Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 47
August 10, 2015
17 Fatal Flaws For Business Leaders.
Not spending enough time getting to know what motivates senior management. You’ll struggle to hit their mark.
Hiring team members who have more experience than passion. You’ll never get the results you expect.
Assuming that everyone around you knows what you expect them to achieve. You’ll see lots of things slip through the cracks.
Tolerating passive aggression from anywhere and anyone in the company. Your team is guaranteed to be uninspired.
Allowing sales people to develop sloppy habits even though they achieve quota. You’re allowing future failure.
Using a quota to set goals for success instead of inspiring your team to be “awesome”. You’ll change the world that way.
Settling for “good enough” in place of continuous and obsessive improvement. You won’t stay the best for long.
Not being clear with everyone about what success looks like to them specifically. You have to make it personal or people won’t perform.
Taking too long to fire employees who aren’t a good fit with your expectations. You’ll demoralize everyone else who has to watch this process drag on.
Hanging on to negative people because they get the job done. You’ll never be happy to go to work.
Messing with your sales people’s money — for any reason at all (even if you’re angry). Your best people will leave — and they should.
Focusing on the short term growth more than execution of a movement. Your revenue will be wildly unpredictable.
Not listening and learning from employees, customers, advisers, and competitors. You’ll make dumb mistakes.
Making excuses for poor customer service — or for any problem at all. You’re customers will disappear.
Allowing fear of failure to stop you from making bold decisions and moving decisively. You’ll never get to where you want to be.
Spending more on technology than you do on coaching for your team. You’ll miss out on the magic of employees who are inspired to change the world for you.
The post 17 Fatal Flaws For Business Leaders. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
August 5, 2015
20 Rules For Winners.
Pretend like someone is always watching you. They usually are.
Never let small successes get in the way of learning something new. You’ll need it later.
Spend time developing a skill. Spend even more time developing will. You need it more.
Apologize sincerely. The faster the better.
Live outraged or blissful. Anything in the middle is just mediocrity.
Learn how to take the pain of progress. You’re going to get banged up along the way.
Be willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. That’s what it takes.
Ignore what you “should” be doing and do it your way. It’s your life after all.
Be deliberately grateful. It will change your outlook for the better.
Obsess about the possibility you could be even more amazing. And you will be.
Dig deep. Get emotional about your goals. You need that fuel to win.
Surround yourself with people who are better than you at what you want to be the best at.
Do one thing that matters each day. It adds up to something awesome over time.
Avoid negative people. At all costs. Even if they are family or friends.
Read. Read. Read. Read. Read… Discover something awesome to make your life better.
Get help. Invest in the best help you can afford and do what they say. It matters.
Stop saying “I can’t” and “I shouldn’t” or “I don’t feel like it”. Just get it done.
Don’t confuse awards with winning. The real reward happens before awards are handed out.
Stay fit — financially, physically, and mentally. Always be ready to be a hero.
The post 20 Rules For Winners. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
20 Rules for Winners.
Pretend like someone is always watching you. They usually are.
Never let small successes get in the way of learning something new. You’ll need it later.
Spend time developing a skill. Spend even more time developing will. You need it more.
Apologize sincerely. The faster the better.
Live outraged or blissful. Anything in the middle is just mediocrity.
Learn how to take the pain of progress. You’re going to get banged up along the way.
Be willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. That’s what it takes.
Ignore what you “should” be doing and do it your way. It’s your life after all.
Be deliberately grateful. It will change your outlook for the better.
Obsess about the possibility you could be even more amazing. And you will be.
Dig deep. Get emotional about your goals. You need that fuel to win.
Surround yourself with people who are better than you at what you want to be the best at.
Do one thing that matters each day. It adds up to something awesome over time.
Avoid negative people. At all costs. Even if they are family or friends.
Read. Read. Read. Read. Read… Discover something awesome to make your life better.
Get help. Invest in the best help you can afford and do what they say. It matters.
Stop saying “I can’t” and “I shouldn’t” or “I don’t feel like it”. Just get it done.
Don’t confusing awards with winning. The real reward happens before awards are handed out.
Stay fit — financially, physically, and mentally. Always be ready to be a hero.
The post 20 Rules for Winners. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
August 4, 2015
Be Brilliantly Ignorant.
You don’t need to hear everyone else’s opinions about success in order to be successful yourself.
You don’t need to read business books. You don’t need to go to college and graduate, get a degree or an MBA.
You don’t need to go to seminars or go buy another copy of the Wall Street Journal.
