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There’s a quote often credited to Saint Ignatius of Loyola (and you have to love a fighting saint): “Pray as if God will take care of all; act as if all is up to you.”
Mental strength is like muscle strength—no one has an unlimited supply of focus. So why waste your power on things you can’t control?
Darwin said the number one survivability trait is adaptability.
Adaptability is the ability to recognize the construct and working mechanisms of a system, figure out how it works, adapt to it, and then adapt it to your needs and goals.”
“To constantly improve, and to be more resilient and adaptable, whenever there is a fork in the road, choose discomfort over comfort and you will grow.
if you want to increase the level of success, you need to increase the level of failure. There’s a difference between quitting and failing. I’m okay with failing a thousand times. As long as you just keep going and don’t quit, you haven’t really failed.”
When a friend does something awesome, that doesn’t prevent you from doing something awesome. In fact, where success is concerned, birds of a feather tend to flock together—so draw your successful friends even closer.
Your words have power—especially over you. Harping about your problems always makes you feel worse, not better.
If something goes wrong, don’t waste time complaining. Put that mental energy into making the situation better.
And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Don’t just serve as a shoulder they can cry on. Friends don’t let friends whine; friends help friends make their lives better too.
Feeling better about yourself is the best way of all to recharge your mental batteries.
The most effective people apply the same framework to the decisions they make. “Will this help me reach my goal? If not, I won’t do it.”
The list of examples goes on. Would a person who wants to become a supervisor, a manager, or a CEO treat other people with anything less than dignity and respect? No, because that’s not the way good leaders act.
What do you want to achieve? Whom do you want to become? Place yourself there. Say, “I am fit.” Say, “I am a CEO.” Say, “I am a millionaire.” Say, “I am a great parent.”
That means the key is limiting the number of goals you try to achieve at one time.
“Will this keep me from following my process?”
But when you think probabilistically, you begin to see success as the game it really is. Success is the result of rolling the dice a certain number of times. The more shots you take, the more chances you have of hitting the target. Working your number helps you predict how much failure you can expect on the road to success.
Setting a daily number meant “all” I had to do was go day by day, one day at a time, and grind it out.
But what I did realize is that successful people are successful because they approach learning in a consistent, systematic, results-focused way.
Daniel Coyle’s The Little Book of Talent is a cool book filled with easy and proven methods to learn to do almost anything.
Practice should require you to operate at the edge of your abilities. In short, you have to consistently reach and constantly repeat.
Don’t just do what you already know how to do. Try to do what you can’t do—yet. That’s how you learn.
Practice must command your attention and make you feel emotionally invested in striving for a goal.
Practice must directly connect to the skill you want to build.
Although solo rehearsing is certainly beneficial, the only way to perform well under the pressure of standing in front of an audience is to actually speak in front of people. No amount of solo practice can prepare you for the nerves you’ll feel when every eye in the room is on you.
Practice must provide an immediate and consistent flow of accurate information about performance.
Force yourself to go slower and you’ll identify techniques or strategies that hold you back. Plus, you can experiment with new techniques that aren’t apparent at normal speed.
Pick one step, deconstruct it, master it . . . then put the whole task back together. Then choose another component to deconstruct. Incrementally improve enough steps and the overall improvement can be huge.
“I was under the impression that talent would lead to opportunity, but really, networking led to opportunity. Networking came first—then I had to show that I could do it.
He worked at it every day, and his number was “as many as I can every day.” His number was “send a letter to every person I meet.”
Aristotle Onassis, who built a massive shipping conglomerate, always carried a notebook. “Write everything down,” he said. “When you have an idea, write it down. When you meet someone new, write down everything you know about them. When you hear something interesting, write it down. Writing it down will make you act upon it. If you don’t write it down you will forget
Richard Branson does something similar, except instead of writing down what he learns, he writes down his reaction to everything he learns, caring more about what he can do with the knowledge he’s gained.
Just pick a name so you can get the administrative ball rolling.
An EIN is the federal tax number used to identify your business. You don’t need an EIN unless you will have employees or plan to form a partnership, LLC, or corporation.
It’s free, it takes minutes, and you can keep your Social Security number private and reduce the chance of identity theft, because if you don’t have an EIN, your SSN identifies your business for tax purposes.
If you won’t be operating under your own name, your locality may require you to register a trade name.
Your county or city will require a business license. The form takes minutes to fill out.
Your locality may require other permits. Ask. They’ll tell you.
If you will sell products, you will need a seller’s permit. The Web site for your state’s taxing authority has complete details, forms, etc. if you decide to apply online, but most localities have preprinted forms you can complete while you’re at their administrative offices taking care of other tasks.
Get a business account using your business name and EIN, and use only that account for all business-related deposits, withdrawals, and transactions. Pick a bank or credit union that is convenient. Take a few minutes to check out your local credit unions; often they will provide better deals than banks.
Bookkeeping is simple, at least at first. All you need are revenue and expense columns; you can add line items as you go. Instead of spending hours playing with accounting software, dreaming up potential expense and income categories, and creating fancy reports with no data, spend that time generating revenue.
As Jack told me, “Success is based on people first and strategy second. Build a great team and you will accomplish things beyond your wildest dreams. You grow from the reflected glory of your people.
“I have never seen a great leader that didn’t have the generosity gene. Take care of your people, let them know where they stand, cheer them, never take credit for what they do, and they’ll go to the moon for you.”
That applies to your friends; if you ask someone for a favor, let them decide how they will deliver what you need. And it definitely applies to your kids; tell them what you would like them to do, but give them the freedom to figure out how to do it. Every parent’s goal is to raise children who become independent adults—so start now.
When you change a standard or guideline, communicate the change beforehand—and when that is not possible, take the time to explain why you made the decision you made and what you expect in the future. And yes, this definitely applies to your kids. Children seek independence, but they also crave structure and predictability. Provide both.
The best missions involve making a real impact on the lives of the people you serve. When the people around you know how their effort contributes to the business, or to customers, or to the community, work takes on greater meaning. That’s especially true when people are given the freedom to create a mission or two of their own.
Make it incredibly easy for people to offer suggestions. Ask leading questions. Probe gently. Help people feel comfortable proposing new ways to get things done. When an idea isn’t feasible, always take the time to explain why. Employees who make suggestions care about the company, so do everything you can to ensure they know their input is valued—and appreciated.
A kind word, a quick discussion about family, an informal conversation to ask if an employee needs any help—those moments are much more important than group meetings or formal evaluations.
(The best bosses treat each employee differently while treating every employee fairly. There’s a big difference between sameness and fairness.)
Great bosses always do it in private. So do great partners and great parents.
