Money has
been a taboo topic in many circles and families. It is often an unspoken subject
for many while growing up, as a result many today give money a negative connotation.
Why is this? Is it the money that is evil, or what the holder intends to do
with the money that is evil?
In my opinion money is a
tool, nothing more nothing less. It can be used to do great works for better,
or squandered away and kept for selfish reasons. Money is a token, a token that
is used to show appreciated for value added. We no longer live in small isolated
villages, where a token of gratitude may be a simple good in exchange for a
service, but we currently live on a larger scale where we still contribute to
others just often never being in touch with the customer on a personal level
like we once were.
I believe money is an amplifier, if you are
a good person deep down you will continue that path and only increase the good
you are capable of with the more money you possess. I also know it is a huge
responsibility, before one takes the path to pursue riches they really need to
identify who they are deep down and their overarching why in their behavior and
goals.
Many say good
people do not need to be rich, but I would much rather see them with their
pockets full than the other side of the spectrum.
The key to focus can be found in keeping it simple. “No” can
be your greatest asset during the journey to a more focused life. Every “Yes”
you make must be defended by a thousand “No’s.” Without the ability to say no,
you will never allow yourself the focus and dedication needed to truly accomplish
great work. Always use deep thought before making any “Yes” commitments. Ask
yourself will this new commitment get me close to my ultimate goal?
Remember
great leaders follow through on the little things, if your day is full of saying
nothing but “Yes” you will be setting it up for failure.
No, the most under
used word in our vocabulary
Try this experiment, start the day with this objective in
mind. Count the number of times you say, “Yes” or agree to do something, be
very precise and write it down. Now count the amount of times you tell someone,
“No.” To a few of you this will be an eye opener and clearly one sided, though
I think most of us already realize we agree upon way to many things each day,
the worst part is we know deep down we will never be able to give each
agreement the time and focus needed to do great work. I don’t know about you
but I’m not striving to be an OK leader, I want to be a Great Leader. That
being said we will need to be great in the small things, this includes keeping
all of our promises.
The efficiency of
“No”
We all are given the same amount of hours each day, why is
it that some of us get so much done and others do not? The very successful
among us have found the efficiency that comes with the word “No”. Don’t get me
wrong walking around all day just saying no over and over is not the key to
success and most likely will ruin your social life. Before you can start to use
the power of “No” you must make a list of goals you want to achieve and make
them as clear as possible, you will need to be very specific while creating
this list, the more clearly you can see you goals the better. I suggest you
make this list early in the morning in a time of peace, and before others get
up. For suggestions on how to do that refer to my post “Great Leadership Begins with Great Focus.”
No can be an
important tool for refining Diligence, after you define your goals. “No” can
allow you to place your time where it is best spent, this will allow you to
achieve the most in return. Diligence is a major key to success in my mind, you
can find more on this subject in my post “Diligence They Key to Success?.”
The True Power of
Focus
What is the one thing you can do today that would make life
easier and help you get the results you want to achieve your goals? Ask you
brain this question everyday. The key here is to keep it simple!
Whatever aspect of your life you
want to improve, look and find the sweet spot or the target area that will give
you the most return on your time, by doing this you will see huge returns on
your efforts, so much so it will eventually bleed over into many other areas of
your life. In the beginning progress may seem small but over time you will be
amazed at what you can achieve. I recently read about the domino effect and I
believe it is a great illustration of this phenomenon, and gives you a way to
picture and realize your true potential.
I’m sure everyone has held a domino
in their life and can picture the size of one. A domino has the ability of
knocking over another domino 50% larger than itself, this may not seem
impressive at first, but when you think about it if you keep that up by the
time you reach the 23rd domino you will be knocking a domino over
the size of the Eiffel Tower! The 31st domino will reach the size
greater than Mount Everest, and the 53rd domino would be tall enough
to reach the moon. Now think about your effort and what it can do in the long
run, it should give you goose bumps!
Question of the
Day
What could you put more focus on to improve you life
tremendously? What steps will you take to ensure this happens?
