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chapter one: THE HEIGHT REQUIREMENT

WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN BUSINESS

Walk by any roller coaster at any given amusement park, and if you look just to the left or right of where the line begins, you’re likely to see this sight: an anxious child standing with his back against a lined board.

Each line on the board marks an inch, and there’s always one line that matters the most. It’s the line that marks the height required to ride.

To reach that line, a kid will do just about anything. Stand tall. Hold his breath. Stuff his shoes. Fluff up his hair. Anything that might make him a fraction of an inch taller.

Stretched, puffed, and fluffed, he waits for the verdict—does he meet the height requirement? Can he physically survive the drops, the corkscrews, and the g-forces that elicit the ear-piercing screams beyond? Is it safe for him to ride?

Believe it or not, this is exactly where the entrepreneur’s journey begins for you, too—in the very same moments just before taking the plunge, when you anxiously assess whether or not you’ll be able to survive the ride. And although there won’t be any authorities to kick you off if you come up short, there is still an admission requirement.

For this wild ride, though, the requirement isn’t height.

It’s love.

Franklin P. Jones was right, “Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” It’s such an essential element that if you don’t love it, you’re better off not getting on the ride at all.

Rock stars know it. Business gurus know it. Every successful person interviewed in the media, on stage, or on the CD that is bound into every issue of SUCCESS knows it, too: The first and most important factor in building a successful business is that you have to love it.

“The first and most important factor in building a successful business is that you have to love it.”

@DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

But why does love matter so much? And how on earth do you find it?

That’s where this ride begins.

FINDING WHAT MATTERS

Despite my neck-jerking start as a water filter salesman, I eventually grew my business into a $5 million a year enterprise. I’d stopped selling door to door, moved operations out of my father’s garage, and was leasing 8,000 square feet of office space in a Class A business park in Pleasanton, California. I had a presentation center built within the office, complete with a stage, lights, and built-in sound system—the works.

At nineteen years old, I’d gone from making my first sale to my grandmother to earning about $20,000 per month.

With that increased income, though, came increasing responsibility. The obligations on 8,000 square feet of office space were substantial, and I needed to keep growing. There was no way I could do all the selling on my own, of course—the best way to keep increasing revenue was to keep recruiting others to sell on my behalf.

One particular month I was cutting it close. The end of the month was fast approaching, and I was still a few new recruits behind where I needed to be. But even when I was just hours away from the deadline, I wasn’t worried. Ever since a flooded apartment turned my first water filter sale into a disaster, my skyrocketing business success had bolstered my courage and self-esteem. I was never worried—clearly, I was born to do this.

That evening I wrapped up my final group presentation, and as usual it was Close, Close, Close. Nearly every person walked out of the room ready to make the world a better place one delicious glass of water at a time. All I needed was one more recruit, and I would reach my target and be awarded all my bonuses—and lucky for me, there was one prospect left: a woman in her mid-50s.

I brought her back to my office and laid out the entire plan for her. I gave her my grand pitch—painting the picture of her glorious new future for the minimal, almost non-existent, $5,000 commitment to get started.

She fidgeted as I sailed through the final words of my f lawless presentation.

“This sounds really good,” she said nervously. “My husband died recently, and I really do need another source of income. But…” She bit her lip and looked down at her lap saying, almost to herself, “This would take the last of my money. All my savings.” She paused, then looked up at me earnestly.

“You seem like a really nice fellow. I trust you,” she said. “Tell me honestly, do you really think this is… for me?” Her final question hung in the air as she held my gaze. The look in her eyes startled me. Her vulnerability. Her sincerity. Her trust. And it hit me: She had just handed me the decision for her future. It was mine to make. If I said yes, she’d give me the last of her savings, join my organization, and I’d meet my quota for the month. If I said no, she’d leave with her $5,000, and I’d be one sale short when the clock ran out.

I dropped my head and said nothing for nearly half a minute. In a one-on-one sales conversation—any conversation, really—thirty seconds is a lifetime. I knew she was waiting, and I could feel her eyes on me. I knew I had to speak.

Finally I lifted my head.

“No,” I said quietly. “This isn’t for you.”

I paused a moment longer.

“It isn’t for me either,” I said.

I pushed myself back from my desk, thanked her for her time, and asked that she show herself out. Then I grabbed my keys, and without saying another word, I headed to my car.

I drove in silence for a few miles, thinking about the look in the woman’s eyes and the question she had asked me. Because she trusted me, my answer held the power to change her life. She had asked me for the truth, and the truth was that she wasn’t right for the business. I knew she didn’t want to spend her days selling water filters. And that meant she wasn’t ready or willing to do the really hard work it took to make that business a success.

