Motivation

Over the years as I’ve sought out ideas, principles and strategies to life’s challenges, I’ve come across four simple words that can make living worthwhile. First, life is worthwhile if you  LEARN . What you don't know  will  hurt you. You have to have learning to exist, let alone succeed. Life is worthwhile if you learn from your own experiences—negative or positive. We learn to do it right by first sometimes doing it wrong. We call that a positive negative. We also learn from other people's experiences, both positive and negative. I've always said that it is too bad failures don't give seminars. Obviously, we don't want to pay them so they aren’t usually touring around giving seminars. But that information would be very valuable—we would learn how someone who had it all then messed it up. Learning from other people's experiences and mistakes is valuable information because we can learn what not to do without the pain of having tried and failed ourselves. We le...

Do you remember all the big dreams you had when you were younger–dreams so exciting that you could barely wait to grow up so you could pursue those grand dreams? You had those dreams for a reason–your inner potential was casting a vision of what is possible for you. Somewhere along the travels, trials and tribulations of life you may have forgotten your dreams, got distracted, or believed other people who’d lost their dream that yours wasn’t possible either. Reminds me of the story about a large, majestic mountainside where a fragile eagle’s nest rested. The eagle’s nest contained four large eagle eggs. One day an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to tumble down the mountain to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. By instinct the chickens knew they must protect and care for the egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture the large egg. One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. But the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed h...

How many times has your manager told you to go out and prospect? If they are worth their salt, I hope it’s hundreds of times. And they may even have given you a lead sheet to help you on your way. Do you know the best source of leads? The people who you will want to call, rather than shy away from? Well, you may be interested to know you’ve got many HOT prospects who you may be already ignoring. Of course, it’s your current customers. Why are they the best people to call for more business? Well, firstly, they already know you, and, if you’ve done your job right, they already like you. You’ve already got rapport with them, and they trust you. They respect you and like your products or services. They’ve paid you in the past, and, most importantly, you don’t have to sell to them…they will buy. So how can you get them to buy as much, if not more, than cold customers? Here are some ideas: * Sell them an upgrade on what they get at the moment * Look for other users of your services in differ...

Last week we shared a story of authenticity to illustrate the single most important principle for being a great leader and strengthening the influence you have with others. Now to wrap up our learning for part 2 of this series on how to bolster your ability to become a WOW leader, I promised to outline the three most important questions to contemplate, consider and substantiate to imbue power into your WOW Power. Let’s start with a good reminder from the leadership example we started with, Mahatma Gandhi. This is one of my favorite quotes from Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Here are the three key questions you’ll need to have great answers for if you ever want to be a WOW leader: Question One: Who am I? The ultimate question, right? Certainly if you ever want to lead others to become more of who THEY are and what they are capable of, you must first figure out who you are, what you believe in and what you want. Sit down an...

We all come into this world with a task to accomplish… when we don’t think on these things and we get too caught up in the day to day we forget our spiritual responsibilities. We reach a stage where we ask, “Is this all there is?” - “Why am I here?” Growing up in Barbados, we spent many wonderful days walking the beach and poking around the reefs of the east coast of the island… ahhhh… there is nothing between there and the coast of Africa - the air is cleaner and waves never stop crashing.  My dad bought our beach house over 55 years ago. He wanted my eldest sister to spend as much time there so it would ease her asthmatic conditions. All four girls have the best memories of spending time at the beach house. The carefree days of being in the sun and getting the salt spray all over your skin and the sand in your hair - oh those were the days. I would spend hours looking into all the rock pools in the reefs at low tide. I’d talk to the fish and hold the sea urchins and watch all the...

Most of us have been hypnotized into thinking that suffering's the wrong move, false path and worst play.  But the truth is that  every master suffers .  You just can't rise to iconic without experiencing the pain associated with greatness along the way .  I call these  The 5 Pains of Mastery . Understand them and rather than resisting them, you'll leverage them to make EXPONENTIAL versus incremental growth.  Mastery Pain #1: Ridicule   Michelangelo was mocked for his vision for The Sistine Chapel by his jealous peers.  Copernicus was condemned for his sense that the earth wasn't flat.  The very nature of mastery is an audacious act of disruption. To go for your personal greatness, you'll see a future few see, have habits few have and produce results few do.  This scares the 95%. It messes with their complacency. It suggests they too must do something big.  And so rather than raising their games with you, it's far easier for them to...

