10 Simple Reasons Why You're NOT Successful How To Go From Average To AWESOME
[0:00:00] All right, gents some tough love today.
Ten reasons why you’re not successful.
[Music] Gents, the goal of today’s video is not
to make you feel down, instead it’s to give you tips so that you can go from average to
amazing.
When you understand there are certain characteristics certain traits which are a lot more important
than others and if you can focus in on becoming better at those, you can quickly go from average
to awesome.
That’s the goal of today’s video.
The average man focuses on what’s in front of them; the amazing man focuses on what truly
is important and that’s a huge difference.
When you wake up in the morning what happens?
You check your e-mail you turn on the television you check the news, all of a sudden you’ve
got fires coming in.
Oh, my gosh, this happened over there I’ve got to watch out, you know, for – for this
or for that.
That’s horrible.
All of a sudden you get these e-mails like you got to have this done.
You should have had this done last week and you are just reacting.
Now, truly what is important here because when you realize at work there’s actually
a very important project that you need to be focused in on.
You understand that most of the information all that noise coming at you is just that,
it’s noise.
Shift through that, you need to be able to make your way through it identify what is
the priority.
So, use the priority matrix.
I’ve talked about this before, but you need to identify what is truly important, urgent,
non-important.
That’s social media, that’s the news, that’s these projects that people are trying
to throw on you that you can say no to.
Yes, you truly can say no to some of these projects because just simply say, hey, you
know, and this could be your boss.
Just say, okay, I can work on this, but it’s going to take me off of this other project.
Are you okay with that?
Understand that you need to be able to prioritize.
If you can do that it’s just going to set everything else in motion.
Quality number two.
The average man is efficient; the amazing man is effective.
Big difference.
Because you can be efficient at things that don’t matter.
How many of you guys are really good you’re really efficient at e-mail?
Well, let me ask you, are you getting paid to answer e-mails?
For most of us, we are not paid to be really good in e-mail.
Yes, getting the inbox zero feels great, but is that the best the most effective use of
your time.
Understand the Pareto principle.
It talks about how 20% of our work yields us 80%.
But, what’s not really known about this because some of you guys have heard me talk
about this before is within that 20%, the 20/80 works again, so 4% yield you 64%.
So, think about that.
You’ve got a very small amount of things out there that if you do them they’re going
to yield you a huge return.
Next up, the average man views his degree as the finished line; the amazing man views
his degree as the start.
He understands that education focusing on self-improvement never ends.
And this may seem daunting, but I think it’s amazing because it gives those of us that
maybe didn’t go to the best college, don’t even have a college degree, don’t have maybe
a high school degree, you can still catch up with anyone if you apply yourself continuously
and steadily over time.
Now, there’s a wide range of different options out there.
One of my favorite option guys is Skillshare.
I’m linking to them down in the description.
They’re the paid sponsor of today’s video and let me tell you about them.
Guys, an amazing company.
Skillshare, it’s an online learning community with over 17,000 classes in design, in business,
in photography.
Guys, Skillshare, it enables people from all over the world and they’ve got people from
a hundred different countries basically to pursue their creative interest by watching
video lessons taught by expert teachers.
Guys, classes, they are self-guided, so students can learn at their own pace.
And, basically you can use the mobile app.
Now, Skillshare teachers, this is where they separate themselves from the industry.
You got Apple employee, Guy Kawasaki.
If you want to know anything about startups, he is the man.
Simon Sinek, if you want to give a presentation, go check out Simon Sinek’s presentation
on giving presentations.
It’s actually really good.
Another one of my favorite teachers is Rand Fishkin.
So, if you’re familiar with SEO website optimization you’ll understand that Rand
is the man when it comes to basically getting your website ranked to getting traffic to
your website to conversions.
He’s got a great course.
So, oftentimes what I use Skillshare for is not just me, but also my team.
So, if you own a business, you’ve got people, you’ve got kids, you’ve got family, you’ve
got people that want to learn something, you can just point them to Skillshare.
Let’s talk about the price.
They’ve got plans for less than $10 a month, but if you use that link down in the description
you’re going to get two months free for the first five hundred of you that sign up.
But, I can tell you guys it is an amazing deal.
One of the things I love about Skillshare is that they’ve got projects.
So, when you go in there and you watch the video, you actually go in and you complete
a project you upload it, then you can get feedback from the teacher, you can get feedback
from other students.
It’s something that will hold you accountable to take action because as you’re learning
as you’re going through this stuff, remember you’ve got to take action on it.
So, guys, Skillshare, great company.
Go check them out.
[0:05:07] Quality number four.
The average man produces things which are acceptable; the amazing man focuses in on
going above and beyond.
And, I can tell you guys there’s no extra traffic on the extra mile.
When you go for it and you actually put in your best, you are going to stand apart.
I know a lot of you guys are saying, Antonio, how can I do that?
I don’t have time.
I barely have time to keep up with what I’m doing.
The way that you’re going to do this is you’re going to start to say no.
Again, you’re going to have to prioritize, you’re going to have say, you know what?
I can’t do everything.
And because you can’t do everything, you start to free up a bit more time and then
you can focus in on doing better with what you’re already doing.
And all of a sudden, you’re able instead of just getting to the acceptable the barely
passing the basic standard.
You become someone that’s taking it to the next level.
They know when something needs to be done right, send it to you.
Characteristic number five.
The average man hears what’s being said; the amazing man hears what’s being said,
he actually listens to it and he’s trying to understand the other person.
There’s a huge difference.
Most of us when we were listening to somebody else, we’re just waiting for our turn to
speak.
Don’t be like that.
