The author of the book Admiral William H. McRaven gave the commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. His speech included important life lessons. These lessons were the result of his Navy seal training. He later on published his speech as book entitled “Make your Bed”.
Start Your Day with a Task Completed
If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed
Making your bed works as a reminder that at the end of the day you have accomplished a task, no matter how small. It is a task that you should be proud of with a sense of satisfaction. Completion of one task gives strength to proceed with other tasks also.
You Can’t Go It Alone
If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.
Admiral says that you need people in life to deal with difficult times. During his training in the small rubber boat he realized that no man could make it through training alone, and no seal could make it through combat alone. A team of good people is all you need to reach your destination. For this find someone to share your life with. Make as many friends as possible and never forget that your success depends on others because you cannot paddle the boat alone.
Only the Size of Your Heart Matters
If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart.
He realized that the Seal training was always about proving something. Proving that size didn’t matter, that the color of your skin wasn’t important, that money didn’t make you better. Your determination and grit are always more important than talent.
Life’s not Fair. Drive On.
If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.
The one thing that defines each and every individual is how they deal with life’s unfairness. Be it a common person or a great person, your dealing ability distinguishes you from others. Don’t blame your misfortune.
Failure Can Make You Stronger
If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.
In Navy SEAL training, “The Circus” is another two hours of additional calisthenics, combined with non-stop harassment by SEAL combat veterans who want only the strong to survive the training.
You Must Dare Greatly
If you want to change the world, slide down the obstacle headfirst.
Nobody on this planet is sure about his limits. You need to muster your courage and dare greatly because without pushing your limits you will never know your worth. Staying in the boundaries of failure and embarrassment will never let you achieve your potential.
Stand Up to the Bullies
If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks
On your path to success you will encounter many sharks or personal fears. But if you stand strong enough you will definitely sail through.
Rise to the Occasion
If you want to change the world, be your very best in the darkest moments.
Death is inevitable. No amount of mourning and screaming can bring back the loved ones. So try to muster courage to deal with the darkest moments in life.
Give People Hope
If you want to change the world, start singing when you are up to your neck in mud.
All it takes is a little appreciation or a pat on the shoulder. Sometimes, singing a song can do wonders. During the dreaded seven-day endurance test one of the guys was about to quit, when another started singing a song and soon everybody joined him. It was a silver lining in the cold mud at midnight.
Never Ever Quit
If you want to change the world, don’t ever, ever ring the bell
Admiral quotes an instance from his SEAL training and state that during training the drill instructor told everyone that if they quit, they will regret it. You will always encounter with circumstances wherein quitting would seem an easiest option. So, it depends upon you. Either change the world by not quitting or else regret for the rest of your life.
The book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” outlines a habit-based approach to be followed to attain your goals. The book opens with an explanation of how many individuals who have achieved a high degree of outward success still find them struggling with an inner need for developing personal effectiveness and growing healthy relationships with other people. In order to change a given situation, we must change ourselves, and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.
The way we see the problem is the problem.
In order to achieve true change we must allow ourselves to undergo paradigm shifts to change ourselves fundamentally and not just alter our attitudes and behaviors on the surface level . For this, Covey explains seven habits.
1. Be Proactive
The first habit is being proactive. Our inherent ability to examine our own character, to decide how to view ourselves and our situations and to control our own effectiveness distinguishes us as humans from all other animals. Reactive people take a passive stance – they believe the world is happening to them. They say things like: • “There’s nothing I can do.” • “That’s just the way I am.” They think the problem is “out there” – but that thought is the problem. On the other hand, reactivity is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and reactive people feel increasingly victimized and out of control.
Proactive people, however, recognize they have responsibility — or “response-ability,” which Covey defines as the ability to choose how you will respond to a given stimulus or situation. In other words, we must work on the things we can do something about. Reactive people held responsible external factors and negative energy. As a result their Circle of Influence shrink because they focus on circle of concern instead of circle of influence. Lessons: 1. Start replacing reactive language with proactive language. Reactive = “He makes me so mad.” Proactive = “I control my own feelings.” 2. Convert reactive tasks into proactive ones.
2. Begin with the End in Mind
We work hard to achieve victories, promotions, higher income, and recognition. But we don’t often stop to evaluate the meaning behind these victories Habit 2 suggests that we should start with a clear destination. It is also important to identify our center because the center will be our source of security, guidance, wisdom, and power.