#1.  Do work that pushes you to your edges. #2.  Waste zero time on the past. #‎3.  Focus on being masterful at one thing versus mediocre at many things. #4.  Spend more time around art. #5.  Read biographies of lives greatly lived. #6.  20X your goals, plans and dreams. #7.  Associate with game-changers, visionaries and titans. #8.  Celebrate how far you’ve come versus the distance still to go. #9.  Cause a little trouble by disrupting the status quo. #10.  Accept the project you fear the most. #11.  Leave an inspirational quote on a stranger’s windshield. #12.  Stop watching the news. #13.  Think a decade ahead rather than a day in advance. #14.  Start a movement. #15.  Wow a customer. #16.  Install a new habit. #17.  Remember that the mother of genius is simplicity. #18.  Know that the thing that is easiest to do is rarely the thing that is best to do. #19.  Speak less and listen better. #2...

Today I wanted to share some of my most powerful productivity insights and tools with you… …so you become The Bono of Your Craft, The Jagger of Your Field and The Drake of Your Game (ok–Drake’s not a rocker but you get my point ;) Let’s dive right in… #1.  Get Your Routines Right Ultra-productive producers focus less on using their willpower and a lot more on building their routines. Stephen King starts writing every day between 8 and 8:30 am, whether he’s motivated or not. He has his vitamin pill, sits in the same seat and plays the same music. This ritual triggers his imagination. And kickstarts his inspiration. A while ago I was at a Yankees game in New York City. A major financial player was seated next to me. He shared that he’d recently brought NBA legend‎ Magic Johnson to speak to his corporate team. Magic spoke of the fact that during one season Larry Bird dominated him when it came to free throw success. And so, Magic vowed that the next year, he’d show Bird his own master...

The following is the story of how my wife Kim, my best friend Larry Clark and I began our journey from broke to rich to retired in less than 10 years. When Kim and I started, we were nearly out of money and filled with doubt. We all have doubts. The difference is what we do with those doubts. In December 1984, Kim, Larry and I were on a skiing holiday. At night we would discuss our plans for the future. Kim and I were on our last few dollars and Larry was in the process of building another business. On New Year's Day, we tried to set some goals. Larry wanted to do more than just set goals for the coming year; he wanted us to set goals that changed our lives. “Why don't we write a plan on how we can all become financially free?” he urged. I had talked about it and dreamt about it. But the idea of being financially free was always in the future, not today. “Let's write it down,” Larry said. “Once we write it down, we have to do it, and we'll support each other on the jour...

As we continue our journey on helping you create a WOW year, over the next two posts we are going to focus on bolstering your WOW Power—your influence on people, circumstances, the community and the marketplace around you. I want to help you become a WOW leader. Having met, interviewed, studied and/or featured many of the greatest leaders alive today the most admirable, powerful, compelling, WOWing, quality of a leader is… Wait… before I tell you, what do YOU think it is? Think about it. What do you think is the quality that people admire most in their leaders? When you think of history’s most powerful, compelling, influential, movement-making and game-changing leaders, what do you think was their most admired quality? The one that attracted people to them and enrolled people into wanting to support their great mission, goals or causes? Do you have your answer ready? OK, let me reveal the answer… It’s AUTHENTICITY. Having what you say, what you feel, what you believe, and what you do b...

A business plan is essential for every entrepreneur, but if it’s your first time approaching one, it can feel daunting. Business owners will argue both sides of the coin when it comes to how long a plan should be, but usually a one-page business plan can cover all your needs at the beginning and get you organized enough to get started. Don’t worry -- you can’t go wrong starting with a one-page plan and adding onto it from there. As your business grows (and if you ever need capital) you’ll certainly add to it down the road. Just remember that right now, the worst business plan is the one you never bother to write. Don’t let analysis paralysis keep you from getting started. Here are five easy steps to a one-page business plan: 1. Start with your vision.  Begin the plan by thinking of the end. You have to communicate up front where you want to go with your business to set the tone for your plan. Do you want to grow this business to sell? Do you want the business to be a legacy that wi...

My original mentor, Mr. Earl Shoaff, over a five-year period of time before he died at age 49, taught me some extraordinarily simple things. He only went through the 9th grade in school. He never finished high school, never went to college, never went to a university. So he put his experiences and ideas in very simple language, which, I think for me, a kid from the farms of Idaho, was so important. When I would say, “This is all the company pays,” Mr. Shoaff would say, “No, that is all they pay YOU.” I thought, “That is a new way to look at it.” I told him things cost too much. But he said, “No, you can't afford them.” Well, that was a new concept for me. He promised that if I would improve, then I would qualify for more money.  So I learned that we don't have to work on the company, we have to work on ourselves. If it had been technical, I would have missed it. If it had been mystic, I would have backed away. But it was just basic, blunt “a-b-c” familiar stuff that I hadn'...