Chad Maxwell | Lesson one: being success
Clive shared five powerful motivational lessons from Chad Maxwell (2009)
Clive, you came through. You sent me your list of one hundred words. You have taken your first step to being success. (Please submit your payment via my website as soon as possible, however.)
This first email is all about motivating you to succeed, Clive. The next four will be about putting that into practice; it’s about what you can bring to the party. One hell of a party, Clive.
Before I give you some of my tried-and-tested tips for turning you into a boardroom animal, I want to review some of the words you sent me to check we are on the same page. First off the block you said “uncertain” which I take to mean “uncertain what kind of future success-leader you want to be”. I liked “interesting” but, Clive, I am sure you will agree you are not interesting enough, that is why you are taking this course. Don’t worry, statistics show that after just these five lessons you will be vastly more interesting at corporate events, lunchtime networking opportunities and career enhancement sub-opportunities*. Remember, every non-opportunity can be a sub-opportunity just as every opportunity can be two opportunities (lesson five will cover this!). I was also unsure about “gray”, so let’s ignore that one.
All your other words were used to hand-pick my top five bespoke tips to increase your mental drive and external presence-motivation skills, for you [insert name]:
Focus on your core delivery challenge to get ahead of all others on the curve: clear your mind every day. Start your morning routine (mine starts at 6.15, see my website for a tip-sheet) by repeating what you will achieve by the end of the day, five times. Everything you do from the moment you finish your balanced nutritional breakfast and 20 minute high-energy carbo-endurance workout should only be about this goal. That includes your route to work, your clothes, even your day’s approach to desk positioning. At the end of the day review your achievement-metric. Did you achieve the core challenge? Did you set your sights too low? If you did, the next tip will help:
Your success is never enough: never. The second you think you have maximised your expectation to achievement ratio, you are finished. You think Bill Gates ever achieves? No. Achievement is for the weak. Under achievement is the benchmark for the modern dynamic professional: raise the bar and raise it again. And then again.
Learn from your mistakes: even I make mistakes Clive! Really I do. But when I do I ensure I add time to my schedule to wash-up those non-value adding tasks and write them out of my future work-script. You need to feel bad to really improve. I find asking other, better, coworkers how my mistake made them feel is best. Your manager can help here. Ask him (or her?!) for regular criticism sessions and always apologise and ask for another chance. Remember, you are not the only person who can do your job! Don’t beat your self up about mistakes, but own your failures: you let your team and family down and next time you can’t allow room for sub-optimal performance gateways.
Image is vital: promotion is never based on merit. If so, the world would look very different. People promote those who they think are less intelligent than themselves, and who make them feel good. You must tap into this. Worship your superiors and don’t care what your peers think even if they are jealous that your constant obsequiousness is working. Treat any one who is not your superior as a tool to make you look better and move upwards. Work is not the place to make friends.
Balance work and life: never forget what is important in life. Profit, success, the respect of valued cowokers and competitors and shareholder value must be foremost in your mind. That does not mean there is no time to take your children to the movie theatre, but it means this time must be rationed and you must ensure you are online throughout. Always think: what are my competitors doing when I am not adding value?
That’s it for this week Clive. But I need you to step up to the plate and give me something in return. I want you to imagine you are the points-person in a multinational take-over bid, the man the CEO needs 24/7. The deal is close to falling through and they need some tough talking, take no prisoners deal-breaking ball busting no-nonsense laser focused rational negotiation. They called Jim but he was in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s Sunday, 10pm and the phone is ringing, Clive, it’s ringing right now. Tell me what you do, do this today, right now. Drink down a bio-yoghurt smoothie and just let yourself go…
Chad
* In the very unlikely event this course has not improved you, we offer 10% off any other course from my Maxwell-Winner advanced successitvation suite.