If she said yes, it wouldn’t be because she loved the business. It would be because she bought my pie-in-the-sky story, like many before her. And like many before her she would most likely get stuck with a garage full of inventory and an empty bank account.

I imagined her face when she realized that this wasn’t going to work for her. And then I imagined her heartbreak when she realized I had lied just to make my sales quota.

That’s what finally did it. It was a character-awakening moment. It no longer felt right and I couldn’t do it a minute longer.

I picked up my cell phone from the passenger seat and called Kate, a woman I had just brought into the business and put in charge of running the office.

“Kate,” I said, “I’m not coming back. Ever. The office and the business are yours. I’m done.” Before she could say anything, I hung up.

True to my word, I never did go back. I walked away from it all—the fancy office, the (so-called) prestige, and the money—all of it. I had learned I was skilled, but I had also learned I didn’t like applying those skills to anything that wasn’t aligned with who I wanted to be. I had fallen out of love with that business.

And if there wasn’t love, there wasn’t anything.

Love It… or Else!

The best explanation I’ve ever heard for why you have to absolutely love what you do was from Steve Jobs, a man I would argue was the greatest entrepreneur in history.

During an interview at a D5 Conference, Jobs said:

“People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you are doing, and it’s true, and the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard, and you have to do it over a sustained period of time, so if you don’t love it, if you aren’t having fun doing it, and you don’t really love it, you’re going to give up… often times it’s the ones that are successful [who] loved what they did, so they could persevere when it got really tough, and the ones that didn’t love it quit… Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it? If you don’t love it, you’re going to fail.” Do you love it? Does your business make your heart go pitter-patter? Because if you’re not crazy-in-love, you’re not going to make it. You’ll give up—and no one would blame you!

Even the universe-denting “Iron Man” entrepreneur Elon Musk said that starting a company is like “staring into the abyss and eating glass.” Whoa. Eating glass? What kind of person wants to wake up and enjoy a nice bowl of glass for breakfast?

Only someone who’s in love. Because love can make you do crazy things. And that’s exactly what you need to do to make it.

“Starting a company is like staring into the abyss and eating glass.”

@ElonMusk JoinTheRide

FINDING YOUR PASSION

“Mom, how will I know if it’s real… if it’s true love?”

Ah, the age-old question asked to mothers by starry-eyed teenagers since the beginning of time. It’s a fair question; it’s sometimes hard to know if it’s love or if it’s just really strong like. This isn’t just a concern for high school kids considering a prom date. When you’re standing there, back to the measuring board, wondering if your “love” is enough to meet the height requirement of this heart-stopping ride, you sure as heck better know it’s real, because “liking” it just isn’t enough.

What if the Beatles sang, “All you need is LIKE”?

What if Steve Jobs thought, “Yeah, I kinda like my work. It’s a job.”

They would have quit. Can you imagine a world with no Beatles or no Apple? No way!

You need to love it. And, just like the aggravating answer your mother probably gave you, you’ll know the real thing when it arrives.

But how do you find the real thing?

“Pursuing your passion” is a popular phrase. It’s a luxury of our modern world. When we apply it to business, though, we need to get very clear about what that means. Whenever I hear, “I can’t find my passion,” I want to respond with, “Did you look under the seat of your car? In between your couch cushions? Under your bed? Whaddya mean you can’t find your passion?

“Can’t find your passion? Don’t check between the couch cushions. It’s already in you!”

@DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

Where, when, and how did you lose it? Did it fall out of your pocket?”

The truth is that “looking for my passion” is just an excuse in disguise. We use it to cover up for the fact that we’re not progressing, growing, and taking action in life. The real problem isn’t that it’s lost or missing—passion isn’t something you “find” or discover. Passion is already there.

Passion is like electricity in a light switch. It’s always there. Even when the switch is turned off, the electricity is there, running red hot, waiting in the wires, ready to be turned on. There’s no wandering around wondering where it’s hiding. If you want to feel passion, then, like electricity, all you have to do is flip the switch to “ON.” How do you flip your switch? There are four light switches to turn your passion ON, and they’re in your head and heart, not under your couch cushions.

SWITCH NO.1 - BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO.

This is the switch everyone focuses on and believes is the only one that matters. It’s not. It is a switch, make no mistake, but it’s also the switch you should be most wary of.

I hear people say all the time, “But I’m just not passionate about what I do.” (Add a high-pitched whine as you read that.) I know you think you should live a life of exalted and uninterrupted passion all day, every day. I know that’s what the world has been telling you. But that’s just not how it works.

