Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 5

Do Won Chang: 3 Jobs, 19 Hour Days, 1 Next Step, And A $5 Billion Empire

Do Won Chang sat in a crowded airport in Korea waiting on a plane to take him, his parents, and his new bride to America. 

Do Won had been dreaming about this move since he was a child. His parents were desperately poor and Do Won had been working since he was old enough to ride a bike.

He did whatever he could to make money for the family. 

His most recent endeavor had been delivering coffee to nearby villages. And Do Won was good at it. He was familiar with all the different types of coffee, the beans, and their flavors. 

He planned on using his obsession with coffee to find his American Dream. 

And there he was. At the airport. Waiting to take a journey of a lifetime. 

Nobody in his family had ever been on a plane. So the 6,000 mile journey across the world was fascinating and terrifying to them all.

But they eventually landed safely in Los Angeles. 

And when they landed, Do Won didn’t waste any time looking for work.

He went straight to the nearest coffee shop and applied. He got an interview immediately and despite his broken English, he managed to get hired working early mornings at the shop. 

But Do Won quickly figured out that he wouldn’t be able to save for his dream of owning his own coffee shop with the $3 an hour he was getting paid.

He was taking care of his parents and he had a wife to take care of.

Affording the tiny, one-bedroom apartment they all lived in was already a stretch.

But Do Won was in America.

He believed that his dream was coming true. And he wasn’t going to complain. He understood the value of hard work — and he had passion running through his blood. He had been driven his whole life.

So he found a second job at a gas station pumping gas for the wealthy.

And when he was done for the day with his first two jobs, Do Won cleaned offices. A business he started on his own. 

His days soon went from 8 hours of work to 19 hours of work. But he had a plan.

He would start a business. And he would be successful. 

Every morning, Do Won would get to the coffee shop at 4am to start his day. He would prep food and do dishes. He rarely got a chance to sit.

He would leave there, go straight to the gas station where he would also be on his feet for the duration of his shift and pump gas. He would listen to the bell ring over and over — and look at all the cars pouring in to fill up.

The Mercedes and the BMW always caught his eye. He would shyly ask his customers “What do you do?” 

He started noticing a pattern. The men who drove the cars he liked the best weren’t selling coffee at all. They were in the garment industry. They were selling clothes. 

Do Won soon found himself leaving the gas station to get a job in retail.

Selling clothes. Just like the men he was starting to admire. And Do Won was smart. He was a hard worker. His boss loved him.

And that changed everything. His boss showed Do Won the ins and outs of running a store.

He didn’t just expect him to sell clothing like the rest of the employees. He taught him ordering and merchandising and marketing. 

Do Won listened. Absorbed. Learned. And then did. 

Within three years of getting to America, Do Won and his wife, Jin Sook, who was working as a hairdresser, had saved up $11,000.

An incredible feat considering how little they both made.

They found a clothing store for sale just a few blocks away from their little one bedroom apartment in Koreatown. And the owner was glad to sell it.

The business hadn’t been making more than $30,000 a year. And he was ready to get out.  

Do Won stepped in with his new found understanding and love of retail and turned the store around.

But it wasn’t easy. Not one bit. He and his wife worked day and night selling clothes to other Korean Americans.

Do Won started buying closeout lots of clothes at wholesale prices — and soon, people started making the five-mile drive from LA into Koreatown to buy from this new store called Fashion 21. 

Within a year they turned that little $30,000 per year business into a $700,000 powerhouse.

And that was just the start.

They changed the name of Fashion 21 to Forever 21 and within 5 years had opened up dozens of more stores. They perfected their niche, which was “fast fashion.”

Just as quick as it was coming off the runway, Do Won and his team would have a similar looking item for much less on the shelves.

It would normally take designers months to produce, but Do Won would have it created and shipping within a few days.

People started talking. And the clothes became a guilty pleasure.

You had to buy it when you found it or it wouldn’t be there when you came back for it.

It would have been replaced by something newer. Something more stylish.

That has been the core of their business. A business model they still use.

Today, Do Won and his family have over 400 stores in over 50 countries. He and Jin Sook have a net worth of over $5 billion. And they still own 100% of their business.

They built Forever 21 from the ground up as a family and decided to keep it all in the family. They also decided to keep the 900 square foot store where they grabbed the American Dream. 

If you walk in today, not much has changed since they opened it in 1984. Including the carpet and the smell of sweat.

It is treated more like a museum where faithful shoppers come to look at where it all began.

It’s a timepiece. A reminder that if you work hard, you can achieve great things.  

There have been no updates to the store and there are no plans for an update. There is a much larger, much brighter, much richer Forever 21 just a few miles away in the middle of Los Angeles. 

After years of 19-hour days, Do Won eventually upgraded from his one bedroom apartment to a $16 million home — where he raised two daughters and sent them to the Ivy League colleges he was never fortunate enough to attend.

They also help with the daily running of Forever 21. Do Won reminds them to treat success “like a marathon. Not a 100-meter dash.” 

And he is proof that the marathon is worth starting. 

Here is the truth — you can do something right now to get started on your path to greatness. 

​​You probably can’t do everything. But you can get started. You can take the next step. 

​​The most powerful realization you can make is to believe that the best action its simply taking one. 

But ​the tricky thing about making progress is that it’s natural to find yourself hesitating in the hopes that doing so allows you to think of an awesome solution and avoid failing. 

​​That’s a human thing. Completely subconscious. And often, dead wrong. 

​​It’s not that hesitation itself that kills your momentum. It’s all the time lost along your journey as you keep hesitating. 

​​You slow down today for one thing. And then do it again tomorrow and the next day for another thing. 

​​What you might have been done in quick order is now an impossible challenge you have stretched into something miserably long. Making it a lot harder than it should have been.

So, the next time you are tired from your 12-hour day. The next time you are complaining that life is unfair. The next time you turn around and find yourself tired and worn down from the daily grind.

Remember one simple thing — just take the next step.

Move forward.​​​​ ​There are no shortcuts. 

Just as much progress as you are willing to make. ​​

The post Do Won Chang: 3 Jobs, 19 Hour Days, 1 Next Step, And A $5 Billion Empire appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

You’re Listening To Bad Advice. Here’s What To Do About It.

I’ve stopped giving other people advice. Well, not exactly. I still have as many opinions as I have always had, I’ve just realized that giving good advice is really hard to do.