Our centers affect us fundamentally – they determine our daily decisions, actions, and motivations, as well as our interpretation of events. However, these centers are non-optimal. So we should strive to be principle-centered. Lessons: 1. Visualize in rich detail your own funeral. Who is there? What are they saying about you? Think how your priorities will change with shortage of time? 2. Break down your roles of being professional, personal, or community – and list three to five goals you want to achieve for each. 3. Define what scares you- Public speaking, Critical feedback after writing a book. Write down the worst-case scenario for your biggest fear, and then visualize how you’ll handle this situation.
3. Put First Things First
We must posses the discipline to prioritize our tasks. To maintain discipline and focus, we require willpower. All our activities can be categorized based on two factors: Urgent and important.
We react to urgent matters. If we spend our time managing crises and problems, it keeps getting bigger and bigger until it consumes us. If we spend most of our time reacting to matters that seem urgent, when the reality is their perceived urgency is based on the priorities and expectations of others. We are leading an irresponsible life if we focus things which are drowning your energy.
The best effective management is a way that deals with things like building relationships, long-term planning, etc. In order to focus our time on this aspect, we need to learn saying “no” to other activities. We also need to be able to delegate effectively. In addition, it means we’re thinking ahead, working on the roots, and preventing crises from happening in the first place! This helps us implement the Pareto Principal – 80% of your results come from 20% of your time. Lessons: 1. Identify the activity you’ve been neglecting. Write it down and commit to implementing it. 2. Create your own time management matrix to start prioritizing. 3. Estimate how much time you spend in each type of activity. Then log your time over 3 days. How accurate was your estimate? How much time did you spend in the required and most efficient activity?
4. Think Win-Win
In order to establish effective interdependent relationships, we must focus on creating Win-Win situations. Covey explains that there are six paradigms of human interaction: 1. Win-Win: Both people win means it is mutually beneficial to both the involved parties. 2. Win-Lose: “If I win, you lose.” Win-Lose people are prone to use position, power, credentials, and personality to get their way. 3. Lose-Win: “I lose, you win.” Lose-Win people are quick to please and appease, and seek strength from popularity or acceptance. 4. Lose-Lose: Both people lose. 5. Win: People with the Win mentality don’t necessarily want someone else to lose — that’s irrelevant. What matters is that they get what they want. 6. Win-Win or No Deal: There is no deal if you can’t reach a mutually beneficial.
The best option is to create Win-Win situations.We can be open and really try to understand the underlying issues.Two factors viz Consideration and courage should be taken into consideration in solving Win-Win. Apart from this, it also requires an Abundance Mentality and belief that there’s plenty for everyone else. So keep the focus on results.
Lessons: 1. Write down a list of what the other person is looking for. Next, write a list next to that of how you can make an offer to meet those needs. 2. Identify three important relationships in your life. Think about what you feel the balance is in each of those relationships. Do you give more than you take? Take more than you give? 3. Deeply consider your own interaction tendencies. Are they Win-Lose? How does that affect your interactions with others? Can you identify the source of that approach? Determine whether or not this approach serves you well in your relationships. Write all of this down.
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Before we can offer advice, suggest solutions, or effectively interact with another person in any way, we must seek to deeply understand them and their perspective through emphatic listening. We prescribe a solution before we diagnose the problem. There is no definite technique to understand everyone. To listen empathically requires a fundamental paradigm shift because we typically seek first to be understood.
When we listen autobiographically we are bound to respond in one of the following four ways: 1. Evaluate means to agree or disagree with what is said 2. Probe means ask questions from our reference 3. Advise means give counsel based on our own experience 4. Interpret means based on our own motives and behavior we try to figure out the person’s motives and behavior.
To understand is equally important in achieving Win-Win solutions. Lessons: Here are a few ways to get you in the habit of seeking first to understand: 1. Next time do not involve when two persons are communicating. Was one person or the other more interested in the conversation? Write down what you noticed. 2. Next time during a presentation begin by describing the audience’s point of view in great detail. What problems are they facing?
6. Synergize
Habit 6, which is the habit of synergy or “When one plus one equals three or more and the whole is great than the sum of its parts.” Synergy allows us to create new alternatives and open new possibilities. It allows us as a group to collectively agree to ditch the old scripts and write new ones. To introduce synergy to a given situation or environment start with habits 4 and 5. Once you have these in mind, you can pool your desires with those of the other person or group. Both sides get what they want, and they build their relationship in the process.
Synergy allows you to: -Value the differences in other people as a way to expand your perspective -Sidestep negative energy and look for the good in others – Courage to be interdependent and encourage others also. – Build creativity and find a solution that will be better for everyone
Lessons: 1. Make a list of people who irritate you. Now choose just one person. How are their views different? Put yourself in their shoes for one minute. Does this help you understand them better? Now next time you’re in a disagreement with that person, try to understand their concerns and why they disagree with you. The better you can understand them, the easier it will be to change their mind or change yours. 2. Make a list of people with whom you get along well. Now choose just one person. How are their views different?