“Yeah, but what about Bono, Branson, or Oprah?” you ask. Trust me, if you saw their schedules—the day in, day out demands they are under, and the pressure they shoulder—you wouldn’t think what they do 95 percent of the time is that great at all.

The mistake people make is that they judge one person’s “front of stage” persona with their “back of stage” reality. Think about it: How much time per day is Bono on stage “doing what he loves,” or Branson in the press launching a “new revolutionary business” or Oprah on camera fulfilling her mission “to use television to transform people’s lives”? The reality? Very little (5 percent is generous). The rest of their days are spent in endless meetings, negotiations, contract reviews, lawsuits, makeup chairs, rehearsals, travel, and transportation.

Don’t over-romanticize the idea of being wholly passionate about what you do. It’s true that 5 percent of what those folks get to do is pretty cool (okay, really cool!). But I don’t care what you do, it’s going to suck most of the time, too. Nothing is awesome all the time. Give up that notion right now.

Did that shock you? Write it on a sticky, and put it on your computer monitor. “This work is going to suck 95 percent of the time.” It’s the truth.

And this isn’t just my opinion. Let’s add to the argument the headline of an article in The Wall Street Journal that read: “Do What You Love? Maybe Not. Would-be entrepreneurs are often told to follow their passion. That may be a good way to kill your passion.” “Work is gonna suck 95% of the time. But that other 5% is freaking awesome!”

@DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

Some people do indeed find their passions. But some passions are meant to remain hobbies—something you do for the sheer fun of it. What a concept!

Don’t be fooled by the falsely exalted “WHAT” switch. That bulb can burn out at a moment’s notice and leave you with bruises and broken toes from stumbling around in the dark.

SWITCH NO.2 - BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT WHY YOU DO IT.

I don’t love what I do (95 percent of the time).

I don’t.

I’m serious. What I have to do sucks most of the time. The never-ending airports, planes, taxis, and the endless days living out of a suitcase. The number of hours I log on my computer researching, writing, editing. The meetings, calls, planning, logistics, deadlines… argh… the deadlines! The days I spend missing my wife, my family, my routine.

I’m exhausting myself just writing about it now.

No. I do not love what I do.

But I sure as heck love why I do it.

I am passionate about my mission of empowering entrepreneurs around the world. I am passionate about helping people find success and get the results they want in all areas of their lives. I am passionate about stewarding a beacon of hope, prosperity, and abundance in an otherwise dark, fearful, and scarcity-minded society through SUCCESS. I am passionate about my fight against sensational news media portraying a perverted view that the world is bad, tragic, hopeless, and corrupt. This is what gets me out of bed every morning. Even though what I might have to do that day will almost certainly be difficult and at times painful, the passion of why I do it outshines any of that darkness.

I like what Mark Twain said: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

—Mark Twain JoinTheRide

My life has never been the same since the day I realized my why, and neither will yours. If you are truly in love with the results of what you do, (the why), then you can navigate the tough 95 percent with grace and passion, too.

SWITCH NO.3 - BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT HOW YOU DO IT.

Several years ago, my wife and I hired a housekeeper, Leticia. Every morning, Leticia showed up on our doorstep with her supplies and a contagious smile. We would exchange greetings, and she would burst past me and head straight for the master bedroom. As I closed the front door behind her, I would think with a slight cringe, “If she only knew what was in store for her today.” I knew about the pile of sweat-soaked workout clothes in the hamper, the expired milk in the refrigerator, the hated task of the toilets, and the minefield of dog “droppings” in the yard.

It wasn’t a pretty job. But on days when I would catch glimpses of Leticia working. I’d see the care she took while cleaning the dust from the crevasses on our headboard, the meticulous way she wiped every crumb stuck to the sides of the dog bowl before filling it and setting it out for our cherished four-legged family members.

Leticia’s work was the most palpable expression of passion I had ever seen.

Whenever I would discover something she had done that was far above and beyond her job description, like color-coding my ties, belts, socks, suits, and underwear (don’t judge me), I would thank her profusely. Leticia would simply smile and say, “Of course.” Nothing more. And though I could tell she appreciated my gratitude, it didn’t appear to fuel her.

It took me a while to get it, but over time I realized she wasn’t doing it for me; she was doing it for herself. She just loved doing things with excellence. She thrived on it.

Leticia was one of the most passionately engaged people I have ever known. Not because of what she did or even why she did it, but because of how. Leticia’s passion was turned on by the third switch—being passionate about how you do things.

I love this switch because it’s more challenging than the others. It’s easy to be switched on by what you do and even why you do it. But to bring passion to how you do even the most (seemingly) mundane tasks? That’s no easy feat.

