Success and Motivation – The Benefactor Tests
I have been asked when the next installment is coming. Since they go hand in hand I decided to list the topics
that will be part of the blog series, which happen to match up to the Factors for Success that I test for in The
Benefactor in coming weeks.
1. Time is more valuable than money
You have to learn how to use time wisely and be productive. How wisely you use your time will have far more impact
on your life and success than any amount of money.
2. Random Acts of Kindness
Being successful entails being able to not only get along with people, but also give something back. No one gets
to the top on their own, and I believe we all should be able to make those around us smile.
3. No Balls, No Babies
This is something a blackjack dealer once told me when I asked him if I should hit or stick. It is also my
favorite line and probably the thing I tell myself the most. Once you are prepared, and you think you have every
angle of preparation covered. Then you have to go for it. No balls, no babies.
4. Work Hard Play Hard
I went 7 years without a vacation, but I sure managed to have fun. You have to find ways to blow off steam so you
don’t blow a gasket.
5. Don’t let fear be a roadblack
You can use fear as a roadblock or as motivation. There is always going to be someone who is competing with you,
and they are going to win sometimes. Rather than not doing something for fear of losing, take on the challenge. If
you fail, get back up and go for it again. I have been fired from more jobs than most people have had! In the search
for success, you can fail any number of times, but you only have to get it right one time.
6. Expect the unexpected, and always be ready
You don’t wake up in the morning with someone telling you that everyone is going to be selling lemonade so whoever
sells the most wins. It’s the exact opposite. Life is unpredictable, which is exactly why we made The
Benefactor unpredictable.
You never know when an opportunity will open or close. You have to realize this and always know that the game is
on. Whatever your are striving to achieve isn’t waiting in one static place for you to find it.
It’s the opposite. Everyone has inside of them what it takes to be successful. You just have to be ready
to unleash it when the opportunity presents itself.
7. It’s ok to yell and be yelled at
One of the rules I have is that I don’t mind if people raise their voice and even yell a little bit. At
MicroSolutions, my partner Martin and I would have some knockdown drag outs. They were always short bursts. They
didn’t happen a lot. When they did, I knew, and he knew, that this was an issue we were passionate about.
As my businesses grew, it happened less often because people deferred to me more often. I hated that. If someone
believed strongly enough in something and I was being passionate about something, I wanted them to match my level of
passion if they felt that strongly about it.
So I told people that if they thought it was the only way to get through to me, to go for it. This may not work
for you in corporate America, but anyone in a family business, or in a private business of any size with a partner or
two, knows exactly what I am talking about!
8. Everyone gets down, the key is how soon you get back up
I can’t count how many times I have gotten up in the morning dreading the day. I wasnt motivated, I was tired. I
just wanted to crawl back in bed.
Other times, I had lost a deal, we had lost a game, something wasn’t working. I just wanted to crawl under a rock
and disappear.
EVERYONE goes through those moments. The key is how you fight through them.
Knowing that everyone has those days, the people who truly will be successful are those that fight through the
quickest and come back stronger and smarter
9. It’s not if the glass is half empty, or half full, it’s who is pouring the water
This is one of my favorites. They key in business and success at any endeavor is doing your best to control your
destiny. You can’t always do it, but you have to take every opportunity you can to be as prepared and ahead of the
competition as you possibly can be. Take the lead, and you can control your own destiny.
10. It’s not in the dreaming, it’s in the doing
Everyone has it in them to be successful. EVERYONE. Most people only dream about what they do if they were
successful, or how they might get there.
Anyone can dream. Anyone and everyone does have ideas about how they might be successful. It doesn’t matter if
your definition of success is being a great parent, being an athlete, a business person, whatever.
When I catch myself daydreaming about how I’m going to do this or that, I always try to wake up and ask myself
just how I’m going to get from where I am, to where I want to be. What EXACTLY is it going to take to do it, rather
than dream about it.
11. Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered
This is one I got from my partner Todd Wagner. He is right on. Sometimes you have to go for the jugular, but more
often than not, the biggest mistake people make are getting too greedy. Every good deal has a win win solution. There
is nothing I hate more than someone who tries to squeeze every last penny out of the deal. They often raise the
aggrevation level to the point where it’s not worth doing the deal. They also raise the dislike level to the point
where even if a deal gets done, you look for ways to never do business with that person or company again.
Business happens over years and years.Value is measured in the total upside of a business
relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.
12. You only have to be right once
I have been fired from more jobs than most people have had. Some jobs I have had were so bad, the only way I could
justify them to myself was that I was getting paid to learn (as opposed to paying to go to school).
I have started a stupid business that was doomed to fail (selling powdered milk). I have dated more girls that I
wanted to. The beauty of success, whether it’s finding the girl of your dreams, the right job, or financial success
among many others, is that it doesn’t matter how many times you have failed, you only have to be right once.
No one keeps score. There are so many ways that each of us can find happiness and success in our endeavors, that
it never really matters how many times you fail. You only have to be right once
These are some of the things I use to guide myself in different situations.
Maybe they apply to your situation, maybe they don’t, that’s up to you to decide. They arethe
foundation for many of the tests and challenges, and the spirit of what I tried to do in The Benefactor
Make sure to watch the show monday nights and let me know what you think! (and those in the mountain and
pre empted cities, please TiVo!)
thx
m