The Story of Basement Bob
Bob is a skinny young man with thick red hair. He barely graduated from high school and thinks he’s kind of stupid. He has no money and lives in his mom’s damp, cold basement.
Bob spends most of his time watching videos or playing games with his online friends.
Every day he thinks, “I hate this basement. I wish I had some money. Life sucks.”
Every night he dreams of having lots of money. He gives a pile of cash to his mom, buys a white Toyota Tacoma truck and moves to a nice apartment.
Every morning he wakes to reality. He is broke and has no job. “I really wish I could win the lottery, but I can’t even afford a ticket.”
But one morning, Bob’s life changes. He wakes up and thinks, “Enough! It’s time to get a job.”
Bob’s Jobs
Bob puts on his best clothes, rides his bike to the local McDonald’s and asks for a job.
He fills out the application. He’s hired! He hurries home to tell his mom.
The next morning, Bob arrives for work proudly wearing his new McDonald’s uniform. After watching the training videos, he gets to work. He happily cleans the kitchen, makes salads and takes orders from customers. He feels important.
Best of all, he gets a paycheck! He starts to look for a new apartment, but is disappointed. “Wow! I these places are too expensive”
Bob realizes his McDonald’s pay won’t get him out of the basement. The job is greasy and boring. He quits.
He gets a job as a receptionist at a Mercedes dealership and he loves this job too! He sits at the front desk, answers the phone, greets customers and fetches coffee for salespeople. But after a few months, he still doesn’t make enough to move to an apartment. And he doesn’t want to be a car salesman.
Luckily for Bob, he meets a customer who changes his future.
The Red Mercedes
Mr. Johnson strolls into the Mercedes dealership with more confidence than Bob has ever seen. Even though he is dressed for golfing, Bob can tell from his watch and shoes that he’s rich. He looks like a real big shot movie star multi-millionaire executive VIP!
Mr. Johnson walks up to Bob’s desk, points to a beautiful red $149,000 Mercedes convertible and says, “I want that one.”
Bob says, “Yes sir!” and waves at the saleswoman next to him.
She says, “Ah Mr. Johnson! It’s good to see you again.” Bob notices she is smiling so hard her face turns red. She says, “Let’s take it for a test drive, okay?”
Mr. Johnson says, “No thanks. It’s just for my wife’s birthday. The color matches her favorite lipstick. Let’s do the paperwork and I’ll take it this morning.” She says, “Oh! Wonderful!” and rushes off to her desk.
While waiting for the saleswoman, Mr. Johnson chats with Bob. At first, Bob feels nervous, but Mr. Johnson makes him feel important, like he’s one of his millionaire friends. This makes Bob feel wonderful.
Bob takes a big risk and says, “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
Mr. Johnson smiles and says, “Sure.”
Bob stops being nervous and says, “I want to be like you! How do you make so much money? What do you do?”
He laughs and says, “Wow! OK Bob, I’ll tell you.”
“When I was your age I learned three important skills. I got really good at them and over the years, these skills made me rich.”
Bob says, “Really? What skills?”
“First, I mastered my people skills so I could communicate with anyone about anything and make them feel wonderful. Next, I learned how to sell real estate, mostly houses. And then I learned how to be a great boss.”
Bob says, “Ah, okay thanks. That’s very interesting!”
As he leaves with the new car, Mr. Johnson says, “Master some skills Bob and someday you’ll be like me, okay? Good luck!”
Bob is excited to see his new path to success = SKILLS!
Bob Sees a Problem
Bob thinks, “I could build explosive websites! I could talk to cute girls! I could start my own business!”
Life looks good to Bob, but then he remembers that he has a big problem. He doesn’t like to read.
When he gets a new device, he throws the manual in the garbage. If someone hands Bob some written instructions, he spaces out. He has never read an entire book.
He didn’t need to read anything for his McDonald’s job or Mercedes job. They just showed him what to do with no manuals.
Bob thinks, “Crap. I’ll never learn any new skills. I HATE to study.”
Bob Needs a Solution
During his gaming sessions he tells his friends about the Mercedes customer.
They say, “Man! I wish I could buy a brand new car like that guy.” “I’ll bet his wife is beautiful.” “I wish one of my lottery tickets would win.”
Bob complains that he can’t learn new skills and that he hates to study. They all agree how unfair life is, except for his one successful friend. He says, “Hey Bob, I know a way you can learn any skill you like. It showed me how to study and now I can master any skill I want! I can send you the link, if you like.”
Bob says, “Yeah, sure, whatever.” His friend sends him a link to “How to Master Any Skill.”
Bob skims down the page and sees “10 Reasons Why People Hate to Study.”
He thinks, “Ah ha! That’s for me.”
Why Bob Hates to Study
He finds his biggest reason on the list.