It’s almost automatic that I’ll give you bad advice. Not horrible, malicious advice — just insight and perspective that are completely unhelpful. And almost always horribly inadequate.

Today, everyone has an opinion.

Actually, that’s always been the case. And despite how wise they might have seemed at the time, even the smartest people can look foolish over time.

In 1876, senior executives at Western Union made the decision that “This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. It is inherently of no value.” In early 2019 Apple announced that it has sold more than 1.5 billion iPhones.In 1933, the head of engineering at Boeing bragged that “There will never be a bigger plane built” after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that held ten people. Boeing’s own 747-8 can hold 605 passengers, and it’s long-range competitor, the Airbus A-380, can hold 853 people.In 1954, Dr. Wilhelm Carl Hueper, Director of the National Cancer Institute, argued that “If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.”  More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964. That number continues to grow.In 1968, Times Magazine made the observation that “online shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop.” In 2013, worldwide online shopping reached nearly $1 trillion. Goldman Sachs predicts year over year growth of almost 20%.

Everyone, everywhere, has always had an opinion. Some of them being epically wrong. The only difference between now and then is that right now everyone’s opinion is right up in your face.

Sometimes, obnoxiously so.

You can’t spend more than a few minutes on social media, your favorite news channel on television, or even in conversation with a close circle of friends without hearing advice that is spoken with audacious boldness — so much boldness that you are convinced the person delivering the opinion has some special information you are not privy too.

And sometimes they do. But most often, they don’t.

What they say out loud to you is based on what other people have told them or how they perceive their own life experience. They tell you how they see life, not as life fully is.

I’ve realized this lesson in the advice that I give others. What used to work for me in achieving success is no longer what I believe in. Those ideas are no longer the strategies and tactics that I use. It worked when it worked, but isn’t something that works now.

So when you ask me — or anyone else for that matter — for an opinion about how to be successful, you’re asking a hard question.

An almost impossible one.

You’re really asking what you need to do differently in order to achieve better results. And that is a slightly more complicated question to answer.

It requires a lot more information. A lot more honesty with yourself.

In truth, I’m the product of many years of hustle and hard work. A combination of who my parents raised me to be, the religious and spiritual beliefs that were ingrained in me at an early age, and all of the new beliefs and mindsets I’ve been developing proactively over the last decade.

My opinion today is certainly different from the advice I would have given you many years ago. It’s certain that I’ll have a new perspective in the years to come.

And while some life questions appear to be easy to answer, every bit of advice you receive needs to be filtered through the following six questions.

Is the advice misleading or flat out wrong? — Just because someone has an advanced college degree or appears to know that they are talking about doesn’t mean that everything they say is accurate. It doesn’t even mean that well-intentioned advice is right. Sometimes common sense is dead wrong. By the way, statistics can tell a few different stories. A lot of the times, what looks to be a pattern is just a mirage. Do your own research before buying in.Is the advice outdated and not specific to what you are going through right now? — Times change. Strategies change. Tactics change. You’ll often hear a wise old man tell you how you should do it the way they did it. And while some strategies are never outdated, like hard work and honesty, most everything else evolves so much over the years that it hardly looks like what it used to be. You need to be aware of where you are right now. Is the advice incomplete? — Half of the picture isn’t all that helpful. Getting part of the solution might seem like a good idea at first — until you are unable to finish what you started. All too often, good ideas die because no one thought through the entire process. Sadly, you usually only learn this after you’ve failed a few times. It’s OK to grab bits and pieces of advice from different people. Just don’t blindly accept that part of the solution is the entire thing.Is the advice overly emotional and not able to be implemented practically? — Just because you have a rallying cry doesn’t mean that you have the weapons to go to war and win. Being loud and obnoxious isn’t all that useful — even if you have a job in broadcast journalism. Things that sound like good ideas are often just anecdotes meant for effect, not for getting things done. Progress needs to be practical or you’ll just find yourself angry and stuck.Is the advice based on your flawed explanation of your particular situation? — A remedy is only as good as the symptoms that you describe. Sometimes the advice you are given is helpful if you are describing the right problem.  But you’re not. And so you begin executing based on a flawed premise. Regardless of how you got there, you’re in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. This means you have to be brutally honest with yourself and those you are looking to for help.Is the advice“forgettable and naïve”? — Sometimes successful people forget how hard it was to get there the first place. They can tell you five or six things that seemed to work, but often forget to mention how much effort it required to make those things work. What you hear is “this works” when you should be hearing  “this works if you do it long enough and hard enough”. Dive a bit deeper into the advice that you get. Find the answer behind the answer.

Don’t worry. My opinions aren’t going anywhere. I’m still quick to drop my perspective in almost any conversation that I’m a part of — even the conversations where no one really cares what I think.

But when it comes to improving, the only thing worse than not knowing what to do is following advice that doesn’t work.

You might feel better in the moment blindly accepting the perspectives of those who seem to have it all figured out, just be careful that you don’t waste time buying into other people’s nonsense just because it’s easier than developing the emotional fortitude to take risks and fail as you develop your own insights and perspective along your pathway to greatness.

Be teachable. Be willing to listen and learn. Be wise enough to separate good advice from bad.

The post You’re Listening To Bad Advice. Here’s What To Do About It. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

You’re Listening To Bad Advise. Here’s What To Do About It.

I’ve stopped giving other people advice. Well, not exactly. I still have as many opinions as I have always had, I’ve just realized that giving good advice is really hard to do.

It’s almost automatic that I’ll give you bad advice. Not horrible, malicious advice — just insight and perspective that are completely unhelpful. And almost always horribly inadequate.

Today, everyone has an opinion.

Actually, that’s always been the case. And despite how wise they might have seemed at the time, even the smartest people can look foolish over time.

In 1876, senior executives at Western Union made the decision that “This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. It is inherently of no value.” In early 2019 Apple announced that it has sold more than 1.5 billion iPhones.In 1933, the head of engineering at Boeing bragged that “There will never be a bigger plane built” after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that held ten people. Boeing’s own 747-8 can hold 605 passengers, and it’s long-range competitor, the Airbus A-380, can hold 853 people.In 1954, Dr. Wilhelm Carl Hueper, Director of the National Cancer Institute, argued that “If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.”  More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964. That number continues to grow.In 1968, Times Magazine made the observation that “online shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop.” In 2013, worldwide online shopping reached nearly $1 trillion. Goldman Sachs predicts year over year growth of almost 20%.

