Seven Reasons People Never Have the Successful Careers They Are Capable of
A lawyer told me last night that most of the other attorneys she knows are looking to do something other than practice law. Lawyers are one of the most fascinating breeds of people I know. The ones who go to the top law schools and start in jobs with the top law firms generally have been performing at a very high level for their entire lives; however, when they get out in the real world, a good proportion of these attorneys fail to have fulfilling and successful long-term careers. What this has taught me is that no matter how smart we are, how talented we [Read more]
Managers, Idea People, and Workers
I love watching Westerns. What fascinates me about them is that what typically occurs in these movies occurs in any organization–and the success of this process is what determines the success or failure of the organization. In most Westerns, the plot line revolves around a powerful force that tests the will of a group, such as an evil banker taking away people’s land, or a group of outlaws terrorizing a town, and so forth. The beginning of the story typically entails people being devastated by this evil force, and then an individual steps forward and says something [Read more]
Your Ability to Be Free Will Determine Your Success
A crucial part of your future success and happiness is having the ability to be free. The concept of freedom is difficult for most people to truly understand because hardly anyone is really free, in the deepest sense of the word. Most people are trapped by their own mental barriers, by obligations to others, by financial constraints, by habits, and in many cases by actual physical barriers. Moving toward true freedom is something that will forever change your life and career and will help you reach your full potential. The founding principles of the United States were largely based on the idea of freedom for all citizens, as exemplified by the First Amendment to the [Read more]
The Importance of Creating and Maintaining Value
One of the questions that has bothered me for most of my life is this: “Why don’t certain people succeed?” The reason this question has bothered me so much is because I frequently see certain people around me who have achieved incredible successes. When I get to know many of these people, I realize that in many cases they are less talented in many respects than some of the less successful people. However, there is a very simple difference in most cases between those who succeed and those who do not:
- The people who succeed at the highest levels are typically (1) contributing something of real value to the world–a service or product that people want, and (2) part of a group that is also contributing something of real value to the world.
- People who do not succeed are generally (1) not contributing something of real value to the world that the world wants, and (2) part of a group that is also not contributing something of real value to the world.
Pay Attention to the Details
One of the most important things you can do in your career, business, and life is pay attention to details. With very few exceptions, the most successful people I have met always have an extraordinary ability to pay attention to even the smallest details. In fact, the more you examine successful people, the more it becomes clear that they are often obsessed and incredibly knowledgeable about details. In my house, shows like The Hills and so forth are on all the time. (A quick aside: I was at a party a few years ago where I had to [Read more]
Create a Sense of Urgency
When I first started selling asphalt repair services door-to-door, I heard one response an awful lot: “Let me think about it!” In fact, I heard this so often it became tiresome after a while. I could speak with 100 people in an evening and 99 of them would say, “Let me think about it!” The people were pleasant enough and understood the advantages of what I was selling, but they all wanted time to think about it before committing to the purchase. That is how most of us react when we are confronted with [Read more]
Trust Your Intuition in Your Career and Life
When I was around 11 years old, a couple of friends of mine, Charlie and Dave, had found a use for an amazing garden of sculptured bushes that was behind Charlie’s house. I had never understood or appreciated how exciting a garden could really be. Charlie’s dad was a very successful salesman of something or other, and he and his family lived in a giant corner house on a street called Sunningdale, in Grosse Pointe Woods, a nice suburb of Detroit. Charlie was about the richest kid in our elementary school class, and he was also a [Read more]
Concentrate on Your Product
When I was growing up, I used to spend most weekends with my father. Like most fathers I knew, my dad loved to watch sports. Football was always on during the season, and he always seemed most interested in college sports. I have always been amazed by college football because of the high level of enthusiasm that students, alumni, and others have for it. My mother went to the University of Michigan, my father attended law school there for some time, my grandfather went there, and my grandmother got a master’s degree there as well. My grandparents liked the school [Read more]
Do Not Tell Yourself You Have Negative Traits
Many years ago, I decided that I was not that good at math. This happened with seemingly good reason. I got an F in algebra in the ninth grade. However, I did not get an F because I was not capable of doing the work. I got an F because I never once did homework for the class—and was too distracted by other stuff during class to follow what was going on. I was a misbehaving, distracted, and lazy kid. I could get good grades in just about every other class without doing homework, but in math this was impossible. [Read more]
You Need to Pay the Cost
I have been working since the time I was around 9 years old. When I was 9 years old, I wrote my age down illegibly on an employment application so that I could get a job delivering newspapers for the Detroit News. At the time, you needed to be 11 in order to get a job delivering the afternoon newspaper. Within a few years, I also got a job delivering the morning newspaper, The Detroit Free Press. I took on the largest paper routes my managers would allow me to have and, within a few years, was delivering hundreds of papers per day. The volume of papers on some days was so great that my bicycle would break. The handlebars would snap off. Some days I would have so many papers that the rack on the back would be pushing on the tire to the point that the bike’s rear tire would not move. On those days, I often would carry sacks of papers on my back and push my bike a mile or more until I had gotten rid of enough papers to lighten the load enough for the bike. On one occasion a cheap bike I had purchased at Sears simply broke in half. On rainy and snowy days, other kids would have their mothers and fathers help them with the paper route. They would drive them around in warm, dry cars and help their kids do the route. I lived with a single mother and she was off working—or sleeping—when I delivered my papers. Consequently, except for the occasional Sunday when my dad came to visit me from the other side of town, I did my paper route completely alone. When I started delivering papers in the morning, I had customers who left the house at 6:30 a.m. and wanted the paper before they left for work. Therefore, I needed to be up by at least 5:00 every day because some of these customers were at the end of my paper route. I would finish my paper route by 6:30 and then go home and sleep an hour or so before getting up and riding to school. I lived about three miles from school and would ride my bike through snow, slush, and storms to get there after the paper route. Despite all this hard work, having a paper route gave me tremendous flexibility and financial freedom in my life—from the age of 9.
- I purchased mopeds and motor scooters to ride years before I could legally ride them.
- Before that I was purchasing expensive BMX bikes and doing tricks on ramps and other obstacles on my driveway.
- I also purchased video games, bought snacks at the store, and always had lots of extra spending money. About every six months I purchased a new Sony Walkman.
- I maintained an exotic fish collection and even purchased myself an exotic bird.
- I joined the Columbia Record and Tape Club and got at least one new tape per month that I would listen to while doing my paper route.
- I bought new tennis racquets when I wanted to, basketballs, soccer balls, expensive baseball mitts, and similar athletic gear.
To the astonishment of the kids in my elementary school—not to mention parents and teachers–by the age of 12 I had started riding to school in the mornings on a moped I purchased (one of several I would [Read more]
