When people think you’re a weirdo or just plain crazy – celebrate! Because crazy is just what you need to be to make it in business – let me prove it to you.
Back around 2000 most of my peers said I was crazy for creating an online university and their jaws dropped in disbelief when they saw our US$998 million EBIT! Crazy is good. Crazy is the kind of thinking that launched companies like Apple, Amazon and Uber.
In business, we all want success. I do and you do. Your desire to grow is natural. It’s normal. But success that has not yet been achieved or claimed is anything but normal. Think about it. If you allowed your normal thought patterns to govern your normal behaviour (which y ou do by the way), you will get the business or career that you currently have – that’s normal. But it’s not growth and it’s probably not what you want – right?
Can you remember the last time you started a new business or jumped into a new job? Now cast your mind back and begin to recall the contorted faces of your friends and family. They thought you were crazy right? Nuts? Perhaps they even thought there was something seriously wrong with you? That’s how crazy success is to normal folk. They just don’t get it.
Unless you achieve staggering annual growth each year, success, taking your business or career to the next level will require you to act as though you’re mad! And if you don’t believe me, congratulations you’re normal. I’m sure you fit in really well among those around you. But success is not about fitting in or being accepted by anyone.
Learn to become comfortable with discomfort.
Walt Disney used to say that if everyone liked his idea, it wasn’t dangerous enough to succeed. He would change it. Acceptance and normal are not your friends in business. I quickly learned that what we did yesterday, no longer works today. Old ideas are not your friends either. Crazy ideas are what most people will criticise you for, but they get attention. You must learn to become comfortable with discomfort and change.
Steve Jobs used to say, “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” It was this level of change that made him fiercely unpopular with his Apple board. But it was Jobs’ desire for constant change, his madness is what made Apple who they are today.
The real success that you yearn, is not normal.
Success is crazy and illogical. Back in 2004, my mentor showed me how to create in a weekend, what most call ‘an annual income!’ The whole idea seemed crazy to me. I was given the golden formula and all my mentor heard were ‘crickets.’ I remember, I used to go numb when I was presented an idea that was bigger than me.
My mentor had proven his system time and time again. He thought differently to me. To be frank, it scared the crap out of me. Because I couldn’t see myself in my mentor’s shoes. Though it was like a bolt of lightning ran through my body when I realised my problem wasn’t my vision. It was my thinking.
What I needed was coaching. But not your ordinary run of the mill coaching. I needed an NLP coach. Someone who could gain access to my neural pathways and clean the shit off those messy thoughts. I needed to change my software. Because who I had to become to get tho se same results that my mentor shared, just wasn’t me. I knew, that until I became that person who followed my mentor’s advice… The success I wanted would elude me. The proof was in the pudding, the pudding was my brain. Success had eluded me for most of life already.
Recently, I was interviewed by a journalist for Fairfax. It was one of those ‘rags to riches’ stories. Only the journalist claimed that my success came only from mentoring. When in truth, my courage came from getting coached and my success came after learning NLP.
Now most people don’t know what NLP is. Simply, it’s learning how to master your mind and your communication. Everything that is possible for you comes from that wonderful brain of yours. You’ll get the success you dream of if you feed your brain well and master it’s will or you will not get the life you dream of.
Today I am that coach and trainer that my mentor was back then. In fact, I teach coaches how to use Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), to help them to change their programs at the deepest levels and to get the greatest results.
Do you want success, real success? Then stop aiming to be your normal self. Stop showing up as you and start showing up as the successful future you. But don’t think that you can get there on your own – because frankly, you won’t. You’ll need a coach that challenges your current, normal thinking or learn NLP and make the journey easier. I promise you, success starts when you start to realise where it begins – in your thinking.