Everyone, everywhere, has always had an opinion. Some of them being epically wrong. The only difference between now and then is that right now everyone’s opinion is right up in your face.

Sometimes, obnoxiously so.

You can’t spend more than a few minutes on social media, your favorite news channel on television, or even in conversation with a close circle of friends without hearing advice that is spoken with audacious boldness — so much boldness that you are convinced the person delivering the opinion has some special information you are not privy too.

And sometimes they do. But most often, they don’t.

What they say out loud to you is based on what other people have told them or how they perceive their own life experience. They tell you how they see life, not as life fully is.

I’ve realized this lesson in the advice that I give others. What used to work for me in achieving success is no longer what I believe in. Those ideas are no longer the strategies and tactics that I use. It worked when it worked, but isn’t something that works now.

So when you ask me — or anyone else for that matter — for an opinion about how to be successful, you’re asking a hard question.

An almost impossible one.

You’re really asking what you need to do differently in order to achieve better results. And that is a slightly more complicated question to answer.

It requires a lot more information. A lot more honesty with yourself.

In truth, I’m the product of many years of hustle and hard work. A combination of who my parents raised me to be, the religious and spiritual beliefs that were ingrained in me at an early age, and all of the new beliefs and mindsets I’ve been developing proactively over the last decade.

My opinion today is certainly different from the advice I would have given you many years ago. It’s certain that I’ll have a new perspective in the years to come.

And while some life questions appear to be easy to answer, every bit of advice you receive needs to be filtered through the following six questions.

Is the advice misleading or flat out wrong? — Just because someone has an advanced college degree or appears to know that they are talking about doesn’t mean that everything they say is accurate. It doesn’t even mean that well-intentioned advice is right. Sometimes common sense is dead wrong. By the way, statistics can tell a few different stories. A lot of the times, what looks to be a pattern is just a mirage. Do your own research before buying in.Is the advice outdated and not specific to what you are going through right now? — Times change. Strategies change. Tactics change. You’ll often hear a wise old man tell you how you should do it the way they did it. And while some strategies are never outdated, like hard work and honesty, most everything else evolves so much over the years that it hardly looks like what it used to be. You need to be aware of where you are right now. Is the advice incomplete? — Half of the picture isn’t all that helpful. Getting part of the solution might seem like a good idea at first — until you are unable to finish what you started. All too often, good ideas die because no one thought through the entire process. Sadly, you usually only learn this after you’ve failed a few times. It’s OK to grab bits and pieces of advice from different people. Just don’t blindly accept that part of the solution is the entire thing.Is the advice overly emotional and not able to be implemented practically? — Just because you have a rallying cry doesn’t mean that you have the weapons to go to war and win. Being loud and obnoxious isn’t all that useful — even if you have a job in broadcast journalism. Things that sound like good ideas are often just anecdotes meant for effect, not for getting things done. Progress needs to be practical or you’ll just find yourself angry and stuck.Is the advice based on your flawed explanation of your particular situation? — A remedy is only as good as the symptoms that you describe. Sometimes the advice you are given is helpful if you are describing the right problem.  But you’re not. And so you begin executing based on a flawed premise. Regardless of how you got there, you’re in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. This means you have to be brutally honest with yourself and those you are looking to for help.Is the advice“forgettable and naïve”? — Sometimes successful people forget how hard it was to get there the first place. They can tell you five or six things that seemed to work, but often forget to mention how much effort it required to make those things work. What you hear is “this works” when you should be hearing  “this works if you do it long enough and hard enough”. Dive a bit deeper into the advice that you get. Find the answer behind the answer.

Don’t worry. My opinions aren’t going anywhere. I’m still quick to drop my perspective in almost any conversation that I’m a part of — even the conversations where no one really cares what I think.

But when it comes to improving, the only thing worse than not knowing what to do is following advice that doesn’t work.

You might feel better in the moment blindly accepting the perspectives of those who seem to have it all figured out, just be careful that you don’t waste time buying into other people’s nonsense just because it’s easier than developing the emotional fortitude to take risks and fail as you develop your own insights and perspective along your pathway to greatness.

Be teachable. Be willing to listen and learn. Be wise enough to separate good advice from bad.

The post You’re Listening To Bad Advise. Here’s What To Do About It. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

The Secret To Lasting Longer And Helping More People In A World Where You Keep Falling Apart.

Have you ever watched a tugboat in action? It’s truly a remarkable vessel.

The purpose of the tugboat is to help larger sea vehicles maneuver out of port or safely connect back to a pier when trying to dock.

You’ll see a huge cruise ship or cargo ship coming into port with a tugboat attached to both corners — connected at both ends with an iron chain as thick as a car tire.

As the ship gets closer and closer to shore the tugboats pull on either end to make sure that the larger vessel is perfectly aligned with the pier and doesn’t smash wildly into shore.

The tugboat is also used to pull damaged boats back to safety or haul trash in large oversized barges out to the middle of the ocean where it will be dumped.

The tugboat is small and powerful, with an engine built to maximize torque over raw speed.

But the dirty little secret of the tugboat is that it breaks down more than any other vehicle doing business on the water.

Every few months, the tugboat makes its way into the dry docks where its engine will be ripped apart and put back together by talented mechanics who know exactly what to do to make it all work again.

The tug boat might be the strongest of all the boats — especially given its ridiculously important job — but it also breaks down the most.

It gets beaten up the most. And it needs the most attention to its inner workings.

That’s because the tugboat is always doing something for someone else.

It’s not racing fast or exploring elegantly. It’s never shined up or painted beautifully. It’s always saving someone else. Always.

And that job requires a lot of upkeep.

Unless the engine gets rebuilt, it can no longer do its job.

But the tugboat isn’t the only monument on the ocean saving lives and doing hard work.

Along the shore of the world’s most dangerous locations stand tall statues of hope. These locations have a single purpose — to shine brightness on a situation that would otherwise hurt sailors and destroy their boats.

We call these monuments by a different name. You’ve seen one before. It’s called a lighthouse.

And if you’ve seen one recently or remember the last one you visited, you will note that it looked quite old.

It wasn’t built yesterday or last year or most probably in your lifetime. It’s likely that the lighthouse you’re thinking of right now is more than 100 years old. Still standing in the same spot.

Still doing the same thing it was built to do.

Not rebuilt. Not reworked. Still standing strong.

The lighthouse and the tugboat do the same thing. They save lives. But the tugboat needs to be repaired. And the lighthouse just stands strong.

