In becoming an entrepreneur, I
have proactively sought out individuals who have obtained high levels success
in their life. I look for people, who
have not only been financially independent, but those who are genuinely happy,
healthy, and have great social relationships.
One common trait that I’ve noticed in these successful individuals is
that they have all had a mentor of some sort, someone who had already achieved
the results that they would like to have.
In doing my research, one individual that has stood out is Mr. Anthony Robbins, motivational
speaker, Life Coach, and Author.
In 1986, Robbins wrote the
National Bestseller, “Unlimited Power”.
For anyone pursuing personal growth, aiming to be the best version of
themselves, I would highly recommend reading this book. It has certainly had a positive impact on my
life. There are too many nuggets to even
summarize in one blog post. For that, I
am going to go over the “Seven belief systems of Excellence”, according to
Robbins.
1.
Everything
happens for a reason and a purpose, and it serves us.
I personally
believe that most things happen for a reason throughout your life. A quote I’ve used several times is that Life
is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react”. Those who are successful, tend to react
positively when they encounter bad or negative situations. Robbins says, regarding successful people
facing hardship, that “they believe that every adversity contains the seed of
an equivalent or greater benefit.” He
gave a great example of Marilyn Hamilton, who was a former teacher, beauty
queen and also a largely successful businesswoman. Hamilton suffered a terrible accident that
left her paralyzed from the waist down.
She became extremely frustrated with quality of her wheelchairs, which
in turn brought out the entrepreneur inside of her. She along with 2 others
went ahead to create Motion Designs; and became a successful multimillion
dollar company that creates quality and effective wheelchairs! This is just one example of how someone took
what happened to them, reacted positively and found purpose in their situation.
I believe you can do the same!
2.
There
is no such thing as failure.
Find any
extremely successful person and behind them, you will find a fair amount of
times that they failed at one thing or another.
Robbins gave a great example of President Abraham Lincoln, who from ages
21 to 52 had at least 10 fairly large failures and still went on to be elected
President. I personally like the quote
by Michael Jordan, who said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career,
I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning
shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And
that’s why I succeed”. So if you want be
successful, you’re going to have to accept the fact that you may fail
occasionally and when you do, you take it as a teaching tool, use that
information to continue pursuing the goal to get the results that you want.
3.
Whatever
Happens, take responsibility.
This is a lesson
that I personally have had to learn the hard way and I am very glad that I
learned the lesson. Once you begin to
take responsibility for what happens to you, you then gain control and access
to be able to change your situation.
Robbins uses the phrase “I am responsible. I’ll take care of it.” I like that phrase, because it gives you
ownership of the situation, instead of leaving your fate in someone else
hands. If you are not taking
responsibility for what happens to you in your life, then you are basically
saying that everything that happens to you is of circumstance, which means you
have little or no control to what happens in your world. If you were to ask people if they want to
control their own life, or if they would like for someone else to control their
life, most would probably choose option A. Yet, everyday many of us chose
Option B, based on our everyday actions.
Robbins says. “By retaining responsibility, you retain the power to
change the results you produce.” I
definitely prefer to be the one who holds the Power to change my own circumstances.
4.
Its
not necessary to understand everything to be able to use everything.
In this section,
Robbins gave an example of people in power, being that they will have knowledge
about many things, but often they have a small mastery of each and every detail
of their business. When I read this
section of the book, for some reason I thought of Lebron James. Lebron James is by no means the best shooter
in basketball, he is not the best rebounder, he has never lead the NBA in
assist, and his ball handling skills does not compare to those of his teammate
Kyrie Irving. James is not the best in
any of those categories, yet He is the Best Player in the NBA. Why??
It is because, he isn’t great at any of those listed things, however, he
does all of things very good and add his special gift of athleticism and his
positive mindset, and you have the Best player in today’s game.
5.
People
are your greatest resource!
This is my
personal favorite, because our business is about putting “People First”, and
many other successful individuals have proven that when you build rapport among
people and establish relationships, the results tend to be positive. In our society today, Profit & Revenue is
often the bottom line. Those companies
and individuals who are able to establish a “people-oriented philosophy” are
often those who see the best results, not only in their business, but also in
their personal lives. Being an
entrepreneur it is extremely important to have positive financial results,
however in order to have success and maintain it for a long period of time, in
my opinion it is extremely important to respect people, build relationships and
put the people first.
6.
Work
is Play
Find any
successful entrepreneur, artist, innovator, or athlete, and you will find that
they are all extremely passionate about their craft or their belief. These individuals love what they do, and
because they do, whenever they encounter obstacles, experience rejection or
failure, they are able to still work toward getting the results that they
desire, and maintain a high level of enthusiasm while doing so. Robbins says, “if you decide that work is mere
drudgery, just a way to bring home a paycheck, chances are it will never be
anything more”. When your work is play,
money often isn’t the main motivating factor.
One of my favorite songs, along with Riley Curry, is Big Sean’s
featuring Drake, “Blessed”. He quotes,
“F*ck a Vacay, he feels better at work”.
While I was still working in corporate America I definitely didn’t feel
better while I was working, verse when I was on vacation with my girlfriend or
my friends! Kobe Bryant was facing serious
charges, yet when he went to work on the basketball court, it was like he was
in a completely different world, and in return, he excelled. If you truly love your job or whatever it is
you may be doing, chances are you’re going to be much more productive and get
positive results.
7.
There’s
no abiding success without commitment.
Robbins says”
Individuals who succeed have a belief in the power of commitment”. I personally believe that once you fully
commit to something with your heart, you have extremely increased the chances
that you will achieve the results that you want. Robbin talks about many individuals who were
able to obtain a large amount of success, yet they were not most talented
person in their field. It was those
individual’s commitment to success that allowed them to separate themselves
from the rest. My favorite example that
he gave, was that of Larry Bird. If
getting into the NBA was based solely on athleticism, then Larry Bird would
have never been drafted. Larry Bird was
slow, not the tallest, and by no means could jump the highest, yet he was able
to be one of the greatest to ever play the game of Basketball. It was Birds commitment and dedication to the
game that allowed him to excel in his craft.
I also hear that Bird was one of the best at talking noise while on the
court, which means he was probably as having fun at his craft!
Related: 10
Motivational Tips!
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