This has been an ever-growing question of mine, how can I
use the majority of my day for good and stay focused on the tasks that will lead
to my goals. This has become harder to accomplish in the distraction-ridden
world we live in today. I have heard the average adult is distracted once every
three minutes; this was frightening to me as a self studied psychology nerd I
know we need around 15 minutes just to get into a flow state, a flow state
allows us the most focus and is necessary for us to do our best work. Hopefully
my insight along with a few tips and techniques will help you get more out of
your day.
Wake Up With A
Purpose
This idea is extremely simple yet tremendously effective.
Think about it like this, imagine you were walking in your city and were in a
residential area. Passing a construction site a team of workers is in the
beginning phase of building a house. You being interested if the new house
would stick to the older antique look the surrounding houses held or did the
owner’s request the build look more modern and up to date? Seeing the building
process was at a stand still you asked this question to the team lead. To your
astonishment he states, “We will worry about what the house looks like when we
are finishing up, right now we have the important job of getting this house built.
Please leave us alone we are in a hurry.”
I’m sure like me you would
automatically come to the conclusion that house is going to fail, the team has
no focus on the end goal, they do not see it clearly and without a clear
defined vision, they will just end up adding brick after brick aimlessly
until their walls fall over.
How To Wake Up
With A Purpose (action plan)
I ask that you give me 21 days of commitment on this next
action, many psychologist believe after 21 days a behavior turns into a habit
and if you can build the following habit you will see tremendous change in your
life for the better.
I am asking
you get up 45-60 minutes earlier than you normally do, so instead of waking up in
a hurry. The key is to not start the day running around juggling coffee, breakfast, and beginning
your day in frenzy. Try this instead, wake up with time to sit back and really think
about a handful of things that will make this day a success, for me I look at
my goals and say what things can I do today that will get me one step closer to
my goals. This time of quiet is also a great time to prepare for the manic rush
of the day, create a few actions you can use when distractions come up that draw you away from being focused. These
can be very simple but are always very powerful in the long run. For instance
if you are tethered to your cell phone, checking updates every 3 minutes make
it a point to only check you phone every half hour, after that becomes
tolerable extend it to 45 minutes and continue pushing that time until you find
the sweet spot that works for you.
You say you have trouble getting up
with energy? Give this a try, the moment your alarm goes off do not push the
snooze button but actually jump out of bed in a way that would startle your
spouse, it may sound a bit crazy but who wants to be normal anyway, not me! If
you still find yourself staying in bed try this last resort effort I promise
it will help you leave your warm comfy bed in a hurry, get about a mason jar worth of
marbles and put them in the freezer, ask your spouse or roommate to dump them
on your bed under your blankets in the morning you wish to get up, that nice
warm comfy bed will no longer be an option allowing you to get up and with a
bit of pep.
I could write so much more on this subject, I really believe
it is a key to sucess, and I will write more on this topic in the future. For
now I want to honor the teachings from Michael Hyatt and keep my post around
500 words even though I busted that a while ago, sorry Michael.
Question
What are some morning rituals you’ve used and seen
improvements in you life from? How do you feel about the ice-cold marble wake
up call? I promise your get out of bed energized!
As I attempt to sharpen my leadership skills I often look to
other great leaders, no matter what industry or area great leaders are always
very successful in almost anything they attempt. My question became what are some of the common traits they
share?
A Trait All Great
Leaders Share
The more I
studied the more I began to see a pattern, everyone of them were very diligent,
and the type of diligence I am referring to can be summed up by a quote from
Abraham Lincoln who said, “Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first 4 sharpening my ax.” To me this is the essence or what it is to be
Diligent. Some may argue that diligence is no more than just being persistent, but I
believe it is much more than that. To me diligence is about taking the time to
approach a problem or opportunity in attempt to achieve the greatest outcome.
We can often be tempted in either reacting to a problem or running head first
into an opportunity but of these approaches will only hinder our results.
Diligence Can Be
Learned, But You Need to Slow Down
The great thing about diligence, it
is a learnable trait one that combines creative persistence, a smart working
effort rightly planned and rightly performed in a timely, efficient, and
effective manner to obtain the results and gain the purest form and highest
quality of the results you are after. Successful
people do not react to crisis but rather put the crisis on their timeline, I
just listened to a Dave Ramsey podcast which explained it is never good to make
a hasty decision when presented with a dilemma even if the presenters are
threatening in attempt to gain a quick action, it is always better to let
yourself calm down and make the decision at a following time after you seek
counsel and have had time to think it over.