People who are driven by the how switch inspire me to live up to a higher standard of excellence. I’ve seen mechanics, gardeners, toll takers, cab drivers, project managers, CPAs, lawyers, and CEOs execute the “hows” of their work with great passion and joy. They all brought the same enthusiasm and excellence to what they did, not because of what they were doing or why they were doing it, but because of how they were doing it. Their passion was in the quality of the activity, the execution, and the outcome.

You can flip the how switch ON anytime. It could be as simple as how you fill out your expense reports. It could be your preparations for a meeting. It could be the process you go through to get dressed in the morning! It just requires bringing a level of presence, joy, and energy into everything and anything you choose. Loving how you do what you do can be a passionate, rewarding, and enlightened way to live.

“Do you need to find your passion, or do you just need to bring it into what you already do?”

@DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

And as for Leticia? Sadly she is no longer working for us. We lost her to someone with a massive estate who tripled her salary—and made her the head estate manager. That’s what happens when you flip the switch of your passion ON—opportunity finds you, and people beat a path to your door.

SWITCH NO.4 - BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT WHO YOU DO IT FOR

This is the means-to-the-end switch. You might not be passionate about what you do, why you do it, or even how you go about doing it, but you do it with passion because of who it benefits. The “who” might be your children, your family, your community, your country, or someone else entirely, but it’s not you.

Todd Duncan attended one of my private CEO Forums. During one of the dinners, he told me about the tragic details of the long struggle he endured. In the darkest, deepest dip of his personal roller coaster. I asked Todd how? How on earth did he find the strength to go on, to get back on the ride? How did he possibly get his motivation back so he could ride further? He responded—it had nothing to do with how or what. For Todd, the only thing that mattered was who.

At age forty-five, Todd was on top of the world. He was a prominent speaker, an author of twelve books, and had built a very profitable company, making himself quite wealthy in the process. Not only was business booming, but his personal life was even more enviable. Todd had married the woman of his dreams. Every time she walked into a room, all heads turned, captivated not only by her dark hair and crystal blue eyes, but because a palpable wave of hope and possibility followed her everywhere. Together, they had two sons—their mother’s pride and joy and Todd’s biggest fans. This foursome was a picture of the American dream.

Excited and ready to expand his empire in new ways, Todd purchased a large company in a related field. All signs suggested that this new company, combined with the one he already owned, would be a power-house never before seen in his industry. Unfortunately, the signs were wrong. What had first appeared to be a great plan quickly unraveled. As a result of some transitional mismanagement, Todd was forced to surrender the newly acquired company in a distress sale. Along with the word “distress” came Todd’s handing over the keys to the business, while still retaining a seven-figure debt and millions of dollars in losses.

Scrambling to recover from that crippling blow, Todd was hit again. When the economy receded, he was “encouraged” to sell his main company—the one bearing his name, the one he built from nothing with his family at his side. Seeing no other option, Todd did as he was advised and sold the company, negotiating a five-year equity deal to protect and provide for him and his family. But when the new owners found a way to fire Todd from his own company and still enforce his non-compete clause despite the agreement, Todd’s once unstoppable career came to a screeching halt.

Stripped of his businesses, his income, and the reputation he had built over several decades, the future looked bleak for Todd. He spent lots of time in courtrooms with little hope or possibility of progress. Yet, as difficult as all that was, nothing could prepare him for what came next.

In the middle of the professional chaos, Todd’s wife was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. As Todd fought a long, nasty legal battle, the love of his life was home fighting an enemy of a different kind. One that moved quickly and ruthlessly. First breast, then bone, liver, and finally brain.

Given only three months to live, she battled hard. One year later, she was gone.

I remember the first time Todd told me the details of this story and the precision with which he said every word. I remember swallowing hard, breathing deep, and blinking back tears. My own heart sank under the weight of his struggle and sadness—sadness I couldn’t even begin to imagine. I questioned if I’d even be able to survive it. I wondered if I’d keep getting up after the relentless blows he had stood against.

But Todd did keep getting up. Five months later, the guys who fired Todd settled. Todd got his company, assets, patents, and trademarks back. “I’ve been battling, and I mean really battling, my way back ever since,” he told me. Despite everything he’s been through, Todd is back at it, rebuilding his training company from the ground up with the same energy and commitment as he did the first time around.

When he finished his story, I looked at my friend with genuine awe. How did he find the motivation to persevere? Why did he step back onto the battlefield that had just punished, embarrassed, and beaten him so mercilessly?

When I finally had the guts to ask him, he paused a moment, as if he were traveling to a specific moment in his memory.

He was.

He was going back to the moment he became a single father.

