The Desert of Arizona
Before Sunrise 20 Degrees
If I had to sum up the way I seem to navigate through life and business, it would be with this phrase:
Bump… turn… bump… turn…
I bump into things, I stand back and look at them and then I go another way or figure out how to go through.
Now for the 4.0 GPA, “Straight-A” mind slave that I was, this is a hard thing to come to terms with. That feeling of “not living up to the standard” is enough to make a guy nuts. It’s certainly enough to fill his life with a constant fear that never goes away. And it’s more than enough to control him.
The world makes a big deal about mistakes. The news provides a relentless barrage of the bright spotlight of the system exposing the mistakes of human beings just like you. You don’t want to get caught in the spotlight. Oh, no. It’s better just to hide in the corner and live out your years as a meek little sheep. Ever wonder why this is so important to them?
Because when you’re getting trained to be a cog in someone ELSE’S machine, your ability to avoid mistakes and be compliant makes them more successful. There’s no such thing as a “free-thinking cog.” So much for you and your happiness though. Too bad.
But what happens when you wake up and withdraw your consent to be that cog?
Now we all hear stories about how some of the most successful people out there never went to college. Or maybe they dropped out. Maybe they didn’t even make it to high school.
And yet, countless people willingly still spend their lives locked away from the real world being told what to think (not how to think) and trained not to “make mistakes.”
I’m confident that we are all here to succeed. We are, according to me, “wired” for success.
But there’s a catch.
You are only wired to succeed as YOU. You are not wired to succeed like someone else would succeed.
To the extent that you get to know YOU, the easier success will come.
In the business world, when you’re out there acting, speaking and living as YOU, you also tend to stick out.
For some, success is a billion dollars. For others, success is a free afternoon in the yard with the kids.
Who gets to decide what success is? You do.
And that definition isn’t up for critique. It is beyond reproach.
You just have to have the guts to LIVE it.