Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 50
June 2, 2015
Blinded By Your Own Lies.
Great conquest demands humility.
You won’t conquer the world until you can keep your ego under control.
The truth about success is that you’re going to have to do quite a few uncomfortable things that prideful people just won’t consider doing.
To win against the best you’re going to have to be humble in your planning, honest in your execution, and demanding in your attempt the next time around.
Pride and ego will destroy your ability to be a better version of yourself.
Without humility you’ll be blinded by the unrealistic glow of your past performance.
You’ll be in denial about your effort, talents, strengths, weaknesses, and your opportunities for greatness. You’ll fail to be the best long enough for it to really matter.
Sometimes you have to put yourself in a position where failure and audacious dreams bring you to your knees. Sometimes you have to sign up for something so out of reach that you are forced to take your abilities to the next level.
You are forced to develop new skills. New maturity. Extra tenacity. More determination. A new level of excellence.
An oversized ego will tell you that you’re already the best.
Your pride will lie to you — telling you that there isn’t any room for improvement.
It is humility that keeps you hungry.
It is humility that drives you to find new answers. New innovation. New breakthrough.
And yet, the things that humble you are the things that you most often avoid. And so you fail to find your full strength.
You remain underdeveloped. Under evolved. Stale. Pathetically fragile. Stuck.
Greatness for you is but a fantasy. You’ve been blinded by your own lies.
The post Blinded By Your Own Lies. 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...
June 1, 2015
Why You Can’t Move Forward.
If you find yourself struggling to get ahead, it’s probably because you spent too much time chasing what is new instead of what is valuable.
If you find yourself struggling with relationships maybe it’s because you run to build new ones instead of “working it out” when the old ones show signs of stress.
Ever find yourself doing that?
You find yourself struggling with building business momentum maybe it’s because you run from idea to idea hoping that the next whizbang tool will be the magic elixir that solves all of your woes.
If you find yourself struggling with financial success maybe it’s because you’re not willing to do the unglamorous chores of saving more than you spend, investing more than you save, and denying yourself the toys that get in the way of saving and investing.
You can’t move forward because you’re not moving forward.
The reality of life is that you will experience stress, chaos, pain, and agony in your friendships, personal dreams, and business pursuits.
It’s not going to be easy, fun, or fair to achieve what you want for yourself.
Every day you’re going to be tempted to stop doing what is necessary in place of what sounds like an instantaneous win.
And it’s going to sound smart at the time.
Your mind is going to find a legitimate justification to help you avoid doing what is hard in place of what is new, easy, or flashy.
If you keep jumping from thing to thing when those things get hard, you’re never going to achieve anything.
If you’re going to get unstuck in your life then you’re going to have to achieve momentum even when it feels like that momentum isn’t getting you anywhere.
You need lots of momentum before you achieve even a little progress.
And you need lots of progress before you can achieve your audacious dreams.
And while that seems like a lot of work — and a lot-of-bit scary — it’s the honest antidote to solving what you feel now being stuck. It’s also the cure for feeling burned out.
Do less each day, but do something every day.
Stop sprinting maniacally after magic elixirs that worked for someone else.
Start investing into building the foundation of your soul — hard work and determination.
Build upon the strength of daily progress.
Never stop moving towards where you want to be.
Stop chasing the easy way. Stop pretending like anything will change for the better until you deal with what is hard and uncomfortable.
Grind on, my friend. Grind on.
The post Why You Can’t Move Forward. 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...
May 28, 2015
Why You Won’t Be Seeing Me Around Much Any More.
We can’t be friends anymore. In fact, I’m not sure we’ve ever been friends.
You keep telling me that you want to “keep my feet on the ground.” But that’s not where I want to be.
I want to soar. I want to climb. I want to rise above the obstacle standing in my way. And I can’t do that stuck in the muck of your negativity.
I don’t want you to try to bring me down — for whatever reason you might give me.
I need you to give me lift.
I need you to challenge me to dream bigger, live stronger, and stick with it longer.
It seems like we’re enemies. In fact, I think we are.
You want something for me that I don’t want for me. You keep trying to bring me down and I’m trying to propel myself up and forward.
And why do you keep telling me “that will never work” or “you need to be realistic”?
How do you know what I can do?
How do you know my capabilities better than I do?
Why is it that you’re the person who gets to define what is reasonable behavior?
I’ve thought a lot about this and come to the conclusion that no amount of passionate dialogue, logical debate, screaming, yelling, or any other type of dialogue will change your lousy attitude.
And frankly, I can’t let your negativity destroy my world.
I can’t let your fear and anxiety add to my own fear and anxiety.
