Advice From Successful People

I remember a VERY wealthy man once told me that ones professional life takes 3 stages:
1. You work for the man
2. You work for yourself
3. You work for a cause

...being aware of this has helped me keep things in perspective. With a genuine cause in mind, individual goals and the collaborative tend to intersect. I have the good fortune of working with extremely smart, motivated people. The uncommon denominator is that said people have managed to stay humble. They possess an ability to keep things in perspective so they need not regret the process of their ascension.

Last week I came across 3 people who have found great success without betraying their sense of genuine purpose. Their lessons take different shape but always bend back to the 3 stages of success examined at this entry's inception.

Go Big, Take Risk
Doing just enough to get by is only met with a sigh of relief. It can be said that the best way to spend one's time is to dream the impossible and make it reality.

Decisions guide our success. The most authentic partnerships are build on ideas that challenge the norm. It is easy to adopt the competition's strategy and undercut their price. To be truly effective, a directive has to be unique to the audience that drives its success. One-of-a-kind is better than a best practice. New ground can only be discovered by vacating the beaten path.

Don't Let Your Comfort Zone Get in the Way
The concept of work/life balance was created by a person who didn't like their job because they weren't very good at it. Steve Jobs explained that the process of innovation is dramatically hard. He related that when you think you have won, you have to try even harder..to push further. He also said that in order to endure the aforementioned process you have to love what you do.

Doing just enough to afford breathing room is a losing approach. You have to jump out of bed every day driven by passion (albeit fueled by uncertainty). You have to push harder, you have to take risk. Allow the run through the roses to invigorate your being (don't just stop and smell them)!

You have 29,200 days on this earth. Do you really want to waste any of them resting on your past.

Have Strong Whys
At the height of the great depression, Jimmy Braddock chose to make a comeback in boxing. When asked why he would test his uncertain talent in uncertain times he explained:

"This time around I know what I'm fighting for"

Jimmy Braddock felt disingenuous giving up his dream to put food on the table. He felt that compromise for the sake of getting by could only produce regret. If you fake it, they will know, and that's worse than starving.

Money is just paper. A promotion to sit next to someone you do not admire is a demotion of your character. If you do not genuinely believe in what you are doing you are betraying your company, yourself, and the people you love.

Don't fake it. Don't choose the easy route. Don't pretend it is OK to punch the clock, buy some toys, and die.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave