AMA JON FISHER - ASK ME ANYTHING



What advice would you give about cultivating and maintaining motivation?

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Top 3 business-related books you ever read?

I don't read much.. Nor do I take what I read and get all happy and apply it as if it's the holy fucking grail of advice or info. Best advice is to try, fail, learn from mistakes and try again. No book will help you with that (unless of course you're trying to kill someone by smashing their head in with that book.. then, fine.)


Crystallizing Public Opinion
Wolf of Wall Street
Liar's Poker

There are a few others, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
 
What is your favorite AOL Punter?

I liked the GUI of HaVok and that Blue Cross/Shield (lol) one.

Just so everyone knows, I've known Will since the mid-90's. We were in a "hacker crew" together. We were both Capos. My my how things change. Now you're in MY crew, biatch! Oh, the memories...
 
In your view Jon, what is the next big push online where both idiots and savvy bastards will be making life altering money?
 
How did Wickedfire gain such a quick following?

When you empower people during a period where absolute change is necessary, that's when a community like WickedFire will flourish. I didn't do all that much to make it grow as quickly as it did. I just provided the leadership and the platform.

If you want something to change, you have to lead the way. And you have to be the real deal too, otherwise it will fail, hard. Just look at all of the guys that started up just to rival WickedFire.

There are so many sub-niches in this industry alone, that forums in other somewhat related ie. BH related techniques, were ready to blow up, hence when BHW came onto the scene, they took full advantage of Quadszilla's blog/forum not being very active and paid to play, and then took a stab at Syndk8, which is a great forum, but BHW served a purpose to be the place to go to if doing illegal shit was okay with you.

Its nothing like WickedFire, we're like the general portal for creative out of the box and unique strategies and personalities. We're not kids either. But the vast majority of us share very similar core traits, such as not putting up with fake people, products, places, etc, and being at the cutting edge/forefront of the industry. We're like a brotherhood/fraternity. The absolute majority of big earning affiliates today, will trace their roots back to here. Same with many of the networks out there now, and the advertisers too. But I never bothered taking credit for it until recently, and by now, it doesn't matter much because who the hell wants to be tied back to most of those scumbags now anyway. ;)
 
Biggest regret (or more like, what you would do differently), in terms of business / working?
 
If you were to take $250K of your own money, what industry or technology would you invest it in?
 
What stops you from leaving WF on the doorstep of the proverbial local hospital/police station/ church?

Very good question. Wasn't sure if people were aware of how much this place has drained the life out of me some days and given me a bounty of rewards on others.

I guess the answer would be, hope. I got too emotionally attached to it, and never treated it as a business like I should have. But then again, I never thought it would ever become what it has become today.

...plus I'd get a knock at the door late at night from them demanding I take the fucker back.
 
Very good question. Wasn't sure if people were aware of how much this place has drained the life out of me some days and given me a bounty of rewards on others.

I guess the answer would be, hope. I got too emotionally attached to it, and never treated it as a business like I should have. But then again, I never thought it would ever become what it has become today.

...plus I'd get a knock at the door late at night from them demanding I take the fucker back.

Have you ever considered selling the forum?
 
What advice would you give about cultivating and maintaining motivation?

I'm naturally gifted with being able to motivate and lead people. Its a habit sometimes.

But I hear this question often... Cultivating and maintaining motivation are two different animals, sir.

You don't really cultivate motivation, you're either motivated and have the drive pulsing and pushing you to get shit done, whatever that shit is, or... you don't.

Maintaining it, you're probably asking because you find it hard to get it and keep it eh? Looking for that magical Viagra-like cure to find and keep it going forever and ever too huh??

Well, it ain't gonna happen.

If what you are focusing on, work/career wise, doesn't motivate you naturally (just look into it a bit, you should be able to uncover SOME new areas of intrigue and motivation that you haven't seen before), then you should certainly reconsider what you are doing and WHY.

I don't like to ask WHY much, because WHY can give you so many confusing answers that just lead further down the road of confusion. Instead I try to ask HOW or WHAT or WHEN.

So in the case of motivation and figuring out where the fuck to find it at, ask yourself WHAT MAKES THIS WORTH MY WHILE TO CONTINUE ON WITH IT?? Don't lie to yourself either, because if you can't figure it out quickly, this is the sign you should pay attention to that's saying: "hey, jackass, you hate doing this, so you need to stop and find something else, otherwise you'll continue trying to figure out WHY you can't find motivation and stay motivated, instead of just getting shit done!"

If you're in a specific line of work, say you're an affiliate of sorts, and you're trying to find the motivation to get campaigns done and up and running, and the only thing holding you back is pure motivation... you have two options.

1- Adderall. (I used to swear by it, now I'm against it, trust me, you do not want to go down this road.)
2- You're not meant to do this, so change it up now while its still early for ya.

That's it.