I’m already scared enough as it is.
The last thing I need is your negativity bringing me down even more.
That’s why you won’t be seeing me around anymore. I can’t hang around with people like you.
I can’t be a high performer and listen to your negativity. Something dies inside me each time I listen to your take on the world — and especially my dreams for changing the world.
So I will be avoiding you.
Maybe someday in the future I’ll be better prepared and stronger emotionally to handle your negativity. But for now, my dreams mean too much to me.
I have to fight to protect them.
The post Why You Won’t Be Seeing Me Around Much Any More. 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...
May 27, 2015
It’s Your Duty To Be Awesome.
It’s your duty to rise higher than other people’s expectations for yourself.
It’s your duty to go the extra mile in pursuit of a better future.
It’s your duty to get back up when life is knocks you down.
It’s your duty to move past the obstacles standing between you and success.
It’s your duty to learn from your mistakes and do better the next time you try.
It’s your duty to push yourself harder than is comfortable or convenient.
It’s your duty to be unreasonable, unrealistic, and unstoppable.
It’s your duty to ignore the critics to tell you you can’t achieve your dreams.
It’s your duty to become the person that you want to be.
It’s your duty to be ready for when your moment to be awesome arrives.
It’s your duty to keep dreaming, keep working and keep believing that anything is possible.
It’s your duty to challenge mediocrity and fight the status quo.
It’s your duty to have everything you’ve ever wanted for yourself and those you love.
It’s your duty to be better tomorrow than you are right now in all the things that matter most to you.
It’s your duty to be awesome.
Duty is different than any other obligation that is placed upon you.
Duty isn’t negotiable. It’s not something you can debate. It’s rooted in a higher cause. A grander ambition. A noble calling.
You can’t just excuse away your duty. Other people are counting on you. No excuses. No pointed fingers. It’s on you to achieve what needs to get done.
Maybe it’s time you got started.
The post It’s Your Duty To Be Awesome. 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...
May 26, 2015
When You Hit Rock Bottom.
When you hit rock bottom you’ve found your core.
What you see now is what is really there.
No subterfuge. No mystery. No games. No imitation.
Just brutal honesty.
When you hit rock bottom you’re standing on your launch pad.
There is nothing stronger from which to propel yourself forward.
Keep pushing. Keep trying. Keep struggling. Keeping moving toward where you want to be.
You might be closer than you think.
When you hit rock bottom the things that used to matter don’t mean so much.
It’s a chance to get your priorities back in order.
Stop worries about things you can’t fix. Stop wasting time. Stop following the rules.
Break away from your baggage.
When you hit rock bottom the only thing to do is to work harder.
Start fixing the problems standing in your way to be amazing.
Be purposeful. Be powerful. Be unstoppable. Be outrageous.
You have nothing to lose now.
When you hit rock bottom it’s time to get busy.
When you hit rock bottom it’s time to make changes.
When you hit rock bottom it’s time to go start being awesome.
Sometimes the only way out of your problems is going through them.
Push on.
The post When You Hit Rock Bottom. 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...
May 25, 2015
What Are You Celebrating?
What are you doing now that will leave its mark on the world?
Who are you becoming that will unlock the potential of those around you who need help getting to where they want to be?
Think about it.
The truth about celebrations and memorials is that you often wait too long to start planning to be amazing.
You stop and start and stop again — all before what could have been awesome is truly awesome.
Instead you make excuses and celebrate half successes. You enshrine anything that is slightly better than mediocre.
You give up on the option of being awesome.
And so your monuments are too small. The prize you win is too fleeting.
The success you achieve is unfulfilling.
On paper, all the boxes are checked. You can say you’ve been there and done that.
But you can’t say that people will remember your name and what you’ve done long after you’ve passed.
You haven’t been awesome.
And if that’s what you want — to live a legendary life — you had better get busy doing things that really matter.
The post What Are You Celebrating? 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...
May 21, 2015
19 Unforgettable Lessons For Getting Awesome Business Results.
Quick deals now aren’t as epic as huge deals later — Even though you’re busy right now make sure you take time to execute big picture steps. Survival mode can’t be your entire strategy.
Any plan takes 3x as long and generates 1/10 the revenue — Don’t listen to your buddies. There are no easy deals or quick projects. Big success demands massive amounts of focus and time.
Measure what matters and ignore everything else — Website visits and social media are usually a waste of time. Quality deal making, industry awareness, and lead generation are most often things that lead to epic success.
Doing everything means doing nothing — Focus on doing one thing really, really well instead of trying to do everything at the same time. It’s easier to penetrate the marketplace that way and reduces the risk you create by competing against yourself.