And that singular comparison is a powerful bit of wisdom for all of us.

If you insist on dropping everything and jumping into your tugboat every time someone you love or care about needs help, you’re going to wear out quickly.

You’re going to need to be rebuilt.

And sometimes that’s necessary. Sometimes you do need to do something extraordinary to help others.

But you should be aware that your effort will come at an extraordinary cost to you. You can’t pretend to do it every day. Or build a plan expecting it to work out for you.

Like the tug boat you will break down. You will break into pieces. You will need to be put back together.

The lighthouse has but one job — to shine bright.

To illuminate the shore. To provide a warning to all that sail close by that danger is near.

The lighthouse doesn’t move.

It’s not even responsible for the people who crash onto the shore. The lighthouse did its job. It’s there to shine. To boldly show the way.

That’s your job as well. To shine bright. To stand tall. To be the ones others look to for help getting to where they want to be.

Spend less time pulling others to where they should be and more time shining a light on where they could be.

You’ll need less repair. And those you help will be all the more empowered to shine a light of their own.

The post The Secret To Lasting Longer And Helping More People In A World Where You Keep Falling Apart. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

15 Rules Champions Live By To Get Things Done Each Day.

You can’t control if you get lucky.  You can’t even control if you get a fair chance. Despite the best education, smart planning, and friends in high places, you can be blindsided by the worst of unfair conditions.

Your good ideas can be spoiled by petty people. Your honorable intentions can be undone by passive-aggressive peers. Your intelligence and insight can be copied and stolen and spoiled.

But no one can take from you your effort. No one can force you to not get things done.

It’s the biggest difference between champions and everyone else.

Champions put in more time. They work hard. Every day. And not just working hard for the sake of putting in the effort.

Champions put in effort for the sake of getting things done

They know the value of consistent progress towards success — no matter what that goal is.

The crazy thing about this entire discussion is that most people don’t really know how to get things done.

Don’t get me wrong, the internet is full of experts and gurus who talk eloquently about “working smarter” and the “need to get enough sleep”. They cite case studies about “needing to pace yourself” — all the while never really sharing with you the rulebook that champions use to get things done each day.

So, let me do that for you right now.

If you’ve been wondering how to be more successful — how to make more progress — here are a few rules to help you do just that:

Go out of your way each day to improve your “mind game”. Everything you ever do — or don’t do — is a direct result of how you think — and what you allow yourself to keep thinking about. Be aware of which thoughts make you act which way. By the way, meditation is a great exercise to figure this all out.Take the time to build a list of everything that you need to do. Keep that list updated as new thoughts, ideas, and goals hit you. Make sure you have easy access to that list at all times so that you can quickly add to it. Pull tasks from your brain immediately to your task list.Make sure you know what matters now and what can wait until later. Build priorities. Label contingencies. Describe the outcomes you want to see.  You can delete stuff later.  Just get it all listed out in order of importance. Have tasks to “look at this” or “check out” or “explore” things that are fun and build new skills.Use smart technology to remind you of key events. Tools like repeating Google Tasks and Google Goals inside Google Calendar (all available for FREE) make it easy to set up alarms, reminders, and repeating events. You’re guaranteed to get more thing done when you are reminded of the most important things that you need to be doing.Build a “Minimum To-Do List”. Tag the items on your daily list that make up the bare minimum that you need to achieve each day. You’ll be surprised at how few items stay on the list, and you’ll be motivated to keep building momentum. A quick trick here is to create daily repeating tasks (or reminders) to do this minimum list of thins.Invest in the extra help you need. Instead of trying to do everything yourself, find key tasks – or parts of tasks – that you can hire someone else to help you with. Use online platforms like Fiverr and Upwork to find the help you need to be amazing. Invest in training these people so that you can truly get long term value for the relationship.Take time to get physical. Instead of eliminating regular exercise from your schedule, protect the time you work up a sweat. Run. Punch. Kick. Cycle. Just move fast. You’ll find yourself thinking of ideas you wouldn’t have considered. You’ll return to your work focused. And — you’ll eliminate a bunch of the frustration and pettiness you would otherwise direct at those around you.Refuse to waste a second on regrets or worries. It’s easy to spin out of control when you think about what you could have done or should have done. Replace those negative thoughts with specific thoughts for moving towards where you want to be. Again, this about you being aware of what you are thinking. When you recognize negative thoughts you pause and switch them to thoughts that help you get closer to where you want to be.Reduce (or eliminate) the time you spend on entertainment. It’s amazing how distracting a binge-watch session on Netflix can be. Instead of working toward success, your brain goes to mush when you call up the latest episode instead of working on the things that matter most. Sometimes, you need to take a break and reboot. But that shouldn’t be a “most of the time” thing.Be clear about what matters and why you want to achieve it. That state of “not knowing exactly what you want but feeling dissatisfied with what you have and where you are right now” is just a waste of your time. Hire a coach or a therapist. Join a Master Mind group. Find a new set of friends. Push yourself into doing things that are extreme and challenging. In that moment of weakness, what matters will become overwhelmingly clear to you.Get more sleep. Most human beings need 6 to 8 hours of sleep each night to operate at optimum performance. Your brain reboots. Your immune system recharges. Your body gets a bit more resilient. The more sleep you can get, the more likely you are to stay strong and healthy — and clear minded. When you do more, you need more sleep. Don’t overdo the sleeping part and don’t think you can cheat time by sleeping less. It’s guaranteed to backfire on you.Give time and attention to others. When you invest in others, your brain tells itself that you have more than you need. That sends a signal to the rest of your body to calm down. That everything will be ok. You’ll actually do better work. And., there is something inspiring about seeing others around you achieve progress.Pay attention to the details. Getting things done isn’t the same as getting things done well. Don’t just check things off your list. Make sure you’ve done the best that you can do. Take the time to reflect on what you can do better the next time. Dig deep into the success you want for yourself. Hone in on what other people who have achieved the success you want for yourself are doing. Always be learning and growing.Apologize when things don’t go the way you want them to go. When things are busy and you’re focused on you, it’s easy to make mistakes or hurt other people’s feelings. Instead of letting that negativity linger, make the smart decision to apologize early. And mean it. Then move on. Avoid everyone and anything who takes you off your game. It doesn’t really matter why or when or who — negativity and fear and worry and confusion will crush your ability to get to where you want to be. So avoid it. Don’t try to contain it. Or tolerate it. Get as far away from it, as you can.