7. Sharpen the Saw
This habit focuses on renewal i.e “sharpen the saw.” It surrounds all of the other habits and makes each one possible by preserving and enhancing your greatest asset — yourself. There are four dimensions of our nature which should be exercised regularly and in a balanced way. Physical Dimension: The goal is to exercise so as enhance your capacity. To renew yourselves physically, you must: -Eat well -Get sufficient rest and relaxation -Exercise on a regular basis to improve strength and flexibility.
Spiritual Dimension: This helps to provide leadership to your life and reinforce your commitment to your value system. To renew yourself spiritually, you can: -Practice daily meditation -Communicate with nature -Immerse yourself in great literature or music
Mental Dimension: The goal is to focus on expanding your mind. To renew yourself mentally, you can: -Read good literature -Keep a journal of your thoughts, experiences, and insights -Television watching should be limited to life enriching programmes.
Social/Emotional Dimension: This refers developing meaningful relationships. To renew yourself emotionally, you can: -Seek to deeply understand other people -Make contributions to meaningful projects that improve the lives of others -Maintain an Abundance Mentality, and seek to help others find success
Focus on renewing yourselves along these four dimensions and look forward to inspiring others to a higher path by encouraging them to be proactive. Lessons: 1. Make a list of activities along each of the 4 dimensions that will help you to renew. Finally, evaluate your performance at the end of the week. What led you to succeed or fail to accomplish each goal? 2. Write down a specific “sharpen the saw” activity every week to accomplish it and evaluate your performance and results in all four dimensions.
Riches begin with a STATE OF MIND. In order to attract money you must first become money conscious.The principal of subconscious mind- its application and its reward are at the heart of Think and Grow Rich. The main bottleneck between the conscious and subconscious is communication. Since, conscious – subconscious communication is constant. Therefore developing a dialogue actively in both directions is required for success.
To master emotional states we must first learn to create them or hijack them.
Creating emotional states
Emotional states and emotions are two different things. Emotions are color filters that alter that light. They twist and tint all that it shines on. One way to create strong emotional states (i.e., passion) is to consciously trigger strong emotions (e.g., happiness, faith, fear). It doesn’t matter if the trigger is external (e.g., events, images, objects, music) or internal (e.g., memories, affirmation, prayer, visualization). You just need to know what they are and how to find them. We can also create emotional states without emotional triggers. We do this by altering our physical state and letting the emotional state follow. Common physical triggers include meditation, fasting, fatigue, stress, alcohol and drugs.
Hijacking emotional states
The way to master strong emotional states is to learn to hijack them through substitution and sublimation. The first way to hijack existing emotional states is substitution. In substitution, we maintain an emotional state’s brightness while we alter its color at will by focusing intently on triggers that elicit a different, desired response. The second way to hijack existing emotional states is sublimation. In sublimation we maintain brightness and color but alter the focus of action. Like substitution, sublimation requires mastery of focus. First, we must override an emotion’s tendency to preserve and to focus on itself. Next, we must direct that energy externally and lastly refresh that energy by shifting repeatedly between trigger and target.
Emotional mastery
Substitution and sublimation are especially effective together. That’s why negative emotions, though powerful, tend to have negative effects on ourselves and the world around us. The most effective short-term approach to negative emotions is to substitute then sublimate. Doing so lets us consistently channel positive emotions into constructive outcomes. Mastering creation, substitution and sublimation is the essence of emotional mastery.
Directing the subconscious
We use visualization to talk to the subconscious in a language it understands i.e sensation. Though visualization is a common technique in meditation and performance psychology, most of us are surprisingly bad at it. As your focus improves you’ll be able to maintain that visualization for longer and longer. The keys to visualization are clarity, detail, and repetition. When you read the words aloud, you want to see their outcome, to touch it, to feel it. Feel your desire for that goal heighten your emotional state. Repeat the process again and again until you brand the image in your subconscious. It puts the subconscious to work. It directs a subconscious that sees and acts with a subtlety our conscious mind can’t emulate. This half-humbling, half-liberating insight is at the heart of Think and Grow Rich’s power.
Seven ways the conscious mind can set the subconscious up for success:
1.Stepping back – Stepping back from the pointless chatter of the mind lets us work on our problems rather than in them. It gives the subconscious time and space to work. 2. Listening – The subconscious tells the conscious what it needs and thinks with emotion and inspiration. 3. Problem-solving – The conscious mind is excellent at organizing and re-organizing information in sequences and stories. 4. Learning – The conscious and subconscious both are bounded by knowledge. The subconscious learns effectively from sensation and emotion. Whereas the conscious gathers information coded in language and stored in stories and facts. This second type of knowledge is essential because it make us learn vicariously, transcending the boundaries of personal experience.
