The development of self-discipline is like exercising a muscle that develops the more you use it.
No one achieves mastery of a skill, competence in a profession, or knowledge of a subject without hours and hours of effort, frustration and setbacks. Natural gifts — intelligence, size, strength and quick reflexes — are a bonus, but rarely sufficient to achieve the highest level of success.
Here are some levels of mastery that few manage to reach:
The ability to create success starts with a mindset that aligns with taking action, learning rapidly and adapting to change. Successful people think differently about success. It’s not all about your IQ or the kind of car you drive. True success is having a growing network of people you know how to tap into, achieving fulfillment in what you do, and being able to see opportunity everywhere.
I was horsing around with my dog the other day — I promise this is an article on entrepreneurship — when something extraordinary happened.
We’d been playing tug-of-war with her red doggie blanket when, after 10 minutes of tugging, I finally managed to wrench the festering rag from her clenched, bulldog jowls. I flashed the blanket about like a torero, bowed, then I flipped it behind me and hid it on the small of my back.
Sugar searched frantically for a minute while I sniggered and snarked. Finally, my inner villain satisfied, I dropped her prize in plain view at my feet. Here’s where it gets weird.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged belief system, creative thinking, entrepreneurship, motivation, success, visualization
How to Be a Great Leader: The 3 Keys to Managing Yourself
When we talk about leadership development, we often focus on the skills and qualities that have to do with leading others. But this ignores a major aspect of being a great leader: Being able to lead yourself. In fact, out of the 28 leadership competencies that are essential to leadership success, seven are related to being a self-leader. Most leaders, however, ignore these skills, making them less balanced and effective.
Posted in leadership
Tagged helping others, leaders, leadership, managing yourself, millionaires, success
9. You Define Success
“The things you own end up owning you.” So said Tyler Durden as he opened a round of Fight Club in the cellar of Lou’s bar. That statement feels right because it is. We get attached to goals, to things, and we lose ourselves.
When you’re starting out, the excitement of doing carries you along. Each new success, each milestone achieved places you closer to where you believe you want to be. The late nights, panicked preparations for demos, the sweaty palmed waits in law office lobbies, they take a toll. You think you’ve rounded the corner to easy street, things fall apart. Just when your heart is about to shatter, you catch a break.
It’s exhausting and exhilarating, but it brings your team together. You become more than friends or teammates. You become stronger than family because you live through more intense experiences in one month than most families go through in a year. This bonding continues as you struggle with one mind to achieve a kind of birth. You believe that nothing will come between you and your partners after all you’ve been through.
Think back to when you were in high school, when things were simpler. Do you remember that person who stood out amongst the class? That person everyone thought would change the world one day? They got straight A’s on their report card and were praised all the time. People would talk about the things that person would go on to do one day.
Fast forward a decade or two to the present day. You haven’t seen anything spectacular the person has done. In fact, you haven’t heard anything at all.
What happened?
Maybe you know someone like this. Or…maybe you are that person.
I used to think that intelligence and a strong work ethic were all you needed to be successful. But it turns out that’s not always true. Both are important, but they aren’t a guarantee for success in life. A number of other factors come into play.
Here are seven reasons smart, hardworking people can’t find success:
Posted in Tools and Information
Tagged Hardworking People, smart people, strong work ethic, success
Sometimes the simplest tools can lead us to our biggest breakthroughs. Here are three tips that can help you achieve the vision you have for yourself.
Visualize Your Way to Success
If you have a pair of scissors, some old magazines, glue or tape, and some sort of poster board or canvas, you can make your own vision board. You don’t need to be a talented artist – you really don’t even need to be particularly creative – the purpose is to make your vision come alive through meaningful images.
You can cut out pictures, single words, and entire quotes – anything that you can dream of! Choose images that really resonate with the goals you have. You can create multiple boards if you’re the type of person who loves organization – for instance, one board for your personal goals, another for business oriented ones.
To get the most out of this exercise, I recommend setting aside about an hour where you’ll be undisturbed. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to create your board – have fun with this!
There are very few stories of success that don’t start with at least a few failures along the way. But certainly not everyone who fails succeeds. Failure can easily turn into an insurmountable hurdle that can stop you in your tracks.
So what’s the difference between those who let failure stop them from reaching their goals and those who turn failure into a giant success? It has to do with the way they respond to adversity. Here are five ways to turn failure into a giant success:
1) Accept that Failure is Part of the Journey Toward Success
Saying, “Failure isn’t an option,” quickly turns any failed attempt into a catastrophic event. The truth is, sometimes failure is unavoidable. Accepting that failure is part of the long journey to success can prevent you from panicking, even when you encounter the worst case scenario. A calm mindset is crucial to overcoming failure.
Posted in Tools and Information
Tagged failure, failure into success, giant success, journey toward success, success
I blew the mind of one of my Babson College students this morning.
Like most people, he believes that success is measured by how much money you have and how much money you make. By that measure, there is no single individual who is the world’s most successful.
After all, Bill Gates–whose net worth totaled $79.6 billion according to Forbes’s January 29, 2015, tally–probably has the most money, but I sincerely doubt he makes the most money every year.
That title probably goes to a hedge fund manager. For example, Ray Dalio–who runs $120 billion (assets under management) Bridgewater Associates–pulled in a cool $3 billion in personal earnings last year, according to Forbes.
But if you believe that success means both having the highest net worth and getting paid the most every year, then neither Gates nor Dalio is successful.
That’s because the pursuit of the most wealth or the highest annual income is success only if you keep winning every year. Otherwise, you are going to spend time trying to figure out how you can get to be number one–rather than taking pleasure in what you have achieved.
When something amazing happens to someone, one of the first things we want to say is, “You’re so lucky.” This is an appropriate reaction to someone finding $20 on the floor or winning concert tickets, but when it comes to operating a business, is success really a result of luck? It may seem that way when your business is struggling despite all of the hours of hard work you’ve invested in it, but there are strategies you can implement that will slowly but surely help you pave your own path to great success.
Posted in Tools and Information
Tagged business strategies, business success, lucky, success
Dispatches From The Front 