You don’t need any of that information.
What streams out of CNBC, Fox Business News, or Bloomberg is just a distraction.
Entertaining information. Brilliant opinions — most of the time. But, nonetheless, unhelpful when you’re facing challenges of your own.
If you’re not careful, you’ll live a life paralyzed by the opinions and pathways that other people have to share.
Even the well-meaning, well-intentioned ones come back to hurt you. They cripple your ability to dream without limits.
They create more panic and fear in your life.
Instead of providing a safety net of confidence and inspired behavior, all this information usually just makes you more concerned about your own future.
More concerned and less confident that you’ll actually be able to achieve the goals you set out for yourself.
All of this happens without you even thinking about it.
You don’t plan to be more distracted. You don’t want to be more concerned, upset, fearful, or paralyzed.
But it happened when you screw up your head with all the information you just “have to know”.
Your mindset is broken because you allow more doubts to creep in.
Instead of guarding what you think about and protecting your inspiration, you trade it away for more entertainment.
And now, you’re convinced that you’re going to fail.
You’re pretty sure that no matter what you do, external circumstances are going to destroy your dreams anyway.
Perhaps, it’s time for you to be brilliantly ignorant.
Unwilling to give the doubters a place in your mind.
Not up to speed on all the latest news, just head over heels excited about getting to where you want to be.
Turn off the TV and turn up your effort. Ignore everything else.
The post Be Brilliantly Ignorant. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
August 3, 2015
What’s Your If?
After Philip II of Macedon invaded Greece, dozens of key city-states submitted to his conquest without putting up a fight — knowing that the Macedonian army would destroy their lands, kill their sons, and rape their women if they didn’t surrender before the fight began.
They were promised life and peace if they submitted and sent yearly tribute to the empire. To spare their people destruction, the leaders wisely pledged their loyalty to the invading king.
All of them except Sparta.
Sparta refused to submit. There was no discussion. No persuading. No compromise. No nothing.
The enraged invader sent a warning to the Spartan leaders: “Surrender. If I conquer your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.”
To which the Spartans replied with a single word: “If”.
Neither Philip II nor his son Alexander the Great ever attempted to capture the city.
The “if” mattered.
It was what Sparta brought to the fight. That “if” was the same spirit of conquest and effort that had empowered Leonidas and his 300 warriors 150 years earlier.
When Leonidas was in charge of guarding the narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae with just a few hundred Spartan fighters in order to delay the invading Persian army, Xerxes offered to spare his men if they gave up their arms.
To which Leonidas replied “Molon labe” — which means “Come and take them”.
They refused to take the easy choice.
History tells us that those 300 Spartans would take to their grave some 200,000 Persian enemy warriors.
Against overwhelming odds and unbelievable opposition, ordinary people armed with a belief in a mission bigger than themselves drew a line in the sand. They decided what was worth living for. What was worth fighting for. What was worth dying for.
It wasn’t bravado that convinced King Philip II to back down. It wasn’t loud words or angry threats. It was quiet resolve. Fearless determination. Unbreakable belief.
The Spartans probably would have lost.
The strength and size of the Macedonian army was insurmountable. Eventually the Spartans would have been crushed. But it might have cost the King most of his army — the lives of millions of Macedonian soldiers.
The Spartans’ resolve. Their belief about greatness. Their humility and unshakable courage is what made the difference.
What’s your “if”? What are you willing to fight for? What are you willing to do to get to where you want to be? What are you willing to do without?
It’s not about being loud, arrogant, brash, cold, or belligerent.
Success is about wanting more for yourself more than you are willing to take the easy path.
What’s that for you?
The post What’s Your If? appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
July 29, 2015
9 Things To Do When What You’re Doing Isn’t Working.
Sometimes you’re doing everything right and still not getting the results you expect.
You’re doing the work, you’re sticking to the plan, you’re improving, preparing, brutally honest about expected outcomes — but all your hard work doesn’t seem to be working.
You’re not building up momentum. You’re not making enough money.
You don’t even seem to be able to notice small improvements — something to give you the hope that your long-term plan is going to pay off.
You’re tempted to give up.
The facts seem to indicate that your plan is failing. Logic tells you that you need to change directions.
Do something else. Pivot. Jump ships. Find another path forward.
The reality about achieving success is that most of what you have to do in order to achieve success doesn’t feel successful along the way.
Your life has to get a whole lot harder before it starts to get any easier.
So how do you manage your emotions and strengthen your will in those long stretches where you’re working to get to where you want to be?