5.Training –The conscious breaks habits by repeatedly intervening in the gap between stimulus and response until a new pattern is trained. This intervention takes self-awareness, imagination and will-power. 6. Reassuring – Of all the negative emotions, none rules our subconscious like fear. According to Hill, we mainly fear poverty, criticism, and ill-health, loss of love, old age and death. The conscious mind reassures the subconscious, conquering fear through acceptance, belief and action. 7. Protecting – Our conscious constantly competes for emotional and subconscious control. Some external influences are positive, others negative. To protect the subconscious, the conscious mind must understand when and how the subconscious becomes vulnerable. To protect its control, it must then counter negative influences and eliminate their sources from the environment.
Hill’s full approach to financial success can be summarized in 10 steps
1. Decide on a definite purpose: Make it clear, specific and tangible. 2. Embed it in your subconscious and visualize this goal twice daily. Fan the flames of a burning desire to acquire it. 3. Have faith and develop self-confidence, trust and will power. 4. Make a plan and get started right away. 5. Learn what you need and identify the specific knowledge you need to acquire to achieve success.
6.Gather support by like-minded people to sympathize cooperate and share knowledge with. 7. Get help from others and maintain perfect harmony within them. 8. Set your subconscious up for success. 9. Work on your character and develop traits like self-control, focus etc. 10. Never give up. There is no such thing as failure. Look for the opportunity in every setback and remember.
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
We Must Take Control over Our Thoughts
A good example for the power of thoughts is the placebo effect. If you are ill and take real medication (e.g. pills with actual painkillers), then of course you will get better. That’s to be expected, right? Yet, if you’re ill and get pseudo medication (e.g. pills with sugar and water), you will also get better. It’s because you THINK you got real medication. You THINK that this medication will help you and because you THINK that, it’s what actually happens. If we think “failure”, then failure will be transmuted into reality But if we think “success”, then success will be transmuted into reality. If we truly want to think and grow rich, we must start to take control over our thoughts, or in other words over our mind. We must take control over our own minds.
According to Hill, we need these two things for controlling the mind: • A major definite purpose. • A burning desire to achieve that major definite purpose. The point is that if we focus on achieving only one thing, our odds of achieving it are greatly enhanced.
The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.
Here are the two things that define what a burning desire should look or feel like: 1. The burning desire makes up the dominating thoughts of our mind. We constantly think about it all day long. It’s what’s on our minds 24/7 from the minute we wake up to the moment we fall asleep. We possibly even dream about it in the night. And because we keep our desire constantly in mind, it will become a burning obsession. 2. The burning desire ensures that we will do whatever it takes to achieve what we desire. We will work hard, make sacrifices, be disciplined, and persistent. We will do almost anything.
Have Faith That You Will Succeed
We must develop the faith or belief that we will accomplish our major definite purpose. Hill states that the emotion of faith is what gives life, power and action to the impulse of thought. In other words, if we want to transmute our major definite purpose into physical reality, we must have faith. So we must believe, and we must be convinced that we will accomplish our major definite purpose.
How to Create Faith
Napoleon Hill says that making repeated affirmations or instructions to our subconscious mind is the only known method to develop faith. We must perceive this idea that we’ve already achieved our purpose. This way, over time, we can convince our subconscious mind that we believe in the achievement of our major definite purpose. The concept of visualizing our desired outcomes as already achieved is something we find in almost every self-help/success book: We must see our goal as already achieved in our mind first, before it can manifest itself in the real world. We must visualize our desired future as if it was already real.
By doing that we create the necessary feeling of faith that is needed to accomplish our goal. If we constantly tell our mind that we already have achieved our desired outcome, it will gradually start to believe that it’s true. It will slowly get convinced that we can actually accomplish our goal. This is the way through which we develop the faith or belief that we will succeed. The way to create faith is through making repeated affirmations and instructions to your subconscious mind.
Napoleon Hill tells us exactly how to make these affirmations and instructions to our subconscious mind.
6 steps to transmute our desires into their physical equivalents
1.Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. Be definite to the amount. 2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. 3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire. 4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action. 5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire. Name the time limit for its acquisition. 6. Read your written statement aloud twice daily; once just before retiring at night and once after rising in the morning.
