friend who drove over a cat and couldn’t stop crying uncontrollably. A few days later I sent her a message just saying “Murderer”. That didn’t go down too well
• I walked into a ladyboy bar because I was sick of being hassled by hookers and found a guy in the corner playing pool. We got chatting and I discovered that he lives two minutes from where I was born in Newcastle. Small world indeed.

I’ve met overly drunk assholes who think the world owes them a favour. I’ve met people who see me as nothing more than a $ sign. And I’ve also met just the most amazing, generous, kind, fun people that I can see keeping as my friends for the rest of my life.

Every single day has been a crazy adventure of new things happening, and I’ve honestly never been happier. As you’re reading this I’m probably at immigration in Singapore. There’s a woman that works there / here that some friends have dubbed “Nazi lady” because she seems to hate foreigners and constantly shouts at people, so I’ve been challenged to get a photo taken with her. The Glen of a few years ago probably be too shy or scared to think about it, but this Glen is happy to write her a love note in Malay and do every crazy thing I can in front of people to get that photo.

Because I’m so interested in websites and marketing, I am constantly having new ideas and looking at how things could be better as I browse around the web. It’s a blessing and a curse. The same goes for the personal development side of my life too. Out of all the crazy things that have been going on, I’ve tried to find some “lesson” or experience amongst the madness.

I think I found something, and I have a feeling it will have a big impact on your life (unless you enjoy being a hater).

Consciously make an effort to not judge or mentally critique anyone or anything, and you’ll start caring so much less about what people think of you.

When I say anything, I mean it. The girl on Facebook who posts photos you think are unattractive. The guy on Twitter who annoys you because he’s bitching so much. The guy walking around the street wearing socks with sandals. The dude who is so overweight he is hanging over the side of his plane seat.

Just for today, give it a try. Be conscious of every mental critique that you impose on others and the things that they do, no matter how big or small. And then stop. The byproduct in my case has just been a huge decline in worrying about how people view me in any way.

I’ve only told a few people here that it’s my birthday, as I don’t want presents or a big party (though I’m sure it’s going to happen it happened) but continuing with the theme of being personal, I wanted to end this post with a present I received from a very awesome person.

I was going to cut out the commentary, because it’s not exactly professional or ViperChill material and some of it only makes sense to me. But hey, I said this post was about being personal, and this is just a little something that happened in the life of Glen.

I’m amazed someone actually did this for me. Thank you Dork x

I’ve turned off comments on this post, not because I don’t want to hear from you all but because I don’t want it to seem like I’m seeking tons of Happy Birthday messages (and my habit of trying to respond to them all is going to break my fingers).

As far as OptinSkin goes, we’ve remained number #1 in our Clickbank category every single day since launch, and it’s the 16th best selling software on the entire Clickbank marketplace right now. Thank you to all of our customers who supported me and the product. The amount of people now getting way more opt-ins (and making way more money) is exactly why I created it, so I’m feeling very honoured and privileged that it has been such a success.

If you want to get me a present, then please come back next week (I think Wednesday, but I’ll need to ask Mr. X to confirm) where I have a big announcement about ViperChill, and I’ll be asking you to comment on something, so please do.

Finally, all that’s left is to THANK YOU all for giving me a place to do what I love to do, and for coming back every time. I’m living my dream, and you can be sure that if I make it to 100, I’ll have spent every year trying to help other people do the same.

Tweet