After all the chaos, destruction, and tragedy, two things remained: his teenage sons. Two young men, with eyes and spirits as sparkling and bright as the woman they had all loved, were looking to him for guidance in this new life.

“I was instantly the single father of my two teenage boys who had just lost their mom,” Todd said. “I had school tuition to fund, a mortgage to pay, and debt to manage. They needed a father. They were relying on me. They were looking to me for strength. The turning point was when my oldest son Jonathan, who was thirteen then, looked at me while I was breaking down and crying at my loss. He said, ‘Dad, we need you. You gotta do what you teach. You gotta keep going.’ I didn’t ask myself what I was going to do or how I was going to do it. I just looked at them and said to myself, ‘I have to do it for them.’ They were all the motivation I needed. Some say I stepped in to save them, but mostly, they saved me.” Todd’s words were inspiring. All it took was one look at his powerful who to find the passion he needed. Just one look at those two boys, and Todd is still overcome with a profound sense of hope and possibility.

That, my friends, is what this switch is all about.

As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: “If you haven’t found something you are willing to die for, you aren’t fit to live.” “If you haven’t found something you are willing to die for, you aren’t fit to live.”

—Martin Luther King Jr. JoinTheRide

When you think about your business or your professional life, maybe what you do isn’t all that awe-inspiring. Maybe there is no great mission or grand why to it. Maybe you aren’t all that impassioned to make how you perform daily tasks your work of art either. But maybe it’s the perfect resource to help, support, and provide financial security to whom you love and cherish.

When you simply refocus your mind and attention on who is being served by what you do, why and how you do it, all of a sudden your passion is re-engaged, turned ON, and the entire process becomes more meaningful.

Which switch are you going to flip?

Don’t fall for the “I’m just not passionate about what I do” trap. Passion isn’t just about what you do. You can still find unstoppable and electrifying passion in why, how, and who you do it for. Which switch you choose doesn’t really matter, as long as the choice matters to you—passionately.

Once you flip the switch, it’ll provide you with the adrenaline you’ll need to persevere through the dips, twists, and loops of the track ahead on the entrepreneur roller coaster.

FINDING YOUR FIGHT

What’s that? You’re not the lovey-dovey, sappy-gooey-kissy-kissy type? Fear not. Sure, the heart-beating, burning desire to push yourself to achieve can come from a place of love. But when it comes to figuring out if you’ve found your business soul mate, there are two sides to this love coin. Your unstoppable drive can also come from anger. In fact, someone who’s stark raving mad can be more unstoppable than one who is just punch-drunk in love.

By our very nature, we are motivated to either seek pleasure or avoid pain. Pleasure is certainly an effective motivator, but of the two, pain is better—we’ll do almost anything to avoid it. After all, the number one obsession of our brain is to survive, and that means the survival of not just our physical body, but of our ego, hopes, and ambitions.

If those values are threatened, our entire physiology is wired to respond. Our primal systems kick in full-tilt boogie, and our biochemistry, nervous system, and brain functions light up like a Christmas tree. If the situation is desperate enough, we can even summon superhuman strength to defend ourselves, attack, or retaliate against a threat to something or someone we love.

But here’s the trick: While our ancient brain system has evolved to help us survive, it also hides a great secret to achievement—motivation. You can hack your ancient brain and use it to give you “superhuman” powers (minus the flying and X-ray vision)—all you need to do is find your fight.

Almost every great achievement began with someone finally getting ticked off, saying, “Enough!” and standing up to fight. Think of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and John F. Kennedy. Even the quest to walk on the moon was motivated by the fight against the Russians! Everyone needs a worthy adversary. Think about it, David had Goliath. Luke had Darth. Apple had IBM, then Microsoft. Rocky had Apollo Creed and Mr. T and that Russian guy and… well, you get the point.

“Almost every great achievement began with someone finally getting ticked off, saying, ‘Enough!’ and standing up to fight.” @DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

A good enemy gives you a reason to get fired up. A nemesis pushes you to reach deep and use your skills, talents, and abilities to their fullest. Having to fight challenges your character and resolve. A fight will lead you to push harder, go farther, and hang on longer than you ever would otherwise.

Hmmm… sounds a lot like love, doesn’t it?

The reality is love and hate are the same thing—just looking in different directions. If you love something, you equally hate what threatens it. If you love health and well-being, then you probably hate cancer and heart disease. If you love whales, then you probably hate global chemical pollution and human-activated climate change. If you love people and equal rights, then you probably hate gender discrimination, minority injustice, and poverty.

Being successful in business requires an emotional charge. Love is great, but if that charge comes from your desire to right a wrong, fight the good fight, or seek justice, then it’s just as good as love and often even better.