Once you’re obsessed with something, you will find ways to make it happen. Napoleon Hill emphasizes that these 6 steps must be executed persistently day in and day out. Only through persistent application can we successfully influence our mind, create faith, and let our desire develop into a burning obsession.
Create a Plan to Achieve Your Major Definite Purpose
Application of the 6 steps will kind of force your subconscious mind to hand over plans for you. It doesn’t matter if the first plan isn’t particularly good. Just get started. When the first plan fails, create a new plan. You can find out why this is important right now. Replace your first plan if it didn’t work out successfully. Keep replacing until you find a plan which does work because it is not the failure of a plan that drives failure but lack of persistence in creating new plans.
Think about Thomas Edison for example. He needed over 10,000 attempts to eventually create a functioning light bulb. In other words, he had to make over 10,000 new plans to achieve his goal. That’s persistence! After failing once, you are already in a much better position to succeed. It is because you already have feedback.
Persistence Is Key
With persistence, you will win. We can’t build muscle, lose weight, build a business or do anything else noteworthy from one day to the next. We need to be patient and persistent.
This means we must also be persistent when applying the principles of this book. We must apply these 6 steps consistently. Not just for a week or two… but consistently over a long period of time. Napoleon Hill says that this is crucial if we want to influence our subconscious mind and create a money/success consciousness. So, we must pay the price of persistence. Create a master mind to help you achieve your one major definite purpose. A Master Mind is a group of people who work together for the attainment of a definite purpose.
This is pretty simple and straightforward. A Master Mind brings a host of benefits that will help us in accomplishing our major definite purpose. If you want to build a business, a partner brings additional knowledge, effort, money. But that depends on the partnership. You and your partner can motivate each other when times are tough and each of you brings his or her own ideas to improve the business. One of the most important things that a Master Mind can bring you is FAITH. If you have powerful people in your Master Mind, chances are that you’ll believe that with the cooperation of your Master Mind allies. Hence, you will achieve your definite purpose.
You already have the skills you need—you just have to know where to look.
In this book Guillebeau explains that running a solo-business is not a new idea, it’s been done forever. However, the rate of increase in such type of business is increasing rapidly over the years. These days the process isn’t only faster, but also cheaper, and Guillebeau believes it can be done for $100.
For that he explains the most important lessons: Convergence Guillebeau explains that convergence is the point of overlap between something that you really enjoy doing, your passion (something that you’re hopefully good at) and something that other people also have an interest in (the usefulness). This point of overlap is where you should be aiming to establish your business because this is where success can cultivate and your business freedom can blossom. Skill Transformation The second lesson Guillebeau explains is skill transformation. He explains that in order to succeed, you have to identify what skills you already have and determine whether or not they could be useful to other people. Try to combine your skills so as to add more value to them.
The Magic Formula The last stage of 3 lessons is bringing all together with the following magic formula. ”Passion or skill + usefulness = success” If you can start with a basic product or service, you then need to find your audience, people who will pay for your product or service. And finally, you need to establish a payment method, how you are going to receive the money for your product/service.
Adding value
Anything you can pack and sell as a product or service can be considered valuable. And he stresses that ideas sometimes come out of nowhere, there’s no rule to finding your ‘million-dollar-idea’, it’s going to come when it comes. However, it’s important to keep your eye out for inspiration and opportunities as they are everywhere; you just have to start looking!
Here are a few ideas for areas to look at for inspiration: -Any kind of inefficiency in any market. Something that could be done better or isn’t performing as well as it could. -New technologies, these are constantly popping up. -A changing space or platform.
Value When considering starting your own business, if you start with focusing on helping people, the Guillebeau believes you are well on your way. If you make this the centre-point of your business, you’re destined for success. Getting started immediately in 6 steps require: 1. Commit to a product or service. 2. Build a simple website 3. Come up with an offer 4. Establish a payment method 5. Let the world know what your offering (advertising, start on social media and go from there) 6. Repeat 1-5 over and over until you find success.
Guillebeau explains that you can establish yourself as a consultant if you follow a few simple rules. First, make sure you go for a specific specialty. Explain exactly what part of business you help with. Make sure your customers know what they are getting with you. Secondly, Guillebeau emphasizes the importance of pricing yourself and your service. Charging $15/hour may feel like a good idea to get a few clients under your belt, but the reality is that people won’t value someone who charges so little, they’ll question the quality of work you can provide. Consider charging $100/hour as a minimum, or something similar if you are going for fixed rates. Make sure your prices reflect your work.
Roaming Entrepreneurs
The internet has led to a new emergence of what Guillebeau calls ‘roaming entrepreneurs’. The idea that you can work from anywhere, there’s no need to be stuck in a high-rise in the centre of a busy city if you can do the same work from a beach side paradise. However, Guillebeau warns that just like passions, sometimes picking the lifestyle of a roaming entrepreneur isn’t ideal for your circumstances.