Each day is an opportunity do things that matter.

Don’t waste your chance at being a champion because you don’t know how to get things done.

Move. And improve.

Plan. Work. Strategize.

And when you feel like you aren’t making enough progress, stop and return to this rulebook.

Which of these rules have you let slip?

The post 15 Rules Champions Live By To Get Things Done Each Day. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

Frederic Tudor: How To Turn Your Ice-Cold, Crazy Ideas Into Epic Success.

It was at a dinner shortly after the wedding that the idea came up. One of Frederic’s younger sister had just married the most eligible bachelor in town. Chilled drinks were flowing. And so were the ideas.

As Frederic’s rich older brother William joked with friends, out tumbled one of those ideas: ice for everyone.

Why not harvest the plentiful New England ice, currently only affordable to the rich and famous and sell it to the masses in the steamy Caribbean? It was clearly a joke. The ice would obviously melt along the way.

But that joke of an idea became a burning question for Frederic.

Why not bring ice to the masses?

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that he could pull it off. Using what he had learned from his apprenticeships and calling on his contacts in the Caribbean, this idea could make him seriously rich.

So it was on August 1, 1805, he inscribed in his journal — a journal bought specifically for this grand new business venture — his determined outlook:

He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow despairs of success has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, love, or business.

And quickly those blows of despair landed.

He couldn’t pay enough to get a boat captain to take him seriously. The first captain he tried to hire brushed him off. He wasn’t interested in being part of that failure. And neither was the second. Or the third.

Frederic decided to take matters into his own hands, spending $4,750 (more than $90,000 in today’s money) to buy his own boat, called the Favorite.

With 130 tons of ice on board, he left the dock on February 10, 1806,  to the ridicule of the press. The Boston Gazette reported, “No joke, ship full of ice sets sail for Martinique. Let’s hope this doesn’t prove to be a slippery speculation!”

His friends laughed at this insane notion. His own dad called his new venture “wild and ruinous”.

Turns out they were all absolutely right.

Twenty days later he arrived in Martinique, located in the Caribbean. Most of the ice on his boat had already melted. The business partners he sent ahead of his arrival had failed to drum up much interest. They weren’t able to sell the wild idea of having a chilled drink on a hot day.

In a little over 3 weeks, he had lost just over $50,000 in today’s money.

But that was just the beginning.

His own brother, and business partner, bailed out on the business. Quit. Left. He wanted no part of his insanity.

If that weren’t bad enough, the warehouses used to store ice could not stop the ice from melting.

And then life happened.

A few months after the launch of his grand idea, the Embargo Act of 1807 made it illegal to trade in foreign ports, cutting him off from his Caribbean market. That was followed by the War of 1812, which tanked the business.

Frederic was broke. And he went on the run from his creditors.

When he couldn’t outrun his creditors, he was thrown into debtor’s prison. And when he got out, he was thrown back in. A second time. And then a third time.

Humiliated. Broken. Beaten. Destroyed by his own crazy joke of an idea.

And every day, while his world crashed down around him and he logged one failure after another, he saw these words written so many years earlier in his journal:

He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow despairs of success has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, love, or business.

It took a decade of despairing blows before he finally started to get it right.

And then that bit of success seemed like a stroke of luck.

He started hauling a cooler of ice into the eating area at the boarding house and convincing his roommates to try their first iced beverage. At first, they laughed him off, but then they started clamoring for more.

And that was the spark that changed everything.

It became an all-out hustle. Over the next few months, he would travel the country convincing bars to experiment with chilled beverages to see which would sell better.

They even went so far as to offer some bars free ice for a year.

He taught restaurants how to use his ice to make ice cream.

He pioneered the practice of chilling meat, fruits, and vegetables to ship them long distances. He convinced doctors and hospitals to use ice to cool down feverish patients.

He developed an insulated ice house that kept his product cold by trapping a layer of air between two stone walls. He put those houses in Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta — literally, all over the world.

He continued to perfect his process, harvesting ice in ways that produced more uniform ice bricks, allowing them to be stacked tighter and higher.

Some as high as 80 feet tall.

With that hustle came the success he envisioned so many years earlier.

People began to want cold drinks. Queen Elizabeth herself refused to drink any other kind of ice but Frederic’s.

By 1856, Frederic was at the center of an industry that was shipping 140,000 tons of ice to China, Brazil, Japan, India, Australia, and 38 other countries.

He became known around the world as the “Ice King”.

He had fought his way from debtor’s prison to a fortune worth over $200 million dollars in today’s money.

And all because of a single sentence penciled into his journal:

He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow despairs of success has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, love, or business.

Years later, Henry David Thoreau penned the famous words: “The sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.”

He was watching Frederic’s men harvest the ice on the famous Walden pond.

Frederic’s ice melted, but not his impact. The same could be said for you. But only if you don’t give up on your crazy ideas.

Even when people say your idea is stupid.

Even when people tell you to back off. To be reasonable. That it’s okay to “move on”. That “it wasn’t meant to be”.

Even when people tell you “no”. Even when they tell you “no” a second time. And a third time. And a hundred times after that.

If you’re going to be successful, you’re going to have to follow the same playbook that made Frederic a winner. 

Refuse to give up. Don’t do it. You’re going to get hurt. And feel pain. And maybe cry. Just keep going. Regardless.Want it. There is always a very good, very smart reason to stop trying so hard. That doesn’t mean it’s the right decision to make.Stay focused on what they want. Your goals look a lot scarier a few months after you make them. But that’s not an excuse to shrug them off.Be tough. The difference between winning and losing usually just comes down to who has the most guts — not brains. Toughen up. Make time to think beyond the stress they are facing right now. Meditate. Think. Pause. Take a breath. What you think about the most you eventually do.Put your head down and get work done. If you keep moving towards where you want to be, you’ll eventually end up there. Be willing to be wrong. Just because you don’t know the exact next step to take doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a next step.Believe. If you don’t believe in yourself, no else’s opinion or support will be enough to motivate you to keep moving.Master the details. Success comes down to the little things. Examine the seemingly insignificant stuff. That’s where you’ll find breakthrough.Be obsessed. Keep trying new things. Keep looking for answers. Keep poking around the edges.  Keep being ridiculous.Learn from your mistakes. Just because what you did before didn’t work doesn’t mean that you should sulk, stew, and stop trying. 

As he so boldly wrote so many years earlier: “He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow despairs of success has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, love, or business.”