Problems don’t go away because you ignore them — Don’t stick your head in the sand. Understand how quality, marketing and overall business strategy impact the culture you’re trying to dominate.
Creating influence isn’t an accident — Spend time honing the message others hear and see from you. Know how your brand translate. You can create any perception you want. But you can’t keep changing it — and be successful.
Consistency is better than brilliance — Good ideas don’t work if they are not reinforced by a tactical resilience backed up smart tools and a process driven operation. Everyone needs to know what everyone else is doing.
You saying it isn’t the same as them hearing it — Effective brands over-communicate with their audience. They don’t just expect people to “get it”, they create a running dialogue that helps people “get it”.
Make sure you want to play ball where the game is being played — Not every idea is a good fit. Know what you’re getting yourself into before you begin to spend money. Do your research (i.e. spend money on that) before you launch.
Don’t assume things are the same or will stay the same — Don’t assume that if it worked before that, it will work again. Spend time staying on top of new ideas. Take advantage of chaos.
Make sure someone is doing the boring work — Spend time going through legal, operational, and administrative parts of your strategy to make sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks. Small fails can quickly lead to an epic disaster.
Leverage + Scale = Growth — Take the one thing you do really, really well and figure out how to do more of it — in more effective ways.
Don’t eat steak with a spoon — Be deliberate to match your core strengths with the industry opportunity you are pursuing. Be comfortable changing nouns and verbs in order to be effective.
You get what you pay for — Even though you have a buddy who offers to help you, you might be better served to hire experts to get you jump-started. Find someone with a proven track record who you feel comfortable working with.
If you’re not all in you’re not in at all — Most business failures are the result of “trial balloon” expansion. If you’re going to take this seriously then you shouldn’t expect to get serious results.
No one cares about you until you make them — Be memorable, charming, and interesting. Personal relationships matter in any business. Invest time in developing relationships that drive you closer to where you want to be.
Every great plan demands a great leader (to work hard) — You have to be willing to work and lead at the same time. Progress comes from doing the hard things that others often avoid doing.
You’re as awesome as you practice to be — Spend time in training. Role play your presentations. Have an agenda for meetings and calls. Think about what is “in it” for the other guy. Success is directly tied to how much you prepare ahead of time.
The post 19 Unforgettable Lessons For Getting Awesome Business Results. 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...
May 19, 2015
Only You Can Do That.
Just because you have a dream about a better life doesn’t mean your life deserves to get better.
Just because you want more for yourself doesn’t mean that you deserve more.
It’s one thing to want better things for yourself.
It’s another to do whatever it takes to earn those better things.
So you want to have more money then you have right now — are you willing to work tirelessly to earn that extra money? So you want to be happier than you are right now — are you willing to stop making the same old excuses and start earning that happiness?
Whatever you want — no matter what it is — it has to be earned before it is reality.
Wanting it isn’t enough. Thinking about it isn’t enough. Wishing for it isn’t enough.
You have to earn it. Every little step of the way. Every day.
There are no lucky breaks or guaranteed roadmaps to get you to where you want to be.
The only guarantee you get is the one that you earn for yourself.
You have to be willing to do whatever it takes until you get what you want. That’s it.
You have to earn every inch of getting to where you want to be. Sometimes you have to earn those inches back twice or three times.
Every time life pushes you down you have to fight to get those inches back.
It’s not fair. It’s not fun sometimes. It’s usually always harder than you thought it was going to be.
It’s going to take you longer. Cost you more. Hurt you more. Beat you down more fiercely than you thought possible.
The only way to win is to earn it. To dig in your heels and refuse to keep sliding backwards.
And while that’s not glamorous to talk about, it’s the hard truth about accomplishing big dreams.
You have to be tough. You have to be relentless. You have to keep trying.
You can’t back up, slow down, or entertain the notion of quitting for even one moment.
You get from life what you earn.
If you don’t have what you want from life right now maybe you’re not earning it hard enough.
Only you can do that.
The post Only You Can Do That. 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...
May 18, 2015
The Only Thing That Matters When You Want Better Results.
If you want to start thinking differently, you need to start surrounding yourself with people who act differently.
If you want to get outside the box that is limiting your ability to be amazing then you need to throw away the the excuses you’re holding onto right now.
It’s easy to say you want to be better. That you want to fix your problems. That you deserve more from your life than what you’re getting right now.
But to actually get change, you have to begin to change.
Before you start getting better results you have to start doing the hard things that you have been avoiding doing up to now.
And you have to keep doing those hard things even when it seems like they aren’t working. Even when it seems like those hard things are doing more to beat you down then to build you up.