Customers Generally, there are two different strategies Guillebeau suggests when it comes to figuring out what to sell. The first involves finding a popular hobby or craze, something that’s just getting started and tapping into that market. The second strategy involves simply figuring out what people are already buying and doing that. There may be plenty of opportunities you could potentially tap into and you may get overwhelmed. To try and avoid overwhelm of ideas, Guillebeau recommends writing down all of your ideas and coming up with a way to test ideas against each other.
Taking it to the streets
Test your market 1. You need to care about the problem you are going to solve, and there has to be a sizable number of other people who also care. 2. Make sure the market is big enough. Test the size by checking the number and relevancy of Google keywords—the same keywords you would use if you were trying to find your product. 3.The product should be capable to solve the existing market problem. 4. You should be able to reflect how your product would reduce the pain and satisfy the consumers. 5. Always ensure that your solution is different and better. 6. Ask ideas from your potential target market. 7. Create a framework for the subgroup of your community for feedback and confidentiality.
Mission Statements Let’s break down the planning process into a very simple exercise: defining the mission statement for your business in 140 characters or less. It may help to think of the first two characteristics of any business: a product or service and the group of people who pay for it. Put the two together and you’ve got a mission statement
An Offer You Can’t Refuse A guide for creating a good offer: 1. Understand that what we want and what we say we want is not always the same thing. Look for what people are really willing to pay for. 2. Propose compelling offers rather than pressurizing customers. 3. Provide a nudge.
Launch! Launch your product not just to increase your influence but to preserve your relationship with other prospects per se.
Hustling: The Gentle Art of Self-Promotion
To actively and effectively recruit new prospects follow this time oriented guide. -DAILY: Maintain a regular and meaningful presence on Social Networking Sites without being sidetracked. -WEEKLY: Try to maintain regular communication with colleagues and customers. -AT LEAST MONTHLY: Prepare yourself for an upcoming event, or product launch. Also, connect with existing customers to strengthen their faith.
Make Money The primary goal is to make money. Businesses are improving their probability of success by opting various ventures to make money. You can do this with a variety of methods.
Leverage and next steps
Moving On Up Various ways to improve income involves small changes that create a big impact. 1. Get more Traffic 2. Increase Conversion 3. Increase Average Sale Prices 4. Sell More to Existing Customers 5. Institute a New Up sell 6. Encourage Referrals 7. Hold a Contest 8. Introduce a Powerful Guarantee
How to Franchise Yourself There are several ways to grow a business through the use of leverage. Franchising yourself isn’t just doing more; it’s about taking your skills, activities, and passions to a higher level to create better returns. The difference between franchising yourself and just doing more is that you take the time to be strategic. One path to franchising yourself is to team up with a trusted partner but not at the cost of completely merging your business with that person.
Going Long Finding a way to build systematization into the business, and deciding what role the business will play in the rest of their lives is the biggest challenge. There’s more than one road to freedom, and some people find it through a combination of different working arrangements. Focus more on your business by devoting time each single day. Check up on the others monthly or bimonthly. A business that is scalable is both teachable and valuable.
The book describes seven fascination advantages, overarching personality traits people can use to help improve their performance and fascinate others.
Fascinate with your highest distinct value
In a crowded, competitive environment, the most fascinating option always wins. Unrecognized greatness achieves nothing. Greatness can win only by being noticed and remembered. And in a competitive and overcrowded world, the same is true for you. You are fascinating. Our research proves it.
Perhaps you’ve heard this story: a priceless painting is sitting up in some forgotten attic, collecting dust for decades. Then, one day, someone stumbles upon it and sets off a million-dollar bidding war. Do you ever feel like that painting, waiting for someone to recognize your potential? The problem is, you have to be in the right environment for people to notice your unique talents and the great things you have to offer. You need to stay on the lookout for the kind of environment that will maximize your unique contributions. Finding the right environment is crucial to success.
The fascination advantage system
Every single time you communicate with someone, you are either adding value (and reinforcing why they should prioritize you) or taking up space (and reinforcing that your messages are irrelevant spam)
There are three things you must be aware of: First, you have to overcome the distractions that can keep people from connecting with your ideas. It’s difficult to get someone to pay attention to your ideas if they don’t listen or bother to look at the portfolio you sent them. So, to get your message out there, you have to grab their attention right off the bat. Second, avoid the competition by creating your own niche. There are plenty of competitive entrepreneurs out there today, each fighting to be the best in their field. But no matter how hard they try, there will always be someone better. You should aim for success by being different and creating a niche that plays to your own unique set of skills.