So the
question becomes how do I become more diligent so I may get closer to achieving
my goals? I believe becoming and holding
the virtue of humility will be very valuable while developing diligence. Great leaders must be able to put pride aside and ask those
around them good questions, the leader is nearly only as good as the counsel
they have around them. Humility will also allow for growth; if you cannot ask
questions and seek knowledge it doesn’t matter who you are you will fail soon. "One of us is never as smart as all of us."
Finals Thoughts
Diligence is not
exactly just persistence but more importantly looking at the challenge in front
of you and figuring out how to best approach it, and to get the most out of it. Seeking knowledge and counsel from many will help immensely, I am sure if I do not find great
people to surround myself with I will soon fail, the good thing is reading a book or
listening to a podcast is a great way to seek the counsel of tremendous
leaders!
Question:
What trait do you think is the most important for a leader
and successful entrepreneur? Like I said before I am doing this to learn from
others and would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
Culture is a daunting thing to think about as a leader even
more so when you ponder how you personally can affect it for the better. Culture
is absolutely necessary to get right if you want to have a truly successful
team. So the question remains, how can one person affect his working
environments culture for the better?
What is culture
and why is it so important?
I believe it was in Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why” he
describes culture as a group of individuals that come together and have common
values and beliefs. I think this is a great description of culture.
Culture is so important because it shapes the individuals in that society to
act a certain way in one form or another.
For instance I grew up in a very small town in
Indiana before I joined the military I never had any other job other than a
farm hand and on many different types of farms. I truly believe that culture I
was placed in while growing up instilled good hardworking traits and
habits into me and I greatly benefited from the cultures I was apart of.
Here is another
way to think about culture, imagine it as the root system of a tree. Each root
is your companies, squadrons, or families core values, ethics, and valued traits.
The stronger the culture/roots the more your society will withstand and hold
strong. If you company does not stand for anything it will be blown over by any
adversity that comes its way.
How to maintain
Culture
A strong culture can be a lifeline to a company facing
difficulty; it is not uncommon for a leader to make rash hasty decision under
the gun. This is when a strong culture helps, one that a leader can fall back and it can be very comforting. Creating a strong culture will aid the group to build those
strong roots, the stronger the roots grow the more support you will get from
the rest of your members. Another Reference from “Simon Sinek’s Book Start with
Why” (I apologize for not doing the story justice I am currently righting this
blog offline and do not have the book handy).
Basically
the story explains a time when the entire world had not been completely explored,
and a captain sent an ad out to recruit men for a very dangerous mission to
explore Antarctica, the mission was very risky and chances of survival were
minimal. They began their voyage and soon enough they were caught in ice they
ended up drifting for months with limited supplies and under horrible
conditions, many assumed few would come back as the ingredients to that environment
often meant mutiny. Finally the ship was rescued and not a one person lost
their life. This was to the astonishment of speculators who had estimated most would
have died, how did they do this?
The captain
of the boat before they left was very cunning, when he created his ad for the
newspaper he created an add that ensured everyone responding would have the
same values, traits, and ethics and that would make his culture extremely strong on the boat.
He explained in the ad the trip would be extremely dangerous, and odds were
they would not make it back. But in the chance they did survive every man on
the boat would be famous and do something that no one else could.
Take Away
Build a strong enough culture and no matter the trials or
difficulties your society will stick together through pain and be there to celebrate triumphs.
Question:
Do you think culture can be taught? Or do you believe it is
a Nature vs Nurture phenomenon?
Being in the military I have been surrounded by leaders over
the last 12 years, some great leaders and honestly a few who have taught me
what not to do. This got me thinking what are some of the practices that make great leaders and some common mistakes that make others not as strong in
the leadership department?
Leaders Must Be
Clear
When a leader must decide between kindness and clarity it is
much bigger benefit to both the leader and team member to be favor clearness
over kindness. Team members want to know what you are saying, especially if it
is a correction. It is a common mistake to attempt to coat a correction in
kindness and this will cause the member to leave confused, all they heard was
how good they are doing three times and missed the correction. This is no good
for anyone and will not solve the problem and even add to confusion when you
have to go back and readdress the problem.