I’ll admit it: I love to fight. Fighting is an exhilarating, passion-inducing, crusade-championing force. I love inspiring people’s greater inner potential and their vision for what’s possible for their lives. Which is why I hate negative and perversely sensational news media and their destruction of our positive spirit and creative potential. If you read The Compound Effect, you can feel my anger against the overzealous commercial media that takes us for fools and bamboozles us into believing in the quick fix, immediate gratification and overnight success you’ll get with the swipe of your credit card and three easy payments.

I hate the apathy, mediocrity, entitlement, and victimhood mentalities that have permeated our society. These are the enemies of my great love, and I am willing to wage war with passion and fervor until the day my loved ones lay me to rest, my sword still in hand.

One of the best days of your life can be the day when you find your

“One of the best days of your life can be when you finally say, ‘I’ve had it!’ then stand up and fight.” @DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

fight—when you say to yourself, “I’ve had it! Enough is enough!” And you stand up and push back.

So I challenge you with this thought—what are you willing to fight for? What do you see as an enemy to your industry, your family, your community, or your world? Is it injustice? Cancer? Poverty, homelessness, child abduction, world hunger, or needlessly expensive car insurance?

The hate of something negative can be a powerful force for good, but if thinking about fighting or hate feels uncomfortable, then start here: Think about what you love. What positive outcome do you want to see realized as a result of your product, service, or business?

Got that image in your mind?

Now, what’s the opposite of that? What threatens that? What is the enemy of that? Who or what could stop you from achieving that outcome?

There’s your enemy! There’s your epic battle.

I promise you that when you come up with your answer you’ll notice your nervous system kick in and your blood begin to pump. That, my friend, is how you hack your brain and turn on 100 percent pure, unadulterated, high-octane, heart-pounding motivational mojo!

Just like Rocky put a picture of Apollo on his training room mirror, find your enemy and let that image stir your blood. Get your heart pounding every morning so you will dig a little deeper, go a little longer, and fight a lot harder.

What’s your fight?

FINDING YOUR STRENGTH

All this talk of turning on your passion or fighting the fight of a lifetime means nothing if you don’t have the strength to take it on.

On the entrepreneur roller coaster, though, strength isn’t about how much you can bench press. It’s about how well you can identify your unique advantages, and flex those “muscles” to move your business.

During the boom of the late 1990s, billionaire Warren Buffett refused to invest in Internet stocks. Buffett was in his late 60s at the time, and investors everywhere were calling him an out-of-touch old fogey. Then the Internet bubble popped, and everyone was calling him a genius.

When he was asked why he didn’t invest in Internet stocks, he held up his thumb and index finger to make a circle. He said something like, “You see this? This is my circle of competency. I only get involved with opportunities that are inside that circle. If it’s not in there, I don’t invest in it. It’s not that I didn’t think there weren’t good companies with good opportunities operating on the Internet. They just weren’t in my circle.” Like Buffett, we all have unique skills, talents, and advantages. All of us. There is something you do that most people cannot do as well. Those strengths are your special gifts, and identifying them is another way you can determine if a business is right for you.

One of my strengths is communication. If I believe in something—if I authentically feel strongly about it—I can transmit that conviction, passion, and feeling to others and move people into action. Over the last couple of decades, I have had half a dozen different wildly successful, multimillion-dollar-making businesses in radically different industries, from door-to-door sales, real estate, television, and online media to educational software, private equity investing, and publishing—to name a few. While each of my endeavors was completely different from the other, they all shared one common thread: My unique strength of communication was a key asset in their success.

It’s a great strength to have, and I feel fortunate to have it. But it comes with significant limitations. First of all, the feeling cannot be faked. I’ll convey whatever I truly feel—good or bad! I can’t play poker for this reason or lie to my wife. It’s physiologically impossible for me. The truth is written all over my face no matter how hard I try to bluff.

Secondly, if an endeavor doesn’t need that strength, the business is in trouble.

Like a fool drunk on love alone, I’ve gotten involved in all sorts of opportunities that were outside my core strength. I invested in an oil well in Louisiana through a guy in Houston. (While I was living in California. Dumb, I know!) I invested in an up-and-coming jazz band and a crossover country western singer pitched as the would-be male Shania Twain back in the ’90s. I put money into a biomedical clinic, a medical device company… and the list goes on. I’m getting a pain in my backside just naming them! They were all businesses I had no business being in business with.

When you understand your unique strength, gift, and contribution, you can more easily let go of everything else (without guilt) and go about the business of flexing that muscle and doing all you need to continue to build, grow, and develop it further. You can also shore up your weaknesses, and fill the rest of the seats on your ride with people who have the strengths you don’t.