Finally, avoid being perceived as a commodity. Commodities are replaceable and thus, if you’re perceived as one, you’ll end up losing clients to competitors. To find long-term success, you need a loyal customer base; otherwise, you’ll always be searching for new ones, which is a costly and time-consuming process. You can do this by connecting with your customers and showing them that you care. Reply thoughtfully and start building a loyal fan base.
Fascination improves the performance
Fascination allows you to enter a state of flow, a psychological state in which you can focus on something completely. The stronger your fascination, the more likely you are to enter into this state. Being in a state of flow allows your brain to perform more efficiently, which improves your performance. If a simple job already taxes your brainpower, as it did with these novices, more demanding tasks can overwhelm you, leading you to make mistakes or crumble under the pressure. But someone who is fascinated with what they do will enter a state of flow and will still have enough spare brainpower to meet a challenge. Of course, the activities that are most likely to fascinate you are those that suit your unique personality traits.
There are seven fascination advantages and each of them has a unique way of helping you perform better. Many people struggle to become someone they’re not – to try and get a job or fit into a role that doesn’t suit them. To prevent this from happening to you, recognize one or two of your personal fascination advantages to discover the work that fascinates you and matches your personality. We’re much more likely to excel at a job that fascinates us. In addition, being aware of other people’s fascination advantages and personal traits can help you set up productive teams. This way, you will know how each of your employees can contribute specific skills and strengths to a team.
Power advantage
People with this advantage are very confident and excel at convincing others of their opinion. They are willing to take calculated risks and won’t shy away from making difficult decisions. While the power advantage is helpful in many situations, it’s crucial to a role like that of a CEO, where difficult decisions and convincing others is part of the daily routine. Be careful, though: having too many people with a power advantage in one team can be disastrous, with every group discussion becoming a fight for control.
Passion advantage
People with the passion advantage are friendly, emotionally open and can connect quickly with other people. Since they tend have high levels of energy, they’re often enthusiastic about ideas or projects, and their enthusiasm can be contagious. People who are high in passion are usually very good at giving presentations and forming relationships with customers.
Mystique advantage
At the other end of the spectrum, people with the mystique advantage are level-headed observers who listen before they speak. Mystique personalities are often quiet intellectuals who like to think things through before they act. In contrast to passionate personalities, mystique individuals aren’t open with their emotions and you shouldn’t be surprised if they reject your idea of joining in a karaoke duet at an office party. These people have great time-managements skills and are very analytical. Mystique personalities make great experts, and if you’re looking for someone to fill a scientific role, join the IT department or become a business analyst, look no further. So, passion is about people and mystique is about data. Next, we’ll investigate the main traits of perfectionists and project managers.
Prestige advantage
It is all about striving for excellence and the desire for self-optimization. The most important motivation for people with this fascination advantage is to exceed expectations. When someone with a prestige advantage gives a presentation, it will usually involve the following: First, they will study a previous successful presentation, such as Steve Jobs’ presentation of the iPhone. Then, they will stand in front of a mirror and do a few training performances. Finally, after the presentation, they will conduct a self-evaluation; determine what went wrong and how they can improve.
Alert advantage
But when it comes to attention to detail, no one beats the people who have the alert advantage. The alert advantage make these people perfect project managers to stay on time, within the budget and have an eye for details that might otherwise fall through the cracks. As you might sense, this trait comes in handy for anyone involved in quality management. If someone you’re about to meet sends you a text to say that they’ll be five minutes late it’s a sign that they have the alert advantage. This is the kind of advantage you might also look for in a doctor, so they won’t miss any ominous signs during your next check-up.
Innovation advantage
In Mesopotamia, somewhere around 3500 BC, someone came up with the brilliant idea of the very first wheel. While we don’t know anything about the inventor, it’s a safe bet that this person’s fascination advantage was the innovation advantage. The innovation advantage characterizes people who are always coming up with new ideas. These people are full of creativity and hold little regard for the status quo.
Just about any great scientific and technological breakthrough can be traced back to people with this advantage, be it that unknown Mesopotamian, Nikola Tesla or Steve Jobs. While other people are busy trying to improve an existing product, innovators will work on developing a new one from scratch. In leadership positions, these individuals tend to look at the big picture and excel at creating a vision for their team to fill with details. In this environment, they pair well with alert people, who would never miss a single detail that the innovator is after.