How do you stay focused and inspired when you don’t have the results you want to make you feel inspired to do more?
Take care of your body, my mind, your friends, and your finances —
Spend time each day thinking about why you want to achieve success in the first place —
Be brutally honest about your effort and the results you’ve earned so far —
Ask for help from people who will give you wildly uncomfortable advice —
Avoid negative people, mindless entertainment, and anything distracting —
Focus on doing at least one thing each day that matters —
Go out of your way to help someone else solve their problem with your money or time —
Start journaling, meditating, or spending quiet time to clear your mind —
Reframe your situation as a battlefield and your mission as life-or-death —
It take radical behavior to achieve different results.
Little changes won’t work. Small strokes won’t move you closer to your goals.
If you’re stuck — and you want things to change — you have to do what you would otherwise consider to be outrageous.
Don’t bother changing if things are working for you already.
But if you’re tired of losing get serious about doing the hard things.
Be willing to change.
The post 9 Things To Do When What You’re Doing Isn’t Working. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
9 Things To Do When What You’re Doing Isn’t Working.
Sometimes you’re doing everything right and still not getting the results you expect.
You’re doing the work, you’re sticking to the plan, you’re improving, preparing, brutally honest about expected outcomes — but all your hard work doesn’t seem to be working.
You’re not building up momentum. You’re not making enough money.
You don’t even seem to be able to notice small improvements — something to give you the hope that your long-term plan is going to pay off.
You’re tempted to give up.
The facts seem to indicate that your plan is failing. Logic tells you that you need to change directions.
Do something else. Pivot. Jump ships. Find another path forward.
The reality about achieving success is that most of what you have to do in order to achieve success doesn’t feel successful along the way.
Your life has to get a whole lot harder before it starts to get any easier.
So how do you manage your emotions and strengthen your will in those long stretches where you’re working to get to where you want to be?
How do you stay focused and inspired when you don’t have the results you want to make you feel inspired to do more?
Take care of your body, my mind, your friends, and your fiances —
Spend time each day thinking about why you want to achieve success in the first place —
Be brutally honest about your effort and the results you’ve earned so far —
Ask for help from people who will give you wildly uncomfortable advice —
Avoid negative people, mindless entertainment, and anything distracting —
Focus on doing at least one thing each day that matters —
Go out of your way to help someone else solve their problem with your money or time —
Start journaling, meditating, or spending quiet time to clear your mind —
Reframe your situation as a battlefield and your mission as life-or-death —
It take radical behavior to achieve different results.
Little changes won’t work. Small strokes won’t move you closer to your goals.
If you’re stuck — and you want things to change — you have to do what you would otherwise consider to be outrageous.
Don’t bother changing if things are working for you already.
But if you’re tired of losing get serious about doing the hard things.
Be willing to change.
The post 9 Things To Do When What You’re Doing Isn’t Working. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
July 28, 2015
Before You’re A Somebody Too.
BEFORE Michael Dell was the billionaire founder of Dell Inc. he washed dishes at a Chinese restaurant and then bussed table at a Mexican restaurant to get some cash.
BEFORE Tim Cook was the CEO of Apple he delivered newspapers as a young boy in his Alabama hometown. He also worked at a paper mill and an aluminum plant.
BEFORE Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft, he sold several dessert-making appliances made by Proctor & Gamble.
BEFORE Doug McMillon was the president and CEO of Walmart he got his first job at the bottom — working at the company’s Arkansas warehouse.
BEFORE Sheryl Sandberg was the COO of Facebook she hustled to find work in her local mall as a retail clerk in a clothing store.
BEFORE Charles Best was the founder of DonorsChoose.org he delivered customers their food from the back kitchen in a local Tribeca restaurant.
BEFORE Marissa Mayer was the president and CEO of Yahoo, she was a 16 year old grocery store clerk at the County Market in Wausau, Wisconsin.
BEFORE Whoopi Goldberg was a TV celebrity she was a bricklayer and a morgue beautician.
BEFORE Jeff Bezos was the billionaire founder of Amazon he manned the grill at a local McDonalds and as a camp counselor.
BEFORE Tony Fadell was the founder and CEO of Nest Labs he was an 8-year-old selling eggs to local buyers in his neighborhood.
BEFORE Reed Hastings was the cofounder and CEO of Netflix he worked as a young salesman selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door.
BEFORE Jan Koum was the cofounder of WhatsApp he swept the floor of a local grocery store to help his mother with their expenses.
