Archives – December, 2010
Saying “no” to quitting when a goal or challenge until you achieve what you set out to do from the beginning.
Saying “no” to letting your emotions get the better of you, especially when you’re upset, and doing things you regret later.
Saying “no” to going with the flow and keeping strictly with conventional wisdom
Saying “no” to continually keeping with conventional ways of doing things just because they’re comfortable
Another way of understanding at Herjavec’s quote is another great quote which highlights what happens when you have the ability to say “no”:
“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst then be false to any man” – William Shakespeare
“I asked my wife Diane for a list of the qualities that, in her view, lie behind my success in business. Following are her responses (in no particular order): (more…)
December 31, 2010
“Here’s a quotation I admire a great deal: “The art of leadership is the ability to say no” ”
- from Driven
This is an interesting way of putting into perspective what constitutes entrepreneurial success. People who lack leadership skills and therefore self-confidence are too concerned with pleasing others and not enough with pleasing themselves. Consequently, this is why some corporate people are called “yes men” – they lack the courage to say “no” to people they work with, even when they want to.
Herjavec’s quote also reminds me of Robert De Niro in the movie Casino where his character runs a Las Vegas casino. In his office he has a sign that says “yes” in small letters and then “no” right below it in a huge font size about ten times larger than the “yes” font size. (more…)
December 30, 2010
At one point I had a question for one of the Rangers conducting the training … “How is it,”, I asked,” that you are so successful at creating leadership skills here, yet so few Rangers become business leaders? Why can’t everyone who achieves Ranger status in the army transfer those same skills to the corporate world and become outstanding CEOs?”
The answer (more…)
December 29, 2010
An entrepreneur’s self-interest also demands far greater personal gratification from their work than the typical employed person. Entrepreneurs aren’t interested in jobs that are just a means to an end IE trading your time for a paycheck, even if it’s a big paycheck. They want a career in an area they’re passionate about, an area that greatly interests and stimulates them on a personal level.
If they don’t find that personal gratification in their work or find that gratification waning in their current work they’ll look elsewhere for work that’s more stimulating.
This is one of the big advantages of self-employment: the ability to choose the who, what, where, when, why and how of work. They choose their work, rather than the work choosing them as it is with many employed people. For entrepreneurs work isn’t a burden as it is to most employees; it’s something they love.
“A few years ago I was invited to attend a training program operated by former US Army Rangers. The location was a rural region in Kentucky, where (more…)
December 28, 2010
Here are some more insights from Herjvac’s Driven book for real estate brokers looking to hire new sales reps. Here he sheds light on understanding what traits entrepreneurs have vs. the traits good employees have who probably won’t be successful entrepreneurs:
“Some business observers preach that successful companies resemble victorious armies, treating markets as battlefields, staff as soldiers, products as armaments and strategies as battle plans. It’s a colorful analogy, but not one that I entirely accept … For example, military training teaches discipline and sacrifice, two admirable qualities for anyone who chooses a business career.
So why don’t many former soldiers become extraordinary business successes? I suspect (more…)
December 27, 2010
“Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt” – William Shakespeare
I have a friend who I occasionally attend music concerts with. We’re both die-hard fans of a particular band. We used to see their live shows any chance we had. This band broke up about 8 years ago and so it seemed we might never get a chance to see them again.
The band recently announced two re-union shows. (more…)
December 24, 2010
The servant with the single talent said, “Master, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter. I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. I now return it to you intact.”
The master answered him, “You wicked, lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter. You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received it back with interest. Therefore, take away the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents.”
I think Herjavec’s friend resembled the servant given the one talent who did nothing with it. He was afraid and did no one any good by hiding his “talent” away for fear of losing it. No one really betters themselves or their overall situation by continually avoiding risks and challenges. They just lose what they have by not putting it to use. As Robert Kiyosaki wrote, “the hard path eventually becomes easy, and the easy path eventually becomes hard”. (more…)
December 23, 2010
So imagine how turned off you’d be as a broker if they you gave the sort of answer Herjavec’s friend gave to that promotion. At first you might think they completely misunderstood what you offered them. Your offer implied you’d take them under your wing and teach them on how to succeed at the job. Of course you’d be willing to accept mistakes and failure initially, as long as the person learned from them and didn’t give up. You’d certainly give the person a fair bit of time to make things happen. If they weren’t right for the job then surely you’d give them their old job back. You’d realize this person didn’t have a fraction of the self-confidence needed for the job and probably never would, no matter how much knowledge they might subsequently get about real estate. So you’d probably never offer them the job again.
When it comes to real estate, “failing” at it really just means (more…)
December 22, 2010
People who care too much about others’ opinion of them are like puppets on strings when there really is no puppeteer there. What’s only there is their own doubts and fears, yanking on the strings. So imagine how such people feel when forced to speak in front of an audience: when they think they have to please all those people at once. So no wonder they experience total paralysis and fear!
Herjavec’s friend probably thought the person responsible for offering him the promotion was thinking in the same way. In fact, this friend was merely projecting his own feelings of inadequacy and fear of failure onto that senior person who wanted to promote him.
Projection is an important psychological principle to understand. Projection is (more…)
December 21, 2010
“What he had to do, I said, was take the job and forget about the chance of failing. The way I saw it, he couldn’t lose. If he succeeded at the new job, he would be fast-tracked to a terrific career with the company, assuming that’s what he wanted. And if he failed, he would learn so much from the experience that he could go after another job with confidence.
He didn’t buy it. Risk, he believed, was something you minimized. Risk, I believe is something you exploit. It’s all a matter of how much risk you are willing to accept, and how badly you want to exploit it.” – from Driven
The problem with Herjavec’s friend is he feared failure so much that it paralyzed him from acting, even when great opportunities like this promotion presented themselves.
I think fear of failure often stems from a person’s caring too much about what other people think about them. I want to emphasize this point: we CAN’T care much about what people think about us if we want to be highly successful! (more…)
December 20, 2010
Previous page