Trust advantage
But if you are looking for consistency and dependability, look to those with the trust advantage. It’s always nice if someone in your team has the trust advantage because they work hard and will commit to getting things done. If they are asked to perform a task, you can be certain that they will do it well. So don’t hold back any longer! Find your environment, discover your fascination advantage and be extraordinary.
The 12 Week Year provides a framework that enables you to focus on your most important objectives and strategies while still providing room for iteration. The 12 Week Year concept/system is build on 8 success ingredients—3 principles and 5 disciplines—that are crucial for success in any area.
The 3 Core Principles are: 1. Accountability (the willingness to take full ownership for your actions and results regardless of your circumstances), 2. Commitment (doing whatever it takes to keep the promises you’ve made to yourself and to others) and 3. Greatness in the moment (making the countless decisions to do what’s needed even if you don’t feel like it, and immersing yourself fully in the present).
According to the author there are eight elements that are fundamental to high performance in any endeavor: 1. Vision: A compelling vision creates a clear picture of the future. 2. Planning: An effective plan prioritizes actions needed to achieve the goal. 3. Process control: A set of tools that are required to align your daily actions with the critical ones. 4. Measurement: Lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision-making. 5. Time use: Using your time with clear intention is a must.
6. Accountability: Accountability is ultimately ownership. 7. Commitment: Keeping your promises to others build strong relationships, and keeping promises to yourself builds character, esteem, and success. 8. Greatness in the moment
Create a compelling vision
The secret to living your life to its potential is to value the important stuff above your own comfort.
Your vision will motivate you to push through the inevitable discomfort that arises while trying to achieve meaningful goals. The authors encourage readers to write two visions: aspiration and three-year. Your aspiration vision describes how you want to live your life and what you ultimately want to achieve. This could include achieving financial independence, starting a healthy family, or living to the age of 125. This could also include growing your business to $5 million in revenue, getting promoted to partner, or winning a weightlifting competition.
You have the ability to strengthen and develop your brain by thinking about a compelling future for yourself, by regularly and repeatedly thinking about an inspiring vision where you emotionally connect with the life you desire. Print out your vision. Review it at the beginning and end of each day, during your weekly review and planning sessions, and anytime you need a boost of motivation.
Set 12-week goals
12-week goals are not based on stacks of assumptions or dependent on predicting an unpredictable future. 12-week plans also give you a better picture of what you should do on a day-to-day basis. After 12 weeks, ask yourself how your situation is changed and what new opportunities have presented themselves, and create new 12-week goals.
Here are some examples of 12-week goals: -Grow your email list to 5,000 subscribers -Dead lift 225 pounds -Grow your business to $5,000 per month in revenue -Write 6 articles When writing your goals, ask yourself “How will your life be different if you accomplish those goals?” This will keep you motivated when times get tough.
Break your goals into action plans
12-week goals are the bridge between your vision and your action plan. Your action plans prioritize your work on a daily and weekly basis. Weekly and daily plans have the added benefit of helping you determine what not to spend time on.
If you want to know what your future holds, look at your actions; they are the best predictor of your future. There will always be more opportunities than you can effectively pursue.
Write down the critical few actions that you need to complete to achieve your goals. Assign due dates. This pre-emptive plan will make it easier for you to overcome obstacles as they arise.
Schedule regular reviews
Planning and review sessions can help you stay focused on what really matters. The following trick can be used for your weekly reviews: 1. Quantify the results you’ve achieved so far towards your 12-week goals 2. Measure your execution so far done. 3. Set intentions for the coming week 4. Reconnect with your vision
The four keys to successful commitments
1. Strong desire: A compelling vision and reason for execution can help with this. 2. Keystone actions: Make it easier to get started. 3. Count the costs: “Identifying the costs before you commit allows you to consciously choose whether you are willing to pay the price of your commitment.” 4. Act on commitments, not feelings: Make a commitment to yourself and be willing to tolerate the discomfort that comes from following through on it.
Carve out time for strategic work
Once you’ve created a vision, 12-week goals, and an action plan, it should be pretty clear what actions are most important for you to achieve results. Perhaps more importantly, you will be able to identify all the actions that you could do that won’t actually contribute to achieving results.
Here are some examples of actions that may be high leverage for you, depending on your business and goals: -Writing -Sales calls -Hiring -Customer interviews or product experiments Plan by setting a 12-week goals which will prove to be the most significant strategic activities. Take note of your most productive time of day– and dedicate it to important work. No meetings, phone calls, emails, or social media!
Action Steps from the 12 Week Year
1. Create a compelling vision for your life. 2. Set 12-week goals. 3. Break your 12-week goals into weekly and daily action plans. 4. Schedule weekly review and planning sessions to measure results and stay focused on achieving your vision.