BEFORE Mark Cuban was the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks he sold garbage bags as a young boy to his neighbors.
BEFORE Susan Wojcicki was the CEO of YouTube (and rented out her garage to the founders of Google) she worked as a restaurant hostess.
BEFORE Michael Bloomberg became the billionaire CEO of Bloomberg he paid his way through John Hopkins University by working as a parking lot assistant.
BEFORE Bill Watkins was the CEO of Seagate Technology he worked the night shift at a mental hospital.
BEFORE Carly Fiorina was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard she graduated from Stanford with a degree in Medieval History and worked as a secretary.
BEFORE Terry Lundgren was the CEO of Macy’s he got a job shucking oysters for a local restaurant to pay his way through college.
BEFORE Craig Jelinek was the CEO of Costco he worked at a local grocery store cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floors, and bagging groceries.
BEFORE Warren Buffet was the billionaire manager of Bershire Hathaway he started his first business delivering newspapers on his bicycle.
BEFORE Indra Nooyi was the chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, she worked as receptionist, volunteering for the midnight to 5AM graveyard shift.
Maybe these are your before years right now.
The post Before You’re A Somebody Too. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
July 27, 2015
The Lies Your Tired Brain Tells You.
If you’re not tired, you’re not working hard enough.
And if you are working hard enough, your brain is tired.
How you feel, how quickly you figure things out, how you interpret what happens to you — that is all computed, calculated, and configured by your brain.
Sometimes it’s a lie.
What you think is true is really just a complicated deception orchestrated by your mind to make you feel better about your current situation. It’s done to protect you.
But in the process you’ll feel pretty convinced of some outrageous nonsense.
You’ll find yourself buying into lies that will cripple your ability to amazing.
Here are a few of those lies:
“My life is so much harder than everyone else…”
“It doesn’t matter what I do. Nothing works…”
“My life would be so much better if I only had more money…”
“I can’t get ahead because everyone is always picking on me…”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not doing anything wrong…”
“No one would understand anyway…”
“That won’t work. I already tried it once…”
Lies. Damn lies.
All of them. And you’ve probably found yourself using a few of those lies to justify staying in a funk. To justify staying demotivated, uninspired, and angry at the world.
Instead of telling you that hard work and doing hard things is just what needs to be done, instead of telling you to “suck it up and get back to work” — your brain automatically gives you a sophisticated way out.
A one-way ticket to more frustration. A fast path to a life of staying stuck.
All because you listen to the lies that your overworked brain creates in order to try to protect you from more pain, sweat, blood and tears.
Don’t let lies destroy you.
Fight the urge to give in, give up, or go away.
Just because you “think it” doesn’t mean it’s true. Just because you have a good reason or justifiable excuse doesn’t mean it’s true.
Just because you’re worn out, beaten down, and not sure you can make it doesn’t make the lies you tell yourself true. They’re still lies.
Maybe it’s time to tell yourself something else, like “just don’t give up”.
The post The Lies Your Tired Brain Tells You. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
July 22, 2015
When You Want To Be Amazing.
Be amazing.
Not just better than those around you. Not just good enough to get by.
Amazing. Mind-blowingly awesome.
You have to aim for something, so you might as well pick something legendary.
You have to have a goal, so you might as well pick one that is big enough to change the world.
So how do you do that?
You have to think differently about your performance.
You can’t be satisfied with the same level of commitment you used to tolerate in the past. You have to raise the bar in every area of your life.
What used to be good is now something you can no longer tolerate.
Unacceptable. Mediocre. Amateurish.
Being amazing starts with the mindset that you can always be better than you are right now.
You can always grow and develop new skills.
Your accomplishments in the past aren’t as grand as you can accomplish in the future.
Inside you is more potential. You’re not washed up, used, or over.
You have to spend time thinking about amazing things.
Not getting extra degrees. Not buying more coaching programs. Not finding more mentors.
Not more hustle, more charm, or more bravado.
Being amazing starts with what you think about in the middle of the night. What wakes you up. What keeps you going. It’s all you can think about. It’s clearly an obsession.
There isn’t any time for worry. There isn’t space for fear. Being amazing is all that consumes you.
That’s what separates superstars from everyone else — Long before everyone else figures out that they are amazing, they’ve been thinking about their moment.
Planning for it.
Obsessing about the details. Thinking about the possibilities. Expecting the inevitability of the outcomes you demand for yourself.
It’s all consuming. All you can think about.
What are you thinking about?
The post When You Want To Be Amazing. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.
Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.
Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...