Instead, take a step back really listen to that person, understand the point that they’re
getting across.
In fact, if they ask you to summarize what they just said, you should be able to do it.
What is not being said in this conversation and do I understand this person their situation
where they’re coming from.
When you can do that you can take it to the next level which is empathy and when you can
really connect with someone at emotional level, your communication level to this guy.
Guys, they go up to a whole another level and that becomes awesome.
The average man does what’s asked of him; the amazing man takes the initiative and gets
things done.
Guys, you know what’s it like you see these people out there that they pass by problems.
There’s an issue in their home, there’s an issue in their company, and they – they
could easily fix it, but no one has asked them to do it.
And when you asked them, hey, why didn’t you do this?
Well, no one told me.
I, you know, it was right there in front of them, but they don’t have the initiative.
If you want to get a pay raise, you want to be advanced, you want to get a promotion in
the company, I can tell you that the guys and the women that get advanced to the next
level, they are the people that take the initiative because you cannot run a company, you cannot
be a manager in a company if you depend on those above you to always tell you what to
do.
Characteristic number seven.
The average man reacts; the amazing man is prepared.
So, how to become prepared?
You actually have to put in the time and effort before the emergency actually happens.
And preparation is something that doesn’t always pay off that’s why a lot of people
don’t do it.
Because you may be prepared for a natural disaster, you may be prepared for something
at work and – or with your company.
Maybe you’ve got some cash reserves, maybe within your own home, you’ve got an emergency
fund that you never use.
But, I will tell you when you need that emergency fund whenever your company runs through a
really bad period and if you don’t have those cash reserves, then all of a sudden
you’re caught with your pants down.
And I understand that, you know, things happen that you can’t even prepare for it, but
many things you can.
And if you go out there, you go out there you look at the research.
They do have various types of insurance – health, life, disability.
I mean there are so many things that you can do to reduce risk.
Characteristic number eight.
The average man always knows who exactly to blame; the amazing man takes responsibility.
Now, I understand that there are things outside of your control.
Natural disasters, I mean there are just things that happen maybe the company implodes on
itself, so you lose your job.
I’m not saying that you need to take blame for everything, but if you’re the kind of
person that you’re putting blame on all the time there is an excuse there is a reason.
The thing with that is it’s a mental trap because if you take a step back and say you
know what?
I could have been a bit more prepared.
So, going forward I’m going to institute this change.
That is a very different thing than saying, hey, putting your hands up, I can’t do anything
about this.
Guys, it’s about up here, it’s about you taking responsibility and saying, you know
what?
I’m not going to get caught in this situation again or that was really close and you can
make change, I can improve, I can take action, then all of a sudden you realize that you
have the power you have the control to put yourself in a better position.
Trait nine.
The average man gets things done; the amazing man gets things done consistently.
So, you may get things done, but you’re also late sometimes.
Sometimes you’re early, but you’re just kind of erratic, you’re all over the place.
The problem with this is that people focus in on the times that you miss.
They don’t – actually, it’s not one for one so you may be early half the time,
late half the time.
Understand, it doesn’t equal net zero.
People just view as someone they can’t depend on.
You’re not consistent.
It’s better to be consistent on time.
And, yes, sometimes it’s fine to be early, but for people to know that they can trust
you that they can depend on you.
And any time when I’m making a decision about somebody and whether I’m going to
hire them whether I’m going to work with them, I always want to go with consistent
versus the erratic.
[0:10:05] The average man goes for instant gratification;
the amazing man puts off gratification.
And he can wait a while, he’s patient.
Now, there’s this classic study done with marshmallows.
They put little kids I’m talking 3 to 4 to 4-year olds in a room with a marshmallow.
They said, hey, if you can wait fifteen minutes, we will give you two marshmallows.
Just don’t eat the marshmallow right now.
They left for fifteen minutes, they came back.
Let me tell you a lot of those kids they ate the marshmallow.
They look at these people twenty to thirty years later and what they realized is that
the children that actually were more – that they put off the fifteen minutes they put
off that instant gratification of getting that marshmallow, it was the number one predictor
in future success of what, you know, they were able to go to great colleges, they were
able to get – have great careers, they were – so many things were affected by the mindset.
And this is something that is learned, something that you need to practice with yourself.
Practice putting off being, you know, I can deal without this, I can wait a couple of
more years until I get that new car.
I can wait another couple of years to get that house so I can have a larger down payment
so I can get a lower interest rate so I can improve my credit score.
These are the kind of things if you can say – instead of saying I – and then the media
does this all the time.
They say that you deserve this, you deserve that.
Understand, no, that’s a trick.
You need to earn what you’re going to get and that way when you go in there, you rightfully
can take it and you’re going to be in a strong position guys.
So, learn to put off instant gratification.
All right, gents now it’s your turn.
I want to hear from you down in the comments what did I miss, what would you have added
to this video.
And, go check out Skillshare.
I’m linking to them down in the description.
Don’t forget, the first five hundred of you to sign up get two months free.
It’s an amazing program.
Guys, I use Skillshare.
I think it’s a great program.
And I’m happy to bring them to you because truly education after my fancy degrees, I
can tell you have really set me up.
I continuously reinvest in myself.
And honestly, if you can’t spend just a little bit of money to invest in yourself
really take a step back and ask what your priorities are.
Is it important?
Because if it’s not, that’s cool.
But, if it is, you need to make the commitment.
But, that, guys, is how you take yourself to the next level and you become the man you
know yourself to be.
Invest in yourself.
That’s it, guys.
Take care.
I’ll see you in the next video.
[0:12:23] End of Audio