So be a hero. Do the next thing. Find within yourself the ice-cold determination to do that crazy thing you’ve almost given up on.

Whatever you do, don’t give up.

The post Frederic Tudor: How To Turn Your Ice-Cold, Crazy Ideas Into Epic Success. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

You Shouldn’t Have To Pee Blood Before You Ask for Help.

Looking back, it was the stupidest move I could have made that day. Especially since I was about to run the longest race of my life.

Stepping foot into the Landsford Canal 24-Hour Race I had big plans for what I wanted to accomplish. For the last few weeks, I had been raising money for To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit that helps teenagers who are having thoughts about suicide.

I had been training, preparing and even investing in powders and shakes to help me run faster on the day of the event.

I remember calling the sales rep from Hammer Nutrition:

“I need to buy some stuff from you that will help me run faster.”

“Okay?”

“So what should I buy?”

“Well, what are you running?”

“I’m running 120 miles.”

“Awesome. Have you ever done that before?”

“No. But it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard….”

“What’s the longest you’ve run in the past?”

“A half marathon.”

“……..[epic pause]………… and you’re now going to run 120 miles?”

“Yep. And I have friends who tell me that you have some powders, shakes, and pills That will help me on the day of the event.”

If that seems crazy to you, can you imagine what the sales rep on the other end of the phone must have been thinking? He was, however, smart enough to shut up and take my money.

He sent me some powder you mix with water that has calories in it that you can sip while you’re running. It’s easier to consume than hard food, but still thick and gooey –and horrible tasting.

I also got two bottles of salt tablets. By consuming salt when you are in the middle of heavy exercise, you increase your ability to stay below your own personal red line.

With my powders, shakes, and pills in hand, I was all set for the Lansford Canal 24-Hour Race.

And yet, I absolutely wasn’t ready at all.

My crew set about mixing the powders with water and handing me a fresh bottle every time I made the four-mile loop through the woods. At first, drinking the goo was manageable. It tasted like drywall putty but seemed like a necessary consequence of attempting an event like this.

My first loop I did in a little over 30 minutes. My second one was close behind that. Loops three and four were a little bit slower — but still faster than anyone else there.

In the first 5 hours, I ran about 40 miles. If you watch the documentary that my team shot, you can see me flopping on the ground feeling horrible and getting stretched out by friends who suddenly saw a crack in my impenetrable confidence.

As the day grew warmer and the taste of my Hammer Nutrition shakes began to taste even more horrible, I decided to engage what seemed like a genius move at the time.

Forget about drinking those shakes. I was just going to keep running anyways.

“I got this… I got this.” I told my team. “Just let me run.”

And that’s what they did.

40 miles turn into 45. And then 50. Running turned into jogging. And then walking. I was determined to get to 120 miles. Nothing could stop me.

I was more than 10 hours into running when I began to experience a horrible pain at the bottom of my stomach. It felt like lightning bolts were jumping in and out of my kidneys. I stopped on the side of a trail to pee, thinking maybe that would solve the problem.

I was horrified when what came out was the consistency of maple syrup and the color of blood. I was in pain watching it. In pain doing it.

All the alarm bells in my head went off. I was in trouble. I knew it in that instant.

Something was wrong. This was bad.

When I made it back to where my crew was, I shared with him when had just happened and the pain that I was experiencing. They told me to take a moment and lie down.

With my feet raised on the edge of a cooler, my crew went off to speak with the medical team who was there at the event. When they came back one of the veteran runners came with them with a thermos in his hand.

“Drink this,” he said.

Inside it was a warm liquid. It tasted like soup, but it was just liquid. No noodles or vegetables. I would learn later that it was bone broth. I drank it and then got back up and ran another loop. And then another one. And then another one.

And then, at the 14-hour mark, I was completely unable to continue. My muscles were in spasms. My lips are so dehydrated that I can barely close my mouth. I was in horrible pain. The headache growing behind my eyes felt like a jackhammer crushing against my skull.

On the video, you’ll hear me signing off. 14 hours. 71 miles.

A bit less then 50 fewer miles I need it to accomplish my big goal of running 120 miles that day.

My body was broken. My spirits were crushed. I felt like a loser. I wasn’t able to achieve what I set out to accomplish.

Here’s the crazy thing — I had everything I could ever need to accomplish my goal within the grasp of my fingers — but I was so focused on only consuming my powders, shakes, and pills that I ignored all the food available to me.

There were gummy bears by the handfuls, potato chips of almost every type, hamburgers and hot dogs, pizza, brownies, skittles, grilled cheese sandwiches, pickles, pretzels, and dozens of other bits of food I could have consumed to give me the strength to achieve my goal.

Instead, I decided that I knew better.

I closed my mind to the option that there was a possibility for success beyond something I could think of. I was so determined to do it my way that I stopped paying attention to the resources and help that were all around me.

There were seasoned ultramarathon runners that I could have stopped and asked for help. There was Gatorade in 5-gallon containers that I could have consumed by the couple. There was water another nutritious, and cold, beverages to drink.

I turned it all down, thinking that I knew better — which was a recipe for my eventual disaster. As you can expect, I was suffering from a pretty extreme case of dehydration.

As you might expect — 48 hours later, I was fine. My legs were still a little bit rubbery and my ego had a bit of a dent in it, but I was fully recovered and ready for combat.

You might think that I would learn a lesson like that pretty quickly.

But I didn’t, and I don’t always now.

Here’s the hard truth that you may not want to hear — the help you need is already all around you. The insights, ideas, and help you need to achieve success are within your arms reach. Right now.

But you’ll never find them if you weren’t willing to challenge your preconceived notions about what you know.

Instead, you’ll burn out and blow up before you finish your race. And not because you don’t have a strong heart or fast legs. But because you aren’t willing to let go of what you think you know to receive the help of those who do know — are willing to help you.

So let’s dig into that for a minute:

What books are you reading right now? What’s your circle of mentors and advisors look like? When was the last time you spent money to level up your head game?

If you’re too busy to do any of these things or claim that you’re too broke to invest in them, you can be absolutely sure that you’re on a path to burnout and self-destruction.

All I had to do was reach out and grab a few potato chips every few miles. That, and throw back a cup of Gatorade or two.

What’s that chip for you? What’s that cup of Gatorade?

Take a minute, and get serious about your success. You don’t have to do it all on your own. And it’s always easier when you get some help.

