Living your life as a Boy Scout could save your life

Today’s edition of “Reflections of a crazy Colombian” comes to your courtesy of Neil Strauss, best-selling author of The Gameand Emergency

Today I received an email from best-selling author Neil Strauss (I am in one of his mailing lists), and it reminded me of the Boy’s Scout Motto ,Be Prepared. Neil became a famous best-seller author a few years ago when he wrote a fascinating expose of the underground community of Pick Up Artists (PUA) in LA and the internet. Since then, Neil has written a new book in which he shares the myriad of things he decided to learn when he finally understood that we live in an uncertain, dangerous and somewhat unreliable world (and just in case you’re wondering, no, it was not the Global Financial crisis, the swine flu crisis, or the latest California earthquakes that shook him into action)

Back to the email I received; In his newsletter article, Neil complains about the insane shifts in media attitude towards his book after the latest wave of ‘crises’. Since I found his argument rather compelling, I want to share it with you. Rather than try to repeat it in my own words, I am going to be a lazy bum and transcribe his email here.

Before you read Neil’s words, I want to provide one last warning: In his email, Neil generously provided a link to a fantastic PDF resource where he debunks the top 10 myths about the best ways to survive a crisis. To avoid overloading Neil’s web servers with download requests, I have uploaded the PDF file to Google docs, and changed the link that came with the original email to this new one. If you find the PDF useful and want to learn more about Neil’s ventures, visit him at neilstrauss.com

Diego,

I’ve been wanting to write this email “rant” for about a month.
But I keep starting it, then stopping it. It’s hard to get the tone
right without showing too much frustration:

If I thought doing the media circus for The Game was tough,
discussing Emergency has unexpectedly been even more of a challenge.

In about half the radio interviews I’ve done prior to last month,
the host has asked, with some disdain, “Prepare for what? What do
you think’s going to happen?”

And then, suddenly, when the swine flu panic hit, those same
people suddenly started calling and asking if I could do another
interview offering their listeners survival tips.

Same thing happened after the California earthquakes last week.

We live in a world that seems to REACT to emergencies, rather
than PREPARE for them. Leading to a situation in which the panic
can be more dangerous than the disaster itself.

But why not prepare ahead of time?

It doesn’t take that much time or money.

There’s a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing that when
the next inevitable panic seizes hold of people, not only do you
know what to do, but you have the equipment and skills on hand to
take care of yourself and those you love.

That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy this list so much and the emails
I’ve received from you. Many of you who’ve read Emergency have gone
on not just to learn preparedness yourself, but to actually take
CERT training and join volunteer rescue groups to give back to the
community.

And so I thought I would try to give something back with this email,
rather than just vent my frustrations about the hypocrisy of the
media.

So I prepared a list for you of the ten most common myths about
surviving terrorism, fires, earthquakes, um, shark attacks, and
other emergencies both likely and unlikely.

Just like the Game, where I learned that many of the so-called
common-sense things I learned about attraction were wrong, in
Emergency I learned that much of the wisdom I learned growing up
about survival was actually wrong.

And, in the right situation, the wrong survival tip can kill you
(whereas the wrong sarging tip can only humiliate you).

So here is a little PDF of top ten survival myths, followed by the
truth. It is dedicated to the woman I saw in the airport wearing an
N95 mask during the swine flu panic while rubbing her eyes with her
bare hands.

You can find it here:

https://docs.google.com/gb?export=download&id=F.c7afc073-7763-4907-b89f-44698248d124
(right-click to download)

Enjoy, and if you find it useful, pass it on. After all, as you’re
reading this, there may be a shark lurking in the bushes outside,
just waiting to attack. Don’t be caught with your guard down.

On a serious note, if you do have any tips to add to it, email
stslimjim [@T] gmail[D0T] com with the headline LIFESAVER and I’ll add them
to an updated version.

And don’t forget, learning survival isn’t just about not dying,
it’s also a great adventure.

To Life,
Neil