Deal With a
Problem Immediately
In my experience in the Military I have seen this common
mistake happen time and time again, something will occur a senior member will
then take his time write up paperwork (what we commonly use as a discipline
tool in the military) sit on that paperwork for a week and then blind side the
member.
By this time the person being
corrected most likely has vague recognition of why they are even being
reprimanded in the first place. one reasons in my opinion why this occurs, some
leaders just do not like confrontation, this actually is why it is better to
simply pull off the band aid and get it over with. Plus it is never as
bad as you think it is, just pull the member in and talk to them most of the
time it was just a misunderstanding or miscommunication that can be dealt with
easily.
Recognize
Positives Right Away
On the opposite side of the coin good leaders must recognize
good behavior immediately, that is if they want to see more of it. I read a
short story in a book (I’m having trouble remembering which one exactly) where
a man sat in on a elementary school class his child was enrolled in, at first
the classroom teacher was by his side and all was well. Unfortunately for him
the teacher stepped out and asked the man to watch the class, this was when
pandemonium ensued. Kids were running with scissors, dumping glue everything,
and no matter what he tried they would not listen.
Finally the teacher came back and
soon the man saw a master at work, without raising her voice or showing any
sign of anger the women simply started praising the children that were
amplifying good behavior. As other children recognized their peers being commended
they soon followed suit mimicking the behavior of the children gaining praise.
I thought this was a powerful story and have no doubt it works on not only
children but also adults of all ages.
Question
What are some of the common leadership mistakes you have
noticed your leadership make? And what are some of the good traits they have
that made up for their bad? Also what traits would make a perfect leader in
your eyes?
To get the to point, why did I decide to create a blog? The
easy answer is after studying leadership and hearing from many great leaders
blogging can be imperative to your growth, time and time again I heard "start a blog
and stick with it!" At first I struggled to find a correlation in developing as
a leader and becoming a blogger, but again I couldn’t ignore the idea
especially after such great leaders like Seth Godin emphasized the benefits
starting and sticking to a blog may hold.
What I think I’ll
personally get out of blogging.
I have been
heavily seeking knowledge and wisdom for the last 5 years in the subject of
leadership. To me leadership does not simply cover how you act at work or
running a business, but it encompasses every aspect of your life both personal
and professionally. To me it is just as important to be a strong leader at home
in your personal life as it is in a business, because when one spoke on your
wheel as Zig Ziglar would say is neglected you will soon find yourself with a
flat tire on the side of the road.
I think
during my leadership study a blog will give me the opportunity to reflect and
jot down some of the information I have acquired that day, I will be attempting
to create 5 blogs a week each one around 500 words (advice from Michael Hyatt
from the book Platform) and it will cover whatever leadership study I have
completed that day. This will actually help me maintain the chain, a goal I
have set for myself to gain valuable knowledge everyday so that everyday I am
at least a bit better than the day before, this is the ultimate goal.
But I feel under
qualified to write a blog!
This is a
concern I had to fight through before I began blogging, I know I am no smarter
than anyone else which caused me to question why anyone would want to read this
blog, but after deciding to do it anyway I can only hope I will get better
along the way and create something someone else finds interesting and helpful. Again after
hearing it over and over again from other leaders saying if you are passionate
about something start a blog about it to both help you gain knowledge on the
subject and hopefully connect with like-minded people which is the ultimate
goal. I am very sick of being the most excited and passionate person in the
room sometimes, it totally confuses me sometimes why others don’t feel the same
way. For a while I would become discouraged by this but then read something
that changed my way of thinking, I believe it came from Napoleon Hill, while he
talked about his master mind meetings which are imperative. He said if you cant
find people around you pick up books and get to know leaders through their
literature. This was huge for me and I think it was when I really began to ramp
up my reading and spending a lot of time and money on books.
Well to stick to Michael’s advice I’ll end here to keep the
post around 500 words, I’ll also leave with a question, which was also good
advice from Michael.
Question:
Do you think blogging can help you grow in your field of
study? What are the benefits in your eyes?