Remember Warren’s advice. Don’t get involved with functions that are not in your circle of competency or strength. It doesn’t do you any good, and it certainly won’t make your ride any easier.

WERE YOU BORN STRONG?

“Success just isn’t in your DNA.”

I’ll never forget the day she said those words to me.

I was in eleventh-grade English class, and it was a Friday. I was eager for the bell to ring so I could get to baseball practice. We had a big game that night. As the bell tolled, the teacher asked me to come to her office after class.

I knew this couldn’t be good.

I sat across from her as she handed me our most recent essay test, clearly marked with a big red letter that came much later in the alphabet than I had hoped. She told me not to be discouraged—that everyone has different skills and that this just wasn’t my “thing.” “But even if you aren’t successful at writing,” she continued, “You can be successful at other things, like baseball. Didn’t you hit a home run last weekend?” I knew she was trying to be helpful, but there was something about what she said that I didn’t like. Her tone implied that it had already been decided—not just that I wasn’t successful at writing at the moment, but that I couldn’t be. Ever. And when I questioned her, she answered, “That kind of success just isn’t in your DNA, Darren.” It’s true. My DNA certainly wasn’t extraordinary. My mother was absent, living a couple thousand miles away, and working (I think) as a waitress and sometimes bartender. My dad was a college football coach with all the nurturing instincts of a frat boy. If you were to count up the success strands in my double helix, it wouldn’t add up to much. My teacher had clearly done the math in advance.

No. My DNA wasn’t special. But then again:

Richard Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student. His headmaster told him he would likely end up in prison.

Steve Jobs was born to two college students who didn’t want to raise him and gave him up for adoption.

Mark Cuban was born to an automobile upholsterer. He started as a bartender, then got a job in software sales from which he was fired.

Suze Orman’s dad was a chicken farmer, and her mother was a secretary. Suze started as a waitress.

Retired General Colin Powell was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He was a solid C student.

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, was born in a housing authority in the Bronx. His father was a truck driver.

Tony Hawk was so hyperactive that he was tested for psychological problems.

Barbara Corcoran, known as the Queen of New York City, is one of eleven children, started as a waitress, and admits to having been fired from more jobs than most people hold in a lifetime.

Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, was sickly as a child and finished high school two years late due to medical complications. He never went to college.

Not only did everyone on that list come from less-than-auspicious beginnings, but every single one has appeared on the cover of SUCCESS magazine.

I wonder if any of their teachers ever sat them down and told them success just wasn’t in their DNA? Think how our world would be different if they had believed it and hadn’t gone on to create and live such extraordinary lives.

“DNA has nothing to do with success. Turn your genes into overalls and get to work.”

@DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

I wonder if anyone has ever said that to you?

I have spent years studying the most successful men and women alive, investigating and analyzing the prerequisites to being an entrepreneur. Let me assure you that in all of those years of study, the details about the nucleotides in your DNA have never come up. Not once. Ever.

Here’s the deal: No matter what your DNA is, no matter who calls you into their office, you always get to decide. You are the creator of your destiny while you traverse this planet. The mindset of “they were born to be successful, and I am not” is a trick of the imagination. It’s a trap of the worst kind, and the only way to escape it is by creating a “success-destiny mindset” day by day, and hour by hour.

Don’t let anyone else tell you what your strength is or is not. They may be wrong, and as a result their input could slow you down or even derail you.

STRENGTH TRAINING

If the potential for success is wired into everyone’s DNA, what makes the difference? Why do some people hit so many home runs, while others never get off the bench or strike out at best? I got a clue to the answer during an interview for a cover story of SUCCESS.

In 2009, I interviewed “The Hit Man” David Foster. If you haven’t heard of David, you’ve certainly heard his work. He’s won more Grammys than any other music producer in history (sixteen, if you’re wondering), and he’s discovered such artists as Celine Dion, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and many other greats. Along the way he’s created an extraordinary “hit list” of successful songs in a career spanning decades.

When I spoke with him, he was about to celebrate his 60th birthday, and he was still working seven days a week, putting in far more than the forty hours so many stop at.

I was taken aback by this. Most people work in the hope of achieving a fraction of what Foster already had. Why not take a break? Why keep working when you have all the money, the success, the fame, and the glory one could ever want?

So I asked him. I asked him why—why spend hours every day working for something you already have?

He looked at me for a moment, as if trying to find the perfect words to explain an obvious concept that was clearly lost on me. “On a Saturday morning, when it’s quiet,” he said, “there’s no place I’d rather be on the planet—no exotic beach, no lounge chair, no golf course—than in my studio making great art. That’s not working. That’s living.” What drives Foster to continue to work and create isn’t money. It’s not fame. It’s love. He absolutely loves his work. And it’s that—not DNA—that makes him the very best at what he does. That love drives the time. That time creates the results.