So take a minute after reading this to pause. Shut your eyes and count to ten.

And then, talk to yourself about where you are and where you want to be.

What thoughts and feelings are you allowing to blind you to the help that is already within your fingertips?

Wanna see all of this in “real life”? Here you go…

The post You Shouldn’t Have To Pee Blood Before You Ask for Help. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

Why You Don’t Get Better Even Though You Really Want To.

Nothing changes until you change. Until you get started.

It’s easy to get caught up in the passion of dreaming. And certainly, there’s power in visualizing a better future. But dreams without action quickly become delusion.

And the irony of being in that predicament is that the difference between success and failure is merely you taking the first step.

I know. Because I’ve screwed it up for years.

I’ve been dreaming dreams my entire life.

I have dreamed about making more money. I have dreamed about running more competitively. I have dreamed about creating a legacy of kindness that changes other people’s lives.

Like you, I’ve not just dreamed these things. I have longed for them with a passion that is deeply rooted in intense emotions. It’s real for me. I want it.

Every fiber of my being is screaming out, demanding the universe to bring me that which I desire.

And I’ve noticed something over the years. It’s not the dreaming that brings you the results you want. Changing is what brings you what you want.

It’s only when you do something different that you begin to notice different results.

It’s only when you deliberately put yourself in uncomfortable situations and defy the baggage from your past that is holding you back that you begin to see progress.

What you have done in the past has brought you to this moment. And if you keep doing what you’ve always done in the past, you will stay in this moment. You’ll stay stuck. Unmovable. Unchangeable.

And not because you don’t have the capacity to be better — but because you aren’t taking action. You are automatically defaulting to what you’ve always done. You’re relying on the programs already wired into your subconscious.

You know what I mean.

You have programs that automatically trigger a response from you when someone speaks to you in a certain tone of voice.

You have programs for how you respond to food and exercise, your weekly paycheck, where you go on vacation, the friends you hang out with, the books you read, the entertainment you frequent, and thousands of other choices you make each day — from God to work and family.

So if you were going to change, where would you get started? What would you do?

You’re certainly can’t do what you’ve always done. Because that’s not part of your future. It’s just your past. And, you might not have the skills yet to operate in the future you dream about.

So you should probably start by taking the first step in the straightest direction towards where you want to be.

Skip over the steps where you do one thing to achieve another thing that might lead you to the thing you really want.

Just go for your goal. Plot a straight line.

If you want to be on stage speaking as a professional speaker, then pursue that directly. Hire a coach. Speak for free. Build your keynote. Get some practice in. Create a website where you sell your services. Go for it. If you want to create a startup, plunge in. Build up your product. Find your first customer. Surround yourself with awesome mentors and potential team members. Get out there and start hustling. If you want to be a better dad, make that happen. Going forward, stop yourself when you behave badly. Practice new patterns of engaging. Get some help with your head. Take steps each day to exhibitive the behavior of the new person you imagine yourself to be on the inside.

One of my mentors used to say to me all the time that: “Transformation is in the transaction.”

The moment you decide to get started — that is when your transformation happens. You’re not going to see all the results you want right then.

You certainly aren’t going to be in a position where other people see your success.

But that moment, when you surrender everything to the awkwardness of taking the first step, the pathway begins to clear and you find your way towards success.

There’s nothing wrong with aspiration. You should want to be better. You should crave it in your soul. But just wanting to be better isn’t enough. Just desiring more for yourself isn’t enough.

You have to take that next uncomfortable step of doing something different in order to achieve that aspiration. What’s that for you?

What’s that step that you need to take right now that you have been avoiding for so long because it scares you?

That’s the thing you need to do right now.

Don’t you get it? That transaction is your transformation.

Take that first step.

The post Why You Don’t Get Better Even Though You Really Want To. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

Just Because You Don’t Feel Like It Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t.

Success demands courage. If you are going to get to where you want to be, you are going to have to be courageous when you least feel prepared to find it inside yourself.

The chaos of the battle faded briefly from his mind. Replaced with raw panic and fear.

William D. Hawkins bowed his head to pray from the edge of the boat he was standing on.

Heading to the island of Betio, in the Tarawa atoll, William and his men were at Betio to get the island back from the Japanese after they stole it from missionaries.

The warship fired round upon round of ammo into the water in the hopes to deter Japanese submarines from attacking their fleet. William and his platoon waited for the signal before jumping into the boats resting in the shallow water.

They were called amphibious tanks, the first of their kind to ever be used in battle. Then they headed to the shore.

As they approached the shore, aerial bombs were dropped by the U.S. on the Betio beachhead by the thousands.

Smoke was everywhere. Fire exploded on the sandy shore.

The soldiers jumped out of the boats and swam the last few meters to the shore as the Japanese peppered the water with gunfire.

In the crossfire, William took a direct rocket hit to the shoulder — but he kept going.

He wasn’t willing to back down now. Even with 4,000 Japanese soldiers firing machine guns directly at him.

The island was full of dangerous machine gun bunkers — dug some 20 feet into the ground. On every hilltop, the Japanese were in trenches raining down gunfire on the oncoming U.S. Marines.

It was death every few steps as William and his men destroyed pillboxes with a flamethrower. He was in the middle of the bloodiest battle of World War II.

Over and over again, Japanese soldiers were taken out and the Marines pushed their way further into the island.

The trees looked like they were in the middle of a tropical storm, blown sideways from the devastation of the gunfire.

The smoke of the gunfire settled on the island like a dense fog. The only two smells that existed were of gunpowder and death.

William was the first to set foot on the island.

It took enormous courage. Most of his comrades would die.

Those who did survive would suffer the scars that come with mangled bodies — having experienced the torture of under depravity.

It’s easy to recognize courage on the battlefield.

It’s that first step. It’s that willingness to move forward in spite of overwhelming harm.

But courage comes alive in different ways.

Perhaps it takes even more courage to survive in today’s world, where combat most often takes place in your mind rather than in smoke-filled trenches.

It takes courage to try. It takes courage to believe. It takes courage to step outside the shadows of your past failure.

And all of that happens between your ears.

It’s a struggle that is as dangerous as any physical war.

Your battle is to control the thoughts that take up ownership in your mind.

If you don’t have the courage to fight back against the negativity and fear that seek to overwhelm you, your chances at success are done. It’s over. You’ll never get to where you want to be.

