I had a conversation last week with King of the Gingers, Robbie Farlow, about accepting the second-order effects of our decisions.

Every action you take or decision you make has a consequence—and each consequence has another consequence, and so on. These are second-order effects.

Second-order effects are like the ripples made when you throw a rock into a pond.

When you throw that rock and it first lands, there’s a big splash (first-order effect), followed by a series of ripples (second-order effect).

While making ripples in a pond is predictable, truth is, second-order effects are tougher to predict in real life.

Or think of a line of dominos. You can control the initial push that sets a chain of events in motion. Once that chain is started, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to stop or reverse the Cause-and-Effect cascade.

When I decided enough was enough, I’d slung my last latte, and quit selling my soul to Starbucks in April 2016, I only knew that I was making the decision to topple the domino of entrepreneurship, and strap in.

I had no way of knowing that the second (and third, fourth, fifth, etc) order effects would result in things like:

— evolving from fitness coach to freelance copywriter to, in a word, leading.

— being able to travel whenever, wherever (the emails I’ve sent you over the past 8 weeks have come from New York City, Manchester, London, Athens, Mykonos, Meppel, Amsterdam, and Long Island.

— building and deepening relationships with people to the point where we’ve become what I call “Chosen Family.”

— having a significant, positive impact on people’s lives (Chosen Family, clients, and readers) without doing much more other than becoming more comfortable in being myself.

(Note: being comfortable being yourself is a goddamn superpower. 13/10 recommend doing what it takes to get there)

— and earn a steady living that allows me to do all of the above without living off credit cards, going into debt, or gouging favourable exchange rates to pretend to live like a King.

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As Spoon Boy in The Matrix speaks to Neo, “there are no rules.”

And that’s the real beauty of online business—it’s malleable. You can bend, shape, and alter it to suit whatever you want it to.

But, you can’t do jack shit until you topple the first domino, and set forth a chain of Cause-and-Effect.

If you’re up for taking action towards building a life you don’t hate, building a business that makes out like a bandit, and allows you to do whatever the hell you want, topple the first domino by clicking the link below to add your name to Coffee Cartel print newsletter pre-sale list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj4-E5Hs3Kc

(Note: clicking the link above will automatically add your name to the Coffee Cartel pre-sale list take you to a clip from Rick & Morty, the greatest animated show of all time, and allow you to gain access to the Coffee Cartel launch special 24 hours before anyone else on this list or my social media channels does)

_A. Mullan