“If you’d rather be anywhere than doing your great work on a Saturday morning,” he says, “then you’re probably doing the wrong thing or looking at it the wrong way.” Foster’s dedication to his work and the level of mastery he has achieved is a perfect example of the “10,000 Hour Rule.” In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains that mastery is something developed through about 10,000 hours of deliberate, focused practice. Becoming world class isn’t dependent upon our genes, he argues. It’s dependent upon how much time we can consistently dedicate to getting better.

That might sound simple. But have you ever tried to dedicate 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to something? For most people, that’s at least a decade’s worth of glass-eating, staring-into-the-abyss, bone-crushing hard work! How do they do it?

It’s so tempting to think these über-achievers like Foster are just gifted—lucky, natural geniuses. Don’t believe it. I’ve had the chance to spend time with and learn from more superachievers than almost anyone on the planet, and I’m happy to report they all seem to have the same basic DNA you and I have. What consistently differentiates them is that their love and passion for what they do is so intense (some would call it an obsession), that, just as in David Foster’s case, the intensity of their pursuit leads to spectacular results.

In reading a Wall Street Journal article about Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, I counted the word “obsessed” eight times. And his obsession didn’t start the day he was hired. Even as a track star at Penn State, Parker was constantly tinkering with his shoes, obsessed with how they were made and the effect their design had on his performance. Fascinating!

I have found this same descriptor holds true for many of the people you’ve seen on the cover of SUCCESS—stunning achievers like Steve Jobs, Martha Stewart, Ryan Seacrest, Donald Trump, Venus Williams, Richard Branson, Anthony Hopkins, Barbara Corcoran, Elon Musk, and many others. They are obsessed about what they do, and they have an unrelenting desire to get better and better and better.

After years of studying the success of the world’s leading achievers across a spectrum of disparate fields, my conclusion time and time again has been that those who are at the top of their game are really just people who have found something to love. Because of that great love, they have developed a nearly maniacal drive to continually improve their skills, performance, and outcomes.

But even with all the repeated and reinforced scientific evidence to disprove the myth of innate genius and giftedness, this myth will live on as long as human beings do. Why? Because as a society we love the myth.

“The thought, ‘I can’t’ is a lie. We use it to excuse ourselves from trying.”

@DarrenHardy JoinTheRide

A belief in inborn gifts and limits is much gentler on the psyche. The reason I’m not a great musician, leader, communicator, parent, spouse, athlete, salesperson, or whatever is because I’m not “wired” to be one. Thinking of talent as “innate” makes our world more manageable, more comfortable. It takes away the burden of expectation. It relieves people of distressing comparisons.

After all, if Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and others are just innately great, we can feel casually jealous of their genetic luck while avoiding disappointment in ourselves.

If, on the other hand, each one of us truly believed we were capable of Tiger-like or Jobs-like achievement (which we are), the burden of expectation and disappointment could be profound.

The bad news is that now you don’t get to use the genetics excuse any longer—sorry! The good news, however, is that greatness doesn’t come from DNA. There’s no such thing as innate talent or genius. Sure, we each have our own unique strengths, but we can all become “geniuses” and reach mastery in any area of our lives if we commit to a process of constant and never-ending improvement.

That’s why, ultimately, the key to this whole process is passion. That’s what will drive you through those often tedious and monotonous 10,000 hours of practice. Like David Foster, you have to love it, or you’ll never persevere long enough to push yourself to levels that the non-obsessed can never reach.

So ask yourself, right now: Where would you rather be on any given Saturday?

YOUR CAR AWAITS!

I’m not going to pull any punches in this book. Entrepreneurship is hard. Running your own business is going to test you. It’s going to push you. But know this: It’s possible. Better yet, it’s possible for you.

Do you love it? Are you obsessed?

You’ll need to be.

“Everyone has talent, but ability takes hard work.”

—Michael Jordan JoinTheRide

As Michael Jordan famously said, “Everyone has talent, but ability takes hard work.” Are you willing to put in your 10,000 hours? And will you believe in what you choose to pursue every minute of those hours? Are you willing to work harder, be more focused, have deeper concentration, and do it longer, more regularly, and with more discipline and vigor than anyone else?

Those are the real requirements for success on the entrepreneur roller coaster. If you’ve met them, then congratulations. You’ve met the height requirement. You can even skip to the front of the line! The gates are open, and your car awaits.

Climb aboard! The ride’s about to begin!

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