The reason you’re going to fail is because you’ll stop doing what’s hard because you don’t think it isn’t working fast enough.
You want results quicker than your work is going to yield.
You’re in trouble because of years of bad behavior and want all of that to go away simply because you have invested a day or two in doing the right thing.
Fixing problems takes time. Doing something amazing takes time.
The bigger your problem or the more the brilliance you expect, the more time you’re going to have to invest. And the more radical you’re going to have to be in living differently than you are right now.
Think about that carefully for a minute.
You might need to find a new circle of friends who can help you in areas where you are weak right now.
You might need to surround yourself with people who talk differently. People who who push themselves harder than you’ve ever experienced before. People who are smarter, have more money, more drive, ambition and obsession with greatness.
It all really comes down to one big decision you need to make: “Are you serious about getting to where you want to be or are you simply tired of the consequences of your bad behavior in the past.”
It’s time to get honest about how serious you are about changing.
If you want to change and are committed to doing whatever it takes, the rest of your life can be completely different from what it is right now.
There isn’t anything you can’t improve — as long as you’re willing to change and keep changing until you get to where you want to be.
Your results change only after you do.
Get moving. Get changing.
The post The Only Thing That Matters When You Want Better Results. 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...
May 14, 2015
21 Rules For Epic Business Growth.
Invest in tools that help you work harder — Instead of focusing on working smarter, focus on scale and effectiveness across the entire enterprise (e.g. Slack, Todoist, Contactually, Feedly, Mention, etc…)
Heal others instead of selling them something — Focus considerable effort on being brutally honest, intellectually candid and in solving the complex problems that your competitors shy away from. Be belligerent about cutting to the core of the real issue
Use your humanity as an advantage — Talk, email, text, social like a human — not a robot. Train your organization to apologize quickly and thoroughly. Do what is right even though it seems like you are losing in the short term.
Make people feel “awesome” — Be memorable. It trumps every other emotion. Find ways to be surprising even it makes you uncomfortable. You’ll end up building deeper relationships and get the “benefit of the doubt” when you screw up down the road.
Build warriors. Protect your castle first — A great culture beats great sales training in any business in any industry. Hire people who are willing to do whatever it takes in order to be massively successful. Ethics matters more than results.
Hiring for experience is the #1 reason you’ll fail — Bring in team members who have a bright future instead of a legendary past. Hire for hard work and creativity not experience in the industry you are playing in.
Stop doing meetings, reports, and status updates — Your best people respond to candor and tough love. Your mediocre team members use weekly meetings and quarterly performance reviews as a way to justify poor results. Change that.
Do what you say. Say what you do — There is no reason why you shouldn’t be following up and following through — and yet it is the huge reason why so many organizations fail. Candor. Clarity. And consistency.
Focus on your line of target customers more than the bottom line — You can’t boost your profit if you don’t know how to generate more prospects. Sometimes, getting cash flow positive is enough momentum to figure out how to stay headed in the right direction.
Play the long game. Take the high road — Success isn’t a quarter, a deal, or a dream client. It’s you doing the right thing, the right way, until you get the results that you are looking for.
Smother your customers, not your leads — Spend less time with prospects and more time with people who are already doing business with you. Over deliver after you’ve closed the deal.
A mission beats a sales quota any day of the week — Give people a reason to dream, not a mark in the CRM to get close to.
A great mission trumps a stellar process — Stop yelling about your sales process and create an inspired environment where the process is magnetic — where your team goes the extra mile in order to achieve results (without unnecessary nagging).
The “good old days” were horrible — Create a culture where the future is what you talk about — not “big fish” tales from the past.
Give a lot more value than people pay for — Lose all the whitepapers and start delivering value in ways that people truly find magical. Be thoughtful and deliberate to make sure people feel loved and appreciated.
Don’t shirk shrinks — The mental battle for sales success is the biggest challenge you will face. Spend time with a coach, mentor, or therapist on a regular basis in order to keep your head in the game. Losing starts the moment you start thinking about it.
Only worry about what you can improve — Focus on the details and fix what’s broken rather than hoping things automatically improve without you having to do anything about it.
Get “new school” with conversations — Stop wasting time talking about things and communicate real time using apps and messaging platforms that allow people to prioritize information, quantify needs, and clarify expectations.
Fight passive aggression and mediocrity head on — Don’t let people get away with playing games and rigging the system to stay employed but ineffective as a part of the team. Fire losers fast.
Be honest about wins and losses — Sometimes you just get lucky. Don’t pretend like it was great sales skills. Other times you lose when you should have been the winner. Talk about what works and what doesn’t.
The post 21 Rules For Epic Business Growth. 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...