“#4 was my biggest problem. I space out. My brain turns off and I can’t turn it back on. Reading is really hard. One of my teachers thought I had ADHD.”
“If I could solve this reason, I might like to read and study.”
Bob does the imagination exercise. “If I loved to study, what would I do?”
“I’d learn how to create dynamic, explosive websites that no one can resist. I know it’s really hard, but if I could do it, I’d get rich! I could get that Toyota Tundra.”
Bob is motivated.
“So all I have to do is take these five steps to master a skill? I’ll do it!”
Bob Masters a New Skill
Step 1: Bob Picks the Right Material for Building Websites
He starts by watching videos from YouTube, but they are confusing or incomplete. They constantly try to sell things. However, one video gives a link to Skillshare.
Bob looks at Skillshare’s classes for building websites and sees a few that are perfect! They have good reviews and free sample lessons. Bob enjoys a few of the free lessons and decides he will use Skillshare. Even though he does not have much money, he pays for the first month. “It costs the same as an extra large pizza, but better for me!”
Step 2: Bob Understands Every Word
As Bob dives into his first Skillshare course, he feels a lot of brain fog. He yawns so hard his eyes are watering.
“OH NO! Here we go again. I’m spacing out and starting to hate this.” Bob tries to force himself to learn the information, but he soon feels much worse. “I feel like quitting now,” he thinks.
But then he takes a new path. He looks for words he doesn’t understand.
“Ah, okay, the guy said “Host” and I don’t understand what he means. Like a party host? I’ll find out the definition.
Bob writes down “Host.” He looks it up and writes:
“Host: A company or computer that stores websites and makes them available for people to see on the internet.”
Bob uses the word in sentences. Two minutes later, Bob feels like he just woke up.
“Wow! It worked! This is amazing.”
He rewinds the lesson video and watches the same sentence again. “Ohhh! I get it. Awesome.”
During the rest of the first lesson he writes down more words and looks them up. He writes down the definitions to help him remember what they mean.
The misunderstood words he finds are not just computer words either.
For example, the teacher says, “Let me dispel the notion that building websites costs a lot of money.” Bob starts to yawn, but then gets smart and adds “Dispel” and “Notion” to his list.
Dispel: Make something go away, remove something.
Notion: Idea or belief about something.
He watches the teacher say the sentence again. “I stopped yawning! I dispelled the brain fog!”
Bob continues to learn each sentence and each word. He uses his list of words to help him remember the definitions.
“I can’t believe I just studied for a full hour without falling asleep! I actually understand everything in this lesson. This is great!”
Bob loves learning how to build websites. Instead of paying video games, he spends three hours each night learning from Skillshare.
Step 3: Bob Connects the Ideas to Reality
Now that Bob is understanding everything he studies, he starts to feel a little disconnected. His eyes hurt and he gets a headache.
Bob slows down to fully grasp the examples and exercises. He finds website examples of what he’s learning. He connects the dots.
Bob makes it a habit to constantly connect the ideas he learns with the real world. As well as looking at existing websites, he sketches out the ideas, as well.
Bob’s thinks, “Hey! This is going well. I might actually build some explosive websites!”
While reading the article about studying at the speed best for you, Bob remembers his auto mechanics shop class in school. “I remember how Mr. Jones pushed me to fix flat tires too fast. I even cut my finger and had to go to the school nurse. I never went back to auto mechanics classes.”
So Bob’s online course suddenly says, “Time for you to build your first website,” but Bob isn’t ready. He thinks, “What? No, not yet.”
He realizes he should slow down a little. He goes back, reviews a few lessons, make sure he understand every word, and finds more website examples.
His confidence builds up until he is ready. “Okay, let’s build a website!”
“I like learning to build websites at my own speed, and I’m getting faster.”
Bob makes a list of subskills for building websites. He then practices each one until it becomes easy. He really enjoys watching how everything actually works.
Bob does his best to build new websites for friends and neighbors. He practices and practices. He makes mistakes. He starts over. He keeps improving.
His pages become more interesting and more useful. He watches his website statistics and constantly improves his work.
Even though everyone is impressed, he keeps practicing and improving his skill until his websites explode with results!
Bob then starts his own company and calls it “Explosive Websites.” He and starts building his company’s website: ExplosiveWebsites.com.
Bob’s New Life
After a few months, Bob has transformed his life. He builds beautiful websites that help his clients’ businesses. For example, one client says, “My flower shop exploded because of Bob’s website. We now have more customers than we can handle!”
Bob has a waiting list of new clients. He is making the money of his dreams.
He moved out of his mom’s basement to a new apartment, bought the Toyota Tundra, gave a pile of cash to his mom and, best of all, enjoys being a professional website building.
“All I had to do was take those five steps. If I can do it, anyone can!” “Now I’m going to master the hardest skill of all: talking to girls.”