Successful people have one thing in common they are always striving for self improvement. This is commonly misunderstood as never being content, but the truth is many of the very successful know how important it is to be content and happy with what you have and with those around you. They also have an understanding that what they have achieved is not what is important but rather the person they have become on the journey to those achievements. So if you have a desire in you to be great and are unsure of what to do next, pick up a book from someone or something that inspires you, I promise it will lead you to another book and another book your ideas will grow and you will eventually find your purpose, and a purpose in life is a powerful thing, and what it is all about.
Another tip I have heard time and time again, start building your discipline without it you will miss many opportunities. This can start in little actions, when you decided to go on a run and then attempt to talk yourself out of it Do it anyway Another example when your tired and don't feel like reading that book don't turn on the T.V. and zone out pick up that book! The best part about this is the more you commit to these disciplines the more you will hardwire your brain to perform these tasks and the easier it becomes, soon you will enjoy sitting back reading a book and learning just as much as you have vegging out in front of the T.V. in the past. Your brain can be an amazing asset but that all depends on how you choose to wire it!
Bring on the next challenge but more importantly the opportunity
10 days Ago I began a new journey, I have been ordered to move from Florida to Alaska just another perk of being in the Military, at first this news hit me hard, I finally got my business setup and beginning to thrive and then I was told I had to pack up and leave. Luckily I have recruited two friends/coworkers I worked with from my last job to help me, this has been greatly beneficial in many ways but to name a few in this situation it allowed me to keep all the customers in Florida happy and allow the shipping from the lower 48 states to remain in place. Honestly this has been more of a blessing than a hardship, I am moving to Anchorage which is a huge city and holds so much opportunity, one guy is staying back at the home base in Florida and managing the majority of the inventory, and the third guy is moving to Texas which opens up another market to set roots in. As I have made my way literally across the United States I have been feeding my brain many good books and have found and am power consuming an amazing amazing amazing podcast EntreLeadership, many times after listening to an episode I had to sit in silence as I let the wisdom of what was said sink into my mind. I have really been taken back with the quality of information in these episodes, actually so much so I practically pleaded with my business partners to begin ingesting the podcasts immediately, I know we will be successful if we put into place a quarter of the knowledge presented. In about six hours I will be boarding a Ferry that will take me on a four and a half day journey and finally land me in Alaska, I plan on doing an enormous amount of reading and listening to podcast as well as some much needed meditation on what I truly want out of the company, about the leader I want to become in the Military, and the a leader at home as a husband and father. Honestly I hope they do not offer WiFi so I able to focus and not be tempted with meaningless distractions. "See You At The Top" Tom McConnell Owner www.mentalgiantsnutrition.com tommcconnell@mentalgiantsnutrition.com
Below is a little background of the company I started and its first product.
So I am currently to the point in this experience where I am up and running, I have had a product in hand for a little more then a week and I have all my selling platforms online including Amazon, E-bay, and My Website. It took a great deal of effort to get to this point and I feel like I just finished a half marathon to be told the next race is just beginning. I have sold about 50 Jars of my product Simply Focus in about a week out of 288 in the first batch, each one of these sales are individuals I know personally some more then others, and 90% of the people who Beta tested the product for me bought the product, that was actually the first big good sign, the Beta testers were asking me quite often when the product was going to be in.
I am having really good results from the customers who have bought my product so far, about a 90% rate of them being really happy with the product, I know a lot of them are honest and would not sugar coat their analysis but they are people I know so I really want to get some anonymous feedback on the product with no bias involved.
I have been hitting this project very hard lately and feeling a little beat down, but received a big boost of energy today after receiving a message regarding the product performance. It came from My wife's Sister in-law, she was very exited because she had bought this product for her son who suffers from ADHD. The message stated how exited she was because for the first time her son showed signs of regression of his ADHD diagnosis. She explained how he has been through multiple prescriptions but nothing had worked, but the vitamin pack seems to be having an effect on him. I know vitamins react differently on every user so I was happy he was receiving them well, this brought a big smile to my face and a lot of hope, because this product was created to increase focus and attention spans while also elevating mood and reducing anxiety. I am really hoping these effects will be lasting, and interested how he does after taking the supplement steadily, as a big benefit of the product is the long term effects from the brain nutritional side of the product.
My next post will contain some of the information about how I got to this point with product in hand, in case anyone is interested in exactly how I went through creating a company, logo, design, product and so on.