It doesn’t matter how smart you may be, how much money you have, or what you have accomplished in your past — to be successful you have to find the courage to battle bad thoughts and to be uncomfortable when getting what you want doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

You’ve been there before. Maybe recently.

Where you’ve tried so many times already that it seems insane to do it one more time. When it just feels like you should pack it in and go back to a life of normal expectations.

That you should just be reasonable and stop trying to change what seems impossible.

You lie awake at night wondering when it’s going to be your chance to win. Wondering why you always seem to end up in these situations.

That’s your battlefield. That moment where it seems like all is lost again — that’s your foxhole. That’s when you know it’s time to fight.

And even though you don’t feel like success is possible, just know that your courage to try, to believe, to invest, to get back up — that courage is what makes the difference between winning and losing.

At the beginning of the second day on Betio William took a bullet to the shoulder. But he refused to leave the fight. As long as he could shoot, he would. And the fight raged on.

Over the next day, William single-handedly took out more than six Japanese machine gun nests, killing hundreds of Japanese warriors who sought to stop him.

But it came at a high cost. A few hours after his second wound, William was shot a final time. In his other shoulder.

He died with his back to a tree, pistol in hand, encircled by enemy soldiers he had taken with him.

Over 1,000 Marines lost their lives in that short battle. Among them was William Hawkins.

In recognition of his heroic behavior, the airstrip on Betio Island was named Hawkins Field. The bar at The Basic School, where Marine Corp officers are trained, is called The Hawkins Room.

Along with his men, William was awarded multiple Presidential Unit Citations.

Here’s the truth about being courageous — no one really wants to be.

No one feels like doing more when they’re already exhausted. No one feels like trying when they’ve already failed. No one wants to die just to set an example.

You’re no different. It going to take courage.

Months later at the White House, President Franklin Roosevelt presented William’s mom with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest commendation awarded to the military, telling those gathered that: “To say that his conduct was worthy of the highest traditions of the Marine Corps is like saying the Empire State Building is moderately high.”

Like Williams, you’re a warrior. Act like it.

The post Just Because You Don’t Feel Like It Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.

1 Lie. 2 Secret Skills. And The Path To Getting Everything You Want From Life.

Everything you’ve ever wanted to achieve could be within your grasp.

It might not be at your fingertips right now — but it could be soon. As long as you’re willing to keep growing. And going.

Here’s the truth about being successful — it hurts like hell along the way.

I’m not sure when we started romanticizing “the struggle”, but let’s be honest. The struggle sucks.

You already know that. But you might have bought into the crazy notion that you should enjoy what you’re doing.

You are not going to love what you are doing all the time. Or even most of the time. It’s hard work. It’s uncomfortable. It’s frustrating.

Yet, you’ve read books that quote famous people like Steve Jobs telling you that “if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”

If you love what you do, you’ll work every minute of your life.

It probably won’t be a job or someone else paying you an hourly wage. It might not even be a company that you own. But you will be working. And it will suck sometimes.

Which is why most people quit. They’ve bought into the notion that success should be fun and automatic. Something that you wake up delighted to do. 

Something so all-consuming that you don’t want to sleep because you’re so driven to keep going.

Again — that’s just crazy talk. So let’s talk about what success is really all about.

It’s about you making the choice to spend 15 minutes meditating even though you’re already 3 hours behind on your list of chores to accomplish today.It’s about you saying “NO” to something that seems like fun because you need to spend that time getting things done.It’s about making time to read books that round out your rough edges, even when it’s easier to watch your favorite show on Hulu or Netflix and just forget about the world around you.It’s about getting up and going to work a few hours after you stopped working, when you’re still so tired you’re not even sure anything you do will be productive.

If you want more money, you can get that. If you want more fame, you can achieve that. If you want more love in your life, you can have that.

But to pull that off you’re going to have to protect every little part of your existence.

You’re going to have to be the champion of your daily schedule and massively deliberate about what you allow yourself to think about.

It’s up to you.

Sure — other people have opinions. And some of those people even care about you. But they aren’t you.

You’re the one who has to call the shots. You’re the one who has to do the hard things.

So start by being wildly accountable. Be accountable to yourself. Own the fact that it’s your destiny. And 100% your choice.

Everything you don’t do or do is your decision to make.

If that’s not something you strongly believe right now, you’re not on the path to being successful. You’re not even close.

Once you have decided to be accountable for all of you, be deliberate about growing.

Grow your finance game.Grow your business game.Grow your emotions gamesGrow your relationships game.

And the best way to do that is by developing two valuable habits — always be reading and level up your relationships.

You’ve heard it said before that leaders are readers. Let’s make it a little more clear — winners read. High performers read great books.

They read research that makes them better. They read criticism, critiques, strategy, and a little bit of anything and everything that allows them to play their game at a higher level.

Think about it. The power of reading is that someone spent years taking everything you could ever want to know about a specific topic and put it into a few hundred pages that you can consume in a half-day of reading.

How magical is that? You don’t have to spend years researching or figuring out the facts. You get to consume it.

And yet, there’s always a good excuse why that isn’t happening. Always a good reason why instead of growing you choose to be entertained.

Is it any wonder then that you aren’t where you want to be. Probably not, right?

But success isn’t just about reading. It’s about relationships.

Mediocre people spend time with people who are just like them.Good people spend time with good people.Great people spend time with greater people.

In other words, they surround themselves with people who have a higher perspective of where they want to be.

After all, they’ve already been there. They’ve done it. Just being around them will make you stronger and faster and better — in countless ways.

And today, it is easier to do than ever. Your idol is probably on Facebook. Maybe in a networking group. They are probably speaking at a conference that you can buy a ticket to.

Maybe they have their own community that you can join. They might even offer you some exclusive mentoring.

Whatever you do, don’t get sucked into the trap of hanging around people who are only as good as you are.

The only thing that will do is make you feel better about yourself. And, unless that’s what you call success, you’re going to be sorely disappointed when you keep failing.

It’s about getting a higher perspective than your own.

That’s where your growth begins to accelerate. That’s when you notice that all of your hard work begins to pay off. When your outcomes show that you are getting closer to where you want to be.

Reading. And relationships. It’s what works.

Just don’t forget that being uncomfortable is part of the journey.

Without the struggle, there is no butterfly — just damp wings and a spoiled cocoon.

Take the time to embrace the power of your decisions. Don’t avoid the hard things — claim them as your superpower.

The post 1 Lie. 2 Secret Skills. And The Path To Getting Everything You Want From Life. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.